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I Built a Shed (2020)

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Re: I Built a Shed (2020)

#231

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #133
jacquesm wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a good idea. The outer layer is plastic, underneath that something that is best described as an oversized shower hose. Burying it will allow you to take vehicles, wheel barrows, lawnmowers etc over it without damaging it. I bought a ton of this stuff surplus from a dam construction, that served me quite well in Canada, some of the outbuildings were quite far away from the main house. It's pretty easy to work with…

The author's shed is about 2 feet from the house exterior, so he can wrap the steps around as decking (very tiny decking) and put the cable under the steps.

Then one day someone cuts up that decking with a sawzall and gets an unexpected surprise.

Re: I Built a Shed (2020)

#232

Post by jefftk »

drodio wrote: post #165
jefftk wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being off-grid wouldn't normally get you around building code; where are you that it does?

San Mateo: under 120 sq ft; no electrical.

Thanks! Quickly looking at the rules, it doesn't look to me like the issue is whether you're connected to the grid? If you have high-voltage wiring (50V+) it looks to me like you still need to get that permitted and inspected?

Re: I Built a Shed (2020)

#233

Post by dugmartin »

amluto wrote: post #224
hamburglar wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

… but isn’t there still a risk to whatever devices are on both ends of that cat6? ie the access point and the head-end router or switch?

Forget the devices -- the risk is to people . If the insulation fails on the power cable and your network cable is insufficiently insulated, then your network cable could end up live. People generally avoid playing with hot power conductors, but no one takes any care to avoid touching network cables or, for that matter, the devices plugged in to network cables.

If they did short I think those tiny diameter wires in the cat6 would pretty much vaporize at household current.

Re: I Built a Shed (2020)

#234

Post by jacquesm »

drodio wrote: post #169
jacquesm wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine if all the nerds that could afford it set up their shacks on the beach in Costa Rica. Instant slum. I prefer the beach without such structures.

Replace “beach in Costa Rica” with any remote (or not) global location of your choice, which is the point. We’re 1 year away from a low latency, gigabit speed ”shedquarters” workspace being available anywhere in the world for under $10k.

Bad news in some ways, good news in others. Tech is a two edged sword, and always will be.

Re: I Built a Shed (2020)

#235

Post by OJFord »

pjc50 wrote: post #113
ohazi wrote: post #33

Not that anything about this shed is built to code, but this takes the cake: > PRO TIP Use screws for everything; if you mess up, remove the screws and redo it; with nails, it’s a lot harder to do that. You absolutely should not do this for framing, and most building codes specify the type and size of nails that you must use when fastening load-bearing structural components. Screws are convenient, sure, but they are…

> Not that anything about this shed is built to code This is why we can't have nice, or at least affordable but slightly less than perfect, things. I would also note that, while I'm sure everyone's right about the rules in Santa Cruz, this is jurisdiction specific. In the UK, if your shed is less than 15m^2 and is not used as living accomodation, no building regulations apply, and you can build it with screws, nails,…

> In the UK, if your shed is less than 15m^2 and is not used as living accomodation, no building regulations apply

And is 'temporary', right? I didn't know about the size limit, but I thought it had to be a sort of free-standing structure not fixed into the ground - i.e. you can make a concrete level base, but you can't embed your vertical supports in it?

Re: I Built a Shed (2020)

#236

Post by jacquesm »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #133
jacquesm wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a good idea. The outer layer is plastic, underneath that something that is best described as an oversized shower hose. Burying it will allow you to take vehicles, wheel barrows, lawnmowers etc over it without damaging it. I bought a ton of this stuff surplus from a dam construction, that served me quite well in Canada, some of the outbuildings were quite far away from the main house. It's pretty easy to work with…

The author's shed is about 2 feet from the house exterior, so he can wrap the steps around as decking (very tiny decking) and put the cable under the steps.

That's possible, but you'd need to clearly mark it.

For two feet it's overkill, but normally, especially if there is the possibility of going between the two structures, you'd dig down 4', lay down your cable so that it is going down vertically in both structures and is well below the frost line where you bury it horizontally.

Re: I Built a Shed (2020)

#237

Post by jacquesm »

stickfigure wrote: post #183
jacquesm wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Putting signalling and power wires in the same conduit is about as bad as it gets. The proper way to do this is to dig a trench and use armored cable suitable for burial without further protection and to use a plastic uninterrupted tube for the cat6 (which you can blow through). That said, there isn't a lot of difference between a DIY person and a low grade contractor, and a competent DIY'er is probably better than m…

It's short. Put a normal extension cord in the "conduit", with plugs on each end. At least here in California, electrical code ends at the receptacle. You can do practically anything you want on the other side, as long as it plugs in.

