HydraSense Saline Spray Refill

Project:
Refill the HydraSense saline spray bottle

Difficulty Level (Easy, Medium, Hard, Insane):
Easy

Process:
A while back we bought some HydraSense saline nasal spray (http://hydrasense.ca/en) that was supposed to be da bomb and all natrual and such and I figured for $15 bucks a bottle it better be. Surprisingly it actually worked quite well to clear out the sinuses and with this nasty bug going around lately we've found renewed use for the spray. However, it was getting low in its miracle solution and I most certainly wasn't gonna spend another $15 bucks for 135ml of sea water so I figured it would be worth trying to refill the bottle.

After reading the bottle it clearly stated that it contains 100% sea water. Well what a rip-off! Since I had some sea salt in our spices cabinet all I had to do was find out what percentage of sea water was actual salt. Since Google is such a faithful friend of mine it didn't take long to find that 1L of sea water contains 35g of salt.

Doing a little math (here's for you students: stay in math class!!!) I calculated that 200ml of water (one fifth of a liter) plus 7g (one fifth of 35g) of sea salt would make up 100% pure sea water.

All I had to do is boil all the potentially nasty bugs out of the tap water for a few minutes, add the salt, load up a syringe with some left-over rubber o-rings from my cappuccino maker project (Take 1, Take 2 and Take 3) and re-fill the bottle.

Le voila! Saved $15 bucks for exactly...wait for it...ZERO dollars! Take that HydraSense!!!

Pictures:

Measuring 7g of sea salt

Adding 200ml of water

Sticking a couple of o-rings on a syringe I had from feeding our babies

Filling 'er up, 20ml at a time

Tools:
Pot
Mini scale
Syringe
O-rings

Materials:
7g sea salt
200ml tap water

Cost:
$0.00

Time:
20 minutes

Savings:
$15 bucks

Conclusion:
Works like a charm

Electric Pencil Sharpener

Project:
To fix my wife's electric pencil sharpener

Difficulty Level (Easy, Medium, Hard, Insane):
Easy

Process:
My wife's pencil sharpener stopped working and after a new set of batteries did not do the trick I figured I'd have to take it down to my office to have a closer look at it.

Once I took it apart I put in the batteries (held together with an elastic band) and tried to make contact but I just simply didn't have enough hands so I figured I'd whip out my DC power supply and hook it up so I'd have enough fingers to make the necessary contacts.

I saw the sparks when I connected the contacts but the motor still wouldn't turn so I gave it a little boost with my fingers and it started right up so I figured it probably just needed some oil. Using a trick I've learned during my lexmark printer maintenance course waaaaay back in the 1990's I put some oil in a syringe and oiled the little motor through the two small holes at the top (see video below). That seemed to have done the trick.

I put it all back together but when I put in the pencil it barely moved so I hooked it back up to the power supply to try it but even with a solid power supply it didn't work so I had to concede that the motor was at the end of its life.

Although I wish I could have fixed it and I spent about half an hour for nothing I still wanted to to do up a blog sharing my unsuccessful stories as well as the ones that pan out because in all reality, some things just cannot be fixed, or are just simply not worth fixing at all cost.

Videos:

Pictures:

The small but convenient pencil sharpener

Taken all apart

When you stick in the pencil without the case on the copper strips do NOT make contact

But when the case is on, they do

The hidden gears when I tried getting it to work with the 4 batteries

After I ended up hooking up the power supply the motor would start turning if I gave it a boost

Putting some oil into the motor to try to get it to un-stick

Tools:
Screwdriver
Syringe with oil
Power supply

Materials:
A little bit of oil

Cost:
$0.00

Time:
45 min

Savings:
$0

Conclusion:
Couldn't fix it. Or rather, chose not to continue to fix it at all cost because a new one is only about $20 bucks.

Sony CyberShot (DSC-TX10) Battery Door Latch

Project:
Fix the battery door latch for Melanie's Sony CyberShot DSC-TX10 camera.

Difficulty Level (Easy, Medium, Hard, Insane):
Medium

Process:
The little plastic latch that holds the battery door compartment shut broke off over the years of usage and a replacement door was about $50 bucks online. So I decided to see if I can fix it for free and it worked!

The first thing and also the trickiest was to take off the little plastic trim around the camera. Since it was also just plastic I didn't want to go too fast and possibly break it so it took me a little longer than it would take me the second time around.

Once I was able to remove all the plastic from the metal part of the battery compartment door I went to my shop and cut up a small piece (4mm by 5mm) of 18 gauge sheet metal, bent it a little bit with some pliers and then brazed it to the battery compartment door. After putting all the plastic trims back on it was as good as new.

Pictures:

The temporary fix until I had some time to do it properly

The piece of plastic that was broken off was at the top of the latch

Taking the trim and cover off

Another picture of all the pieces that came off

The little piece of sheet metal brazed to the door latch

And from the other side

Once the orange water seal and the black plastic trim was put back on

All done

Tools:
Small screwdriver set
Swiss army knife
Pliers
Welding torch

Materials:
small piece of 18 gauge sheet metal
a little bit from a bronze brazing rod

Cost:
$0.00

Time:
2hrs

Savings:
$50.00

Conclusion:
Works great and it definitely won't break EVER again!