How to Install a Rivnut with Simple Tools

Some [insert your favorite curseword] stole the catalytic converter off my Honda Element, which ended up costing mid-four figures to replace. Thank heavens most of it was covered by comprehensive insurance… Not wanting to go through that particular hassle again, I decided to install catalytic converter shields on both the Element and on my Tacoma. The Tacoma has not one but two cats, and replacing them would break the bank. Given that having a mechanic install the suckers would have doubled the purchase price, I crawled under the vehicles and did it myself. Thanks for the loan of the jackstands, Jeff.

The shield for the Element went right on, screwing into threaded holes that were already in the frame. The shield for the Tacoma was another story: I had to drill four new holes in the frame and install rivnuts (also known as nutserts or rivkles), to mount that sucker. I’d heard of rivnuts before, but I'd never used one. A rivnut is a cross between a rivet and a nut: it’s a metal cylinder, threaded on the inside, that fits into a hole. With the proper tool, you can “squash” the cylinder like a rivet so that it fills the smooth-sided hole snugly, creating a threaded hole where there was none before. If you don’t have the right tool?

Well, there’s where this gets interesting: you don’t actually NEED the tool, it’s just convenient to have. If you have a reasonably well-stocked tool chest, you can install a couple of rivnuts without the expense of a new tool. Not that most people balk at new tools, but.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• A rivnut (and a hole to put it in)
• A hex-head bolt that fits the rivnut, about two to three inches long
• Two flat washers that fit the bolt
• Two hex nuts a couple of sizes too large for the bolt
• A pair of wrenches; one to fit the hex head and one to fit the hex nuts. Good pliers will work for the second wrench. 

Here’s how this works:

1. Assemble your tool: put one washer, the two oversize nuts, and the second washer onto the bolt.
2. Thread the rivnut onto the bolt finger-tight with the flange against the washer.
3. 
   Grab the oversize nuts with a wrench or pliers and insert the assembly into the hole, rivnut first, until the flange snugs up against the metal. Make certain the rivnut is in straight and in the proper orientation. The flange will keep the rivnut from going all the way through the hole and out the other side.
   
4. While pressing the whole assembly against the metal with the nuts and flat washer, place a second wrench on the bolt head and start tightening. For small to medium nuts, a 3/8-inch socket and ratchet will suffice, for bigger nuts you may want to stick with an open-end or box wrench.
5. 
   
   Continue to tighten the bolt until you feel a snap. That’s the rivet part collapsing on the back of the metal. At this point, it will become easier to tighten the bolt. 
6. Back off the bolt a couple of turns and see if the assembly wobbles. If so, retighten and give the bolt another quarter turn.
7. Once the rivnut is fully seated, remove the assembly and move on.

Some points to remember:

Rivnuts are designed to fit specific thicknesses of metal and also require a specific “work hole” diameter. If you don’t already have a hole to work with, I suggest investing in a step drill bit for drilling metals. It’s a lot easier than trying to drill a series of holes of increasing size or a single full-size hole.

copyright © 2022 scmrak

Is Your Refrigerator Wasting Energy?

A lot of families think of the hulking metal box in the kitchen as "the Amana gallery" or a message center for Post-Its®, but in reality the refrigerator is one of your home's biggest consumers of electricity. The U.S. Department of Energy says that an average 16-cubic foot frost-free refrigerator, a medium-sized model, draws about 725 watts of electricity 24/7. That's about six times the power draw of a flat-screen TV, or seventy-two times the energy consumption of a clock radio. It should be clear that your refrigerator has the potential to be wasting energy -- a lot of energy. Fortunately, there are ways to reduce your fridge's appetite for power.

Plagued by Slow Flush? How to Revive a Sluggish Toilet

Do you have a sluggish toilet? Do you find yourself standing, hand poised on the lever, while the contents make a few leisurely circuits of the bowl before slowing to a halt? Does it take two, three, even four flushes to finish each trip to the porcelain facility? If you answered "Yes" to any of these questions, you may have a sluggish toilet. The good news is that if you're reasonably handy, you may not need to call a plumber to get things working right.

