Month: October 2022

October 18, 2022 – Will it Juice?

October 18, 2022 /

For a while, there was an schtick about ‘Will it Blend?‘. It was a marketing campaign for Blendtec, blending all kinds of things in there product. Some of it was pretty impressive. I set out to find out if my new to me apple press would press grapes to make grape juice.

I do have a device that is marketed as a ‘juicer’ and it does work. However, with grapes that have skins on them, this device plugs quickly and hard. The last time I made grape juice, I spent several hours cleaning it. I also had to disassemble frequently just to keep it going. I know traditionally, grape juice could be made by stepping on the grapes, I don’t see why an apple press wont do the same thing. So this is what I set out to do, plus, I want to use it.

Because I have been both lazy and busy, I haven’t done as much preserving as I should. Admittedly, a lot of blueberries and raspberries went to waste while I was focused on the siding repair. We are nearly out of jam as we haven’t done any in several years, this year I think I will make grape. I do know that this is one of the least popular choices in my house but we have it, so lets use it.

It’s hard to compare yields and efficiencies because I don’t have a lot of baseline to compare but I got about a quart of juice from roughly 3 gallons of grapes. Looking at the jelly recipe, only 2 3/4 cup of juice is required to make a batch, which is 7 cups yield. I will probably at least double it.

As coincidence would have it, the guy I bought the press from stopped by the day I was trying this. He said absolutely they have used it for juicing. Now, I had no fears, I just needed to figure out how it worked.

The truth is, it was a lot of work for a little yield. That being said, I am happy that my grapes didn’t go to waste. I got enough juice to make some jelly so that is something. I am planning to get going with apple pressing soon. I am running out of time to do this as well.

End Your Programming Routine: It has been a long held dream to have an apple press. Now, I need to get some use out of it. This may not be the best ‘production model’, but just like I keep talking about, I cant get caught up in the ‘toolbox fallacy’. Let me get some use out of it and figure out what I like and don’t like, then I can upgrade.

October 17, 2022 – Revisiting Hardware and Software

October 17, 2022 /

I knew that I wrote about this once. I looked it up and it was April 13, 2020. In that context, I was talking about spending money on things that accessorize my shop equipment rather than another tool. Today, I am taking about having experiences versus stuff primarily. I some ways, the two are closely related.

End Your Programming Routine: This is something that I battle with. I am stuck in the ‘how can I use this’ mentality of what would make this experience better the next time I do it. The challenge is tempering the exuberance of getting better with the reality of investing for future experiences.

October 13, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

October 13, 2022 /

Have you ever heard the history of the metallurgy of the penny? I am not going to cover that specifically you can look it up but in 1982 the penny was changed from 95% copper to 5% zinc to 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper. The entire purpose was that the cost of copper was worth more than a penny. I will join this to the rest of the topic later.

One of the things I typically do at the range is pick-up what is called range brass. This is brass that other people have left of the ground. Technically, we are all supposed to do our best to clean-up after ourselves. Some people do not. I usually take a look around and if there is something useable, I pick it up. I always pick-up more than I take and the rest goes into the recycling bin. More on this later too.

A word of warning, ultra cautious shooters warn that this is a potentially dangerous activity. We do not know the history of the brass and it could be ‘wild catted’ or out of specification in some manner. My take on it is that these are shooters that are just lazy. They shoot and then they leave. If you are not willing to pick up your brass, I highly doubt that you are going to reload, let alone wildcat. I suppose that you can tell I feel like the risk is very minimal.

Some people take this pursuit to a different level. They pick up and take all brass, whereas I only take brass for calibers that I own. They will clean and resell brass at places like gun shows. Sometimes, they do some sort of hobby reloading business and reload the brass. The fact of the matter is that the gun club does the exact same thing. They sort through the recycling bin by caliber and resell in the pro-shop at a good rate.

For rimfire cartridges and damaged casings, these can be sold for scrap. The going rate is $1.75/lb. It doesn’t take long for this to really add up to some real money. The gun club donates all of that money to youth shooting sports that use the facility for practice and events. The truth is anyone can do this too.

