Category: Projects

October 10, 2023 – Talkin’

October 10, 2023 /

As part of my recent deep dive into technojunk, today I am writing about GMRS (General Mobile Service Radio). You know, those inexpensive walkie-talkies that advertise a 20 mile range. But, before that I am going to update my status with my other endeavors in this arena.

Since I am coming back from a long weekend of hunting, I am writing this ahead of time. At least at the time of writing, I have successfully installed the driver for my SDR (Software Defined Radio). I can hear consistently broadcast FM stations. I am still working on installing the program that I want to run on Linux called SDR++. Eventually, I will need to add a second SDR in order to make the scanner work.

I also purchased a CB last week. This is a great tool if you are going to be in the woods during the week. The reason is that it helps you stay in touch with what is happening. Log trucks are on the CB frequency and I don’t know if you have ever seen the roads, but you don’t want to come head to head with a semi truck. This will be my entry into CB because you know it takes two to communicate. I have plans to add more radios. One final reason that I did it was because my dad has a CB and so I think it offers communication is an area that phones will not work.

When you buy these inexpensive walkie-talkies and read the instructions, it says that there are some frequencies that require a license. FRS stands for Family Radio Service and I already said what GMRS stands for. But what does it mean? Well, FRS frequencies are from 462.5625 to 467.7125 MHz and GMRS is 462.55 to 462.725 MHz. And what it really means is that these walkie-talkies can operate on both spectrums. Furthermore FRS is open like CB whereas GMRS is supposed to require a license.

As far as I know, no one has ever been prosecuted for using a GMRS frequency without a license but you should know before you use those channels what the expectations are. I am not entirely sure why they actually require a license to use, but regardless it is a pretty low bar of entry. The license only requires paying a fee and it is good for ten years. I am thinking that I will just go ahead and get the license.

I have been aware of this requirement for a long time. My frugal solution was to stick to channels on the FRS band. Over time, I don’t have all of those channels and frequencies memorized and I don’t remember what I should and should not use. I think that the cost of entry is pretty cheap and if I am thinking of going further into radio I might as well be above the board.

In case you didn’t get the title innuendo, you have to go back to the mid-2000’s to the song Ridin’. “Try to catch me ridin’ dirty.” I heard this phrase when I lived in SC and it means driving without tags (or legally). That is what it is talking on GMRS without a license. Anybody can buy a radio and in theory start using it. This is also true in the ham radio band in the 144.0-144.1 and 219-220 MHz. That is the honest truth, while it does require a license to use these radios, there is nothing stopping you just like speeding.

Generally, I am not for most sorts of regulation. In this case, it probably isn’t a bad thing. I don’t know if you noticed, but GMRS and FRS overlap in their frequency range. What if you started broadcasting over the cell phone range? We have collectively agreed that there should be some boundaries in use of the electromagnetic spectrum for purposes of safety and privacy and even exclusivity.

I know that it is strange to hear, but not all government rules are useless. It is the purpose of the federal government to setup rules when common interests overlap. Some of the intent of the mission is to keep noise off of frequencies used for safety and security. I think that we all want the ambulance to arrive in our time of need. They lose their way when it comes to administrative power and enforcement and move beyond scope of purpose.

I realize that I went kind of technical today. For me, I am learning so much about what things use what frequencies, it is kind of like assembling a puzzle. I will try to keep the jargon down to a minimum in the future, but I may do a more technical post so that I can refer to that as a baseline.

End Your Programming Routine: In the end, I don’t really care whether you use the GMRS frequency without a license. I feel like the radios are so inherently limited in range and usefulness that it really doesn’t hurt. I have had trouble using them from car to car on a road trip, so it is a really localized problem and whatever harm can be had by improper use is pretty well contained. That being said, I feel like it is my duty to investigate the process, benefits and drawbacks.

October 3, 2023 – My Technojunk is About to Go Overdrive

October 3, 2023 /

I may do some YouTube videos on some of this stuff. It is amazing how bad some of them are. I am smart enough to get the gist and read between the lines. But, I can rely on all of my technical background to supplement the bits of information I get from others. I strongly suspect that if you are not a computer geek or electrical engineer then a lot of this help is just Greek to most.

