Kelly Craig

On that cleaning issue, I just gave a friend my old computer with 32 gigs of RAM, two electronic drives, an ie5 processor and it was working fine. He was having trouble pulling all his old files to load on to the one I gave him, so I came over and took a look. The first thing I did was, pull the covers.  The dust was horrible. You couldn't read anything on the board, it was so bad.

All that dust means the computer is running hotter than it should be. Too, though computers operate on low voltage, less than a volt for many functions, the dust is problematic enough it will kill, at least until it's cleaned, a computer.

I blew his mother/main board, CD player, power supply and any and everything I could get to. That made for a major dust storm. I used a soft bristle paint brush to coax the harder stuff to let go.  The computer, probably, lost 1/16th pound (that's a LOT).

Put the sides back on, connected everything and it was up and running again. And that mouse he thought he was going to have to replace worked again.

By the way, computers hate floors (where the majority of the dust and fur kicks up).

I bought a cheap blower and it does a great job of cleaning things. Just used it to get what the vacuum couldn't, when cleaning the fridge coils. Yep, it blows dust around the house, but dealing with that is better than replacing a fridge for a few thousand bucks.

I'm with the "if it leaked, it's an indication that seam and, maybe, others might be near giving out too" crowd.

As such, I'd start with cleaning the entire joint and re-adhering with something that likes to grab glass and doesn't care about water.  Then, because paranoia is, often, my friend, I'd band it at the top and bottom.

I can only imagine what that would have cost new. Nice score.

Burra Maluca wrote:I treated myself to this pure wool, vintage, locally made coat for €10.

I managed to find a very rare local woman who used to be my size and height, but she's downsized and lost weight and is looking to rehome things she can no longer use.

My son says the photo should be sepia toned because it looks like it was taken a hundred years ago, but I love the red so a good friend of mine modified it to keep the red in the coat. And some of my other English friends say I look like the queen, complete with a long-legged corgi. Well I guess corgis and welsh sheepdogs are both herding dogs from Wales, so it's not far off!

I bought the pashmina-style headscarf from her too and am attempting to learn how to tie it so it doesn't look completely ridiculous on me. I might start a thread on permie ways to tie them for alternative uses, like rodilhas for carrying things on your head. There must be ways to tie them into baby carriers and harvesting aprons too...

Don't forget the simple stuff, like fire starters made from sawdust dumped in egg cartons and wax poured over it.

When I empty my 55 gallon drums, it goes to a friend, whose father turns it into Presto Log equivalents.

On the 80 grit, unless you have a quality knife, and I'd put even cheap kitchen knives in that category. Then you'd be leaving horrendous marks on the blade, in addition to taking a lot of metal off and, possibly, changing the critical temper of the blade from heat build up.

To be fair, a well-used 80 grit belt is not nearly as aggressive as a new one, so might pass as a bastard 120 or 150 grit.

If I went that route, which grit I started with would depend on what I'm sharpening. An ax, hoe or mower blade might play well with an 80 grit belt or disc. For more delicate jobs, I'd start with 320 or 220. I run the latter and a 1"x42" Delta belt sander, and it makes touching up lathe knives a quick task.  In any event, I would move fast to keep the metal from heating.