Diagnosing a Slow-Flushing Toilet The key to recognizing a sluggish commode is that the condition usually develops slowly instead of overnight. Even if that's the case, before diving into this project run a simple test. Fill a bucket or large pan with about a gallon of water. Dump the water into the bowl: don't do this gently, just upend the bucket to get the water in as fast as possible. If your toilet still doesn't flush, you probably have a blockage that requires cleaning out the sewer line. If flushing looks normal, your toilet is just sluggish.

How to Calculate the Area of an Irregular Shape

Most of us can remember the arithmetic classes where we learned how to calculate the area of simple polygons like squares and triangles. While some of the things we encounter every day are those simple shapes – a dollar bill or a Dorito® – many have shapes that at first glance would seem to make it impossible to calculate their area.

Some shapes can be broken down into groups of simple shapes, and the areas of all pieces summed to a single number. Consider an L shape – one vertical and one horizontal rectangle – or an H; two vertical and one horizontal rectangle. Even a block A can be broken down to rectangles and triangles – three rectangles and six triangles. The more complex the shape, though, the more difficult it becomes to chop it into those simple polygons.

Fortunately, the mathematicians have developed a formula you can use to calculate the area of a polygon whether it’s irregular or not and independent of the number of sides. To use this formula, however, you must use the X-Y coordinates of all of the vertices. Depending on the size of the area in question, there are a couple of methods for getting those numbers.

How to Adapt Look Shoes to SPD Pedals for Spin Bikes

Most dedicated cyclists are aware that there are two standards for mounting cleats to the soles of cycling shoes – face facts: if you don’t know what “cleats” are, you probably aren’t a dedicated cyclist. All snarkiness aside, the Look® standard attaches with three bolts in an equilateral triangle and the Shimano SPD® (SPD stands for Shimano Pedaling Dynamics) standard attaches with two bolts in a line. Some shoes accept both styles, some accept only one (usually Look).  Cleats from other manufacturers, like Crank Brothers and Time, are compatible with one  standard or the other – as a general rule (but not hard and fast), SPD cleats are used with MTB shoe/pedal combinations and Look cleats are found on road bikes.

Taking the Squeak out of a Squeaky Door Hinge

How to Lubricate a Squeaky Door Hinge

It's a stock sound in every horror movie, one that even appears within Michael Jackson's iconic song "Thriller." We're talking about the sound of a squeaking door hinge. While the sound may be great for a Hallowe'en haunted house, you probably son't want to listen to it every time you open the closet door - or worse, the bathroom door.

The mess left by a little squirt of
graphite (photo: author)

Most people will wander out into their garage and grab a can of WD40 to attack the door - but you should know better by now! The active ingredient in WD40 penetrates and sucks moisture out of tight spaces, but it doesn't actually lubricate -- it's the material the active ingredients are dissolved in that lubricates, and that solvent will evaporate in time. In other words, it doesn't last and the hinge will sooner than later start squeaking again. Besides, using WD40 is, frankly, rather messy.

Neither of the previous owners (ptui!) of my last two houses knew how to lubricate a squeaky hinge. One sprayed on WD-40 and the other used the graphite you squirt into locks. Both of them made a mess, and by the time we'd moved into the house the doors were squeaking again. Why? at least in part because they'd done it wrong. Here's how to do it right, with only a few minutes' work:

How to Repair Loose Wood Screws

The holding power of an ordinary wood screw is a significant improvement over a nail because of the additional surface area created by the threads wrapped around the shank. The right kind of screw in the right size hole will hold for many a year, perhaps indefinitely if the fastener isn’t subjected to much stress. If there is stress on the joint, however, the hard metal screw can – and usually will – wear away at the softer wood, eventually enlarging the hole and loosening the screw. The wearing action only gets worse as the hole enlarges, often to the point that the screw ultimately just falls out. The good news is that a loose screw isn’t hard to fix. In fact, there are several fixes, though some are better than others. 

