Random Cool Tricks

I've got a Monitor ,, I really like it ,, but 4+ bucks a gallon fuel makes it an expensive heat source .

 

The Aladdin Blue Flame wick isn't one I'll ever try to save again. With the buttons on the side of the wick, once it's burned too short it can't be saved by just seeing on more wick at the bottom like a lamp wick.

Mine was hopelessly stuck anyway. Even after a weekend of soaking in kerosene it wouldn't budge. The paper inner liner on the wick was bonded to the wick tube so firmly that I had to resort to a bitter knife to scrape it free. I eventually just slit it open vertically and peeled the old wick off.

I cut a hole in a trash bag and slid it down the wick tube and tucked it into the burner to protect the paint and blasted the wick tube with oven cleaner. Twenty minutes later the petrified crud and verdigris on the wick tube wiped off with a tooth brush and paper towel and the tube underneath was shiny and clean.



The old mica window is beat up, but serviceable.
I got a new one and a wick trimmer from Amazon. It's not a show piece, but on those chilly days here on the beach when it gets into the forties, it'll look beautiful.

 

I know the feeling. Same with diesel, so my 300D just sits in the yard waiting for it to get back to $1.75.

I did hit the jackpot a few years ago. Had a lady from New Jersey that had to pump her own gas for the first time. She was nervous about it, but her car was running on fumes, so she pulled up to the single pump off to the side of the gas station lot and filled her tank with untaxed, undyed, water clear K1 Kerosene.

My guys knew I'd want it, so we siphoned 15 gallons out with zero trace of gasoline vapor into new kerosene cans. We didn't start to smell any evidence of gasoline until the very bottom of the tank, but I only missed about a gallon and a half of kerosene. That could've been saved for pressure lamps, but gasoline has nasty additives, so I let it go. I was very pleased with my 15 gallons of free K1 kerosene thanks to New Jersey.

 

Good to have a few people around that knows your interest . That was like hitting a small lottery ,,,

 

Almost like tent camping. Umbrella in the door lets me get in and out as needed while I sit in the A/C listening to NPR while I wait out the rain.

 

While I was finishing my day at the range in the pouring rain I noticed another random cool trick that I hadn't mentioned before. My sorting pans are non-magnetic stainless steel pot lids with the handles broken off. Both had threaded studs attached with epoxy, and were no trouble to break off. This leaves the pans smooth on the bottom so they sit flat and will slide over any surface with minimal damage to the outside. I think I paid fifty cents for one and maybe a whole dollar for the other. I've been beating them up at the range for more than 5 years. I slide them over grass dirt and concrete with a load of collected brass and even after years of this abuse they show little wear. Besides sorting and washing brass at the range I've also found them to be most excellent wash basins.



The wash basin, pitcher and chamber pot used to be regular fixtures in American homes. With no running water at the range I appreciate the pans for washing up, and they're much cheaper than the $40.00 (Ebay) WWII vintage ones that I only saw issued in one unit during my time in the Marine Corps. They looked silly strapped to the back of an Alice pack, but were welcome in the field. My stainless steel pans are far tougher and their shape is more versatile. They can be washed up and used for cooking, panning for gold, feeding animals or serving as a lid on your Lowe's bucket chamber pot.. The availability and thrift store price is nice too.

The wash basins we were issued were anodized a dull gold color. I've never seen one in a surplus store.

 

I tripped over it , saw the Aladdin name and knew I can service , just like my lamps .
Sloth

 

A really small cabin in Denmark. Looks cozy. No phone, no wifi, just birds and conversation.

 

Repurposed engine lifting fixture to hold long tools.

 

Using cart handle to hold air hose always at the ready.



Works on the lift too. I always know where the end of the hose is when I need it.

 

Sometimes shortages teach me new thrifty tricks that I keep using so I have fewer shortages.

Nitrile gloves aren't cheap, but are necessary for many of my jobs. A regular task is wetting in sealer to make the big globs look pretty where they're visible. It takes only one finger, so I use whatever is left from old gloves that will protect my finger.
Easy, cheap and more comfortable than putting the glove on in the summer. By the time I throw away a nitrile glove there's no good surfaces left.

It's a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.

 

Used that method a long time for service manuals until I swapped the c clamps out for 855 cid Cummins pistons.

 

Pontiac G6 folding hard top rope suspension. If you don't tie this heavy moster in a neutral position when servicing it it could kill you. I called the old Pontiac dealer to see if they had the GM special tool. They didn't. So I made a set. They work great. You can pluck that rope like a banjo string. Looks like I intentionally staggered those knots so they wouldn't get in each others way.

I saw a guy doing a Youtube video on the G6 top and he waved his left hand in front of the camera just once, but it was enough for me to see that it was all bandaged up.

 

I've been fighting this toilet for two years now and I think I've finally won. Para cord flush valve puller replaced wimpy chain that broke twice in two days.

The toilet tank is dated April 1953, although the house was built in 1991. Long time rental property, who knows what happened there. First it was flush arms breaking off, hard to flush, needed a flush valve gasket. Easy. Then the wimpy chain on the new part. Ten minutes before leaving for work, two knots in a few inches of para cord and now it works great. Good for another 69 years.

Lesson learned. Wet para cord will not melt with a micro torch.