Cool Tool #1: Water gun

Hi,

Welcome to the Cool Tool section of Musings of  a Tweaker. Today we have a look at a water gun (don't know the exact name but that one suffices I suppose).

Water Gun. Its pretty sober for its name though :-)

I spotted this at my favorite mill store when I was collecting some drill bits (a tool for another fix I plan next weekend). 

I almost instantly felt that it can be used to wash my car instead of using a bathing mug and a bucket. 

Yes, I wash my car myself because I don't want those paid boys mark Rosemary with spiral scratches all over the paintwork with their soiled rags.

Having used once, some pros for this tool are:

• No more trips to the tap to re fill the bucket (usually 3-4 times per wash
• Wetting the car with bath mug wastes lots of water. Excess water is used than needed. So water saving.
• Time saving. No more trips to refill the bucket. No more fill-the-mug trips to the bucket. No more hauling the bucket around.
• Control water flow and the shower type to suit the need. It has many types of flow patters switchable by rotating the front panel.

5 types of flow options :-)

Just hold the water gun  in one hand and a mitt in the other and go around the car once and you are done.

One thing of course went wrong. I took home 6m of compatible hose but that was too short so had to extend the hose by another 5m.

Hose jointing nipple

Used a hose jointing nipple and then fastened the joint with a wire tie. Neat and secure.

Wire ties to secure the hoses. Also cut the long end

Now I need to find a box to store this apparatus so that it is not lying around in the balcony or porch!

Thanks for reading this post.
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Update 20-Sept-2011:
The tool has really helped me to save water and time. Almost one fourth of the water that I needed earlier. This I noticed from the little pool of water left on the pavement now as opposed to earlier.

On time, I was able to free myself in less than half the time, with lesser labor, and used the extra time to wipe and clean and clean and wipe.

Highly recommended. Ask me where to get it.

Drawer organizer

Which household does not have stuff? Stuff here and there and then you decide for more storage. Soon you find that stuff-virus has plagued every nook and cranny of your house.

All we can do is to keep that stuff organized enough so that we do not loose track of the Stuff. Last weekend I found and interesting subject on the topic. Enter, the big drawer:

The drawer was a recipient for almost anything.

So decided to partition this drawer so that at least some sort of organization is possible. Went out to shop and brought home the following:

• A sheet of craft cardboard
• Couple of sheets of wallpaper grade paper(preferably matching grain with the veneer)
• Some wood glue
• A blade

Plans first. So I asked the stakeholders (mom and sister) what kind of partitioning  they wanted. Based on that, a scale drawing was made:

Top: Measurements. Bottom: Partitions drawn to 1/10 scale (1mm : 1 cm)

Then it was time for measure and cut:

Measurements had to be accurate to a millimeter for a perfect fit

Cuts were made using a standard guided -cutter method

So based on plan, we have identical pieces. Diff lengths though

 One problem I found was that the cardboard was too thin and not so rigid. So I decided to double them up and cut another set of identical partitions and glued them together:

Apply glue

After some wriggling of the pieces

Note one trick here. I applied the glue in a different pattern on both the boards so that when they are joined. The complementary empty spaces get the glue from the other side. Compare the two images above for number of horizontal lines of glue.

Put some pressure. This time books cause physical pressure :-)

 Now we have two sheets thick cardboard (craft-board) partitions:

Partitions ready

Next came the installation. For that I decided to slit the partitions and wedge them together at 90 degree through he slots in each partition. For this, each partition should have slot exactly equal to the width of a partition halfway through. So I measured the partition by putting all three together and then divide total width by three (a middle school trick used to find thickness of a sheet of paper).

I also have vernier calipers but those would have been overkill for the job :-)

Measure thickness of three to find out thickness of one

Drawings of slits to fit into each other orthogonally. The shaded part will go away.

Patience was needed for this. I used scale as guide and carefully cut them. 

All three partitions ready. Note here a slight wedge in the lowest partition. This makes the edge.

Testing the slots. Now you got the idea! :-)

Perfect! But not done yet.

After test fit was okay, next comes the aesthetics. So I used a good quality decorative paper to cover the partitions and then re-fix them back:

Was lucky to find a pattern matching the drawer face and cabinet

Must glue around the edges

Folding the edges took some more patience. I had to hold the edge to provide some time to the glue to stick on.

All done!

Now for the final fit and fruit of the effort:

Looks cool. Fit was really snug. No glue at this point.

Assembled and commissioned :-)

Another view

Finally, in use.

Another view

Addresses the my concerns pretty well. The whole deal took a couple of hours and less than 100 INR!

Thanks for reading this page.

-Tweaker