Two Quick Product Recommendations

Not actually Erin.

Picture by KJ Photography

& is used with permission.

I was at LibertyCon last weekend, and anyone who has attended conventions knows that they can be noisy from everyone talking, which can lead to headaches and possibly sensory overload. Conversely, some of the convention rooms can have poor sound systems -- or sometimes not even have microphones at all -- and when combined with guests who mumble or refuse to raise their voice, they can be hard to hear even for people who don't have hearing damage like I do. 

Standard Version

If you are easily overstimulated by loud noises, or wish you had a way to amplify conversations, or both, then I have a solution for you: Walker's Hearing Enhancer Earbuds. These earbuds have 29db noise reduction, making them suitable for use at the range, but like bulkier electronic earmuffs they also come with a microphone to amplify conversations. As you can see from the picture below, the controls are on the earbud "rope" itself, which makes turning them on and off or adjusting the volume easy and convenient. 

These earbuds are rechargeable via a micro-USB port and have a battery life of approximately 15 hours. I used mine nearly all day Saturday and I didn't run out of battery, nor did I experience any discomfort.  

Like nearly all amplified hearing there will be an audible "hiss" when them in their powered mode, but this is an unavoidable characteristic in all but the most expensive devices; my father had a set of prescription hearing aids by Signia and they had a similar hissing sound when active. 

Bluetooth Version

If I had one complaint, it would be that there is no way to toggle between "Amplify everything around me" and "Amplify only what is in front of me", which would be great for conversations in noisy areas, but that's asking an awful lot from a $50 piece of equipment. 

There is also a Bluetooth version which can be used to listen to music, but not make telephone calls. This version used to be much more expensive but is actually a dollar less than the non-BT version, so if you want to be able to listen to music while blocking out other noises get that one instead. 

Changing the topic completely, a few weeks ago I discussed the benefits of using UV cured liquid plastic resin for repairs. Well, my Bondic ran out of juice and instead of paying $15 for 8 grams of resin, I decided to buy in bulk and got myself a 100 gram bottle of it for $10. While I am happy with this resin, it is thicker and my usual methods of UV curing took longer. Being an impatient person, I sought to remedy this with a stronger light, preferably one that I didn't have to hold. I found that solution with this UV LED lamp. With over 15,000 ratings and priced at only $7, I thought it was worth the gamble. So far, I am very happy with its performance, and even if it breaks within a few months of use (unlikely given its reviews) it will have paid for itself in its convenience.
  

https://amzn.to/4eHixvB

One click of the power button turns it on for one minute, a second click for three minutes, and a third turns it off. Pressing and holding the button turns it on without a timer. I haven't had to use that setting; I've found that 60 seconds is enough for most resin, and 3 minutes will definitely handle the rest. 

As a bonus, if you or a family member use gel nail polish on your nails, then this can be used to cure that as well. (It won't work on traditional nail lacquer). 

Other than saying that I'm very happy with my purchases, that's all I have for now. As always, stay prepped or get wrecked.

FTC disclaimer: I bought these items with my own money and I wasn't paid for this review. Go away. 

A Liquid Plastic Repair Job

Not actually Erin.

Picture by KJ Photography

& is used with permission.

Back in 2017, I talked about the prepping uses of liquid resin and a UV curing light. This past weekend I had an emergency situation where this method of repair came in very handy. 

As I have mentioned before, I use a CPAP at night. Well, after many years of faithful service, part of my mask broke. Actually, I'm not sure if "broke" is the correct word, as it doesn't look like anything sheared off; instead it just seems like the hard plastic ring inside the soft silicone nose piece, which serves as an attachment point for my headgear, decided it didn't want to stay in place any more. Perhaps there was a spot of glue holding it in place, or maybe the silicone just softened enough over time that there wasn't sufficient friction to keep it in position; regardless, the malfunction prevented proper operation of my CPAP because the nasal pillows wouldn't stay in place. 

More distressing is that it decided to break when I was already in bed and about to fall asleep. I needed to fix this quickly with a solution that didn't take a lot of time, effort, or brainpower:

• I considered using superglue to keep the rings in place, but I didn't know how well it would adhere to silicone, and even if it did I had no desire to breathe ethyl cyanoacrylate fumes all night. 
• I thought that something like duct tape or electrical tape might work. However, trying to wrap a complex curved surface with flat tape is something I find extremely challenging. Additionally, I wasn't sure how well the tape would stick to the silicone; if it didn't stick well then it would slip off in the night, but if it stuck too well then I might damage my headgear when I took the tape off to replace the broken nasal pillow. 
• As you have guessed, I fixed it with UV-cured liquid plastic. I reasoned that if I coated the exterior of the locking ring and then placed it back inside the silicone nose piece, even if it didn't glue the ring in place it would increase the surface area enough that I would have a good enough friction fit to make it through the night. As a bonus, I wouldn't be breathing any toxic fumes or risking damage to anything I wasn't intending to replace. 

I'm pleased to report that my quick fix did indeed solve my problem for that night. Unfortunately, the bond didn't hold for a second night, but by that point I had dug out my backup mask and ordered a replacement part, so it lasted as long as I needed it to last. Honestly, that's all you can ask of a patch job. 

Getting Into Hot Water

 Ah, the joys of owning a home, one of which is maintaining said home so it can continue to provide shelter without endangering you and yours. The range of maintenance you can do yourself will vary with your skills, training, budget, and time, but preventative maintenance is always cheaper than repair or replacement.

We all like hot water. It's not essential, but it makes cleaning clothes and dishes much easier and bathing our bodies more comfortable. Hygiene is important in everyday life, and it becomes more important if TSHTF and medical facilities are scarce or overloaded. Cold showers suck, and back when I had to shave every day having hot water meant I could do so without bleeding all over the place. Think about it: what's the first thing you want to do after coming home from a camping trip or a long day of hard work? A hot shower will be on the top of the list for most people.

