Pretty much what the title says. I like to do experiments, all in the quest for knowledge and good old fun. I will share some of them, post a few stories and maybe relate some past experiences, some of them could even possibly be true. I'll do my best not to put any boring crap up here. Feel free to comment. Ask questions. I got answers.
My father has a Ford diesel tractor that he loves to play around on. He also has a bad knee on his left side that precludes him from playing around on it as much as he would like. And it has been getting worse lately. Could we come up with something that could help him operate that clutch pedal easier, he wondered.
Yes we could.
And we did.
It is not pretty. It is not high tech. It is not precision built to the tolerances of a fine Swiss watch.
But it does work.. This is what we did-
Here we have a close-up of the clutch pedal on the aforementioned Ford tractor.
It is just a clutch pedal, much the same as any other clutch pedal. Except for one thing.
Do you see that round little knob just below the pedal itself.?
Here is a view of it from the other side of the tractor. It is just a piece of round steel that we welded on.
In this picture you can see that we have a steel pipe that just happens to fit over the round steel knob that is welded to the clutch pedal. . I wouldn't really call it a snug fit, but it is tight enough to keep it from flopping around.
See?
Here is my father demonstrating its operation. In this picture, the clutch pedal is not depressed.
When he wants to operate the clutch, he just pushes forward on the steel pipe and it depresses the clutch pedal. When he wants to release the clutch,. he just lets go of the steel pipe. When he wants to get of the tractor, he just pulls the pipe off and lays it to the side.
What could be more simple?
We did something kinda sort of along the same lines for the clutch pedal on his 1 ton Chevy flatbed truck. . I will post pictures of it when I get them.
Need a flashlight that puts off lots of light? Want it cheap? Do you want it to be built extremely well and last the rest of your natural life?
Well that's too bad, cause it ain't gonna happen.. The best you can get is two out of three.
Just recentlyI stumbled across a flashlight that puts off lots of light and it is cheap. It works well, but I have not used it long enough to speak for its durability.
Here it is.. It is called a Sipik sk- 68. It features a Cree xr- e q5, or something very close to that. Constructed of aluminum, it only has one mode, supposedly it puts out 260 lmns and it is zoomable, you can adjust it from being a floodlight to a spotlight and it has a handy belt clip. In this picture it is in the floodlight mode.
In this picture, the head of it is pushed forward,, putting it into the spotlight mode.
Standing 8 feet away from the wall, this is what it looks like in flood mode. The circle of light is approximately four feet across.
And here it is when you shift it into spotlight mode. At the same 8 foot distance, the concentrated beam of light is probably about a foot across.
Now, does this light actually put out 260 lm ? I have no way of knowing because I have no way to measure the light output. But I can tell you this - when you take it outside at night and shine it on objects, it really lights them up. Objects that are 50 yards away, you can see clear as a bell.Things that are 100 yards, you can tell what they are. I was really impressed with this little light.
It runs on a single AA battery and the specifications say that it lasts two hours. I turned it on and left it and it does put out good light for an hour or so, then it dims noticeably. There is an orange button on the end of it that turns it on and off and it seems to be decently sturdy. As I already said, there is only one mode, it is either off or it is on. There is no clicking through a half-dozen different modes to get to the one that you want. As to the particulars about what is found inside and how well it is put together, I do not know. I am not that much of a flashlight nerd. I was impressed enough that I ordered another one, and then I ordered two more off of eBay that are clones of this light. Supposedly they put out 300 lm , they have a high, low and a strobe mode, and they were only $5.99. They work well also. These lights do come from China but for the price, I was highly impressed with them.
Buddy burner, hobo stove, pocket heater, giant candle, these things are known by all kinds of names. They are easy to make and they are quite effective at providing light, heat, and a cheerful atmosphere around your camp. I don't know if you can use them at campgrounds where there are no open flames allowed, but they're very useful for warming up a can of beans or boiling a pan of water without having to build a fire. Here's how you make one.
Procure a can. A fairly short can will work the best, we used a can of crushed pineapple.
Step two. Empty your can. I hope that this is pretty self explanatory.
Step three. Cut some cardboard strips that are pretty much the same height as your can. We used the lid of a cardboard box to cut our strips from and we needed three strips.
Here you can see our can, the two strips that have already been cut and rolled up inside the can, and the third strip that is in the process of being rolled up and will be inserted directly into the middle of the can. When we finished, it was a fairly tight fit.
