cute fuzzy bunny
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
As some of you know, i've been dealing with a number of fun and entertaining moving related situations, including as of a couple of days ago, the apparent loss of the keys to our fire safe during the packing process.
Oh, i'm sure they're somewhere...
In the meanwhile, the wife has been asked to produce her social security card and birth certificate in order to continue the employment process she's so far enjoyed thoroughly, as part of both the latent california immigration and national anti terrorism processes.
We very much like the salary continuation and benefits commencement programs, and of course...both documents are in the safe.
And its a painful situation which led to a sleepless night for the wife, who allegedly packed the areas containing the equally alleged key.
Sooo...after some cajoling of the manufacturer, which was promising but a slow process (maybe taking 10 days or so, plus a notarized letter stating that I am the owner, which if you think about it, is an extremely worthless process/document...after all, I could go get a notarized letter saying that I am the sole owner of the only pile of larks vomit in the universe, and there we'd be...me with my letter, and actually owning no larks vomit whatsoever), and the idea of box diving or going back to the old house to poke in various corners and remaining unpacked areas...
It occurred to me that I *am* the owner of a very large reciprocating saw, a hefty pry bar, a half a box of Black Box chardonnay, its dark and I have sunglasses for eye protection. Which are all necessary because its 11 o'clock at night and i'm doing this in the garage and trying not to wake the wife OR the two year old.
All in all it turned out to be a fairly painless process, which would have been a quick one had I been more aware of the general construction, which is the point of this entire post. And I own three of these and have seen several others, and believe them to all be of the same basic setup. So hope this helps, god forbid you should ever have to pry one of these open...
Basically its a thick sheet metal box, inside of which is a couple of inches of what feels like almost dry concrete with fibers in it, which I'm sure is highly carcinogenic because i just breathed a half pound of it, within which is a thin plastic box which has your stuff in it.
After looking at the unit and thinking "I could saw that hinge off and...discover that they have four slide bolts holding the door in and still be stymied and..." then it occurred to me that in all the old bad movies i've watched that the safe crackers didnt go for the door, which is the obvious target, but for the least obvious point of attack, which is the back or the bottom.
In this case, either will do.
Theres a seam in the sheet metal along the top and bottom, and one around the back (back being the part opposite the door). Using a thin screwdriver and a hammer, I was able to part the seams and then pry the rivet points (about every inch and a half) off with a 2' pry bar. Once I had the seams open about 5", it was easy to attack the seam around the rear of the box and pull that completely off.
Once you have that off, remove all the fireproofing material by prying chunks of it off with said pry bar until you have clear access (an inch or two) of the back of the plastic inner box. Tip the unit onto its door and shake gently to get all your documents away from the back and using your reciprocating saw, cut off the rear of the plastic box along two adjoining seams, pull it up and push all your documents down to the bottom of the box, then cut off the rest.
If noise were not a factor, I'd have simply cut the back off using a metal blade in the saw, maybe about two inches from the surface, then pulled off the fire insulating material, then cut the back of the plastic box off...saving 20 minutes and two glasses of chardonnay.
Gosh I hope this is eventually helpful to someone, and I equally hope its never necessary.
(PS...I should have just run it over with the truck...it'd have been just as effective and a lot faster...)
All this having been said, any spa/jetted tub experts who can help me figure out how to get this sucker from leaking from the joint where the tile guys lost the gasket between the inline heater and the pump?
Oh, i'm sure they're somewhere...
In the meanwhile, the wife has been asked to produce her social security card and birth certificate in order to continue the employment process she's so far enjoyed thoroughly, as part of both the latent california immigration and national anti terrorism processes.
We very much like the salary continuation and benefits commencement programs, and of course...both documents are in the safe.
And its a painful situation which led to a sleepless night for the wife, who allegedly packed the areas containing the equally alleged key.
Sooo...after some cajoling of the manufacturer, which was promising but a slow process (maybe taking 10 days or so, plus a notarized letter stating that I am the owner, which if you think about it, is an extremely worthless process/document...after all, I could go get a notarized letter saying that I am the sole owner of the only pile of larks vomit in the universe, and there we'd be...me with my letter, and actually owning no larks vomit whatsoever), and the idea of box diving or going back to the old house to poke in various corners and remaining unpacked areas...
It occurred to me that I *am* the owner of a very large reciprocating saw, a hefty pry bar, a half a box of Black Box chardonnay, its dark and I have sunglasses for eye protection. Which are all necessary because its 11 o'clock at night and i'm doing this in the garage and trying not to wake the wife OR the two year old.
All in all it turned out to be a fairly painless process, which would have been a quick one had I been more aware of the general construction, which is the point of this entire post. And I own three of these and have seen several others, and believe them to all be of the same basic setup. So hope this helps, god forbid you should ever have to pry one of these open...
Basically its a thick sheet metal box, inside of which is a couple of inches of what feels like almost dry concrete with fibers in it, which I'm sure is highly carcinogenic because i just breathed a half pound of it, within which is a thin plastic box which has your stuff in it.
After looking at the unit and thinking "I could saw that hinge off and...discover that they have four slide bolts holding the door in and still be stymied and..." then it occurred to me that in all the old bad movies i've watched that the safe crackers didnt go for the door, which is the obvious target, but for the least obvious point of attack, which is the back or the bottom.
In this case, either will do.
Theres a seam in the sheet metal along the top and bottom, and one around the back (back being the part opposite the door). Using a thin screwdriver and a hammer, I was able to part the seams and then pry the rivet points (about every inch and a half) off with a 2' pry bar. Once I had the seams open about 5", it was easy to attack the seam around the rear of the box and pull that completely off.
Once you have that off, remove all the fireproofing material by prying chunks of it off with said pry bar until you have clear access (an inch or two) of the back of the plastic inner box. Tip the unit onto its door and shake gently to get all your documents away from the back and using your reciprocating saw, cut off the rear of the plastic box along two adjoining seams, pull it up and push all your documents down to the bottom of the box, then cut off the rest.
If noise were not a factor, I'd have simply cut the back off using a metal blade in the saw, maybe about two inches from the surface, then pulled off the fire insulating material, then cut the back of the plastic box off...saving 20 minutes and two glasses of chardonnay.
Gosh I hope this is eventually helpful to someone, and I equally hope its never necessary.
(PS...I should have just run it over with the truck...it'd have been just as effective and a lot faster...)
All this having been said, any spa/jetted tub experts who can help me figure out how to get this sucker from leaking from the joint where the tile guys lost the gasket between the inline heater and the pump?