Type of Hot Water Heaters

Most homes and apartment buildings will have a water heater hidden somewhere in a utility closet or corner of the basement. Water heaters are a common household appliance, but they have the potential to become bombs if not maintained. I won't link to them, but there are plenty of videos on the Internet of the devastation caused by exploding water heaters. One of the insurance companies runs an ad on TV that mentions covering damage from a water heater that landed on a neighbor's car. Mythbusters covered them pretty well; the one video I saw had a 50 gallon tank launch itself 500 feet into the air. That's enough force to send a hundred pounds of tank through several floors and walls.

Electricity, liquid propane (LP), or natural gas (NG) are the main power sources for heating water, although I have seen wood-fired water heaters and add-on heat exchangers for wood stoves. Remote or limited-use facilities may have a tiny point-of-use heater tucked under the sink to provide hot water for personal hygiene. There are “tankless” water heaters available, but they're expensive and require more maintenance. There are also municipal hot water systems in large cities that provide very hot water or steam to buildings near a generating plant (sometimes as a byproduct of generating electricity), but that's beyond our control, so the maintenance for it is outside the scope of prepping. The same goes for living in an apartment building, since the owner has control over the central utilities. Let's stick to the common tank style water heaters that you'll find in home improvement stores for today.

Tank-style water heaters come in a variety of sizes and use the three heat sources I mentioned (electric, LP, or NG) depending on what's available. A lot of new houses are “all-electric”, while rural areas lack the NG pipelines found in town and have to rely on LP stored on-site. Electric units don't need to be vented (no combustion, no exhaust) while the gas units are more efficient and “recover” faster in my experience. They all have the same basic design: a vertical tank with cold water inlet and hot water outlet on the top, anode rod inserted through the top, heat source at or near the bottom, drain valve on the bottom, and a relief valve (T&P valve) on the side or top. They also all share a few ways to ruin your day.

Temperature & Pressure

The T&P valve is a safety device that will open and vent the tank if the temperature (T) or pressure (P) gets too high. Water expands when heated, and some expansion is expected and the tanks are engineered for it. Since water heaters are a closed system except for when the water is in use, this expansion leads to an increase in pressure. If the pressure gets above 150 psi, the T&P valve should open and relieve the pressure by venting water to a drain. The valve will also open if the temperature gets to about 210°F, which is just short of boiling. Boiling water produces steam, which takes up 1700 time as much space as liquid water (at standard pressure). Water heater tanks are not designed as boilers and will explode if the water inside starts to boil. 

By most building codes, the T&P valve has to be piped to a drain with an air gap between the end of the pipe and the drain, so that you can see water flowing if the valve opens or is leaking. Testing the T&P valve a couple of times a year will let you know that it isn't leaking, stuck, or plugged. Having a stuck or plugged relief valve is the same as not having a relief valve, so read the instructions on the tag or look up how to test your particular valve.

Hard Water and Sediment

If you have hard water or a lot of sediment in your water, sand and scale will settle out on the bottom of the tank. This layer of sediment will act as an insulator, causing the heat source to run longer to heat up the water and potentially overheat the water. A water heater that has a lot of sediment will start to take longer to recover after use, so watch for longer intervals between having hot water. If the thermostat sensor that controls the heating element or burner gets covered, you can have a runaway heater that will stay on until something pops. 

The drain valve on the bottom of the tank is there so you can shut the heater down once a year and drain the sediment out. Most drain valves are threaded for garden hose fittings, which makes it easy to connect to,  but you don't want to run hot water through a garden hose because they'll melt. Instead, turn off the heat and either let the heater cool down or open a faucet to let cold water in to cool it.

Popping

If you ever hear a “popping” noise coming from your water heater while it's in operation, that's a sign that you have scale building up. Water trapped between layers of scale will boil and “pop” as the steam escapes into the water. Old, limed-up teapots make the same noise and will often bounce or move on the stove when they do. This is from the energy released by the steam as it hits the water around it; now imagine your 40-50 gallon water heater “dancing” in the basement rather than a half-gallon teapot on the stove. 

Any movement of an appliance attached to gas lines needs to be accounted for, so make sure your gas line have a flexible section where it connects to the heater. They're usually yellow in color to designate that they carry a flammable gas. Gas leaks in a basement are a good way to destroy a house! I've seen it happen a few times; one was fairly minor and it blew out every window and lifted the house off of the foundation. A few others I've driven by looked like a tornado had hit the house, with nothing but a hole in the ground surrounded by debris.

Rusting

Most tanks are made of steel and will rust on the inside. This is minimized by the use of a sacrificial anode rod of zinc or some other metal that is more reactive than iron. The sacrificial rod will slowly erode over a few years and should be replaced when it is almost gone. The rod is usually threaded into the top of the tank and replacements can be found in home improvement stores. If your hot water starts to look reddish or develops a sulfur smell, it's time to replace the sacrificial rod; not replacing it means allowing the tank walls to get thinner as they rust away, which reduces the pressure that it can withstand. That rust will also add to the sediment building up on the bottom of the tank that I mentioned above.

Avoiding trouble is one of the tenets of prepping, so do your maintenance. If you have any doubts about your ability to work on anything, call a professional or get the training. Plumbers and electricians are expensive, but not as expensive as a house fire or cleaning up after burst pipes.

What is a Core Charge?

I was shopping online for parts for my car this week, and underneath the price of the part was a "core charge" price. My brake calipers were only going to cost me $62 per side, so what was this other $60 tacked on to each of them? If you didn't know any better, it would feel like some serious dirty pool, but core charges are a legitimate thing, for a very good reason.

So what is a core charge? In essence, a core charge is a deposit you pay a parts supplier which gets refunded when you bring back a rebuildable core part. In my case of buying brake calipers, I would pay an extra $60 for each caliper until I brought the old ones from my car into the parts house, in which case my deposit gets refunded and they send the core off to be rebuilt and resold. It serves to keep remanufactured parts in the system, allowing for far less expensive auto repairs. Using my truck as an example (I can't use the car mentioned above, because new-manufactured brake components aren't readily available), buying a brand new rear left caliper starts at $61. A remanufactured caliper is right around $30. Half price is a pretty hefty savings in parts. "Reman" parts usually come with a warranty, although it may not be for as long a term as a new part, and are regarded as being of perfectly acceptable quality for general use.

