First Aid Kit

Posted on by Jordan

One of the nice things about working with the scouts is that I get frequent reminders of things I should probably be doing. One of those things is “have a first aid kit at home”

We had some stuff, and I have small kits in our cars from a long time ago.

One of the interesting quotes I heard on the subject was from the EMT who provided our basic medical training when I went through the adult leader training almost two years ago. To the best of my memory what he said was “if you have something in your first aid kit, and you don’t know what it is or what it’s for you need to get rid of it” he then went on to recommend you just put together your own kit with only the essentials.

I finally got around to starting on that a few weeks ago:

I mashed together lists from the Red Cross and the Boy Scout Handbook plus a few odds and ends I had heard were important. I still have a few things left to add, and I haven’t figured out the perfect container for this stuff yet, but I am pretty proud of it.

A few notes:

I probably went overboard on the scissors. Those black ones in the picture are emergency room grade trauma sheers, and if the Amazon reviews are to be believed, will hold up to years of cutting off shoes and belts without issue. Ironic I suppose that I went cheap a month back on a saw I hope to use many times, and then spent extra on sheers I hope to never use.

What is a “triangle bandage”? To be honest I didn’t know, despite finding them on nearly every first aid list. A little searching indicated they were incredibly useful, and a must-have in a first aid kit. Well you can see the packs in the above picture, and here is one unpacked:

The material is considerably heavier than just gauze, but still feels like it would absorb liquid if you needed it too. I think the idea is the bandage serves as an outer wrap, considering the first aid kid contains about four different kinds of sterile gauze pack. The package included two safety pins so you can hold in in position once you get something figured out. It most reminds me of a slightly over-sized Scout neckerchief, and I imagine you could use any of the techniques from the Scout manual that called the neckerchief with this. (because even the most prepared former Scout probably isn’t wearing his neckerchief 20 years later)

One more picture to give a sense of scale:

It’s a large bandage! Side note, Heather protested loudly at taking this picture… apparently she feels demonstrating first aid items is too close to needing them… or something, maybe she just thought I was enjoying the whole first aid kit thing a little too much 🙂

-Jordan

Radio Flyer Project

Posted on by Jordan

We have had a wagon buried in the garage for nearly a year now. It was “broken” but I hadn’t taken the time to figure out what it’s problem was.

With the influx of nice weather we have had over the past few days I took the opportunity to dive into the project. The wagon felt really wobbly and clearly had some problems. Initially it looked as though the only issue was four flat tires, and some loose screws.

In the process of resolving those issues it became clear the wagon had bigger issues:

What isn’t clearly shown in the picture is that the bracket holding the rear axle leans slightly towards the front wheels. What is pretty obvious in the picture is that the wagon has been braced and drilled for something else to be attached between that rear axle and the middle of the wagon.

My initial plan involved a 2×4 shaved to the proper angle, some glue, and a big U-bolt. When I was wondering around my local hardware store looking for a U-bolt I found some angle iron intended to be used in building shelving, and realized I could produce something far stronger:

This also meant I needed to buy a hack saw… although, my being always somewhat budget focused meant I got a really cheap one… all the same, what you see in the picture is cut, drilled, bolted, and painted to match the rest of the undercarriage. Not too shabby, and it was fun to actually use my new bench and vice!

On to installation:

Notice any problems? I may have been too optimistic about the reach of those bolts, so back to the hardware store…

Now for a brief tangent, that I feel sort of torn about. I think it’s great that my local mega hardware store stocks things like loose bolts and the like. The problem comes when you need to check out. The poor people manning the register simply aren’t used to dealing with it. I spent over five minutes to check out with $0.50 worth of fasteners. It tried the patience a little.

Ok, so back in the garage with some longer bolts:

Maybe I went a little long this time… at least I didn’t need to make yet another trip to the store.

After putting the wagon back on it’s wheels, I was happy to find that it was really solid. Now the only real concern was the ugly stain on the bed.

Soap and water wasn’t as effective as I had hoped, but it still managed to fade the stain substantially. Makes me wish the factory had put a real sealant down so that things couldn’t soak into the wood grain. Having done what I could, I put the fences back on and it was looking pretty good!

You may be thinking, “but what are they going to do with a wagon?” Well friend, as luck would have it, right before I sat down to write this, Heather arrived home from the store to demonstrate:

Getting a load of groceries up to the third floor isn’t the easiest thing in the word, but the combination of a wagon and the elevator works out pretty well.

(Alternative answer: “What can’t you do with a great wagon like this!?” )

-Jordan

Finished The Bench

Posted on by Jordan

I actually finished the entire project over the course of the weekend, but didn’t get a chance to update the blog until now…

As you can see, I settled on only having three drawers. This was largely due to poor planning on my part, as I could have made the fourth one work, had I only laid out the supports correctly.

On the other hand, having the extra shelf space may end up being more useful.

The bench has an electrical system in it, four outlets and a switched light. My initial plan was to use a GFI outlet, but that changed when I realized I would be paying $15 or more just for that one outlet. I am plugged straight into a GFI outlet anyway, so it was really just for the sake of completeness rather than any actual safety.

In the end, I am very proud of the finished product. It’s probably bigger than necessary, but it’s a nice solid platform and the lighting seems about right. I haven’t identified any projects that I plan to undertake now that it’s complete, but I am sure something will come up. At the very least I have somewhere other than the kitchen table to go when I want to take something apart 🙂

-Jordan

Bench Project Day One

Posted on by Jordan

It’s looking pretty good so far!

I planned to chop up an old dresser and use the drawers from it in the bench. Due to my limited experience and time with Google Sketchup, I left that part out of the plans and figured I could do some subtle adaptations as I went to make it work.

It looks like my on the fly adaptations were about 1/4 of an inch off… I have a plan B but it’s clear I should have put the drawers into the plan.

Other than that though, I am really happy with the project so far.

-Jordan

Project

Posted on by Jordan

One feature of the new place Heather and I moved into is a garage. The garage happens to have quite a bit of room on the sides, and was just begging to have a bench put in…. or at least that was my impression.

I spent a few hours over the past week in Google Sketchup working on this:

It’s probably too optimistic, in places… but I wasn’t happy with the designs I was finding online.

That brings us up to Friday night, where I was seen driving this:

I hope to know by the end of the weekend how much of a disaster my plains end up being 🙂

-Jordan