Discontinued IKEA shelves

Today I am starting something I have contemplated for a while. I am writing my first retrospective blog. Stephanie wanted to hang some shelves she found in the IKEA catalog but was disappointed to find out they had discontinued the brackets. They looked simple enough, so I made them! They are far from fine furniture, but if you like the slightly rugged look and can handle a dark stain (hides imperfections better), these were easy and inexpensive to build! I used standard 2x2s and 2x12s. The pictures really show about everything.

I know I have really awesome MS Paint skills. I am not sure if it was the best call, but since my walls are super thick (sheetrock over plaster) I used 4" toggle bolts to secure them to my wall. The shelves are heavy enough that they don't need to be attached. Stephanie, Thor, and I leave for the FLY Convention tomorrow, so we will be writing to you all when we get home!

Coffee Table

A long time ago, our friends the Staffans bought an old table, chopped the legs off, and made it their coffee table. We really liked it, and the design seemed simple enough, so I decided way back then to make it. I never found the time, until Stephanie's birthday was around the corner, and I didn't know what eles to do. So, I snuck over to the Staffan's one night to take some recounassaince photos. They aree below. I took more than this, but this was really enough information.




The next day, after the paper route, Jonathan and I went on a secretive lumber hunt and winded u p at Menard's where they had an incredible selection of pine. They blew Home Depot and 84 Lumber out of the water. We hurried to the Hall's house and began working. Stephanie was sleeping upstairs thinking that I was working on my car.



We routed grooves about 3/4" deep into the legs, and used a chisel to square the bottom s of the grooves. I enjoyed using an old hand tool. I bet Jesus used chisels. We simply glued the 1x6s in and clamped everything really tight. We did put brad nails through the 4x4 on the inside to help.





In order to fasten the top, we layed the 1x10s wrong side up on the saw horses and then layed the table on them. centeres the table to the top and used strips of 2x2 that were sitting around to fasten the top, as well as glue.

I sanded the crap out of it using the sander from my previous garage sale post. It worked awesome.


Here it is ready for varnish! I was working late into the night!

Our camera lend broke... So, I had to stand outside to fit it into a picture--not to mention that is is huge. It looked normal until we put it in our living room. Stephanie wants me to shop a few inches off of the legs. That may be a good idea.

Happy Birthday Stephanie!

Haier Air Conditioner Makes Watery Noises (fixed)

Most of the people who currently read my blog are immediate family members. I don't imagine any of them being entertainedby posts like this one. This is for the people out there who bought the same air conditioner and are wondering if they can make that awful water noise stop. You can. It is far from rocket science too. I dismantled the thing and as I suspected, the water that condenses on the coils is caught by a pan on the bottom and then when it gets deep enough the fan blade splashes through it endlessly. Most air conditioners drain the water. I don't know why Haier doesn't. Initially, all I did was drill a hole in the bottom to let the water out. That worked, but the water was continually dripping on my sill and I thought that over time it could cause some damage. So, I purchased a grommet and some tubing at the local hardware store ($.69) and piped the water away.

Voila, no more puddle for the fan to splash in, and a tube that constantly provides me with distilled water!

Coffee Roasting Honed

Stephanie took it upon herself to photo document the entire coffee roasting process a few weeks ago. Both the machine and the process have been highly refined since last time. Andy got an old grill for free so he cut it down and mounted the roaster semi-permanently over the existing burners. We upgraded to a 5/8" shaft and reinforced the shell. It now dons a hopper with a valve, and the fanciest modification is the adjustable drum. This way, we can manipulate the location of the drum on the fly.

