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Category: around the house

Drip Tray for Indoor Plants

Published January 18, 2014

We have a number of plants being kept indoors for the winter, one of which is a bay tree. This afternoon Danielle repotted it into something larger to get it ready for spring time, but this new pot didn’t have a drip tray, which makes keeping it on the carpeted living room floor a bit problematic. After heading to a local home improvement store to get a drip tray I found that the offerings there were not satisfactory. A cheap ($2) drip trays was so thin that I’d have been able to tear it, and a thicker one (think soda bottle wall thickness) was $4+.

Instead of either of these I purchased a cheap, store-brand silver plastic bucket and cut off the bottom 4″ to make a different style tray. This was only around $3 and is much, much better than the pre-made trays. I was also able to size it for a narrow gap so that any collected water won’t evaporate too quickly and will serve to keep watering the plant.

I feel a bit wasteful throwing out the plastic from the upper half, but I don’t have much use for a segmented, ridged plastic hoop.

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Failed Bushing Hackery

Published January 9, 2014

Danielle’s desk chair began wobbling, and disassembly of the base showed that a nylon bushing had come apart allowing the chair to wobble side to side. The image above shows my attempt to rebuild something like this bushing out of nylon cable ties, but this somewhat failed. The chair no longer wobbles when in the lowest possible position, but it has enough friction that turning is difficult and the hydraulic height adjustment doesn’t work. I suspect the friction of these little cable tie heads is too much for the lift assist.

It’s too bad the low position is a bit too low for Danielle to be comfortable sitting at her desk. Maybe if I’m lucky I can find a replacement bushing, although I don’t see a way to get it installed as the top of the tube for it is crimped to hold it in place. Maybe an entire chair base assembly would be needed.

Oh well, at least it doesn’t wobble any more is usable as a low chair.

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KitchenAid Mixers Contain a Lot of Grease

Published January 8, 2014

 

Back in 2001 or so, not long after moving into the place where Danielle and I currently live, I laid my new KitchenAid stand mixer on its side on the floor, and when picking it up I’d found that a bunch of oil had spilled out of the side. This both surprised me and was a pain to clean up, so ever since then I made a point of keeping it upright, with the top in the normal, neutral, ready-to-mix position.

Being careful with it worked fine and the problem was mostly forgotten about until earlier this year when I found more oil leaking out after Danielle had left the head tipped up. It had also begun making some awkward squeaking noises when shutting off, so I knew it was in need of some work. This evening I finally got around to taking it apart.

A YouTube video from eReplacementParts.com got me started, and it wasn’t long before I had the mixer apart and was able to see the problem: there was both grease and oil in the gearbox, and when tipped or tilted from something other than its normal position this oil would slowly leak out. I strongly suspect that my mixer was lubricated with either the beginning or end of a new pack/tube of grease, which could have a goodly layer of oil on it. Or, maybe the grease separated over time. (I suspect the former because of how long ago the original leak occurred…)

I scraped out most of the grease, wiped out the oil, and then cleaned off the seal and put everything back together, putting the grease back inside of the housing and all over the gears so it could do its job.

From what I’m reading on other sites this is not an uncommon problem, and it seems like many KitchenAid mixers eventually need their grease replaced. So much so that the KitchenAid-branded grease is even available on Amazon. I suspect that I’ll be taking this back apart some time in the future to regrease it, but for now at least I’ve been able to stop the dripping oil.

(One strange issue that I ran into with the grease is that it would not clean up using ProGold Pro Towels, but a bit of alcohol worked very nicely.)

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Winter Snow by Streetlight

Published January 6, 2014

 

Here’s a photo, looking out my office window early on January 6th, 2014, of the snow that’s fallen. I was bored so I cleared off my car and shoveled the area around it earlier today, but much of this has been covered back up by drifting, blowing snow. It’s really beautiful, but if the next couple days’ forecast for particularly cold weather holds true I’ll likely find it to be a bit much.

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Refilling ProGold Chain Lube Bottles

Published October 31, 2013

My preferred bicycle chain lube is ProGold Xtreme (formerly known as Voyager), but I prefer to purchase the larger 16oz. bottle to refill the smaller drip bottles. Pouring chain lube is not something you want to screw up, as it’d be really frustrating to clean up.

