A Million Useless Thoughts

To finish up thought 21, I made a battery ended wall wort. At least the simple version just as a proof of concept. And it works. So here's how you build one: Materials: 1 Nail, 2 1/2" 1/2" tubing, the kind for water pumps. 1 wall wort, in this case a variable voltage one (thanks Seth). 1 AA battery, for model. Tools: Soldering Iron Wire Cutters Wire Stripper Needle Nose Pliers Hot Glue Gun Metal Cutting Tool. I used a dremel with a cut off wheel. Step 1: Cut the end off of the wall wart Step 2: Strip the ends and mark which it the positive side and which is the negative. Strip with about 1 1/2 inches of exposed wire. Step 3: Cut the nail in half. Optional: grind down to a smooth even surface. Step 4: Wrap the positive wire around the pointy end of the nail and solder into place. Soldering to nail my take a while, high heat and pinch with the needle nose pliers. Step 5: Wrap the negative wire to the head of the of the nail and solder into place. Step 6: Cut 2 t...

Recently got a couple pieces of non-mobile electrics, and they take batteries? why? Couldn't they put a wall wart to go with it. (For those who do not know: wall wort = ugly black two prong ac adapter, it looks like a wart on your wall). I mean really mass produces wall warts are pretty cheap and would only effect the price by a dollar or two. But consuming batteries for something stationary is just wasteful. Ok rant over. Time for a solution. Here's what we came up with today for a plausible and quick solution. First find a power supply close to the battery power needed 2 batteries = ~3 vdc, 3-4 batteries = ~5 vdc. Then cut the end off of it keeping track of the plus and minus. Next build a fake battery: For a quick and dirty solution a PVC tube the same radius as the battery. Cut into appropriate number of 'batteries'. Epoxy nails in place for the plus and minus terminals. Solder the ends of the wall wart to the nails. Finally fill in the whole th...

Turns out vinegar and citric acid to a most amazing job at killing broad leaf weeds. Mixed about 28 oz of 5% vinegar with 4 oz of lemon juice. Spray the plants in the morning, after the sun has started shining on them. During the day the acid + sunlight browns the leaves to a crisp. Note it take the round up about a week to kill off the same type of plants and requires the dogs to stay indoors for about 2 hours until it fuses to plants and becomes rain hard. Cost break down: Round Up = $25 for a gallon Vinager = $3 for a gallon Bottle of lemon juice $3 for 8 oz. (can get 5 lbs of citric acid for $12 but it'd require quite a bit more vinegar.) Reuseable Spray bottle: $4 So: $25 vs. $10. Toxic chemical vs safe to drink. 1 week results vs end of day. Just makes me wonder if I am missing something here? Is there something that the Round Up does better? does it not kill grasses? Add missing elements to ground? Not really sure, but so far the vinegar and lemon juice look to be a fo...

Back to the teflon cat box thing. First closest thing I to an off the shelf solution would be a 15x17x3 lasagna baking pan for $15 + S+H. Not quite sure it would be big enough. Turns out they make a polyurethane with Teflon particles embedded. While this is not quite the right process for applying Teflon it is pretty close. Teflon is applied in the following steps: 1.) Rough up the surface (sand blasting metal). 2.) Apply an epoxy primer, let dry to a "sticky" level. 3.) Apply Teflon particles. 4.) Bake the Teflon on at about 500 degrees, so it gets close to its melting point. 5.) Let sit for 7-10 days to cure. A bit of an involved processes, but not too difficult. The Telfon polyurethane seems something to try, anyway. So far it seems like if I manage to make one, I'd be making a few more for friends. At least I think the concept has been well received.

Point one today (from the wife): Does it seem odd that we wrap up cat and dog, poo and pee into plastic bag to be effectively preserved for millions of years. Just think of what future archeologist will think. I guess this does stem from the fact that cats and dogs, and well just about every other animal on the planet as been peeing and pooping, when ever and where ever they please. Granted we'd have a bit of a smell problem if everyone went where ever, but we developed sanitation for a reason! Further most animals poo is beneficial to plants as fertilizer. Well, not really dog and cat poo, but why not just flush this stuff? or compost it in a 'hot' compost pile. Well it turns out we're not that bad, they do make flushable/compostable kitty litter. Oddly they charge more for them despite using things like ground corn cobs, pine pellet, wheat staff, i.e. other industry waste products, so why more expensive? or better if you have a yard why not grow corn, wheat, and...

Alright time to start an experiment: Which works better sugar or round-up? The setup: Rope off 3 patches of yard (on the side of the house) approximately 5x5 squares. Section 1 is the control I will apply nothing to this patch. Section 2 is the sugar group will apply sugar and other organic treatments to this patch of soil. Like spraying weeds with vinegar and lemon juice. Section 3 is the chemical group, use weed and feed + spray the weeds that survive with round-up. The goal find out what works better, and if the organic sugar and vinegar solutions are viable. Also to provide a documented case as to what works best. Procedure. I will take a photo of the experiment once a day at roughly the same time of day. Analyze for "green-ness" and weed to grass ratio. Finally place online.