The less-obvious thing that a core charge tells you is that a part can be rebuilt, which means that the components needed to bring the part back to function are likely available on the open market. Let's keep running with the example of brake calipers for my truck: $30 is a pretty healthy savings over $60, obviously, but what if you could do them for under $5? A rear brake caliper rebuild kit for my 2001 Silverado goes for just over $3, but this steep price savings comes at the cost of needing to read a shop manual or find other instruction on how to do the rebuild and takes more time than just swapping the caliper itself -- but doing the whole job for under $10 instead of $120 or more can easily justify some education and time.

In this instance, I'm buying the calipers because I'm up against a deadline and don't have the time to do the rebuild, but if it wasn't for that time crunch I'd be all over rebuilding. Most component rebuilds are fairly simple, consisting of replacing rubber seals and other wear components. Read the manual twice, pay attention to detail and take your time, and you can keep your vehicles running for far lower costs.

Lokidude

Bearing Replacement

 

If it turns on a shaft, it probably has bearings. Bearings wear out with use and are considered a “consumable” item, they are designed to be replaced on equipment that is intended to be used for any length of time. The cheap, imported gear (tools, rolling stock, and machinery) is often not designed for long life. It's often cheaper to throw away a modern tool than it is to repair it- this is by design. “Planned obsolescence” was a marketing strategy that gained a wide following in the 1970s, that's the idea that in order to get repeat sales you need to make everything so poorly that it will fail shortly after the warranty expires. This is why I shop flea markets and estate sales for older tools and equipment, I have a better chance of finding something that will be usable for many more years rather than having to throw it out. I have power tools and kitchen appliances older than most of our readers that are still working, try finding anything in a store today that you'll be able to pass down to your kids or grandkids.

Bearings are simple, I covered the basic types last week, and most of them are replaceable. The work of replacing them can be dirty, greasy, and a pain in the neck but is generally worth the effort. Being able to do some of your own basic repairs makes you a little bit more independent and opens up opportunities to rehabilitate things that others have no further use for. Fixing up a trailer, wagon, bicycle, or vehicle might come in handy if our normal system of supply crashes. We invented the wheel to make life simpler, it would suck to lose them.

Most bearings are assembled in a hub that connects the wheels to the axle/shaft. I'll use a diagram of a common trailer hub/axle to explain the parts and procedures, bicycles and vehicles are very similar with minor differences due to the load they carry.

Courtesy of Tiedown.com

This is a boat trailer hub, the dust cover is water-tight and designed for ease of adding grease to push out any water that may have gotten into the hub. Other trailers and most vehicles use a simple metal cup-shaped dust cover (this is the original “hub cap”). Dust covers are most commonly pressed or hammered onto the hub, there are no threads, so removing them takes a small hammer and a pry bar. Gently tapping on the pry bar to force it into the joint where the cap meets the hub will give you enough of a gap to pry the cap off. Work around the cap as you tap and pry, don't try to do it all from one spot or you'll damage the cap.

Once you get the cap off, you should see a mess of grease and metal parts. If you don't see any grease, you either have sealed bearings or it was assembled wrong. Grease is cheaper than bearings, so I was taught to always pack grease in until you can't see the bearings. This keeps water and air away from the metal to prevent rust, but also makes it a mess to work on. Current training is to always wear vinyl gloves when working with oil and grease (latex won't last very long, it dissolves), but I normally just clean my hands rather than wear plastic gloves. Wipe away as much of the grease as you can so you can see what you're working with.

Once you can see the retaining nut, give the hub a good shake front-to-rear and side-to-side. Any wobble you can feel is too much wear on the bearings. The retaining nut is locked in place by either a cotter key (if the nut is “castellated” and has notches cut in one end) or a locking collar underneath it (if it is a standard nut).

Cotter keys are rarely reusable, but you might get lucky, I've seen a lot of nails and bits of wire used when replacement cotter keys aren't available. Cotter keys are a piece of soft steel or aluminum wire that has been bent back on itself. Inserted through a hole in the axle, the “legs” of the hey are then spread apart to keep it from falling out. To remove it, use small pliers to straighten the legs back out and pull it back through the hole in the hub, twisting as you pull.

Locking collars look like washers with tabs around the edge. Once the retaining nut is in the proper position, one or more of those tabs is bent up against the flats of the nut to keep it from turning. To remove the nut you'll have to find the tabs and use a chisel or pry bar to push them back down.

Removing the retaining nut should be simple, they're not forced on with a lot of torque and they come off easily. Once you've done that the hub will come off of the axle. The outer bearing is behind a thick washer and will drop out without effort, but the inner bearing should have a dust/oil seal behind it and those can be more difficult to pop off. Tapping around the back of the hub with a hammer, sometimes with a bit of force, will pop the inner seal off of its shoulder on the axle and let you remove the hub.

Now that you have the hub off, it's time to decide what needs to be done to it. If there wasn't much free play in the hub when you tried to shake it, you can get by with cleaning and re-greasing the bearings. If the bearings or races (cups in the picture above) are discolored from heat (usually blue tints, but any color other than shiny metal), are rusted, or are obviously damaged they'll need to be replaced. Remove as much grease as you can using rags and/or solvents if they're available. A stiff brush and a bucket of diesel fuel is a quick way to remove a lot of old grease, but be safe while doing so,

Outer bearing will fall out easily. There are bearing pullers designed to gently extract the inner bearings and both races, but a hammer and long punch will do in a pinch. The hub has precision-bored holes for the races to sit in, but there will be notches in the bottom of each hole. The bearing extractors have “fingers” that catch the lip of the races at these notches and pull them out. Using a hammer and punch from the back side, you can gently tap on that lip exposed at the notches, alternating between the notches with each tap. The goal is to slide the races out of the holes as evenly as possible without getting it cocked to one side.

