Electronic Door Lock

Replaced this:












With this:

New digital lock from Schlage
I picked up at the big box store.
Took about 15 min to install and program.

Zero problems installing it in an existing door.

Rather than give out keys, you can program in a 4 digit code for visitors. When done, the code can be erased.

Very simple to use and program.

Midwest Weather

Only in the Midwest can you have a Tornado Watch, Tornado Warnings & Flood Watch with 65 degree temperature two days after Christmas and still a 50% chance of snow that night.

Sweet.

What's in St. Bernard Slaiva?

This lovable dog slobbers something terrible. Her food dish after eating looks like the most disgusting thing! Cleaning it requires a scrub brush and a brillo pad. No amount of soaking will loosen this stuff.

I have worked in food related business for quite some time and stainless steel is the industry standard for food contact. The bowl is Stainless steel and even after washing it, there is a film of 'Nard spit!

If 3M was smart, they would do some R&D on this stuff!

Snow Pre-Treatment Test #2 = Not so well

This doesn't seem to be an exact science....but learned a few things Sunday night:

• When the NWS in STL says there will be less than .01 ice accumulation, they could be wrong.

• Either watch Football or watch the weather, not both.
  

• Have the salt solution already made up. The 30 min to add water and mix was pretty much the failure of this test.
  

• Waiting to the last minute sometimes is the coldest.

More fun in store for this Thursday. 1/4"+ of freezing rain in the forecast.

Bad Weather Ahead?

Sleet, Freezing Rain, & Snow?

Looks like test #2 is in store for the Pre-Treatment machine.

Not looking forward to the late Sunday night / early Monday morning freezing here!

SPREAD OUT

Liked this Blogger Template but DAMNED ! The post column was too small. Played around w/ it tonight and think I have it wider.

Me playing w/ HTML is not pretty.

Sorry for the three of you who read this.

Snow Pre-treatment Pt. 1

This was going to be a test on a PRE-snowfall treatments, but thing didn't go as planned. Went into work Monday to find that the temp had dropped below 32 and froze most of the snow that had fell Sunday night.

Oh well. It says it is supposta works as a de-icer as well as a pre-treatment.

The test is on !

Here is what I came up with:

Heard some stories and read some info on the internet of using a brine solution sprayed down before a snowfall to prevent snow and ice from bonding to the pavement. Iowa DOT has had some good results and are currently using this now. Did some research and found out that the best solution is a 23% brine solution. This works to -6 degrees.

Rigged up this from items around the work place and came up with something I think will work. Made a collapsible boom that extends out to 16' span with 14 jets total. ( Work currently has about 5 acres of concrete that needs to be cleaned off ) Each jet dispenses .3 gpm at 40 psi. That means the rate for all 14 jets would be 4.2 gpm. In order not to overheat a 12vdc pump I sized it smaller at 3.9 gpm. Current draw on the pump is around 7 amp and since I just bought a battery for the wheeler for $60+, I decided to used a deep cell battery for the same amount. Picked up the pump thru Grainger, hose, piping, jet, battery @ Farm and Home supply.


















Mixture on the solution seems to be a 1-2-3 ratio. 1 gallon of water to 2.3 pounds of salt. Since I had 55 gal barrels that were readily available at work, I used them. It worked out pretty well. I added 3 - 40 lbs bags of rock salt and fill the remainder up with water.

Mixed the solution up with a barrel mixer we had at work and I was off.



















First trip was on a slight downhill slope and I quickly learned I was pulling quite a bit of weight. 1154 lbs of Brine solution alone. That explains why my 400 lb Rancher w/ my 225 lb ass was slowly being pushed down this incline.
Go figure.

Looking behind me, I could see that the brine solution was working. Travel speed is a bit slow. Objective is to cover the ground with the brine solution and evenly spread it without causing excess waste. This on the Rancher is slightly over idle in second gear. Slow to say the least. Last pic I took here is after I had made one pass and missed a spot. Looks like it worked and I only used 240 lbs of salt to do the entire lot. Normal usage for something like this is around 600 - 800 lbs per use with the traditional salt spreader. Something I am testing around with is a home version with a sprayer on the driveway. 2-3 gallons could easily cover the average drive. I have found a sprayer tank that could be mounted on my 4 wheeler for home use laying around the mess/ garage and may be playing with that after some tests with the hand held sprayer !!!

