Breathing New Life into an Old Saw Speedway Model 70

Need a new saw or tool but cant afford to get the top of the line? Should you run out to the big box nearest you and pickup the cheapo tool just to get that project done? In my opinion you should never settle for buying a new low quality tool just because you need to get by. Why not look on craigslist, garage sales, resale, or goodwill instead and pickup something better?








Even an old tool can be cleaned up and give you years of use.

Many of the older tool out there are made with high carbon, high quality steel, less plastic, and better components than even the top of the line tools out there these days. Save yourself some money, pickup something used from a local shop or neighbor, cleanup it up and have something worth cherishing.

When I am planning a project I start by planning ahead and start looking around for those needed tools. Local resale and second hand shops, eBay, Goodwill,  and craigslist are great resources to start with. It is much better to support your local community than to run out for the cheap made in China junk that will most likely end up in the land fill after you use it three times.

How many of your tools will be around in 40 years? This particular saw is, as far as I can tell, about 40 years old. The company is no longer in business but manufactured quality tools from Illinois. As I took this saw apart I could tell that it was engineered and built with one thing in mind, quality. There were no talks about outsourcing, finding cheap suppliers, or how the could make their tools for less than the other guy. It was more about quality and dependability they were worried about. This was from a time when the word of your neighbors experience with something that meant more than any commercial or fancy packaging.

This saw is no doubt old and may not last me as many years as it did the previous owner. But after cleaning this saw up and working with it for a few hours I have a new found respect for the quality that used to be the pinnacle of America manufacturing.


13 Amp 2 prong replacement cord - http://amzn.to/1NiHI4G
13 Amp 3 prong replacement cord - http://amzn.to/1NiIfnl

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Music - "Insomnia" by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/song/Insomnia

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Greenhouse Roof Failure!

A little mishap happened with our last snow storm.  The north facing roof buckled on the greenhouse from the snow.  From the photo, you can see that the 4 “rafter” pieces have all bent in.  The rigid foam insulation that I had installed on the inside has also pushed in.

Luckily, when I assembled the greenhouse, I had added some extra bracing inside.  This prevented it from totally caving in so it’s not a total loss.  The plants and fish are still alive!  This spring, I should be able to dismantle this section and bend the pieces back into shape….and add some additional braces inside.

Here’s a link to my blog that displays the original bracing I installed a few years ago.  Link to Blog
 

Spring can’t come fast enough!

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New Baby Chicks Week 6 Not Babies Anymore New Watering System for Coop

Do all of us chicken mamas think our chickens are the best, smartest, and prettiest chickens ever born?  Love must be blind because we really like our chickens a lot.

And our girls even have different colored eyes!  Ours must be eggstra-special (okay, Ill stop).

But seriously, they have been out in their coop now for two weeks and everything has been going extremely well.  No casualties, and they seem very happy. 

Todd also finished the watering system in the chicken coop.

They can access their water outside under the coop.......

....or inside. 

It holds a little over 2 and a half gallons of water, here is where we fill it.  We hope to hook it up to our future rain barrel system one day.


























It took them just a few days to learn how to drink from it. Several times a day, Todd would hold each one and put their beaks up to the chicken nipple, but only when we removed their plastic watering bowl did they finally figure it out. 

Two days ago, they started going into their coop at nighttime on their own.  Up until then, we had to pick up each one and put them in the coop.  That was making me extremely frustrated because they would not go willingly and it would take the girls twenty minutes each night to get them in.  It was mad chicken/children chaos every night at bedtime.   The neighbor kids would even get in on it, too.  Needless to say, were VERY glad that instinct finally kicked in. 

If only we could convince the kids to go to bed on their own........






This post has been shared at:  The Homestead Barn Hop, The HomeAcre Hop, The Backyard Farming Connection Hop, Simple Saturdays Blog Hop

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What to do with mint

Our Mint Eradicator
This past summer I havent spent much time in my garden. I was out of the country for work several times, a family member passed away, and I had a big project that caused any number of late nights.

In the mean time, my aquaponic garden grew like gangbusters. Unfortunately, I let a friend give me some mint. Shes a kind-hearted soul who hates to let any living thing die.

Luckily for me, my daughter acquired a rabbit this fall named Silver. Hes a chinchilla colored rex buck (for those of you who know rabbit terms). Luckily for me, Silver loves mint. So I can pull it out in big handfuls and hell happily munch it down. We have enough mint from this past summer to keep Silver happy for quite a long time yet to come.

