Laughable But Awful Instructions

I "love" 😖 the instructions that come with some equipment.  I have an battery self-propelled Ryobi mower (which I actually do love).  Nice quiet walk-behind and the batteries last pretty long.  Well, some of the lawn was covered deeply in leaves.  I usually just use the riding mower to shred them into the lawn, but I am redoing my compost bin and wanted to add the leaves to it.  

Between the 2 mowers, it looked like the electric one was easiest to attach a collection bag to, so last night I got the parts out of the shed and opened the manual.  There is a metal rod frame and a mesh cover.  The cover has some plastic attachments like slit plastic tubing to hold the bag to the frame.  The instctions were fairly simple.  

Basically, just turn the cover upside down, slide in the frame upside down, and slip the plastic attachments over the frame.   Yeah right!  If the manual was alive, it would have cackled evilly as I read that.  

It took 45 minutes of frustrating effort to do that one simple thing.  I finally had to use a screwdriver as a wedge to pry the attachment open, a plier to squeeze the tubing partly onto the frame, and that was just the first inch!  I needed a clamp to hold that in place while I did the next inch.  There were about 24" in 5 pieces.

When I finally got one section done, I had to use a rubber mallet to really complete the attachment tubing firmly.  I used some BAD WORDS...

I did get better at it on the other sections.  As with most one-time jobs, I was pretty good at it by the time I was done.  If the mesh cover was 1/8th" larger, it would have been so much easier.  I suppose Ryobi saves $1 per cover not adding that 1/8"...  And of course my time and effort is not an expense to them.

I'm sorry I didn't take pictures, but it wouldn't really have shown much of the trouble it was to attach.  Nor would it have been possible most of the time, since I needed both hands to hold everything in place while doing the work.

On the other hand, it was a fine tight attachment when completed, and I won't have to do it again.  I hope the cover lasts as long as the mower.  All that was needed was to attach the collection bag.  But it was dark by then so I decided to tackle that this morning (dreading some complicated troublesome attachment procedure).

So, this morning I took the collection bag and manual to the shed to see how bad that might be.  It went right on as simple as you please!  Lift the back cover of the mower, set the bottom front of the bag on a little ledge on the mower, lift the back slightly, and two 1" rods on the bag frame slip into 2 metal slots on the mower.  

That part was very nicely-designed!  And I will compliment the design for another reason.  There is a carrying hand on the bag frame.  It is placed perfectly.  When I lifted the filled bag off the mower, the bag tilted back slightly as to not spill any of the contents.  Someone had to have done some testing on that!

Tomorrow:  Using the mower on the leaves and getting them to the compost bin...

Dining Room Table

 I bought a new dining room table and 4 matching chairs.  Self-assembly.  A couple reviewers at Amazon said assembly was horrible, but most said it wasn't too bad.  So keeping in mind that I've built a deck, a fence, and a shed among other things, I figured it wouldn't be a problem.

It was horrible!

You have to know something about assembly to truly understand, but I'll give some examples.  The whole table is assembled with a hex-head wrench.

It is a nice little tool when designed for proper use.  There are bolts designed for hex-head use (as opposed to slot or phillips head screws.  It doesn't slip.  But I emphasize "when used properly".

The table arrived with all the right parts.  Tabletop, legs to assemble and attach, and under-table cross braces.  The design and support structure is very solid.  I could tell that from looking at the various views online.  I'm not an engineer, but my Dad was and I didn't escape teenhood without some experience.

It took nearly a day to seperate the parts.  The box seems to have been mislabled "this side up".  There were parts to wouldn't separate.  Had I opened the box on the other side, it would have been easier.  Maybe it was my error...

\But iIt's the way the parts have to be assembled that was horrible.  There were holes where you have to feed a bolt into and tighten them.  They were designed badly.  You have to fit the hex wrench into the bolt (technically a "machine screw" if you care) and turn it.  1/4 turn at a time forever...  

And in the dark.  You can't get at it and shine a light in any way.  Your hand HAS to cast a shadow.  So it is all by feel.  And the fit is tight.  And sometimes the bolts locked up from poor fit.  I solved THAT by driving all the bolts with a socket wrench before I assembled the pieces, but that was just more wasted time.

