Recently, my wife inadvertently got water in her Timex watch. Even though it is supposed to be water-resistant to 50 meters (~165 ft), which would be a pressure of over 65 psi, it got waterlogged with just a quick trip into the shower… Not sure how that works. This required me taking the back off of her watch and then replacing Timex watch back. I heard her go into the shower and not even a minute later say oh shoot (unlike me, she rarely swears), and then set the watch down outside the shower. I could see water under the crystal.

In here, I’ll discuss removing the timex watch back and then, more importantly, replacing timex watch back. I’m not sure how the professional watch repair places do it, but I imagine the have a special tool for replacing timex watch back. Actually, the same tool is probably used for all watches that have the back pressed on as opposed to either being screwed on or held on with screws. Several of my “scuba diver” watches had the screwed on case. The current watch I wear has the back attached with four tiny screws through the back plate into the main plate.

Before you remove the back, I strongly suggest you figure out if you have the necessary tools so that replacing the timex watch back doesn’t mean going to the store and having someone else do it. The trick to this is that you need a “cup” that you can lay the watch in, face down so that the rim of the cup does NOT touch the crystal NOR does it touch the stem. I used the cap off a shampoo or conditioner bottle as my cup. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked, none the less.

Replacing Timex Watch Back – Tools

C-clamp large enough to grasp the watch and your holder
a cup or holder for the watch
I used a hard plastic cap to large bottle
Other ideas a piece of Hard wood (i.e pine won’t work)
PVC pipe cap
metal pipe cap
if you’re using a metal cap you will need a soft cloth or other soft item to protect the surface of the watch from scratching. I got lucky with my hard plastic cap.
if using hardwood or scrap metal, you can drill the correct size hole so that it is a perfect fit.
soft cloth or rubber pad to put the watch on (if using something other than plastic as your holder)

Removal
knife
Safety glasses!

When I removed the back I was concerned about the knife blade potentially shattering and throwing shards into my eyes so I wore safety glasses. (Cheap insurance)

Remove one of the retaining pins from the bracelet so that the watch body is only attached to one end of the bracelet. This is not really essential at this point, but will make re-assembly much easier. Furthermore, you are less likely to damage the watch internals if you get the bracelet out of the way before you open the case. Still, if you prefer when replacing timex watch back, do it later.

Place the knife blade under the tab that is at about 1 to 2 O’clock on the case back as you look at the words in a right side up, readable, fashion. Gently pry the case back up. As it comes up, be sure not to scratch or cut the rubber gasket that surrounds the case. See the attached drawing. The Gasket sits in the groove, and the inner lip of the groove is smaller than the opening of the case, while the outer lip is larger and sits over the watch back. This prevents the back from falling into the watch and protects the soft gasket from damage. Notice that the tab is sitting adjacent to one of the bracelet anchor points that extend from the case. This is great as it give you an anchor to pry against when opening. Remember when you are putting the watch back back on.

You’ll notice that when you remove the back of the watch it doesn’t pop or snap, it is a gentle continuous motion. Nothing Jerkey. No noises, it weill go back on the same way.

After drying the watch (in my case) and replacing the battery it is a 1216 battery 3V lithium, you’re ready to replace the back. First make sure the gasket is completely and properly seated in the groove on the case back. Clean all exposed areas of the case. I used “Q-tips” dipped in IPA to clean the mung from around the back. It’s amazing how much dirt and grime can get under there given how tightly it is closed. Be careful not to push the dirt into the watch.

Place the watch face down on your circular holder. Ensure that the stem of the watch clears the rim too. In my experience while I could place the watch properly clearing all obstacle, as soon as I began to tighten the first clamp onto the back of the watch it would slide enough that the stem would hit the rim. If I continued to apply pressure I was concerned that it would bend the stem. I thought of two ways out of this pickle. the first would be to cut a notch in the rim slightly bigger than the stem so that the stem wouldn’t contact it. A Dremel tool would make short work of it. I decide to try my second idea first as this bottle cap needed to go back on the product. That was to pull the stem out like I was going to set the watch. That was very close, but worked saving me from having to perform surgery on the cap. Put the clamp on the back and gently tighten it. You want to have the clamp off to the side,, close to the edge fo the case.

Two reasons for this:

First it will help ensure the sealing gasket is properly seated and not pinched. Second the edge of the case is stronger against in/out pressure than in the center. I envision the possibility of the clamp dimpling the case back before it is seated and possibly contacting the electronics and damaging it. If you want to try it with only one clamp, then I recommend inserting some type of metal plate under the foot of the C-clamp so you can spread the force out over a larger area and be sure not to damage the case back.

