planet snewpy news

Silver Anniversary

2021-02-10 16:11:15 -

This month we are celebrating 25 years of our presence on the internet. When I started this web site in 1996 the internet wasn't very big, with only about 100,000 different domains. My site is older than Google, YouTube and Facebook, to name a few. I've been a blogger since before that was a thing. And while the frequency of my posts hasn't remained consistent over the years (getting married and having kids will do that to ya), I'm still here.

Rolling Pin Ring

2021-01-24 16:54:06 -

My wife got a Joseph Joseph Adjustable Rolling Pin that comes with several plastic rings to allow you to adjust the thickness of dough you are rolling. It's a clever design, but curiously the roller is sold with one ring obviously missing, so I was asked to complete the set. The blue ring in the photo is just the right size and is now available on Thingiverse. Happy 3D printing!

Experiments in Statistical Inference

2019-03-31 15:37:13 -

When I was in high school I took a Probability and Statistics class. My teacher had this really cool setup that allowed us to perform experiments by using a big bowl of marbles in various colors and paddles with holes in them that could be used to grab samples of marbles at random. Recently, I've been preparing to teach my kids some of the fundamental principles of statistics (helped in part by Dr. Nic on YouTube) and I went looking for a similar set that I could purchase.

Handy Andy Plying Tool

2019-01-20 14:06:30 -

My wife is into yarn. Almost as much as I am into Legos. So there is lots of yarn around my house, and lots of tools for carding, spinning, dying, and knitting said yarn. But we didn't have a tool for plying yarn. Until today.

Outdoor Garden Sink

2018-11-03 14:40:14 -

My present to my wife this year for her birthday was to build her an outdoor sink - a place where she can clean off her garden tools and wash vegetables before bringing them into the house. We had an old washtub that we weren't using and a bunch of cedar left over from our new deck so I took inspiration from this blog post over at Bonnie Plants. Mine doesn't look much like theirs, but I really liked the rustic appearance. Because mine is tucked under an existing deck, I wanted to use the back side for storage. That, coupled with the fact that the ground underneath is not level, added some engineering challenges to the build, but I'm happy with the results. More importantly, my wife likes it too. I'll add some more photos when the plumbing is complete.

Poster Hangers

2017-12-03 11:54:12 -

When I was a kid, I had some of these really cool poster hangers on my wall and on the door to my room. They had a really simple but clever design that used the weight of the poster itself and a small roller inside to clamp down and hold whatever you put inside the clip. Now that I have kids, I've looked online over the years for a similar product that I could buy for their rooms, but I've never been able to find them anywhere. The other day, I found a place that advertised them, but when I contacted them they said their vendor no longer made them.

I Want Candy

2017-10-31 13:28:51 -

This is a really cool design for a Halloween candy dispenser that I found on Thingiverse. It took 14 hours to print, but it turned out pretty well, and works as advertised.

XBox One Vertical Stand

2017-10-28 12:39:22 -

The Wii is starting to get a little long in the tooth, so it was time for an upgrade. My son had asked a while ago for a driving game, so when I saw an XBox One bundle on Amazon that included Forza 3, we decided to get it for his birthday. But unlike the Wii, which included a stand, Microsoft wants to charge you an extra $20 for one. Amazon only wanted $16, but the winning bid this time came from Thingiverse - big thanks to lamiskin for saving me some money - and I could even print it in my son's favorite color.

Topeak Bicycle Basket Latch

2017-09-03 17:50:27 -

My wife has the Topeak QuickTrack system on her bike. She recently bought the Topeak MTX rear basket that works with the system, however, the geometry of the bike seat and basket are such that she couldn't slide the basket far enough forward to engage the latch without hitting the back of the seat. Apparently, based on internet comments, this is a fairly common problem.

New Chicken Coop

2017-04-30 15:48:04 -

Hard to believe it has been five years since we constructed a home for our first flock. Those birds developed a taste for their own eggs, and that is a very hard habit to break in a small flock, so we were forced to start over this year with new chicks. I took this opportunity to improve upon the design of our last chicken coop and so construction has begun on a completely new and this time permanent structure. We are also going to give the deep litter method a try, so stay tuned for updates on how that works.