The table had to be assembled upside down.  Damn it weighs a ton (or so it seemed).  The leg assemblies took a frustrating hour each.  Fitting the hex wrench for each 1/4 turn was difficult.  Each of 4 of the legs seemed to take forever and I had to take "frustration" breaks.  But I eventually got them together.

Had the assembly been easier, I would have remembered to take more pictures, but in frustration, pictures were the last thing on my mind.

That meant attaching the assembled legs to the upside-down tabletop.  That part was easier.  I had cut off 1/2 inch of a same-size hex wrench (good hacksaw) because it fit into a socket wrench socket.  That allowed faster turning when there was free access to the bolts.

And then I could add the cross braces between the legs..  That took some pushing but it worked out well.  I eventually had the table completely constructed, but still upside down...

The male friend across the street had a knee replacement a couple months ago and a 2nd one scheduled in a couple weeks. The lady mentioned recently she had an arm-sprain.  No one else to ask for help.  So no one else to ask for help.

I was worried that, if I tipped the table up on one side of laegs, they might break.  After all, sideways isn't what they are designed for.

I figured out many ways I might possibly get the table upright.  But the one that seemed most secure was to clamp the heck out of all the weak spots..

First, I had to get the upside-down table up on its side.  That was hard enough.  Not much gripping area at the edge (flush to the floor).  I finally got a small piece of scrap board and lifted the tabletop enough to shove the scrap under.  From there, I could reach far enough under to get a decent grip and turn it on a side position.  Hurray!

Then I needed to turn it from the side to upright.  That was what really worried me.  All the weight of the table  would be on 2 legs.  But that's why I had all the braces and clamps.  It did occur to me that when I turned the table from side to upright, the far legs were going to have a sudden shock of weight.  

So I taped styrofoam under the legs to aborb that!  And the edge of the table top was no more easier to lift sideways that flat.  So I had to do the "lift and scrap wood push under" again.  It took a few tries but I got it.  Full hand-room under the edge...

I was pretty much worn out by that time.  But there was only one more 90 degree turn to go.  One more HEAVY lift (squat, lift from the legs and stand up), and the table was upright, undamaged... 

Removed all the clamps (which I credit for the non-damage to the legs) and the styrofoam that eased the sudden weight of the table hitting the floor.

And here is the table upright.  The instructions said it requires 2 people.  Yeah, did it by myself...  I'm ornery that way.

I have 4 matching chairs to assemble.  I hope that goes easily.  Ay least they are each lighter to handle, LOL!

The table has a center leaf.  I probably won't use it, but I wanted the option.  A center leaf table is a lot more sturdy than a side leaf table.  My previous dining table had weak side extentions.  More about that next time...

Headphones

I like to watch TV while I am am working in the kitchen.  But I also make a lot of noise in there (running water, etc) which overwhelms the TV sound.  And that's even with running the TV through the stereo speakers.

So I researched wireless headphones.  Most got poor ratings, but mostly for not trnsmitting through rooms walls.  Well, that wasn't my concern (I'm still in direct line-of-sight to the TV).  So I bought a well-rated wireless headphone.

I couldn't get it to work.  There were 2 ways to connect them.  One was  direct from the headphone plug to the back of the wireless headphone station.  The other was from the back of the headphone station to the A/V controller unit (whatever you call the device that lets you select the various other devices like TV/Stereo, DVD player, etc). 

The cable to plug into the device controller headphone unit was too small though the audio in/out fit perfectly.  No arrangement of plugs allowed the audio-out connection to work.  So I needed either an adapter plug to fit betwee the small plug and the headphone plug.  I hope that makes sense.  I assumed there was an adapter plug to fit from th small headphone plug to the larger one.  

So I went to Radio Shack, of course.  They opened and tried several adaptor plugs which didn't work.  I suggested maybe there was a cable that matched all the plugs.  The salesperson at Radio Shack didn't think so. 

I found it on the shelves myself.  Am I the only one how thinks Radio Shack personnel aren't as experienced as they used to be?  I had to find a rather obvious cable MYSELF!  At Radio Shack!

So back at home, I plugged it in.  It worked perfectly.  The wireless headphones work great.  But nothing is perfect.  Plugging the headset in cuts off the stereo speakers.  Worse, my radio won't play whether the headphone plug is in or out.  I'll have to explore that.

