Just wanted to introduce my furry roommates, this is Sammy and Rocky. A brother and sister from the same litter so family. Endless hours of fun and purrs from these two, super happy they’re part of my life.
Author: aron
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Garage Door Spring Replacement
So I had to replace the garage door spring on one of the bays of the garage. Fortunately it’s a single door so just one torsion spring to deal with, and lucky for me both doors are wound the same way so I have one to replicate.
The first problem was finding a spring, I’m looking for a 0.207 in. Wire x 2 in. D x 25 in. L Torsion Spring in Yellow Left Wound for Sectional Garage Doors by Dura-lift. Evidently these are hard to find or very expensive. I went to home depot because they had it on their site but (sigh) it was an internet only order. So I thought screw HD, Amazon here I come. Bottom line it was $55 at Amazon (everywhere pretty much) and $35.93 at HD. They won. It was ship to the store, they didn’t let me know it arrived and couldn’t find it at first but I finally got it.
Installation was super simple, the one thing I wasn’t sure of is how many times to pre-wind the torsion spring to be able to properly list the door. It turns out it’s one full revolution for every foot of door. My door was 7 feet so it was 28 quarter turns of pre-wind. I’ve always been told to stay away from torsion springs, call a pro because they’re dangerous, I’m happy to say it’s completely doable if you take your time and look at what you’re doing.
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3D – Print – Spaghetti Portioner
I’m a lover of science and being able to control portions is key to culinary success. I probably have an issue, I’ve been known to weigh out my pasta to make sure that I have the correct amount. Oh well, there are worst vices to have. In any case I saw this and decided to print it, the holes are the amount of dry spaghetti pasta you would use for 1, 2 or 4 servings. Yeah it’s a unitasker but it’s 25 cents worth of plastic and 2 hours of print time so I’ve got one:)
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3D – Skirts, Brims & Rafts
So one of the things very important to printing success is the plate adhesion methods. These are known as skirts (think hoop skirts), brims (the brim of a bowler derby) and raft (what Huck Finn floated on). Here’s my take on them.
- Skirt – This really doesn’t have anything to do with plate adhesion. It draws a line around the print object before it starts printing. This has no connection to the print job. Think of this procedure as priming the pump, it lets the plastic flow freely and starts the print job smoothly. Recommended regardless if you need extra adhesion.
- Brim – This is a base that is attached to the project and adds extra support for skinny/tall jobs that are prone to moving the taller they get. Set the diameter and thickness and know you’ll have to cut this ‘slag’ off but your print job will work.
- Raft – Basically builds a raft which your project is printed on. This should never be used as if you have to do this there’s something wrong with your plate and you need to fix that.
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Motion Sensor Lights for Closet
I don’t know why I never thought of this before but Sandy saw this at Jen’s house and it was one of those face palm moments as to why I hadn’t thought of it before. So in the master bedroom closet, it has one of those pull string bare bulb lights. Not much to look at but it’s a light in a closet. I put a motion sensor light in and it comes on when I open the door and while I’m in there and shuts off 30 seconds after I shut the door. I have a bad habit of leaving the light on and this fixes the issue without having to modify my behavior!!!
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Fall Fire
There’s definitely been a chill in the air here for the past couple of days. Hitting the freeze point at night so bring the plants in. But with the sun out it was a beautiful day and I took advantage to clean up all the limbs twigs and leaves that I’ve been meaning to for months. Great time to break out the burn barrel and get rid of it.
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Fire Starters
I ran across this on Pinterest I believe and I got a chance to try it and I’m super impressed. You takes these ‘cotton rounds’ and dip them in wax and let them harden. You can stick them in the kindling and light them and boom, fire!
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3D – Print – Coin Sorter
This is by far the biggest print job so far, almost 6 hours each for the base and the tubes, the top tray was only about an hour. As someone who’s trying to get rid of the little junk in life, this 3D printer is apparently a step in the wrong direction.
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3D – Print – PPE Helpers
So one of the nice things about having a 3D printer is that you can print useful things, unlike a 2D printer which is good for paper airplane graphics. Ha ha…
In any case one of the first things I printed were mask nose guards that prevent your mask from steaming up your glasses. They seem to work very well. Then my sister asked about the ‘ear saver’ mask holders so I found those and printed off several for her to check out. It’s nice to be able to help with little things like this. -
Food Prep Day
I don’t know if I said yesterday but the new battery came from Sam’s club. That gave me time to do some shopping. I got about 10 pounds of ground beef and 6 pounds of pork chops. I’m lucky enough to have a side by side garage fridge and ample freezer storage along with the prerequisite vacuum sealer and scales. Now I have enough ground beef and pork chops to keep us in food for a little bit.