My First Time Lapse

2017-02-26 09:25:07 -

I'm spending time learning about my Creator Pro, and in the process, I've come across a lot of resources, including plenty of YouTube videos. One trend I've noticed is a lot of folks like to post time lapse videos of their printer doing its thing, so I thought I'd give it a shot. In this clip, I'm printing copies of this impressive design of a fluted Ionic column that is Lego compatible. A couple of photos of the finished product are below.

Kubb For Twenty Bucks

2016-04-18 19:24:20 -

If you haven't heard of the Viking game Kubb (pronounced "koob") before, I don't blame you -- it seems to be fairly obscure. But the game sells for as much as $50 online which is crazy since you can make it yourself out of about $20 worth of wood. I chose a 8-foot 4x4 cedar post ($18 at Lowes), but you could make it out of cheaper wood. Many people make the throwing sticks out of a closet rod. I made the "king" 14" tall, with some miter cuts on top to form a crown. Then I ripped the post down to 2-3/4" to make the 10 Kubbs each 6" tall. The game is a lot of fun, and a great way for kids to develop hand-eye coordination and throwing skills.

Trophy Shelf

2016-04-17 16:06:58 -

I had looked for an inexpensive shelf to show off a couple of trophies, but couldn't find any sturdy enough for a decent price, so I decided to build my own. For about $10 in oak from Lowes, and a couple of keyhole hangers, I was able to build this shelf. I like it. What do you think?

All For A Cup Of Coffee

2015-12-26 12:20:32 -

Hey, I know better than to get between you coffee-lovers and your morning cup o' joe. That is hard-won knowledge that I understand and respect. But apparently Starbucks (of all people) didn't get the memo. My wife uses one of their ceramic Pour-Over Brewers for her coffee. Or did, up until a few weeks ago, when she dropped it while she was washing it and broke it. Well, Christmas was just around the corner, so no problem right? She added it to her wish list, and I ordered a replacement and tucked that baby under the tree, and everything was right in the universe again.

Shoe Bin

2015-12-27 13:30:26 -

I might have lied back in June when I said I was done with the Family Room. There was one small corner of the room that still wasn't complete, but I've taken advantage of my Christmas vacation, and checked this last item off the list. I constructed bookcases in all four corners of the room, mainly to provide supports for the train track, but also because we have a lot of books. I designed the bookcase closest to the door with a built-in shoe bin with room for about six pairs of shoes. I am happy to report that the bin is now complete!

Requiem for Yellow Jackets

2015-07-25 10:13:49 -

Yellow jackets had taken up residence in one of my wife's herb planters. So, after she got stung several times while watering them, it was time to declare war on the little critters. In an attempt to eradicate them without using chemicals, I employed a tactic I first learned about here. A couple of inches of water and some dish soap in my shop-vac, and we were ready to do battle. Watch the video to see the carnage.

Family Room Remodel

2015-06-20 13:05:11 -

It took me just over a year, but the family room is finally finished (including the train). I completed the shaker-style cabinet doors on either side of the fireplace and replaced the old carpet with new carpet tile. Now I can relax and enjoy our new room.

Extend A Vent For Five Bucks

2015-03-14 16:43:14 -

If you have a room arranged in a such a way that the furnace vents are underneath your furniture, you might benefit from an Extend A Vent. But don't buy one from Amazon, or anywhere else for that matter. It is hardly worth the $15, or $17, or $18 that most places online are charging for these two flimsy pieces of plastic that barely fit together. I bought one, and like many others who commented on Amazon's page, I felt like I had been taken. When my wife saw the product, she said, "hey, that looks just like my seed trays!" She was right. The plastic is the same thickness, and same general length and shape as the Jiffy Seed Starter trays you can buy at Lowes, and Home Depot for five dollars.

Gutter Shelves for Ten Bucks

2014-12-31 13:07:33 -

My son has a loft bed and he is in the habit of keeping all of the books he is reading on his bed so he doesn't have to climb up and down the ladder. Over time, the books accumulate to the point where there's barely room left for him. So we were looking for a way to get his books off of his bed and onto the wall, but because space is limited, there isn't room for a conventional book shelf up there. So I went looking for a solution.

