All fresh water pipes in your home eventuallyclog. Deposits and debris in the water build up on the inner wallsof the pipe until the flow of water slows to trickle. This isnormal. All pipes will have to be replaced eventually. You canprolong the life of your pipes using the back pressure trick.Plumbers have used it for ages.

The idea is to make the water in the pipe flow the other way.This generates back pressure. Most often this will dislodge atleast some of the buildup in your pipes. Eventually, however, thistrick will no longer wor

Getting rid of bee, wasp, and hornet nests iswithin the reach of a careful and smart homeowner. These insectscan be dangerous, but do not have to be. Firstand foremost you have to worry about personal safety. Peopleallergic to venom should not attempt to handle insects. Whenapproaching a nest, always have an escape route. For yourself, andanyone else present. Don't approach the nest from a vulnerableposition, like a ladder or the roof. Make sure you can run. Alwaysprepare for the worst case scenario.

If you h

The bed project I am currently working uses alot of tenon and mortise joinery. I have to admit I do get mytenons and mortises wrong sometimes.

When the piece is an 8ft long section of wide oak, it's hard tostart over. The tenon needs to be fixed. This post should get youstarted on how to fix your mistakes.

1) The tenon won't fit into the mortise

Wood needs to be removed. The best tool for the job is ashoulder plane. It was practically made for the task. If you don'thave one sand paper will do.

I recently learned the hard way that aScotch-Brite pad can scratch glass. My car, and particularly mywindshield, were covered in tree sap. The Scotch-Brite pad got thesap off the car, but it left behind several shallow scratches. Thewindshield had turned foggy in the spot the sap used to be.

Sand with Cerium Powder

Glass, like metal and wood can be sanded and buffed. The shallowscratches in my windshield needed optical grade sanding.

This is a fancy way of saying that there were no deep scratchesa

To most home owners it's a surprise that guttersneed to be cleaned. They accumulate all sorts of debris. Most firstfalls on the roof and makes its way from there into the gutters.The downspout clogs, and before you know it the gutter isoverflowing.

Clogged gutters trap water near the foundation

Overflowing gutters a the number one cause for wet basements.Your roof funnels water that would normally fall on the whole areayour roof covers to a limited number of drains. If one of thoseoverflows, the water finds it way int

So you have a clog. Water is backing up intoyour toilet or sink. It's Thanksgiving day. You can't get a hold ofa plumber. The prices the plumber charges are exorbitant. We haveall been there. This post provides step by step instructions forunclogging the drain yourself; or at least do the simple stuffyourself before you call in the heavy guns.

The following steps should be done in order. They start with thesimplest steps. The further you progress the more work you have todo and the messier the process gets.

1) Cle

Most of my furniture pieces I built in mywoodshop are for the public space in my house. I like to show offas much as the next guy. The actual reason for this is that Iwanted to build extra nice pieces for my private area. The firstproject for my bedroom will be a high quality bed. Solid, thickwood everywhere. The design is meant for the ages. This bed willlast a lifetime.

The high level design is relatively simple. A headboard, atailboard and two rails. The pieces are joined together with bedanchors. More about these later in the

A digital tablesaw fence

A month ago I finally made the decision to upgrade my table sawto digital. I was making cabinets. The fence was moving in and outall the time.

Every time I dutifully measure the distance to the blade with mytape measure and straight edge. Each time I double and triplechecked. The results were always within 1/16 of an inch, but mymethod was time consuming and hard on the mind.

Enter the

I decided to install a garage door opener on thenew doors I installed earlier this summer. A conventional garagedoor opener cannot be installed in my garage. A beam sits right inthe path of the track.

Liftmaster 3800

I did some research and found the Liftmaster 3800 jackshaftopener (

• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9

The control panel hosts the player controls andthe controller interface board. It detaches from the main carcassto allow the cabinet to pass through doorways.

Plexiglass Top

The entire panel is covered with a 1/8 sheet of Plexiglas, whichprovides the actual playing surface the players hands rest on. Thecontrol panel's art is sandwiched between the MDF top and thePlexiglas playing surface. This keeps the art save and clean.

The Design

The controller design used in this build is not