Category: How To (How I Did)

You could call this a How To – but people often tell me I did it wrong – now to be fair you can’t really tell me I can’t do it that way, when the video shows I actually DID do it that way – so to cool down the hateraide – lets just call this HOW I DID

How to Build a DIY Handgun Rack
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I first saw this on YouTube, from a user called fubarprotocol and I had to try make a DIY Handgun rack myself.

Basically this project is a strip of hardwood with ¼ metal rods inserted in it and covered with heat shrink tube so that you can hand your pistols up by their bore.

I think this works really great, and makes it easy to get to my guns. Fubar bolted his in his safe, but I have mine in my workroom. I don’t store my guns on the rack, but keep them there when cleaning them after a range visit, or organizing my equipment for a class.

This homemade pistol rack works great with my wooden rifle rack.

Materials
- Strip of hardwood, I used a 1 x 2 strip of hardwood from the hobby section at Lowes.
- ¼ rod
- ¼ heat shrink tubing
- ¼ plastic end protectors (I found them in the metal drawers in the Lowes hardware section where you get odd shaped nuts and connectors.
Procedure
- I marked and countersunk mounting holes one inch from the ends, and at the center
- Starting 2 inches from the end I marked holes for the rod every 4 inches (you may want to space more or less depending on the size of your guns.
- Drill the holes, I drilled them slightly smaller than the ¼ rod.
- I countersunk the rod holes on the back of the board so that I could epoxy them in so they would not work loose.
- Next cut the rods into 6 inch lengths and round one end with a grinder.
- Pound the rods into the board, keeping everything flush and straight.
- Fix the rods with epoxy.
- Sand, paint, or stain board as you desire
- Cut strips of heat shrink to fit rods.
- Insert, trim, and heat the shrink tube so that they fit tightly on the rod.
- Superglue rod tips to the metal rod.
- Hang
I use this on a regular basis, and I find this was a very useful project. Maybe a smaller set up with a single rod may allow me to hand a firearm in a useful location. But that is up to your imagination.
March 28, 2013
Homemade Baby Wipes
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Babies are expensive…

That was a ground breaking discovery we recently made, I also learned that as my wife transformed into a mother, she became much more demanding. She demands that the baby has the best stuff. While I want the baby to be taken care of, I want to make sure I can afford to buy everything I am told to get.

That is where today’s post comes in, it is much cheaper to make things like homemade baby wipes, and luckily I can show the wife the ingredients and let her know that these are better for the baby and I am not just being cheap…

This is a pretty easy project, and if you have bought wipes in the tube containers, then you can reuse the container. Otherwise you will need to buy a round plastic container with a tight fitting lid

Materials
- Container
- Roll of paper towels (do not skimp and buy generic, you will need good quality towels that are almost cloth like – this is one thing that quality makes a difference)
- Bread knife – sharp serrated knife to cut the paper towel in half.
- 2 cups of water (boil and then cool to room temperature to kill contaminates or use bottled)
- 2 Tbsp baby shampoo or baby wash
- 1 Tbsp baby oil
Procedure
- Cut paper towel in half so that you have two smaller rolls
  remove inner cardboard
- Mix liquids
- Put paper towel in container cut side down (save the other half for the next batch)
- Pour mix on the towels and let sit for 10 minutes or so until water is absorbed.
- Pull a towel from the center of the roll (it may have came out when you removed the cardboard)and pull it up through the center of your container.
March 25, 2013
How to Make the Perfect Homemade Lip Balm
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I started beekeeping for two reasons. I wanted honey to make mead, and I wanted beeswax. Beeswax has hundreds of uses, and one of those uses is cosmetics.

Now, homemade lip balm isn’t the main use for my beeswax, but when I do make some, it is in high demand because handmade beeswax lip balm where care has been taken in its manufacture has no comparison to commercial balms.

It does not take much time or equipment to make your own balms, and if you have your own bees, then the next big expense is the containers. You can easily purchase twist tubes, but small jars work just as well.

This worked so well, and was such a hit that I made a bunch of other cosmetics. When Genny was nursing she really liked my nipple balm (but she hates me talking about nipple balm)

Materials
- Double boiler (we improvise by balancing a small pot on a mason jar ring sitting in a larger pot of water.)
- Disposable stirring sticks
- measuring spoons
Ingredients
- beeswax
- carrier oil (coconut, Shea butter, almond oil) we use a mix of almond oil and shea butter
- Flavoring oil (peppermint works great)
Procedure
- Melt 3 teaspoons of beeswax
- add 5 teaspoons of carrier oil and let melt
- add 5-7 drops of flavoring (start low and work up to what you like)
- Mix
- Pour into containers and let cool (it will take some time to harden)
This is a recipe you can experiment with, more wax makes a harder balm, more oil makes it glossier.

If your a guy that wants to keep bees, this is a great way to bring your wife on board. My wife loves giving this balm to her friends because they love it, and she likes being able to tell them she made it from beeswax from HER bees…
March 11, 2013
How to Sew Sandbags for Flood Control
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This post on How to Sew Sandbags in the military style. It came about because I wanted to learn how to use a sewing machine, and wanted something easy to make that was useful and cheap.

Sandbags are a great thing to have in storage, they have multiple uses, last a long time, and you can fit many of them in a small space. I have wanted some for a while, but they can be expensive unless you buy pallets worth at a time.

Here are the basic instructions:
- All I did was to buy a couple yards of burlap
- folded it in half on the long edge
- Next I marked and cut it into 14 inch strips
- I found that easiest way to go about constructing the bag was to take a piece of twine and sew in a drawstring channel first. I did this by folding over the short ends of the burlap strip and sewing the channels. For looks and strength the folded over ends of the channel should face the same direction.
- Run a length of twine into the two channels.
- Next sew down both long ends making a bag.
- For storage, that’s all you need to do, but turn them inside out before you actually use them.
For $20 of burlap, and $3 worth of twine, I got 12 bags with a little burlap and a lot of twine left over. So the bags cost about $2 a piece. (not counting labor). It was not hard to figure out how to sew sandbags.

As a bonus, here is an old Army Corps of Engineer Video on using sandbags
March 7, 2013
How to Use Mason Jars with a Blender

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This Mason Jar Blender Tip is a simple trick that can make your kitchen life easier. It seems like many/most blender manufacturers designed the threads of their blender jars to match the threads of canning jars.

This means that in many cases (especially with older blenders) you can make a Mason Jar Blender.

Simply can screw the blade into your mason jar and blend your items in the jar. This makes it easy to measure things since many mason jars have cup markings molded into the glass.

If is also great to blend small amounts of things without having to clean the large blender jar.

Personally, I use it to make rubs and spice mixes. Just take your dehydrated vegetables/spices/herbs and blend together to make all sorts of seasoned salt mixes.

It is also a easy way to make single serve smoothies if your into that sort of thing. I use this all the time to make butter and creams. It works great. It also is much easier to clean than a full size blender.

This is one of my favorite tips so far. I how this mason jar blender tip is as useful to you as it is to me.

October 18, 2012