Woodworking Measuring Tips - 7 tricks for success

Description

Having trouble getting consistent measurements in the workshop? In this episode, Harley gives seven woodworking measuring tips to improve your projects' success.

Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may subscribe here.

If you’re interested in learning more about the House of Hacks' values, here’s a playlist for you.

And here’s the most recent video.

For a written transcript, go to Woodworking Measuring Tips - 7 tricks for success

Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 4.0 by Kevin MacLeod at http://incompetech.com.
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing"

Transcript

Are you having problems with consistent measurements on your projects?

Today, I have 7 woodworking measuring tips here at the House of Hacks.

If we're just meeting, I'm Harley and I believe everyone has a God-given creative spark.

Creativity involves connecting the dots in new ways.

The more dots you have, the more creative you can be.

Here at the House of Hacks, I try to show new connections and give you new dots for your own inspiration.

If this sounds interesting to you, hit the subscribe button and ring the bell notification icon and you'll be notified when new uploads are available.

The first tip is to square the ends that you're going to be measuring from.

This way, if there's any angle, it won't impact the final measurement.

Tip two is to use the same tape measure for your whole project.

This will eliminate any variation from one tape measure to the next, particularly on the ends that move.

Those holes may be slightly different from one tape to the next.

Tip number three is to use a sharp pencil.

This will help minimize any error from the mark itself, both when making the mark and also when lining it up for the cut.

And stay tuned to the end because there's actually a bonus tip at the end.

Tip number four is to use a "V" to mark your cut location rather than a straight line.

This will help reduce the amount of interpretation when lining up to make the cut.

Tip number five is to make one measurement, cut it, make your next measurement, cut it, and so forth.

This will eliminate any drift from the kerf width of the blade.

Tip number six is, if you're making multiple cuts that are the same length, use a stop block.

This way you only have to measure once, it speeds up your production and it also gives you much better consistency.

Tip number seven is to be consistent where you line up the mark with your blade.

The more variance you have in your alignment, the more variation you're going to have in your final product.

And bonus tip number eight is, if you're cutting multiple pieces that are the same length, in addition to using a stop block, if you make multiple cuts at the same time, that'll further reduce the room for error.

Thanks for joining me on this creative journey that we're on.

I'll see you in one of these videos over here that YouTube thinks you'll enjoy.

And when making things, remember...

Perfection isn't required.

Fun is!

How To Hang Moving Blankets For Sound Absorption

Description

Need to easily hang your moving blankets for sound absorption? In this episode of the House of Hacks, Harley shows an fast hack to make moving blankets easy to hang for acoustic treatment.

Referenced videos:
Using moving blankets for sound absorption

Spring clamp hack

Finishing paracord ends

Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may subscribe here.

If you’re interested in learning more about the House of Hacks' values, here’s a playlist for you.

And here’s the most recent video.

For a written transcript, go to How To Hang Moving Blankets For Sound Absorption

Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0 by Kevin MacLeod at http://incompetech.com.
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing"

Transcript

Want to see how to make it easier to hang cheap moving blankets to absorb sound? Today at the House of Hacks, we're going to do exactly that.

Hi. If we're just meeting, I'm Harley and this is the House of Hacks where we use our God-given creative talents to make things in the workshop out of wood, metal, electronics, photos and other things of this nature.

In this earlier video, I looked at how surprisingly effective cheap moving blankets were for an acoustic treatment for a room. I measured the echo in my workshop before hanging them and then hung them and then measured it again and found that it worked really, really well.

Now I need a way to easily hang them, move them around and put them to use.

In that video, I used some spring clamps to hold the blankets to some overhead joists here in the workshop. It worked well enough but it was kind of cumbersome since the blanket was held in place by the jaws of the clamps.

As I showed in this other video, I put 1/4-20 bolts on spring clamps in order to hold photography accessories.

One such accessory are these. They're studs that are a couple cents apiece when bought in bulk and are designed to hold studio lights. But of course we don't need to use them for that.

At the hardware store, I picked up a grommet installation kit with some large grommets and some paracord. We'll use this to hang the moving blankets.

