PEP Badge: Oddball

Thanks, Nicole! I used the window like a light table when I was tracing the tricky bits, too. I'll try to get a picture of that next time.

Definitely no additional electricity. ❤️

 My wife had a slow leak in one of her tires. The problem was a nail. I removed it and plugged the tire.

I made a cute bird feeder inspired by a photo I saw on Pinterest. I found the pretty teacup and saucer/dish at a thrift store, glued them together with hot glue and then glued them to wooden plank which I hung by a cotton string to the wall just above my flower garden. I filled the dish with birdseed and now I sit for birds to come along. The trees in the yard attract lots of birds so I hope they will be very happy here:)
Edited to add: this took me about an hour to make.

I replaced two broken windows.  I cut the new window glass from an old salvaged window.

Hiya Permies!

I fixed a front-load washing machine experiencing violent slamming during spin cycles. The family was going to replace it after a pro 'diagnosed' it. First thought it was the 4 shocks, replaced those with no change. Then the springs, same. These were common causes online, the first steps the repair guy recommended, and 'cheap' parts.

Finally found the root cause - a broken concrete and plastic counterweight (pic). Partially stabilized it for continued use while we hunted for the part (which we were lucky to find).

It makes sense if this isn't worth full potential points because I don't have pics of the shocks and springs (or the 4 times I disassembled and reassembled the machine!), nor the final fix today. Also I don't want a washing machine in the future  (but happy to help people who do!); I'm really excited to prepare for the laundry-by-hand BB and plan to use it personally going forward.

The hardest part - the spring wire to hold the door seal to the tub. The first 3 times all had my blood pressure up as it popped off one side or another. Today I put in and place and pulled it right into position! It always feels good to level up, and keep a machine doing its job

I made a cool tool! After learning to trace land contours with an a-frame level I decided to make a water level. I'll skip the tutorial but if anyone is interested I'm happy to help

The main issue was gluing the tube to the reservoir - I tried some things I had but didn't expect to work, and finally just used jb plastic bonder which added strength and a watertight seal.

Bonus, used some of the stakes I got from a local lumberyard at a discount because of my surveying experiments (see pics of bundle and stakes I made for marking survey points).

Sorry for spamming the thread, I'll be off now to bed What's the record for most bbs in a day? Asking for a friend.

I wanted extra carbon on hand for the new compost pile the fam started this year and near-future humanure for myself. The owner of the same lumberyard that worked with me on the lathe stakes said I could buy sawdust from the 'premium' pile... or just shovel my own for free from under the sawmill. Had to run to Menards anyway (like a budget Home Depot or Lowes) and they had a few tote options on steep sale!

Pics tell the rest

Edit: to clarify, my submission is intended to represent the soft skill side - entrepreneurial relationship and permie culture building - and I didn't communicate that clearly. It required iteration to get the right pitch as well as find the right audience. Only then was I able to obtain support in free and discounted materials that I don't yet have the skill or tools to produce myself. Driving around and shoveling 80gal of sawdust was simply the (second) benefit of that new connection

 I replaced rotors and brake pads on a gmc envoy.  Replacing the stuff in the front was easy. The back took a little more time due to the fact that it was difficult to get to the bolts to remove the calipers. The other thing that I don’t understand is why you need a 13 mm wrench to remove the brake pads in the front and a 14 mm wrench to remove the brake pads in the back?  In all it took a couple hours.

 I fixed a stucco crack on a gable end of a friend’s house.   From the peak to the ground (2 1/2 stories). I used yellow bar sand and white cement.  To fix the crack, I ground the crack wider with an angle grinder.  I then hosed it down to clean out the dust, squirted in my cement mix with a grout bag, tooled it, and then sponge finished it.  It took three hours.

I’ve been making ecobricks for half a year or so and that has involved rinsing out plastics and letting them dry by the sink. For months I just used bottles and glasses and muddlers and whatever was handy but my wife wanted some other solution. So I bought a 1/8” steel rod at 3’ long and snipped it into six approximately equal lengths, then drilled holes into the log wall over the counter and screwed drawer-pulls on that we agreed were the right combination of pretty and cheap. Now I hang my drying plastic on those!