Modern bearings will have part numbers laser-etched into one of the flat surfaces, any decent parts store can find you replacement parts if you have the numbers. If there are no visible numbers, check parts catalogs and the manufacturers information to find them, otherwise you're going to need a good set of calipers to carefully measure inner and outer diameters of the bearings and races. Taking those measurements to a GOOD parts store will get you replacements, but you'll have to find someone who knows their job. If you plan on having this piece of equipment around for years, having extra bearings on hand at home is cheap insurance.

OK, the old ones are out and you have the new ones in hand. Reassembly is pretty straightforward, but you need to grease the bearings before installing them. The old-school method is to place a large blob of fresh grease in the palm of one hand and swipe the outer edge of the bearings through the blob to force grease up into the bearing. Dig that edge into the grease, pushing down against your palm to make sure the grease is going up into the bearing. Modern shops have toys that “pack” the bearings without the mess.

Races are a “press-fit”, so they need to be forced into the hub. Having a hydraulic press makes life easier and ensures that the races go in straight, but you can get the job done with a hammer and some properly-sized pieces of steel. I look for large sockets that are the same size as the outer diameter of the races and use them to guide the races into the hub. Slow and gentle taps on the sockets while checking alignment will get them seated. I have seen people use sockets on each race with a threaded rod run through the centers. Tightening nuts on the threaded rod will gently force the races into position.

Once both races are in, place the packed inner bearing into its race and install the oil/dust seal. This is another press-fit, but seals are very thin metal so you have to be extra careful to keep them straight. At this point, I normally add extra grease to the cavity in the hub between the bearings. Filling that cavity ensures that the grease in the bearings stays there and doesn't flow out when the bearings warm up.

Place the hub on the axle and push it on until the oil seal pops up onto its shoulder. Next you install the outer bearing and washer, followed by the retaining nut.

Tighten the retaining nut until it touches the washer. Sometimes you'll be able to find a torque setting for the retaining nut, but on most trailers you want it snug enough to eliminate wobble but not so tight that you're putting excess pressure on the bearings. If you have a cotter key set-up, tighten the nut until it touches the washer, then turn it until you have the holes lined up for the cotter key. Install the cotter key and bend the legs to keep it from moving. Locking tabs are about the same, get the nut tight enough to hold everything in position and find a tab that you can bend up to keep the nut from turning.

Pack some extra grease in around the retaining nut to protect it and place the dust cap into place. Using a rubber hammer and tapping on the dust cap as you spin the hub will get it seated. Put the tire back on and that job is done.

There you go, you're ready to get rolling again. Doing this yourself saves a lot of money and gives you confidence in your equipment. Taking it to a shop is less messy, but the rates they charge is getting ridiculous. Spending a couple of hours in the garage learning how to do it yourself will also give you the knowledge you need if you ever have to do it away from home. I've done a few trailers on the side of the road and more than a few pieces of agricultural equipment literally out in a field.

Bearings

When you hear the word “bearings”, the normal prepper context is “a compass reading”. However, the other type of bearings that a prepper should know about are the mechanical ones that keep things spinning smoothly. Bearings are basically anything that separates moving parts, reduces the friction between them, and limits the direction of movement.

Knowing how to repair the things you use is part of prepping, so knowing a bit about bearings could be important.

Plain Bearings

A simple shaft or axle rotating through a hole, with some form of lubrication used to reduce friction and provide cooling; the lubrication itself is a plain bearing, which have been around for at least 2000 years and are still in use today because they're cheap and simple. Plain bearings provide fair performance at a low price, but are best used at low speeds and pressures. If you look at the wheels on a hand cart or child's wagon you'll see a plain bearing where the wheel is mounted on the axle. 

Discrete plain bearings are often found in older machinery; they look like a piece of pipe pressed onto the axle or shaft and are often made of bronze or some other soft metal. If you've ever rebuilt a car engine you've seen plain bearing where the piston rods connect to the crankshaft. “Babbitt” bearings are a plain bearing made by casting a soft alloy around a shaft where it passes through a mounting block, but working with molten metal might be beyond your abilities.

Packing boxes are a sub-set of plain bearings and provide pressure sealing as well as friction reduction. Where the shaft passes through a hole, a box or chamber is built around it. That packing box is filled with some form of fibrous material that has been infused with lubricant. A collar fitted around the shaft is attached to the packing box with threaded rods and as the threads are tightened, the collar compresses the packing around the shaft. Common in older boats for sealing propeller shafts, you'll also find packing box designs on high-pressure pumps.

Rolling Bearings

Both ball- and roller-bearings use a rolling part inside a fixed collar to reduce friction and limit the motion of a shaft. The fixed collar is called a “race” or “journal” and is pressed into a precisely bored hole in the block that the shaft passes through. The rolling element sits inside this race, and the shaft runs through the middle of the rollers. 

Ball bearings work well at moderate speeds and heavy loads, but require lubrication and maintenance for a long life. If you have a towed trailer, you'll have wheel bearings to inspect and lubricate. Boat trailers are notorious for consuming bearings because the axles get submerged in water every time you launch or recover a boat. 

Bicycles are another place where you'll find rolling bearings; I've seen both ball and roller versions in use. Automobiles have bearings all over them, with the wheels and U-joints on drive shafts being the most commonly repaired.

This is the type that I've been dealing with lately, rebuilding trailers and the various rolling mechanisms for agricultural equipment. Proper installation and maintenance makes them last a lot longer, but it's a dirty, greasy job that my predecessors neglected for several years. Common bearings aren't horribly expensive, but finding the proper ones can be a challenge; when things are measured in the thousandths of an inch, there is no “close enough”, it has to be exact. Have spares on hand if you're going to be doing your own work. 

Jewel Bearings
Old mechanical watches and clocks often used small chips of extremely hard jewels as bearings to support the end of a spinning shaft. Under very low load and at low speed, these bearings will last for decades or centuries; maintenance isn't an issue, as they either work or they don't. I doubt very many of us will have the time, training, or equipment to work on jewel bearings, but they are a type to be aware of.