Here it is in all of its glory. It will comfortably roast a pound of coffee in under ten minutes.Here is a close up of the fancy adjuster. The end of the shaft is threaded and is free to move within the bearing. The cylinder extending from the bearing is secured to the shaft collar on the bearing as well as the nut on the threads. Therefore, if you hold the shaft and turn that collar, the shaft will be adjusted in our out by the threads. This allows us to adjust for the expanding and contracting of the drum. The weight of the door is the only thing that keeps the beans in while they roast. You can see the chaff resting on the machine. Maybe one day we will install an after-burner, but for now it is just a messy process.While roasting, I continually assess the progress by the sound of the beans cracking, the smell of them roasting, as well as continual visual inspections using the tryer shown below. The difference between a light light roast and charcoal is only about 120 seconds.

Here is an action shot of the beans being dumped! You can see the flame below! They look perfect!

This last photo is of my beautiful mother overseeing the high-tech cooling process. It actually works remarkably well. Note that the fan is blowing down. If it was blowing up, the coffee beans would be everywhere! That's it folks! If you want a pound send an email to bumblesboast@hotmail.com We should have a label soon!

Coffee Roasting attempt #7?

Coffee roasting has come a long way!  My father-in-law was laid off two months ago, and as much as I hate to admit it, I have benefited greatly!  He is a union plumber/pipefitter and is great with all things metal.  He also is an avid coffee drinker.  All of these things made it easy for him to catch the home-roasting fever.  We fumbled around with a fluid airbed roaster design for awhile but he quickly let go of that and began pursuing a more conventional design.  Before I knew it he unveiled the roaster below.

Well, it was not quite this glorious to begin with.  Having watched many drum roasters on youtube and even studied their blueprints in books, I was able to offer lots of constructive criticism that has led to the current design.  The amazing thing is that as pictured, the only thing we didn't have on hand is the thermometer!  I purchased some bearings and a gearmotor today from Surplus Center.  That site is amazing and has incredible prices.  I bought bearings online a month ago and thought I was getting a good deal.  Well, they suck compared to similar priced ones from that catalog.  Currently, the drum only rotates at about 4 rpm, and the new motor will ramp that up to 64.  I am excited for that!  It easily roasts a pound at a time with good but slightly inconsistent results.  I am banking on the higher rpms to fix this.

So, if you love good coffee, buy it fresh from me and I will cut you one heck of a deal!  God bless.

Smoke! (Coffee Roasting attempt #1)

I read that coffee roasting produced smoke, but I underestimated how much! I can hardly breathe! So, today starts what I anticipate to be an exciting wing of my blog. The do-it-yourself adventure log. Today, I roasted coffee.

The coffee roasting idea came to me a week or two ago while perusing beer making websites. One site had a link for coffee roasting, and the moment I laid eyes on those words I was hooked. Since then I have

 read countless webpages and a library book. Today, I got

 my shipment of green Columbian coffee beans. A roaster out of Cleveland and a little coffee house they supply a block from our house were willing to let me buy beans directly and have them shipped piggy back for free. Coffee for $2.50/lb. cannot be beat! The best price I could find online was around $4.00/lb and that was before shipping. I feel like I should buy 150 lb. before the price goes up! Green Coffee beans will store for up to a year, so buying in bulk is a very viable option.

Today's maiden voyage will determine if it is worth building a real roaster with my handy-man of a father-in-law. The rudimentary equipment o

f the day was simply a pot with a lid. There are many proponents of the Whirley Pop method, but since we don't have one, a well agitated pot had to do the trick.  

The coffee looked amazing.  We immediately brewed a pot, in spite of the advice that coffee reaches its peak at 24 hours.  The coffee tasted like water...  I never knew coffee had "body" until I tasted that which had none!  Over time this coffee improved significantly and we concluded that it was over roasted.  We have roasted two smaller batches now, each very light roasts and blended with the original batch it is a decent cup o joe.

Andy and I heavily discussed our plans for a roaster, and my scavenging for parts has already begun.

Lessons Learned: 

-Stovetop roasting is far from ideal and will never give consistent results

-Over roasting coffee does not enrich flavor, in fact it robs it

-Cooling is essential, or else the roasting goes far beyond your hopes