Since I built my office, I have been contemplating getting a PC tuner card to play broadcast TV on my computer. I planned for it by running antenna wire into my office. I even bought a card that I thought was a steal at $10. I am the one that got stolen from because I didn’t realize that it was a tuner for the old analog broadcasting (and cable and satellite) which kind of defeated the purpose. Ten dollars was a pretty cheap lesson and now I know that the broadcast format today it ATSC Version 1.

I was reading an article that ATSC Version 3 is on the horizon. This effectively means that all of today’s current TV tuners will become obsolete as this new technology. But it also means higher resolution and mobile capability. Probably at some point, this will be integrated technology into everything. But for now, I will settle for just the TV tuner that works.

Looking at used cards, I was wondering about how to get the software. My research has informed me that it is the software that matters unless your computer is frozen in time (disconnected from the internet). The reason being is that you need manufacturer support to ensure these devices keep working as the operating systems continuously upgrade. So, I was reading that I can buy the software as well as a bare card and hopefully get this system working.

The thing that really sold me is that the latest version of the software gives its own IP streaming capability. This means that I can have this program running on one computer and access it from any device on the network. This should mean that I can access live TV from all of my devices which is what I am going for to augment this football season. I don’t really want to sit down and watch a game as much as I want to have it on in the background while I am doing something else.

I am hoping that installing this card is nearly a slam dunk. My next subject is going to raise the roof on things. About three weeks ago, we got a text saying that there were some armed suspects of a stolen car on the loose and running from the police nearby. It turns out that there were five juveniles in a stolen car being chased by the police. Their path took the chase around our house and ended in the neighboring city.

The day after, four were caught and one remained at-large. It turns out that the driver shot at sheriff’s deputies while the foot chase pursued. But, the fact remains that if it wasn’t for that text, we would have not known anything that was going on. That seems to be ignorant. I have been wanting to get a police scanner for a long time but I don’t know or understand all of the technologies.

I have known for a long time that many of these frequencies are streamed on the internet. I was thinking, why don’t I setup one of those old computers that I setup to run Linux just have it streaming the scanner broadcast. The computer is just sitting there and it is even on. It would be my own scanner base station.

I started looking around and I have heard of this term Software Defined Radio, but I didn’t realize how simple it was. It is actually a radio receiver that is plugged into a USB port and the computer does what a radio does. In essence, the USB dongle is the radio and the software does all the work. An even better plus, drivers and software can run on Linux so now I can repurpose that computer into something useful. My own software defined radio, hopefully for scanner purposes at a very cheap opening cost.

I am going to take it slow. The one video I half watched said that I actually needed two USB radios to make a scanner. I am not sure why yet but I am going to start with one to get it installed and see if I can pick-up anything. I will work my way up to two and more radio stuff.

Despite my lack of desire to talk to strange people over the radio, I actually think that radios are a perfect blend of technojunk, science and preparedness. I don’t know how deep I really want to go with this but I would like to add CB radio to my pickup to monitor logging traffic if or when I am in the woods on a week day. I also think that it is miles more reliable that the handheld walkie-talkies so talking with others in a hunting party would be much better as well.

End Your Programming Routine: I am doing it. I am taking a baby step into radio communications. I am probably starting on a different end than most people do because the technology wasn’t available when they were learning. That being said, this is a much cheaper entry point for me. I know that cheaper often leads to less satisfaction and more struggle, but I also don’t have much to lose. Stay tuned for more technojunk in the near future.

September 27, 2023 – Summer is Over, Officially

September 27, 2023 /

September 23 is the first day of Fall. So we can now officially declare it to be true. Major rain has come and the daylight has hit the less than 12 hours per day. For several weeks I have been working to clean-up things in order to prepare for the season. To me that means brining in the outdoor furniture, hoses and things and get everything off the floor of the basement.

