Our friends over at This Old House compiled a great list of ten ways to re-use a worn out garden hose. Our favorites: slitting a piece open to serve as a cover for the teeth on a handsaw and sliding short sections over wire bucket handles to make soft grips. Check out the link below for the rest.
10 Uses For A Garden Hose [This Old House]
After reading some of our recent posts regarding grilling here in the ‘States, one awesome reader named Freddie took the time to write in and tell us a bit about how BBQ works in his home of South Africa. They call it “Braai” (as in br-eye), and while the recipes differ a bit from what we’re used to, one thing is exactly the same: the comeraderie of burning some meat with friends.
We wrote back to ask a few questions, and Freddie sent us a set of recipes, descriptions, and even photos the be kindly agreed to allow us to share with you. So here you go: Freddie’s personal “Guide To A Good Braai.”
(Pictured: “A pretty traditional braai with a porkrib, some “boerewors” (the sausage) and a “potjie” (the pot).”
Our friend Joel over at Dethroner posted a cool bit today about how to wash your car properly at those high-pressure self-serve car washes. From the post:
“For [Joel's friend] Mike, washing cars is therapy. Hell, he’d wash yours if it needed it. I asked him to explain his technique, honed as it has been through hundreds of washes. After the jump: his system for a ‘quick wash’ — a sort of pock-me-up for a dirty ride, but something less that a full-blown clay-and-Q-tip makeover.”
First of all, I totally understand where Mike’s coming from. Back when I had more time to myself, I used to spend a good chunk of the day washing my cars. The apartment complex I lived in had a “free” high-pressure wash, and it was almost always abandoned in the middle of the day. So I spent a good bit of time there getting my own therapy.
Anyway, this is a cool post and you should check it out.
Car Wash: The Pinoy Power Shower Hour [Dethroner]
When I first ran across the “solar powered hand tools by Steve Lucas” site, I didn’t picture what he created in my mind. But the rig he built does look like it will work. It’s a pretty interesting project idea really. Steve describes the materials you will need to begin the project:
You will need to have a 12 volt dc or higher system, such as a Solar Panel setup with a 12 volt battery. You will also need at least one VersaPak Cordless Tool with charger from Black & Decker. It must be the kind that has a charger cradle with the power pack (transformer) wired separate from the charger. I’ve noticed that a lot of the new VersaPak Tools come with a new style charger that just plugs into the wall, we want the old style that has a cord.
He goes on to walk you through the connections needed to start benifeting from solar powered Black and Decker tools.
Upgrading the lighting in your home is not a complex or difficult endeavor; in fact, most of the time it’s incredibly simple. So, you certainly don’t have to suffer with the stock offerings that came with your humble palace. If your home is a bit older, then perhaps the light fixtures might also be showing some wear — or worse yet they look dated to you. And we’re not talking about the good kind of dated, either. We’re talking that 70’s Brady Bunch look that gives you the shudders every time you see it. Don’t despair, all you need to change a basic light fixture is about 30 minutes and a few basic tools.
But before you go charging off to buy lighting, you need to know what you’re dealing with. Your best bet is going to be to scout lighting and get a good idea of what’s out there — and what you’d like to install — then go home and see if that type of fixture will work for your application.
Read on past the jump for more information and lots of photos.
Make pointed us to this how-to over on Instructables today, and I remember this is something that’s been discussed from time here on Toolmonger. Though converting AC to DC isn’t any big deal, the trick seems to be making sure that the transformer you’re using can handle the power draw — which is something this writeup seems to cover nicely.
I’m surprised that some of the major manufacturers don’t offer an AC “battery replacement” unit for their most popular battery-powered lines; there’s nothing worse than running out of juice at in inopportune time when a) you’ve got AC right there, and b) all you have with you are cordless tools.
Convert a Battery Drill to Wall Power [Instructables] [via]
We ran across this on Boing Boing yesterday and spent way too much of the day watching the four-part videos. As most of you are aware, owning, building, or even just experiencing a tank is high on Seans list of things-to-do-before-he-dies. So he wants to jump on this right away.
Anyway, this is a really great watch, and all the videos are available via YouTube. The first is embedded above, but here are links to all four:
Part 1: Intro, Body Shell, Suspension
Part 2: Tracks
Part 3: Engine, Controls, Weapons
Part 4: Transmission
Way back in the day when men wore codpieces — and used words like “fortnight” and “thou” — there were swords. These swords were carried in battle and on tours of duty throughout a soldier’s carrier. When the soldier would retire, the sword would often be mounted on a plaque on the wall to forever symbolize the nobility of the soldier’s carrier and service to their king and country.
My glory, of course, is in the shop rather than on the battlefield. But, being a hopeless medieval geek, I have a small collection of swords. I chose to mount my Excalibur replica on the wall because, well, swords are seriously freak’n cool and I found that they aren’t near as cool wrapped in a blanket in the closet where no one can see them. So I needed a sword plaque.
And, being Toolmonger, I decided to make it myself. Read on past the jump for details and lots of pictures.
Cracks can appear in any aged home at almost anytime. They’re also an eyesore and very annoying. Happily, fixing them isn’t really difficult. It just takes a few minutes and some adhesive caulk. Anyone can do this. Really! Minor home repair isn’t just in the realm of the pros. Hell, that’s why big-box home centers exist.
