How To (How I Did) Archives | Page 39 of 51

26 Dec 2013

How to Make Dehydrated Toothpaste Dots

Here is a quick tip for backpacking or camping where space and weight is a premium – make Dehydrated Toothpaste Dots.

To make a chewable single use dry toothpaste “mint” lay out foil sheet or parchment and make rows of toothpaste spots.

Allow to dry for 2-4 days.

Sprinkle baking soda on top to keep from sticking.

Repackage in small bags.

I stopped making these Dehydrated Toothpaste Dots when the boy began thinking they were candy. But they are good for trips and traveling – once you have a can of shaving cream explode, or some shampoo leak into your luggage you begin to think about new ways to pack your stuff.

There really isn’t much more to say about this project other than you should be careful where you let them dry at – you don’t want to leave them in your bathroom because of the bacteria, and you don’t want the to sit out too long because they get really hard and nasty.

If this is not something you want to try, but you still have the issue of packing something light and easy for tooth brushing in the outdoors, you may want to just get a small container of baking soda – but I will warn you – this tastes better.

To use

Pop one Dehydrated Toothpaste Dots in your mouth, chew, then add a small amount of water in your mouth and start brushing.

19 Dec 2013

How to Make Homemade Desiccant Out of Sheetrock

Moisture is one of the largest threats to long term storage, and over the years a variety of commercial products have been created to absorb moisture in gun safes and other storage areas.

I came across a unique DIY Sheetrock desiccant discovered during WWII as the Department of Energy at Oak Ridge experimented with devices to help with civil defense.

An Engineer by the name of Cresson Kearny designed a homemade device used to measure radioactive fallout. This device used materials easily scavenged, and it included a homemade drying agent made by heating common gypsum wallboard (Sheetrock).

Do NOT use calcium chloride, use gypsum Sheetrock only.

Instructions:

Obtain a piece of 3/8 inch thick gypsum wallboard approximately 12 inches by 6 inches

Cut off the paper and glue, (easiest done by wetting the paper)

Break the white gypsum into small pieces no larger than ½ inch

Heat the gypsum in an oven at its highest temperature (which should be above 400 degrees F) for one hour.

Heat the gypsum no more than two pieces deep in a pan.

Alternatively you can heat the pieces over a fire for 20 minutes or more in a pan or can heated to a dull red.

Anhydrite absorbs water from the air very rapidly, so quickly store in an airtight container while it is still hot. A Mason jar is ideal.

This works great for me as I have hundreds of pounds of Sheetrock desiccant available as I am still tearing down the trailer.

4 Dec 2013

How to Build a Water Bottle Skylight

How to Build a Water Bottle Bulb — Buy at Amazon

I spend a lot of time looking at appropriate technologies coming from missionaries and other groups that work in third world countries.

I figure – if it works in areas lacking infrastructure then it will work if we ever lose our infrastructure.

This idea came from a couple of YouTube videos I saw of people making water bottle skylights out of 20oz soda bottles.

This is also called a solar bottle bulb. Either way, the concept is pretty simple I have used this in domes and animal houses several times.

Most specifically I got it from the video at the bottom of this page.

I modified it slightly and was quite pleased that two of them gave enough light in my cement dome that I can see what I am doing.

Actually, if I am in the general area of one of the lights I can actually read by the light.

This technique was used on my Dome of Doom on Doomsday Preppers and it works very well. I have a series on how I made my cement EMT dome.

Parts:

1 clear soda bottle
Water
Bleach
Plastic roof flashing
2 eyebolts
Wire
Duct tape
Mylar space blanket

Procedure:

Drill two small holes on opposite sides of the plastic flashing, and thread the eyebolts in the holes
Fill the bottle with water, leaving enough space that you can add about a ¼ cup of bleach to keep anything from growing in the water.
Cut the mylar blanket into a strip approximately 1/3 the height of the bottle.
Center the mylar strip in the middle of the bottle and wrap it tightly – you need to leave unwrapped bottle at the top of the bottle to gather light, and at the bottom to release it. – Basically you are making a reflective tube to channel the light.
Insert the bottle into the flashing, leaving about 1/3 of the bottle sticking outside the top of the flashing.
Wrap wire around one eye bolt, pull the wire tight over the bottom of the bottle, and then secure it to the other eye bolt – this keeps the bottle from dropping out of the flashing.
Insert the entire assembly on your roof and calk as needed to prevent leaks.