Gently tighten the clamp until the case is seated on that side.

Add the second clamp on the other side of the case and begin tightening it gently. Watch carefully as you tighten the clamp. Make sure the watch doesn’t slip or move and potentially damage the stem or crystal as you continue tightening the clamps to replacing timex watch back.

Again, the back will gently push into the case. Once in place, slowly loosen the clamps, one at a time. As you loosen the clamps, be sure the case doesn’t start to come apart. As long as you’ve properly aligned everything and have not pinched the gasket, you’ll be fine.

Let me know if you’ve found this helpful in the comments below.

How visitors found us:

Dan Replacing Timex Watch Back

My son the pilot to be. He’s completed phase one of his training which was in Pensacola Florida (Home of the Blue Angels flight Demonstration Team) where he soloed in a Cessna 172 and learned that he never wants to be shot down as he’ll be doing the “Bear Grylls” thing eating bugs, snakes and rodents.

The plane is the Navy’s T-34C Turbo Mentor (Beechcraft). I’ve got about 6 hours of time in a T-34B, a piston version of the T-34C. That plane was a kick to fly, I can only imagine how much fun this one must be. Pretty sure this one will go over 200 KIAS…

Now I need to find a picture of him when he was in Pre-school and had an airplane on his backpack. Flying is something he’s wanted to do forever. We’re proud of him and happy for him as approaches a goal he’s had “forever.”

How visitors found us:

Dan T-34

That’s a picture and link to the scale I use on an everyday basis in my kitchen. I also use it on projects that require me to figure out or understand weights or masses. For example:

• When I was blowing up the gophers I used both propane and Oxygen. The Oxygen is used at a much higher rate than the propane and there is a much smaller quantity in the bottle than there is propane in its bottle. The bottles are typically 1.4 and 2.1 ounces of Oxygen, (40 and 60 grams respectively) The empty bottles easily weigh several hundred grams. Since the Oxygen is in the bottle in gas form, you can’t hear it sloshing around. Weighing is the only good way to know the quantity in the bottle, especially easy on this portable kitchen scale.
• When I trapped the gophers, it allowed me to size the gopher by weight in addition to its length.
• When I refilled the toothpaste tubes, it’s nice to know how much I was putting into the tubes. Also to approximate how much is used when brushing my teeth, I weighed the tube every time, on the portable kitchen scale, I brushed my teeth to figure it out.
• I did the same thing with Shaving cream, how much do I use every day? I could quantify any of the personal hygiene items like shampoo, hair gel, baby powder, deodorant etc. to figure out how big of a travel size I would need to bring on a particular length trip. Take the average amount used per unity time from the portable kitchen scale and divide that into the quantity in the container.
• When condensing the soap bars it was nice to be weight the shard on the portable kitchen scale and give a quantifiable size of the shard or sliver being joined to the new bar.
• When dehydrating the sourdough starter, this portable kitchen scale gave me quantifiable numbers to put in the article.

Portable Kitchen scale attributes:

• It runs on “AAA” batteries, (they are easy to find and inexpensive to replace, especially when compared to the “coin” style watch batteries)
• It is accurate. I did a comparison using water and measuring cups. I was unable to detect any non-linearities over the entire range of operation.
• This great kitchen scale weighs up to 2 kg (4.5 lbs) and it has a resolution of 0.1g My experience is that it can be difficult to get it to register a change of 0.1g, it is more likely to change by 0.2g. None the less it is both accurate and precise.
• It has a “tare” function making differential weights easy to do.
• It has four different display modes including ounces and grams.
• It is small and portable, usable almost anywhere.

Portable Kitchen Scale detractors

• The auto shut-off feature may seem a bit aggressive or fast.
• The display is easily obscured by a large bowl or container. There are at least two ways around this shortcoming:
• Put another smaller bowl or container on the scale to lift the large bowl above the display. -OR-
• Reach under the bowl and press the tare button. Removing the bowl will then show the negative weight of the item that was on the scale.

Let me know what you think. If you use a different portable kitchen scale I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.

How visitors found us:

Dan Portable Kitchen Scale

Do You Need Silver Dip Polish?

Is your silver tarnished? Do you dread using it because it is so difficult to get it clean and sparkling? Do you wish you had a butler to take care of it so you didn’t have to? Do you loathe having yet another cleaning compound in the house that has only 1 use? Stick with me and I’ll show you how to polish your silver with common kitchen items, and no elbow grease. We’ll make Silver Dip Polish.

