Designing Your Log Home: Tips To Keep You Out of Trouble
July 6, 2007
Nearly every log home is a custom design, whether you are altering a stock plan or starting from scratch. By their very nature, custom floor plans open up a large number of untested challenges - especially if you are trying to design the house yourself. With almost all log home manufacturers, an in-house architect will take your design and turn it into a set of drawings that conform to their building system. Your home will be structurally sound. However, don’t necessary expect them to point out every inconvenience or snafu in your design. This is a hands-on business, and in the end, your house design is on you… and you’ll have to live with it. Here are a few pointers I can suggest to make your design more efficient.
Starting Seedlings Indoors
July 5, 2007
Unless you have access to a greenhouse, or something like it, those living in cooler climates will have to start seedlings indoors if they are to take full advantage of their growing season.
Here are some gardening tips to starting seedlings indoors.
You can use an enclosed porch, a garage, a shed or a basement. Make sure you have sufficient counterspace to work comfortably.
Growing seeds is pretty straightforward. Give them what they need (light, water, warmth) and they will sprout. Simple as that. But don’t start them too soon! In 4-6 weeks they will be ready to go out into the garden. If you are still experiencing frosts, they will be killed.
Prepare your containers, whether they are trays, egg cartons, yoghurt containers or jiffy pots and make sure they have drainage holes. Your indoor seedlings are going to need a lot of light…more light than a regular plant, to get them going.
So arrange lights over your seedlings. Plan to have these lights on for up to 15 hours a day. Put a fan in the room on low to keep the air circulating too. This is surprisingly important. If the air is static the plants will not prosper.
Repairing Your Own Machine Components
July 4, 2007
Many industrial concerns have workshops of their own. For the repair of worn shafts, the lathe machine is excellent. Keyway slots can be machined by using a milling machine, while a shaping machine can do machining of large flat areas. A drilling machine does drilling of holes.
A skilled Maintenance Engineer should know how to use all these machines in order to make his own repairs in a safe manner. Very often he has to supervise machinists. The information below should be useful for that purpose.
Lathe Machine
The lathe machine uses a single-point-cutting tool for a variety of turning, facing, and drilling jobs. Excess metal is removed by rotating the work piece over the fixed cutting tool to form straight or tapered cylindrical shapes, grooves, shoulders and screw threads. It can also be used for facing flat surfaces on the ends of cylindrical parts.
The work piece is clamped onto a horizontal rotating shaft by a 3-jaw or 4-jaw chuck. The latter chuck can be used to cut off-centered cylinders. The rotating horizontal spindle to which the chuck is attached is usually driven at speeds that can be varied.
Expansion for Heat Absorption
July 4, 2007
In the refrigeration cycle, the refrigerant must undergo a change in state in order for the heat to be absorbed from the environment.
The refrigerant has the property of changing its state from liquid to vapor at normal room temperatures.
Have you ever felt your skin becoming cool whenever you put alcohol on it? Or even when a bit of petrol spilled onto your hands? It’s because, the alcohol or petrol has evaporated when it comes in contact with your skin.
The result - heat is removed from your skin, and it feels cool!
In a closed-loop refrigeration circuit, the change of state from liquid to vapor is achieved mechanically by pressurizing the liquid at one end and forcing it through a small opening at another end.
Once the liquid comes out from the small opening, it expands into vapor. The effect is similar to the spray you get when you restrict the outlet of your garden hose. But water is not a refrigerant. It does not feel cold because it does not change to a vapor.
Bad example. But you get the idea? Pressurized restriction causes spray at the other end.
Measure Your Window for Verticals and Horizontal blinds, Wood blinds, Faux Wood Plantation Shutters
July 3, 2007
Here are five important things to remember.
1. Use a steel measuring tape
2. Measure to the nearest eighth of an inch - don’t round your measurments.
3. On your notes, clearly indicate which measurment is the width and which is the height. It is very common to transpose measures. Please note width first, then height.
4. Do NOT take any deductions for an inside mount. Our factory takes those allowances. You need to provide us with your exact window size opening
5. You need to provide the exact overall blind size needed for an outside mount. Our factory makes all outside mount blinds the exact width you specify.
Click here for your FREE estimate…
Choose Inside or Outside Mount:
Before taking any measurements, step back from your window and decide if you want to mount the window treatment inside the window recess or outside on the wall or moulding. For an inside mount, the window opening must have enough unobstructed depth to allow mounting.
Tip: For a flush inside mount (the blind completely recessed so that no part of the blind projects out of the opening) check that you have enough depth and make sure you request the valances be made the same width as blind since they are normally made an inch or two wider.
No Dig Gardens - How to Build One
July 2, 2007
The no dig garden is exactly what it describes…a fertile garden bed with no digging at all. It involves layering clean, organic materials that will literally compost around your plants as they grow.
The No Dig Garden is built on top of the ground, so you can build a garden anywhere. This makes it extremely attractive for those sites that have poor soil or are weed infested. It’s also a great method of gardening for those that can’t (or don’t want to) dig a garden patch!
The site you choose for your garden must get at least 5 hours of sunlight a day. Drainage will be good because of the materials that will be used in making the garden.
If you are planting over lawn or weeds, mow them to ground level. If you are planting on a hard surface, put down some cushioning organic material first (like seaweed or leaves).
To build your no dig garden start with a layer of newspaper (no colour printing), at least 6mm (1/4 inch) thick. Surround the garden with some sort of border material. This can be bricks, logs, planks or rocks but should be at least 20-25CM high (8-10 inches) to contain the organic material within.
Building or Decorating Your Home Requires House Plans
July 1, 2007
There are some things to consider when creating plans for your home. There are two situations that call for plans or blue prints, either you are building a new home or decorating your present home. The types of plans required for either situation will vary depending on the extent of your project.
When building a new home, there are several things you will want to consider carefully. The most obvious is where you are going to build your house. The climate will affect where you build. You wouldn’t build an icehouse in the middle of the desert. You will want to determine what material you will want to use. Brick, wood, and cement are popular. In the southern states clay adobe houses are the norm. In the north and other areas brick, wood, and stone are options. The climate will influence this choice as well. In areas where there is cold weather brick and cement are used because they absorb and retain heat. In the south wood frame houses are built. The size of your lot will determine the size and type of house you want. You couldn’t build a mansion on say a quarter of an acre. On the other hand a one bedroom, single floor home would look strange on a lot that is two acres or bigger. Whether your home has a basement could be important and that would depend on where you live. If you are lucky to have a basement, it can house the laundry room and your gym equipment or be a playroom/guest room.