 
Exotic Bearings
This is my classification for the “other” bearings in use today. Magnetic fields and fluid (gas or liquid) flow bearings are high-tech designs for very high-speeds (dental drills use air-bearings at 250,000 rpm) or extreme environments (the vacuum of space), and require no lubrication or maintenance while providing long life. I don't have the tools or training to work on exotic bearings and can't think of anything in my daily life that uses them, so they're an interesting topic of research but not something I worry about.


Next week I'll go through the process of maintaining and replacing a set of roller bearings. The process is the same on a bicycle, a car or truck, a trailer, and a 20-ton wagon, so it's good knowledge to have. We invented the wheel to make things easier to move, so keeping those wheels spinning makes our lives a lot easier.

Parts is Parts

Following in the spirit of my post on keeping AR pattern rifles in good repair, I’d like to talk about the importance of having spare parts on hand.

As discussed previously, all firearms need periodic maintenance in addition to regular cleaning after use. Any time a firearm is field stripped, parts should be checked for wear. Documentation provided with the firearm will most likely have recommendations regarding replacing springs as well as other wear prone parts, so RTFM: Read The Firearm Manual. If the firearm didn’t come with a manual, as is often the case with used guns, check the manufacturer’s website. They may have a copy available for download. There are also a number of web based resources for manuals, such as this PDF Manual library.

With that out of the way, what spare parts should be kept on hand? Much of this will depend on the type, make, and model of firearm. For example, with 1911 style pistols I tend to keep a firing pin and spring, some magazine springs, a couple of recoil springs, a recoil spring plunger or two, and some of the smaller springs and pins on hand. Most of these parts are available in this convenient pack or this one.

It’s important to understand that springs wear through cycling. The more a gun is used, the sooner the springs will need to be replaced. The best source for firearm springs I’ve found is Wolff Gunsprings.

Small pins can get lost, or in some cases launched, during disassembly and reassembly. Pretty much every 1911 owner has at one time or another sent their recoil spring plunger into low earth orbit, sometimes never to be seen again.

The recoil spring and guide rod in most modern pistols are a single assembly. It’s not a bad idea to have one or two of those on hand for emergencies.

With striker fired pistols, it’s not recommended to disassemble the striker assembly itself, but there are reasons it may need to be removed from the slide. In case it gets lost or damaged, a spare is an inexpensive insurance policy.

If there’s any likelihood of removing the striker assembly, the slide end cap will have to be removed first. This is another one of those parts that can go flying and vanish into an alternate dimension. These also tend to be inexpensive, so having an extra on hand just makes sense.

One improvement I recommend specifically for Glock owners is replacing the takedown lever with an extended version, like those made by Lone Wolf Distributing. It makes disassembly so much easier. This part is listed as the slide lock lever. When replacing the slide lock lever, it’s a good idea to have a spare slide lock lever spring or two on hand as well. Keep in mind these parts are often specific to the model, and sometimes generation, so order carefully.

For handguns with removable grip panels, spare grip screws are a good investment. I already mentioned magazine springs earlier, but followers, floorplates, and (if appropriate) floorplate locking plates can mean the difference between using that magazine now or waiting for the part to arrive in the mail.

Most of the part categories I mentioned for pistols will also apply, to some degree or another, to rifles and shotguns as well. If a favorite rifle has a removable striker, keep a couple of spares in the parts bin. If a pump shotgun magazine tube endcap isn’t retained, maybe have one of those in there too.

Specifically for AR owners, there are prepackaged sets of commonly lost parts. Aero Precision offers one which is appropriately enough called the Oops kit. They also have a field repair kit which overlaps the oops kit and includes most of the pins and springs needed for the lower receiver.

In addition to one or both of these kits, I also recommend having some firing pin retaining pins and a few sets of gas rings in inventory. Be especially careful with these though, as any spare AR parts have a habit of growing into a new AR build.

One final point on spare parts: Murphy’s Law applies here as it does everywhere else, by which I mean the one part no one ever thinks they’d need may be the one that breaks or get lost.

Obviously, this is by no means a complete list of spare parts to keep on hand, but hopefully, it will get people started on a spare parts bin to potentially help reduce future aggravation.

Glass Windows and Cold Weather

Where I live, the windows change with the seasons for a lot of people. There are some high-tech (very expensive) windows that do everything for you, but most of us still use screens in the spring and storm windows in the fall and winter.

Erin covered how to protect your windows from extreme weather a while back. I have nothing to add to that particular subject, so I'll work with other aspects of window work, specifically older styles.

Storm Windows
Older houses often have permanent brackets mounted on the outside to allow the residents to attach storm windows, which are basically a separate pane and frame assembly that covers the outside of the window in place of the screen and frame assembly used in fair weather. The extra layer of glass and, more importantly, the dead air trapped between the two layers of windows, adds insulation value while creating another barrier to wind and weather.

The glass is almost always single layer and frames are made of wood. Since glass is expensive and hard to ship in large sizes, most windows will be broken up into several small “lights” or pieces of glass. This makes replacing a broken pane easier and cheaper, but adds seams that require more effort to keep sealed. Unless you have a glazier in the family, learning how to replace a broken window pane can be a challenge.

Updated older houses usually have “combination” storm windows. These are generally an aluminum frame with a large, fixed upper pane of glass and a fixed screen on the bottom half, with a sliding glass pane that allows some control of the amount of air flow. Permanently attached, combination storm windows eliminate the seasonal chore of switching screens and storms. Normally single layers of glass, they perform the same insulating function as removable storm windows. Their quality and ease of repair varies drastically with the multitude of “installers” that sold these for many years.

Newer houses have multi-layered windows with built-in screens. Much more efficient at keeping heat on the proper side of the window, these are now standard. Frames are rarely made of wood any more, plastics require less maintenance and last longer than the original owner of a house, so they have replaced wood. Various gasses sealed between the layers of glass are touted as being better, but once the seal breaks you're going to have fun trying to wipe the condensation off of the inner surfaces.

Insulating Windows
A few of the tricks we use up north to keep the cold outside will also help if you're ever in a situation where your house has no heat and you're needing to conserve what you can. They all come down the the same basic idea as clothing: layers. Anything that will trap a layer of air provides insulation value; being able to see through it is a bonus.