What is silver Tarnish?

Before we make the silver dip polish, a little background. The tarnish on silver is the compound silver sulfide Ag₂S, if it forms at a temperature of less than 173°C it has a specific physical structure and is known as Acanthite. If it forms above 176°C it takes on a different physical structure and is known as Argentite, if the crystal is cooled below 173°C it will deform into the Acanthite crystalline structure. There is second crystalline structure of Argentite that is found above 586°C. Acanthite is the only form that you or I will ever see close up as the other forms are not stable at “normal” temperatures.

Remove Silver Tarnish, the Hard Way

So now that you know what it is, how do you get rid of it? There are any number of silver polishes out there that you can rub onto your silver item with a soft cloth or sponge and remove the tarnish with. Here are several examples that have been rated 4 stars or better by other users:

Remove Silver Tarnish, the Easy Way

Our setup to make silver dip polish is simple, easy and best of all, inexpensive. It uses common household items and is “Green”, otherwise known as environmentally friendly. Any reasonably stocked kitchen will have everything…

Silver Dip Polish Ingredients

Aluminum foil
Baking Soda: Sodium Bicarbonate; (NaHCO3)   -OR-
Washing Soda: Sodium Carbonate; (Na2CO3)
Hot water

Silver dip polish equipment

Glass, Plastic or foil container big enough to fill with water covering the silver item you want to clean
Maybe some tongs
Pan to heat water in

 
Place the foil in the bottom of the container. You will place the item to be cleaned on the foil. NOTE: you can use an aluminum foil pan like I’ve shown above and forgo the foil. Dissolve the soda in the hot water, pour it into the container, covering the foil NOTE: it doesn’t matter what type you use, some people add table salt to the solution too. What you are creating is an electrolyte (an electrically conductive solutions) you could use only salt too. (Perhaps an experiment?)
Place the item you want to remove the tarnish from into the container on top of the foil
it is important that the silver and aluminum contact each other. The reaction that converts the Silver tarnish (silver sulfide) back into silver requires that the two metals exchange electrons. As they exchange electrons, the sulfur is moved from the silver to the aluminum. This is done in the ionic electrolyte solution and is known as a single replacement reaction.

Depending on how thick the layer of tarnish is and how hot your solution, the tarnish can be removed nearly instantaneously. I’ll create and post a video for you to watch.

Once the tarnish is removed remove the item from the bath, rinse in cool fresh water and dry with a soft, lint free cloth.

What’s happening with the Silver dip?

You re witnessing a simple “Oxidation-Reduction” or “Red-Ox” (pronounced REE – Dox) reaction. One component is being reduced simultaneously while another is being oxidized. here is the overall chemical reaction and the “half” reactions: :
(s) means solid
(aq) means aqueous or “in solution”
 

Silver is Reduced (gains electrons):

Aluminum is Oxidized (loses electrons):

 

The arrow indicates that the reaction moves from left to right and the chemical above the arrow is our electrolyte. (Baking Soda)

Preventing Silver Tarnish

A question I’m often asked is “Is there a way to prevent silver tarnish in the first place?” and the answer is an absolute Yes. It requires some work and vigilance. All you need to do is prevent any sulfur from contacting the silver pieces. That can be done in a number of ways. Seal the silver pieces in an airtight container and remove all of the air from the container. You could use one of those food saver devices.

Probably an easier thing to do is to store them in a specially crafted silver storage box. We have a box that we were given as a wedding present. It was lined with a cloth that contains a compound that reacts preferentially with any sulfur compounds that get inside the box. That will wear out eventually as all of the active ingredient combines with the sulfur in the air. When that happens you can either by new cloths or these strips. These strips have the advantage of they can be used inside of larger cabinets. So, for example you want to display a silver coffee service that includes a tray and decanter, you simply lay one or two of these strips on the same shelf with your silver pieces.

These protective strips should be kept in a sealed bag if not being used to protect your silver. They will last longer in a closed environment than when in an open area. Some people report up to a year or more of useful life when sealed.

Please let me know in the comments below when you’ve made your own Silver Dip Polish and how it worked.

How visitors found us:

Dan Silver Dip Polish

Amateur radio operator numbers are increasing. This video is mostly correct, the reference to “ham to ham” contact is a bit of a stretch…

FROM FOX NEWS:

Radio Days Are Back: Ham Radio Licenses at an All-Time High

By Michelle Macaluso

Published November 22, 2011

The newest trend in American communication isn’t another smartphone from Apple or Google but one of the elder statesmen of communication: Ham radio licenses are at an all time high, with over 700,000 licenses in the United States, according to the Federal Communications Commission.