Last week, my wife hired an organizer to redo storage in the kitchen pantry. This of course drove more stuff into the basement that I had to find a home for. Before we hosted the German exchange student and before my son went to Taiwan, he packed up his entire room and brought all that stuff into the basement. Also, moving my gun safe into the shop moved a lot of my tools that I had in the shop into the basement. Consequently, despite all of my efforts last year to get organized, I need to start over.

I think that I mentioned in August that I was gathering stuff to go to the dump. That is still true. I took an entire car load to donate and I am getting close to another. I just feel overwhelmed with stuff. I of course have my specific items but then there are other things. I have to keep thinking that if we do decide to move then we are are going to be needing to do this anyway.

I have decided that the lynchpin to organization is two pronged. One is purging things that we don’t want like the second vacuum, baby gates, coat tree etc. But the other is building the wine cellar. I can not only clear shelf space but also consolidate like items like brewing equipment, the keezer, kegs, carboys, etc.

I need to move the brewing stuff because my seed starting station is in the way to bring in all of the outdoor furniture. I didn’t say that but that is where my tools went when I had to move them to accommodate the gun safe in the shop. Can you see how exhausting all of this is?

There are a number of things that I would like to get rid of. To be fair, we all share the space so as much as I would like to get rid of things, I have to consider others opinions as well. Some things silently disappear while most end up in a conversation about the value and disposition. That makes this process a delicate dance of compromise. All that being said, If or when we move, the changes will more likely go my way then they are going now.

What can we learn from all of this? Well, I am starting to get to the point of thinking before purchasing. I need to know that I have room or a place to put something before I convince myself that I want something. I have also started considering that it is so much easier to buy things than it is to get rid of them. I hate to throw away things that have value, so I want to consider the lifecycle of items.

If you have missed the boat and already have too much stuff like me, then apply the litmus test of usage. Have I used this in a year? Do I have plans to use this? I have three brand new crab traps that I got for my birthday in 2007 when we had a boat. I hold on to them thinking that I would like to have a boat again. But, the boat that I want and the boat that my wife wants have two different purposes and I don’t want to buy a boat that I wouldn’t take crabbing. That being said, I really need these crab traps out of my way and 16 years is way too long on a hope. I do want to get a couple dollars for them though.

You don’t want this process to take all year but you don’t have to do it in a weekend. Set yourself some milestone goals. For instance, I am putting stuff to go to the dump in the back of my pick-up. I need that to be empty before I leave for deer hunting in about two weeks. So, either I will be done with this part of the process or I will be moving more stuff around before I go. Ideally, I will have everything identified and disposed of by that date.

End Your Programming Routine: This is the second time around that I have declared this project to begin. This will be a marathon, not a sprint. I may have other projects start before this is finished. My wife is pushing me for several woodworking projects as well. But, believe it or not I needed to clean-up in order to get to my wood pile. I have so much to do.

September 7, 2023 – Underestimated Project Costs

September 7, 2023 /

I have heard it said that one of the most underestimated costs of a building project is the cost of fasteners. And, I do believe it. I think about a pound of specific Simpson Strong Tie nails cost $5. According to the packaging, it contains 120 nails. Each bracket is supposed to have all the nail holes filled. That means that one pound nails about 10 brackets. You can see how this all adds up.

I recently (and finally) completed my keg manifold. The whole goal was to make the process of flushing the line easier to do. I came up with this idea after finding a little mold growing on the spout at the end of my first keg.

At first, I was ignorant. I thought that if I kept the line full then everything would be alright. That was before I realized that the spout was not full. Since I started flushing the line, I haven’t really had a problem. I will say that having to flush the line does give me second thought about actually using the keg. I have to balance the ‘Is it worth it?’ equation.

Then, along came our anniversary party and I realized that there is another kind of keg that real breweries use. While I did have most of what I needed to dispense for an event, I was ill equipped to handle the leftover volume. So, now my manifold needed to accommodate both my homebrew kegs as well as the occasion where I would have a leftover keg. This meant more connections and fittings.

I don’t really know if I made my life any easier. I can say that I spent of $150 on fittings. With that, I can say that I should be able to move my CO2 cylinder from the keezer to an event without disassembly of the setup. And I can move the flush keg over without completely disassembling my current dispensing setup. I can swap keg styles without replumbing everything. Maybe not easier, but at least better.

