dave5201

How about your straight razor, the concrete floor in the shop or that chipped tooth you have been meaning to get capped?Seriousness aside, you are thinking outside the box. The pencil box, that is.Your point (somebody stop me) is well made...

Yes. The pencil lead does not taste bad. Your tongue may be black for a couple of hours though.

I have used 2 appropriate sized nuts on the screw that is too long. I tighten them down to stabilize the screw better and put the nuts in a vise and cut off the desired amount. I often will need to dress the cut end of the screw slightly and will use a delicate file or a belt sander depending on the size of the screw/bolt.

Very nice job. I made one of these about 45 yrs ago for my son. Yours is much better.

You might want to rethink the very loud music in the video. It is very difficult to hear you over that.

How about using a credit card like one of the "sample" cards you get in the mail or an old membership card. These might hold up better than playing cards...you could also cut a third keyhole for the plug end of the wire.

Where in the world, outside of breaking into a museum, did your wife find a WW1 officer's torch? I am old enough that I used to go to "war surplus stores" when I was a kid in the early 1950's and it was amazing what I got for next to nothing. A life raft out of a bomber had an incredible coffee grinder radio and a fishing kit my dad lusted after. But I never saw much from the "Great War." Wow.A great tutorial. Good on ya...

Thanks for kind words. I have found that some of the simplest hacks often make the most difference in routine tasks.

Many thanks for the kind words.Something I should have mentioned in the article is that if you can find a good plumbing supply house, stick with them. The advice you get from "real plumbers" while you are standing in line is often much better than what you receive at the big box hardware stores. And the clerks at the plumbing specialty stores are usually super knowledgeable and really save you a lot of time (and money) when you can get everything you need in one place.

This just reached 20K views on YouTube...

Hi Alwaze,Thanks for the compliments and your input. You did a very nice job on thatsink replacement. It is always great to do a DIY project that improves yourhome AND saves you some money. As far as I can tell, there is still nobody inmy area who is offering this service.

Hi Julianne,I was just re-reading my earlier reply to you. It apparently got truncated by the text editor (I guess) and it lopped off the part where I said that you did a very nice job on your sink replacement. Sorry that I did not catch that.

Very well done.I have worked on appliances in my neighborhood for several years and I am still amazed at how folks are intimidated by refrigerators. The most important thing I learned early on was to find a really good appliance parts guy. Mine is a marvel and has made me look like a genius on more than one occasion.

This tutorial is very well done. It is incredible how many people are intimidated by working on refrigerators. They are not "rocket surgery." I have found in my own experience that it is usually pretty easy to decide whether this box is repairable- or not. In my neighborhood, I have replaced several defrost timers, a climate control module, defrost heater elements, thermostats, a compressor relay, evaporator fan blades and a motor, ice maker, ice maker solenoid,

Hi Julianne. Thanks for the kind words and the input. I have been remiss in not making an update to the tutorial. A few months ago, we had to replace one of our other counter-tops as it was beyond re-conditioning. We hired a highly recommended (and very reasonable) outfit to put in a quartz counter-top. I asked them to just cut the sink openings so I could install the sinks myself, and they had no problem with that. They were very professional and they brought the counter-top to our driveway and cut the openings there. They explained that it is too risky to cut the openings at their shop and then transport the counter-top, as they may break en route. I watched with great interest as they used an angle grinder with a diamond cove blade. This blade cut that quartz almost like butter and t...

Hi Julianne. Thanks for the kind words and the input. I have been remiss in not making an update to the tutorial. A few months ago, we had to replace one of our other counter-tops as it was beyond re-conditioning. We hired a highly recommended (and very reasonable) outfit to put in a quartz counter-top. I asked them to just cut the sink openings so I could install the sinks myself, and they had no problem with that. They were very professional and they brought the counter-top to our driveway and cut the openings there. They explained that it is too risky to cut the openings at their shop and then transport the counter-top, as they may break en route. I watched with great interest as they used an angle grinder with a diamond cove blade. This blade cut that quartz almost like butter and the cove aspect allowed it to easily cut the oval pattern for the sink opening. If I do this project again, I will definitely buy one of those blades. It would greatly shorten the amount of time it took to cut the sink opening and I suspect it would curtail some of the dust. When the installer was cutting the quartz in my driveway, there did not seem to be nearly as much dust as I made in that bathroom.

Wow, this generated some recollections. I built a red London Transport double-decker bus bunk bed for my son 44 yrs ago. The steps to the top bunk were built into the bus. It had wheels and headlights, etc. My son LOVED it. He still mentions that bed on occasion. When you build something like this, you create memories...This is a great Instructable, in case I did not mention it...

Thanks for compliment. Lay your fears to rest. The cabinet is quite large and is opened 2-3 times a day. It has been in there for over 2 yrs and I have never felt the wall wart even warm. Just to re-affirm my findings, I just went into the kitchen and felt it again. The plastic case was actually COOL. Go figure. It must not draw much current.I may have mentioned this in the instructable, but when I asked the electrical inspector at my local city hall about this project before I did it, he said that he, himself, had done this kind of thing in his own house- and saw nothing wrong with it and had never seen a problem with it.

Many people don't like to carry their iPhone around the house with them. And at some point you have to recharge the device. The nice thing about the Panasonic cordless phone system that we have is that you have 4-5 cordless handsets around the house which are connected to your iPhones by Bluetooth. When your iPhone gets an incoming call, the nearest handset rings and you can answer it without having to go find your iPhone. We did away with our landline a while back, but we still kept this cordless phone system because it extends the usefulness of our iPhones. Before we did away with the landline, we had all three phones plumbed into the cordless phone system, i.e., the landline and both iPhones. Now it is just the iPhones.