My last post was about making emergency lights for Hurricane Sandy. Luckily, our power didnt go out for long and the storm passed us by. I had a chance to spend a long weekend up in New York helping clean up homes in Queens, which was hit particularly hard by the storm.

Hope you have a great holiday season! Ill be back posting about aquaponics again in the new year. Greenhouses, solar heaters, and more!

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Simple Suburban Life New Job and Failing Health

The Bible tells us that there is a time for everything and our family has been in a season of significant changes over the past several months.  Some are good, and some are not so good.  But we know that we are to count it all joy and trust our heavenly Father with it all.

The good news first.  At the beginning of September, I (the SSL mom) accepted the position of preschool director at our church.  Todd and I have been serving for several years together on the elementary side of the childrens ministry and when this position opened up, we knew right away it was something we were being called to do.  We are five months into it and we have been so blessed by the people we have been able to meet, serve alongside and grow closer to.  Our entire family serves the Lord together, side-by-side, and its amazing to be a part of it all.  But it did take some time getting used to our new roles, readjusting our schedules, and reevaluating our priorities.   And preschoolers are a WHOLE lot different than elementary kids.  Wet noses, wet pants, you name it, they do it.  And if you think just because you had kids of your own that you could do it, think again, theyre a force to be reckoned with in high numbers.

More good transitions, we have a high schooler!  While it is bittersweet watching her grow up so fast, we are grateful for the young woman our oldest daughter is becoming.  She loves her sisters, the Lord and sports.  AND she starts drivers ed next week, so look out.  Since we know these next few years are going to fly by, we try to remind ourselves how much we are going to miss her clothes all over the floor and dishes strewn about her room when she moves out on her own.  We are also in the middle of her bedroom renovation, so everything she owns is all over the house, literally.  But thankfully, Todd is mudding her room as I type and we will be onto the plywood flooring very soon.

The difficult news is that my mom was officially diagnosed with ALS in October.  ALS is tricky and there isnt a definitive test for it, but we knew something was terribly wrong with her.  A little over a year ago, my mom started to have difficulty walking, talking and swallowing.  She progressively got weaker and weaker over the last year and we got the heartbreaking news in October.  She now communicates to us with her phone by texting and it will speak for her.  She eats through a tube in her stomach, and is almost exclusively confined to a wheelchair or her bed.  A ventilator breathes for her at night.  Our family is now in a season of caring for her, showering her with as much love as we possibly can, and doing things for her that she can no longer do herself.  This is perhaps the worst disease I have ever heard of.  It takes everything away from you.  She cant eat the foods she loves, we will never hear her voice again, we will never hear her laugh again.  My daughters cant play Just Dance with their grandma on her Nintendo like they used to. She is the best grandma I could ever ask for to my girls. They miss her voice, they hurt to see her so helpless, and they are trying so hard to process it all.  We are bearing down, pushing forward, and putting all of our hope and trust in God. While we dont always fully understand, we are confident He is working good into this situation.  And we know He is a God who heals.

We hope this update helps to explain some of the random projects Todd has been working on over the past few months.  The candy canes for the churchs childrens play, the bedroom renovations for our oldest (weve been promising her closets for years and realized time is running out!) and the wheelchair ramp and video doorbell for Mom.   We love sharing our way of life with you all and are so blessed when you send us your comments and pictures.  They mean more to us than you could ever know.

Your friend,
Lisa, the SSL Mom


"You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."  Genesis 50:20

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Building a Geodesic Dome Greenhouse Part 3

Finally got around to doing the third video in my series of building the geodesic dome.  This one covers how all the struts are made.  Its filmed in HD so you should be able to expand it to full-screen!  I hope you enjoy it!

Below is the transcript from the video....

Hello Everyone,
This is the third video in the series about building a geodesic dome greenhouse.  This time I will cover how to build the interconnecting struts which are made from red cedar.   I choose red cedar because it is rot resistant.  You could use treated lumber, which is substantially cheaper, but I was concerned about chemicals leaching into the water for my aquaponic system.

The site I used for the calculations is acidome.ru.  The entire site is in Russian, but Google Translate does a fairly good job converting the text.  The calculator lets you enter the diameter of the dome, choose the hub type and size, and even the dimensions of the struts.  It will then calculate the angles needed at each hub and also calculate all the various sized struts and labels them with the dimensions taking into consideration the size of the hubs.