The installation kit is designed for two sizes of grommets and so it comes with two cutters for material to make holes the right size and a piece of wood to back those cutters up when cutting the material. To install the grommets, the kit comes with an anvil for one side of the grommet. This is two sided. One for the large size and one for the small size.

And it comes with two punch heads. These are used to crimp the two halves of the grommets together.

To be able to hang these blankets, I'm going to put three grommets on one edge of each blanket.

Starting with the large cutter and the wood, I used a hammer to drive the cutter through the blanket and into the wood. This gives me a hole the right size for the grommet.

The grommets come in two halves. The first half is designed to go through the hole and the second half goes over the top of this with the material sandwiched in between and then it's crimped together.

Place the grommet that goes through the hole on the bottom anvil and then place that under the blanket through the hole.

Place the other half of the grommet on top with the curved side up.

Use the punch head and a hammer to round over the center part of the grommet, crimping the two halves tightly together.

Once the grommets were in place, I then cut the rope into nine inch long segments and sealed the ends. I show in this video how I like to seal the ends of kernmantle rope and paracord.

The rope is looped through the grommets and held with a knot. I used a square knot but you can use whatever you like.

The loops of rope can now slip over the studs on the spring clamps and I can hang a blanket where ever the clamps can be placed... On shelves... On equipment... And it's easier to use on the joists too.

Thanks for joining me on this creative journey that we're on.

I'll see you over here in this video that YouTube thinks you'll like.

And while making things, remember: Perfections not required. Fun is!

[Beep]

OK! We got the audio running this time.

Last take I did the entire video and didn't have the audio on.

Isn't that fabulous?!?!

We'll call it a practice.

DIY Camera Gear: Spring Clamp Hack

Description

Need some inexpensive camera gear? In this episode of House of Hacks, we're going to take a look at an inexpensive but super useful DIY camera gear hack: the spring clamp. Also known as A-clamps, spring clamps are cheap but essential camera gear for beginners that should be part of every camera bag.

Spring clamps at Amazon. (Affiliate link)

Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may subscribe here.

If you’re interested in learning more about the House of Hacks' values, here’s a playlist for you.

And here’s the most recent video.

For a written transcript, go to DIY Camera Gear: Spring Clamp Hack

Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0 by Kevin MacLeod at http://incompetech.com.
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing"

Transcript

Besides a camera, today at the House of Hacks we’re going to look at one of the most essential, and cheapest, tools for a photographer’s camera bag: the spring clamp!

Hi! If we’re just meeting, I’m Harley and this is the House of Hacks where we talk about things workshop related. Things like metal working, wood working, electronics, photography and making things in general.

The spring clamp, also known as an A-clamp, is super useful on photo shoots. Today we’re going to talk about a modification that makes it even more useful for photography purposes and then we're going to talk about a number of ways it can be used.

Spring clamps come in a variety of sizes from huge, giant things to these medium sized ones, these happen to be 2 inch, to these smaller guys. I think these are 1 inch. Personally I find the medium sized ones the most useful, followed by the smaller ones. I've haven't ever found a need for the really big ones.

They cost a couple bucks apiece and can be found at most large home improvement stores. I’ve also left a link below to where you can get them on Amazon. This will save you a trip , I get a small commission and it won't cost you anything extra.

To make them even more useful for photography applications, I like to add a 1/4-20 bolt with a nut on it to allow you to mount things like cameras and other photography accessories lights.

To add this hack, for each clamp, get a 1/4-20 1 inch long bolt. I like to use a star lock washer. They seem to work a bit better than say the split ring lock washers. A nyloc 1/4-20 nut. A 1/4-20 flange nut. This is a nut that has a flange on with a wider section on one side. And a large washer where the hole in the middle is large enough for the nut part of the flange nut to go through but not large enough for the flange to go through.

And also some two-part epoxy.

Mix up a bit of epoxy and use it to glue the flange nut to the inside of the washer. The flange itself should be exposed and keep the nut from going through the washer.

