Category: making things

Ideas… Ideas…

Published April 22, 2014

Today is one of those days where I find myself with lots of ideas for things to do swirling around in my head. I just have to parse through them and figure out which ones are feasible, and when I can do them…

So, what am I thinking would be good to do? Here…

Take a half-day on Thursday and go ride Poto on a single speed before the Waterloo public meeting with the DNR.
Take a half-day on Friday to hike PLRA and gather more GIS data for mapping.
Order some wide, hookless carbon fiber rims from Light-Bicycle to build a new set for the El Mariachi Ti. Then sell the existing Arch EX wheels…
Hike River Bends and clean up any lingering deadfall. Maybe Saturday?
Attend the Stony Creek Trail Day.
Write up a new description for Massive Fallout.
Write up a document trying to convince more people involved in volunteering to work on MTB trail stuff.

Now, to find the time…

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High Volume Tire for Rigid Fork

Published April 4, 2014

With Dually rims acquired I started looking around for parts to build up a high volume front wheel for the El Mariachi Ti when it is sporting its new rigid fork. Within a few days of poking around on eBay I had everything needed, some nice spokes, a Shimano XT hub (same as on the OE El Mariachi Ti wheels), and some generic (but nice) blue nipples.

On Wednesday evening I laced the wheel, and thinking everything had gone great I tensioned it on Thursday night, finding myself very happy with how it came out. Tension was very even, it was true to within 0.5mm, and dished to less than that. All was good until I started looking it over and found that I’d made a very amateurish mistake, something I haven’t done on any of the other wheels I’ve built: I put the valve stem hole in the wrong spot: photo.

If I’d made this mistake on a normal rim I could have easily shuffled the spokes one hole over and all would be good. Not so on the Dually with its offset drilling. This required me to completely unlace and rebuild the wheel to get it right. This morning I found myself awake particularly early (a combination of Danielle’s alarm and my consuming too much caffeine the day before), so I headed down to the basement and relaced the wheel before going to work.

This evening I tensioned it, fit the tire, and set it up as tubeless. During tubeless setup I was a bit concerned that I didn’t have tape wide enough to cover the spoke holes, but as this photo shows, Velocity’s 24mm Velotape is more than wide enough to cover the spoke holes. All went good, and now I’m looking forward to dry trails so I can try the wheel. I may also try it in the suspension fork, as it fits very nicely: photo.

The assembled wheel came out to be 1821g with tire and lockring, but without rotor. This is heavy, but it was expected, as the Dually is 215g heavier than the Arch EX normally used on the front of the bike. Being rotating weight this is likely to be noticeable, even with the ~400g saving of the rigid fork. Measuring 63mm wide (7mm more than the 2.25″ tire on the Arch EX) I’m expecting the extra volume to make it worthwhile. If not, it was a fun experiment and the wheel can likely be sold for what I’ve put into it. Total cost was $137.16, not counting the tire which I’ve had sitting on the shelf since late 2012. (I believe the tire was around $40 via Chainlove.)

Here’s the build specifics:

Rim: Velocity Dually 29″ (45mm wide)

Tire: Schwalbe Racing Ralph 2.4″ (Old Tread Pattern, Tubeless Ready)

Spokes: Ritchey-branded DT Swiss Competition 2.0 (296mm)

Nipples: Generic Blue-anodized Aluminum

Hub: Shimano HB-M788 (15mm TA, Centerlock)

Rim Tape: Velocity Velotape (24mm wide)

Valve Stem: Stan’s NoTubes 35mm

Spoke Tension: ~120 kgF on the higher side.

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2006 Honda Civic EX Valve Cover Gasket Replacement

Published April 3, 2014

Some time in mid-2013 I noticed that my car’s engine was getting a bit oily, with all of it appearing from just below the valve cover. This meant was time for a new valve cover gasket. While I’m not much of a car guy, I figured this should be a relatively easy DIY repair, and it was. By following both Chilton directions (thanks, MeL!) and some of this YouTube Video I had no issue with this repair. Following a test drive last night and today’s trip to work no new oil is visible on the engine, and it seems to be running properly. Out of pocket cost was $31.25 (for the gasket set and some RTV silicone), and I suspect I saved $100 – $200 in labor costs while learning something.