Step four. Roll your cardboard strips up tightly and place them in the can. If you still have room in the can, cut some more strips or partial strips and cram them in wherever possible.
See? I told you it was a pretty tight fit.
Step five. Melt wax. We used a heat gun and a small aluminum foil pan. And wax.
Step six. Pour wax into can, all the way to the top. It will soak into the cardboard, surround the cardboard and then you have basically a giant candle.
Your wax will shrink some as it cools down. You may have to add some more.
Step seven. Wait. Then wait some more. The idea is to wait until all of the wax has solidified and the outside of the can has cooled down.
Step eight. Since you're probably the impatient type and you have picked up the can while the wax is still hot and the outside of the can is still hot, you probably dropped it and made a gigantic mess all over the floor. The rest of step eight will consist of doing your best to clean up your mess before your mother or your wife gets home and sees it. I thought I told you to wait.
Step nine. If you're still alive after your mother or your wife has seen the mess you created, then this would be the perfect time to show her the masterpiece you created so that she can reform her opinion of you. Light up your creation and stand back and watch as a look of amazement and astonishment crosses her face. You may have to hold it up kind of sideways to light it and keep holding it that way until it gets going good.
Here it is in action, outside, on a fairly windy day.
Step ten. Cook something. Get a couple of rocks and put on each side of your can, put some type of rack over it, or figure out some other way to hold a pan just a little bit higher than your buddy burner. If you set a pan down onto it, then it will simply smother the flames. Insert your ingredients into your pan, warm them up, and you're good to go. Warm up some beans, boil some water to make coffee or ramen noodles or cook up some crystal meth or whatever. When you're done you can either blow it out or you could step across the top of it and smother the flames.
One of my nephews made one with the pineapple can. My smaller nephew wanted one also, so he cut off the bottom of a Dr. Pepper can and used it. It boiled a cup of water in about 4 minutes.
I have no idea how long one of these will burn. If you know the answer, then please let me know.
This is an easy, 10 minute job that anyone should be able to do. Even you.
That's what this little sucker cost. $5.00. Well, not even that actually. The grand total was $4.98, including shipping. I got it on Ebay and yes, it is made in China. That's the only bad thing about it. Well, another sort of bad thing about it is that it's not overly powerful but I'm going to take care of that by adding some extra rubber bands to make it more powerful. And it's small enough to fit in your back pocket. There's absolutely no reason why every kid in America shouldn't have a slingshot at some point in their life, and this one is small enough to carry around constantly. Just think about it. If every kid in America carried a slingshot and knew how to use it, I wonder how polite they would become? After a few times of being whacked in the butt with a rock, I would think that they would learn some manners. Maybe even adults should carry these around. It would certainly be good for getting rid of unwanted dogs on your property digging in your trash. And it will be good for teaching responsibility and all kinds of other things.
Got a little kid in your life? Or do you like to act like a child? Get a slingshot. It might be the best $5.00 you'll ever spend.
```````````````` Two guys, one old, one
young, are pushing their carts
aroundWal-Mart when they collide. The old guy says to the young
guy, "Sorry about that. I'm looking for
my wife, and I guess I wasn't paying
attention to where I was
going." The young guy says, "That's OK, it's
a coincidence. I'm looking for my wife,
too... I can't find her and I'm getting a
little desperate." The old guy says, "Well, maybe I
can help you find her... what does she look
like?" The young guy says, "Well, she
is 27 yrs. old,tall, with red hair, blue eyes, is buxom...wearing no
bra, long legs, and is wearing short
shorts. What does your wife look
like?' To which the old guy says,"Doesn't
matter, --- let's look for
yours." (ADORABLE)
A
little old lady went to the grocery store to buy cat food. She picked up three
cans and took them to the check out
counter.
The girl at the cash register said, "I'm
sorry, but we cannot sell you cat food without proof that you have a cat. A lot
of old people buy cat food to eat, and the management wants proof that you are
buying the cat food for your cat."
The little old lady went home, picked up
her cat and brought it back to the store.
They sold her the cat
food.
The next day, she tried to buy two cans of
dog food.
Again, the cashier said, "I'm sorry, but we
cannot sell you dog food without proof that you have a dog. A lot of old people
buy dog food to eat, but the management wants proof that you are buying the dog
food for your dog."
So she went home and brought in her dog.