While that’s setting, check your clamps to see if they have a hole between the hinge and the tip of the clamp. If they don't, you'll need to drill one. Some brands have a hole here. Some brands don't. These don't, so I'll have to drill a hole. And I'm going to drill that hole just below where the plastic part of the tip ends.

Then, with the star lock washer next to the bolt head, place the bolt through the hole from the inside so the threads are poking out. Use the nyloc nut to hold it securely in place.

Once the epoxy is set, thread that assembly onto the bolt with the flange part of the assembly pointing out.

This gives you a place to mount standard 1/4-20 threaded items onto. The flange nut works as a jam nut to tighten the item down and the washer gives you a little handle to be able to loosen and tighten it.

So, how can you use this?

You can hold backdrops or reflectors to stands…
tighten loose clothing on models…
manage cables and cords…
hold gels on lights…
keep gobos in place...
mount cameras or lights in awkward places…
hang sound absorbing material to deaden room echos…
or whatever you can think of.

If you have clamps like these, leave a comment below and tell me how you've used them.

I’ll see you in this video over here that YouTube thinks you'll find interesting.

And remember when making things: perfection's not required. Fun is!

[John 4:14]

Workshop Organization Systems - Quick and easy overhead bins

Description

Today at the House of Hacks, Harley shows the overhead bin storage that's part of his workshop organization systems. This is a quick and easy do-it-yourself system, taking advantage of scrap materials, to use under-utilized area for shop organization of small items in overhead bins.

Here are the bins I used. (Amazon affiliate link)

Here are some other shop organization tips.

Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, go subscribe and click the bell to get notifications.

There's a playlist containing videos talking about the House of Hacks' values.

And here’s the most recent video.

For a written transcript, go to Workshop Organization Systems - Quick and easy overhead bins

Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0 by Kevin MacLeod at http://incompetech.com.
Intro/Exit: Hot Swing

Transcript

In the comments of a previous video, STLABC requested that I show the overhead bins that are part of my workshop organization systems.

We're going to look at that today at the House of Hacks. Coming at you.

[Introduction]

Hi. Harley here.

Today we're going to talk about one of my workshop organization systems that I use here at the House of Hacks.

STLABC noticed that I had some overhead bins and requested some more details on that system.

My workshop is down here in the unfinished basement in our house and I've got joists for the floor above me that are exposed because it's unfinished.

One day I noticed that the distance between the floor joists is a little bit larger than the width of one of these plastic shoebox sized storage containers.

It reminded me of an idea I'd seen somewhere as I was wandering around the internet.

So I went down to Target and picked up a couple of these containers just to see if it would work.

I had, fortunately, in my spare wood pile, some of this tongue and groove paneling that was left over from a remodel project.

It's the perfect width to just be able to tack into place underneath the floor joists and the handle will rest on each side. I didn't have to do any cutting.

Now, depending on your application, if you have some scrap wood, you can cut it to width after measuring to see how much you need and it's a real easy to put in place storage system.

Using this is really simple.

All you do is lift up, tilt it, and it drops right out.

To replace it, it's just the reverse operation.

Push it up at an angle and it drops into place.

Now, I'm standing on a step stool to be in frame and demonstrate this on camera but because my ceiling is a couple inches shy of eight feet, it's easy enough to do this while standing on the floor normally.

To easily tell what's in each box when I'm standing on the floor, I just have a label that I made with a label maker on the bottom of each container.

I hope that gives you enough details for this particular storage system.

If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below.

There's another video up here where I talk about other organization tips that I use here at the House of Hacks.

Down there are some videos that YouTube thinks you might enjoy.

Until next time, go make something.

Perfection's not required.

Fun is!

Lithium grease vs silicone grease: Which to use?

Description

Wondering about the differences between lithium grease vs silicone grease? In this video, Harley compares silicone grease vs lithium grease, explains the differences, applications and uses of each.

What is dielectric grease and why should I use it? https://youtu.be/GXyRYArHryU

Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, go subscribe and click the bell to get notifications.

There's a playlist containing videos talking about the House of Hacks' values.