With new tires fitted yesterday, there’s only one active issue left with my car: a rattling/resonating when load is applied to a cold engine when the RPMs are low. I suspect it’s a tensioner or pump that’s sticking a bit. Hopefully within the next couple of days I’ll get some time to diagnose this one as well.

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A Project Unfinished

Published March 24, 2014

Thirteen years ago, back when I moved into my apartment, I started building what was to be a solid oak mission style queen size bed. I got a fair ways into the project, finishing the posts and horizontal pieces for the head and foot boards, but I never went any further because mid-way through the project I bought the condo where Danielle and I now live. Most of my time was directed into fixing the place up, and then after that I found different hobbies; from beer brewing to electronics, traveling to cycling.

Finishing this bed is one of those projects I’ve kept meaning to do, but at this point Danielle and I are looking to purchase a king size mattress, which wouldn’t fit into this bed, rendering it somewhat useless. This is something I never got around to finishing, and found myself at the point where it was time to abandon it.

Last week I offered the wood to my dad as a project that he could finish up and today he picked it up. I’m really glad to that he wants to work on it, and thus I hope it’ll serve as an enjoyable project and end up as something my parents can use.

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Four Fresh Kegs

Published February 12, 2014

Since the beginning of the year I’ve been brewing a batch of beer roughly once per week. This evening I kegged all four and now the beers are sitting in the garage chilling before I begin force carbonating them. I’m still trying to decide if I should purchase the ~$25 of extra fittings required to inject CO₂ via the outlet tube — something which will likely decrease carbonation time — or just go with the previous method of pressurizing the head of the keg and waiting. The former should have the beer soundly ready to go within a week, the latter has taken 2-3 without occasional shaking.

The four beers shown here are an Double IPA and Dunkelweizen, both Brewer’s Best kits, a Chocolate Stout (a Cap ‘N’ Cork kit), and Hopeful Pale Ale, a slightly smokey and citrus-y idea that I put together with the help of one of the folks up at Cap ‘N’ Cork. After tasting them during kegging I’m pretty happy, and I’m particularly looking forward to trying the Hopeful IPA because it seems to have been a success.

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PVC 1.5″ Crown Race Setter

Published February 9, 2014

The Salsa El Mariachi Ti has a headset for a tapered fork, thus when I picked up a rigid fork for it (more on that later) I wanted to be sure to get a tapered one. Lacking a proper setter I decided to make one out of PVC pipe. Schedule 40 PVC pipe, 1.5″, has an average inside diameter of 1.590″, which is perfect for fitting over the 1.5″ bottom of a tapered steerer tube.

Home Depot sells 2′ sections of pipe, so this, plus a cap, were purchased for making the setter. I cut the pipe to 14″ long (same as a Park Tool CRS-1) to ensure a nice, square end then fitted a cap on the other end. After cutting a slight inside bevel on the pipe this worked fairly well for hammering on the Cane Creek 40-CrownRace-52/40-Steel race (really, a bearing seat and seal) which is the matching part for the headset on the bike.

This did not work as easily as setting a traditional 1-1/8″ headset using a metal tool, but after a few false starts it did eventually work. The PVC felt somewhat flexible and I believe was absorbing some of the force from the hammer. The steerer is also has a 33% greater circumference, so on a 1.5″ steerer there’ll be more friction than with a 1-1/8″, so it’ll take more force overall to set the race in place.

That all said, at less than $5 for making one yourself versus ~$70 (online prices) for buying a steel one, and still ending up with an effective tool, this is worth making.

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¡Ay CRAMBA There’s Signs!

Published February 7, 2014

Sunday’s ¡Ay CRAMBA It’s Cold Out! event is going to feature both a hard and easy route, and to support this I needed to make signs. Here they are, made from white Coroplast (liberated from a roadside) covered with green gaffer tape, and nailed to wooden stacks from the Massive Fallout marking supplies. Marking was done by hand, but seems to have worked out fairly well.

I anticipate it being fairly easy to push these into the snow, allowing the bright green 6″ x 9″ signs to guide people along the routes. They bundle up small enough that I should have no difficulty fitting them all in one backpack, making for an pre-event trail marking session.

(The easy route will cut off the hilliest parts of the trail; a section which many find too frustrating to ride in deep snow.)

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Hopeful Pale Ale

Published February 1, 2014

After a fun day of bike riding and working on a friend’s computer I brewed a pale ale using some leftover hops and dried malt extract. My hope for this was a low-ish alcohol (< 5%) very slightly smokey but otherwise American Pale Ale-ish beer.