The Polar Express

2014-12-01 19:55:25 -

I've spent the last six months remodeling our family room. But the culmination of all of that work is a model train that runs around the perimeter of the room. Here's a quick video showing the final product. By the way, this is an excellent video for troubleshooting issues with Lionel trains.

Using All Of The Space

2014-09-01 11:33:14 -

If your house has more than one floor, chances are good that there is a lot of wasted space above and below your stairs that is just crying out to be filled with stuff. Shelves underneath the stairs are easy, and something that I added when we first moved in. But after years of climbing up and down the steps and staring at all of that empty white space up there, I finally had to do something with it, so as a side project to my current family room remodel, I've conjured up an entirely new room right off the kitchen that I'm calling a butler's pantry.

More Basement Woodworking

2012-12-26 10:09:24 -

Earlier this year, I started building a cabinet in my basement on the wall opposite my new bar. As usual, I used Sketchup to draw up my plans, and I neglected to post these at the outset of the project. Sketchup is a powerful tool, and fairly easy to learn. Using it to create models of things you want to build is a great way to save time and money. If you take care to make precise measurements when you draw your model, you can use it to figure out the cost of materials, and later as a blueprint to verify your measurements are accurate. I am currently working on some new plans for a major project in 2013 -- stay tuned for more on that.

Garden Irrigation Project

2012-09-07 17:57:05 -

In late April, we had a pretty impressive hailstorm, which led to us getting a new roof and new gutters. The timing was somewhat fortunate, however, since I had already started putting together a system for catching rainwater that we could use on our garden. I found a 300-gallon plastic tote on Craigslist for $100, and had the gutter company reroute the gutters on the back of the house and combined three downspouts into one that drains into the tank. I really had no idea how long it would take to fill up, and I was astonished at our first hard rain when it took less than an hour for it to fill to overflowing. Now I wish I had bought more than one.

Bird Versus Bird

2012-08-26 10:28:02 -

I've mentioned before how much we like all of the wildlife we see on our property, but yesterday it was the source of some dismay as we watched this juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk try to make our chickens into a breakfast buffet. It is times like these that I am glad I used hardware cloth on the coop. As they say, chicken wire keeps chickens in, but doesn't keep predators out.

Home Cheep Home

2012-04-27 06:50:35 -

In the middle of our other spring project, the timing was right to get our new pets, but that started the six-week clock for building them a place to live. Because, trust me, you do not want these critters living in your basement permanently. My son helped me start the framing, and after a full weekend of work, we had the beginnings of a coop. After that, the weather stopped cooperating for a while, so it took a couple of weeks to get back to it. In the meantime, I stumbled across a ridge vent at Lowe's on clearance for $2 that seems to work pretty good on top. I guess we'll have to wait for summer to find out if it does a good job of keeping things cool inside.

Landscaping Project

2012-04-26 16:07:21 -

This has been a busy spring. Thanks to warmer than average temperatures in February, we got a jump on our normal outdoor activities and started a couple of projects. The first was a little landscaping of the front yard, which involved giving the existing flower beds a facelift with the addition of a retaining wall. Now that the project is done, I wanted to offer a bit of advice to anyone planning something like this. If you choose to do it yourself, and not hire it done, the single most difficult task is properly estimating the amount of materials you will need. My initial estimates of the amount of bricks and top soil that I would need were off by a factor of two. So while the $60 delivery fee that Lowe's charges is completely reasonable, to have tons of material delivered right to your driveway, it can quickly bust your budget when multiple deliveries are necessary (three in my case). As a reference, our retaining wall had about 65 linear feet, which is easy enough to compute, but it's almost impossible to know in advance (without a landscaper's years of experience) how many courses of bricks you will need to match the undulating topography of your yard and end up with something approaching a level wall. For ours, it took 220 bricks. That also equated to 180 40-pound bags of topsoil to fill in the space behind it.

Progress Report

2011-09-25 17:29:20 -

It has certainly taken longer than I had planned, and it is still a ways from being complete, but I wanted to offer an update on the basement bar project. A big thank you to my wonderful wife who has allowed me the time to work on it. You can see the progression in my album, but here's the latest shot. I still have a lot of trim to cut, some staining left to do, and then granite tile for the top, but I can conceivably be done with all of that before winter. Maybe.