And here’s the most recent video.

For a written transcript, go to Lithium grease vs silicone grease: Which to use?

Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0 by Kevin MacLeod at http://incompetech.com.
Intro/Exit: Hot Swing

Transcript

Are you like Jeremy and wondering what the difference is between lithium grease and silicone grease?

We're talking about that right now in this video.

[Introduction]

Hi. Harley here.

I recently had a comment asking about the difference between dielectric grease and silicone grease and also how that compares to lithium grease.

So let's talk about those differences today.

Lithium [grease] is:

• generally petroleum based,
• it adheres well to metal,
• it's non-corrosive,
• it's moisture resistant,
• it handles heavy loads really well,
• and it's resistant under high temperatures. It doesn't break down.

Silicone grease is:

• of course silicone based,
• it adheres to a wide variety of surfaces,
• it inhibits corrosion,
• resists moisture,
• and comes in various formulations.

A couple notable formulations are ingestible ones where it's safe to be used in dental tools and plumbing for potable water.

Another formulation is dielectric grease where it's used in applications where you have high current and you need something that has insulation properties.

Because lithium grease is petroleum based, it's not recommended for use around plastics and rubber where it'll cause these to prematurely fail.

These applications are better served by silicone grease.

Silicone grease, on the other hand, works better in low temperature, low stress applications around plastics and rubber.

Common examples around the house for using lithium grease might be for garage door openers and hinges.

Whereas applications for silicone grease might be sliding doors and windows, seals around waterproof flashlights and plumbing fixtures.

So I want to get back to Jeremy's question about using silicone grease for brake caliper applications. In this case, neither lithium nor silicone grease is really ideal.

Lithium because it's petroleum based will cause decay in the rubber parts of the brake system and silicone grease isn't really designed for that high temperature/high stress application.

There are actually specially formulated greases for brake applications that are designed to handle both the high temperature and high stress and also coming into contact with the plastics and rubbers in the brake system.

Thanks Jeremy for the question and for everybody else for joining me on this creative journey we're on.

If you're interested in making things out of wood, metal, electronics, photography or other things like this in the workshop, hit the subscribe button and then hit the bell notification icon and YouTube will notify you next time I release a video.

Until next time, go make something.

Perfection's not required.

Fun is!

How to use an outlet tester

Description

When working on electrical outlets, a must have tool is the outlet tester. In this episode of House of Hacks, Harley show how to use one of these inexpensive tools to test receptacles for proper power and ground wiring. They are also an easy way to test an outlet to see if the power is off prior to working on the wall plug.

A list of 110 receptacle testers from different manufacturers (Affiliate link)

Subscribe for more DIY videos.

Watch my most recent video.

For a written transcript, go to How to use an outlet tester

Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0.
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing" by Kevin MacLeod at http://incompetech.com

Transcript

If you do anything with 110 volt receptacles or outlets and wiring them, you need one of these. We're going to talk about what it is and how to use it, today at the House of Hacks.

[Intro]

Hi Makers, Builders and Do-it-yourselfers.

Harley here.

Wiring 110 volt receptacles or outlets are pretty simple and straight-forward for the average DIYer. There's only three wires to connect and they're all color coded. So as long as the circuit was installed correctly originally, replacing the outlet is really trivial.

But when you do replace an outlet, you do want to make sure you use one of these tools. They're designed to tell you if things are wired properly or if you have safety issues. They're really inexpensive and you can pick them up on Amazon for less than $5. I'll leave a link to a bunch of them down in the description below.

To use one of these, all you do is you just plug it in. It has three lights on it that light up and, depending on what order the lights are lit and which ones are lit, it'll tell you the status of the outlet.

The best condition is that it's lit up as correct and you're good to go.

There are a number of problem that may occur. The first one is open ground. This is where the ground wire is not connected. The ground wire is typically green or copper without any insulation on it at all and in this case you need to make sure it's connected and make sure it's properly connected to ground on the other end.

The next one is open neutral. This means the white wire is not connected for some reason. You need to go in there and trace the white wire and find out where the disconnect is.

