Laser Engraved Pen
I got an order for a dozen laser engraved pens, meant to be Christmas gifts. OK, not a problem. I have played with engraving pen blanks by just setting them on the laser bed and engraving them as if they were flat. For something with a larger diameter, this isn’t really a problem. Continue reading
This is also a review of the DeWalt DCF900 Brushless 3-Speed Impact Wrench.
Shop Heat Water Heater
We put in in-floor radiant heat in the shop when we built it. This works pretty well, but a couple of years ago, I noticed that the heating elements were corroding away rather rapidly. I realized that with our hard water, the anode likely needed to be changed. I tried to replace it last year, but could not get it to budge. I tried an air impact wrench, a normal Ridgid impact driver, a breaker bar, I even tried a 6 foot pipe on the breaker bar. All that did was spin the water heater. Not good. I tried propping it in place while using the breaker, but still could not get it to budge.
When it’s too little you have to step up your watering game. We have been adding automatic watering solutions into our gardens and it’s been wonderful. A problem that we have is getting water to areas that have no access to water. I’ve been filling up empty cat litter containers and hauling them around and it’s worked. Until we planted around 80 mums in areas without access to water last fall. This fall we will probably plant more mums and we have about 1k spring bulbs on order.
Happy Mother’s Day. At our house we say that with flowers but not cut flowers with flats of flowers. I bought, delivered, and then planted flowers for my mom, whose birthday fell very close to Mother’s Day, so she got double the flowers. My family has bought, delivered and helped with planting for me as well. Continue reading
Continuing on the SlatWall custom tool holders, I have designed one (or two) to hold Milwaukee M12 drills and drivers. My first attempt used a lot of filament and took a long time to print.
I have some slatwall in the garage and in my office for hanging tools and things. For a long time, we only had it in the garage, and only had straight hooks for hanging things. The specialty hooks for hanging things were very expensive, so we didn’t have very many things hanging on it. I found some additional straight hooks of various sizes on Amazon for a decent price.
Office Slatwall
The motor brake on Marisa’s miter saw stopped working, so in doing some research I found that the most likely way to repair it is to change out the motor brushes.
Disassembling the Miter Saw
We live in the country and have well water and a septic system. A long time ago I learned, the hard way, that bleach is not my friend because it bonds with certain molecules and creates a brand new molecule which leaves your whites a crinkly, rough feeling material in a lovely shade of orange, and it will also damage your septic system. For laundry I now use a product called Iron Out. This stuff also works to clean showers, sinks and toilets. My other goto is Bar Keepers Friend, preferably the powder but I also have the spray. The stage has been set to let the story unfold.
How does it work when you really need it to work? The answer is better than a sharp stick in the eye. Seriously we were all very thankful we had it. We moved here with a puggle, think stomach with legs and a breathing problem, and added a pyrenes/lab. The puggle with bad knees came free with a load of landscaping rock, the pyr mix was an adopted lost dog. They were both stubborn and loved to roam. The puggle would eventually come back if she could remember where home was after she had followed her nose all over the county. The pyr mix was too busy singing born free and trying to expand his flocks range to care too much about this thing called home. We spent many hours randomly driving the roads, walking miles of road and woods with no clue which direction to even go. They thought it was the best game we ever came up with. It’s depressing when you realize you are not smarter than your pet and no matter what you come up with to keep them contained to your yard they will figure out how to defeat you.