I Bought A Cow

2011-06-22 20:55:07 -

I challenge anyone to watch the documentary Food, Inc. and not be influenced to make at least a few changes in the way you eat. More than likely, you'll change a lot. You'll look at that half-pound chicken breast and wonder if the chicken was still able to walk, supporting its unnatural weight. You'll wonder what dose of antibiotics you're receiving in that burger you just ate. Most importantly, you'll wonder if cheap food really is the blessing we all assume it to be, when you take into account the hidden costs associated with eating it.

Mmmm... Beer

2011-06-13 06:14:53 -

Rule #1 in home improvement projects: everything takes longer than you think it will. This past winter, I started building a bar in the basement. When the cold outside prevented me from doing anything else, progress was swift, and I was actually thinking I would be done with the whole project by springtime. Well, summer's here, and there are a lot more things competing for my attention, so now it's a game of inches. I made a small amount of progress this weekend (the first in weeks), so I wanted to document it. I finished the framing on the bar by adding a display case to the front of it complete with LED lighting and a custom-made glass shelf for displaying my favorite beers. More photos from this project are in my album.

President for a Day

2011-06-06 05:46:05 -

I came across an interesting bit of trivia this week that I'm almost embarrassed to admit I had not heard before, but my guess is that residents of the western side of Missouri are more prone to have heard of Senator David Atchison than us easterners. Historians dispute the claim, but many believe that Atchison was Acting President of the United States for a 24-hour period in 1849 when Zachary Taylor refused to be sworn into office on a Sunday. At 41 years of age, this would have made him the youngest president in US history as well.

Projects Aplenty

2011-06-29 20:57:38 -

Summer is always busy, but this month has seemed especially crazy with plenty of projects keeping me busy. Today we had our friend and concrete expert finish the patio we started two years ago by adding some steps to the face. Between that, adding the finishing touches to my daughter's play table, and working to complete my basement bar project, I don't know if I'm ever going to have a chance to sit and relax again. Summer is going to fly by, and next thing I know it will be winter again, and I'll have a new set of projects to work on.

Reading and Writing

2011-06-26 22:18:58 -

I envy people who view reading a book as a way to kill an afternoon. It usually takes me months to read a book. Part of it is I just don't read that fast, but mostly it's a matter of finding the time to sit down and read. The time that works best is bedtime right before I fall asleep, however, reading puts me to sleep faster than a double shot of melatonin, so I usually end up reading a page, maybe two, before I'm out like a light. At a page a day, you can see that even a magazine could take me all winter to get through.

Ready, Set, Blog!

2011-06-01 06:26:00 -

It is time once again for the Running of the Blogs! This is my fourth year participating, and it seems to get harder every year. The idea is to post something every day for 30 days. It's harder than it sounds. Although it's a lot easier than writing a novel in 30 days. I have a few interesting topics lined up to talk about this month, but the rest of time I'll be winging it. So, let's see how I do, shall we? On your mark. Get set. Blog!

Stop Draggin' My Car Around

2011-06-07 20:29:46 -

Last year I wrote about the state of the electric car market, so I wanted to revisit the topic and provide an update. I'm still planning to buy an electric car one day, so this is something I have been following pretty closely for years now. I previously wrote about how GM started advertising its electric hybrids in 1969, and given that a New York City taxi driver was jailed for speeding in his electric car in 1899, I think it's important to note that electric cars are not a new technology by any means. Cars that run on batteries are as old as cars themselves. So, as I lamented last year, what is taking so long?

That Time Of The Month

2011-06-30 05:59:42 -

Thank goodness that's over. The thirtieth day couldn't come quickly enough for me. I think I say this every year, but this was by far the hardest month so far. We had so much stuff going on this month, just finding the time to write was enough of a challenge, but I also struggled to find topics that I thought would be interesting. I hope I didn't bore anyone to death with my ramblings. I'm pretty sure all of my friends have blocked me on Facebook because they are tired of hearing me rant. Well, if you're still reading this, thanks for coming along for the ride and more than likely I'll be punishing myself again next June and we'll do it all over again. In the meantime, I will return to my regular schedule of once or twice a month when I have something important (or at least not completely tedious) to say. Thanks for listening!

