For the past few days, I’ve been working on a lot of somewhat small projects.

First was making replacements for the set of keys that I lost. I make a copy of the original key, put the original away and use the copy of the key. This way, if I need a key copied, I am not using a worn key or a copy of a copy of a copy of a key; both of which are problematic. Eight of the ten keys were easy. Two were annoyingly difficult.

A quick note on modern keys. The blank is a “no teeth” key that has the correct groves and ridges on the sides of the key. The key machine then cuts the teeth to the correct depth and spacing into the blank. Both the blank and the “teeth” must be correct. If the blank is incorrect, the key won’t slide into the lock. If the blank is correct, but the “teeth” are not the correct depth/spacing, the key will slide into the lock, but will not open the lock.

Anyway, one blank was no longer available at all and, for the other, the supposedly correct blank is not correct. I spent about 45 minutes finding blanks that had slots that are too narrow and/or ridges that are too wide. I had the hardware store cut the teeth on those blanks and then I spent another 30 minutes with a file to modify the sides of the so that the key would slide into the lock. Success.

I also had a set of keys to open up Motorola and General Electric 2-way radio cabinets. Fortunately the keys are easily available. I’ve ordered these keys and they should arrive in a few days.

I found another “minimal engineering” issue in the truck camper. When driving on a rough road, one of the window shades in the camper broke free from its mounting clips. The manufacturer of the window shade recommends three mounting clips, but the camper manufacturer used only two clips. I added two additional clips, for a total of four clips, and then spent an hour getting the window shade back into its clips. Then I had to readjust the shade so it would roll up properly, but this required I remove the window valance. Removing the window valance required I remove one side of a cabinet. Removing one side of the cabinet required I remove the table. You can see how this is progressing. Two hours later, all was adjusted and put back together. The window shade works perfectly and now I don’t think it will break free of the mounting clips.

Oh, for what it’s worth, I bought the mounting clips from the manufacturer for US$0.25 each and the screws to hold the clip to the camper cost US$0.08 each. The time to install the clips was about 3 minutes, so had this been done at the time of manufacture, the cost would have been very minimal.

Next was a leaking tire on a Jeep. According to the local tire store, the tire was too old to repair (5 years). They wouldn’t even look further at the tire….just “too old”. I looked at the date code on the tire and it indicated the tire was made the last week of June of 2018…so the tire was one week “too old”. I checked around with other stores and most stores considered 6 years to be “too old”. Unfortunately, it is 400 miles (650km), round trip, to the next nearest tire store. One week….sigh….. I put the tire into a tub of water, found the leak, and patched it. That tire is now the spare.

I have been clearing weeds out from around the house. I want to have a 30 foot (10 meter) fire line around the house. I have been using a “hoop hoe”, also known as an action hoe or a stirrup hoe, rather than the glyphosate spray. I don’t know if the glyphosate would migrate to the well water, but I’d rather not find out….besides the hoe was faster. There are no trees within about 100 feet of the house, so cutting a fire line was not a big issue. The chances of a wildfire around here are low, but I thought it foolish to not spend the 3 hours to further protect our home.

And, finally, I’ve been putting away stuff in the garage so that I can move the cars into the garage. I’m almost there with the project.