The recipe for is as follows, and I intend to update this page indicating whether or not I like how this came out. I intend to ferment this beer in primary until it’s pretty much done, then immediately keg and force carbonate it. I have three other beers aging in secondary, and my hope is that this’ll be a nice-when-fresh beer that’ll will play a part in allowing me to fill all four empty kegs at the same time.

Here’s the ingredient list:

6.6 pounds Golden Light LME
11 ounces Extra Pale DME
1 pound 10°L
2 ounces Weyermann Smoked Malt
0.5 ounce Simcoe hops at 60 Minutes
0.5 ounce Simcoe hops at 15 Minutes
1x Whirlfloc tablet at 15 Minutes
1 ounce Citra hops at Flameout

This was a typical full volume boil, with the crushed malts steeped for 30 minutes in 2 gallons of water then sparged with 1 gallon.

OG: 1.053
FG: TBD

Here’s to hoping it comes out nicely…

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Well Seasoned Cast Iron Pans: Flaxseed Oil

Published January 24, 2014

Our house has a couple pieces of cast iron cookware, but it wasn’t seasoned very well and Danielle and I both wanted to change that. After some separate but overlapping research we both found that using flaxseed oil is best for seasoning cast iron cookware due to the high quantities of α-Linolenic acid (ALA) that it contains, as this will polymerize nicely during the seasoning process.

Sheryl Canter’s post Chemistry of Cast Iron Seasoning : A Science-Based How-To was the basis of much of the information used, but I disagree with some of her techniques (eg: applying very thin layers of oil then wiping them off until no longer visible, starting with a cool oven) as being overwrought. Starting with a clean, dry pan (scrubbing to get food residue off and putting in the oven at 200°F to facilitate drying) I instead did the following, using some food-grade refrigerated flaxseed oil purchased at Whole Foods:

Using a piece of a synthetic fabric sock (a square about 2″ x 3″), spread a layer of oil on all surfaces of the pan. It should look oily, but not have any drips, sags, or pools. Be sure it is an even coat. Paper towel (which I tried at first) left lint residue that’d burn into the oil and get stuck in the coating.
Put the pan in your oven and set to 550°F or so. The temperature needs to be above the smoke point of the oil, because during this smoking the ALA will polymerize and thus the cast iron becomes seasoned.
Once the oven indicates it’s at temperature, set a timer for an hour. During this hour the cast iron should reach the oil’s smoke point, which’ll release a bunch of somewhat unpleasant smoke. Vent the house if you can.
After an hour has elapsed, or once the oil is done smoking (you’ll get a better feel for this as you repeat the process) turn off the oven, open it up, and slide out the racks so the cast iron can cool.
When the cast iron has reached a temperature that it can be handled with bare hands, repeat these steps as many times as desired.

To season our cast iron cookware I used seven repetitions of this process. Each took a couple of hours, but most of that time was waiting for the oil to smoke or the cast iron to cool down. The result on one of the pans, a Lodge Wedge Pan that Danielle received for Christmas from my parents, can be seen above. Prior to the flaxseed oil seasoning it had a factory season on it, which was a dull, thin-looking surface that only seemed sufficient to prevent corrosion during shipping. After receiving a proper season the pan was not unlike a used PTFE non-stick surface and quite pleasant to use.

Post-seasoning the cast iron can be easily cleaned with water, a plastic bristled scrub brush, and a gentle plastic scrub pad / sponge that’s safe for non-stick pans. This has easily removed everything we’ve had stuck to the pans and left the season intact.

† While flaxseed oil and linseed oil are the same thing, products labeled as linseed oil are commonly for wood finishing and usually contain drying agents and other things that you probably don’t want in contact with your food. Thus, it’s best to just suck up the seemly-high price of buying food-grade flaxseed oil at a local store knowing that it’ll be safe. Don’t worry, one bottle will last you for a long time; this process does not go through it very quickly.

Other oils could be used, but flaxseed oil will be the most efficient readily available oil due to it’s high ALA content. This portion of the Wikipedia article on α-Linolenic acid listing the ALA content for a number of different oils, showing that flaxseed is around 55%, while canola and soybean (both frequently branded as vegetable oil) are 8% and 10%. If a lower ALA content oil is used, it’ll take longer to build up a thick coating of seasoning (polymerized ALA).

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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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