How fixing a gun gets water softeners moved

Don Foreman · 2011-04-23T05:33:38+00:00

The TV in the treadmill room is right next to a window. While walkingon the treadmill today, I glanced out the window and noticed neighborTravis in my back yard peering in my family room patio door so I wentto see what he might want. I opened the patio door and got thetrademark Travis grin and "Hi there!" That means he wants something. I said hi there back. He said he had a little problem that maybe Imight have an idea how to solve. Sure! We went next door. Wesley's pop gun won't pop. Wesley, 2-1/2, had chewed on the "cork"(one of those polyethylene capplugs)until it cracked, leaks air, won'tpop. Ah ha. A lathe op. I said yes, I think I might have an idea. Ihad him remove the barrel which is probably just ABS water pipe. Itook it to my shop, carefully measured the ID with a telescoping gageand mike, machined a plug out of delrin a few thou smaller than the IDof the pipe. Then I cut a groove to accept an O ring that would fitjust snugly enough to seal. Drilled a small hole for the tetherstring, bored out the outboard end of the plug to reduce its mass abit, went back next door. I doubt if the whole job took 10 minutes. The tether string wouldn't quite go thru the 1/16" dia hole I'ddrilled. No prob, I went back and opened it up to maybe 3/32. Travgot the string thru the hole and we put a dab of silicone on the plugto seal the hole. Tried it out. Oh, man, that popgun never popped like that before. It sounds like adang .22 now! Wesley is gonna love it! So then Travis asked if there was anything he could do for me. Wull ... ya! I had a water softener in the garage that needed to goto the basement, and one in the basement that needed to go out to thecurb. The one in the garage weighed 105 lb, the one in the basementprobably similar if we could get all the water out of the resin tank.That's more than I should try to schlep up and down stairs anymore,though it would have not been any problem at all 15 years ago. I hadthe new one strapped to a...

Apr 23, 2011 20 Replies

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Larry Jaques 15 years ago

Nah, they taste too much like fried chicken to make that promise. Barking dogs are the bane to my existence, remember?

-- Make up your mind to act decidedly and take the consequences. No good is ever done in this world by hesitation. -- Thomas H. Huxley

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How fixing a gun gets water softeners moved

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