Ham radio first took the nation by storm nearly a hundred years ago. Last month the FCC logged 700,314 licenses, with nearly 40,000 new ones in the last five years. Compare that with 2005 when only 662,600 people hammed it up and you’ll see why the American Radio Relay League — the authority on all things ham — is calling it a “golden age.”

“Over the last five years we’ve had 20-25,000 new hams a year,” Allen Pitts, a spokesman for the group, told FoxNews.com.

The unusual slang term — a “ham” is more properly known as an amateur radio operator — described a poor operator when the first wireless operators started out in the early 1900s. At that time, government and coastal ships would have to compete with amateurs for signal time, because stations all battled for the same radio wavelength. Frustrated commercial operators called the amateurs “hams” and complained that they jammed up the signal.

People like John Pritchett have used the slang term ever since.

“It takes an inquisitive mind that wants the challenge to speak with the rest of the world,” Pritchett told FoxNews.com. “I meet a lot of people as a result amateur radio. It’s a fascinating experience to meet somebody who you’ve talked to for years — when you finally meet them and go, wow, that’s you.”

Pritchett has been a ham for over 35 years. He sits in his ham shack slowly turning the dial on his amateur radio and listening attentively for a voice through the high radio frequency. But he’s not looking for aliens: Pritchett is dialing in to make contact with someone around the world.

“W6JWK, This is John in Fresno, California,” he says.

Pritchett can communicate with people around the globe or even astronauts in space by talking through his microphone or using Morse code.

With more people joining the hobby, local ham radio businesses are growing as well. Amateur Electronics Supply in Las Vegas sells everything to do with ham radios, from transceivers, amplifiers and antennas to handhelds.

“We have clientele from all walks of life,” manager Luke Rohn told FoxNews.com. “We have church groups who are interested in ham radio for a viable source of communication in times of natural disaster. We have young kids that find ham radio interesting. Maybe they’ve heard about it through their father and grandfather and it’s a lot of fun for them.”

According to the American Radio Relay League, retirees and emergency groups are among the main reasons for the nearly 30,000 new hams that pick up the hobby each year.

Ham is a boon for safety as well as a fun pastime: When normal communications methods fail and cellphone towers are jammed, ham radios will still work and can help out in disaster situations, because they don’t require towers to relay the signal.

“Amateur radio came into play very much during the major earthquake in the Bay Area in 1989. The only thing I had was a little handheld radio. Nothing else worked, telephones didn’t work, cellphones didn’t work, amateur radio just kept right on working,” Pritchett said.

Looking to ham it up a bit with some friends? Try a fox hunt — the radio equivalent of ham-to-ham combat. In a fox hunt, local amateur radio clubs search for a transmitter (called the fox) using their homemade antennas.

“The fox hunting is really fun — the thrill of the chase, the competition of being the first to find the transmitter,” said Rob Mavis, president of the Clovis Amateur Radio Pioneers club in Clovis, Calif.

Ham radio is inexpensive fun, as well: All you need is a couple hundred bucks to get started and a FCC license — which is free, but requires a $10 to $12 fee to cover expenses.

So join the latest craze — no iPhone app required.http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/11/17/radio-days-are-back-ham-radio-licenses-at-all-time-high/the original article can be found at the link.

I agree with the AES store owner that there is something magical about talking to someone else around the globe with the same amount of power as a 100W light bulb. I’ve done it with a homemade radio operating on much less power. This is the perfect time to get into the hobby as sunspots are hitting the peak of their 11year cycle.

How visitors found us:

Dan Increasing Amateur Radio Operators

Conventional wisdom among technical types who don’t work for the Environmental Protection Agency is that most people have nothing to fear from the vapor released from a broken compact fluorescent bulb or CFL. The reasoning is that the small amount of mercury inside the bulb gradually gets absorbed into the glass and so little of it would be airborne in the event of a break.

But that idea was recently tested by researchers from the Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Jackson State University in Mississippi. Writing in the journal Environmental Engineering Science, researchers say they tested CFLs of eight different brands and four different sizes (wattages). They tested bulbs new bulbs as well as bulbs that had been in use for three years.

Researchers ran tests designed to see how much mercury (Hg) came off the bulbs from rain water and how much might leach off if the bulbs went into a landfill. Lastly, they checked for mercury vapor coming off of broken CFLs.

