The Cedar Workshop Blog

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

2015 Channel Recap for the Cedar Workshop YouTube Channel
Unknown2:01 PM

Put together a Year 2015 recap of all videos produced on the Cedar Workshop YouTube.

Would like thank everyone for watching and sharing these videos. Happy New Year!

Make a Cheap 360 Degree Smartphone Mount
Unknown10:48 PM

A short, 1 minutes video that will show you how to make a cheap 360-degree mount for a smartphone. It can be used to film a 180-degree pan or a complete 360-degree shot.
Total cost for this project was $16.00
The materials consist of an egg timer from IKEA, 2 part epoxy and a car mobile phone mount from a dollar store, like Dollarama.

Works fantastic with a time-lapse function on an iPhone camera and capturing activity happening around the camera.

Music creditL HTML by YouTube creator music library

Fixing a Pull Cord for a Vintage Homelite Super XL-12 Chainsaw
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The first chainsaw I had purchased for our off-grid property was an used 1979 Homelite Super XL 12 for $75.00. It worked great, lots of power (54 cc), a 18" bar and with a sharp chain, it cut through Pine logs with ease.
The only negatives, no chain brake and the pull cord rope breaks. I used it for firewood season and the rope broke twice. We had a handy family friend that fixed it the first time, but after the second, the saw was parked and the backup electric Poulan chainsaw was used.
Four years later, after an aggressive purge of the work shop, I saw the protective plastic chainsaw case sitting in the corner. Thought I would pull it out and take another stab at fixing it. Started to dismantle the case that housed the pull cord. It was easy enough, but, after removing the last bolt and taking out the round pulley that contains the pull cord, a coiled up banding jumped out and unravelled all over the shop. I watched a few YouTube videos on how to fix the coiled up spring inside for the pull cord. I took a stab at coiling up the spring, off camera. Had to put the pull cord pulley flat on a board. I kept turning the pulley until it was pretty tight. Then with the aid of zip ties and my spouse's help, I managed to slip the coil into the pull cord case. Wow, that was difficult for a beginner. I wonder how the old timers do it? There must be an easier way.
Once the white and blue case was back on, bolts tightened, chain was sharpened and fuel mixed, I tried it out on a fresh piece of Douglas Fir. Boy, did it tear through the wood. Only had a the throttle open a quarter and it made easy work of the log.

The bar is 18" long. Good length for the weekend warrior.

The exhaust adds a cool sound to these saws!

On the Bench- Dismantling a Thermoelectric Coleman Cooler
Unknown10:52 AM

Found a PowerChill 40 Quart Thermoelectric Coleman Cooler at the city recycle centre (junk yard). It's a fairly large, insulated cooler that has a 80 watt Peltier Cooling Module. The cooler would be connected to a vehicles battery through the 12 volt DC power plug. As you drive to your favorite campsite and it keeps food cool while in transport.
Unfortunately for me, a scraper that was looking for copper had cut the 8 foot long cord, fuse and male power port. Went online for a replacement cord and found out it requires 12 Volts DC at 8 amps to run properly. I'm sure I could rig up and power cord from all my spare cords and DC parts.

But before I do that, I wanted to check out how the unit actually works and maybe build something similar to use in the Frost King Ice Box refrigerator. We currently use the ice box to store beverages and vegetables. The fan on the back, running via solar panel, during the day would do a good job.