sometimewoodworker

8 minutes ago, PingRoundTheWorld said:

She's coming tomorrow. Not sure how I'll break it to her but I'm done paying. If she wants go back to Phuket and find a new ATM. I'll give her a couple of months "severance" because I'm too nice, but I'm done with this bs. I have other girls I like and there's no reason to pay for one I don't even want or see anymore.

With the further information the daily 1,500 is more than 3 times the total expenses for the household.

It is absolutely clear that you are being milked as hard as she possibly can, she knows there is going to be an end to the gravy train so is trying hard to get as much as possible.

I really don’t see any reason for you to add another 90,000 gift but it is your money. 
 

Personally I would be rather or very concerned with any meeting that is not in public. A coffee shop or restaurant is a much safer situation. You already know that she regards truth as a foreign concept. Please avoid needing legal advice on a drug possession charge.

1 hour ago, carlyai said:

I'll go with Crossy's idea and place some green heat shrink over the cable I decide to be earth in the outside Consumer Unit.

At the moment I'm not inclined to re-wire the run with correct colored wires and as SWMBO is replanting along the driveway I need to finish it or it will be difficult to get my ladder safely against the driveway wall.

One of my Thai friends just fell of his ladder, busting his knee and toes and last month Wifey fell of the ladder last month and had a big infection and stiches in her leg.

Absolutely the most pragmatic solution, not to mention the fastest. 
 

Those suggestions of replacing the cables ostensibly for standardised colours ignore the fact that Thai electrons are not  prejudiced and will happily use the most convenient cable, along with the fact that standards change so changing all the cable is pointless, this doesn’t address the point that while cable is not very expensive the labour of changing it for no valid reason is. If you have a genuine need to replace a damaged cable then there is an opportunity to stop being colour prejudiced 

It looks as if the various U.K. banks and other companies are increasingly requiring a U.K. phone number for things like OTP and other security measures.

Since I hope to be in the U.K. in a while I would appreciate information on the cheapest company to maintain a prepaid U.K. number. I guess that there will be TopUps required and I have a U.K. bank for that

Any feedback will be welcome.

jerome

2 hours ago, youreavinalaff said:

Exactly. Meaning your post was irrelevant to the discussion.

Not at all, you are clearly involved in a discussion that is not the same as the thread. It is common for answers to posts not to relate to the OP post

16 hours ago, youreavinalaff said:

The OP is asking advice about the cost of living in Isaan/Buriram.

 

That would suggest he is looking at monthly expenditure. 

 

Were your "house sundries" not a monthly occurrence, they'd be irrelevant to the topic.

They are totally irrelevant to anyone’s budget but ours as they are not essential or even relevant to anyone else’s situation.

Our budget amount was posted as a comparison to @Will B Goods point that 40,000 was high and a higher one was unlikely. To repeat his PEA bill is 1,800 ours is 7,000

The point is that families in our village have monthly budgets ranging from 3,000~5,000 at the low end to others that make ours to be in the mid to upper but not top end.

The families at the low end will be the ones that reduce the cicadas, frogs, and rodent wildlife in the area so having a protein diet that has no or little monetary expense 

4 hours ago, youreavinalaff said:

Surely not every month, or is you budget averaged out over 1 year?

Why is it of any importance? Or is it just prurient interest?

1 hour ago, youreavinalaff said:

Because I don't understand what you mean.

 

 

The house sundries item in our budget includes materials that a couple of family members use for maintenance and refurbishing, an example is the painting SWMBO decided for a wall, not required but it looks nicer.

1 hour ago, Stocky said:

Ganja

Not likely booz and a typical yob

14 hours ago, youreavinalaff said:

Please explain.

What do you want to know, and why the interest?

I can certainly give more information for a legit reason.

6 hours ago, Will B Good said:

???

 

Our fixed monthly outgoings.............. water B60, electricity B1,800, phones and internet B1600.......beer B1800......car insurance and tax B1200, fuel B1000......total less than B10,000.......you must be living the high life.

Not at all, our electricity is at about 7,000 and we do include everything 

phone and internet (2 phones and fibre)

village festivals (including funerals and weddings)

garden spending (well worth the 1,000 a month)

car costs (newish Mazda and old perfect condition pickup) including fuel

animal care

House sundries; this is a big one as we employ family to assist and of course we pay for materials this is 15~20k

so about 45k excluding pocket money.

our own spending money at about 18k each

insurance about 12k a month 

beer maybe 500 every few months, though I probably get through about a bottle of Pastis  ever couple of months 

so high life? Not remotely. Comfortable and we spend less than we get and can afford almost anything we want, absolutely 

Do tell what is the high life? I am serious as I really don’t know what I should be doing that I’m not.