Garden 2.0

2011-04-09 21:10:58 -

Last year's garden was a big success, but it didn't take us long to realize that it wasn't big enough to produce all of the food we wanted. So we started this season by expanding it to twice the size. Our success with the garden last year has also led us to expand the number of crops as well. I look forward to more bountiful harvests.

More Sketchup

2011-02-03 18:17:22 -

Last year I wrote about how I was learning to use Google Sketchup and that I was planning to use it for some home improvement projects. The first project is a basement bar that I have been planning ever since we moved into our house. I have found Sketchup to be extremely useful in transferring the rather vague picture in my mind into more concrete terms.

Handy Storage For Christmas Lights

2011-01-01 18:15:54 -

Looking for a good way to store your Christmas lights and don't want to spend a lot of money? If you have any of the cardboard boxes that they use to ship Florida citrus, they are an excellent storage solution. Each box has three removable cardboard trays that will keep your lights neatly organized -- so they don't come out of the box next year looking like Clark Griswold's. You can write the location of the lights on the bottom of the tray, and even keep a portion of the original box in case you ever need to replace the lights. So don't throw away or recycle those boxes! Reuse'em!

Bye Bye Movable Type

2010-12-22 17:38:17 -

It's been a good run. I think I started using Movable Type as my blogging platform in 2003, but it was time for a change. Most importantly because Movable Type blogs have become spammer magnets. A month or so ago, after a particularly nasty spam storm, my hosting company suspended my account and I was forced to disable comments entirely. Where's the fun in blogging if no one can comment?

Rooftop Antenna

2010-10-09 20:43:02 -

I've not had much luck with antennas as part of my Home Theater PC build. Up until now, none of the models I've tried have worked very well. This latest one, a Channel Master 4228, did not fare well inside my attic, so I finally had to admit defeat and mount the thing on my roof. So far so good. The overall signal strength doesn't seem any higher on the meter, but I haven't noticed any dropped signals or pixelation either, and, most importantly, we seem to finally have a strong and stable PBS signal.

Fifteen Albums That Don't Suck

2010-09-08 19:34:11 -

At the urging of a friend on Facebook, I am accepting the challenge to name fifteen albums that don't suck. This isn't as easy as it sounds, either. I was around and buying music when CDs first hit the market -- you know, back when they were called "record stores?" Investing in an album on CD was just that, an investment -- CDs cost $20 back then. So an album had to be good before I spent any money on it. I eventually reached the point where I wasn't as picky, and would buy an album for a song or two that I liked, but only if the CD single wasn't available.

Google Sketchup

2010-08-07 17:23:29 -

This has been on my todo list forever, and today I finally got around to it. I've been wanting to learn how to use Google Sketchup ever since it was released and they are now on version 7, so that should tell you how long I've been putting it off. Sketchup is a free CAD/CAM software package for doing 3-D design work. It is really easy to learn, especially after viewing the tutorial videos that Google provides. After watching about 20 minutes of video and playing around with it for about an hour, this fancy end table is my first creation. Not bad, huh? I'm going to continue playing with it until I improve my skills and then I plan to use it to sketch some home improvement projects that I have brewing.

Electric Cars Still Coming

2010-06-12 20:05:53 -

A year ago I wrote about the electric car from Zenn Motors that was on the verge of becoming a reality. A year later, it doesn't appear to be any closer to real, unfortunately. I'm pretty bummed about that, but I can't say I'm surprised. The promise of an electric car has been made and broken my entire life. Please click the picture to see an ad from Hot Rod Magazine for an electric hybrid car that GM was promising. Also, please note the ad appeared in 1969!

Here We Go Again

2010-06-01 17:05:48 -

Welcome to the third annual Running of the Blogs! We've called it 30 Days of Blog in years past, but that title isn't terrible catchy, so I thought we could use a new name for it. In fact, I might even register the domain name and turn it into a NaNoWriMo kind of experience. Running of the Blogs evokes images of frightened tourists being gored in the streets of Pamplona. That's kind of how it feels -- you know if you don't keep running, writing something new every day, you are likely to be impaled by the horns of ridicule and derision for having failed in your attempt. I've said it in years past, I have a lot of respect for bloggers who manage to crank out a quality product day after day. It's not easy. But once again, I am accepting the challenge. So, here we go again. Tighten your red sash. On your mark. Get set. Blog!

