mmmmmm bacon!

i know some of y'all out there in cellarland know how to change your own oil in your vehicle. but for those who don't and think they might wanna try? here's a step by step for them. the riggamaroo is basically the same for all cars/trucks. locate the drain plug on the oil pan (the lowest point on the pan has the bolt (see pics). anyway, it can be a messy job so make sure you have a catch pan for the used oil. you can buy them at any auto parts store or even at wal-mart. when done take the used oil back to the auto parts store for recycling. i didn't show every step here, my fault, but i showed how to do the under body work. i feel confident that you can figure out what hole to pour the new oil in. just make sure you know how much oil to pour in. cars/trucks take different amounts. depends on the engine size. read your owners manual.

oh the hammer and screwdriver were for old filter removal because i could not find my filter wrench. i was going to red neck it and stab the old filter with the screwdriver to knock it loose but i didn't have to. i was able to remove it with just my hand. now when you replace the oil filter it's a good idea to pour some of the new oil into the new filter. also, lubricate the rubber gasket on the filter with the new oil.....

once you've replaced the drain bolt (plug) and put the new filter on, your set to go ahead and put the new oil in. the oil cap is clearly labeled under the hood. also check the dip stick as well, by dip stick i mean the oil dip stick, ok? not me! make sure you have enough oil in your motor to operate safely. happy trails.

Always double check when the old filter comes off the rubber comes with it.

good point Bruce.

Also, what to do with the used oil? like i mentioned above, take it to the auto parts store. down here, they take it for free. not sure about other places around the country though.

Burn it in the garage heater.;)

this was actualy last sunday ,
Garage shelves were a Bit rusted out ,
so Out with the old
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8141/7...1f1f3831_b.jpg
Photo233 by zippyt, on Flickr
And in with the new
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7255/7...d8a608a7_b.jpg
Photo234 by zippyt, on Flickr
and the obligatory junk pic
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8024/7...d30166da_b.jpg
Photo232 by zippyt, on Flickr

Still not totaly sorted but we are getting there

The blurring effect makes it look - - - worse?

It is VERY important to do these steps in this order.

Trust me.

:smack:

Heh... my drain plug has a very slow leak. We knew this already from the large stain on our driveway.

At our last oil change, the mechanic noted that they had replaced it with a larger one to bandaid the problem, but gravely warned me that it was "only going to last 3 or 4 more oil changes."

You mean... a year? On a car with 170,000 miles, that we don't even know if it's going to make it another year? Forgive me if I don't put my doom face on.

only the last time.

So Tree Fae and I volunteered for Maker Faire here in KC today, and I met this guy who I'd seen on Pawn Stars trying to sell this very robot. Turns out he's from the KC area. I'd always wondered just how produced that Pawn Stars was, and I asked the guy about it. He confirmed what I had always figured...that it is totally scripted and produced. In the case of he and his robot, he had emailed the producers eight months before he finally was filmed, and was told to show up on a prearranged date to conduct his "transaction". He was interesting to talk to.

That explains why there's nobody around when they're negotiating, and why Chumley hasn't been fired.
I've always wondered if shows like Pawnstars, Orange County Choppers, and Pickers, get paid to do it or just promises of increased business and t-shirt sales.

I'm sure the principals get paid. But yeah, Gold and Silver Pawn Shop is now a tourist destination because of the show.

As a worker at a pawn shop I can confirm this theory

There are two things that give it away. One is that the cameras obviously can't wait around all day for people with interesting things to sell. They go out and find things to be on the show and come back and video them.

Two is that people with interesting things to sell do not sell them to pawn shops.

If you look around Youtube you can find a video of Rick working his shop before Pawn Stars and it does not look anything like it does on the History channel. It looks like a pawn shop.

The truth is that the History channel wanted to have actual ratings, and certainly noticed that Antiques Roadshow gets big ratings (on a channel that claims to not be about ratings but actually is). How can you have Antiques Roadshow but not obviously have it be Antiques Roadshow?

