Pull-Behind Lawn Roller

Project:
Building a 44" lawn roller that I can pull behind my lawn tractor

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

Process:
Ever since I've seeded my yard in 2009 it has been quite bumpy. Probably because the push lawnmower wheels sank into the soft top soil. Since then I've wanted to level it out and make it a bit more pleasant to walk on and mow.

My dad made a heavy-duty lawn roller out of an old water tank and filled that sucker up with concrete so it weighs about 2000lbs and makes a perfectly smooth (boccia ball quality). Although it would have been nice to make a really heavy one like that I opted for making one that can be filled with water. It's not as heavy and probably doesn't work as nicely but it's certainly easier to transport.

I've been on the lookout for a water tank and I was pricing out some old 48" long propane tanks but they wanted $70 bucks at the scrap yard and this project wasn't supposed to cost much because I didn't really "need" it...

A friend of mine who works at a plumbing store hooked me up with an old hot water tank so my son and I took it apart (always wanted to see what they looked like on the inside) and I was surprised at how large the tank actually was. There was only about an inche of polyurethane insulation, everything else was tank.

After I cut off the various protruding iron flanges off and welded the holes shut I drilled a 1-1/4" hole where I wanted to be able to fill the tank, made a tap (like in tap & die set) out of a black iron nipple, slapped an o-ring on a plastic cap and got started thinking about how I can pull it behind my lawn tractor.

As for the materials I used, a few weeks ago I burned out my treadmill (my wife had burned out the first treadmill a few years back). Back then, we replaced it with an identical Sportcraft TX390 treadmill we found on kijiji and I took the one she burned out to make a ball mill for my Home Foundry.

I still had most of the metal from the first treadmill frame lying around so I figured I could use that material with the material of the frame of the second treadmill to make a frame for the roller.

The only thing I had to buy was 5' of 1" solid round steel for the axle and two 1" bearings that were on sale for $6 bucks each at princess auto (love that store!).

A few hours of welding and it was done. Took it for a test drive on Friday and was actually able to do my entire lawn in about 15 minutes. Now it is noticeably smoother and all the rocks from the driveway I flung on the lawn during  my snow blowing are pushed into the grass now too which is a bonus...saves me from raking the lawn this year...

Videos:

Pictures:

Inspired by dad's creation

After I got rid of all the insulation and patched up the holes

All the left-over metal from the hot water heater

doing a preliminary layout of the pull mechanism

welding the two treadmill arm rests into a puller

Here's the hole I'll use to fill up the tank with water later on

The plastic cap on the right and the hardened tap made out of a 1-1/4" iron nipple

Top view of the tap

The cap with an o-ring sealing off the hole

Support splines for the axle

The axle inside of the water tank heating hole

A view a little bit further away

After the axle was welded in I filled it with concrete to give it another 50lbs weight

Filling in the concave end of the water tank (the one that was at the bottom by the burner)

At first I was going to use nuts & bolts to make the arm removable but later changed my mind

Almost done, when I realized that it didn't look very nice

I ended up filling in the gap with some more square tubing and removed the bolted on pieces

Almost done

Measuring the cross brace

Close-up of the cross brace

My little helper

Filling it with 50 gal water

He did such a good job!

The grass reminds me of Saskatoon in the summer

Tools:
Angle grinder
Measuring tape
MIG welder
Crow bar
Oxy/Acetylene torch to heat treat the tap
Screwdrivers
Knife to cut insulation
C-clamps
Drill
Socket set
Drill press
 

Materials:
Old hot water tank
5' of 1" cold rolled round steel
Two 1" bearings
Parts of the frames of two treadmills

Cost:
$28.00

Time:
4hrs

Savings:
$150.00

Conclusion:
Works like a charm

Shop Heater Repair

Project:
Fix the Reddi Heater (165,000 BTU) diesel shop heater

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

Process:
I've noticed for the last couple of times that the shop heater has been turning on/off somewhat sporadic and since it was still a bit chilly today I gave it another try to heat the shop. This time the heater was completely unusable since it kept turning on and off in about 5-10 second intervals so I figured I'd rather have a look at it now when it's fairly warm as opposed to during the next winter (no, I don't want to think about snow).

There are a couple of main components:

1. Diesel tank
2. Fan
3. Ignitor
4. Photovoltaic sensor
5. Control board

At first I thought it was the photovoltaic sensor because it was a bit loose in there and I figured the vibrations of the heater moved it off the little viewport but tightening it didn't fix it.

Next thing I thought that maybe the fuel filter was clogged up but that wasn't it either. After I tried those few things I took off the top half of the barrell and observed it while it was running and I noticed that the hot surface ignitor itself was turning on and off somewhat intermittent so I figured it must be something electrical.

I took the electrical panel off the heater and had a look underneath it and noticed that the main control module was completely covered with dust. I didn't think that was the issue but a good clean couldn't hurt. After I was done I heard a little "plop" and something fell off the main board. Upon further inspection I saw that one of the capacitors had fallen right out of the soldered board.

I've certainly never seen or heard of that happening but if that was the only cause, re-soldering the capacitors "should" fix it.

Off it came and out came the soldering gun. After a few minutes it was all soldered back together. I put the control module back in the heater, turned it on and wouldn't you know it, it worked like a charm.

Easiest fix ever. Now I just hope it won't happen again and keep working.


Videos:

Pictures:

One of the capacitor just fell off. The other one ended up coming off too

The two culprits

Close-up of the capacitors

The heater with the main board removed

A close-up of the fuel atomizer

A view from the back

Soldering the capacitors back onto the main board

Tools:
Drill
Screwdriver
Soldering gun
Air tank to blow off dust

Materials:
None

Cost:
$0.00

Time:
1hr

Savings:
$200.00

Conclusion:
So far so good

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!