Hi, Power Project

I found this lonely, old drill crying to itself on a Goodwill shelf. I hadn't worked on one before, so I gave the clerk two bucks and took the drill home.

Vintage aluminiumn tools always catch my attention. Plus, it looks like something from Star Trek.

You can't see it from this angle, but the drill's chuck is frozen in place and there is a broken drill bit stuck inside.

An attached, metal model number plate is so much cooler than a company logo on a sticker.

A decayed power cord isn't safe to use.

So, at the next Goodwill I bought a loose power cord that was also two dollars. I hope to be able to cut off the female end and attach the exposed wires to the drill.

The first step was to see if I could get the chuck to open and release the broken drill bit. While researching "Hi-Power" drills, I across the "Progress is Fine, But It's Gone On Too Long" blog. The author has the same drill as I do, but with a different name plate. In the comments section, one commentor stated they had the same problem that I did, and another commentor had the solution.

I sprayed penetrating oil into the chuck a couple of times, and then let it sit. I tapped on the chuck's jaws the next day, and they popped back into place and the broken bit was released. Thanks, Duke! I used my grinder's wire brush to remove its rust, and then polished the chuck with a buffing wheel. 

The temp in the garage was only 20 degrees at the time. It is surprising how much air is moved by a buffing wheel. It doesn't take very long for your bare hands to feel like they are beginning to freeze. I had to stop twice to go inside the house and warm up my hands. When the chuck was mostly polished, I stopped. I was making progress, but I wasn't having fun. 

3/23:

I moved forward on the Hi-Power project a bit. I polished the chrome front and then disassembled the drill.

I made an initial cleaning of the parts and then packed the gears with the grease that I had on hand. I reassembled the drill to see if it would still function, and it does - somewhat. The drill spins much faster than before, but sometimes it needs to be started by hand to operate. A slight turn on the wheel that secures the chuck in place will get the drill moving. That's not going to cut it.

I'm going to break it down again and try cleaning the motor's brushes. I might try some other type of grease, too. We'll see how it goes.

There Goes the Water Bill

This arrived in the mail yesterday. It was an impulse buy/gift for Charlotte.

It's a splash-proof speaker. I thought music might make taking a shower more fun for her.

The shower's grab bar is too wide for the included clip, so I suspended it from a zip-tie. The suction cup on the back keeps the speaker facing forward.

This is the kind of thing I would have loved to have when I was a kid, so I was pretty sure this surprise was going to be a hit with Char. The speaker easily connected to my laptop through bluetooth, and we fired up YouTube for Parry Gripp's Mega Party. Before long, I could hear her through the door singing along with "It's Raining Tacos." 

How well does it play music? Charlotte exclaimed, "It's awesome! It's like standing inside my headphones!" 

That's high praise. I might have to get a speaker for myself...

Unnecessary, but Kind of Cool

A Dollar Tree store opened near our house, and Char loves shopping there. She often points at random items and exclaims, "Can you believe that's only a dollar?!" Just a small portion of her allowance will allow her to walk out with trinkets, candy, or snacks. It takes Char time, though. She's a thorough shopper. 

Slowly following her around can be a bit boring, so I kill time by flipping through the store's small selection of DVDs and Blu-rays.  That's where I had this idea.

One of the current trends on eBay is for sellers to offer games and movies as "disc and art only" or "disc only." Shipping is usually free for these sales because there's no clunky case to mail. I have bought a few discs this way when I want to see a movie that isn't on Netflix or on our other Roku channels (yes, we do live in 2021). 

Anyway, back to Dollar Tree. While Char was scrutinizing the stuffed animals, I spotted this Blu-ray:

No offense to the filmmakers, but I didn't want to watch Tim & Eric's Billon Dollar Movie. I wanted the two-disc case their movie came in. Getting a brand new Blu-ray case for a buck is a good deal.

When we got home, I replaced the artwork from this single disc movie that I bought at Goodwill and added the "disc only" movie I bought from eBay.

Tadaa! It's now a Secret Special Two-Disc Set of Ghost Rider 1 and 2!

Yes, I can buy the two-movie set on Amazon, but where's the fun in that?

This Harry Potter Blu-ray came from Goodwill with a three-disc case and a lenticular cover.

Heroes angle:

Villains angle:

Three-disc case:

I swapped Jensen Ames for Harry Potter, and now my Death Race double feature is really...

... a trilogy! I added the DR3 disc and placed its artwork in backwards so you can see it on the inside.

For the arts and crafts credit, I cut the Harry Potter lenticular artwork off the slip cover, taped a flat, promotional magnet to its back, and now Char can magically hang her papers on our fridge.

I'll keep the unused discs on a spindle and the artwork in a folder in case I change my mind. Empty cases will be reused, recycled, or stored in a box. 

This would work with soundtracks on CD, too. What's fun is the idea that you can make your own custom movie sets. 

I could combine Jaws with Deep Blue Sea...

...and even throw in a custom cover from eBay. Do you see the shark?

I've been brainstorming what other "sets" I can put together. The Cave and The Descent would make a scary, underground double bill.

These three Rocky films make a great trilogy.

I have a couple of SNL four-disc cases that I would enjoy repurposing. 

I can't tell if I'm being creative or if I'm just being weird. I suppose it doesn't matter. Projects like this are totally unnecessary, but they are kind of cool. At least I think so.

By the way, I wondered if Amazon was already selling a Nick Cage movie collection, and if so, what movies were in it? Surprisingly, "movie,""DVD," or "Blu-ray" didn't come up in Amazon's search engine when I typed in "Nick Cage":

I was curious what a Nick Cage blanket would look like...  

Ummm... wow. 

Knowing that products like this exsist and that people actually buy them is comforting. It makes messing around with movie cases feel much less weird.