Hobby

[xoxoxoBruce]

Bah, that's not mold, it's delicate flavor crystals carefully nurtured on bacon essence.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Here's one that could be fun but didn't think it was a fun with kids thing, at least not young ones.
These look like those ant-hill/termite-mound castings but much easier.
They'd look cool mounted on gnarly wood or in a fish tank.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Bah, that's not mold, it's delicate flavor crystals carefully nurtured on bacon essence.

Bruce, if the whole retirement thing doesn't work out you've got a future in copywriting or naming bills presented by republicans...

[glatt]

Saturday was really productive. I fixed 4 of those 5 broken stoves. The troop has 8 working stoves now and only needed 6. We have 2 functioning extras now.

I had forgotten to bring home fuel to test them, so I had to drive over to the meeting hall to get a gallon of Coleman fuel out of the shed.
All fueled up, many of them did leak when under pressure or in operation. At the valve stem or at the tip of the generator tube where the atomizer nozzle is attached to the tube. And a couple of the pumps didn't work.

The fix was easy for all of them.

For that one with the bent manifold bracket, I took it apart, clamped the bracket in the vise, and used channel lock pliers to straighten it out.

Took apart the non-working pumps and soaked the dried out leather plungers in a dixie cup of oil. And then reassembled.

And for the fuel leaks, just tighten the damn pack nuts at the valve a quarter turn or so. Same thing for the atomizer nut thing at the end of the generator tube.

It took a few hours to do all this, because I had to methodically figure out what was wrong with each stove, as I fired them up and observed them for a while.

Total cost for all parts: $0.00.
Amount saved by not purchasing new stoves: $385.24

I still need to fix the remaining broken stove, but it's got several problems and probably needs the valve to be completed torn down and rebuilt. Not sure we need a 9th working stove so badly.

[xoxoxoBruce]

And for the fuel leaks, just tighten the damn pack nuts at the valve a quarter turn or so. Same thing for the atomizer nut thing at the end of the generator tube.

But do you want the scouts doing this on their own? Best they report it and let you fix'em-up.