The next one is open hot. This means the black wire is not connected properly. In this case nothing will work when you plug something into it because there is no power actually reaching the outlet.

The last two are safety concerns because if you plug something into the outlet with these configurations then you may have power exposed to the user in ways that are unsafe. Which is why one of these tools is really important to use to make sure everything is good.

The first of these two critical ones is hot neutral reversed. And this means the black wire and the white wire are backwards. You just need to take the plug off and reverse those two wires and you should be good to go.

And the last one is hot ground reversal. This means that the hot wire and the ground are backwards which are the black and the green wires or the plain copper one, depending on the wire that's used. And in that case, just these two need to be switched around.

That covers all the error cases and also the good case. So, make sure you use one of these anytime you're wiring up an outlet just to make sure everything's safe for your users.

And until next time, go make something.

Perfection's not required. Fun is!

Six tips to more accurate measurements in the workshop

Description

Accurate measuring in the workshop can be critical to the success of a project. In this episode of House of Hacks, Harley presents six tips on how to make more accurate measurements.

Amazon associates list containing items discussed: Pencil sharpener, Mechanical pencil, Retractable Sharpie, X-Acto knife, Caliper

Subscribe for more DIY videos.

Watch my most recent video.

For a written transcript, go to Six tips to more accurate measurements in the workshop

Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0.
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing" by Kevin MacLeod at http://incompetech.com

Transcript

Coming soon.

How to select a power supply

Description

A contact recently asked "How do I select a power supply for my project?" Once a project moves past the prototyping state using a battery, picking the power supply is a critical element of a personal electronics project. In this episode of House of Hacks, Harley discusses the four items to consider when choosing a surplus power supply.

For a written transcript, go to How to select a power supply

Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0.
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing" by Kevin MacLeod at http://incompetech.com

Transcript

What do turkey basters and power supplies have to do with each other? And why am I in the kitchen? We're going to talk about all this today at the House of Hacks.

[Music]

Hi Makers, Builders and Do-it-yourselfers. Harley here.

I was recently asked about selecting a power supply for a hacked together project. There are four things when selecting a power supply that you need to pay attention to.

The first two are simple. The last two are a little be more complex but not too bad.

First is the input, you need to make sure that your power supply is appropriate for what you're plugging it into. For the most part you're going to be using locally supplied power supplies, probably surplus stuff that you've scavenged, and in that case it's going to work because it's designed for your local environment. In the United States that's going to be 110 to 120 volts AC. Pretty much anywhere else in the world, with a few exceptions, it's 220-240 volts AC. So the first item, while it's there and you need to be aware of it, it's really simple.

The second item has to do with the output. Power supplies can either output volts AC, indicated by VAC or a squiggly line or it can output in volts DC, indicated by VDC or a straight line. And you need to select the type of current that's appropriate for your project. Most, if you're doing low-voltage stuff, most of those are going to be DC, but depending on what you're working on, AC may be appropriate for your case.

The last two items are volts and amps. And these are similar to properties of water systems so we'll look at that here in a minute with the turkey baster and the sink.

But in short, volts have to do with, kind of, the pressure that the electrons are pushing into your circuit. And you need to make sure that this is appropriately ranged for your circuit you're working with. Generally circuits have a minimum and maximum voltage. You need to make sure that the voltage coming from the power supply fits within those parameters.

And finally there's amperage. Amperage is more like capacity. So it has to do with, as long as your power supply meets minimum requirements for your circuit, you're good to go. Your power supply can provide more amps than you need, it just can't provide less. So, make sure you know what your circuit requires and your power supply at least meets that minimum.

For example, a circuit that requires 250 milliamps (ma) would work just fine with a power supply that supplies 250 ma, 500 ma or 100 amps. Any of those would work just fine. However, if the power supply says it's rated for 100 ma, that's going to be too little and your circuit won't work right.

So let's go look at the sink and see how water correlates to volts and amps.

OK. As I mentioned, volts have to do with the amount of pressure and amps have to do with the capacity.

