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!

Windshield Washer Nozzle

Project:
Fixing our car's windshield washer nozzle

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

Process:
Melanie told me there was something wrong with the windshield washer fluid so I took it in the shop and propped open the hood. I had Nathaniel push the windshield washer lever and I quickly realized that there was some sort of leak under the hood.

After further investigation I found that the windshield washer nozzle part that hooked up to the hose was broken.

Since I hadn't actually really used the Gingery Metal Lathe for anything yet it was time to start making it useful. I put a 12" piece of 1/2" aluminum rod, turned it down to 0.300" with a groove for an o-ring. The other end was turned down to 0.250" to connect to the fluid hose. At the end I drilled an 1/8" hole through the part, pushed it into the nozzle and the hose and that was it.

Pictures:

The nozzle with the broken off part on the left

The underside of the car hood

Close-up of the hose connecting to the nozzle

The aluminum rod in the lathe

Rough-cutting the part

The part with the o-ring installed at one end

Drilling the hole for the washer fluid

Close-up of the finished part before cutting it off

The nozzle installed again

Tools:
Gingery Metal Lathe

Drill
Hacksaw
Crowbar
Needle nose pliers
Calipers

Materials:
12" of 1/2" aluminum rod

Cost:
$0.00

Time:
1hr

Savings:
Probably about $30 or $40 bucks. Not sure how much a new nozzle would cost at the dealership

Conclusion:
It seems to work fine. There's still a tiny small leak but since the washer fluid is not used all that much I think I'll accept a couple of drops per minute of using it.

Baby Gate Hinges

Project:
Fixing the baby gate hinges my son broke by slamming the gate

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

Process:
So my son had a fit and decided to slam the baby gate door so hard that the hinges broke right in half. Not sure where replacement hinges could be bought and needing the baby gate rather quickly I figured I'd use some of the left-over plastic resin I bought after the The Fix That Wasn't to make two new ones.

The process was pretty simple: make the pattern, create the mold then cast the new part except for usually I use my Propane Burner and Home Foundry to make them in aluminum but this time I used the Smooth-On two-component plastic resin.

The whole thing took about an hour and I've had the new hinges installed now for one day and it seems to have done the trick.

Pictures:

The broken hinges

Using crazy glue to temporarily fix them

Filling the cavity with playdo to strengthen cast

Preparing the mold

The alginate I used for making the mold

Universal release agent to make it easier to separate pattern and final cast

This hardens into a white plastic in 10 minutes

Pouring the alginate over the old pattern to make the mold

Letting it set for about 10 minutes

Once the cup was removed

Flipping it over reveals the pattern in the mold

Once I poured the plastic resin into the mold

The hardened resin

The rough casts revealed and the mold in the background

The new casts beside the old hinges. Note the hole is now filled in for the new hinges

After the casts were cleaned up and drilled

Ellie thinks it's the coolest thing ever

The installed baby gate with the new hinges

Close-up of the top hinge

Close-up of the bottom hinge

Tools:
Knife
Spoon
Drill
Sander
Hot glue gun

Materials:
Smooth-on alginate
Smooth-on plastic resin
3 paper cups

Cost:
$0.00

Time:
1hr

Savings:
No idea how much those brackets are

Conclusion:
Looks good. Not sure how strong they are. I guess time will tell

Winter Jacket Zipper

Project:
Replacing the zipper of my winter jacket

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

Process:
When I originally bought my winter jacket, the zipper was an area of concern because the teeth were very fine. If I had to guess where it would break first that main zipper would have been the place. So just like I predicted, it started acting up on me a while back and I knew I'd have to do something about it.

Now, winter jackets are not that expensive. I think I paid $125 bucks for this one and I really could just go buy a new one but I figured hey, why not trying to fix it. When I found out that a replacement zipper was only $9 bucks I decided to give it a try.

First I had to take the old zipper out, which was a pain in the butt, then sew the new one back in. The only thing that made it a bit tricky is that since it is a winter jacket there are various layers that had to be sewn together at the right spot. Since I don't have a commercial sewing machine and I'm not a seamstress or whatever they're called if they're guys I did one layer at a time.

I almost gave up after one half took me an hour and a half but then I calculated the savings and even if the other side took me another hour and a half, I'd still end up getting over $40/hr in actual savings for my labor so I decided to go for it even though I don't particularly enjoy sewing.

Surprisingly, the second half only took me about half an hour so for 2hrs of work and $9 bucks I have a virtually brand new jacket.

Pictures:

Diagram of fabric layers

The faulty (original) zipper

Taking the old zipper out

After one side was done

Close-up of the old and the new zipper

The top of the new zipper after one side was done

The final product; good as new

Tools:
Sewing machine
Sharp knife
Needles

Materials:
Zipper

Cost:
$8.81

Time:
2hrs

Savings:
$126.80

Conclusion:
Everything seems good and the zipper works great.