The best feature is the ability to have the software calculate a flat base, since a 3V 3/8th dome is not flat.  One click and the struts are recalculated with the proper lengths!

With a 33 foot diameter 3V dome, each triangle will never be wider than 6 feet.  This will allow me to purchase the polycarbonate glazing in 6 by 24 foot sheets, helping to minimize the amount of scrap.

The struts are made from red cedar 2x4’s by 14 feet.  This will be enough material to cut 2 struts from each board with some scrap.  The end of each board is cut at a 12 degree angle so it will align with the hub.  Not every hub connection is exactly 12 degrees, but there is enough flex in the structure for the angles to average out properly.

Once the struts are cut to length, they are run through the table saw to add a slight bevel to them.  When the dome is fully assembled, the polycarbonate panels will rest fairly flat along the bevel.  This will also insure that the height of each strut is the same since it can vary slightly from the mill.

Next I remove some of the material from the end of each strut using a dado blade mounted in the radial-arm saw.  This space will provide an area for the top tab of the hub to rest and provide enough clearance for the polycarbonate panels over the crown of the carriage bolt.

I built a jig to act as a stop and keep each strut aligned properly during drilling.  This allows for a consistently placed hole to be drilled near the end of each strut.  The placement of this hole is important so it will fit properly into the hub and provided an accurate length for the hub and strut combination.

And now, the perfect excuse to use one of my favorite tools!
The bottom of the head of a carriage bolt has a square neck so it can grab into wood to prevent it from turning.  To get it to fit into the metal tab, I would either have to drill the tab’s hole larger, compromising some of its strength, or turn down the neck of the bolt in the metal lathe.  I chose to turn each bolt and then will re-galvanize the area with cold-galvanizing paint.

Here is an example of how the final assembly will fit together.  The strut is sandwiched between the two hub tabs and then tightened into place using a lock washer and nut.

This top view displays how each strut can pivot slightly on each hub.  Since the angles of each triangle section aren’t the same from one section to the next, this allowed for me to make the same hub and allow the pivot against the bolt to make minor changes to the angles.

This side profile shows how the dado in the strut allows the polycarbonate glazing to clear the area without hitting the tab or bolt head.

Finally, this profile displays how the glazing will set flat into the beveled area that is cut along the top of each strut.

I assembled the base to verify that the calculations were correct and the pieces fit together.  So far, so good!

That’s all for now.  The next video I plan on detailing some of the site work.  Thanks for watching!

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My new Green car

Youre probably looking at this picture and wondering how an old 1999 Ford Escort is a "green" car. Let me explain. Ive been in the market for a new-to-me car and spent a fair amount of time doing market research on the new cars on the market these days.

I particularly love the Fiat 500 because its cute and reminds me of the two years I spent in Italy in the 1980s. The minimum advertised price for one of these is $15,500 and it gets 30/37 MPG with premium fuel. I even kow all the old Italian songs about the 500 or "cinque cento."

The engineer in me loves the Toyota Prius, starting at about $24,000 and getting 51/48 MPG. Some family members have Priuses, so Ive had a chance to drive them and check out the features (video showing reversing, keyless entry, trip computer plus GPS). Prius is definitely a nice car.

Ive really liked the smart car since the Smart Fortwo came out in the US in 2008 (starting at $12,500 and getting 34/38 MPG). Alas, my husband requires we have cars that can fit the family, so he wants a car with four seats.

Harrumph.

In a few months the first all-electric version of the Smart Fortwo will be available for individual consumers. The cars have a range of almost 85 miles, based on data from the Car2Go carsharing service, which has been using the Smart Fortwo vehicles in their fleets since November 2011. In fact I got myself an account with the Car2Go service in the city where I work. Unfortunately, I live outside the city limits, so the carsharing idea doesnt meet my commuting requirements.

So why buy an old car, when all these new cars are so awesome and "green?" Though a new car saves any amount of gas money and emissions for the owner, theres always the fuel, water, and emissions incurred in creating the car in the first place. In 2010 Mike Berners-Lee and Duncan Clark at The Guardian said it takes about 17,000 metric tons of CO2 to produce a new car. By comparison, the US EPA estimates the average passenger vehicle produces 5,000 metric tons of CO2 per year.

So if I buy an older car and drive it for 3 1/2 years, its the same CO2 impact as purchasing a new car and leaving it in the garage for 3 1/2 years. Itd take a powerfully fuel-efficient vehicle to get me a ROI in less than, say, 10 years.