So they crow-barred antique Historical items into it to justify it being on History, a channel that claims to be about History but actually is not. And then it worked, so now there are copycat shows such as Storage Wars and Pickers that are also Antiques Roadshow but, you know, not Antiques Roadshow. There are the items, the stories, the Lotto-mentality money happening, but no mandolins playing so you know it is not on PBS.

And they are all fake! People would not negotiate on camera. It's all fake. Ironically, Antiques Roadshow can claim to be unique and special and thus justify its existence on PBS because it's not *totally* fake, only partly fake.

Spot on, Toad. I still enjoy the show, though.

Other cool things at Maker Faire KC...

A nice art bike ala old school sci fi Mars ships...and...anyone remember what The Prisoner drove?

that's totally cool guys!

here is a week ago last sunday. i'm only just now posting them.

As y'all know i worked the go kart track for a better part of two years while looking for a job back in engineering and from previous posts in this thread you know how much work Bobby (and I when i worked for him) has put in there making improvements. well Bobby put in a third track and just opened it up to the public about a month ago.

we finally got up there to take some pictures for his website and to hang on the wall at the track. now taking pictures of the track from the air is to say the least, challenging. why? Houston Intercontinental Airport is right there. i mean right there as in jets were diverted around us!

(oh the pics were cloudy because of the windows)

it was all safe mind you, i had called Tracon (houston approach control) prior to getting up in the air and got permission to get within what's called the "Houston Class B" airspace and within spitting distance of the big airport.

when we got to the track and started our orbit i started snapping pictures as fast as i could with my nikon while talking to Houston tower and fighting with Bobby over the rudder because he kept putting the wing strut right in my frame of view. this is almost what it was like:

Bob: "HEY! get your foot off the rudder!"
Me: "NO! you either fly the plane with the ailerons & rudder..."
Houston: "N9568L traffic, twelve o'clock, boeing 747 climbing through 1,000"
Me: "and keep that strut out of (roger Houston, have the traffic in sight) my way or i'm..."
Houston: "use caution 68L, wake turbulence"
Me: "gonna operate the rudder! (roger, we're ready for it) now what's it gonna be?"

i know, hard to follow but that's something you get used to up there. listening to the radio and talking at the same time. needless to say, it was a blast. here's a few pics. one of the airport as we were passing, another of an RJ jet nearby and then a pic of the track from the north and one from the south

:notworthy:

Awesome, plt!

Wow, great pics! Having 747s thundering by close enough to make wake turbulence warnings necessary, though ... yikes. :eek:

Verry Cool , witch track is new ??

thanks y'all, it was a blast. wake turbulence isn't so bad as long as you know what to do if you encounter it. i've been flipped upside down from mountain eddy currents before. kinda similar.

that one right there! no! next to that one! no not that one, the other one!

Oh i see that one right there ,
over behind that other one ,

That lighter-coloured track looks NUTSO FUN!

I totally guessed the wrong track was the new one. I thought it was the roughly triangular shaped track.

That sounds way too stressful for me. It looks like you were right in the flight path of the airport. Gah!

I've been away for a few days.

I went with my son's Webelos den to scout camp in the mountains of Virginia. It was a crazy experience. Lots of mahem and boys being boys running around and yelling and having fun. It was a blast.

This is Goshen Virginia. It's owned by the National Capitol Area Council of the Boy Scouts. The land was purchased decades ago by the heiress of the Post cereal company and donated to the Boy Scouts.