This was my haul last trip. There are almost 400 rounds of .223 Remington/5.56 NATO in there. I am seeing $5/lb for straight off the ground brass to $50/250 for cleaned and prepped brass. I guess what I am saying is that it is worth the effort to pick it up. Within the mix I have crushed cases, crushed necks and some really difficult primers to remove. So not every case is usable, but that is OK because I don’t have anything invested into them anyway.

The US military picks up range brass too. Some of that is sold back into the marketplace as ‘once fired’ brass. This is a lot of what you find if you are looking for anything that is not new. People buy it off of surplus sites and then count it, rebrand it, etc. A lot of it is also shredded and sold for scrap. But you can see how much more valuable the cartridge cases are based on the paragraph above.

I think is worth mentioning that not all cartridge cases are brass. They can also be made of steel or aluminum and now plastic has just been introduced into the market. None of those can be reloaded, so I just throw those into the recycle bin. All metals have a scrap price, so they are still worth money.

End Your Programming Routine: I am waiting for my replacement rods to come from Lyman. I have bent several of them messing with .223. I also broke one pin and bent the heck out of another on my Lee Universal depriming die. I am hoping that this is just me learning to feel how to do it, but if I can get powder and primers, I can make ammunition much cheaper than I can purchase it retail. But, since I don’t have a load worked up yet, I will just do the case prep waiting for the consumer market to catch up with inventory.

October 12, 2022 – Installing a Replacement Window

October 12, 2022 /

Do you wonder why I talk about flashing so much? I mean, who doesn’t like to see a good, quality flash? I know what you are thinking and yes I am trying to joke around a little bit. But, seriously, flashing is the key to a quality job. There are tons of videos out there to show how to do this properly. Just remember, think like a raindrop.

There are three ways to go about this job. The first is to order replacement windows. This is essentially a widow without a nailing flange and the idea is that you remove the old window the one pops into the hole. This does not disturb the existing siding and trim assuming the window you are replacing does not have a nailing flange already and all of those details are in good condition

The second way to do it is to buy a new window and cut the nailing flange off with something like a reciprocating saw. This simulates a replacement window at usually significantly less cost. Then there is the right way. That is to cut off the siding and trim so that the window and opening can be flashed appropriately.

The window that I was actually replacing was used when I purchased it. Someone had already cut the flange off. I bought it second hand for $40 and I tried to make it water tight. It was a fine window, but my wife wanted a window that actually opened so that we could install a portable air conditioner in the future (actually this year, but it is already October so we won’t see those kind of temperatures again until next summer).

Out went the window. The next thing you want to do is prep the opening. I really like this self sealing membrane product. It is sold in the area of windows, it is really sticky and it seals around nails and punctures. You want to flash around the window opening to protect the framing from getting wet. If this is a replacement, you want your flashing to hang over the house wrap so that any water that might get behind the window stays on the outside of the wood.

Start at the bottom and work around the opening. Here is a link from someone doing it right. Note, there are some slightly different techniques but they all are a variation of the same thing. After the flashing, set the window into the hole as centered as possible. Just like doors, do everything you can so that the window is square and plumb.

If that is true, nail in the window. I like a 2″ roofing nail, nailed every other hole on the flange. The point is to get the window nailed into the structure and two inches is enough to get through the window and the sheathing and get enough grab into the structure. Now, you want to flash over the flange to keep all water on the outside of the house wrap.

Believe it or not, when siding the very next thing you would do is the window trim before the siding. This is because the trim and the siding mate with a caulk bead. I have come to the conclusion that these should also be flashed with metal or membrane but I didn’t do it here because I would have to pry all the siding loose so that I could slide flashing underneath. I reused and installed the trim in the reverse order I took it off.

The takeaways here are 1) order an appropriate window 2) install it plumb and square 3) flash the opening properly before and after. If you do these three things, then you will have a successful replacement. Obviously I didn’t cover everything, you may have to remove the interior trim for instance. I also typically use a 6″ tape. Mostly, I split it in half because this is some expensive stuff.