The Hg content in CFLs varied significantly with brand. The total amount of Hg contained in each CFL ranged from 0.1mg to 3.6 mg. Researchers also determined that and less than 4% of the Hg leached off under landfill conditions. New CFLs leached off less than 0.2 mg/L and so aren’t considered hazardous waste. The same result was determined for Hg leaching off from rainwater.

Results from Hg vapor emission tests were not nearly as boring. Tests showed that the CFLs continuously release Hg vapor once they are broken and that the release can continue for over ten weeks. The total amount of Hg vapor released from a broken CFL can exceed 1.0 mg, which can cause Hg level in a regular room to exceed the safe human exposure limit under poor or non-existant ventilation conditions.

The researchers also point out breakage of unused CFLs during transportation, handling, sales, and installation causes more release of Hg into the air than that of the used ones. Other researchers have found that the release of 1 mg of Hg vapor into a 500-m^3 room can yield an Hg level 10 times that of a child’s exposure limit (0.2 µg/m^3) (0.2 µg/m³)recommended by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Thus, in most cases, one broken CFL could cause the Hg vapor concentration in such a room to exceed the safe level for children if the room is not vented.

Gotcha!

A 500 m³ room with an 8 foot ceiling would be 2200 square feet in size. That is bigger than my entire house. If you think of a more typically sized room of say 10X12 for a bedroom or 14×15 for a family or living room, the exposure levels would be 100 times the limit or more! So my recommendation would be to open all the windows and doors to get lots of air flow and then quickly get as much out of the room as possible before going onto detailed cleaning.

Environmental Release of Mercury from Broken Compact Fluorescent Lamps © Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

EPA recommended Cleanup

Before Cleanup of Broken CFL

• Have people and pets leave the room.
• Air out the room for 5-10 minutes by opening a window or door to the outdoor environment.
• Shut off the central forced air heating/air-conditioning system, if you have one.
• Collect materials needed to clean up broken bulb:
• stiff paper or cardboard;
• sticky tape;
• damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes (for hard surfaces); and a glass jar with a metal lid or a sealable plastic bag.

During Cleanup of Broken CFL

• DO NOT VACUUM. Vacuuming is not recommended unless broken glass remains after all other cleanup steps have been taken. Vacuuming could spread mercury-containing powder or mercury vapor.
• Be thorough in collecting broken glass and visible powder.
• Place cleanup materials in a sealable container.

After Cleanup of a Broken CFL

• Promptly place all bulb debris and cleanup materials outdoors in a trash container or protected area until materials can be disposed of properly. Avoid leaving any bulb fragments or cleanup materials indoors.
• If practical, continue to air out the room where the bulb was broken and leave the heating/air conditioning system shut off for several hours.

How visitors found us:

Dan Breaking a bulb

Refill Toothpaste Tube

Toothpaste filling adapter update. After writing the original article, on how to refill toothpaste tube, I’ve made a couple more toothpaste filling adapters and thought I would pass along some more tips on making these handy toothpaste transfer caps.

Red is for Colgate and White is Crest, except the one “different” cap which is a Church & Dwight.

Additional tools from the original article
Tapered reamer (I’ve had mine for probably 25 years or more, and it will go up to 13mm)
dowel 5/16″ 3-4″ in length (1/4″ would work too)

The dowel makes it easier to construct the adapter especially if you are making an adapter for two of the same brand caps.

If you want to clean the caps before starting, it will make the construction of the toothpaste transfer cap a little easier.
Two ways to do it:

• Soak in warm soapy water to soften the old toothpaste, then use a toothbrush to clean it out -OR-
• Put the caps in the covered silverware basket of the dishwasher and run them through with the dishes

Drill the hole in the caps starting @ 1/8″ and slowly increasing the bit size up to 1/4″.
Use the reamer to slowly increase the size of the hole check often as you want to have good tight fit on the dowel. As before, clean up any loose or stray plastic. If you get too big of a hole and have a loose fit you may still be able to use it if the other cap fits tightly to the dowel. Place the two caps on the dowel with the threaded ends apart. Apply the epoxy and allow to cure. If one cap is loose be sure it is above the tight-fitting one so that gravity holds it against the other cap.

Tip: if you use 5 minute epoxy, you can chuck the dowel into your drill and turn it at a slow speed to get a nice even glue deposit.