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Updated 1.1.09 w/ Picture

1 ½ lbs. Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts

1 ½ cups Franks Extra Hot Sauce

1 - 8oz Pkg Cream Cheese

1 - 16oz Sour Cream

1 pkg Hidden Valley Fiesta Ranch Dip

1 tbs Garlic Powder

1 tbs Onion Powder

1 tbs Black Pepper

1 tbs Cayenne Pepper

1 10 oz can Rotel Diced Tomatoes and Green Chilies

1 – 8oz Pkg Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Green Onions

Microwave chicken breasts until done. Shred finely. Blender or food processor works good for this. Mix shredded chicken and Frank’s hot sauce in a bowl. Add softened cream cheese and sour cream to bowl and mix together. Add garlic, onion, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and Hidden Valley ranch dip. Mix together. Drain can of Rotel and add to bowl. Mix well. Spred mixture into 9 x 13 baking dish. Top with chopped green onions and shredded cheese. Cover and refrigerate. Serve with tortilla chips.

Some like it REAL HOT

If you like Hot Sauce, this is for you. Just finished a weekend of using this for Hot Wings and Hot Chicken Dip. ( try to post the dip later) I used to use just Frank's Hot Sauce and add my own ingredients, but after finding this stuff, it works straight out of the jug.

Good Stuff !

Best Box

Got my TV Food Stamp, er ah Coupon for an HD TV converter box and have not heard enough about a good one. Currently have a borrowed one hooked up in the garage since last week to watch the BEARS suck in HD. This one works with an antenna and doesn't pick up cable channels when hooked up to cable??? Have seen some that have a analog pass thru but don't think this one has it. Wondered if anyone had some input on one that does both HDTV and cable.

Thanks.

Wanted: Back-up Quarterback

Daunte Culpepper come out of retirement and has a QB rating of 47.5
Rex Grossman, second string QB has a rating of 64.4

Go Figure.

CB&Q Baggage Cart

Finished.






































































Still missing 5 of the upright supports. Maybe dig through the dirt this winter and see if I can find the rest.

Garden 2008

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ST LOUIS MO
1100 AM CDT TUE OCT 28 2008

...HARD FREEZE ENDS THE GROWING SEASON...

No Shit.

This had to be the worst growing season I have had since I moved into this house.

For starters this year, this happend Mothers Day 2008, day after I planted all 112 tomato plants. The tree just to the west of the garden dropped dead center in the middle of the garden. I was lucky enough to only loose one plant. Took most of the day to clean up and bend the conduit back into shape. For someone who uses Autocad to design and layout the garden followed by a day of using string line to make each row and stake perfectly straight, this was a killer.

Next picture is what my garden looked like at the end of July 2007. That's my fat ass standing in the middle of the patch. The conduit is in the ground about 18"-24" and 10' long.

During 2007 and pretty much every summer EXCEPT this one, this is what I got out of the garden about every 4 days. ( we make LOTS of salsa) Had soo much that I regularly took them to work. Not this year.Here's what it looked like at the end of Sept of this year. Not a damned ripe tomato hanging. Most of the ones I got this years rotted on the vine while they ripened. The fatality rate was about 25% in early July and went to better than 50% by August.

Not a good year for peppers either. Had 12 Jalapeno plants and got only 6 peppers.

Growing season was done long ago.

Freeze Warning !!

CITIES OF...QUINCY...HANNIBAL...BOWLING GREEN
341 PM CDT SUN OCT 26 2008
...WIND ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 9 PM CDT THIS EVENING...
...FREEZE WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM TO 9 AM CDT
MONDAY...

Remember to disconnect your outside garden hoses.

Baggage Cart 10.10.08

Updated 10.22.08

10.13.08

Here's my next project.

It's whats left of a old CB&Q baggage cart. The wheels and support assembly is about the only thing left. The wood has rotted off and most of the metal attachments are gone.

My first intent was to try to restore it back to original. After trying to find the exact dimensions and trying to fabricate new parts that looked old, I'm just going to make it look close to what it did.

Closest thing I found on the internet was one here.

10.22.08

Been busy as hell this week with other things around the house. Main thing was to clean out my woodworking shed so I could finally find things.

Also have been drying out the treated lumber purchased at the local lumber yard. This crap is so wet, the might as well have is sitting in a tank of water.

Back to the project....while my neighbor and I were cleaning, he found several other metal pieces to the cart. I had already had most of the bed support in place. Lucky the dimensions I started with are damned close to matching up with the metal found.




Added the two support rods that were used on both ends and this really seemed to stiffen up the middle of the bed.