So here's where I slept for 3 nights. It was freaking cold at night, and there was little to keep the bugs out. But they weren't bad at all. My tent mate had to leave after the first night, so I got a tent to myself for the last two nights.
Attachment 39307

This was the swim area. Very scenic. In the time I was there, there was only swimming on the first day, and that was just to pass the swim test. The other days, we were busy with other activities. My son is still there, and it's supposed to hit 100, so they better let the kids go swimming today.
Attachment 39308

Here's the dining hall. What a freaking zoo! The food wasn't bad, but it was so loud and crowded. Almost 300 people there this week. All eating at once. Since we went to the dining hall 3 times a day, it was a big part of the experience.
Attachment 39309

Tuesday, we went for a hike in the morning. It was supposed to be a mile long, but was actually 5 miles long. We got some bad information from the leaders, and I felt bad because I brought water, but no snacks for the kids I was responsible for. Oh well. Very nice hike though.
Attachment 39310

That afternoon, the kids did archery and BB guns. Our den went last, and there were extra slots, so I got to shoot a BB gun for about 5 minutes. I hadn't shot one in 30 years, and had never shot from a prone position. it was really uncomfortable and felt all wrong. But looking at the pictures my son took of me, I can see that I should have been lying at a slight angle to the target instead of facing it directly. That would have fixed everything. Next time. (I still got several bulls eyes.)
Attachment 39311
This was our fishing spot. We spent two evenings here after dinner. It was spectacular and so quiet and peaceful, and the setting sun lit up the distant mountain range beautifully.
Attachment 39312
The morning before I had to leave, we did a hike up to the top of the mountains you can see from the fishing spot. There's a nice viewing rock up there. What you can't see in this picture is the 300 other people who had hiked up there that same morning.
Attachment 39313
I enjoyed this scout camp a lot, and was sorry to go, but it's clear that it's a lot more fun to do things as just our den of 12 boys than to be thrown in with a group of 300. But the benefit of the large group is all the activities that they have for you.

that's the original track. reason it looks so dark is it gets 2 coats of tar seal every year. the new one is just plain asphalt without sealant.

@zen: yeah that's the half mile track (the other two are a quarter mile). it's loads of fun unless you work there! people can't seem to stay on the track so you have to go out there and get them going again. the one's that do it on purpose get booted back over to the "kiddie track" as we called it


Glatt? that looked like a blast! i bet y'all had a large time! great pics dude!

That place, that lake, looks so peaceful...I just want to go there and relax for like a thousand days.

Sheesh I need a vacation.

Well this is a combination of a few days of work in my garage workshop. I had this older style Ryobi plunge router that I seldom use because I have a nice new Hitachi model and I also had an old metal framed table sitting around so I decided to make a router table that could come in handy should I ever get around to redoing my kitchen and making my own cabinets and doors.

Image 1. The table which I had to cut down in size since it was bigger than the 24 x 32 inch top. I also added some supports for some shelves which will help firm it up.

Image 2. The table with shelves and top in trial positions. I then took it outside and painted it with fresh black spray paint. The top will be 1 sheet of 3/4" birch plywood laminated to 1 3/4" sheet of laminate covered particle board. The laminate makes it easy to slide the stock across it.

Image 3. The insert which is 3/8 aluminum plate and is about 9 x 11 inches. I traced it to a scrap of birch ply and cut that out and then sanded it until the insert plate slid in smoothly. This is my pattern for routing the laminate top.

Image 4. I used construction adhesive spread with a notched trowel and then used just about every clamp in my shop to squeeze them together and left overnight.

Ok so the next morning I removed all of the clamps. The insert plate came with some pre-drilled holes for non plunge type routers like Porter Cable which are more common but like I said, I had this nice one not being used and it is a more powerful one then my Hitachi. I removed the small cover plate from the bottom of my router and discovered I had room to drill out the holes and tap new ones to allow for a bigger machine screw. I then matched the adapted router base up with the insert plate and drilled holes on my drill press. I went with a nice countersunk machine bold that is tightened with a allen wrench.

1. and 2. Attaching the router base to the insert
3. I added a locking nut so the machine screw can't accidentally vibrate loose.
4. Here is a closeup of the pattern cutting bit on my Hitachi router. I used my sabre saw to cut the area that would not be needed and would leave a lip to be cut with a rabbet. I then clamped my plywood pattern and used the pattern bit to cut the rabbet. The ball bearing above the cutting tips runs along the pattern. It took 2 passes to get the correct depth.