Just Use a Bigger Screw

This fix takes the least work, and – as you might expect – gives the poorest results. In many situations you can’t use a thicker screw (a #10 instead of a #8, for instance); in others you can’t fit in a longer screw. In either case, the holding power of the new screw is compromised by the existing damage, so this solution is only recommended for temporary fixes.

Holes in Your Window Screens? That's an Easy Thing to Repair

Your standard maintenance and spring cleaning should include washing your home’s windows, inside and out. Once you’ve compared a clean window and a dirty one side-by-side, you’ll see why. At the same time, it’s a good idea to check the window screens and repair any that have developed holes since your last window-cleaning session. 

You could take a damaged screen to the local hardware store to have it repaired – at a pretty impressive cost, I might add – or you could do it yourself with some basic tools. For modern metal-framed screens, you only need one specialized tool – cleverly called a “screen tool” – and chances are good that it’ll cost less than five bucks. Replacement screen is available at the local BigBox store in both fiberglass and aluminum varieties, as well as different colors. Once you’ve removed a screen from the window, replacing the mesh should take only a few minutes for fiberglass screen, though significantly longer if you use metal mesh.

Flat Tire on Your Wheelbarrow or Dolly? No Problem

If you have a flat tire on a bicycle, it’s no big deal to change it – mainly because almost all bike tires have inner tubes. But very little else around the house has an inner tube, so if you find a flat on your wheelbarrow, a two-wheel dolly or a small garden-tractor tire, you might well have yourself a head-scratcher. Look at the picture over there: the tire (blue) must form an airtight seal against the rim (#4, gray) or any air you pump into it just comes out around the edge, or bead, of the tire. If you want to pump air into that tire, you need to force the bead up against the rim - all the way around and on both sides. 

Tubeless tire separated from rim

It’s gonna take some ingenuity, but you can do it without taking the wheel to your local tire shop. All you need is a way to compress the tire. I usually use a band clamp, but for larger wheels a big ‘ol tie-down strap might be more in order. In a pinch, you can do the same thing with some rope and a stick, though you’ll probably need a helper for that method.

Oil or Latex? How to Test an Unknown Paint

Read through almost any website or magazine aimed at the do-it-yourselfer, and you’re almost certain to find someone gushing that a fresh coat of paint can completely change the look of your room, house, cabinets, furniture… just about anything but the family minivan. Come to think of it, there’s probably a website somewhere with instructions on how to update the look of your wheels with a fresh coat of paint.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, you need to know that there are two basic kinds of paint – whether you’re going to paint your walls, your siding, or that old dresser you picked up at a yard sale. The two kinds are latex and oil-based, and sometimes they just don’t play well together.

While it’s possible to paint over oil paint with latex and vice versa, doing so could require additional prep work or even adding a coat of primer. It’s usually easier to just match the paint composition to what’s already there. If you need to buy paint for touch-ups or to repaint some trim, it’s almost essential to match oil to oil and latex to latex. If you’re not the original painter, though, how do you tell? Believe it or not, it’s actually pretty easy. 

Getting Rid of Cable: Is it Time to Cut the Cord?

News out in recent days suggest that the power in the world of television could finally be shifting to the consumer instead of the cable giants. Both HBO and CBS recently announced that they will soon initiate their own streaming services, joining companies like Hulu and Netflix as go-to sources for media in the era of cord-cutting. It's possible - just possible - that á la carte television is just over the horizon - and it's not a moment too soon!

For decades, cable giants like Comcast and AT&T and satellite services like DirecTV have controlled non-broadcast television. Instead of allowing consumers to buy only what they want to watch, they've lumped all kinds of dross in with the good stuff to create "packages." Almost everyone who buys these services knows the syndrome well. If you want to watch the History Channel, you have to buy the package that includes the Golf Channel. Want to watch Nickelodeon? You also have to pay for Bravo. You're stuck buying a whole smorgasbord just to get the few dishes you want. 

That’s so 2004! Is it time for you to cut the cord? Here's how.