If you think about a water system, there's a whole lot of capacity here. The city has probably thousands of acre-feet of water that are sitting behind these pipes. They can provide pretty much all the capacity that we need for our little simple demonstration here.

It also has a lot of pressure. We control the pressure by the knob here, the lever, and if we put this on here and we give it just a little bit. This would be like not enough volts where we have a really weak stream here and the circuit isn't going to work right because it just doesn't have enough oomph to make it work.

If we increase the pressure to just the right amount, we get a nice flow without overdoing things and we reach a point of equilibrium here where the equivalent of the circuit is going to work just fine because we have the right amount coming in, not too much, not too little and everything's going to work just fine. And this is kind of equivalent to the volts controlled by the lever here.

If we increase the voltage too much though, what we end up with is a lot of leaks. And when you have leakage in electronics, that's a really bad thing. Things tend to blow up, burn up, magic smoke escapes, all that kind of good stuff. So you really don't want to put too much voltage to your circuit. You want to have just the right amount of volts that you get a good flow like that without having too much.

But now in all these cases, regardless of how much voltage I had, how much pressure I had coming out of the circuit, I still had huge, huge, vast amounts of water sitting in reservoirs behind these pipes. And that's equivalent to your amps. Your circuit will only use the amount of amps that it needs, regardless of how much capacity your power supply has.

So in summary, there are four things to look at: the input voltage and current and the output current, volts and amps. Make sure that you have the sufficient volts within the range that the circuit is designed for and that you have at least the minimum number of amps that are required by the circuit and you're good to go.

Until next time, go make something.

Perfection's not required. Fun is!

What is dielectric grease and why should I use it?

Description

What is dielectric grease? Why should I use dielectric grease? How do I use it? Dielectric grease is something used on automotive electrical connections. It is relatively unknown and has some misinformation floating around regarding it. In this House of Hacks video, Harley talks about the what, why and how of using it.

This is part of a collaboration with Mike at Tomahawk DIY. In his video, he shows how to change the brake light bulb on a 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee.

With Tomahawk DIY, Mike is building a business dedicated to helping people Build Better Lives. A substantial portion of revenue is donated to organizations that focus on helping people build better lives in some of earth's most dire circumstances. Visit his About page to learn more about the mission of Tomahawk DIY and use this Amazon Affiliate link to help support that work: Buy Dielectric Grease.

For a written transcript, go to What is dielectric grease and why should I use it?

Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0.
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing" by Kevin MacLeod at http://incompetech.com
Incidental: “Beach Bum" by Kevin MacLeod at http://incompetech.com
Special effects: livingroom_light_switch by AlienXXX at http://freesound.com

Transcript

[Music]

Hey, I wonder if Harley knows his brake light is out. That could cause a real problem.

[Door slam]

Hey Harley.

Yeah.

Did you know your brake light's out?

No, I didn't know that. There's a car store right around the corner. Why don't we go get some parts.

Yeah, it's a really easy fix. I'll show you how.

Awesome. Sounds great!

[Buying parts]

Today at the House of Hacks, we're going to talk about replacing light bulbs and using dielectric grease.

[Music]

Hi Makers, Builders and Do-it-yourselfers. Harley here.

This is Mike from Tomahawk DIY and we're going to be talking about two things. One on his channel about how to replace a brake light and on my channel this videos going to be about what dielectric grease is and why you should use be using it.

In Mike's video, we put some dielectric grease in the fitting before putting in the new bulb.

In this video, I want to talk about what dielectric grease is and why we used it.

While shooting the bulb changing video, we ran into a problem that is a great example of why dielectric grease really should be used.

We'd taken the old bulb out, put the new one in and put the socket back in the tail light assembly.

When we tested it, it didn't work. After some checking, I found corrosion on the socket connectors.

Dielectric grease helps inhibit this type of corrosion.

If these had grease put on them at the factory, they wouldn't have corroded this way.

So what is dielectric grease?

It's a silicon based grease that is non-curing and non-conductive.

