PEP Badge: Oddball

A little over a year ago, I convinced my parents to start saving their food scraps and composting them. They don’t have green waste bins where they live.  Once it started curing and they started applying it to their fruit trees, they were absolutely floored by the results and have now taken up an interest in gardening.

After living in their house for 18 years, the periphery if their backyard was planted with succulents and other low maintenance ornamental plants in pots. One of the biggest problems was their complete lack of soil life which was very high in clay.

I helped them remedy this by digging in and burying large amounts of home produced compost and re-plumbing their entire irrigation system which was broken for over a decade. The whole thing was done over a 2 week period.

With the addition of waist high planter boxes and a self watering system, they are now very excited to plant seeds and seedlings and watch them grow. The activity has even brought them together in their relationship more than I was expecting.

I know this is not the same as building a spiffy huglekulture that doesn’t require irrigation, but given the small space they have and several other requirements. It’s a long way for them.

Transformed crappy bent Harbor Freight wrench into wood (spoon) carving tool.

Spent about 1 hour on it.

Here is my submission for Oddball Points.  It is a Textile Tool - How to build a Silk Cap Frame.
Processing silk cocoons is a Textile BB so this submission is for the frame construction only.

To document the completion of the BB, I have provided the following:
  -  photos before, during, and after building a silk cap frame to stretch degummed silk cocoons over
  -  a thread sharing the basics of this build and giving people a place to discuss cap frame ideas

Cap Frame
General Shopping List (for other builders):
a piece of pvc (at least 4'), 4 each 90-degree Elbows, 2 Tee Connectors, and a piece of PEX (about 4' long).

PVC Cut List:
2 pieces that ~15" long
4 pieces that are ~5" long

I had PVC and 4-Way PVC Furniture Fitting (Side Outlet Tees) from an old wool drying rack that I had retired because the mesh disintegrated in the sun.  
My frame will use the furniture fixtures instead of Tees and Elbows and the PEX I had on hand was 43.5" long.

Salvaged PVC and Furniture Fixtures:


My Cut Parts:


Frame Assembly:


I discovered that PEX fits very loosely into 1/2" PVC connectors but does not fit inside the pipe.  


Stabilizing the PEX: I used two more small pieces (~3" long) to stabilize the PEX:


I also cut a notch (longitudinal slice) in the PEX to reduce its diameter so it would fit snug into the PVC pipe stubs
The notch is the kerf of the saw I was using - just one blade width so I'm not sure notch is the right word


Inserting PEX (on right) into PVC
.

Final assembly produces stable cap frame


My finished frame is 13" x 17" and 22" tall.

Some time ago, I used up most of an old, ratty towel for a project. I had four bits from the end of the towel that had embossing that were not suitable for that purpose. Since the material on the edges had held together much better than the centre of the towel, I decided to make them into four hand towels. I did this by attaching cotton twill tape (and cotton thread, cotton towel--should be compostable at the end of its life!) This doesn't fit in the current iteration of the Textiles badge, so I'm submitting it here.

They have been serving well so far!

We have an amazing antique push mower that is an absolute work horse. Its wheels and body are solid cast iron, and it's old enough that manufacturers were still adding beautiful details--the spokes are cast in the form of a flower. It tears through sticks and small branches hidden in the lawn without skipping a beat. We got it secondhand for $15; it was in good condition, and after a bit of oil, it was good to go. While the metal bits are all good, the wood is showing its age. In the year I've owned and used it, I've had to replace the old, banged-up cross-handle and roller with new ones I turned on the lathe. This time, though, the main handle shaft wore out and the hardware (what looked to be a makeshift repair job from times past) pulled right out. We did a quick fix, but it wasn't great, and we thought it deserved a proper job, which I've documented here.

We used the hardware from an old rusty mower of the same model we found being swallowed by ivy and reconditioned them. We replaced the old wood that got munted by the previous owner's repair with a new block of hardwood, and I learned how to do the job of a drill press with my hand brace and a right-angle. This last part was quite challenging, as I was drilling a blind intersection that had to be a perfect 90-degree join, as otherwise the bolt would not screw into the stabilising peg. As a hand brace has a natural, significant wobble, this was a technical feat--one that impressed my machinist friend! I did a couple practice jobs with scrap wood before proceeding to drill the real thing. Quite happy with the results. Time to mow the lawn has been reduced by 50% when compared to the earlier dodgy repair.

Between chiseling, carving, gluing, clamping, reconditioning, and drilling (including planning & test drills), it probably took about 2 hours. Muscle-power only for this repair.

Another small project that took an hour due to the "fiddle factor" and the "how to make this work" factor.
#2 son complained that the pads on his headphones was wearing thin and leaving little black bits stuck to his ears. We *could* have just bought new ones, but that's more plastic and foam waste and we hate garbage. So I used the sleeve from his "relegated to rags" T-shirt that PEP's seen before (I used its hem to repair the rim of my farm hat).
The first picture shows the damaged pad and the cotton T-shirt.


First I cut out a circle of fabric with enough diameter to make a casing to gather it around the headphone pad and do a gather stitching.


The next photo shows the casing stitching with a piece of string about to be fed through, and the first cover installed.


Lastly here's the finished product, declared comfy by the owner and already being used:


What's important here to me, is that we're keeping a little more garbage out of the landfill, extending its useful life and even if that's only a little embodied energy, lots of little things add up to big things if we all make that effort. Besides, #2 son says they're comfy!

Nicole said I could put my slippers here, as an Oddball BB.
There isn't a BB thread that fits, because I used several materials: felted wool (old sweaters), leather (from an old bag) and fur (from parka hoods).


Cutting all parts out of felted wool. Sole and heel half-circle out of leather too.


Sewing with unraveled merino wool 'thread' in buttonhole stitch.



Making the fur lining for the sole. (sorry, I am not vegetarian or vegan and this fur was bought in a thrift store).


Sewing sole and upper part together


One slipper finished, the other almost
The cone you see in the back is cotton thread, also found in the thrift store. I waxed it before use (on the leather / fur parts) with a left-over piece of a bees-wax candle


The right size warm slippers for my feet!
after this photo I added a tiny rim of fur at the top of the upper part.

Made potash by filtering wood ashes and extracting the water soluble bits.

Then added to an olive oil / coconut oil blend to make some liquid soap.

Surprised soap making isn’t a PEP badge, unless I missed it somewhere.

Was visiting a friend a few days ago and their neighbor had thrown out a bunch of lumber onto the street for garbage collection. I believe it may have been a deconstructed dog house or something, and I know they were also moving out.

In any case, spent a day cleaning up the boards and pulling out all the nails and screws. Then sanded it to get any gunk off.

Repurposed the wood to build a bed frame for my SUV for my upcoming road trip. The size of the wood was nearly perfect and just the right amount. I barely had to do much cutting. But I designed and built the frame and did a lot of sanding. Hooray, no plywood!

Did a metalworking project today that didn’t fit into the metalworking category.

I have an awesome BioLite stove that uses twigs and other small bits of fuel to boil water and cook with.

The problem with it is that it needs to be refueled periodically in the middle of cooking something. Rather than taking the hot thing off, finding a place to set it, then refueling the stove, I wanted to make trivet or stand that would support the pot or cooking vessel and allow me to slide the stove out and refuel it and slide it back under.

Since I’m going to be traveling in my car for a while, I wanted it to be very packable and take little space. I came up with a folding concept that uses all-thread for packabilty and adjustability.