There is a dizzying array of fitting types. Some are for air, some are for liquids, some contain lead and others not. I have talked about my pantry mentality in other aspects. Even here, I feel like I should order one more than I need. But, when I tallied the cost for my order, I took a step back. I don’t really need a spare of each type. It added another 30% to my order cost.

If you do your design right, order spare plugs or the male part of the fitting. That way the female and more expensive part can stay in place and you can swap different configurations in and out of the setup much more economically. This is what I did.

End Your Programming Routine: I have loved these projects since I was a chemist. In fact, my favorite part of the job was building the apparatus to do the work, not the science part. It is kind of like a Lego kit for adults. So, I have been acquiring parts for months and now it is finally done. I actually have room to put more kegs in, maybe expansion is in the future?

September 6, 2023 – 3, 2, 1… ???

September 6, 2023 /

There is a subplot that happens in the movie National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Clark spends a ton of time unwinding, testing and hanging Christmas lights. He calls everyone together and makes the final connection and nothing happens. Then he checks and rechecks everything with the same result. Finally, he gets so mad that he runs around and kicks the reindeer setup on the ground.

That pretty much describes my AM antenna experience (without the audience). This has been going on a long time with a lot of effort put out by me over time. I have tried to research this topic, I have built prototypes that didn’t work. I tried to extend the existing loop antenna outside, all to no avail.

It was about a year ago that I got up on the roof to install the antenna I purchased online. I after fishing the cable through the wall, I tested it. While not what I would like, it got the stations that I was looking for and it was much better than the loop antenna that came with the radio or the other solutions I tried.

The last piece of my stereo installation in my office was to get the AM antenna wire to the receiver. Of course to do that, I needed to move all of the Christmas decorations out of the corner to get proper access. Second to that, my basement is such a mess since my son moved out for our exchange student this summer. Stuff is piled anywhere there is space, I really had no where to move stuff. Somehow, I managed precariously pile up all the bins and boxes and retain a small isle for travel.

Reorganizing is something I do every fall. With this being a wet basement, I almost always spend time tidying up before it is too late. I am just as guilty at not putting things away properly in the summertime knowing that I will eventually pay the price in the fall. But, it does feel like the basement is where things go to die and I deal with the bodies.

I tied, fished and stapled the cable to my office without tripping or breaking something. The antenna is marketed for radio, (like ham) so it has a rather unique connector that looks like a miniature coax connector. If I was hooking it up to a radio, than easy peasy. But no, I had to devise a way to convert from coax to bare wire which I eventually found a device that I could modify to do that job.

I plugged it into my receiver and nothing. This was the moment that I almost started breaking stuff. I turned off the lights knowing that the fluorescent ballasts interfere with AM signal, no improvement. I sat back in my chair and thought, well I can stream anything that I want anyway. I guess that was a lot of work for no good reason other than I wanted it to work.

As I sat back in my chair, I thought how could this have gone wrong? This was the whole point of testing this setup before I moved it. I did add an extension to the original cable, was this a bridge too far? I started thinking about the connection. I put red into the signal and black into the ground. At least in electrical wiring, black is the neutral. But maybe it was the other way around, this is low voltage. Low and behold, I got signal.

End Your Programming Routine: This is finally complete, it feels good. I do regret that I have a hole in the wall with wire sticking through but I don’t know about these small radio connections. I don’t have the tools to terminate nor if any wall plates exist. It is hidden behind the couch anyway. The point remains that it is installed and complete with the results that I was looking for. Now on to the hundreds of other things I want to get done, like tidying up the basement.

August 17, 2023 – Accessorizing Your Safe

August 17, 2023 /

One of the first lessons I learned when we moved into this house was that keeping firearms in the basement, left unattended started to rust. I looked into several options. The one I eventually chose was long term storage bags (kind of like giant ziplock bags). Each time I handled a firearm, it would get a heavy buff with a silicone product called Barricade. That seemed to protect them once I started doing it.

