Brian Kuhl

r ranson wrote:

Robert Ray wrote:Check out lip balm jars on Amazon

Those tend to be quite wide for inkwells.  Most people fill their pens with the nib on, which means we need at least half an inch of ink in the jar.  

A lot of inkwells have special shapes to make it easier to fill when the ink gets low.

..Why not have one 'blown' ?

 Blown glass is an amazingly giving yet beautiful substance yet there's plenty of aspiring glass blowers out there
so the sky's the limit !


Check out glass blown pendants made by various aspiring glass blowers from all across the internet,

I'm sure you already have a shape in mind for your vessel and I'd bet it will turn out absolutely amazing !

D. Logan wrote:There is a recipe in a book called Lip Smackin Backpackin called Cherry Walnut Cous Cous Porridge. The price of the book is worth it for that recipe alone! To this date, I have found no one of any age who doesn't love the stuff. It's filling, it's relatively good for you and it is easy to make. I tend to make it in big batches and then just seal it away for when I feel like having something delicious.

...just came across a free PDF file for the book mentiioned above by D. Logan, posting (hopefully) the link below.

  Enjoy!

http://www.lipsmackincampin.com/uploads/1/0/0/5/100521032/lbp_2ed.pdf

Edit:
  For some reason I have to hold down (long click?) on the above link,
then choose "preview file" from the drop down menu
to get the pdf file to download.

 In my opinion this has to be the best 'karaoke-friendly' happy love song on the planet ever!
Catchy little tune, too!
Hope you all enjoy and have a good grin!

  Can anyone offer any alternate solutions for earwigs found indoors?

... we have dogs, and the 'rolled up wet newspaper" solution only seems to become a super enticing pre-dampened chew toy!

  Just waiting to be discovered by a few 'nosy'
wrinkled-up and
pre-dampened adventerous noses!

...any sugguestions?

 I'd love to learn what draws them to here in the first place!


...As this is our first outbreak on these grounds in 10 years of living here, earwigs were few and far between so something must have changed...

All of your input here shall be greatly appreciated!

These but-pincher things are driving my 87 year-old Mother/ co-habitant,
along with MY Better half and all our beautiful progressions into an ear-plugging FRENZY PLEASE HELP!

 Hi Sharon!

....Can you please share some more details about the methods you use to achieve your results?

I'm new to this method and can't wait to give this a try!

Thank you for sharing!

 Welcome, Joseph!

  That sounds like a great fit for shutters, Sarah!

Those spools come in pretty handy that's for sure!

John C Daley wrote:Yes I have done it many times.
Also great on a roof as a sky light

   John have you ever tried to use the tables with an 'umbrella hole' in it's center?

...If so, what is the best way you have found to seal the umbrella hole?

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Brian, how would you characterize those bulb ceramic rods? Coarse, medium or fine grit?

I only ask because most commercial ceramic rods are way too fine for what I do.

Wow great question!

 Well, on THAT scale, hmmm... I would have to rate these things as 'Infantecimal' !!!

Or 'nano-fine'

 I'm almost positive that is a word, although I think this is the first time in my life I get to actually use it haha!

...Smooth as silk!...

But yeah these ceramic tubes are truely the bees knees when it comes to hardness!

....As I was 'grinding' the tungsten filament stubs off
and attempting to put a 'beveled edge' onto the ceramic tube ends with a bench grinder
the filaments AND The ceramic both glowed red hot!!!

  And I would have put a major hurting on that grinding wheel had I not continuously

kept the ceramic cylindrical end in motion, parallel to the grinding FACE of the wheel

( think of this as aiming at the center of the Earth,
  with the 'Earth' being the grinding wheel,
  you'll want to aim the barrel of your ceramic cylinder
  directly at the 'center point of spin' on that wheel! )

...while simultaneously twisting the ceramic rod trying to maintain a constant, steady, 'feed' of the ceramic from left to right across the wheel so you dont dig ruts into your humble, hard working grinding wheel !

 This ceramic stuff is hard to manipulate but with time and patience you will see the results!
Then those beveled edges will be as smooth as silk and you'll have birthed onto this planet a shiny new tool to pass down to others you'd like to see maintain thier sharp edge!

What could be better than that?

 An excellent alternative to using car windows are the internal 'elements' found inside old/broken High Pressure Sodium (hps) lightbulbs such as the one pictured below.

The part you want to use is the white cylinder you can see suspended inside the bulb. That white cylinder is made from 'sintered Aluminum Oxide ceramic' and is pretty tough stuff (harder than all knife steels)  and sealed on both ends with a tungsten wire sticking out.

You can cut then grind or file those tungsten wires off flush to the ceramic to make it more user-friendly. Make sure you wash it well before using, as it's probably covered in heavy metals and toxic gik.

 If you have any friends in the electrical industry or know of any building maintenance personel they can probably get you a broken/old bulb for free (a new bulb work work just fine but not very cost-effective).

 It works excellent for honing just about anything to a razor's edge and one will probably last a lifetime, I've had mine for about 20 years now and it looks the same as when I made it no visible damage yet.