Once the epoxy fully cures, remove the toothpaste transfer cap from the dowel and go refill your toothpaste tubes. Or if you want you can wash the caps in warm soapy water. So let’s go refill toothpaste tube!

Here is a photo of the three adapters I’ve made. Crest is the most common brand (especially the travel toothpaste tubes) in our house so that is the common cap on every adapter. The Crest toothpaste cap is on the bottom in all three toothpaste transfer caps. Left to right the top cap is for Colgate, Church & Dwight, Crest.

Toothpaste research

I looked up the major toothpaste manufacturers and have listed them and their brands below. The caps should be the same between brands from the same manufacturer. I can personally vouch for all but Arm & Hammer and Mentadent.

Church & Dwight

• Arm & Hammer
• Mentadent
• Pepsodent
• Close-up
• Aim

Colgate

• Colgate
• Ultrabrite

Crest

• Crest

With this adapter it is very easy to refill toothpaste tubes. Now you can inexpensively carry some in your purse or backpack. Your kid can take it to school, the possibilities are nearly endless.

How visitors found us:

Dan Refill Toothpaste Tube Update

(Saturday Morning)
After action report: All Quiet on the Northern Front (or so I thought…)

So here I am 24 hours post gopher killing “shot”. I came home from work early yesterday in the hopes of shooting one or two more holes. Every one I inspected was collapsed! That’s a mixed blessing. I was so looking forward to hearing the sound of death and destruction raining down on my furry enemies but at the same time it’s nice to know that this contraption works well.

This morning I did some reconnaissance of the battlefield and there is still no sign of enemy activity…

Things to do before the next shot:
Add a stripe, to the oxygen regulator(valve) so it will be easier to count the turns as I open it.
same for the gas regulator, but it has three ribs on the back of the knob 120 degrees apart that work well. Weigh the cylinder before and after each shot with careful time tracking to get better estimate of usage rate.
Calculations with new bottle and old would lead me to believe I have about 45 seconds of gas remaining in the bottle. Means doing a 30 second shot to be safe, or switching bottles after about that long….
I’ve designed a simple “firing circuit” of 1 transistor, 1 LED and 3 resistors that will tell me if the igniter is intact without setting it off.

(Sunday Afternoon)
I was gone over the weekend at a soccer tournament with one of the kids. Upon return, my wife reported that the gopher was back. Not only that, she said it stayed completely above ground for about 10 minutes, long enough for the two other kids to be called see it. “Ewww! That’s ugly!” Perhaps he was “punch drunk” or knew the end was near so decided to enjoy the sunlight…

Needless to say, I set up the “Death Stick” again and went to work. My neighbor came over and helped too. This time I struggled with ignition and the mixture. Finally figured out the mixture and believe I have a reproducible idea / method for the ignition. Our best guess is that we were running too fuel rich even at 1/4 turn open. I had been successful before at ~1/8 open. Ideally there should be a pressure regulator and maybe even a flow meter, so that you could be more certain of the flow rate. Same for the O2. Since the O2 is so small, I fully open the valve, that seems to give me the widest range of control on the fuel gas. The design of the setup is for light welding/brazing/cutting and relies on your eye / ear to set the flame properly. Since we’re not burning and don’t desire a flame, there is not reliable way to tell what’s going on.

The problem with the steel wool is that we were packing it in too tightly. While we were getting plenty of current flow and heat, because it was dense, none of the individual strands ever got red-hot. I’ll rearrange the electrodes and actually fabricate the igniter with much less dense packing so I can consistently get the wool to glow red.

The video below is of the successful shot. At the end I created a slow motion video of the blast from ignition to the last piece of dirt hitting the ground which lasted ~2.5 seconds in real-time. right after the flame, you can see the ground get picked up to the right to the edge of the screen. The ground straight back (away from the camera) gets destroyed. Definitely will be needing to do some major yard repairs.

Dan Gopher Killing part 2

If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time, you know that I’ve been fighting with gophers for quite some time. It has been a war of attrition and recently, the gophers have made great inroads into the yard. My last attempt at traps I opened the tunnels and carefully placed the traps. Within two days they had filled the holes in so well that I had to dig the traps out, I couldn’t retrieve them by pulling the wire on the back of the trap. Is it finally time for “big guns”, C4 or perhaps tactical nuclear weapons?