I purposefully left the lower piece of plywood on the table top slightly larger, about 1/8" and used a longer pattern bit to trim it to get a perfectly smooth edge. Then I attached some 1/2 pine to give a nice solid edge and hide the ugly view of the particle board and plywood. I used glue and my brad nailer to attach it and then used a small rounding bit on my trim router to round off the edge and the corners.

1. Edges attached and smoothed out.
2. Insert plate installed with router attached and bit just protruding.
3. View from underneath showing the router hanging upside down.

The IT tech in me said: "Why on earth would someone need to build a whole table for one router?"

Then I saw the last photo and, after 10 seconds on Google, said: "Oh."

Nice handiwork.

look very solid. That will be handy. Now for the fence!

Thanks, and yes it does have specific use beyond what most hobbyists need such as making the cuts for cabinet doors to be assembled.

I still have to get it wired up with a central safety type switch, add some wheels and construct a fence and a slot for a miter gauge to move along. I'll also probably add some type of vacuum hookup since routers make a lot of fine saw dust.

Very nice work, Chris.

A friend sent me some drawings for one he built (about a year ago)
I am yet to build mine. Now seeing what you've done, I may incorporate some of what you've done into the plans.

Nice, they are very handy. :thumb:

today i went and flew bobby's new plane. A Vans RV-6A. it's an experimental kit plane available that you put together (just over half) yourself then once completed it goes through the rigamaroo of getting certified by the FAA. it's an extensive process.

this plane was already built and bobby bought it off of a dude that didn't fly it very much. i believe it has under 800 total hours on it. it is a dream to fly and fairly easy. after watching him land a few times i took the last landing back at our new home airport north of houston, and aside from the final approach speed being just a little faster than i'm accustomed to, it was real easy to land.

.

only one of the 3 vids i took of rolling the aircraft came out....here it is....

and nice work Chris!! that will come in very handy indeed!!

Well the router table is officially completed. I added a safety type power switch that can be turned off with my knee and the router is attached to an outlet that can also have the shop vac attached to so both are turned on and off simultaneously. I also added a wheel package so the table can be moved and the wheels retracted.

I built a fairly heavy duty fence that clamps to the table and did not require slots that can fill up with debris. The front of the fence has a fixed upper section made of particle board coated with laminate and the lower section is adjustable and can be opened or closed around the router bit to control dust buildup and keep the fence from being damaged by the cutting edge of the bit. The fence also has a T-track for attaching a feather board to keep the stock in place. And I added a combination T-Track and miter slot. The miter gauge shown is off of my table saw. I may eventually build a coping sled which is a much more secure way to move some stock through the cutting bit. Also need to add a vacuum port behind the fence and under the table to collect dust. Maybe next week!

May as well add these 2 other shots of recent projects I completed.

1 is an extended work table for the band saw with an adjustable fence and miter gauge.

2 is also an extended table for the drill press with an adjustable fence and 2 lock down jigs to hold work in place. This is the old Delta drill press I got for $50 and rebuilt. It is solid as a tank!

I love that old drill press.

Good work on all those table tops and fences, etc. They are all going to make work much more pleasant.

Very nice work Chris.

I'm envious of your drill press. I couldn't afford (space nor room) a stand alone, so I bought a tabletop model. Its great and all, but too many times I find I cannot use it on certain things as the distance between the bit and the shelf is too limiting.

We bought a used car a couple weeks ago, and knew when we got it that the brakes were pretty worn and would need to be replaced soon. So at around 2PM Saturday, I realized I had a beautiful 4.5 hour empty window until we were meeting friends for dinner. I stopped in the auto parts store and bought new brake pads.

I got home and switched the cars in the driveway and my son and I proceeded to take the front wheel off the driver's side. I went to install the new pads, but they didn't fit! So back to the store to exchange them. This time with an old pad in hand to make sure I had the right ones before I left. I got a knowledgeable clerk this time and everyone was extremely apologetic that they gave me the wrong part initially.