Coming out of the tube, it has a, well, greasy type consistency, and being non-hardening, it maintains this consistency.

It stays this way and doesn't get hard or setup.

Here I have the multi-meter here setup to measure resistance.

When I put a drop on the probes, we can see it is non-conductive until I press the probes together and they make metal-to-metal contact.

Bare metal will have a chemical reaction to the oxygen in the air, called oxidation or corrosion.

Oxidation is less conductive than the metal, causing the flow of electricity to be reduced.

If there's not much oxidation, the reduction isn't enough to cause a problem.

However, in the harsh, sometimes wet, environment of a car, oxidation can build up over time to be a problem.

At best, it will decrease voltage causing lights to dim and other devices not to work properly.

In extreme cases, it can cause increased heat as the current attempts to break through and cause plastic to melt, shorts and sparks and, in the worse case, a fire.

Dielectric grease does a couple things to help combat these problems.

First, it's an insulator and helps prevent arcing between air gapped metal.

In high-voltage situations, this can help reduce voltage leakage, like in the engine's ignition system.

But in the low voltage situation of lighting, this isn't it's primary benefit.

In normal use, any place there's air gapped terminals, the air is sufficient insulation.

It's primary benefit comes as a non-hardening sealant.

When it's liberally applied to an electrical connection, it coats the metal and surrounds the terminals.

But being squishy, it is pressed out of the way on the metal-to-metal contact points.

This creates a sealed electrical connection that prevents both air and water from getting to the metal.

Keeping the water out of the connector helps eliminate short circuits and keeping the air out limits corrosion from happening.

It also helps the plastic and rubber parts of the connectors.

The oils in the grease help minimize gassing off of the plastic's oils.

This in turn helps prevent the plastic from getting brittle.

It also lubricates rubber fittings to let them seal better but not fuse.

All these things combined make the connector easier to take apart next time the bulb needs to be replaced.

I've seen some more expensive cars with dielectric grease on fittings from the factory.

And I've heard of people who will go through their vehicle when they first get it and put grease on all the connectors.

Usually these are people who put their vehicles in unusually harsh circumstances, particularly off-road or marine environments.

Personally, I use it whenever I replace something, but I don't go out of my way to take things apart specifically to add grease to them.

But given this most recent situation, I may rethink that.

If this is your first time here at House of Hacks: Welcome, I'm glad you're here and would love to have you subscribe.

I believe everyone has a God-given creative spark.

Sometimes this manifests through making things with a mechanical or technical bent.

Through this channel I hope to inspire, educate and encourage these types of makers in their creative endeavors.

Usually this involves various physical media like wood, metal, electronics, photography and other similar materials.

If this sounds interesting to you, go ahead and subscribe and I'll see you again in the next video.

Thanks for joining me on our creative journey.

Now, go make something. Perfection's not required. Fun is!

How to quickly and cleanly finish paracord ends

Description

Here are two quick tips for making a fast seal and clean finish on kernmatle rope (e.g. paracord) ends. It's common knowledge to use a match to melt the end of nylon rope. In this video Harley shows two alternative tips to seal the ends faster and with a better end result.

For a written transcript, go to How to quickly and cleanly finish paracord ends

Music and sound effects under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0.
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing" by Kevin MacLeod

Transcript

Hi Makers, Builders and Do-it-yourselfers. Harley here.

Today at the House of Hacks I've got a 2-part quick tip for working with nylon cord.

Specifically the kind that has an outer sheath and an inner core; like paracord in this particular case.

Most people know that they can take a match and fuse the ends together by just putting the end in the match and it melts together so it doesn't come un-frayed.

This works well when you have one or two ends to do. I had a recent project where I had a whole pile of them to do and using matches was just going to be too tedious. So, the solution to that is part one: more power.

Oh, yeah.

A torch gives you a lot of heat, constantly. And so when you have a lot of ends to do, all you have to do is put each end in there for a couple seconds, and they melt together, and you're golden. It takes no time at all and you can get through an awful lot of them real fast.