The 1999 Ford Escort I just bought has less than 65,000 miles on her. She could stand getting aligned and no doubt needs a tune up. But she cost me about $3000 and this year/make/model routinely gets ~30 MPG based on actual customer results (based on 50+ fill-ups). It would take a really, really long time before I could earn a return on investment for any of these new green cars in terms of either money or CO2 emissions relative to this old but new-to-me vehicle.

There are other perks. My insurance rates will be lower, as well as my local car taxes. Repairs will be less expensive when required, and this car has the old-fashioned keys that can be copied at the store for less than $2.00.

And you know the really funny thing? The car, itself, is actually painted green. You cant get more "green" than that!

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Winter in New England

18" of snow...well get a few more before the storm is over. Its nice to see all that money I spend on heat goes right through the roof and melts it! (sigh)

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1 A New Beginning

An early post at 3x5 Aquaponics
Just today I was reflecting that I needed a new name for my blog.

I started an aquaponics blog almost a year ago. At the time, I wanted to prototype an indoor DIY system that would allow year-round gardening. I picked the name 3x5 Aquaponics because:

Anyone with a 3 by 5 area (that can literally support a ton of water/gravel/etc.) can have an aquaponics system for well under $1000. Thats under $1000 complete with lights, fish, and rocks (most experts recommend home aquaponicists stick to rock-based systems).

I designed the system and created a prototype. Seeds sprouted, and I transplanted them to the garden.

It worked. But the taller my plants grew, the more I envied those who can grow outside. When my tilapia "failed to thrive," I was free to create a system outside.

The garden grew...

July 2011
And grew...

August 24th, after a month away
And grew.

After Hurricane Irene swept past, August 28th

Im loving this aquaponics adventure. Alas, "3x5 Aquaponics" doesnt really describe what Im doing now. What new name could I pick?

Then I browsed to the Aquaponics Association website, to review what the site is promising about what Ill present this month in Orlando...

...Meg Stout of "365" Aquaponics
365 Aquaponics.

Year-round gardening.

Its perfect to fit where I am now in my journey, as well as including my original idea of a small indoor system.

So thank you, thank you, thank you to whoever decided I was Meg Stout of 365 Aquaponics.

For the next year Ill continue to blog here about what Im doing, with design details, tales of joy and woe, and pictures (always pictures)!

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5 Connecting the Fish Tank and Sump

Piping connecting the fish tank to the sump
It’s not always true that water flows downhill.

What is true is “fluid will flow from higher pressure to lower pressure.” In order to achieve this equilibrium, water will do some pretty whacky things. What we want to do is connect the fish tank and the sump such that:

• Water in the fish tank will never siphon out completely
• Water from the bottom of the fish tank will leave the tank, carrying away solids
• No openings are large enough to ‘suck’ small fish out of the fish tank
• My ‘sump’ can rest on the same surface as my fish tank

Tall order! But it can be done. I want to acknowledge up front that I didn’t invent this design from scratch. It is a modification of the “Constant Height of Pond” or CHOP systems originally popularized by Murray Hallam, as so beautifully explained in this post by ecofilms: CHOP and CHOP2. My ‘addition’ is translating this into standard pipe sizes that can be found in the US. The 365 Aquaponics design is partway between CHOP and CHOP2 - like a CHOP1.5.

The drain out of the fish tank must be higher than the drain into the sump. If the sump is higher than the fish tank, you’ll never persuade the water to leave the fish tank. But the piping between the fish tank and the sump can bend or run under the ground if needed so the gardener can walk freely between the tanks. The three sketches below are “equivalent,” as far as successfully draining water from the fish tank to the sump.

Water will flow from high pressure to low pressure
But it isn’t enough to just connect the drain from the fish tank to the drain into the sump. I want to pull water from the bottom of the fish tank, where all the nutrient-rich sediment collects. So I’ll put some simple pipes into my fish tank to pull water from the bottom, as seen in this picture of my prototype:

The fish tank, with pipes to suck water up from the bottom
One minor issue with using the standard, inexpensive, pipe sizes is that sometimes the water level in the fish tank rises faster than the water can escape through just the lower parts of the two pipes. In that case, I allow water to escape through the top of the pipes into the drain. Below is a video clip of me drilling the holes in the fish tank and sump and installing the bulkheads.

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