14 minutes ago, JeffersLos said:

We're helping to fix up and renovate our old neighbor's house. The roof is leaking in places as the tiles (3mm) are old, and from underneath can see indirect light where they meet. Can see dark water marks on the wooden beams, but no real damage to the wood.

 

We recommended having it all retiled, but they're old and don't want to spend the money.

 

Other options are to try to seal it with either sealing tape or a paint sealer. 

 

TOA have this roof seal paint.

 

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/toa-201-roofseal-1-4-roof-seal-i2830388546-s10325372987.html?

 

1. How good is it at sealing up old roof tiles that have small leaks coming through where they meet?

 

2. They are sold in 4Kg tubs. On average how many sqm would a 4Kg tub cover?

 

The roof is probably around 100sqm.

 

TIA.

Use the TOA calculator 

https://www.toagroup.com/en/product/product-calculators/construction-chemicals?slug=toa-pu-waterproof&wide=25&long=4

On 2/13/2024 at 8:40 PM, Will B Good said:

50k per month in an Isaan viallage.....not even in a month of Sundays.

That is completely dependent on the people.

it can be 3,000 per month SWMBO’s mum.

our spending is about 90,000 per month for 2 people. We are in an Isaan village as is SWMBO’s mum. YMMV

On 2/12/2024 at 1:31 AM, PingRoundTheWorld said:

Am I crazy to assume there's no possible way a family in a village in isaan spends +50k baht a month??

Mistaken absolutely. 
 

You misunderstand the ability of some people to spend vast amounts of money, specially if it is not theirs.

the question should have been “What is a reasonable family expenditure” the answer to that in a reasonably comfortable style is probably in the 10,000~15,000 range but that very much depends on the size of the family and other factors.

Having repaired a couple of microwaves that were thrown out and not fixed a third. 
The problems were 1) a bulb that burned out 2) a blown glass encased fuse 3) something more serious Thai I didn’t spend much time on as it was free

No 1 & 2 functioned perfectly for about 15 years.

Time taken, about 15 minutes for each, it’s worth 10 minutes of your time to check.

7 hours ago, Daffy D said:

Didn't know the basic simple task of syphoning could be so complicated  

Neither did I !! Personally I learned the basics when I was knee high to a grasshopper and find it incredible that it’s something that can be so misunderstood.

7 hours ago, Daffy D said:

Love the artwork. 

Thanks, I see the hours spent are showing through 😜

7 hours ago, Daffy D said:

Just to clear up a point, you have to move the suction end in the tank around the bottom to get the gunk, leaving it in just one place will only suck a hole in the gunk, it has to be moved around.

Well I thought my original reply was enough but probably not, so no harm in belabouring something that is obvious to me

7 hours ago, Daffy D said:

Another way of filling the syphon hose is to shove the whole hose into the tank so it gets full of water. Block the end, so the water doesn't run back into the tank as you quickly whip the hose out and lay it on the floor. If it's done right the syphoning should start.

It certainly should but that maybe somewhat more challenging.

7 hours ago, Daffy D said:

It's how I empty the kids paddling pool, using a 1/2 hose with my thumb over the end. Works every time.

With that your reservoir opening is large, the drain is small and you aren’t sucking gunk out. So a bit less good of a technique IMHO.

There is one point that hasn’t been made and that is that letting water flow into the tank during siphoning is a good idea.

12 hours ago, topt said:

Could I use a hosepipe? Otherwise I have no pump and short of buying one cannot see any other way to achieve the result required. 

It seems that you really don’t understand how a siphon functions and don’t know to start one. You don’t need a pump.

no a hose pipe is not going to work or is going to work badly as the pipe is too small diameter 

STEP 1

fill the tank to 100%

fill the 1 ½ pipe to 100% any way of filling it works 

STEP 2

get someone to hold one end of the pipe higher than the tank.

Use your hand to block off the other end of the pipe so that little air enters 

put that end of the pipe under water in the tank

STEP 3

put the end of the hose in the tank just above the gunk level 

get the person who has been holding the other end of the hose to put it below the bottom of the tank 

using your bamboo pole put the tank end into the gunk you will have a flow of several litres per minute of watery gunk

REPEAT steps 1~3 until it works. Keep filling the tank.

as a wise man said “I can explain it to you but I can’t understand it for you

2 hours ago, Daffy D said:

I use a 3/4 pipe, because that's what I happen to have, but any size will work, though bigger is better.