Exterior Plastic Sheeting
This is clear or translucent plastic sheeting placed over the outside of a window and held in place with thin strips of wood called lath or strong tape, normally 4-6 mils (thousandths of an inch) thick. There are several types available, with plain plastic and shrinkable plastic being the main difference. Plain plastic needs to be anchored securely and stretched tight to keep it from flapping in the wind; any movement will put stress on the attachment points and can cause tears. Shrinkable plastics can be installed looser and then snugged up by applying gentle heat to make it contract.

If you're expecting severe storms or doing windows on the north side of a house you might want to look into one of the construction sheeting plastics like Visqueen reinforced sheeting. It has a netting of plastic cord embedded in the plastic, making it much more durable.

As tempting as it may be, don't wrap the exterior of your walls with plastic. Creating a complete vapor barrier like that increases your exposure to any toxins in the house (like from emergency heat sources) and will cause condensation and mold on your walls. Houses need to “breathe”, too.

Interior Plastic Sheeting
These can be found on Amazon or in most home improvement stores fairly cheap. They're all “shrinkable” plastics and much thinner (less than 1 mil) than what you'll see used for exterior work. The ones I use at work are crystal clear and do a great job of killing drafts coming through the antique windows in our office. Simply run a strip of double-sided tape around the window, stick the plastic onto the tape (start from the top to make it easier), and run a hair dryer over it to make it shrink to a tight fit. Get extra tape, because the rolls they include in the kits can be shorter than you'll need. I have to use the patio door sized kits for the 4' x 5' windows in our office -- we have more glass than walls.


Keeping a couple of window insulating kits or a roll of sturdy, clear plastic on a shelf could serve you well if you ever have to deal with a broken window for a few days until it gets replaced or need to seal off a room or two to heat in an emergency. It looks better and is a lot more useful than slapping a piece of plywood over the window.

Maintenance as a Way of Thinking

If you use the search box in the upper left corner, you'll find a batch of articles over the years that cover specific maintenance of cars, bicycles, and a few other things. Today, I want to look into the various philosophies of maintenance.

Having worked for companies large and small in several capacities, I've done a lot of maintenance in my lifetime. Differing managers/owners have different ideas of the most efficient way to conduct maintenance, and I've dealt with the four most common types. These four types carry over across fields of work and even into taking care of yourself, and each is more of a philosophy than a method.

Preventative Maintenance 

Preventative maintenance is the art of replacing or repairing something before it goes bad. Checking the oil in your car on a schedule is a good example: you're making sure the level hasn't dropped to an unsafe point before causing damage to the engine. Regular inspection is also a big part of preventative maintenance, looking for signs of impending failure.

From a prepper perspective, rotating your food supplies and keeping your tools sharp fall under preventative maintenance.

Predictive Maintenance 

Predictive maintenance is using historical data to show when something is about to fail and repairing or replacing it shortly before that point. Going back to the oil in your car example, changing the oil every 5000 miles even though it may still be good is a form of predictive maintenance. Predictive maintenance can be expensive and hard to justify to the bean-counters, but it does reduce the amount of time that systems are off-line.

Changing out the contents of your first aid kit based on the expiration date is another good example: they're probably still usable, but you change them just to make sure they're good when you need them.

Fix on Failure

This is the most common form of maintenance: “If it ain't broke, don't fix it”. Unless you have redundancy built into your systems, this can cause huge problems. This way of thinking can also get quite expensive because very little thought is put into having spare parts and the proper tools on hand to effect repairs when needed.

The heart of prepping is having what you need when things go wrong.

Ignore It and It'll Go Away

I've seen this (lack of) thinking more often than I wanted to. There is no plan, time, or money to fix something because it may be cheaper to replace that thing than to work on it. In the business world you'll see this when someone is planning to “flip” or dump a business before it falls apart; ignoring maintenance saves them money, but will cost the next owner a lot more. The other reason I've seen is pure denial: owners who don't want to think about spending money on maintenance and ignore it until it bites them in the butt.

For a prepper, this philosophy is summed up as “Failure to plan is planning to fail”.

You'll likely end up using a mixture of the four philosophies, just try to avoid the last one.

Vital Fluids and How to Find Them

In any vehicle there are a variety of vital fluids that keep you going down the road safely and smoothly. In order to assess and correct any issues with these systems, you need to know what you're looking for under the hood.

I talked before about finding, diagnosing and correcting a leak in my truck.The images I'll be using are from the engine compartments of two of my vehicles; they're not the be-all and end-all of under-hood layouts, but they give a good example. For your specific vehicle, look in your owner's manual, it should provide a complete layout of all of your vital fluid reservoirs and check points.

This is the engine compartment of my Miata. It is a manual transmission car without power steering, so there is no automatic transmission fluid (ATF) or power steering fluid to check. However, the blue circle is the clutch fluid reservoir. This reservoir, as well as the brake fluid reservoir next to it (circled in red) can simply be checked by noting the fluid level against marks in the exterior wall of the reservoir itself. Neither commonly gets low, unless a leak or very severe wear in the system develops.

The reservoir circled in green is the coolant reservoir, and the volume of fluid in this reservoir can change depending on your engine temperature. Your coolant expands as your engine heats up, and will lead to more fluid in this tank. It will have markings on the side for "Full Hot" and "Full Cold." DO NOT OPEN THIS BOTTLE WHILE YOUR ENGINE IS HOT! Severe burning is likely to result. When your engine has cooled, you can open this reservoir to add more coolant if needed, but do not fill above the "Full Cold" marking, thus leaving room for expansion to occur.

The areas circled in yellow are the oil level dipstick and the oil fill cap; the cap is the larger black piece towards the bottom of the picture. Your owner's manual will have instructions on how to read your dipstick, as some of them have several indicator areas on them.

This is the driver's side of the engine bay on my truck. The engine is big enough that it takes two pictures to show things properly. This truck is equipped with power steering and an automatic transmission, so there is no clutch fluid reservoir, but there are ATF and power steering fluids to check.

