IKEA Wall Hook Installation

Wifey and I decided to replace the ugly coat tree that we had in our living room by installing wall hooks behind the front door where the coats would be out of the way but easily accessibly while coming and going. We found the BLECKA, I know the name is a but odd but it is IKEA afterall, hooks and decided that they fit the aesthetic that we were shooting for and I went about mounting them to the wall. In order to ensure that they don't simply pull out of the drywall the way that our towel racks did in the bathroom, I decided to actually use some drywall anchors. I got the ones that IKEA sells which are the standard type that you drill a hole and pound them into said hole. In my experience these tend to work miserably as they are made from uber-flimsy plastic and the typically bend/break before you get them pounded in flush with the wall. Luckily I had seen my dad use a different type of drywall anchor recently and it looked much better so I decided that I'd give them a shot. This type is also made of plastic, but it is a much more rigid plastic and instead of being pounded into a pilot hole, they are screwed in. The threads are a course helical sort of thread that seems to grab drywall extremely well. The instruction don't say to, but I recommend using a nail to both make a pilot hole and to ensure that there is no stud in the location that you want the anchor to go. The pilot hole just helps to get the anchor started and if you attempt to install the anchor where there is a stud it will bottom out and snap the head off long before you get it sunk flush to the drywall. Don't worry about using in anchor where there is a stud, as you can screw into the stud and get a much better grip anyhow. Also don't try to hammer the anchor into the drywall as this will most likely lead to breaking the anchor or you pounding your thumb with a hammer. If you lack a nail to make a pilot hole you can also use the Phillips head screwdriver that you will need to turn the anchors to make a pilot hole by simply pressing the tip into the drywall. If you lack the strength to do this you are either my wife, or an extreme wuss and need to lift some weights before I throw you into a locker and you have to pound in the door until somebody hears you and lets you out. Yeah, why don't you go find as nail... I'll just wait here while you get that. Anyway, these anchors worked much better for me and the IKEA BLECKA hooks look and function pretty nicely. Sorry that the pictures aren't much to look at but I have some serious lighting issues in the living room.

Compost Bin Build

The little lady and I have decided to try and reduce our carbon footprint and all that so I've decided to compost our kitchen waste. Not only will this be a step in reducing our carbon consumption, but it will also help me in my quest to have a healthy lawn while using only organic means. You can see from the photos that the lawn needs a lot of help. Anyhow, I've looked online for compost bin plans and decided to make a compost bin loosely based on the one I found on this site http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/factsheets/gg24.php which I stumbled on while researching compost on www.journeytoforever.org. Since I had a pallet in the garage and a bunch of (pink)1x2's that I tore out of the porch while trying to kill ants, I decided to rip the boards from the pallet to 2 inch widths to match the 1x2's. Admittedly, not all of the boards came out to be 2 inches since pallets aren't precisely built so the boards vary in width greatly. Regardless, I wasn't shooting for perfection so it came out pretty well anyway. The only bad part was the fact that I didn't notice that the pink from the porch was facing outwards until after I screwed four of the boards on. I think that I'll have to pick up some paint and give it a coat or two to hide that. I'll post some more pictures after I get around to making more of these bins to stack on top of each other and get them all painted and such.

