bag.. err ... straw sealer

i saw a post that intrigued me, but i thought "i think i have the tools to make that better"

the original is an excellent tutorial, but uses pliers and a lighter

http://briangreen.net/2011/07/diy-single-use-antibiotic-packs.html

which is fine if what you have on hand is pliers and a lighter. not that i don't have pliers and a lighter on hand. i'm actually pretty sure i have pliers and a lighter in each room of my house. 

but i also have this 

http://dx.com/p/mini-portable-handy-plastic-bag-sealer-3-5w-2-aa-42799

 

that's a plastic bag sealer that operates on 2 AA batteries. 

also available here

i thought i'd test it with something easier to clean up, and less expensive than neosporin. since i also would use this for backpacking with food items, i tested it with salt.  which went into the straw with the cut corner of an envelope if you don't have a tiny funnel. i do have a tiny funnel but i don't use it for food (perfume) so i wasn't going to cross contaminate for this test. i recovered almost all the salt.

this is the heating element for the bag sealer. notice the narrow line across it - that's the actual heating element under the heat resistant cloth. the top just has the cloth, no extra heat. the top is actually just a small pad to keep the bag (or straw) in place.

 not all of the seams i tried worked. the first few leaked and it turned out i was moving the bag sealer too slowly. i was trying hard to melt the straw, when i didn't need to try at all. a quick swipe worked best, to prevent the straw from shrinking back away from the heating element.

by the end, i got a good seal and would try this with messier things than salt.

for most people, these would all be individual use items, like single doses of neosporin or calamine lotion. but you might have a desire to reseal them. while you are probably also carrying the lighter on a backpacking trip anyway, you might be less likely to carry this bag sealer. but it is very light, especially if you don't carry it with batteries in it. just borrow the batteries from another device for the two minutes it might take to reseal your tubes.

important note: i did also test this with compostable starch based "plastic" straws and got an EXCELLENT seal. if you can be sure your stuff won't be exposed to water regularly, these would be more environmentally friendly in the long run.   

light hammer taps

a few updates on some little things i've done around the house lately. been a little busy - 2 roommates now! had to make a whole new bedroom out of the space where i used to store boxes and defunct electronics.

this is an image heavy post so i will keep them all small and you can click the pic to enlarge if you want to.

one of my old how-to/hints books recommends storing your washers on a shower curtain hook. the plain kind, the ones i love and have ALL OVER THE HOUSE. 

 

well, i haven't gotten to the washers yet since mine are mostly already stored in a plastic compartmentalized caddy. but i do have this set of cheap wrenchs that needed a home. sure i could hang them all on a long peg by their handles but then if i want a wrench in the back they all have to come off one at a time. this way i only have two things to move in or out of position and i can separate them - one hook is metric and the other is standard.

found this nifty sticky backed measuring tape on clearance at the craft store. it's perforated in one foot measurements.

i put a strip of it on the lip of a drawer in my kitchen island and i just keep finding myself measuring this one thing or that up against it.

more useful than expected

broom clips are back - i found 3 sizes at ace hardware

i love hooks. especially cup hooks. but my nerve damage makes it a pain to screw them in by hand. i finally got a hex shanked chuck adaptor for my little black and decker drill/driver and popped in a screw eye. it does NOT work to unscrew them because that just unscrews the chuck itself. but it's great for setting rows of hooks under the cabinet

having a new roommate made for some interesting acoustic challenges when we all work different shifts and watch tv/listen to music at different hours. the interior doors in my house are made of.... paper. yep, paper. with a little stryofoam thrown in for support. 

you can see this in cutaway where i was putting a cat door in my roommate's door

so while we had the door off and the tools out, i filled her door with "Great Stuff" expanding foam. specifically the big gap filler variety. some in the bottom around the cat door and then, since there are assorted partitions in the door, i drilled two holes in the top that were the diameter of the fill tube on the can of great stuff and filled the top too. took about 2 cans.

 

although, if you have previously added a hook to a door, say, using a wall anchor [wet towels are heavy] you may want to seal off around the hook with some silicone or at least masking tape first. the foam found the gap around the screws and expanded right out of the door. it mostly wiped off, but this was a mess because i didn't do it right

 

Break it to fix it, part 2

courtesy of my large collection of vintage how-to, DIY, helpful hints, home repair and craft books, i want to share some of the break it to fix it tips i've learned.

Reader's Digest The Family Handyman Helpful Hints, 1995:

1.  casters falling out of your furniture legs? saw a notch to about halfway down in the caster's post and spread the resulting pieces just enough to increase tension on the inside of the furniture leg and keep the caster in place. it will still be able to swivel but not as likely to drop out.

2. pests in the cabinets? they can get to places you can't and hang out under the cabinet, behind the toekick. if you aren't going to make a toekick drawer, then drill small a hole in the toekick or in the hardboard/wood floor of the cabinet that you can fit the nozzle of a can of bug spray up to. whenever you do your normal pest control [more often in some places depending on the weather and how old your house is] then spray through the hole too. in between treatments, plug the hole with a dowel or a furniture dowel plug to keep from inviting in extra bugs.

Popular Mechanics, October 1976:

3. bend the wire handle on your paint can to fit around your paintbrush handle. snap the brush into the bent place on the wire handle when you need to put it down without making a mess as the paintbrush will be resting over the can, but not sliding down into the paint.

Break it to fix it, part 1

courtesy of my large collection of vintage how-to, DIY, helpful hints, home repair and craft books, i want to share some of the break it to fix it tips i've learned.

Reader's Digest The Family Handyman Helpful Hints, 1995:

1. sagging cabinet door with standard butt hinges? pop the top hinge pin out, give it a slight bend and hammer it back into the hinge. it will lift the sagging hinge just slightly back into place.

2. need a can rack in your pantry? buy a vinyl coated standard wire closet shelf and mount it upside down at a slant so the back is elevated enough to send the cans rolling toward the front and the front edge forms a lip that catches the can.

3. if you are a gardener with a broken lampshade, save the shade and rip the covering off. next time you have a short droopy plant that needs a frame, use the lampshade like you would a tomato frame to keep your greenery from falling down

diabetic without a level

why does being diabetic matter? well when i realized this afternoon that i have no idea where my real level is my brain did this:
"huh. i wish i'd bought that mini level cube thingy i saw at the hardware store. i could keep that in my toolbox and always find it."

using every millimeter

argh, look at all those little packets of antacid samples, lotions, sheets of blister packs of pills on the top shelf. it's like an avalanche when i open the cabinet.



for over a year i just put up with it. then i noticed one day that there's just a tiny little sliver of space in between the shelf and the inside of the door. i noticed this when i was pulling off a medicine package label that had been taped to the inside of the door by the previous owners, with clear packing tape. it looked like it was a few years old.