How to Sharpen Lawn Mower Blades

We're well into the mowing season now and it's likely that you've heard the wonderful, 'mower blade meets rock' noise a few times. You might have also heard, 'mower blade meets tree root,' or even our favorite, 'mower blade meets random piece of metal that we think our son brought out to the lawn.'

Regardless of the specifics, our guess is that your blades need sharpening. Your options are (in increasing order of ruggedness) to 1) buy a new blade 2) bring your beat up blade to the hardware store and have them sharpen it or 3) sharpen it yourself.

If you've never sharpened a mower blade before, it's not too difficult and when it's all said and done it gives you that nice glow of self-sufficiency.

If you're interested, here are a couple videos that seem like a good place to start...

This guy just uses a bench grinder:

And this one is slightly more involved:

If this is all very discouraging, there is a nice selection of mower blades over at Amazon.

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My Fix It Up Life - Drywall Tips

Mark and Theresa are at it again, and this time it's dishing out some drywalling tips. They're also saying good things about the Rockwell JawHorse and anyone who gives that tool the thumbs up, gets a thumbs up from us. We've actually used the JawHorse in exactly the same way that Mark describes and it's a revelation for the lone worker.

Check out their radio show at www.myfixituplife.com

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Plans for an Adirondack Chair from Skil

On their website, Skil is offering free plans for a nice looking double Adirondack chair. It might be something for dad to do with all of his new tools that you're getting him for Father's Day.

In other Skil news, they also have a 12" compound miter saw for short money at Lowes and Amazon. Looks like a nice saw and it's only $200.

Get the plans here.

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Lowe's How-To

We just saw that Lowe's has a nice selection of how-tos over at their site. A lot of the times, these things are really basic and pretty uninteresting, but the projects at Lowe's range from simple (build a sandbox) to complex (installing wall tile and dividing a room). Along with the hand's on knowledge, there are also some nice articles like Understanding Heat Transfer and Choosing a Color Scheme.

Check out a list of articles here.

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Arbortech Project Plans

We were just wandering around the interweb and saw that Arbortech, makers of the fantastic Mini-Grinder and Power Chisel have a number of project plans posted up on their site. Of course, the plans are geared toward their unique woodworking tools, but they could also be completed with traditional tools as well. We tend to like these kinds of presentations and Arbortech's project selection goes beyond the standard "spice rack" variety and into territory that's a little more unusual.

Some of the plans are in .pdf format and some are videos on youtube, like this one...

Check out the plan page at Arbortech.

Our review of the Mini Grinder is here.
Our review of the Power Chisel is here.

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Summer Project Plans from Lowes and Skil

Lowes and Skil have teamed up to offer four nice project plans to enhance your summer outdoor activities. They are all relatively basic and are actually part of a contest encouraging families to build the projects together. The plans are for a birdhouse (not the one pictured); two different lawn games; and a nice deck cooler, so when you're done building, you and your 12-year-old can pound some cold Budweisers.

The plans are nice because they don't leave any room for error in the 'materials acquisition' phase. They tell you everything you need right up front so there are no return trips to the store to get the wood glue you forgot. They're also very easy to understand and they cover the basics so well that if you want to get creative and improvise, it'll be pretty easy.

To enter the contest, you need to make one of the four projects with the assistance of your wee one. Grand prize is a trip for four to one of ten theme parks, other prizes include a Skil workshop and other Skil tools, including the amazing Power Wrench (our review here)

Birdhouse plans
Ring Toss plans
Bag Toss Plans
Deck Box Plans
Information on the Lowes/Skil contest is here.

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Using a Water Level

Sometimes all the finest and most current technology can't out-do the tried and true method of a few thousand years. All the fancypants level companies have yet to create one that can project from one room, down a hallway, around a corner, and into another room. So put away your Stabilas, Fat Max's, and your PLSs and try out a water level.

We used a water level a few years back on a waterproofing basement job. The floor, if you could call it that, was wildly uneven, and the basement twisted and turned like the Minotaur's labryinth on the Isle of Crete. Using a standard laser level would have taken time and would have required moving it around and making benchmarks. Instead, we filled a tube with water and had all of our points marked by coffee break.

Fine Homebuilding's Using a Water Level

factsfacts Making and Using a Water Level

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How-To Install Crown Molding

If you're looking down the barrel of a crown molding project, it's worthwhile to check out the article over at Extreme How-To, called, "Crown Molding in Review." Author Matt Weber goes over all the basics of installation, focusing on how to cope inside corners.