With this new safe, I didn’t want to use the storage bags. My safe has a a power strip inside of it and I wanted to take advantage of that. I do still plan on wiping them down after handling. I took a very poor picture to highlight some of the accessorizing that I chose.

You can see how bright it is. This is because I installed some LED strip lights. These are multi-purpose light kits that can be used under cabinets or even gun safes. I don’t think lights are really necessary unless there is a lot of stuff in there. Then it starts to get a little more helpful. But, I wanted to pimp out my safe.

The black caps on the floor are covering bolts that I drilled into the concrete. The safe manufacturer recommends at least two bolts. I did four. Now, I thought that I was already paying for this with delivery and installation. As I pointed out last week, nope.

Aside from keeping valuables safe, you also want to protect them from the environment. You can barely see it at the lip of the door, but I added a heating element. This is supposed to drive air circulation within the safe. And with circulation, there is less chance of rust. I will be testing that out for sure.

The white item on the upper left is some rechargeable desiccant. The balls within absorb water vapor. They have some kind of magic that changes from purple to pink when they need to be recharged. To do that, there is a plug on the back of the case and you plug in the device until it is dried out.

The tiny sliver of black you see at the top/middle is a remote hygrometer/thermometer. You probably know that I am a data junky. I want to see what it happening with temperature and humidity more so to get a sense about how the heating bar and desiccant are working. I already had one in my shop so I swapped this new unit in for the old one and now I have a monitor in the basement.

It is already yielding interesting data. It is typically a degree warmer inside and a couple of percentage points higher in humidity. It could be that the sensor for the inside has a different calibration for the sensor on the outside. Or, I suspect that this moving air and desiccation is actually drawing moisture into the safe. I am going to keep an eye on that.

These were the accessories that I chose. There are other variations of lights and moisture measurements. I have even heard of motion detectors to alarm you if someone is trying to access the safe if you are not around. You can purchase various pistol racks and over the door hangers as well. Mine comes with a factory door hanger so I didn’t need that. But that is it.

End Your Programming Routine: If it is cars, boats, computers or safes accessorizing is the way to make things our own. Despite the fact that I am no where close to filling it up and probably never will, it gave me a lot more breathing room in my former cabinet. Since I have been reloading, I have run out of room to store all those plastic boxes and shotgun shells for trap season. Not just storing them but getting to specific loads is a chore having to pull everything out to find something. This day was a long time coming.

June 14, 2023 – What Do Kitchen Ranges and Cars Have In Common?

June 14, 2023 /

I was thinking about how to say this but the number one thing that I value is value. I know that is ill written but I think that you get what I mean. It is the reason why I have never leased a car. There are reasons to do it, but none of them actually fit into my life. Consequently, the smartest thing to do is buy a car and drive it until it doesn’t make sense anymore like too many repairs, too frequently.

On our Memorial Day fishing excursion, the tail light fell out. The plastic has become brittle and broke. I knew last fall that there was a problem, I guess I didn’t think that it would just fall out. Sometimes I don’t realize problems until they happen even though the warning signs were visible. That is called experience, now I know.

I wanted to order a new taillight since the plastic is brittle. It makes more sense than buying a used one with likely the same problem. Guess what, finding a new taillight assembly is nearly impossible on a thirteen year old car. It turns out that there is not enough market demand I guess.

At one time, I was doing work for the company that makes carbon fiber layups for the F-22. They told me that they only make enough to satisfy orders and once that order was closed, they will never make another part again. That means that the parts that exist are the only parts that will ever exist. On one hand, that kind of makes sense because how many body parts on an F-22 will ever be replaced?

Also during Memorial weekend, my wife wanted oatmeal for breakfast. Her version is boiling in milk which I hate to do. Primarily because it often burns on the bottom of the pan but I also forgot that milk has a tendency to quickly boil over. Of course I was distracted with all of the breakfast tasks and that happened. So, now I had to take the stove apart to clean up the mess.

I so happens that this range is a 1990s vintage. It has been well used and in fact there are also irreplaceable parts on it as well. Even the burner cassettes are no longer for sale. The appliance repair guy told me that they have to rebuild them because they cannot get replacement parts. Spilling milk and wort on them does not help.

