Pet Door Installation

This post is about adapting a pet door intended for installation in a person door to an outside wall.

Having reached full size, Harley’s cat door was getting tight at his chest so I decided to upgrade to this medium dog door.  The door was intended for installation in a person door, but I chose to install it in an outside wall instead.  Locating the door was the first challenge.  For the original door, I considered the height outside and came up with a way for the animals to travel at the same level on the outside.  I chose to put one side of the door adjacent to a stud.  Small holes drilled though the walls helped confirm the measurements before cutting the house.  This new door just required scaling up the original.

 Lowes had a cedar lumber scrap pile in the warehouse that yielded a broken 2x4, damaged lap siding, and inside the store, I located a broken 1x2 cedar furring strip.  This brought the cost of the cedar down to a fraction of the undamaged cedar, and there were plenty of good parts of the wood to cut up to frame the pet door.

Abby checking out the project.

The pet door was designed for the two halves to screw together and hold themselves to the person door. For this stud wall adaptation onto lap siding, a frame seemed a suitable substitute to provide a flat and plumb surface for mounting the outer pet door.  The new cedar siding helped fill irregularities to make the outer lap siding surface somewhat flat. 

Cedar siding filling in sides where the frame will go.

The new lap siding also provided adjustment for plumb.  Here the frame is moved up until the level shows the frame is plumb.

The frame was leveled and plumbed before fastening.

Frame attached to the wall.

Rough opening from the inside.

A hand drywall saw was used for cut outs and trimming.

Extra pieces of the new lap siding helped fill in the larger remaining openings.

2x4 cedar was cut and fit around the three unframed sides of the opening, then the boards were screwed together.  The bottom had two lengths of 2x4 to build up the height.

These products were used to fill gaps and seal exterior seams.  

Exterior spackle closed the larger gaps.

Kilz primer was applied to the raw finishes and for future outside painting.

A box helped keep the cold air out.

A heater sped the drying.

½-inch stainless steel screws attached the outer pet door to the frame.

Sanded grout was used to level, fill, provide good traction, and waterproof the walking surface of the pet door.

A little Elmer’s glue and caulk were used to attach the inner decorative flange.

Pet door ready to use. ~Chuck

Painting and installing used LG washer and dryer pedestals.

This post describes fixing up used LG washer and dryer pedestals and installing them without heavy lifting.

I purchased these used LG washer and dryer pedestals but they were the wrong color for the existing washer and dryer.  

I removed all brackets.

Lightly sanded the existing paint improved adhesion; also cleaned the surfaces prior to painting. I used a couple of cans of metallic spray paint.

I braced poles against the walls.

I cut a piece of Unistrut to fit inside the walls.

I added screws to stabilize the Unistrut.

A scrap piece of Unistrut made a fair spreader bar; the ratchet straps aided leveling

With the appliances raised, clean up of the undersides and floor with a broom and mop was easy.

This shows a pedestal installed under the washer.

I used similar rigging for the lighter dryer.

This shows the dryer with pedestal installed.

I leveled front to back and side to side.  

This is the finished set. ~Chuck

'12 Subaru Forester Oil Change

Subaru changed the oil filter application for the 2012 Forester from the black 15208AA160 to the much lighter, blue 15208AA15A filter.  

Dismayed, I verified this with two dealer part suppliers. The NAPA 65/67 14 point end cap filter wrench slipped off the car’s new smaller oil filters.  I found a 65 mm-14 end cap filter wrench necessary. The dealer had provided 140 inch pounds for the 160 series filter torque, but the new filter came stamped with 10-14 N-m, so the new filter torque is in the 88 to 124 in-pound range.

The dealer recommends changing the O.E.M Subaru Drain Plug Crush Washers - part # 11126AA000 (interchange part number 803916010) - at oil changes. The rounded side of the washer is installed toward the oil pan.

Torque wrenches give no-guess installation of the filter and drain plug.

The old oil filter was removed after the oil was drained out.

An old storage bin was used to catch the oil and pour it into the empty oil container for later recycling.

Subaru recommends 0W-20 full synthetic motor oil.

The drain plug was tightened to 31 foot pounds per the OEM call out.

This retrieval tool came in handy for fishing a dropped 17mm socket out.

This shows where the socket fell.

Here, the socket is emerging from behind the radiator.

A light coat of oil was applied to the new filter gasket before installing.

The new filter was tightened to 120 inch-pounds.

The new filter shown installed.

The Forester has its oil dipstick far forward, contributing to sensitivity to level for accurate engine oil fill readings.  I have observed variation of more than a quart parking one way or the other on a hill.  Getting the level right is easiest checking the oil on a level surface.

This CDI torque wrench has mostly Snap-on components and sells for less. ~Chuck 

Appliance Plug Falling Out

A bathroom wall outlet had gotten to the point that it wasn’t holding the hairdryer and curler plugs in place. This post describes the duplex outlet replacement. 

I started by turning off the circuit breaker.

The wires were pushed into the back of the duplex outlet.  Removing them was done by pushing a suitable small screwdriver into the slots adjacent to the wires and then pulling the wires free.

The copper in the old wires were black when removed from the outlet, but there was no sign of overheating. This sort of corrosion is often associated with moisture and chemical exposure.  A quick sanding-off cleaned up the wire ends.  

 

The old outlet was examined to see if the tabs that electrically connect the top and bottom outlet plugs were in place or removed.  The inspection showed that the connectors were there, so they were left installed on the new outlet.

The wires were installed one at a time into the new duplex outlet.

 

The outlet was visually plumbed and screwed back into the electrical box.

The decorative outer cover was screwed on.

The finished outlet holds appliance plugs firmly. ~Chuck