End Your Programming Routine: I bought this window on the same day as I bought the front door. So, it has been in the queue for a little bit. The weather has really cooperated so that I could do all the things I have wanted to finish before fall/winter set in. Once the trim is in, it is time for the fussy part of caulking and painting. but that is it, Take you time, have a stable work area, watch some videos and think before you act, you can do it.

October 11, 2022 – The Kitchen Counter Cooking School

October 11, 2022 /

The Kitchen Counter Cooking School: How a Few Simple Lessons Transformed Nine Culinary Novices into Fearless Home Cooks by Kathleen Flinn is the Left Coast Culinary Book Club selection for September 2022. In many ways, this is a follow up to The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry. It picks up where that book left off in Kathleen Flinn’s timeline.

I have found this book very interesting because I identify very much with Kathleen’s psyche. Here she goes to Le Cordon Bleu kind of on a whim, gets her credentials and then immediately writes a book. She is interested in food and cooking but really doesn’t want to put those skills to work traditionally. She even says it herself that she doesn’t know what she want’s to do. Sounds like someone I know.

I don’t want to spoil the book, but Kathleen has an epiphany while grocery shopping. She observes how much junk people are loading into their carts and begins asking the question of why. The most pervasive answer is that people don’t know how to cook. This book describes a social experiment, bringing in nine people that had little to no skills to see what happens. I will let you read the book to find out the methods and how it went.

This made me think about our current society. We live in a world that is surrounded by information. We take in the information as entertainment and so my analysis here is that whatever happens on the screen is not reality. Therefore, we have programmed our brains to say ‘that all happened in fantasy land, I will now operate in the real world’. What I am trying to say is that we cannot make the link between what I can do and what I see. Channels such as Food Channel, HGTV and MotorTrend can be entertaining and informative. But, I feel like their best disposition is really as inspiration.

Couple that with product marketing and misinformation. Unless people really study the information and use critical thinking, of course they are misguided. I hate to take this back to the tired old Covid analogy, but here we go. We are entering the ‘flu season’ of 2022. Pretty much what I see now is that everything is back to the way things were pre-Covid with the exception that masks are now permitted in banks, schools, etc. I just heard the commercial to get your fourth booster.

How do we rectify the crisis that was with the ambivalence of today? In my opinion, what we thought we knew in 2020 was wrong. Notice, no one is talking about why we are behaving differently today then we were two years ago. This is what brings us back to food. Even the supposed experts on health were wrong with Covid. What make us think that they are right about die?

Kathleen Flinn is not getting her due from my side trip. But, she did inspire it and she is right that the vast majority of people don’t know how to cook. Some of it is their fault and some of it is not. For instance, even I have heard numerous chefs recommend soup base as a starter. To me, that is fine for a restaurant because their number one priority is profit whereas a home cook’s number one priority is nourishment; and that ain’t in soup base.

I want to be careful, I am not denigrating anyone’s choices. I sometimes use shortcuts too. But, I know how to cook and my choices are made by circumstances like I don’t have time to defrost stock so I use soup base, not by lack of skills. It’s like I wrote about salad dressing in the past. Back when I was a child, buying salad dressing was a convenience but now it is a lost skill.

This is a book that is an easy read. To get the full impact, you have to be ready for it. It’s like watering dry ground, it is just going to run off. But, if your soil is a little bit moist, then it is going to soak that water deep to the roots.

End Your Programming Routine: This is the last scheduled book of the year. I have to say that I was really not excited about any of the selections, surprisingly I have warmed up to all of them. I am really glad that this was how we finished the year because this is the kind of stuff that I am really into. I love a good dinner, but I really enjoy changing the status quo, even if it is for nine people.

October 10, 2022 – Table Topics and Misadventure

October 10, 2022 /

Ever do something that you know that you shouldn’t do but do it anyway? I did and I talk about it today. I also talk about what I do differently and how it has changed my life since. All the while, I continue to practice my delivery. If you are like me, there is help for us in terms of a support group.