I recently heard about the Rodenator although I’d seen something like it in operation over 10 years ago. We were helping repair and prepare soccer fields for our kids to play on. One of the fields was riddled with gopher holes. The league hired a guy to help eradicate the gophers and fix the mess. He used the same technique. Fill the tunnel with an explosive mixture of propane and oxygen then ignite it. The Rodenator looks like a great product if you’re a professional and would be doing this eradication as part of your job or to protect a lot of property. I’m one man on a 1/4 acre lot, I can’t really afford to spend the big bucks on destroying the little buggers.

So, I decided to make my own and would have to rely on my brains to not kill or injure myself or anyone else. Here’s a video of the third attempt to fire my device. The first attempt nothing happened, believe the steel wool ignitor was too densely packed so never got to the glowing stage or insufficient oxygen. Try number two, I’ll post that video in the future was a “pop” that sounded just like lighting an oxy-acetylene torch. Again, probably too little oxygen. Finally on the third attempt, success. The Oxygen valve was fully open and the gas was only open 1/8th turn. The total distance of the burrow that was opened to the surface was about 7 feet. Not very far, but I don’t have a lot of pressure to force the gas into the tunnels. Either that or the tunnel went down. Further investigation required.

In the video I talk to myself out loud to annotate the video and because I want to remember to do everything in the proper sequence since I have no interlocks and could conceivably blow myself to kingdom come. After flowing the gas I want to remember to turn off both gasses, shut the isolation valve and THEN connect the battery to ignite/detonate the gases. It sounded very loud through my ear muffs and I could hear it echo off of the houses across the field. This video doesn’t capture the noise very well.

Now that I’ve started opening up the tunnels, I’ll be able to put all the dirt back and MAYBE think about leveling the lawn… Did you notice that I had boards over the kitchen window in case rocks were thrown? Questions welcome…

How visitors found us:

Dan Gopher Killing

The “Perfect” Cracker -Olive Oil and Sea Salt Crackers

I prefer my crackers to be utilitarian, useful. These olive oil and sea salt crackers are just that. The crackers are crisp and feel sturdy enough to dig in the garden (not really).

But they DO stand up well to the heartiest of dips like hummus, tapenade or guacamole.

Even as sturdy as they are, they seem to magically know when they’re in your mouth and self destruct on cue in a flavor filled burst.

Olive Oil Cracker Perfection Every Time

The trick to getting the crackers perfect each and every time is to get them to a very consistent thickness. You could certainly try to do that with a rolling pin, but an infinitely better solution is to use a pasta machine.
I’ve had an Atlas pasta roller for probably 20 years and I doubt if it has been used even 15 times. This amazingly simple recipe will increase the usage dramatically. the Atlas is a hand crank version if you have a decent stand mixer it either came with one or you should be able to buy one for it. Since I still have three kids at home I have plenty of “Horsepower” to make my Olive Oil and sea salt crackers.

I wish I could say I thought of this on my own but didn’t a friend told me about this trick. Even though there is a bit of “work” involved with cranking, the kids love to help crank the crank and watch the play-doh like stuff squish and ooze through the rollers. With a little practice and slightly smaller quantities of dough, I could do this by myself.
My hand-cranked machine is an Atlas that was made in ITALY not China.

Olive oil and Sea Salt Cracker recipe

My olive oil cracker recipe is simple: regular flour and semolina flour (the latter provides a slightly more “old-school” texture and the additional gluten helps to strengthen the dough), a bit of salt and olive oil, and enough water to bind into a dough that will be smooth but not tacky (or it will gunk up your pasta roller). I haven’t done that with this dough, but early on made a real mess of the roller with a too sticky pasta dough…

This is a good thing because the recipe makes quite a bit, but as long as you’re taking out the roller and preheating the oven, you might as well bake a good batch. And really, once you have them around I don’t think you’ll run out of things to eat them with: hummus, tapenade, your favorite cheese, you get the idea.

The recipe is easily open to variations, so add the spices and dried herbs of your choice, and possibly some grated hard cheese to the dough I’ve used sesame seeds. If you decide to use seeds, be sure to use small ones. Sesame seed are probably the limit as if the seeds are too big they’ll make the dough difficult to get thin enough. Here are my recommendations on the dry stuff. For every gram you add in take out and equivalent amount of flour. I would shoot for somewhere between 20 and 45 grams of your preferred “pixie dust”. If you use 20 grams, that would mean reduce each type of flour by 10 grams.

Sourdough starter note: If you maintain a sourdough starter, you can use up some of your excess starter in this recipe. If your starter is 50% flour by weight, then it’s simple to adjust your recipe: I usually use 100grams of starter. Since it is half each, I remove 50g of water for a total of 70ml (if you’re using liquid measure, 5TBL is 75ml and close enough) EACH flour is reduced to 135g. Also if it is still active, know that if the dough is allowed to sit for any amount of time, it will cause the crackers to become bubbly when cooked. This creates the problem of uneven cooking.