Now I was feeling a little pressure, somehow I had only 2 hours now, and still needed to take a shower. I did the driver's side brakes with no problem, and figured the passenger's side would be even faster. Except I couldn't get two of the five lug nuts off. I sprayed them several times with WD40 and then got cleaned up and went to dinner with the friends.

So Sunday morning, I went out there and tried again. The lug nuts wouldn't budge. So I heated them with a propane torch, and they still wouldn't budge. Finally, I decided to use more muscle than I thought I should. And I snapped them both clean off! I would have been pissed if I was on the side of the road, but this was a controlled environment and I was happy to get the wheel off.

So my photoblog begins with this picture.
Attachment 41184
See the three nice wheel stud bolts and the two broken ones? This will not do. Let's fix it.

First we remove the brake caliper piston assembly thing and hang it by a bent coat hanger from one of the giant springs holding up the car. We're hanging it because the line full of brake fluid is too weak to hold up this big and heavy hunk of metal and I don't want to have to mess with replacing brake fluid and bleeding air out of the system, so I just leave the whole thing attached to the brake fluid lines. But I want it out of the way, so I hang it up.
Attachment 41185

Next comes the pads. They are old and worn, so I pull them out of the brake mount assembly. I want to save them for now because I'll need to reuse the shims in a bit.

Attachment 41186

The old pads next to the new ones.
Attachment 41187

Next I want to take the brake assembly thing off. It's in the way of getting the brake disk (or brake rotor) off. There are two huge bolts in the back that I have to remove to get this off. They were pretty tight, so I got a mallet to bang on the wrench handle to get those bolts out. Off it came. This one we can just set aside.
Attachment 41188

Now we can remove the brake rotor easily. It just falls right off.
Attachment 41189

Here's the wheel hub with the two broken studs. I want to pound them out with a hammer, but there's not much sticking out to hit. I need a nail set or something. Also, look at that thin sheet metal splash guard thing behind the wheel hub. It's so close to the hub, the only way I can get a new wheel stud bolt in there is to line each hole up with that little notch.
Attachment 41190

And after digging through a junk drawer, I found the perfect thing to pound these old broken studs out. An old door hinge pin. It has a nice large head that I can't miss with my hammer blows, and it's nice and strong.
Attachment 41191

I couldn't take a picture while swinging the hammer, but the broken studs came out easily.

I couldn't rotate the wheel stud to get those holes to line up with the notch in the sheet metal splash guard so I could get the new stud bolts in, so I put the transmission into neutral.
Attachment 41192
Now I can easily rotate the hub by hand, and lined the first hole up with the notch.
Attachment 41193

This is one of the new wheel stud bolts. Some guy in a Youtube video said that putting them in the freezer would shrink them very slightly and make it just a little easier to install them. I figured it couldn't hurt, so that was the first thing I had done in the morning. Notice how the bolt gets fatter and is ridged just before you get to the head. The hole is smaller than those ridges, and when you pull or hit the bolt into place it just jams into the hole and is held there by the friction in that ridged area.
Attachment 41194

And this is the bolt inserted partway into the hole. I still need to get it in another half inch.
Attachment 41195

I could try to swing a hammer back there and pound the bolt in, but that seemed to lack elegance. So I decided to pull the bolt in instead.

I stacked a bunch of oversized washers and put one of the new lug nut on backwards so the flat part of the lug nut would rub against the washers. This worked great at first, but when I started to apply actual force to the wrench, the whole wheel hub started to rotate.
Attachment 41197

So I got a long pry bar and slipped it between two wheel stud bolts and against the ground. That locked the wheel hub in place so I could apply some force and pull that new wheel stud bolt into place. It worked beautifully.
Attachment 41198

Here's the first new stud snug in the hole! The second one was even easier because I knew the routine now.
Attachment 41199

And I cleaned and sanded the brake rotor a little to get rid of some of the glazing on the surface. There were no deep ridges at all, so I could reuse it without resurfacing it.
Attachment 41200

Oh, hey. This is a good picture where you can see the piston in the background. It's that silvery looking cup with the rubber gasket surrounding it. It's sticking out pretty far. As the old pads had worn down, it pushed out farther and farther. I'll need to compress it to make room for the new thicker pads to be installed.