Better is clearly a matter of perspective. Plastic taillight assemblies make the overall vehicle lighter and therefore more fuel efficient (maybe even safer). That is better, but it doesn’t make them more durable. I suppose electric ranges are going toward induction or instant heating as a technology. But induction doesn’t work with aluminum so no canning for me and that is not better. I would dearly like gas but that makes this change a $20,000 endeavor because we would have to run a connection. Plus, how would the climate change warriors feel about that switch?

Every since Eli Whitney pioneered interchangeable parts, it has helped productivity. It helps build things faster and more reliable and makes the cost ultimately go down. That model starts to break down when parts are no longer interchangeable because they don’t work with all things. Those of course are negatives to manufacturers. When parts become commodities then there is little margin or incentive to innovate.

As complex things age, they start to break down. This of course is a negative when you are multiple model numbers removed because most people will replace things rather than repair them. Or if you are leasing something like a car, you don’t even care because you never have anything less than current. Intellectually, I understand the landscape but it is a bitter pill to swallow when you are looking to play the value game.

A couple of things to consider here. First make sure that you are taking care of your stuff. Things like routine maintenance and cleaning go a long way to making expensive items last. Second, look to buy the most popular models. Part of my taillight problem is a limited number of Navigators were produced. Look for the non-limited edition models for longer term support.

I suppose the older I get, the more crochety I get about change. If I had never had the ability to can on my range, I would have looked for a different solution from the beginning. Ultimately, I could use a propane burner or some other mechanism if I have to but why would I compromise from the start?

End Your Programming Routine: This is a place where I really can’t fight the system. I am not going to change how car parts or appliances are made. But it is also a warning sign. There will come a day when I can’t work around all of the problems. It would be better to think through what my potential options are now while I still have time to plan and react rather that after something is broken. We have a little shopping of both, I don’t really like the price ranges so I am crossing my fingers that things can hold on.

June 13, 2023 – Pennywise and Pound Foolish?

June 13, 2023 /

The last thing that I wanted to finish last year was staining the deck. If you recall, I spent the majority of the summer fixing the siding and facia. We paid for a new fence and a hand railing on the deck to replace the ailing, plastic deck railing. When it was first completed, we were in Spain. I wanted to give it some time to dry out and then I got involved in my siding project.

I built this deck in 2007. The lattice frames I cut out of the old cedar deck. Other than replacing a panel here or there, that is about all I have done. I saved the larger offcuts of the lattice for future work. So, when I did some maintenance, I found a suitable scrap to fit the hole and away I went.

I an effort to get everything spic and span for staining, it was time to fix some of the panels that need repair. I am now at a place that I have run out of spares. So, I thought that I would run out and pick up a new panel for replacement. Talk about sticker shock. I know that it has been a while, but I am pretty sure that I paid $15 a panel for lattice the last time I purchased 3/4″ cedar lattice. I am seeing $80 a panel.

Then, it came to me, I have a stapler, planer and cedar. Why don’t I just mill some pieces to replace what is broken? After all, lattice is nothing more than strips of cedar stapled together. And so that is what I set out to do.

I spent a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon making some replacement strips. Of course, I made more than I needed. I don’t want to have to do this again too soon. They really do stand out like a sore thumb, but then again, so would a whole new panel. In my view, this is probably the lesser of two evils.

Another added advantage is that now I had the stapler out, I could re attach other loose strips as well. At least potentially, that will prevent other strips from breaking loose from the grid. All told, I probably had four hours into the operation. Granted, some of it was reorganizing the firewood pile and tiding up unrelated messes in the shop to work.

Economically, this move doesn’t really make sense. At least the only way it does is if I do not value my time. I was already at the store looking at lattice, with the intent to buy. So, I had already sunk that time. The only part of it that really does is environmentally. I took wood from the burn pile and reused it in a place that I needed it. That also means that I didn’t throw away the old lattice, I didn’t have waste cuts from the new lattice either.