Basic Olive Oil and Sea Salt Crackers

• 160 grams (5 2/3 ounces) all-purpose flour
• 160 grams (5 2/3 ounces) fine semolina flour (if you can’t find semolina flour, just use all regular flour. You can use all semolina if you want but it is very hard/stiff and more difficult to work, but if your roller is motorized, go for it!)
• 7 grams (1 1/2 teaspoons) fine sea salt
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil
• 120 ml (1/2 cup) water
• Sourdough Starter? -See note above

Mix the flours and salt in a mixing bowl. Add the olive oil and stir it in with a fork. Add the water and mix it in. When the water is absorbed, turn the mixture out on a clean work surface and knead the dough gently to gather into a smooth ball. Add a touch more water if the dough feels too dry to come together, but the consistency you’re shooting for is smooth, not at all sticky or tacky. (Remember, you don’t want to gum up your pasta machine) If the dough is done right, you won’t even need to take it out of the bowl. I can use a dinner fork and never leave the bowl.

Divide the dough into 8 pieces of (roughly) equal size, and cover with a kitchen towel. If you’re completely engineering minded [Anal-retentive (?)] like me, you can calculate the exact amount like I did. (My first batch of Olive oil crackers was 499 grams so 62.4 per 1/8^th)

Preheat the oven to 410°F and prepare two baking sheets lined with parchment paper or silicone baking mats

– this is so you can bake two batches of crackers at a time, but if you only have one baking sheet, that’s fine, too. I say 410°F, and unfortunately I don’t really know. My ovens are awful so I am constantly turning things as they bake and sometime will even move the temp up and down 25 to 50F while cooking.

Take one piece of dough (keep the others covered to prevent drying out) and flatten between the palms of your hands. Set the pasta roller on the widest setting, and slip the dough in the roller to thin it out. Fold the strip of dough in half so the two short sides meet, and slip the dough into the roller again, fold in first. If you put it in open end first, no worries, you may get an air pocket. Just do it again. Since we did not do a lot of kneading, think of this as the kneading. Repeat 3 or 4 times until the dough feels smooth supple. If at any time your olive oil cracker dough gets sticky, dust it with a touch of flour.

Switch the pasta roller to the next (= narrower) setting and slip the dough in (just once this time) to thin it out. Repeat with the subsequent settings until you reach setting #5, and get a thin, long roughly rectangular sheet of dough. Place it on one of the prepared baking sheets, or a flour-dusted peel if you’re using a bread stone. I’m able to fit two or three of these ~60g pieces across the width of the sheet.

(If you don’t have a pasta roller, perhaps you can borrow one from a friend? or find a store with a decent return policy and I bet you WON’T be taking it back)

Repeat with more pieces of dough until there is no room left on your baking sheets. Using a sharp paring knife, a pastry wheel a pizza cutter etc. score the sheets of dough into square or triangular pieces so they’ll be easier to break off. Be aggressive. If you don’t score deep enough, you’ll have a hard time separating your crackers. If you like lots of salt, and your doctor says it’s OK then just before putting them in the oven sprinkle with some additional coarse (or fine) sea salt.

Insert the baking sheet into the oven and bake for 7 to 10 minutes, or until golden to golden brown. If I pre-divide the dough, I’m able to create the next tray of crackers to bake before the first ones finish. I move the first batch from the bottom to the top rack in the oven (and rotate them), insert the second batch. I keep going till it’s all done.

Transfer the olive oil crackers to a cooling rack, and repeat with the remaining pieces of dough. Once cool, break apart along the scores and place in an airtight container or large plastic bag.

The crackers will keep for a few weeks in an airtight container.

Variation Ideas:

• Sesame seeds
• Poppy seeds
• Caraway seeds
• Replace the sea salt with Garlic Salt-or- add a couple of cloves of crushed garlic (reduce olive oil?)
• Basil
• Rosemary
• Oregano -all the herbs in my back yard
• thyme
• grated Parmesan or other “hard” cheese

In the pictures above, the dough balls were weighed to withing 1 gram of each other.  The number corresponds to the setting on the pasta machine.   You can see the size get larger as the dough gets thinner.

Let me know how your Olive Oil Crackers turn out and what you use them with.

How visitors found us:

Dan Olive Oil and Sea Salt Crackers