She then was able to buy the dog
food.
The next day she brought in a box with a
hole in the lid.
The little old lady asked the cashier to
stick her finger in the hole. The cashier said, "No, you might have a
snake in there."
The little old lady assured her that there
was nothing in the box that would harm her.
So the cashier put her finger into the box
and quickly pulled it out.
She said to the little old lady, "That
smells like crap."
The little old lady said, "It is. I want to
buy three rolls of toilet paper."
I watched a video about making an alcohol stove from a tin can. It looked like a lightweight, cheap, pretty sure fire way to cook things when you're on the trail, so we decided to make one. And it is simple. A six year old could probably make one of these. You need a can, a way of making holes in the can, and some alcohol. That's it. Look below.
Here is our can, it used to be a small can of crushed pineapple. We took a 3/16 inch drill bit and drilled a line of holes all the way around the very top. Just below that we added a second row of holes, spaced in between the ones above. And the Heet is 99% alcohol, or something like that. It's easy to find and its pretty cheap for a fuel source.
Here is another view of our holey can.
Pour in some fuel, light and then you're ready to cook. In our case, two rows of holes were not enough. There was not enough air getting in and the flame barely kept alive. So we added a third row of holes and it worked splendidly. It took approximately 8 minutes for this pan of water to boil. I thought that wasn't bad and I will definitely be trying it out more in the future.
Apparently you can use just about any kind of can for a stove.
Watch this video and it will show you exactly how---
What? Use fruit to make a candle? Why certainly. It's easy. And it works. Ordinarily, I would post pictures and show you how, step-by-step. But for some reason, the blog has changed and it will no longer let me upload pictures from my camera. Why that is, I cannot say.
But here is a short video that will show you exactly how. And it takes less than one minute.
I have tried it with three different oranges now, and two of them worked well. On the other one, the little stem refused to come out and it tore a hole in the orange peel. We used olive oil in one of the candles and it works pretty well. on the other one, we filled it two thirds full of vegetable oil and when we lit it, it burned over seven hours.
Do you have something that needs to be shot and nothing to shoot it with? A neighbor's window, a possum that is getting into your trash can, perhaps even an obnoxious little brother or sister? What if there were something you could make, something that is cheap and easy and would take care of the situation? Does that sound like something you might like to do? If it does, then read on.
For this project you will need a stick, some rubber bands, and a small piece of leather or some other type of fabric that is thick and strong. If you have guessed that we're going to make a slingshot, then you get a gold star. Let's do it.
All right then. First you need a stick. And it must have a V in it. If you are so unfortunate as to not live in the middle of the woods, perhaps you can find a suitable shrub in your neighbors flower bed, your wife's greenhouse, or maybe you can get one from a tree in the park down the road or at the town square. If you are going to procure a stick anywhere other than on your own property, it is best done under cover of darkness. Some people do not like to have fun and will not understand, so it is best to avoid them whenever possible.
Here is our stick. It is a nice stick with a perfectly shaped v. If you will notice, we have already used a round file and filed a groove around the top where the rubber bands will fasten on.
Our stick is actually a little bit too long. Ideally it should be about the length of your fingers, when you place the web of your hand on the v. My nephew didn't want to bother with cutting it so we just left it as it is.
Then you will need some rubber bands. I bought a whole package of them at Office Depot for $4.00 and something. This is enough rubber bands to make three or four decently powerful slingshots.
This photo only shows a few of the rubber bands that were in the package. There are oodles of them left in the package to make more slingshots.
And here is a strip of leather. I bought a whole package of leather scraps at Hobby Lobby and this piece will work wonderfully. I guess if you have to, you could cut up someone's boots or a belt in order to get the leather off of it.
These rubber bands are not the strongest in the world so we used four of them at a time. Then get another four and braid them together, then another four, and so on. Make it however long you wish. If you have some really strong rubber bands, then maybe you only need one rubber band for each link.
After you get all of your links put together, put your piece of leather on the same way you linked the rubber bands together. Then you put the other and of the rubber bands onto your stick using the same basic maneuver.
When it is all said and done, you end up with something like this. Bring on the squirrels! Or the kitty cats! Or the snotty nosed, irritating little brat down the street!
It is difficult to describe the process of linking the rubber bands together but if you will watch this video, it will show you exactly how it is done. If you already have a stick, he will show you how to complete the process.