The purple circle is both the dipstick and filling port for power steering fluid. It's a very small reservoir, but a very important one to safely drive a vehicle of this size. The red circle is again the brake fluid reservoir, and the only difference from the Miata is size.

This is the passenger side of the bay. The yellow circles are again the dipstick and filling port for motor oil. The green is still coolant, and the same warning applies on the big diesel as the baby gas engine. Opening this cap on a hot engine is almost guaranteed to result in very nasty burns.

The area circled in orange has my automatic transmission fluid dipstick. On this engine, it's hidden behind my turbocharger piping, but it's back there and very well marked. On some vehicles, it is on the driver's side of the engine, but it will almost always be towards the rear of the engine compartment and well marked. The procedure for checking this fluid is fairly involved and a bit vehicle specific, so consult your owner's manual for the specific instructions to perform this check.

Keep your engine's fluids topped up and in top shape, and she'll purr like a kitten for years.

Lokidude

Snappy Gear Repair

Repairing your own gear can be an intimidating task. It seems like it would require specialized tools, skills, and knowledge, but most times that fear is greatly exaggerated. With some basic tools and supplies, and a realization that you can't break it any worse than it already is, you can learn to fix a huge majority of your own gear.

Our own editrix Erin Palette experienced this feeling with a MOLLE pouch recently. I told her I'd happily fix it for her, but lets go one better and teach her (and the rest of you) how to repair a broken snap fastener.

(I apologize for a bit of blur, I had focus issues on a couple pictures that I didn't see until I couldn't correct it.)

The damage to the pouch is shown here. The stud portion of the snap fastener has broken completely off and needs to be replaced.

Snap fasteners are a four-part affair. Both the cap and stud consist of a post side and a receiving side. They're placed with the fabric or leather between them and smashed until they grab.

The pieces mate together like so. The post is driven to compress against the receiver plate to permanently hold them tightly together.

Since the cap portion of the fastener was in perfect shape, only the stud side required replacement. I use a hard plastic cutting board as a base to set rivets and snap fasteners for leather work, and the corner fit nicely into the area behind the fastener, giving me a hard surface to strike against.

The finished product. It took about 4 strikes with a mallet and a punch to flatten the post, securing the stud into position. If I wasn't taking pictures and breaking down the process, this repair would take less than five minutes to perform and less than a dollar in parts. I actually couldn't find my snap-setter punch, so I used a pin punch, similar to the kind most gun owners have in their tool kits to take down firearms.


Many gear repairs are just this simple. It takes the appropriate parts and basic tools, and basic instruction or a bit of experimentation. Don't buy new gear or go without when a fix is just minutes away.

Lokidude

Vehicle Leak Identification

My truck developed a slight leak recently. It wasn't catastrophic, but it was a bit hard to locate the source. Over this weekend, though, the truck it developed a very noticeable whine on startup and particularly while steering.

A whining/groaning sound on steering is a dead giveaway that the problem was in my power steering system. What that problem was, however, could vary in cost and difficulty from under $20 and completely pedestrian to several hundred dollars and requiring special tools and hours of work.

In my case, the leak looks to be from a fitting or hose on my lower steering system, so I'll starting with the cheap and easy fix by adding power steering fluid to the reservoir. This should relieve the symptoms I'm currently experiencing, but it won't actually correct the problem; to do that, I'll have to pinpoint where the leak is originating from and replace or repair it. I'll detail the actual repair when I do it, but I'll explain the basics of leak identification now.

Identifying the Leak
The first step in identifying a leak is noticing that it exists. When you get in your car, take a quick look at the ground underneath it. If you see wet spots under your car, especially on multiple occasions, that's a strong indicator that something may be leaking.

Power steering fluid, like most of the fluids in your vehicle, is oil-based. Many of the systems in your car, including braking, steering, and transmission are hydraulic, and the oils in these systems hold up to heat and pressure well. They may even contain detergents or other additives to enhance the longevity and effectiveness of these systems.

The oily nature of these fluids makes them fairly identifiable, and the color of the fluid also can help identify the problem system. Touch the wet spot with your finger, then feel and look at it.

• If it's watery but not oily, green or orange, and maybe a bit sweet smelling, it's probably coolant. 
• If you see a red, oily fluid, that's likely to be automatic transmission fluid. 
• If it's amber or brown and oily, it could be motor oil, power steering fluid, or possibly brake or clutch fluid. 

Once you've narrowed down the possible suspects, check the relevant reservoirs.  The reservoir with a low fluid level will be the culprit, so fill it to the correct level with the proper fluid to alleviate the symptoms. (Your owner's manual will tell you where each reservoir or fluid check location is located.)

Locating the Leak
Locating the point of the leak takes a bit of work and attention. Thoroughly clean any area that you suspect the leak may be coming from; a bit of good detergent will break down the oils and help in cleaning.

Some systems (such as cooling) have UV reactive dyes you can purchase, so if this is available for the system causing you problems, adding it now will make detection much simpler. The dye can be bought separately if you already have a blacklight, or can be purchased as a kit with dye, light, and possibly tinted glasses to help see the dye.

You simply add the dye to the appropriate reservoir, run the engine for a while (I like to drive around for a day or two) and check with the blacklight. The dye will glow just like blood detection on a police show, showing you everywhere the fluid has landed and where it came from. Then it's a matter of doing whatever repairs are necessary.


Keep an eye on your fluid levels and on the ground; it can save you from some very expensive repairs.

Lokidude

Prudent Prepping: Car Maintenance

The dust has settled and the First 72 Hours have passed. Follow along as I build a long term plan via Prudent Prepping. 

I'm in the middle of doing some delayed maintenance on my car. I ticked over 100,000 miles a bit ago, and I want to do everything to keep this car going as long as possible.

Keep It Running
At the bare minimum, everyone should be checking their own oil, coolant and tire pressure. It isn't hard and is covered in your Owner's Manual. Besides that, YouTube has as detailed instructions as you would like, up to rebuilding an engine. I also have the one of the better aftermarket books for my Honda Accord, the Chilton Repair Manual.