End Your Programming Routine: I know that I am weak speaking impromptu. I think that I am pretty good when I am prepared. At least when it comes to structure and content but I also know that my delivery could certainly improve. I am going to do more ‘Table Topics’ in the future because I don’t ever want this forum to fall into a rut. That falls part and parcel with my initial vision of ‘polymath daily’.

October 7, 2022 – Atlas Shrugged 2:4

October 7, 2022 /

The fact that I am already looking at the other Ayn Rand books leads me to believe that I am going to be reading more from her. I can say that I am astounded at how astute she was and how this all dovetails together with today. Look closely, this is social justice at work. It is just cloaked in a less, in your face manner.

The chapter starts out at Thanksgiving which happens to be the night before the Reardon trial. The family members behave as poorly as normal with their normal snarky platitudes. Henry listens to one last jab and lays down the line for his brother.

This is human nature. It also seems to be the way that ungrateful dependents act. Having raised a number of other people’s (adult) children, they either get it or they don’t. And when they don’t, they are pretty self righteous about how their problems are someone else’s fault.

But when you look at it objectively, you can understand. They wouldn’t be ungrateful dependents if they didn’t have some sort of deficiency. A lot of it is the lack of ability for self-reflection, accountability and a drive to do better. This causes them to be deluded into the fault of the problem. Of course, they forget about how they got into a shouting match with their boss because they were doing something they weren’t supposed to do which got them fired.

I almost feel sorry for them until I remember what indignant assholes they are when they are in this mode. At some point, you have enough with their pity party and get tired of them not taking a wiser counsel. After being threatened with violence or just tired of confrontation and volatility, you just have resolve yourself that you have done what you can. It is time for them to leave. I don’t consider that a major theme of the chapter, but clearly it struck a nerve in me.

So, now the real theme, the Reardon trial strategy. During the trial, Reardon offers no defense for his trial. That tactic befuddles the judges, who cannot comprehend the situation. Now, as a quick aside, I do not believe that this would ever work in some sort of trial. But, it is an allegory for life.

When you are in the pool, it is customary that when someone yells ‘Marco’ the other people respond with ‘Polo’. If you don’t respond, you have broken the object of the game and it doesn’t work. I talk a lot about the left/right dichotomy and this is the perfect strategy. Picking a side puts you in the game and no matter what side it is, you are involved. Once in the game, the only way to play is with the established rules.

Naturally, if you want to break the game, you cannot operate within the boundaries. You have to stay outside of the game to change it. If you catch my drift, you cannot elect the right people out of the game because they are all playing it right along with you. I suppose that if it your desire to win ‘Marco Polo’, then you have to play in order to win.

Using something more colloquial, imagine a fantasy football league. Assume the premise that all of the players are motivated to win, all are ostensively educated in the rules and ‘game pieces’. What are your chances to win? What happens when someone quits actively playing mid-season and how does that effect the overall outcome?

There is some skill but also luck in winning. If I was tied for first place and lost to the guy that quit earlier in the season, yet my competitor is playing the guy that quit and I am playing the second place guy, he will likely win and I might lose, My point with all of this is we can’t go into a season and know the outcome because we can’t predict how the other players will act, let alone injuries, etc from our teammates. Enough fun and games, I think that you get the point.

End Your Programming Routine: Some very interesting revelations in this chapter. I debated even cutting the enough is enough comments before I started writing. Then, I thought I would just mention it but once I started writing, I debated writing the entire post about that and cutting the second section out. Not playing the game is a theme that was too important to not give full attention. I think that the enough is enough is on my mind, because that is the podcast on that I talked about on Monday.

October 6, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

October 6, 2022 /

It turns out that an air rifle needs more lubrication than once every forty years. I purchased some a few weeks ago to attempt to ressurect my Daisy 840. Looking at the problem more carefully, I definitely have a seal problem. I noticed while I was messing around that the cylinder was not holding air. Within two minutes, the air chamber was empty.

My initial impression was that things were fine. When I got the rifle from my parents about ten years ago, it was still charged to my surprise (big firearms violation on me?). It was probably set at my parents house for 20 years unused so it is hard to say who left it loaded but it wouldn’t surprise me if I did.