But I have to say that while the dishwasher is running and I an running sink water to clean dishes or get hot water, I CAN hear what is on the TV.

Small victory...

Different Day, Same Subject, New Problem

Two Garden Enclosure Fun Surprises...

1.  When I assembled the PVC pipe frame, the pipes jammed into the connecting fittings so tight I couldn't even pull them out again.  No need to cement the top pipes together.  And the rest of them sat with gravity.  The only pieces I cemented were at the bottom, because they merely snapped on to other pipes and had upward pressure from attaching the chicken wire tightly.  And with the sides all closed with taut chicken wire, the top pipes couldn't very well come loose.

RIGHT...

2.  The enclosure is 20'x20'.  So five 4' wide rolls of chicken wire had to fit across the top exactly!  5x4=20, right?

RIGHT...
 -----------------------------------
Dang I'm stupid sometimes.  Well, OK  "inexperienced".  I continue to try to fight "Murphy's Laws".  It's not that I don't recognize their reality, it more that I never see ahead of time when they will apply.  Actually, that may be the secret of Murphy's Law; it WHEN you don't think it can apply that it does...

Take the item #2.  The 4' chicken wire rolls are, after checking, 4'11".  The 10' PVC pipes are anywhere from 10' to 10' 1/2".  And each PVC connector adds about 1/4".  The result is that the chicken wire comes about 5" short of covering the top.

OK, a little thinking, and I realize that if I leave the gap at the edges, I can cover the gap with the chicken wire coming down the sides by starting 4" over the top.  If that's not obvious to picture, just trust me.

So to do that, I have to slide all the wire over the top  along the top PVC pipes.  The first roll I tried to slide, one of the pipes came loose and fell to the ground.  With the weight of the wire on them, it took me 15 minutes of struggling to get it back up, and I realized I would have to cement all the top PVC pipes after all.

Most of the pipes were in solid, but I wanted to cement all the joints.  So I had to tap most of them loose with a rubber mallet, apply the cement, then tap them tight again.  Half the effort was moving the stepladder around in tight areas.

It only took 2 hours, but I resented every minute of it.  It was 2 hours that I THOUGHT I was going to spend making the final tightening on the chicken wire from the top to the bottom.  So that I could start the last part of the project setting the screen door in place.

And that wasn't the last.  I had been fastening the chicken wire with nylon ties.  Those are thin ribbed straps that hold tight once pulled.  In fact they are SO tight, they won't slide along the PVC pipe.   So to make the chicken wire move along the pipes, I had to cut most of them loose.

When I got that done, I stopped for the day in relative disgust.  Fortunately, I had gone grocery shopping, so the fridge was full of my favorite foods.  I pan fried a chicken thigh, cooked corn on the cob, steamed asparagus and made a light cheese sauce for it, and made a very complex tossed salad.  With Zinfandel (and I don't mind saying I had several glasses)...

But I'll be back at it tomorrow!  Just my luck, Saturday and Sunday are forecast to be hot and humid...

Trailer Pictures!

Sometimes, it is just best to show the methods and final results...

Obsessive featherboards...

Dado blades...

The tablesaw

Output, LOL!

Sides...

Capped tops and back panel...

Sad part.  I just couldn't get the back corners to match.  After a bad measurement, that was what I have to live with.

But the whole thing is going to be functional for the next 20 years, so...  OK.

Garden Watering Stand

I like to keep the garden watered, but it's boring.  It's wasteful to use an oscillating sprinkler on the raised veggie beds because of the walkways between them, and the flowerbeds are too narrow for one.  It is too boring to just stand there and water all the beds by hand.  I have drip irrigation hoses, but they all broke off at the raised brass couplings under the weight of the snow 2 winters ago (haven't quite figured out how to repair them).

I had developed a rather convenient way to water them all a patch at a time using a fat hose nozzle and a spading fork.  I stabbed the fork in the ground abut 10' away and nestled the fat hose nozzle (shower setting) in the fork's D handle.  But that required getting the garden fork firmly in the ground at each 6' section or raised bed.  Naturally, if I needed to water the beds, the lawn soil was rather hard to penetrate with the fork.

