Lego Box

As I was packing to go back to college, I came across a bunch of my old Legos. I decided to use them to build a box to store cleaning supplies in. 

When I was younger, I used to struggle with Lego towers that would crumble, even resorting to glue. But now I know I just needed to stagger the joints!

For this box, it was easier to make a row of 2 by 4 or 2 by 8 blocks and  3s and 6s mess things up. I added some special blocks to one side. There's even a couple of pieces that are mini boxes with hinges. I have no idea what I could put in those.

Solar room lights

 So far, I have used my solar battery bank to charge phones, tablets, VR headset, smartwatches, power tool batteries, and power other small devices like my dinner doorbell system and my electric roller blinds. I decided to expand the system to add room lights. Even though I could open the curtains during the daytime, the light is at the wrong angle. I also need light at night.

I added five G4 type LED lights (Ryet LED from Ikea). Two of them are above my desk, and connected to a light switch next to the main light switch. The other three are above the window and have a dual level switch to allow all three or just the center to be used. Although it doesn't have the best cord management, they are attached with command hooks so they can be removed or relocated if needed. The light switch is also velcroed on. I located it between the door and the regular light switch so that I see it first when I walk into the room. The lights aren't the brightest but it's plenty of light for working at my desk with my laptop or doing VR.

Automatic Soap Dispenser Adjustments

I decided to swap out the liquid soap in my automatic dispenser for Castille soap. This type is better for the environment than the colored soap I used in the rainbow soap dispenser, or the regular liquid hand soap in the previous version of the automatic foaming soap dispenser. I like the various scents available. I have peppermint now, I want to try eucalyptus next, and there are many others such as lavender, citrus, tea tree, rose, and almond.  Here is an Amazon Affiliate link to the exact one I bought: https://amzn.to/3LdH261

A change I made to accommodate this soap was adding a check valve so that the soap wouldn't drain back down the hose. This soap seems to behave differently than the old stuff. It slips back through the mix pump, but I'm not sure why. This reminds me of how some containers in my lunch box used to leak. The olives would leak every day, but nothing else did. I wonder if it had something to do with the olive oil?

I switched out the old bottle for a different one after experimenting to find out whether mixing the new soap with the old was a bad idea. I also added a switch to be able to turn off the automatic dispensing.

Solar Charging Station

I made this solar charging station to connect to my solar power system. The solar panel is on the porch roof outside my bedroom, and it is connected to a charge controller and a marine battery. I added an extension cord to reach a shelf in the hallway so that it's easier for my parents to plug in their phones.

I rescued the car plug from a parking lot and bought the switch from a Habitat for Humanity Re-Store. Having the switch prevents power from being wasted when the charger isn't in use. The light tells us that the charger is connected to the battery and power is available. It makes more sense to charge phones during the daytime when the most power is being generated, but my parents prefer to charge their devices overnight instead.   

Reusing Glass Bottles with Pour Spouts

When I first started making my own soda syrups, I stored them in plastic squeeze bottles. The disadvantage of using plastic is that even after washing in a dishwasher, they retained the smell of the previous syrup. I decided to use glass bottles instead because they don't have that problem. The cheapest way to find glass bottles is often full of soda. 

I saved bottles from different drinks so now I have a collection of bottles that look unique to help me remember which syrup is in each bottle without having to label them. I have green, clear, brown, and spiral bottles. There's also one I found in the woods that's an antique beer bottle. It's definitely older than 1995 because that's when the fence was installed. It's perfect for root beer.

Of course, the bottle I found outside needed to be cleaned and disinfected. I soaked it in bleach and then scrubbed it clean. After using a thin brush that was designed for cleaning straws, I decided to buy a bottle brush. I modified a baby bottle brush to fit through the mouth of the bottle and reach the bottom. The original handle was thick plastic, so I cut it off and replaced it with a long skinny bolt. Later I unscrewed it and welded on a t-handle.

The soda bottles don't have reusable lids, so I bought pour spout lids that fit. Here's my Amazon Affiliate link for the spouts: https://amzn.to/3REzUU5

I also made a special tool to remove the spouts. It's kind of like an open ended wrench to pry the spout out evenly from both sides without damaging it. 

Greenbriar- Edible Wild Plant

 Greenbriars (smilax) are a wild edible plant in central Texas. The tip of new growth, especially in the spring, looks a bit like asparagus. It tastes kind of like a cross between green beans and asparagus.

Identifying the right plant is very important. Smilax has lots of thorns, unlike the poisonous Carolina Snailseed Moonvine. I have two different species of greenbriars in my yard. The one with dense needle-like thorns tastes bitter, while the one with normal thorns tastes ok. Only the new growth is tender enough to eat. It's also important to harvest from an area without herbicides or pesticides. 

 Unless we are pruning back a whole plant that's in the way, I like to harvest just a little bit each day and then store the shoots in a cup of water in the fridge. Once I've collected enough to cook with, I wash and chop them. They are good in scrambled eggs, omelet, or vegetable stir fry. 