One thing that the article doesn't spend too much time on is how to actually cut the piece. It's a complicated process and would take an entire article in itself to explain. But, lookee here, Extreme How-To also has another article in its archives on just that topic. That one is called, "DIY Crown Molding and Trim."

We would suggest reading them both for a good picture of what's involved. Also, a while back, we looked at the Bench Dog Crown Cut, which looks like it could be a big help with the cutting aspect of the project.

Crown Molding in Review (article)
http://www.extremehowto.com/xh/article.asp?article_id=60354 (article)
Bench Dog Crown Cut at Amazon

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How to Make Your Own Milk Paint

Charles & Hudson, a wonderful clearinghouse of interesting and offbeat DIY articles, just posted a great entry on how to make your own milk paint. Even if you're not familiar with milk paint, it's likely that you've seen it before. The look of it is earthly and rustic and it's a great way to get that distressed look that is so prevalent at places like Ballard Designs. According to Charles and Hudson, the traditional paint...

...is enjoying something of a revival. Because it is solvent/fume-free, it is considered an eco-friendly, no-VOC alternative to oil and latex paint.

If you get it in a store, milk paint is available in a gallon, like any other paint, or you can get it in powder form.

Read the article at Charles & Hudson here.

Buy milk paint and books about milk paint at Amazon

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How to Build a Deck, Part One

Our good pal Mark Clement has got a great deck building video up over at Builder TV. Like all of Mark's work, we like it because he sticks to the basics but at the same time he's very thorough with all the little details, like correct flashing placement, that first-timers might miss.

This is the first of a series of deck-building videos and covers the start of the project up to the installation of the ledger board. If you're thinking about putting a deck on, this video is a great place to start. There's a good deal of information packed into its ten minutes.

Watch the video here.

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How to Patch Drywall, Part Two

We were at Home Depot the other day and in the paint department we saw an interesting item. It was a little drywall patching kit that consisted of one small piece of aluminum step flashing and one piece of drywall joint tape. It was selling for $2.50 or so.

It's an idea that we've never heard of, putting the flashing over the hole; taping the whole thing and then mudding it smooth. The profit margin for a piece of aluminum and tape has got to be huge, but if you don't want to deal with the extra materials, then it's probably worth it.

We also have absolutely no recollection what the product was called, so we're really no help at all.

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DIY Storage Helpers

Storage and organization is a constant problem for us and we're guessing many of you as well. Just the other day, we spent a good deal of time dealing with the giant pile of tools, fasteners, and lumber that had accumulated over the past weeks. It's no fun to do and we always have to deal with a vague sense of failure when we do it. Is it that tough to put things away when you're done with them?

The trick is, obviously, to have a place for everything (and everything in its place), instead of some hazy "I sort of keep these over here, and sometimes (but not all the time), I put those over here," concept of organization. With this in mind, our pal Mark Clement has come to the rescue with a nice article on tool organization. In it, he leads us through the construction of a workbench, a cart, a tool belt hook, and a bracket for cord storage. As always with Mark's articles, it's informative, clearly written, and accompanied with some nice photos.

We also highly recommend Sandor Nagyszalanczy's (say that five times fast) Setting Up Shop if you're looking for a far more detailed look at the principals behind good shop organization.

Read Mark's article here at Extreme How-To.

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How To Install Your Keys in a Leatherman Handle

With everyone out buying the hip and trendy Skeletool, there must be an abundance of ignored, old, neither hip nor trendy Leathermans. If you've got one, and you're looking to give it a second life, you now have the opportunity, thanks to Instructables, to turn it into a keychain. The transformation from multi-tool to keychain involves everything you imagine it would; take apart the Leatherman, grind down the keys, and then put the whole thing together.

It's an interesting idea and perfect for those mini-Leathermans, which we think are pretty much useless anyway.

For the instructions, go here.

To purchase a rinky-dink, little Leatherman, go here.

To purchase the Leatherman that we keep in our pocket and use on a daily basis, go here.

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How to Patch Drywall

Over at the Hardware Aisle, they've got a great posting on our preferred method of patching drywall. It's when you take a scrap of drywall and peel it away, leaving a little plug with paper flanges. From there on out it's all mud and smoothing.

It's a really easy way to do it and the results are great. We've been using this method for years and don't miss the old way of trying to screw some piece of wood across the hole in order to attach the patch.

Read how to do it here.

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