What did you do today

[bdosborn]

Is that a dental light? Looks really expensive.
Bruce

[Tom&Shelly]

Up in the "East Mountains", east of I'll-be-quirky (Albuquerque), we have a perennial rodent problem. We decided some cheap strobe lights may be part of the solution, so we bought one for our basement. Thing is, whatever the rodents think, Shelly finds the strobe annoying, so I was wondering whether it would be possible to only have it come on when the lights are off.

"Of course it is," I realized as the 2-way light bulb went on--and off--over my head! Simply use a double throw switch, normally used in a 2-way light circuit, to switch on an outlet when the lights are switched off. A few minutes probing my junk box (aka, the very basement I'm trying to de-ratify) and I had everything I needed.



Except, that is, for a new switch plate. Turns out the only two way switches I have are the old toggle type (I forget from where they came) and not the rocker switches we have in the rest of the cabin. But, switch plates are a lot cheaper than two way switches, so on my next trip to the hardware store...

I've not heard of a double throw switch used this way in house wiring, but I suppose it's legal. Might confuse the next owner, but the outlet could also be used to power an emergency exit light, or whatever. Or, they can hire a real electrician to clean up the mess. It's just possible the current home-owners have done some other odd-ball wiring stunts in this place.

Notes:

- No, the outlets are not installed upside down. The National Wiring Code says either way is acceptable, and it's often done this way in New Mexico, especially in lab settings.
- I've long since abandoned matching switch plate color to the outlet/switch. Whatever is available in the junk box gets used.
- In this part of the country, the home-owner is allowed to modify his/her wiring. (Following code, of course.)
- You can't see it in the picture, but that upper electrical box was in my junk without nails. No problem: I grabbed some nails and pushed them in. I already had the upper one in when I realized they went the wrong way and were aimed to the front of the stud. Oh, well, nobody's perfect! It may just be a clue to the professional the next owners hire that I don't have a license.
- No, the switch for the lights for this part of the basement is not the switch at the door jamb, but the switch on the next stud. Long story, and not particularly interesting, but note the comment about the current home-owner in the main body of the post.

Tom

[bdosborn]

[url]Just One Bite II 16 oz. Rodent Rat Bait Cake Blocks - (Pack of https://a.co/d/9XPyzpl[/url]

The only thing that works at our cabin
Bruce

[Tom&Shelly]

[url]Just One Bite II 16 oz. Rodent Rat Bait Cake Blocks - (Pack of https://a.co/d/9XPyzpl[/url]

The only thing that works at our cabin
Bruce

Not good here. We have a cat (our main rodent deterrent) who might just catch the mouse who was downstairs eating the poison. And there are friendly bobcats and weasels out in the woods. We don't want to use poisons.

Snap traps and an electrical rat trap are our go-to's, but we want a long term deterrence solution for the Summer when we're away. We're hoping the electric strobes and ultrasonic thingy's Victor sells will do the job.

We also have a garage, where we keep the tear, with no "shore power". If these strobes work, I might try rigging up a battery powered version and charge it with the same solar panel we use to keep the teardrop charged when we're home.

Tom

[twisted lines]

Is that a dental light? Looks really expensive.
Bruce

Yes they work pretty well for old eyes!

[twisted lines]

Mouse trap bucket; should give you something for an idea.

[Tom&Shelly]

Mouse trap bucket; should give you something for an idea.

We (accidentally) had one of those last year while we were away. Came back to a utility sink full of dead mice, partly eaten by other dead mice.

Took weeks to get the smell out! That's what we want to avoid this year.

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

We're actually very humane people. We don't want to harm the rats and mice. We want the coyotes, cats, weasels, and snakes to do it for us!

Tom

[MickinOz]

..................

[MickinOz]

Boat fettling day.
Dunno if I've mentioned it much on this forum, but I have a 4.2m (13 ft 6 inches?) fibreglass catamaran that alternately delights and disappoints me.
It delights me because it is a piece of cake to launch and when I get where I'm goin, it is a joy to fish out of - stable, plenty seating, lots of storage, very frugal with fuel.
It disappoints me, nay, infuriates me, because it a) handles way worse than it should, b) slips the props, especially on the port side engine, way more than it should.
It's quite frustrating. Ever since Bruce Harris made Sharckcat a household name, Aussie cats have held a reputation for being able to take on far bigger water than most same length mono hulls.
I know it can do better.
So, the search is on. I'm sure the props are losing their grip on the water due to a combination of poor setup, excessive wear, and straight out ventilation due to both breaking the surface and running in aerated water coming off the narrow sponsons. Can't trim the bows up without further exacerbating the prop slip. The response to trim adjustments is poor.
The rest of the boat is so good the search is on for solutions.
So I looked at where the engines are sitting on the transom. The anti ventilation plates are level with the bottoms of the hulls, or perhaps a touch deeper.
They would take a bit of work to drop them further in the water. Leave that one for now.

Next, why is the port propeller letting go so much earlier than the starboard one?
Is it because the fat arsed skipper and the 30 kilo battery are both on the starboard side? Moving ballast around did next to nothing.
But, I finally spotted that the Garmin transducer had been installed so that it was 50mm deeper in the water than necessary and is catching a lot of weed that is interfering with water flow to the propeller. So I've raised it 2 inches, so only the face is in contact with the water. Should stop picking up weed, now.

Swapping the less worn prop to the port side saw little improvement.
The props are standard Mercury 3 bladers. These have quite a bit of rearward rake on the blades, and not huge surface area. Typical Mercury - it's always been about top end performance. Win on Sunday, sell on Monday.
So I took a chance and ordered a cheapy generic prop off alibaba for an experiment.
In the meantime I spoke to a propeller specialist in Queensland. I asked about 4 blade props and she countered with cupped 3 bladers, her standard way of dealing with cats, which in her words, "They all run the props in dirty water, all of them."
So, the Chinese cheapy arrived today. At less than half the price of a cupped Solas prop, this thing actually looks quite well made, has a little more blade area, is not raked and it is cupped! I like it.
I fitted it, and I will try it over the weekend.
Last, but not least, I ordered two "hydrofoils." Well that is what they are being sold as, but the guy is making these in his garage out of 3mm plate, and they have no foil shape to them at all, Just flat plate. I think this is great, They will significantly extend the pitifully small ventilation plates (there's that Mercury commitment to top end speed again) without much in the way of drag.
Spent the rest of the day trimming the grapevine and blowing leaves.

[twisted lines]

Sold the boat unseen, put this on the table yesterday; to do today!
I hope this is the last one.

[twisted lines]

Found another useful old dental tool; match to the seat under the light.

Yep (Texter) put her out of work as well

[Tom&Shelly]

We were down in Albuquerque yesterday, and decided to stop at the Habitat For Humanity's Restore, where they sell used material and items needed for home construction. A great concept, but we were a bit disappointed to find most of the items now are priced at or above the price of the new item at local hardware stores. I brought that up to a lady working there and she made some confusing comments about "not knowing what they [hardware stores] do with their money, but we [the Restore] are trying to run a charity", and they are being pressured to raise their prices more to keep up with house building costs.

So I guess we won't be going there looking for bargains anymore! Suppose we won't be considering donating to them as often either. Too bad! It's a great concept, but there's something wrong with their business plan.

Tom

[bdosborn]

We have a Restore by us and we've noticed that the building material shortages really hurt their inventory and their prices are now too high. We stopped going there.
Bruce

[Indiana Rambler]

I updated the electrical warning labels on the inverter. I wonder which one people will pay attention to?





Bruce

Funny you posted this! I made some myself a few weeks ago!


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