Largest Greenbriar I found, with banana for scale

Vanilla Pudding Brulee

 

Ever since I got my propane torch, I have wanted to make creme brulee. I've never had creme brulee and I don't know how to make the complicated recipe with eggs and other ingredients. So I decided to make vanilla pudding brulee instead. I started with a store brand boxed pudding mix and added milk, cream, and a dash of cinnamon. After mixing, I spooned the pudding into about 6 individual metal containers and stored them in the refrigerator. When I was ready to serve the pudding, I sprinkled sugar on top and melted it with my torch. 

Automatic Foaming Soap Dispenser With Dilution System

My automatic soap dispenser has been through several versions. There was the regular automatic dispenser, the rainbow soap version, and now the foaming soap dispenser.

Unfortunately, keeping a bottle of diluted soap for the foaming dispenser was not a good idea. The watery mix, even with soap, ended up growing moldy. So I decided to keep the full concentration of soap in the bottle, and dilute it on demand instead. To do this, I used the pump from the rainbow version, with one channel pumping soap and the other five channels pumping water. 

It uses the same technique as my tea robot, with electrodes to control the mixing pump. The mixing pump only runs when the dispensing pump runs, so there's no chance of overflowing.

Here is the block diagram:

Knife Repair - handle replacement

Knife with replacement handle 

The handle of this knife broke while cutting cheese. It had a very short tang, and the plastic of the handle was getting old. It's a basic dull cheap steak knife, but it's one of my mom's favorites. So she asked me to replace the broken handle. I decided to use two sections of salvaged flat steel. First I sanded off the black paint, and then measured and cut the pieces to the same length as the old handle. I clamped the two pieces around the tang of the knife blade, and then welded it together. Next, it could use some sanding to be more comfortable to hold.

The old, broken handle.

 

Laundry Detergent Hack

Have you ever tried to get the last drop of laundry detergent out of the bottle? Leaving the bottle upside down gets quite a bit out, but there's still more trapped. The design of P&G/Tide/Gain bottles makes it difficult to get more out. I could rinse out the rest with a lot of water, but that's actually too much soap for one load. Another way to get the last drop and rinse more effectively is to pry off the cap insert with pliers.

Living in a dorm with shared laundry rooms, I saw how this inefficiency is multiplied. So many students throw away the bottles without trying to get all the soap out. They could be too busy to worry about it, or maybe they just don't know because they don't have much experience doing laundry. Imagine a dozen bottles of soap thrown away, each with over 4 ounces of soap left in it. That's also a dozen bottles thrown away- not clean enough to be recycled even if they had been put in a recycle bin.  

My engineering solution is to drill a hole in the corner of the bottle and let it drain into another bottle. Then the empty bottle can be rinsed to use every bit of soap, and then it will be clean enough to recycle. I was shocked that over one semester, I collected enough leftover soap to fill a whole bottle! 

Refillable Marker

 I accidentally broke my favorite marker when it got caught in the desk drawer. But I found a replacement that's even better. I found out that refillable markers exist and aren't that expensive. This type of marker is typically used as a paint pen for art. I filled mine with diluted inkjet printer ink. It has a reversible tip (either rounded or straight). It has a valve that opens by pressing on the tip, just like paint pens. There's also a tiny ball for mixing paint by shaking. I decided not to use the mixing ball because my ink is thin and uniform. 

After testing the first new marker, I filled a bunch more. I did add a mixing ball to the orange ink because it seems to separate more than the other colors. The black ink isn't printer ink, it's from the broken marker.

Lemon Watermelon Rind Pickles

Last summer, we grew a watermelon in the garden. We were so worried that the raccoons would get it that I made a welded cage to protect it. We kept checking to see if it was time to pick. The leaves on the plant turned yellow, so we thought it was ready. 

We cut the watermelon open- and it wasn't ripe. It didn't taste bad, just kind of bland and less sweet than a good watermelon. The seeds looked mature, so it must have been very close. But after you open a watermelon it's too late. 

The watermelon had a larger white layer near the rind (not the tougher greenish part). It tasted crisp and very similar to cucumber. That gave us the idea of making pickles. We decided to keep it simple and make quick refrigerator lemon pickled watermelon rind. We added just lemon juice, sugar, and salt, and didn't cook it. I don't have an exact recipe, but I read a few online. Enough lemon juice and sugar to make a syrupy solution to cover the chopped watermelon, and a pinch of salt but not enough to affect the flavor. If you add too much sugar, it would be more like candied watermelon rind. It wasn't pickled enough to keep very long in the fridge. Regular pickles with vinegar might last longer. 

Railroad Sightseeing

 I recently took some trips on Amtrak, with plenty of time for sightseeing. It was a great opportunity to try to spot some of the things I've seen in Youtube videos about trains. I learned about "Fallen Flag" logos that are from train companies that no longer exist or were changed after mergers.

Amtrak engine with Kansas City Southern Fallen Flag in the background.

The Dynamic Tamping Express could only be seen from the train. 

Maintenance of way equipment on a flatcar.

"DO NOT HUMP"

Flange lubricator

Canadian Pacific (Fallen flag)

Old BNSF logo.

I was moving too fast to take a good photo, but if you know the logo it is recognizable.

Blue tanker.

I took some photos of the train museum at the Amtrak station in Temple.

Steam locomotive not a real panoramic photo, just two photos stuck together)