grinding up stuff

It looks like it took me a whole week to catch up on last weekend's projects. I suppose that is better than how long it took to post pictures of the plastic welding. Last weekend I rototilled the backyard and "fixed" the drive way so it doesn't stick up 3" higher than the sidewalk. The rototiller was a bit of a trick to get running. Well, it needed new gas and some starter fluid. The engine still didn't run so well. Dad wanted me to replace the engine with a 6.5HP OHV (whatever that means) engine from harbor freight he had a coupon for. The thing works WAY better now.

You can see the old engine sitting behind it there.

Before	After

We are now well on our way to getting a new lawn in. At this point I think I might not do built in sprinklers, just put a timer on the hose. I could of course install built-in sprinklers pretty quickly, if I knew where the water going under the cement went to. I might be overthinking this. We'll see what happens.

Joys of plastic

After having my broken bumper in the back of my mind for, lets say, about 2 years. So now I've got plastic wielder and decided to get around to fixing stuff. First off was poor icecream maker lid that apparently wasn't safe for the bottom rack of the dishwasher. I found that wasn't really the best application of the new toy. It would have been much better application for a heat gun. Anyway, the first real project was to be fixing the bumper. Luckily had I around a decorative peice of my rear bumper I could practice on. After a little playing around I got the hang of it. I successfully fixed a tab that broke off the drivers side corner and mended a tear near the middle. For the second tear and for reinforcing my lovely assistant Julia came to help me hold the bumper while I reinforced the back. I've included pictures of what it looks like.

Now that I have got my feet wet I can't help but think of all the things in the world that are made out of plastic, things I can fix/manipulate. I find myself looking at the symbols on all kinds of plastic items to tell what it could be merged with. (don't believe me? just ask Julia)
Next projects: fix various things, add handles and a ladder to my sailboat (which is made of....plastic)