Korey Atterberry’s Idle Chatter

Interestingly enough, my lawn mower video actually aired on CNN yesterday. I’m still surprised that people find it that entertaining, but a half-million viewers can’t be wrong!

CNN Hottest videos gone viral

Last week I posted a video to YouTube of a dumb experiment I did with my lawn mower:

There’s not much to it, really. I just set a couple of stakes in the middle of the yard and tethered the mower to them. I clamp the self-propel lever in the “on” position, and let the rope wrap around the center pivot, cutting a smaller circle on each lap.

What’s funny is that this video has gone somewhat viral. Between the original YouTube post, a few (authorized) reposts by the Cheezburger network, the video has been viewed well over a quarter million times in the past week. It’s also been posted on facebook profiles 2000+ times as well as making the rounds on Twitter, etc. It never ceases to amaze me what people find amusing! I’ve put WAY more effort into posted content that hasn’t had 1/1000th the public interest.

At any rate, thanks to the Cheezburger Network for originally posting the video! Check out some of the links below, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll get a kick out of the comments!

Original video:

• Self-propelled mower on autopilot (korey99)

Blog posts by Cheezburger Network:

• Automatic Lawn Mower on There, I Fixed It
• Genius, on EpicWinFTW

Reposted videos:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6dJhzMk6OM
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDv65QIkHVU
• http://www.viddler.com/explore/epicwinftw/videos/7/
• http://www.viddler.com/explore/thereifixedit/videos/2/

Other blog entries:

• Lawn Mower of the Future, on CollegeHumor
• The Lazy Cheapskate’s Automated Lawnmower, on Gizmodo

A week ago, I spent the day in the garage doing some woodworking. I was using the table saw, miter saw and router table, creating a lot of dust. For my health, I hooked up the shop vac to the tools to collect the saw dust.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t satisfied with the results. The brand new filter in my shop vac quickly filled with fine sawdust. As soon as that happens, the suction drops off dramatically.

After a little bit of research online, I built a cyclone dust separator:

This contraption sits inline with the shop vac removes most of the sawdust and wood chips before they reach the vacuum’s tub or filter. It cost about $25 to build and despite my careless engineering and construction it works perfectly!

Visit the project page for more details.

A couple of days ago, a friend and I were talking about putting extra weight in our pickup truck beds for added traction for winter driving. I’ve usually put a few hundred pounds of concrete blocks back there, but the problem is storing those blocks when not in use. I have to carry them out to the shed, which isn’t fun.

We came up with the idea of using ice, since it packs a fair amount of weight into a small space, it’s easy to load (use a hose), requires no room to store, and is even easier to unload (it just melts when it warms up).

One way that would probably work would be a use a tarp or piece of plastic sheet to trap some water in the bed and let it freeze in place. I didn’t have any handy, nor could I think of an easy way to keep it in a small space, so I used another approach.

I had a stack of 5 gallon buckets that kitty litter came in, so I filled them with water and let them sit for a couple of days. In about two days (around 10 degrees Fahrenheit outside) they were frozen solid. I turned them over and without too much trouble the ice slid out of the buckets. The picture above shows 7 buckets worth, which is around 300 pounds. Over the axle would be most effective, but the front of the bed works too, and leaves me more useful room in the bed.

For several years we’ve been buying the 18-gallon Sterilite plastic storage totes. They’ve offered the same grey tubs (item #1815) for years, and we’ve bought dozens of them. They sell for around $4 and are roughly 24 inches long, 18 inches wide, and exactly 15-3/8 inches tall. Because of this de facto standardization, I’ve built wooden shelves in my garage, in the basement and in most of our closets specifically sized for these tubs, with 16 inch spacing between the shelves for optimal storage efficiency. Almost everything we store is in these tubs.

About a week ago, I bought a bunch more since we’re doing some organizing. Tonight I went to put a tub of out-of-season clothes on one of the shelves and got a nasty surprise: the tubs have been slightly redesigned and are 3/4 of an inch taller. The lid is identical to the old model, and the stated capacity is still 18 gallons, but it’s now taller than my shelves. D’oh…

I’ve got a lot of shelves built for these tubs, probably about 40 tubs of storage capacity. My choices are to take the new tubs back and HOPE to find some (read: a lifetime supply) of the old ones, or do a ton of shelf rebuilding. I checked on Walmart’s website, and there are still some in stock, but not within 50 miles. Shipping is a possibility, but it’s a little pricey.

I guess there is a third choice: a grassroots effort to get Sterilite to return to the old design. Hopefully this inconsequential blog post, along with the nearly dozen people who will likely read it, will do the trick…

Just in time for fall… here’s the PVC water gun I designed and built:

It’s powered by air pressure, which is created by the water pressure in the garden hose. It cost about $10-12 to build. Full instructions are available on the project page.

The good news is, this time of year, some of the parts are on clearance at the home improvement stores. Build one today, and be ready for the jack-o-lantern smashing kids this Halloween!

While it’s not the most involved or most clever thing I’ve ever built, I made a cabinet in my garage for holding my power tool battery chargers. It’s really helping to declutter my workbench. Take a look at the project page.

We like to take our kids camping in our popup, but one problem I hadn’t solved yet was the lack of a night light. Evan likes to have one, and it’s nice to be able to see a little bit when sharing a “room” with kids. What I did was modify an existing light in the camper to add a night light feature.

Once I figured out what to do, it was a fairly easy project. Check out the project page for more information.

Dusty had the good fortune to find a Peg Perego Power Pull ride-on tractor on Craigslist recently. The price was right, but unsurprisingly, it needed a little work. We found a new battery for a good price, but there were also some cracks in the chassis. Both the front end and rear ends have succumbed to the impacts a novice driver is likely to administer.

In only an hour, I built a PVC frame to reinforce and repair the chassis. Since the back end was toast, the new frame also provides sort of a hitch as well. Visit the project page to read more.

This week I finished the interior of the playhouse. I added a loft, ladder, bench and toy box. The upstairs is a big hit with the kids, and there’s plenty of room inside for playing and storing toys.

Take a look at the Playhouse project page or the new photos.