Episode: 3647
Title: HPR3647: Weekend projects
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr3647/hpr3647.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-25 02:47:28

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This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 3,647 for Tuesday the 26th of July 2022.
Today's show is entitled Weekend Projects.
It is hosted by Rosen, and is about 17 minutes long.
It carries a clean flag.
The summary is, Rosen rambles about some Weekend Projects.
Hi, this is Rowan, and welcome to another episode of Hacker Public Radio.
Today I thought I'd just jot down some Weekend Projects I've had, or well, started out
as this Weekend, but it'll end up spanning a couple years at this point, although they
are all pretty much related.
So we'll kick this off.
We have an outside patio furniture, and the table has the cut out so you can have a sun
umbrella to provide you some shape.
And when we got this table and outside furniture set, actually, in the right before the
lockdown on the pandemic, I guess, in 2019, and we had that first year.
It came with an umbrella, but it was in really bad shape.
So we purchased one, and we didn't, you know, spend a whole lot of money on it.
That was a little over $100 US dollars.
And it was fine.
It worked good until the pulley system basically broke on it.
So you have, like, on these umbrellas, they have a crank that then pulls it tight into
cable, or loosens a cable that then expands and contracts the umbrella.
Well, I guess, you know, in the ever driving to cost down, they go to cheaper components.
So the pulley is made out of, like, the actual pulley is made out of, like, plastic.
Well, at some point, I guess the plastic on the side of the pulley that the channel that
held the cable failed, and then the cable would get pulled down beside the pulley, and
you could see it really couldn't crank it up or down anymore.
And I tried to, like, pop the cable back up onto the pulley, and I just couldn't do it.
And it was like, there, I didn't see any way to take it apart without, like, destroying
it to actually fix it and put in maybe more decent parts.
So this year, we bought a new umbrella.
And I looked online, and I, you know, I was like, well, let me pay for something a little
more expensive.
I mean, it was less than $200 US dollars.
There wasn't a whole lot more expensive.
And then I also went instead of a sort of more traditional, I think it's octagonal or
shape.
I went with a rectangular shape with the thought that maybe that would provide better
sun coverage, because it would cover the whole table.
But anyway, we'll bet more on that later.
So we got this.
It was nice.
It is nice, but I came home.
Uh, that's like, I guess it's been a couple of weeks at this point ago.
And my girlfriend works from home, and so she had been a nice day, so she was out and
she put the umbrella up while I come home.
And it's like bent across the table.
And it's like, well, what happened?
And she's like, I was just sitting here, and a gust of wind came and caught it.
And it pushed, you know, because it's coming up through the table with a little circular,
it got, I guess, pressed it at the ankle, at the right angle, and it was strong enough.
And it wasn't like it was like storm weather or anything.
It was just a gust of wind, and it basically folded the pipe in half.
And almost, it didn't cut, like, completely break it, but I mean, it was basically pinched
together and split in places.
So it was very frustrating.
Of course, then I look at it, and of course it's like maybe 16th inch, like white metal tubing.
So I guess at a certain level, I wasn't surprised, but I mean, come on.
It's an umbrella.
It's going to have to deal with a certain amount of wind.
But anyway, to my point, I was very frustrated.
And I was like, I do not want to buy a new one.
I probably should still go look to see if it's under warranty to get it replaced.
But then I'm going to repair this feeling overwhelmed me.
And so I took a couple of weeks thinking about it and trying to find time on the weekend
to get to it.
And this weekend I got to it.
So my solution initially was I broke it in half, like, at the joint, and started push
the reformed the crimps.
So it was more or less circular again.
And my idea was to find a solid dowel rod that was big enough to just sort of slide in
there.
And the tube at that point is about an inch and a half wide, sorry, to our non-imperial
and it's users, I don't remember exactly how many millimeters that is.
And I went to the various big box hardware stores around and the wideest I could find
was an inch and a quarter, not an inch and a half.
So I just broke down.
I was like, OK, I can make this work.
So I bought some brass wood screws to go into it, both the top and the bottom.
I think you're figuring, well, maybe I can just get this tight enough and it'll work.
So I came home and, well, yesterday I was working on this and it worked pretty good.
I got it in there that it was still crimped at the top enough that it was a smooth tight
connection there.
And then with the screws, it seemed to have a pretty good stability.
But once I put the um, this piece that I'm fixing basically is the bottom half of the
umbrella and it just locks in place.
So it was like an extension tube so that I guess they could ship it in two pieces.
So it only had to be like five foot long instead of ten foot long.
So this part, it broke right at the top of that bottom extension, like maybe five inches
below it.
So there wasn't a lot of dowrod up at the top part.
So when I put it back in with the umbrella all together, it would be fine, but I figured
the first strong wind, I didn't know if it would break, but it would probably end up
at some weird canted angle with just not perfect and it would just drive me nuts anyway
is looking at it.
So I went back to a local hardware store that was just up the road, just a smaller sort
of corner mom and pop shop.
And just was talking to the guy asking him what he thought might work and he ultimately
showed me this, it's basically an epoxy bandage and it was advertised for fixing an axe
handle.
So it's just like a wrap that's soaked in a, you know, epoxy with a resin in it.
And so I came back home and you just basically soak it for five or ten seconds in water
and you wrap it tight about two inches above and below the break and then you try to make
sure you wrap as many times as you can around the break itself.
And then it hardens in about 15 minutes and it makes a very strong bond and it works
perfectly.
And actually the color almost matches the color of the pole.
So I don't even, it's not even like it really stands out on that much.
So I was very happy actually with that repair.
So I think between having the dowel rod in it and then this extra strength and rigidity
at the break, the original break should let us keep using this for a while until I break
down.