My Book

From the Amazon page:

Covers Honda Accord 2003-2012 and Crosstour 2010-2014. DOES NOT include info specific to hybrid or ALL-Wheel Drive models. This series offers do-it-yourselfers of all levels TOTAL maintenance, service, and repair information in an easy to use format. Each manual contains: trouble codes, electronic engine controls, maintenance schedules, diagnostic charts, wiring diagrams, tune up specifications, and much more.

I've used these manuals in the past to work on every car and truck I've owned, and the info inside is very clear and easy to read. I've changed rotors and pads, replaced interior trim, diagnosed bad sensors, replaced a fuel sensor and submerged fuel pump, and figured out that reattaching the front bumper skin is a job I don't want to try, all from looking at books like this.
What I did recently was have my automatic transmission serviced. There was a bit of a delay shifting between 1st and 2nd at low speed, and besides that it was time for me to start checking everything. The car had low miles for its age when I bought it, and my mechanic said it possibly was sitting for some time before I found it; regardless, it was affordable and I needed a reliable vehicle.

This is just the start of the work on my list; coming soon is a timing belt change and while that is being done, a new water pump will be installed since everything related to that will have to be removed to get to the timing belt, and it makes sense to me to get it done when there is access.

As I mentioned in last week's post and related to yesterday's post from Lokidude, having a plan and working it is vital. Since I have a car, what I plan on carrying daily is different from someone who has a truck. It also makes a big difference on what I can take with me in a Bug Out situation, or if my place is on fire and I'm tossing things out of a 2nd floor window.

I need whatever vehicle I do have to be ready to do whatever is necessary to get me to safety. I have budgeted for car repairs, just like I have budgeted for other expenses, but now that I've been getting some overtime the chance to some of the repairs all at once is something I have take advantage of. I only have one car, and it has to be running reliably.

Recap And Takeaway

• I've never been able to afford having all my servicing done at either a dealer or a shop, so a book like this is very handy.
• Be sure to have money set aside not only for routine maintenance but also emergency repairs.
• Nothing was ordered last week, but money was spent to keep my car going.
• Manuals like mine are available from Amazon for just about any car, truck, van and even motorcycles! Mine was a gift, but it can be ordered from Amazon for $20.95 without Prime shipping (which has been taking longer than normal lately).

* * *

Just a reminder: if you plan on buying anything through Amazon, please consider using our referral link. When you do, a portion of the sale comes back here to help keep this site running!

If you have comments, suggestions or corrections, please post them so we all can learn. And remember, Some Is Always Better Than None!

NOTE: All items tested were purchased by me. No products have been loaned in exchange for a favorable review. Any items sent to me for T&E will be listed as such. Suck it Feds.

Superglue for Repairs

Our illustrious editrix Erin asked me about the potential dangers of using superglue to repair an item that would come into contact with drinking water, which is something that may come up if you're using your gear for a while in rough conditions. Things break, and knowing how to safely repair them is important.

CAUTION: chemistry ahead!

Cyanoacrylic glues (there are a few different formulas) may sound like they would be poisonous due to the part of their name which sounds like “cyanide”. This is incorrect; the actual root of the cyan- prefix is merely the Greek word for blue (kyanos), because many blue dyes contain some form of cyanide salt. Cyanide (CN-) is a naturally-occurring anion that reacts with other materials and forms numerous different molecules that form the cyano group, not all of which are dangerous.

Most people know that CN- was used in various gas-chambers over the years, but it was actually Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN) that did the killing. The spy movie cyanide capsules were Potassium or Sodium Cyanide (KCN or NaCN), which are very toxic and would also create HCN when it reacted with the acid in a person's stomach. The reaction with acid is how most capital punishment gas chambers were set up: a container of acid under the prisoner's chair would have a bag of KCN or NaCN lowered into it by remote control, forming a strong cloud of HCN gas inside the sealed room. HCN kills by blocking the use of oxygen inside the body and it was used as a battlefield chemical weapon in WW1. The Zyklon B used in the gas chambers of Nazi concentration camps was a liquid form of HCN absorbed into diatomaceous earth, HCN melts at 8° F and boils at 78° F, so it will vaporize at room temperature.

Once dry, cyanoacrylic glue doesn't have any of those dangers. Before I even looked up the specifics, I was able to assure Erin that superglue was food-safe because I've known several people that used it to repair broken dentures over the years with no ill effect. The “liquid sutures” that you see used to bind the edges of minor cuts are nothing more than cyanoacrylic glue. I have used it on myself and various animals, and it does a good job of sealing skin to skin - ask any kid who has superglued his fingers together how strong the bond is. Idiots will concentrate liquid cyanoacrylic glue in a container and “huff” it for the nearly-lethal “high” they will get as their bodies starve for oxygen, but once dried it is safe.

Looking into the subject a bit deeper, I found that surgeons in the 1960's used it to close wounds on internal organs like the liver, but it wasn't FDA certified for that use until recently because the patent had expired and nobody wanted to spend the millions of dollars that the testing would have required. Cyanoacrylic glue is considered non-toxic, with a rather high LD50* of 5 grams per kilogram of body weight. Compared to NaCN and KCN with a LD50 of 5-10 mg/kg, cyanoacrylic glue is literally a thousand times less toxic.

* LD50 is a common measure of toxicity. It stands for Lethal Dose for 50% of the test population. If you were to give 100 rats that weigh 1 kg each a dose of 5 g of cyanoacrylic glue, you could expect half of them to die from the dose. Various small mammals are used in such testing, and the results extrapolated based on body weight. It's not an exact measure, but it gives a baseline to measure toxicity. For example, a 100 kg human would require 100 times the dose that a 1 kg rat would. That means that the average American adult would have to ingest about a pound (~500 g) of superglue before hitting the 50/50 lethal dose. Since the glue is sold in packages measured in grams, you'd need a couple of hundred tubes just to get to that 50/50 dose.

There is however a type of repair that you don't want to use superglue for, and that is anything which will get heated. This will cause the glue to break down, releasing a small amount of HCN gas. The failure of the repair will probably be more of a hazard than the minor amount of toxic gas released, but it is still a hazard.