I needed a better way.  My first thought was a pole with a clamp on top and a flat "X" at the bottom with spikes to "step" into the lawn.  I couldn't find any parts like that, and I'm not a welder.  Then I looked at my camera tripod.  It looked a bit flimsy, needed some kind of attachment at the top, and I wasn't sure how waterproof it was.  But a tripod seemed the way to go.

I built one using pressure treated wood and stainless steel hardware.  The PT wood is 2x2"deck balusters. The tripod is designed with 1 forward and 2 back legs.  It is 2 back legs to resist the backwards force of the water and the weight of the hose.

The balusters come with pointed ends.  I wanted the points for the bottoms, but I wanted flat tops to attach a nozzle platform.  So I cut off the tops of each of the 3 balusters.  Then I cut 3" off the 2 back legs to use to widen the attachment surface.  Two pieces of scrap wood added some width.  It was all glued and screwed to the front leg.

Next, I used a tapering jig on the tablesaw to cut angles for the 2 back legs to attach to the front leg.  They are shorter because I used 3" to make the top attachment surfaces, but also because the front needs to be longer to create an upwards angle for the nozzle platform.  That will make more sense in the last pictures.  I can't give an exact angle for the cut (I really just overlayed one on the other and eyeballed the "right" spread).  It looks about 30 degrees though.

I needed to drill a hole through the 3 legs for an axle bolt.  I rigged up some stops and supports on my drill press for the 2 angled back legs.  The front leg just needed a spacer to account for the platform support.

It looks like this when the bolt and nut is put through all 3 legs.   This holds the legs all at the angles.  But I also wanted to be able to store it easily for the winter.  That meant being able to collapse it.  So I took the back legs back to the drill press and lifted them up slightly to angle the holes. 

I may not be explaining that well.  To store it, I wanted the 3 legs to compress flat to each other, and the lengthened hole allowed that.  And so that the bolthead and wing nut (for tightening securely on a flat surface, I used a forstener bit to make an angled hole the size of the flat washers.  I don't have a picture of that, but it will be obvious when/if you make one of these yourself.

Notes:  1, The washers between the legs were removed later.  I realized I DIDN'T want the legs to slide easily when being set up.  2,  The spacer washers below the wing nut are there because the wing nut catches on the wood before the bolt is tight.  3, Use a bolt with threads the whole length.  The bolts with about 1" of threads don't have enough thread length.

Here is the tripod in the storage position.  That's what I mean by "compressing flat" and why the back legs have elongated holes. 

Here is the tripod set up, minus the hose nozzle platform on top...  You can see that with the front leg longer, it creates an upwards angle.

Here is the finished tripod.  A piece of PT board is glued an screwed to the platform support on the front leg (the screws are countersunk under the wand nozzle).  Copper clamp-downs hold the wand in place with pan-head exterior screws.  A wand nozzle is much easier to attach than a standard nozzle.  The wand, BTW, has the most uniform spray of any nozzle I have ever tried.  This brand is Melcor; others may be just as good.

To relieve hose-weight pressure on the wand, I attached an angled  hose connector.  I have quick-connect attachments on all my hoses and attachments.

And here is the watering tripod in action!  Adjusting the angle of the front leg easily adjusts the angle of spray.

It's easy to move from spot to spot, stores nicely, and should last decades!

New Cat Tree

We have a new cat tree in the house.  Actually, I assembled it several weeks ago, but with one thing and another (mostly Ayla's surprise medical problems), there wasn't wasn't a good time for the cats to post it on their own blog.  So I held off posting about it here until they could.

Here it is each step of the way:

The Aquarium

I mentioned weeks ago I had a problem with the fresh water "30 gallon high" aquarium.  It popped a fracture in the glass and leaked slowly.  I spend a long afternoon dragging stuff out of a deep closet to finally get at an old "20 gallon long aquarium" (same base size as 30 gal high).  I successfully moved all the fish to the 20 gallon long sitting on the floor (so I could siphon the water down).

I emptied the 30 gallon high of water, took out the plastic plants, and scooped out the gravel, and let it dry for days.   Then I bought a silicon aquarium sealer and applied it.  I let it dry for several days.  When I refilled it, it leaked again.

I drained it, let it dry, dried it mechanically  with paper towels and left the vaccuum cleaner exhaust blowing on it for hours, waited a few days, and re-sealed it.  It leaked again.  So I gave up and bought a new 30 gal high aquarium.  A 30 gallon high glass aquarium is not light.  I struggled to get it into the car from Petco (they had the vastly better price for the same aquarium).

