Random Cool Tricks

Over shot card cutter. Just a high brass case with the plastic warmed and pulled off. Remove the primer and flatten the primer pocket. Install a screw and nut. Chuck the screw in a drill and cut our cardboard, plastic, or felt. Loosen the nut to push the cards out.

This one is 12ga, but it works for any shot shell.

 

Keebler Fudge Stripe S'mores?

 

Looks yummy!!

 

This lighting system goes back to ships hundreds of years ago. I'm glad I didn't drop this one on my foot, because it's heavy. Installed flush in a ship's deck it lit the area below deck with sunlight.

Same principle as these soda bottle and water lights. Pure solar.

 

Cooking anything is a real trick for me.

I'm teaching myself how to make meals in advance so the prices at fast food places don't eat up my food budget.

My quesadillas have gotten bigger than this first experiment, but I like them as a portable, no mess and no utensil meal.

 

I work with lots of antique Coleman and other lamps. One of my favorite wrenches is the one that came with the Coleman CQ lamps. It fits lots of stuff.

 

A rock simple and elegantly efficient "multitool".

 

Pretty cool little contraption there ,, never seen one before .

 

This is utterly ingenious!!

 

Tilley and other double tie mantles aren't always affordable or easy to find. The fix is to convert an available mantle, in this case a Lighthouse 525, from single tie to double tie.

I've been told that there is a string on the closed end that can be cut to allow it to open up. I've never had the patience to find it. I just stretch the mantle out and cut the whole sealed end off.



This leaves you with a great big gaping hole that you have to try to hold in place around a burner the size of a dime, and hold it there with one hand while you wrap a bread tie around it with the other hand...then with your third hand you twist the bread tie.

There is an easier way. You tie the larger top end on (which is the bottom, since you're working on a Tilley and have the burner upside down) then gather the cut off end above the burner. Pull it all together with your fingers and slip an o-ring over the end. Now you can push the gathered mantle onto the tube and even it out nicely with both hands.



Once you're happy with the way the unburned mantle lays you can tie the bread tie below the o-ring, twist it tight and cut off the extra wire and then roll the o-ring off to use again. No need to remove the paper or plastic coating on the bread tie wire. It will burn off.

You can trim the excess mantle material off, but it really makes little difference.

Remember that the mantle, especially this brand, is heavily doped with thorium, so wash your hands and dispose of any clippings before moving on.



All tied on and ready, the alcohol preheat cup will burn in the mantle and it will inflate nicely as soon as the kerosene lights off.



It's more fun if you read this with a fake British accent.

I did find that my made in England spirits bottle for the preheat cup is like a bad joke. There's nothing to grab hold of on the preheater, and the handle portion sits just below the curved top of the bottle. Chasing it around the bottle is no fun. I think a good old American application of pliers and a strategic bend in the top of the handle will make it far more ergonomic.