To avoid problems I used a T-pin and punched holes in the foil safety cap on the large bottle as seen above. The large hole for pouring is about 3mm x 1mm and the smaller vent is just a simple pinhole. With this setup I can easily pour lube from the large bottle into the smaller ones with little risk of pouring too fast and splashing.

With this setup I’ve even been able to easily refill the ProGold eyedrop-size sample bottles with Xtreme, which is nice because I like to carry one with me when riding.

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Fruit Flies!

Published August 16, 2013

The kitchen has a bunch of fruit flies in it, and apparantly they are coming from (or at least feeding on) the hole in the top of this banana. Based on their light color I suspect these are very young fruit flies, so they are probably breeding in there as well.

After sealing it in a zip-top bag I’ve thrown out the remaining bananas, but not after taking the most-rotted upper section and putting it in a pint glass, covering the top with foil, and piercing it with a toothpick (photo). Hopefully this will work nicely as trap for the remaining flies that seem to be lingering in the area. Ten minutes or so have passed since I assembled the makeshift trap and it already contains four flies, so it looks promising.

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New Rubber Stopper Time

Published August 7, 2013

After twelve years it is time to get a new rubber stopper for the laundry tub. The current one has begun decaying, and a couple weeks ago when attempting to push it out of the drain with a metal rod I poked a hole in it, destroying its traditional water stopping powers.

Now to find a replacement… Lowe’s was out of 1 1/2″ stoppers when I went there earlier today, and the universal stopper that I purchased doesn’t work. Time to try another store…

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Petrol-Gel as Specialized WaterGate Valve Lubricant

Published June 8, 2013

The burst valve design of the Specialized WaterGate lids for their bottles are quite nice, and as one can twist the valve gently to remove it for cleaning they don’t suffer the buildup that plagues CamelBak bottles. However, after a few cycles of removing the valve and washing them the o-rings become dry and the valve is hard to reinsert and doesn’t move very slowly.

I have some Petrol-Gel lubricant for maintaining beer dispensing equipment, so I figured I’d give it a go on these seals. It worked great; a very light application to the o-rings and the inside of the valve seat in the lid restores the original smooth action of the valve. This makes the lid work like new.

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Missing Pavement and Vibrating Walls

Published May 23, 2013

The pavement in the parking area of the condo has been removed so that it can be replaced, and part of the work involves this Dresser Industries vibrating compacting roller. After the curbs have been removed and dirt moved this roller is used to compact the soil into a firm, dirt road-like surface. This process produces a tremendous amount of noise and vibration, so much so that while sitting at my desk this afternoon some pictures were falling over, my cell phone was bouncing slightly, and the walls were resonating loudly. It was loud enough that Roxie was becoming scared, but she did seem to enjoy looking out the window and watching the people working.

I’m looking forward to the pavement being done. We are temporarily parking next door in the church’s lot, which isn’t too bad as it is a shorter drive to 22 Mile, but carrying things across the lawn and relatively steep berm which separates the properties is a bit of a pain when when loading or unloading the car.

More photos of the torn up driveway can be seen in this album, including this one looking out the garage at the dirt and gravel, which was what originally caught my eye and made me think to get the camera out.

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The Poop Box

Published May 4, 2013

Reading up on various healthy things, Danielle came across information about using a box or platform to raise ones legs while seated on the toilet into a position similar to when one is using a squat toilet. I resisted trying it for a couple days, but then gave it a go. Initially the bathroom had been fitted with an overturned plastic basket and I found it to be rather nice, so I’ve since upgraded the platform to an old monitor stand. The purported benefits to this position are well documented elsewhere, but I can heartily say that it’s a very good option for when sitting on the toilet.

I normally have no issues with the number two process, but by using a platform such as this to adjust my internally bits into a slightly more evolved position everything is even smoother, leaving me with a much emptier feeling. Because of this I must strongly recommend that everyone try putting a box under their feet while pooping. It makes a magical process even more amazing.

(There are a few logistical concerns with this, such as how does one sit down with a platform/box in the way. I sit down, then use my feet to pull the box back towards the toilet, then put my feet up on it. If I don’t do this I have to somehow put step over a platform that isn’t designed to hold my full weight with my pants around my ankles. Perhaps a different approach would work with a more solid platform, but this one currently works well and sliding the box to and fro before and after use is not difficult.)

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