I spent an hour removing all the plants from the old aquarium and scooping the gravel out.  Square food containers do a wonderful job of that!   It took some lifting to get the old leaking aquarium off the stand and onto a chair.  Then the new one in place.  I spent several minutes making sure the new aquarium was positioned properly on the stand.  That was after removing the background sheet from the old one and attaching it to the new tank.  It's just a colored sheet, but it gives a sense of depth to the tank.

So I filled up the new tank slowly, watching for any leaks at each rise in water level.  I didn't see any.  Sand first with square food container.  Then water, 2 qts at a time.  Man that is tedious.  A 2 qt pitcher takes 30 fills to get 1/2 way up!

But at least I could put the plastic plants back in at that point.  At least it looked better this time than the last.  I grouped the several styles better.  But having arranged the plants in the gravel, I couldn't just randomly pour new water in from a pitcher. Water-force too strong that way.  So I filled up a 5 gallon bucket on the top  and siphoned the water in slowly.   I filled the upper bucket continuously until it neared the top. 

I had an 12" long air bubbler working on the bottom to recirculate the water while the chlorine got evaporated out.  I remembered I had some powder that claimed to eliminate chlorine, chloromate/chloromine, and ammonia immediately, so I added some of that.  But I will still wait til tomorrow to add the fish back.  The old an new aquaria are both at room temperature right now so the fish won't suffer any temperature shock.  But room temp is too low for them in the long term.  As soon as the fish are transferred back to the new aquarium, I will raise the temp 1 degree per day to get the tank temp up to 76 where I think they do best.  I know, some people say 78 degrees, but they live longer at slightly cooler temps.

It will be great to have the fishtank working again.

But I have to tell you something that made me laugh about getting the new tank home.

I found the fine print of the guarantee on a small sticker inside the tank, facing away from view...

1.  They specified that the 5 year warranty only applied to their tanks on their own brand of stands.    What are the odds of that?  My aquarium stand is 50 years old and as solid as rock.  No new company builds them that solid anymore.  But it invalidates the warranty.

2.  They also demand that "the aquarium has not been lifted by the frame"...  Um, do you know any other way to transport one from store to stand other than handling the frame?  At some point, don't you HAVE to lift an aquarium onto a stand?  But there goes the warranty.  Who writes these things?

Idiots...   LOL!

Seedling Light Stand, Part 1

A while back, I mentioned I planned to build a better seedling light stand.  The current one has only a 2 fluorescent bulb fixture per shelf, and even with good daylight bulbs, I find the plants get leggy.  I found 4 bulb fixtures at a decent price and bought a couple, thinking I could put two 2 bulb fixtures on the other shelves.  I planned to make it entirely of 1/2" plywood, 18 or 16" deep and 5 feet long to easily accommodate the 4' fluorescent fixtures.  I planned to attach cleats to the sides to hold the shelves.  The light fixtures would be screwed right up into the plywood shelves.  The shelves would be spaced at increasing distances so that growing plants could be moved to shelves further from the lights as they grew.  Simple basic construction.

It was a good plan.  I wish I had followed it...

But I saw an ad for rigid steel frame shelving at a really great price.  It was 4' wide, 2' deep and 6' tall.  Sounded great.  The shelf supports were adjustable in 1" increments and the shelves themselves were 1/2" recycled material that could support 800 lbs per shelf.  I measured the 4 bulb fixtures carefully and measured the floor display model.  It seemed they would fit right under the shelves perfectly!  It promised "easy assembly" (which, for its original purpose, was true).  I bought it. 

It weighed a ton!  Well, not literally "a ton" but I couldn't even pull the box off the stack due to the weight and friction.  I had to get a store person to help.  The top box was broken open (probably items missing).  The 2nd was fine.  We got it on a flatbed cart.  He assured me that there were outside people to help me get it in the car.  I planned to take the box apart from in the car at home.

Needless to say, no outside person ever became available.  In fairness, they were there, but backed up helping other people.  I finally did manage to wrestle the box into the car.  I'm not weak, but I'm not a weight-lifter either.  Fortunately, I do know some simple mechanical principles...

But I should have known I was off to a bad start!

Next, assembling the stand...