Our friend Joel Johnson (of Dethroner fame) is hosting an event (called Funde Razor) in NYC Wednesday to raise money for Penny Arcade’s Child’s Play charity. If you’re in the area, you should definitely check it out as a) Child’s Play is a kick-ass charity which you should support, b) you’ll get to play Guitar Hero II with other cool people like yourself, c) you may be able to win the custom Guitar Hero controller you’ll see us make in this article, and d) we hear that Joel throws some pretty good shindigs.
Anyway, as we made the controller pictured above this week, it occured to us that you might enjoy making one of your own — so we took a lot of pictures, and here you go: a guide to building your own full-sized GH controller. Or, as we like to call it: What happens when you cross a perfectly good TAC wireless GH controller and a perfectly good guitar? Read on past the jump to find out.
Related:
As long as we’re passing along cool online projects today, we thought we’d share another fun fund: Miller Electric’s “Dream It. Weld It” lists a number of cool projects with step-by-step instructions. Most of the projects are quite practical, including make-it-yourself tools like a bending brake, a portable weld table, and air tool storage rack, and a trailer dolly.
As we’ve said before, we’re big fans of MAKEzine — and subscribers to the mag. They’ve been posting tons of great halloween projects over the last few weeks, so we thought we’d pass on a few of our favorites to help you find inspiration for your own boo-day projects.
Our favorites this year (in no particular order):
HOW-TO - Make a Captain Jack… O’Lantern
This may be the simplest project you’ve heard of this season… But you have heard of it.
HOW-TO - Build a Robotic Dalek Pumpkin
No hard-core sci-fi fan’s Halloween’ll be complete without this great little robot. Just don’t let ‘em get out of control and destroy the world…
$20 Halloween Prop
If you’re depressed because you’ve only got a few bucks to spend on your front-yard-scare-fest this year, this post’ll lift your spirits. This Maker assembled a full-size animatronic “greeter” for just $20.
HOW-TO - Make a Mr. T Costume
I pity tha foo… Wait, Sean made me promise not to use that phrase any more since Mr. Baracus got his own new show. That won’t stop me from putting this costume together, though.
The Jack-o-LED
Here’s one for the electronically-minded, using a 555 timer to blink LEDs. Take that, candles!
HOW-TO - Build a Coffin (Halloween Prop or Bookcase)
No Halloween party’s complete without a coffin, and these guys show you how to build one that’ll be useful afterwards as a bookcase, too.
If these aren’t enough to get your creative juices flowing, check out MAKE for literally dozens more. Or heck, just check ‘em out anyway. Good stuff!
Some people call them “exit” handles, some people call them “oh s@#%” handles, but whatever you call them they’re darn useful. Besides grabbing them when the driver pulls some kind of stupid stunt, you can also use the rear ones to hang clothing or to tie down large items.
Many cars have them for both front and rear passengers, but many new four-door trucks only have them in the front. Ours was missing the rear ones, so we took matters into our own hands and added some.
No matter how good you may be at darts, the time will come when you’re in the middle of a game of cricket with friends and one of them — or maybe you if you’ve had a few too many — will miss the board. Why not build a quick and easy backboard surround that’ll look sharp and save you from spending hours with spackle and paint after each “tournament.” We’ll show you how.
With autumn on the way, it’s the perfect time to enjoy cool air again, and building a deck is an excellent (and affordable) way to expand your living space into the outdoors. Creative Homeowner’s Ultimate Guide to Decks: Plan, Design, Build offers in-depth advice on how to design a deck that meets the needs and expectations of your family, develop a reasonable plan for construction, and select the right tools and materials for the job.
The unpleasant task of checking the air conditioning filter once again fell upon us recently. What makes it unpleasant is the overwhelming feeling that the filter has been left in forever and is hanging to life by the thinnest of threads. If you’re like us, remembering when you last changed the a/c filter is about like remembering what shirt you were wearing three weeks ago. If you rack your brain long enough, it might come to you, but the outlook is grim.
With that in mind and with the good of our ever-faithful A/C unit at heart, a friend of ours suggested that we – wait for it — write the date on the filter at the time of service.
It hit us like a hammer that we should have been doing this for years now. So, the next time you’re loading that filter into an air return, grab a Sharpie and scribble down the date on the filter itself. A month or so down the road you might not remember, but the filter will.
Rounding out our all-woodworking Sunday — which wasn’t on purpose, by the way — we’d like to point you over to Rockler’s woodworking blog where they (along with help from Woodworker’s Journal) explain how it’s possible to use your router table as a jointer.
From the post:
Using a router table as a jointer is a good option if you’re working in tight quarters or on a tight tool budget. The main drawback is the time it takes to get the fence set up with the correct offset. If you own a Rockler router table and fence, you’re in luck. Rockler offers a set of router table jointing shims that make setting up to use your router as a joiner quick and painless.
This is pretty useful stuff, as a full-on jointer is often a late purchase for a small shop.
Note: Rocker obviously sells these things, so be aware that you’re reading a sales pitch. On the other hand, we’ve seen some pretty good information in Rockler’s blog before.
Using a Router Table as a Jointer [Rockler Woodworking Blog]
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