 

Good luck  

Though what @Daffy D said is strictly true, in practice it isn’t 

A ¾” hose will be poor without a significant hight difference (the OP only has about 1~1.8 meters) 

For that small a differential you need at least 1” but 1.5” is better bigger than that doesn’t make enough difference to matter.

3 hours ago, Daffy D said:

 

Anyway that's the object of using a pump to fill the pipe with water.

 

Have you tried filling a pipe that size by sucking on it? 
 

I know for sure I can’t, and I doubt that even the most talented BG has the lung capacity.

10 hours ago, Daffy D said:

Of course you always suck on the end, like syphoning petrol,

If you are using a 1½” (the best pipe size to reduce friction but going bigger doesn’t reduce friction losses by much) sucking to start the siphon is going to be a really interesting experience, so filling the pipe a different way is going to be required. 

2 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

Don’t do it.

28 minutes ago, topt said:

What I was also hoping to do was to use up most/half of the water in the tank before trying to syphon out the sand in the bottom - or is that not possible?

It is a DOS 1000L tank so 180cm high.

Don’t do it.
 

The fuller the tank the better it works the full tank is 2.6 psi the half empty one is about 1.2 psi siphon pressure.

use a minimum of a 1.5” pipe as a small one kills on friction losses. A ½ pipe is about 80X worse than a 1 ½ one.

the only time you run the tank down is before taking the drain plug out and that doesn’t do much if anything for cleaning gunk.
 

@Daffy D has about 8+ psi

5 hours ago, skippybangkok said:

Going out on a limb here, but xx years back i remember at school welding with MIG and CO2.... or maybe it was just cheaper for students to use CO2

While I wasn’t there I can virtually guarantee that it was for cost savings and supply and that the extra splatter it generated was either explained or ignored as I doubt that the welds were critical along with the practical aspect of practice in grinding off the BBs

i do have a baby CO2 tank and a small Argon tank but much prefer the 75% 25% mix

3 minutes ago, Phantom57 said:

“60 m tower”, sure, great pressure.

6 bar!!  It should probably be 0.6 bar and a 6 metre tower😇

but maybe he is also the control tower for the airport 

5 hours ago, topt said:

I wasn't sure how to "suck"out the sand especially as there is nowhere lower than the bottom level of the tank - well maybe 2 inches if that.....

Physics: The hight of the water level in the tank (usually about 1.5 meters +) above the outlet is the thing governing if the siphon is going to work, not the location of the bottom of the inflow tube. 

I’m not going to give a lecture on physics, the fact is that it will function.

try the experiment for yourself, it’s simple enough if you use a small dimeter pipe, less than ½” for the experiment, probably more than 1” for the cleaning pipe

FWIW the bottom of the column of water (your tank) can be far below the outlet pipe, with the inlet pipe well below the the level of the outlet pipe and it still functions and the siphon still siphons 

EDIT as @Daffy D said a greater hight between the top of the water column and the bottom of the outflow will work better. 10 meters = 1 ATM or 1 bar of pressure. 
 

Also he needed the extra hight as he severely restricted the flow by using a small diameter flexible pipe. It worked so all is good

2 minutes ago, Encid said:

 

I better hope that the piles will do the job they are designed to do then. 

The use of piles may well be preferable to waiting for natural compaction or digging the foundations to below the fill level.

On 2/3/2024 at 3:46 PM, superal said:

There are various blends of gases for different welding procedures . No need to be pedantic .

Of course there are but when you talk of using CO2 as a welding gas it’s logical to assume 100% CO2  and that is a poor gas to use unless you are needing to use the cheapest and don’t care about throwing BBs off. If you are talking of the most common welding gas for those who can’t mix their own and don’t buy enough then it’s 75%Ar 25%CO2 and nobody I know of would call that CO2

On 2/3/2024 at 3:46 PM, superal said:

Helium gas for welding  is commonly used in the U.S.A.

And it is 6 X the 75/25 cost, is suitable for a few metals (not steel),good for robotic use and unforgiving of less than perfect manual welding 

On 2/3/2024 at 3:46 PM, superal said:

FYI I never mentioned PURE co2 as I did not want to digress from the main topic

See above.