Note:

Over time UV light will degrade the plastic – but since soda bottles are everywhere, it is a simple process to rebuild as needed.

20 Nov 2013

How to Assemble a Harbor Freight Cement Mixer

This article is not a step by step guide to Harbor Freight Cement Mixer Assembly, you can get that in the video below, but rather extra tips I learned from the install and first use of my 3.5 cubic foot mixer.

First off, in the event you lost your instructions here is a link for an online copy of the PDF from Harbor Freight – it is copy written, so I am just providing a link.

Next realize that for around $20 you are not getting heavy duty metal. However, this does have some good reviews on many of the harbor freight sites. Additionally I have found that if you take reasonable precautions, the mixer is well worth the money.

You want to make sure you have metric tools. You will also need:

slip ring pliers
Loctite
gasket compound
larger wheels
a wood block
a couple of lag bolts

I also found that a length of pipe helps with assembly of the Harbor Freight cement mixer.

Harbor Freight Cement Mixer Build Tips

When putting the mixer together, the drive shaft is already assembled. As far as our build went we had to remove the slip rings in order to install the motor mount case, and on the other side the dump control lever. We did not have slip ring pliers so we had to modify a pair of needle nose pliers, and reinstall them by using a pipe over the shaft and knocking the ring back in. This was due to quality control issues so your mileage may vary.

Also, on the drive shaft, when you bolt on the cast iron pulley, and the gear that turns the mixer tub, use Loctite, and you may want to consider buying two lock washers and adding them.

When we were using this in the dome build, the bolts backed out twice. That ended up losing the keyway and rendering the mixer unusable.

While you have the Loctite out, remove the small screws holding the case on the electric motor. I did not notice at the time of the first use, but later

I saw that most of the bolts backed out, and the last one was hanging on by just a few threads.

When putting the tub together, it is easier to use gasket compound to hold the rubber gasket on the tub. I forgot to get some (it was recommended in several videos). During assembly I found that since many of the bolt holes punched in the gasket were a little off, if I pushed the bolts through the tub, the gasket would hold them on and the bolts would hold the gasket on flat.

When putting the motor together, and working the electrical, I found it was much easier to unbolt the switch housing from the casing in order to more easily make the electrical connections.

The hardest thing to do was figure out the mixer blades. The instructions were very poor translations from the original Chinese. After much discussion, and trying various ways, we realized that there were stickers on the tub that helped. If the arrows on the top half and the bottom half lined up, and you used the third arrow to find the direction of rotation, it was much easier to figure out what is happening. Remember the blades scoop up the cement as it rotates, and then dumps the mix at the top of the rotation.

Lastly, the wheels are not big enough to raise the mixer high enough to dump in a wheel barrow. I suggest you get a set of 10 inch air filled tires while you are at harbor freight. Bolt an 8 inch 4×4 n to the foot on the other end of the mixer.

It only took an hour or so to put the mixer together, and our first use was pretty rigorous. In my opinion, this is a harbor freight tool that is worth the time and the money.

12 Nov 2013

How to Make Wine Cork Keychains: Perfect for Boating

If you are out on the water and are afraid of loosing your keys you could go out and buy a floating key fob. But if you drink wine (or have friends that do), you can make a Cork Key Chains.

Get a long shanked eye-hook
Next, screw the hook through the center of the cork.
Finally, attach a split ring to the eye and thread on your keys.

This won’t hold a maintenance man’s key ring above water, but it will hold your boat, truck, and house keys…\

I love boating and being out on the water, and having a floating key fob is nice – having Recycled Cork Key Chains that you made from wine you have drunk with friend is cool.

If you have a lot of keys, you can hide the key ring in your truck and only have your boat and truck key on the fob. That will ensure that it will float.

They even now have little chips you can put on your keys to help you find them – but if you loose your boat key on the lake you may have problems getting the boat out to the key chain oyt bobbing around.

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