Bicycle Maintenance 101: Changing a Flat Tire on Your Bike

It only takes one flat tire ten miles from home to convince the newbie cyclist to carry the tools and supplies necessary to fix that flat while out on the road. The repair kit’s fairly simple: for ordinary rides, you only need to carry a replacement tube, tire levers and a pump. If a cross-country trip will take you miles from the nearest bike shop, toss more tubes, a patch kit and a foldup tire or two in the panniers or trailer. In either case, carrying a couple of paper towels is a good idea.

The Fix-a-Flat Kit

(1) a tire pump or a CO2 inflation kit
(2) a replacement tube of the proper size
(3) tire levers

It's also a good idea to carry a sheet or two of paper towel and perhaps an emergency tire patch kit

Fuel Economy Calculation and Conversion

Calculate Miles per Gallon

I already put together a little post on how to calculate your fuel economy in miles per gallon (MPG), but not everyone is interested in that particular measurement. That's 'cause there are only a few countries who use the imperial system of measurement (feet, quarts, miles and gallons), so the phrase "miles per gallon" doesn't mean much to people who live outside the USA. 

Calculate Liters per 100 km

In most of the countries that use the metric system, people share their fuel economy with a number called l/100km, or liters per 100 kilometers instead of the MPG so familiar to people in the States. You just need two numbers to calculate l/100km, though the division is a little different from what you're used to.

Bicycle Maintenance 201: How to Change Your Chain

Why change what seems to be a perfectly good chain?

The answer’s actually simple: chains wear out and even break. That wouldn’t be a problem except that “wearing out” means a chain gets longer. Here’s why: 

The anatomy of a chain.

When a chain's new, the spaces between the rollers exactly match the spaces on your chainwheels and cogs (what most call front and rear “gears,” respectively). As the chain wears, the pins connecting the links (hidden inside the rollers) wear down and allow the chain to get slightly longer. This, in turn, grinds away at the teeth on the cogs, which changes the length of their spaces. If you have to install a new chain because the old one broke or a link froze up, the spaces will no longer match. That makes the new chain skip on the cog, and can wear out the chain faster than it should. Worst-case scenario, you may need a new cogset, which costs about three times as much as a new chain (and requires special tools to install). You probably don’t want that.

Repair a Hole in Drywall

Although it’s far more easily installed than plaster, a surface sheathed in drywall (also known as sheetrock, wallboard, and plasterboard) tends to be softer and more damage-prone than one built up with plaster. The damage ranges from the small dents and scrapes caused by doors or furniture to major holes. Though it's unsightly, damage like this can typically be repaired by competent homeowners with the right tools and sufficient patience. Here’s a rough outline of how to patch drywall.

Evaluate the Damage

Determine the extent of the damage. Holes in walls can be of any size, but generally fall into a simple classification. The smallest class is the punctures made by nails or other picture hangers; next come those dents and scratches that don't break the surface. The third class is small holes that crack the wallboard and tear the paper - Many of these, for unknown reasons, seem to be fist-sized. Last comes large holes that might be caused by falling objects or trapped pets. You'll need to approach repair with different techniques and tools depending on the size of the hole.

Assemble Your Tools

Whatever the size of the hole, you’ll eventually use a putty knife or wallboard knife. Wallboard knives are made in widths of about 6-12 inches; for large holes you may need two or three sizes. No wallboard repair can be made without at least some joint compound. Although your college dorm roommate repaired nail holes with white toothpaste, a small container of joint compound or latex spackle actually costs less than that tube of toothpaste. Collect an assortment of different grits of closed-coat sandpaper. To repair a large hole you’ll need additional tools like a ruler, a wallboard saw, and something to use as a patch.