Next one I buy if I buy one is definitely going to be like a solid, I don't know if I
go to a hard wood one, I mean I'm probably going to pay more money than I really want
to, but I'm not buying anymore cheaper aluminum ones.
I mean it's too many crappy parts that you can't fix easily.
So anyway, so that was the start of my weekend projects.
For this weekend, this is June 26, 2022 right now.
My other project is, we have our girls are into basketball and we had purchased a basketball,
like an outside basketball free standing unit that actually has adjustable height so you
could change it from like, I think about six foot up to about 10 foot in height for
the basketball hoop.
And we bought that actually, we found it on eBay or not eBay, but Craigslist, somebody
was had this things like over 20 years old at this point.
They had got it when their kids were little and now they were off to university and I guess
he just didn't, you know, feel like he needed it in his driveway anymore.
So we snagged that, which $20 is great although I thought when we got there I took my tools
and we'd just like take it apart and you know, fit it in the back, we have like a little
hatchback figured that it should, it should break down because I'd seen boxes of new ones,
you know, it would fit.
But we got there and the guys like, you're probably going to want a bigger truck because
this has been sitting outside for 20 years and I don't know if you're going to get it
apart.
And I looked and like all the screws are kind of bolts are rusted and I would have been,
I probably there hours if I got it apart without like destroying things.
So that turned into like a half a day adventure going and renting a 10 foot box truck and
going back to his house.
So probably overall it was $100 purchase but I like the fact that it's, you know, recycled
and now we'll get to use it.
So we've got that set up sort of hanging over the edge of our backyard into the alleyway
and it's sort of turned into a neighborhood things our neighbors have even younger kids.
So you know, we tell them that they can just come adjust the height whenever they want
to and the kids can play and so we'll come home and they'll be out there shooting basketballs
and stuff and then our girls will go and shoot so it's all good, it's fun.
So that was, that was yet another weekend activity that was a couple months ago.
But what brought the basketball on is they were playing basketball about a month ago and
we have a chain length fence sort of the backboard, well, it's not the backboard but that's
like what they're shooting, you know, towards and apparently the ball actually landed right
on one of the tops of the chain, I don't know if it's a pole, it hits something sharp
enough to poke puncture the basketball.
So I've been trying to fix the puncture and I've tried super glue the first time that
I was about, I don't know, a week or so ago and that never really worked and almost fixed
it but I kept getting air bubbles so yesterday while I was at the hardware store I picked
up some rubber cement and so I've been trying to do that but I just don't know.
I mean, we didn't pay a whole lot for these basketballs and maybe $15 US dollars so I
may just end up buying another one trying to avoid that but so far fixing a puncture without
going over like, you know, 50% of the cost to replace the ball is starting to get hard.
The only other thing I've seen on YouTube is people find it's like, I don't know, it's
not quite the same as the like the goop that you can buy to like inflate your car tires
if you get a puncture but something similar I saw somebody do for like a soccer ball
or something and they would just put this stuff in it, roll it around and then it's basically
gives a coating on the inside. That probably would work better but I just haven't seen anything
like I said that you can buy in a small enough cheap enough quantity to, I mean, I guess this
could happen again but I don't know. So I'm going to mess with this, I do. So this morning
I tried again with the rubber cement and I think yesterday I was just too impatient not giving
enough time before I put pressure on it and so I went back this morning and just sort of put
the glue on it let it sort of get the rubber or soft and kind of worked it back into it and now
I'm going to let that set up and then the other thing I was trying yesterday is I have bike patches
so I'm going to cut that I cut down so they weren't quite so big although that may have just been
an issue so I may try like like gluing them back on just to give it a little extra support. We'll see
so that's project two I guess three two well two with the basketball and the umbrella were the
big things yesterday and actually getting this one for a nurture was a weekend labor of love
on Valentine's Day weekend in 2019 as I said that's when we got it um we this was actually a
free set it's pretty nice lawn furniture it's like a I don't know a big table I mean you can get
it came with one two three four five six six chairs so it's like a full dining room table size
and then it also came with a little side table and two stools the only thing that we had to do
was go get it which you know we were happy to do the problem was it was on the porch the third
floor porch of a townhome and that particular February we just had like a snow and ice storm so
there was about three inches of snow and ice covering the the porch and the table so we had to
like go up there and clear that off and then the house of the townhome was in like an older one
probably built I don't know like 1800s but basically what that means is it was not a very wide
house to begin with and the steps were new but still like fairly steep and they had put in
floating steps so like which means they basically didn't have like backing so you could see through
them so that was a freaking my girlfriend out so she we worked well together she cleaned off the
table and would like stage things but I trudged up and down three flights of steps carrying all the
various pieces of the furniture to the the back carport where we could stage it to then put in our car
so that was a was a fun it was a fun Valentine's Day and it did get me out of having to think of
what gift to get but overall so these all sort of tie together to a degree that's kind of
those have been my weekend projects nothing too exciting but I just it does drive me nuts like
the the pole thing and then I didn't want to throw yet another umbrella away because of you know
cheap parts it just felt wrong so I'm glad that worked out I would highly recommend if you've got to
like fix a you know broken tubing or an axe handle for whatever reason that this wrap
I wish I don't have the packaging in front of me I can't know what it's called exactly but um
I'm sure you can find it at the hardware store but it's just uh you just you know dip it in the
water wrap it around and it sets strong in 15 minutes and then you're off whacking at things or
blocking the sun or whatever you're trying to do with it uh anyway that's enough of my rambling
for now uh thank you for listening to Hacker Public Radio you have been listening to Hacker Public
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