Of course, I haven’t messed with it much at all since I decided to upgrade to the Crossman Legacy 1000. Only when I was doing my velocity testing and I got extremely erratic behavior did I start to wonder if I had a problem.

It is pretty simple to figure out where to put the oil. Where it say “Oil Here” seems like the right place. As to how much, I really don’t know but a good rule of thumb in firearms is that you can always add more, don’t get carried away. Not only are you wasting lubricant with too much but it often causes more dirt and grime to collect on the surfaces that the oil touches.

Those of of you that are not familiar, not all oil is the same. The tube on the left is the general purpose lubrication that I used on my Daisy. The oil on the right is a special type of oil for spring and pneumatic guns. It turns out that you are supposed to add 1 or two drops every 500 rounds into air chamber. Supposedly, I need a third oil that is for my Crossman Legacy.

To date, I have not been able to save the Daisy. The truth is, I don’t know that it will come back. My brief looking is that these Daisy parts are obsolete. So, it very well may be that the seals are damaged beyond repair. I am hoping that if the oil sits a little bit of time on the seals that they will re-swell to work again. So far, it has only been a week but no dice.

End Your Programming Routine: It might be too little, to late for the old Daisy. I kind of hope not but it really has become obsolete in my fleet. To be sure, I am going to pay more attention to my newer air rifles, hence why I bought the different lubrication products. This represents about $10 of care, I think that it is money well spent.

October 5, 2022 – Modifying a Door to Fit in an Existing Frame

October 5, 2022 /

Sometimes new doors are called ‘slabs’ but this also works for used doors. The most important aspect is the measurements. Precise measuring will mean the difference between fitting and not fitting as well as operating properly.

  1. Measure the dimensions of the existing door and the one that you are wanting to replace. It probably goes without saying, but if your replacement door is smaller than the one you are replacing, this isn’t going to work unless you can figure out some sort of weather stripping to seal the gap.
  2. Pick a reference point to measure. I like the top, hinge side corner. Take a measurement from your reference point to the top and bottom of each hinge. Also measure the top and bottom of your lock set holes. This is for both doors.
  3. Now it is time to do some figuring. Is it possible for your door to fit? Does it need to be modified to do so? And if so how?

If you look at my measurements, the door wanted to use was wider and taller than the door I was replacing, check. The middle hinge was in the same spot when I measure from the top. So, my strategy was to trim the width off the hinge side and reposition the top and bottom hinges so that everything matches. Since I was measuring everything from the top corner, this gave me the freedom to trim the extra inch off the bottom without consequences.

Unlike hinges, lockset holes are a standard 2 3/8″. This means that I really didn’t have to measure the top and bottom of each hole, I elected to just go from the top of the door to the top of the hole. Note that I measured the difference between the the top of the deadbolt to the top of the operating knob. Also note that the spread is different which means that I am going to also modify the strike plate for the deadbolt to work.

For square cuts larger than an 3/16″, I opt for a circular saw to remove. But, when you start getting into tapers or real thin removals, I use a router with a straight cutting bit against a straight edge. You could also use a hand plane or even better a power plane but that is a tool that even I don’t have. I really didn’t want my hand plane to be removing fiberglass either.

After the door is sized properly, it is time to recut the hinge mortises. I use the Milescraft HingeMate 350 for a lot of extra help. This job can also be cut with a chisel, by hand if you don’t have a router. I already owned and used these templates a couple of times so of course for me it was a no brainer. I actually reviewed this product in 2020.

Despite my best efforts, I still had to modify the width after a test fit. I ended up taking another 3/16″ off the strike side. Ideally, I would have left that side alone, but this was the fastest way to get the door up as daylight was fading quickly. Because I created new fitting problems with the deadbolt and lockset. My backup plan was to put the old door back into place for the night.

End Your Programming Routine: None of this work is particularly difficult but I would say that it is not for the DIY feint of heart. If the door that you are replacing was not installed square or your holes are off, you may be in for a difficult time. You are potentially racing against time and the weather to get the door installed. So keep those things in mind before you start.