I totally agree. As an aircraft mechanic we frequently remove burred screws from panels and inspection plates. If we are fortunate to be able to get behind the screw by putting an arm inside the wing or on the other side of a panel, we can grasp the screw with some small strong serrated jawed pliers, and back it out from the other end. If that is not possible, then we use a left-hand drill bit and try to drill it out. As you said, sometimes we will be lucky and that process will "break" the screw loose and get it going. The last resort is a screw extractor or "easy out." I have never seen an easy out put into an electric drill. The screw extractors we use usually have a squared off "drive end" and are intended to be put into a T handle much like the one use...

I totally agree. As an aircraft mechanic we frequently remove burred screws from panels and inspection plates. If we are fortunate to be able to get behind the screw by putting an arm inside the wing or on the other side of a panel, we can grasp the screw with some small strong serrated jawed pliers, and back it out from the other end. If that is not possible, then we use a left-hand drill bit and try to drill it out. As you said, sometimes we will be lucky and that process will "break" the screw loose and get it going. The last resort is a screw extractor or "easy out." I have never seen an easy out put into an electric drill. The screw extractors we use usually have a squared off "drive end" and are intended to be put into a T handle much like the one used for a thread tap. The extractor is intended to be used in a specific sized hole which is created by the matching drill bit that accompanies it. You will have to apply some pressure and try to get significant purchase in the screw with the extractor which you could not get if the extractor were spinning in an electric drill.It goes without saying that in the situations I have outlined, before doing anything, you would apply an ample amount of penetrating oil (Liquid Wrench, Kroil Oil, etc) as well as the proper incantation.In the examples used in this tutorial, I think that all of these methods of screw extraction would work if the screw were embedded in wood. However, that would probably not be the case if the burred screw were rusted into, for instance, a metal nut plate or rivnut.

No sweat. Those are not exactly numbers you are expected to pull up on request. Even at 788, we know you weren't getting much rest. And that is not even addressing the damage that can be done to your heart by pulmonary hypertension from "holding your breath" hundreds of times per night.

Kurt,I am glad you brought this up.I must admit I thought about commenting on the efficacy of this device to vibrate you awake, but felt that I would just dilute my comment on the danger to the eyes. But I agree with you 100%. She needs to address the problem and not just the symptoms. Awakening a snorer sounds like it benefits the sleeping partner, not the snoring partner. The snorer is dead tired the next day from jerking himself awake from the multiple apnea episodes. Being vibrated awake doesn't really change that situation for the better. The snorer needs some professional help and likely a professional device such as the CPAP. My brother-in-law said his CPAP machine changed his life dramatically for the better.

Great Instructable. It really conjures up some fond memories.The first time I flew the North Atlantic in my Twin Comanche, I had just installed a Loran C instrument. This was a few yrs before GPS became available to our cockpits. Even though the Loran was "probably" going to direct us from Bangor, Maine to Goose Bay, Labrador, and then on to Reykjavik, Iceland, that system was sometimes unreliable above certain latitudes near Greenland. Therefore the Canadian CAA wanted to see our flight plan and charts with semi-up-to-the-minute wind triangles. We had to dig out all of the old navigation tools you described. I don't think I had touched any of them in ten years. Happily, we did not need to use our calculations and the Loran performed beautifully. But on our leg from Iceland to...

Great Instructable. It really conjures up some fond memories.The first time I flew the North Atlantic in my Twin Comanche, I had just installed a Loran C instrument. This was a few yrs before GPS became available to our cockpits. Even though the Loran was "probably" going to direct us from Bangor, Maine to Goose Bay, Labrador, and then on to Reykjavik, Iceland, that system was sometimes unreliable above certain latitudes near Greenland. Therefore the Canadian CAA wanted to see our flight plan and charts with semi-up-to-the-minute wind triangles. We had to dig out all of the old navigation tools you described. I don't think I had touched any of them in ten years. Happily, we did not need to use our calculations and the Loran performed beautifully. But on our leg from Iceland to Glasgow, the North Sea Loran chain went "unreliable" and we were suddenly navigating with the maps again, except the Icelanders had not made us do any calculations this time. Just as we were fumbling for our E6B from the bottom of the map case again, the Loran perked up. Therefore, on the way back from Europe, we sat down and did all the calculations this time. As expected, we never had to use them. Like our life raft, though, it was comforting that we had them.

As an eye surgeon, I can tell you that vibrating the eye (or rubbing the eye) may lead to a retinal detachment. Do yourself and your readers a favor and talk to a retina specialist and see what he has to say about your device.

I am impressed both by your effort, your results, and your generosity. Consider yourself patted on the back...

Good job!I have done a bunch of DIY plumbing over the years. A few things I have learned:1. Start using PEX which is a kind of flexible PVC pipe. It will make your life easier. You will use it in place of copper pipe.2. Sharkbite fittings have almost obviated the need for soldering. 3. Find a good plumbing supply house. They will give you much better advice than Home Depot. Even the guy in line next to you will often supply better answers than the random clerk I always seem to get at Lowes...The plumbing store usually has everything in one place so you don't have to drive to three different parts of town on one simple job.

Great instructable, but I think I will stick with my machete...

There are also Jobst support stockings that you can get in a medical supply shop. That material, if memory serves, is somewhere between the Spandex and plain pantyhose. It is pretty durable. Just a thought from a retired surgeon.