Air Lines

Two years ago I was trying to decide what material type to use for the air lines in the garage. Two weeks ago I was still undecided but determined to do something over Memorial Day weekend. The temporary setup I had was not working with 75 feet of 3/8” air hose my high speed grinder was a low speed noise maker. Because of the humidity here I decided on ¾” black pipe, hoping it would help condense the water better than PEX or copper lines.

I had been hesitant to use black pipe because of the mounting options, but I am happy with how it came out. The only thing I have left is the drip leg by the stairs, I am not finished with the drain side of it. I may use some PEX to move it off the stairs.

Garage Stereo II

Two years ago I bought a Kenwood receiver and a couple of Aiwa speakers for $20 dollars at a garage sale. Along with the computer in my garage these were the basis of the stereo. Shortly after buying them, the neighbors across the street had some Klipsch KG 4.2's for $60 for the pair. Apparently they were a little to much for the Kenwood receiver, they sounded horrible, so I disconnected them and put them on the other side of the garage.

Over the last few months the Kenwood has started showing signs of failing, the volume mostly fading in and out and I started looking for a cheap receiver to replace it with. Not having many garage sales during the winter limited my searching to CL, pawn shops and Goodwill.  I did not have any luck with any of them so I started looking on Ebay and found a nice Denon AVR-1602 for $45 shipped. It is 70 watts per channel into 8 ohms <.08 THD. The tuner is much better than the Kenwood and the Klipsch speakers sound great.

Kitchen Project

I did a small project for Tania today in the kitchen. It was a kit by Rev-A-Shelf, that puts tip out trays behind the filler panels below the sink.

The kit was well made and comes with a template making the install very easy. It uses some trick hinges at the ends and took all of 20-30 minutes to install.

Lawn Striper

When we lived here before we had a Simplicity walk behind with a striping kit, Tania liked using it and putting different designs in the lawn. When we moved back none of the mowers we looked at had this feature and only a couple as an option. Aftermarket kits are as much as $250 and the internet is filled with homemade options such as chains, brushes and wobble wheels, this weekend I built my own based on PVC.

I purchased a couple of 1.5" diameter wheels on Ebay and pressed them into these 1.5" to 3" pipes.

The outer diameter of these fit perfectly inside a 4" pipe. I cut a length 48" wide inserted one of the "bearings" and filled the pipe with sand before installing the other end and putting a 3/8" axle through the center. I connected the axle to some flat strap and welded it to a section of "L" angle which I kept as close to the pipe as possible to scrape off wet grass.

I then connected everything at a pivot point to brackets I made and bolted to the bottom of the hydros.

The roller weighs around 40lbs and I can add more weight easily if necessary. We used it this weekend and Tania said she can see a difference It is not as drastic as I had hoped. I think though that it may depend on temperature and condition of the lawn. Currently our lawn is maybe a C+ and our old lawn was an easy A. I will play with it as the summer progresses, if I cannot get the way I want I am only out $30. I think though that a lawn on a 90 degree day is going to lay over different than a lawn on a 58 degree day, Ill know soon enough.