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General Update v20

I wanted to write about some of the things I’ve been working on. It’s taken awhile to get to because I work very slowly by doing a little here and a little there.

I finally finished my workbench table for the miter saw and other tools for wood working. It was only needing a surface for the table and bottom shelves, which took a good part of the day to complete because I don’t just slap down rough cut plywood and call it a job done. Nope, I had to make sure to cut out what I wanted to the right size, then I rounded the edges of it on my router table, then further sanded them because I hate getting wood splinters! It also needs to be sturdy and well built without any mistakes that’ll contribute to issues later in use. Now I will say that it isn’t 100% perfectly precise, but it’s built well enough to not irritate me when working on it.

I write from the personal experience of using other peoples make shift workbenches, and they’re always a slapdash splintery piece of rickety junk with nails sticking out every which direction or the feet cut to the wrong lengths causing it to tip and tilt as you work on it.

One of the things I like about this workbench in particular is the open area in the middle. You can roll a chair up beneath it for storage or just have some space for your feet as you’re standing nearby working on a piece. Also the miter station surface with the gap in the middle is nice for running power cords and hoses thru for other equipment. I have a shop vac that I plan to setup to catch saw dust.

Pardon the junk in the back...

I’ve also been working on my old General Electric fridge from 1953. I know that it’s from 1953 because the date is printed on its thermostat, which is original to the fridge.

The thermostat unfortunately after cleaning it in the ultrasonic, lubricating it, and everything else just doesn’t work well. It does work, but the contacts on the switch are so worn that it doesn’t make a very good connection. It did work solid for two weeks, then one night I noticed it didn’t ever come back on. I thought the start relay was possibly busted, so I took it apart — actually more like broke it apart which turns out all I needed to do was hammer out a dang rivet to save myself the trouble of super gluing the housing back together, but it did super glue back together very well... Anyhow the start relay was in mint condition without any wear on the contacts. I’m very disappointed I had to crack it open to find out, but I’ve learned my lesson on how to address those in the future.

Upon multiple tests with the multi-meter, I narrowed the issue back to the thermostat which I thought was perfectly fine after all the cleaning I did to it only to find that the contacts were dirty again and just not really fit for use. I can repair it, but that’ll be for a future project which will involve taking apart the whole thermostat and gently sawing off the contact points and soldering on new ones. In the meantime I’m just going to buy a new thermostat to use because I really need the fridge space!

A little WD-40 and aluminum foil helped spiff it up too.

Here’s also a neat little video of it in action. I kept it in my deep freezer which caused the billow to contract and break the circuit. When it warms up, the billow expands which causes it to close the circuit. Pretty cool!

Not only have I been working on appliances and general carpentry, but I’ve also been working on my truck too! At this point I think I could become a Handyman. :^)

One night after a worship meetup at church I crank my truck up to head back home and instantly noticed a loud mechanical whining sound. I’m already familiar with what makes that particular sound because I’ve heard it before in other vehicles, which is the power steering. I’m thinking somethings probably going on with it, but whatever I gotta get home! A few miles down the road and the steering starts to sound like Robocop in serious need of re-lubrication ever time a spin the wheel, and the power steering motor whining so much it sounds like I’m driving on RC toy car down the road.

I stop off at a gas station to check it out and all I can see is that it’s low on fluid. Being the genius that I am, I didn’t think to check if they had any in the store and just drove home dealing with it. Oh well, I’m too leery of dumping in any old fluids down the gullet anyhow because this is a 25 year old truck, it might be a little more specific and turns out I was right. It takes automatic transmission fluid with Mercon V instead of “power steering fluid.” Now it’s probably alright for a while to use whatever just to get by, I doubt the wheels would blow off the car just for putting in the wrong fluid for the power steering, but I always want to do things right the first time.

It wasn’t too difficult, unlike replacing the dang thermostat in the truck a few months ago which that was a PITA no thanks to that friggin serpentine belt guard. The owners manual would have you lift the whole stupid engine out just to replace a simple part... Anyhow, after driving around for a little while it all cleared up and the power steering was no longer noisy and worked even better! Here’s a picture of the old fluid. It didn’t have much and plus it was all black and nasty looking. For this truck, it’s supposed to be a dark thick reddish wine color. I’m pretty sure that whatever was in there was from the manufacturer because the previous owner hardly ever drove this truck around and nothing in it was ever replaced for maintenance.

And that’s about all I’ve got. I’m still accumulating tools for the workshop. I think I just need a table saw and a vice grip at this point. I also need a good set of routing bits for making windows. I’ve found some online, but they’re not exactly the correct profiles. I know some people though that’ll probably set me in the right direction in regards to stuff like that.

The first window I plan to make will be for my outhouse door. It’ll be small and manageable enough to learn from.

Thanks for reading my blog!


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Comments:

  • Some hvac technicians can buy the old r22 stuff but only as a refill, I've known a few that can but don't know how that works.
    May 17, 2025 Permalink Reply
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