Central Pneumatic Air Compressor

Every good workshop needs a good air compressor, mine suddenly upped and died after years of abuse and no matter my efforts it refused to work. Drain valve stuck open, replaced it, power switch stopped working, fixed it, coupler jammed, cleaned it, engine seal blew and leaked oil everywhere....I'm so tired.....time to trash it.  I won't bad mouth the old soldier, it was long in the tooth, mistreated, over-used, ridden hard and put up wet.  I got my money's worth out of the old compressor but it was dead beyond my willingness to invest time, money and effort to keep it alive.  Time to replace it with what will hopefully be as good of a workhorse if not better. After shopping features and cross indexing prices, I came up with the Central Pneumatic.

 Central Pneumatic Air Compressor

Kill A Watt Power Monitor

It's that time of year again, the time when electricity costs are higher than the mortgage.  It's hot outside and the air conditioner is running a good chunk of the day.  You can't very well turn off the air conditioner, but it's not your only item using electricity.  You can go around the house and turn off everything when not in use, put power switches on ~everything~ and...well...wear yourself plum out.  Some things are worth turning off, some not as much, some not at all, but how can you tell? Enter Kill-A-Watt.



Securing Your Garage Door

I was shocked when I saw how insanely easy it is to break into anyone's garage with just a coat hanger.  I've spent quite a bit of time, sweat and money getting my garage workshop the way I want it and the last thing I need is to have someone break in and have their way with it. Luckily it's easy to prevent.





Bottomless Stone Garden Planter

Through a friend of a friend I came upon the blessing of some free stone. It seems Tom had just completed work on his beautiful home and had quite a bit of scrap stone left.  Most of the stone was small and irregular, but it was also free. I collected as much as possible in the time I had available but what to do with it? I love stone, it is attractive, incredibly low maintenance and wherever you put it in the garden you never have to weed again...but I can't just pile a bunch of stone in my garden....or can I?  After unloading and staring at the stone for some time I came up with the concept; let's build some nice bottomless planters for the garden.  Lots of visual impact, lots of stone and it will make some decent dents in the places I need to weed in the future.  If you don't have a friend of a friend who just built a house look towards friends in the construction trades.  Frequently when houses are built scrap stone is simply discarded often buried at the build site itself.  Being friendly to crews when they are finishing up may just score the scrap stone you need to make this project.