The problem that I've found, and this is where part two of the tip comes in, is when you cut these off square you end up with a lot of fraying on the end. And when you melt that, you end up with a big blob of melted nylon that is kind of ugly and sometimes can get in the way of whatever it is you're working on.

The solution to that I've found is to pull the sheath back to expose the inner core, and you need to expose an inch or two, and then cut off about half an inch to an inch, somewhere in that range, of the inner core.

And now you can pull the outer sheath back over that section and you end up with the outer sheath extending beyond the inner core by about a couple millimeters, an eighth of an inch or something like that.

Now, when you melt that in your flame, the outer sheath shrinks around the end of the inner core, melts everything together, and you end up with a very nice end at the end of the day.

So that’s it for today’s quick tip. Until next time, go make something. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just have fun!

How to desolder electronics

Description

Taking apart soldered connections is a handy skill for a maker. In this episode, we look at three techniques to do this.

For a written transcript, go to How to make desolder electronics

Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0.
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing" by Kevin MacLeod at http://incompetech.com
Incidental: "Mining by Moonlight" by Kevin MacLeod at http://incompetech.com

Associate links

Paladin Tools 1700 Desoldering Tool With Standard Tip
Aven 17542 Desoldering Wick, 2.5mm Width, 5' Length

Transcript

Today at the House of Hacks we're going to look at how to take apart electronics.

Hi Makers, Builders and Do-It-Yourselfers. Harley here. When working on electronics, a time will come when you have to take apart a solder joint. There are three main ways of doing this that we'll look at in this episode.

The first is to simply apply some heat and gently pull the connection apart. If you're just disassembling something without the need to put it back together and there's no mechanical connection, this works well. Like for scavenging these diodes and capacitors.

But this does leave a lot of solder on the connection so it may not work if you need to reassemble the joint. Also, if there's a mechanical connection, like wires that are twisted together, this may not work too well.

The other two ways physically remove most of the solder from the joint: the desolder pump, also known as a solder sucker, and solder wick or solder braid. Both these work well for connections that also have a mechanical component to them. Or electrical components with multiple points that all have to have their solder removed becoming apart. Like this LED sensor.

The desolder pump essentially vacuums up the liquid solder. There are a couple different designs, this one is spring activated, but they all basically work the same way. You push down the plunger, melt the solder, put the tip next to the connection and press the release button. This causes a vacuum in the tip and just pulls the solder right up.

Sometimes you have to do this a couple times to get all the solder out. Fancy solder stations may have a tip for the iron that has the suction mechanism built into it.

The desolder wick, or braid, works with capillary action on the melted solder. To use it, just put the braid over the connection and then heat it with the soldering iron. The braid will heat up, melting the solder and then capillary action will pull the solder up into the braid.

Depending on the size of the connection and the amount of solder on it, you may have to move to an unused spot on the braid a couple times to get all the solder out. It is a one time use tool. Once a spot of braid is full of solder, you trim it off and throw it away.

I originally learned with a solder sucker but recently started using the braid and I think it's becoming my preferred method of removing solder.

Thanks for watching and until next time, go make something. It doesn't have to be perfect, just have fun.

Quick Tip: 2-part epoxy mixing tray

Description

Presenting an quick, disposable way to mix two-part epoxy.

Transcript

Hi Makers, Builders and Hackers. Harley here with a quick tip.

Whenever I'm working on a project that I need some 2-part epoxy on, it seems like I'm always scrounging in the trash for something to mix it up in. Last time I needed this I realized… I had some scrap left over from a previous project, and I realized that the bottom of cans are the perfect thing to mix 2-part epoxy in. They're real easy to… you just take a knife or some scissors and you can just run around the bottom. You're going to be throwing away… planning on throwing this away anyway so it's not like you're using something you'd otherwise be needing. It just seems like the perfect solution for mixing epoxy in. They cut off easily like that. I'm going to bring home a bunch of cans from work and have a nice little mixing tray so I can have them on hand whenever I need to mix up some epoxy.

That's it for tonight. Until next time, go make something. It doesn't have to be perfect, just have fun.