This would have been a poor decision as a contractor. But, since I am not I can justify it by saying to myself that I didn’t spend $80. I didn’t have to handle an unwieldly 4×8′ sheet. I could repair everything in place and I put to work all of these high dollar tools I own. I built some spare strips for the future.

The decision to build or repair is a simple equation. You put together a simple pros / cons list. The winner is the one that favors one side or the other. But, it is way more complicated than that because you have to include want. And want is not governed by pros and cons. So, in my case here the pros would have been to buy the panel but I wanted to fix the strips rather than the whole thing. To me, it justified my capability to do so.

End Your Programming Routine: There is a time when repair is more economical than replacement. That is a time when what is being worked with is not replicable. The other situation is that the preponderance of the scope of work is small in compared to the overall scale. That is a little cryptic but assume that one dining room chair needs work and a replacement is not available. It wouldn’t make sense to replace the whole set, just the chair that needs repair. If the cost of the repair is high but cheaper than replacing all the chairs, then it is certainly worth it.

May 31, 2021 – It’s Now or Never

May 31, 2023 /

I know that I have a lot going on. But, I am running out of time with my son to get his 1969 Mercury Cougar going. With thoughts of moving and kids moving on, I want to make a decision on worth continuing or not. I am not opposed to making this my project and giving it to my son but I am surely not going to move an anchor around. I need to show some interest so that he will develop some.

My son has invested in some new parts. There is a new fuel tank, carburetor and starter solenoid. The oil has been changed and that is about all I know. The story that we heard was that the jealous ex-boyfriend ripped the ignition switch out so we are left with a bunch of wires to trace to get that put back together. But the first step would be to hotwire and see if it will turn over.

Looking at this car, it needs a lot of work and my son’s efforts over the last couple of years hasn’t helped. He has removed a lot of things an I am pretty sure that there are lost items now. I am not an expert or even a good mechanic. I am mechanically oriented with a potentially never give up attitude. I have the factory shop manuals and the internet so how hard can it be?

My claim to fame for big mechanical projects was repairing a warped head gasket in a 1980 Datsun 210. Of course, I caused the problem in the first place. It was my wife’s car. I thought that I would be helpful by changing the oil and checking the coolant. Low and behold, I didn’t put the radiator cap back on correctly and all of the antifreeze boiled out on a short trip to country and western bar.

It was after midnight and instead of letting the car cool off, I poured a gallon of water into the radiator. That of course caused the cylinder head to warp. So the car sat for a couple of months until I had enough money to buy some tools and time to work on it. After I graduated from college, I spent a couple of days taking the cylinder head off, getting it machined and putting everything back together.

I had a book on how to do things, but it left a lot to be imagined and there was no internet. I was resorted to begging for tidbits from people that I thought knew what they were doing with cars and mechanics, like a professor that I knew worked on his car or a classmate that was a tow truck driver. One of the things I read was that with the cylinder head height changed, I needed to check the valve clearance. I tried to adjust that and I got it all screwed up. The car ran, but rough.

I drove it for a couple of weeks to my new job and then the battery died. I gave up and sold it to a co-worker for $200. He got everything straightened out in a couple of days and drove it for a couple of years. He then sold it to another co-worker and I lost track of it.

End Your Programming Routine: While all of those problems were self inflicted, I learned a lot and most of all I got confidence that I could do more and obviously better. That being said, I know that I don’t know what I really need to know. So, call this project blissful ignorance. The good news here is that I have the option to pay for some of the work if I want to. I don’t really want to, yet.

May 3, 2023 – Unclog Your Sink Like a Pro

May 3, 2023 /

Another day in the life… Since I barely go upstairs anymore, I don’t happen to peak in on this bathroom much. This is my kid’s primary bathroom so I don’t know how long the drain has been slow. If I were to hazard a guess, I would say that it has been a while. My wife told me it wasn’t working and wanted it fixed, so here it goes.

End Your Programming: It’s hard for me to believe that people don’t know how to do things around the house anymore. But then again, some people probably find it strange that I struggle with the emotional side of things. Yes, plumbing can be an unsavory past-time but clearing the drain yourself not only saves money but it could be weeks before you get a scheduled appointment. You can do it.