Firewood Crib Build: Part Uno

Mario had a big arse oak tree cut down so I was able to scavenge some nice firewood for the winter. The only problem is Idon't have a proper firewood crib to stack the wood in so that it will dry adequately to burn well by winter, and so that the pile won't topple over atop myself, or any innocent bystander. I have therefore decided to make a firewood crib from some 2x4's and a bed frame that I salvaged. I have just a rough picture in my head of how this project will come together, but I've already started cutting steel so hopefully it comesMy coworker together alright. So far I've cut up the bed frame and removed the casters and such by drilling
out the rivets that hold them on. It was a bit of a PITA to do so because my drill bits are apparently crap. That, and the automatic center runch that I got from Metro Tool flattened its point after the first two blows. Oh and "runch" was not a typo. That's actually what the cheap Chinese tool said on the package. That's how you know that it's a quality tool. I've also cut the arms that will connect the two angle iron beams together to form the base of the crib. It would be really nice if I had a cut-off saw to do this, or even if the battery was charged in my sawzall. Alas, neither was the case so the situation required the trusty ol' hacksaw. There are brackets already attached to one end of each of the beams on which the headboard would normally be fastened. This will be a handy way of attaching the 2x4's to one end of the base. The other end will require that I fabricate and weld a bracket on for the same purpose. For the bracket I'll just use the angle iron that I cut from the cross beams earlier. That's all for part one. Stay tuned for part 2 where I discuss the perils of drilling without properly fixturing the workpiece, and how much it hurts to be hit in the testicles by a rapidly spinning piece of angle iron.

From guns to cars: Using advanced polymers from firearms to fabricate parts for my RC car.

While I wait for some replacement parts to arrive from Tower Hobbies I've decided to fabricate some parts for my old RC10. I decided to use some plastic parts from work that are otherwise going to be thrown away. They are made out of a polymer called polyphtalamide which is a relatively new polymer that is most commonly used in the automotive industry. Lee and I decided to use it because of it's dimensional stability and stiffness. That, and we found that a high priced European rifle had used it in a similar application. Some people may consider that to be copying someone else's idea; we prefer to consider it "reverse engineering". Anyway, this stuff is pretty sweet so I've hacked up the parts with a Dremel and a utility knife and made a transmission brace and battery hold down bar. I'll probably end up fashioning the body out of gun parts if it remains back-ordered too long.

Remote Control Carnage

I recently dusted off the ammo box containing my old remote control car. I'm not sure what made me decide to get back into toying with it again since it has sat in that box for the past fifteen years or so. It didn't take me long to remember why I gave up the hobby. First off, I've lost many of the small but integral parts. I've fixed that for the most part through many trips to the hobby shop near work. So, now I've spent $100 or so to get it back in running shape; meaning that it goes forward, reverse and it turns. It still lacks a body to cover the innards and a cover for the exposed transmission gears. So I've chased the dog around the back yard three times. This last time I managed to break one of the steering blocks. Now, this part is very cheap to buy at about $2, however, it takes weeks to get a new one because the car is so old that most places don't keep parts in stock. I've ordered some parts now I have to wait for them to come. Stupid RC cars.

PIC Programming

I've been trying to figure out how to program Microchip's PICs in order to create peripheral devices for the BOE-Bot such as stepper motor drivers and such. This has proven to be much more difficult than I had hoped. Apparently I need to get a degree in computer science to be able to achieve this. That, or I need to spend around $250 on a PICbasic Pro compiler to match the ease of use of the Basic Stamp. I've been trying to learn C but I haven't found any helpful websites that teach C programming as it applies to PIC devices. Perhaps I'm just being impatient and want it all to be uber simple like the Basic Stamp. Hopefully sometime soon there will be an open source Basic or Pbasic compiler for PICs. Then I can accomplish what I want to do without having to pay college tuition to advance my hobby. I've got to surf some more forums to see if I've missed one where someone writes tutorials that apply to beginners with little or no experience programming... wish me luck.

Sparkfun's Triple Output LED RBG on the BOE-bot

I bought a few doo-dads from sparkfun.com a while back and finally got around to playing with the triple output LED. It works like any other LED only it has four leads instead of two. I always forget what is the anode and what is the cathode, but regardless it has one lead that goes to ground and the others go to the output leads from the BOE-bot, with a 470 Ohm resistor to drop the voltage down to a level that won't fry the LED. Please note that the red portion of the LED had a lower max voltage than the green or blue. I ignored this and used the same LED circuit I had used in a previous BOE-Bot LED excersize. It hasn't killed the LED yet so I think it will live. Anyway I wrote a little code using pulse width modulation to fade from one color to another. It works pretty well. I'll see if I can post the video I took of it working. See the code below:

'RGB LED Changer

' {$STAMP BS2}
' {$PBASIC 2.5}

counter VAR Word
DO
FOR counter = 1 TO 100
PULSOUT 9, 1000 - (10 * counter)
PULSOUT 11, 10 * counter
PAUSE 5
NEXT
FOR counter = 101 TO 200
PULSOUT 11, 1000 - (10 * (counter - 100))
PAUSE 5
PULSOUT 10, 10 * (counter - 100)
PAUSE 5
NEXT
FOR counter = 201 TO 300
PULSOUT 10, 1000 - (10 * (counter - 200))
PAUSE 5
PULSOUT 9, (10 * (counter -200))
PAUSE 5
NEXT

LOOP

Cheese Stuffed Hamburgers

I know, I know, Kraft had this on a commercial. So it isn't an original idea. Maybe I just wanted to document my attempt at it. Is that alright with you? Why are you so judgemental? Here it goes:

Step 1

You need to add some junk into the ground beef to add flavor and help retain the moisture. Here I add breadcrumbs, my special spice mix, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper.










Step 2

To keep it all together and reduce the amount of melty cheese that escapes from the tasty burger, add an egg to the mixture.

Step 3

Mix it altogether. Yeah sure, you could use that fancy Kitchenaid mixer that sits on your counter begging you to turn it on and let it make some delicious foods with it, but where's the adventure in that? I say, put your grubby hands right in there and mix it together like a real man.


Step 4

Give some meat to the dog. Seriously, he's been staring at you with his crazy eyes for a while now and your starting to be more than a little frightened.

Step 5

Roll the meat into little balls and then press flat into thin meat discuses... diski?


Step 6

Fill with glorious cheese. Yes, that is cheese. No, it isn't butter. Mmm, butter burgers.


Step 7

Place meat discus B atop discus A.


Step 8

Pinch around the edges of the diski to seal the goodness.


The result is some bigass meat patties that look like normal hamburgers, but lurking inside is a cheesiness that will shock and amaze you.

**************WARNING**************

Cheesy goodness must be allowed to rest for a minimum of 5 minutes after cooking burgers or cheese with be in its "liquid hot magma" phase and may cause severe burns.

DIY 5G Ipod USB Charger

I've seen several USB charger projects online and these work well for most devices that charge off of USB, but never quite worked for my fifth generation Ipod. Most of these chargers are based off of the LM7805 voltage regulator, in order to step a voltage down to the 5V required for USB. What these designs lack is the data in-out signal that tells the 5G Ipod that it is a high power USB outlet. I recently found a suggestion online to use 4 equal resistors to make a voltage divider to supply a 2.5V signal to each data line on the usb connector. Check out the thread where I found it here for more details. Anywho, I used the bread board on my Parallax BOE-Bot to prototype the circuit for testing. You may notice that there is no LM7805 on this circuit. That's because the BOE-Bot has one integrated into it, which sped up my testing. After verifying that I did indeed get 2.5V on the data lines I plugged in the Ipod. Previously the Ipod needed to be reset in order to charge on such a circuit, but now it charges as if it were plugged into a real USB outlet. Now I just need to figure out if the LM7805 will hold up to the rigors of being wired into my truck's 12V power so that I can make a charger to integrate into the Ipod car dock that I'm slowly designing.

We've got ants in our pants!!! Or our porch.

Carpenter ants that is. Lots of them. Tens of thousands perhaps. Lots. We called Terminix and a guy named Steven came out to kill our bugs(I know that isn't very DIY but those guys can use better poisons). Anyway I ripped off some of the wall board and revealed what Steven says is the second largest nest of carpenter ants that he's ever seen. Man I hate being second... most of the time. So Steven sprayed lots of poisonous stuff and killed all of the ants we could find, but I'm sure as I do more demolition on the porch that I will find more of these lovely creatures. I can't wait.