How To Hide Your Gold

2010-06-14 11:40:09 -

On one of my recent journeys down the Wikipedia rabbit hole -- you know what I'm talking about, when you look up something in Wikipedia and one of the links on the page draws your attention, and you click on it, and then repeat until you are seventeen pages and at least a dozen knowledge domains removed from the information you came looking for -- I wound up on the page for aqua regia (don't ask) and stumbled across this interesting tidbit of history:

Magnetic Picture Gallery

2010-06-27 10:19:18 -

What do you get when you cross a child's door with a refrigerator? A door that any kid can use to show off his best work. This is a simple project you can do with your child (it takes less than an hour), and then eliminate the need for tape or stick-tack for hanging those masterpieces.

The Oil

2010-06-20 15:06:23 -

I can't let these 30 days go by without saying something about the story that has everyone talking. Everyone has their own theories about how to clean up the disaster in the Gulf. And the blame game has been played by everyone as well, with no clear winners. I'm not going to jump into any of those debates, but I did have a couple of observations that I'd like to share.

Whew!

2010-06-30 05:54:00 -

Well, here we are at the end of another 30 days. I don't know if it's because I have so much other stuff going on, or I'm just running out of things to write about, but this was the hardest year so far. For those of you following along, I hope it wasn't too painful -- I tried to keep it interesting.

First Harvest

2010-05-21 06:43:03 -

We had our first salad the other night from our garden and it was great. I can't wait for all of the other crops -- peas, carrots, and even cantaloupe! Yum!

Happy Earth Day!

2010-04-28 20:44:35 -

Yeah, I know I'm a week late, but I had to post an update on our square foot garden. My wife did a great job getting all of our crops planted and now we are only a few weeks away from having some delicious home-grown salads with dinner. Yum! Stay tuned for the first harvest...

Square Foot Gardening

2010-04-08 06:02:03 -

We picked up Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening book last year with the intent of planting a small vegetable garden, but never got around to doing it. But this year, we are off and running! Only a couple more days and we will have our seedlings in the ground, and we will finally have a use for all that compost we've been making for the past year. Stay tuned for the planting...

HTPC Results

2010-03-15 15:45:16 -

The primary reason I set out to build a Home Theater PC was so I could get rid of DirecTV. I've been a subscriber since 1999, and I've never had any complaints about their service, apart from the incessant rate hikes. I've made a few successful attempts to stave off the endless increases. A couple of nasty letters and a few hours spent on the phone with their "Customer Retention" department have worked in the past, but I'm just tired of having to fight that battle. Their rates have doubled since I first bought the service, with no noticable improvement in the content. I still have a single decoder box, no built-in DVR, no premium channels, and I'm paying $60 a month for the dozen or so channels that I watch on a regular basis. Couple this with the fact that the satellite feed, while digital, is not HD, so the over-the-air local channels look and sound a lot better and it's just not worth it. So bye-bye DirecTV!

Home Theater PC

2010-02-28 20:45:46 -

When you start the research, like I did, on building your own Home Theater PC, you inevitably come across a page or two that claims to give you all the information you need to build the "ultimate" rig for yourself. Some of these pages do provide a wealth of valuable and useful information, but none of them (that I've seen) actually provide you everything. How do you define everything? Well, if I'm going to make the leap to a HTPC, I'm probably doing it for one of two reasons (there may be more, actually). You either want to build one for the fun of it or just to learn how, or you may be choosing that path to escape the burden of your current cable or satellite company. Coincidentally, NPR just did a story yesterday on the number of people who are starting to tell their providers to take a hike. If it is the latter (like myself), "everything" is defined as the path of least resistance. That is, cost is not the primary driver, as I recognize that if I use it long enough I will eventually make my money back in the savings I will enjoy after I tell my provider to go pound sand. Cost is second to the time and hassle factor of setting up the system. This means that "everything" is not only a foolproof hardware configuration that has been tested, but step-by-step instructions for installing all the necessary software as well.