That trick won't work. An extension cord is only seen as such as long as it is not permanently attached to a structure, and definitely not when it powers a fixed structure. In other words, it needs to be temporary and to be disconnected when not in use. As soon as you connect it permanently affix it or bury it you are violating the electrical code.

Otherwise this would act as a giant loophole around the electrical code, you could simply use a high current plug to connect your distribution panel and call it a day.

https://plasticinehouse.com/can-i-use-an-extension-cord-to-p...

Re: I Built a Shed (2020)

#238

Post by luxurytent »

jdgoesmarching wrote: post #7

If anyone is looking into this, I really like Shed King (shedking.net) for plans. They have a few shed models you can choose from, costs around $20, include shopping lists, and are super thorough. I recently snagged the 12x16 with porch plans. I’m excited to give this a shot.

Nice, thanks! Just snagged the 4x8 plans. Almost bought a shed from Home Depot but it's more fun to build. This will be an improvement over parsing endless YouTube videos :-)

Re: I Built a Shed (2020)

#239

Post by jacquesm »

ErrantX wrote: post #201
jacquesm wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a good idea. The outer layer is plastic, underneath that something that is best described as an oversized shower hose. Burying it will allow you to take vehicles, wheel barrows, lawnmowers etc over it without damaging it. I bought a ton of this stuff surplus from a dam construction, that served me quite well in Canada, some of the outbuildings were quite far away from the main house. It's pretty easy to work with…

You can get armoured cable specifically with UV rating for this. I'd only ever run it against a wall etc. But it is designed to be above ground.

Yes, true. That cable has a special marking and there are even kinds that are solid enough to be driven over with tired vehicles. But those are super expensive, far more expensive than the kind that can be buried, and they are serious work to strip and connect. In a lot of cable that I bought there was one chunk of that stuff, about 2" thick for what looked to be tri phase, 40A+ground (so five wires + the steel cover). Bending radius about a mile :)

I'm sure there are thinner more pliable versions of that stuff available as well and I sometimes see the equivalent tie wrapped for temporary industrial applications to cranes and bridges.

Re: I Built a Shed (2020)

#240

Post by DoreenMichele »

labster wrote: post #229
DoreenMichele wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trivial for someone in the know can mean (something like) "If you have a PhD and a decade of experience, it's obvious." People not in the know who look things up online have the problem that they often cannot properly judge the quality of the information they are seeing. I'm confident that some of the people on HN saying "Oh. God. Don't do that." actually know whereof they speak. But reading the article in no way tri…

I don’t think there are OTC drugs that are effective against covid. So far we have a couple new drugs, a dewormer that only seems to be effective in countries with high rates of parasites, and an antidepressant that pulmonologists feel really weird about prescribing off-label. Did I miss any?

I don't actually know and I am likely suffering from tunnel vision because I have a very serious medical condition with a respiratory component and I have long managed it with diet and lifestyle and was able to transition to that in part via displacing harsh prescription drugs with gentler prescription drugs and eventually OTC drugs and then getting off drugs entirely.

It's routinely ridiculous levels of drama for me to try to talk about medical topics no matter how carefully I word things. It makes sense to me that the government or some official source should use the internet to inform people on what they can do to mitigate things but from where I sit that appears to not be happening.

In the book The Hot Zone, it was local African tribes who stopped the ebola epidemic and one of their practices was to tell people "Do not go to the White man's hospital." because you would go in with something treatable, like a broken leg, and die of ebola. And it had like a 90 percent death rate.

I've tried to judiciously share things I know are helpful. I was attacked and accused of trying to practice medicine without a license. I've tried to blog. Most of my blog posts get around 25 page views if I don't personally post them to HN and I do not post any of my health writing to HN.

I'm me and that's routinely drama for reasons I often find baffling. It seems logical and obvious to me that putting useful information on the internet from official sources to help empower people to engage in self care of some kind and give them a viable alternative to seeing a physician would be an excellent thing to do when trying to mitigate a global pandemic.

The world mostly seems to think I'm a loon and not worth listening to. So you don't really need to hold your breath and worry about my personal opinions.

I'm on HN because I'm medically handicapped, I'm too screwed up to do anything more productive and I'm just trying to distract myself from the misery that is my life and my terror that I will die on the streets in the near future.

No one is required to care one bit about what I think and most people don't.

Have a good day.

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