Hopefully this weekend I'll have more time to work on this since the weather will be cold and crappy.

Winter Dryer Attachment

Here's a little attachment that can save you some coins every winter if you have an ELECTRIC dryer. It attaches to your dryer hose and vents the dryer exhaust back into the house. If ya think about it, the dryer produces heat (furnace) and moisture ( humidifier) that can be used inside during the winter rather than ducted outside. This is close to the one I have but there are several different model out there now. Toss some cheap ass dryer sheets in and sorta works like an air freshener too.

Just remember to take it off before summer.


Don't try this with a GAS dryer !!!!

Cleaning your Razr

I have had 2 Razrs in the past 4 years and have dunked them both.

First one went thru the washing machine. Yes, the full cycle. Second one went into the dog's water dish for a few brief seconds. Both times, after realizing what happened, I quickly removed the battery, removed the covers and placed all of it in my food dehydrator. Left it in there for at about 18 hrs, removed and installed battery and put on charger.

Hour or so later it was back to life.

Don't know how it works on other phones, but have told this to a few friends that have had dunked theirs and it has worked for them too.

Aditional Mute Button

As I get ready to head to my favorite watering hole to watch my beloved Bears, I wonder if this could be possible.

A Madden Mute button for the remote.

Press this button and you could hear all the game but not John.

I can listen to Al Michaels all game, but Madden is as irritating to me as fingernails on a chalkboard.

Blah, Blah, Blah, Brett Favre, Brett Favre..........

ATV Maintenance

Ever seen this?

It's the carburetor intake side of a Honda Rancher 350 ATV.

Why am I here? Like to old saying goes, "If you don't use it, ya lose it". This would also apply to starting and running your ATV at least once a month. I failed to do this and ended up taking the carb off and cleaning crap out of the bowl and jets. The idle jet was so clogged with varnish, it took me over 20 minutes to clean it out. I have spent close to 4 hours removing and cleaning it and putting it back together. Seems like less time would be spent by pouring some Seafoam in the tank and running it around the yard for a few minutes.

The good news is after all the time spent on this, it came out running as good as new and I will be starting it every few weeks to prevent all of this.

Live and Learn.

Mark Twain Lake 7.30.08

Ever see close to a half a million gallons of water a second falling from a spillway?

Went over there on 7.30.08 and took a lot of pictures and video. Unfortunetly I can't figure how to upload them to youtube. Have a good one of the crowd that was there and the line of cars on each side of the road from the dam. We parked close to a half mile away and had to walk there.


The COE had at least 8 people on the observation deck that were answering each and every question that was tossed to them. It was interesting how they determined just how much water was flowing thru the gates. I was also stunned that the gates were only open about 4 feet. When questioned on how high they could go, she replied " all the way up". Wow. The whole fact filled and very informational session ended when some idiot asked " Why ya lettin' all the water out".

If I would have had one handy, I would have given it to him and said " Here's your sign"

Welcome to My World

Every since I remember, I have always been fascinated with mechanical stuff. I remember taking apart my dads VW engine and rebuilding it at the age of 14.

I have been in the beverage business since the age of 18. Started as a truck mechanic at Coca Cola and got sucked into the production and vending side of the business when I was bored and looking for stuff to do. Sometime during this, I acquired my ASE Master Mechanic certifications for automotive mechanic.

After about 9 years of that, I ventured over to Pepsi Cola as a maintenance mechanic. Spent about the same time over there until they shut down production. Bummer.

Lucky for me, Wis-Pak decided to open a production facility here and I got hired on as the Maintenance Manager. Every day there a new adventure. No two days have ever been alike. Everyday is like walking into a giant mechanical playground, there's always something to do.

Things in my world are either black or white. No Gray.

Either it works or it don't. Not kinda.

If it's not broke, it probably doesn't have enough cool features added to it yet.

Why this Blog?

I have no idea.

I have worked with a wide variety of people. Some seemingly average people have shown me things that I had no idea how they came to the correct solutions to people who I am amazed that they find the gas cap when they pull into the station.

I just think I have enough mechanical background to at least help one person out.

SO

Take this blog with a grain of salt and maybe, just maybe one thing you read may help you out. I will stick to mostly my personal experiences and stuff I have knowledge of. Trust me. I have no problem saying " I don't know".

I reserve the right to venture off on personal crap when I am bored or think it may be of general interest.

Grammar here is going to suck. I didn't score high in grammar in high school.

Just a warning.