Now I put the brake mount assembly back. This thing must have a real name, but I don't know it off the top of my head. It just holds all the brake stuff in place. It was hard to get this off, so I figured I should put it back on just as tightly. So I pounded the handle of the wrench with a mallet a little to snug up those bolts. If I had a torque wrench, I could put it back to the exact specs, but I don't, so I do my best. It's not falling off.
Attachment 41201

Under the hood is the master brake cylinder. You can see the fluid level is a little low. That's because all that fluid is down in the caliper piston that got extended so far when the brake pads wore down.
Attachment 41205
I use a clamp to squeeze the piston back into place.
Attachment 41203
And now look at the fluid level. It's higher. We had been getting an intermittent brake warning light when we went up and down hills, and I think that was caused by the low levels of fluid in master cylinder dipping below the sensor there. Now that the level is higher, I expect that light won't be coming on again.
Attachment 41206

We're almost there!

I took the shims off the old worn pads and I cleaned them with brake cleaner. Then I lined up the new pads and shims and lubricated them with special high temperature brake lube. This keeps the brakes from squealing. You DON'T lubricate the braking surface of the pads, you lubricate the rear of the pads. Then if they move around a millimeter or two against the caliper when braking, they won't make any noise. So spread that grease around with my finger and then stack the shims onto the backs of the brake pads.
Attachment 41207

Put the pads in place in the brake mount assembly. There are some clips at the contact points that hold them snugly in place.
Attachment 41208
Now you can take the hanging caliper part off the coat hanger and put that over the pads and bolt that on. Make sure to remove the coat hanger from the springs. That will make a racket if you drive around with that up in there.
Attachment 41209
And put the wheel on.
Attachment 41210

Pump the pedal a few times, and go for a test drive! It stops perfectly and no squeals or anything. Doesn't pull to either side when I brake and no pulsation or vibrations or anything.

This whole project cost around $60 for the new pads, the brake cleaner, the brake pad lube, the two new wheel studs, and two lug nuts.

The shop would have charged about $300 for the brake job and probably $50-$100 for the wheel studs. But they would have resurfaced the rotors on a lathe, so they would have done a little more than I did.

It was more of a pain in the ass than I was expecting with the wrong parts and the broken bolts, but it went ok. Normally it would be easier than this.

I'm very impressed... Good job !

kick ass

Good job, you figured out the little out all the little details like the notch in the splash guard, and pulling with the lug nut reversed. I would have put a little NeverSeize on the lugs, (never oil or grease), but that's not critical.

Buy a torque wrench, even a cheap beam type. A cheap one may not be as accurate, but it will mean everything is even. Most people don't realize how important the lug nut torque is. Sure, changing a flat beside the road, get 'em tight and get the hell out of there. But servicing in a safe place, proper and even torquing will prevent bent rims, rotors and hubs, that cause small vibrations you may not notice, but accelerate wear on the tires and driveline.

By the way, you're not fooling me with the gloves. I know they're to disguise your kid's hands in the pictures, so we won't know you were just drinking beer and snapping pictures, while forcing the poor child to labor out in the weather. :haha:

Would that have prevented me breaking those wheel stud bolts in the first place? After a quarter turn, I couldn't budge the lug nuts.

Yeah, that's what it's for. Those lug nuts were probably run on with an impact gun, with the combination of speed and metal-to-metal causing them to gall. It would be unusual for it to happen by hand, but I've seen stranger things. It will also help keep rust from building up on the threads making the nuts hard to get off.

I also use a little where the rim fits tightly over the center hub,so rust doesn't bind them together when I'm trying to get the wheel off. Just trying to make my future life easier.

A little tube of silver (I like it better than the copper) NeverSeize will last you the rest of your life... and probably your son's life too. BUT, it's a bitch to clean off your hands and it will NOT wash out of your clothes... ever. :haha: