I’ve had my battery-powered 40V Ryobi mower (model #40108) for a year now and have been pretty happy with it. However the last time I used it the damn thing would randomly shut off while mowing. At the time there didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to the problem such as heavy grass… Continue reading Ryobi 40V Mower Cutout Fix
So I recently got a 12″ jointer/planer for my basement shop. It weighs 500 pounds, 600 shipped. Getting it down there was tricky but I managed it after some planning and deliberate, slow work. I used three simple machines to help out: wheels, levers, and incline planes. Lever: A harbor freight 1-ton shop crane to… Continue reading Moving a Power Tool into the Basement
I had a bear of a time tracking down a coupon for this thing, posting it for posterity. It expires 6/19/2015. Just print it out and give it to your cashier.
I moved my coffee roasting station but kept my blower in the same place (less noise!) so that meant I needed to extend the fume hood’s vent line. I went the cheap route and got a 10′ long piece of HDPE Triplewall pipe which cost about $7.60 at my local Home depot. Its inner diameter… Continue reading HDPE Triple Wall Pipe for Ducting
A while back I made a ceiling-mounted pot hanger. The rail was a length of 1/8″ x 1.5″ stainless bar bent into a rectangle. Well I had bend it in my bench vise and none of the corners were very good, and it formed more of a parallelogram than a rectangle. I recently re-made the… Continue reading Shop-Made Metal Brake
My truck has had a squeaky clutch for longer than I’d care to admit. Here is a video I took of the noise: I bet that sounds familiar to a lot of you manual transmission Toyota owners! The culprit was the point of contact between the clutch fork and the bell housing’s pivot stud.… Continue reading Fixing a Squeaking Toyota Tacoma Clutch
A few weeks ago I made a 2.5 gallon batch of Gnome’s ginger beer. I first dissolved 2 pounds of sugar in a quart of water, added 2oz of extract, and then brought it up to 130F. Then I dumped the mix into a keg and added the remaining 2 gallons of water. I carbed it… Continue reading Gnome Spicy Ginger Beer Review
In my 2010 Toyota Tacoma’s (two door, regular cab) there isn’t much storage space. There is a narrow space behind the seat so I build some containers to be able to store stuff that wouldn’t fit in the glove box. I made two caddies, one to go to the right of the seat belt and… Continue reading Tacoma Cab Behind-the-Seat Storage Caddies
To dispense my StarSan I use a bathroom pump soap dispenser. 8 pumps doles out 1/2oz which is the proper amount for the 2.5 gallons of sanitizer I typically make. it’s a lot quicker to squirt out 8 pumps instead of squeezing the StarSan bottle to fill the little reservoir.
Made 6 liters (a Tap-A-Draft’s woth) of Rainbow’s “Old Fashioned” Sarsaparilla Soda today after brewing. I already had the sanitizer mixed up so why not. I used the ingredient ratios recommended in the instructions and the uncarbonated soda tastes pretty good. There’s a good vanilla kick alongside a strong spicy, barky sarsaparilla element.