Easy Do-it-Yourself Display Case for Models

When the Ms returned from a memorial service for her late father, she brought a dozen or so collectible models of Standard Oil trucks - not worth much in terms of cash (about $3.50 each on eBay) but full of sentimental value. She also had a little display case for Matchbox cars, but the trucks were too big for its little shelves. Thus came the request,. "Can you make something...?" Making the body of a case like this was no problem. Oh, sure, there was the usual question about making the joints: mitered, box, dovetail, butt… But, the overall dimensions and the general design were pretty much set in stone, including the desire for a hinged front that had to be mostly clear glass. I don't know about you, but I find making a frame for a glass door to be a major pain in the butt. So I decided to let someone else make it…

One Simple Trick

An ordinary picture frame (from
the Michaels website)

Yep, you guessed it, I stopped by my local craft store and bought a simple black wood picture frame. That became my ready-made face, including glass (and glazing points). All that was left was to measure the frame's outside dimensions and design a multiple-shelf display box to fit behind it. I bought six feet of 1 x 3 poplar and a quarter sheet of ¼-inch birch plywood. With a couple hours' work with the table saw and router and I had a case. I cut my shelves and back from the plywood and painted them black, like the picture frame. The poplar I stained with some leftover wood stain I had in the shop.

When and How to Test your Car's Thermostat

Most gasoline and diesel engines include a water-based cooling system to remove excess heat caused by combustion. A coolant circulating through the walls of the engine picks up heat and carries it into the fins of a radiator where moving air helps dissipate the heat.

Cooling systems are simple compared to engines. They include the water jacket, a network of passages though the engine block; the radiator and cap; a fan; a water pump; hoses and the thermostat. Though it's a mechanically simple device, the thermostat serves an important function, regulating the temperature of coolant and engine.

How a Thermostat Works

A typical thermostat. 

A thermostat sits across the opening where coolant enters the block. When the engine is cold, the thermostat closes off the opening to keep water isolated in the block. As the engine begins to generates heat. The thermostat remains closed until coolant inside the block reaches the operating temperature at which the engine performs its best. Then the thermostat opens to allow circulation of coolant from the remainder of the system. It opens wider as the coolant temperature increases: the more coolant that passes through the block and the radiator, the more effectively the system removes unwanted heat. When operating temperatures change, the thermostat can adjust to maintain the coolant's temperature within a narrow set range.

How Thermostats Fail

When it reaches the end of its useful life, a thermostat usually sticks in the open position, allowing coolant to circulate through the system continually. When this happens, an engine is unlikely to reach its optimum operating temperature, which both increases wear and erodes fuel economy. In cold weather the heater, which is in most cars part of the cooling system, will function poorly or not work at all. More rarely, the thermostat will get stuck in its closed position. In this case, coolant in the system won’t circulate through the engine block, causing the engine to overheat.

Track Down an Electrical Circuit on a Breaker Panel

Remember the last time you did electrical work around the house? Maybe you installed a ceiling fan, put up a new security light, swapped in a dimmer switch for a toggle, or perhaps you tackled a more ambitious project like adding a new fixture. I can pretty well guarantee the first line in the instruction sheet said words like: 

"Turn off the power to the circuit before starting." 

Oh, sure. That's easy for the engineer who designed your new toy to say: he's probably posted a blueprint on the inside of the door of his breaker box; a tiny map showing the location of every fixture, switch and outlet in the house, everything carefully labeled with the number of its circuit breaker. If you're like everyone else, though, the breaker box is probably labeled with cryptic little notes like "mr bth ot," "dck lts," or "sara's bdrm" - and the only Sara you know is the intern at work.  If you're really unlucky, the breaker isn't labeled at all. 

Remove Sag from a Gate

The toughest part of building a fence is almost always the gate. Adding a gate means additional posts and dealing with the hardware, and they usually require finicky measurements and additional planning. Worst of all, about forty-five minutes after you install them the darned things start to sag and warp. Well, at least my gates do.

The gate in the Houston house's back yard became unhinged during Hurricane Ike a few weeks before we moved in, and the previous owner did such a lousy repair job that I had to replace his replacement within a couple of years. The replacement gate fit fine and I did a good enough construction job that it doesn't sag, but the BigBox lumber I used to build it began to warp seemingly within minutes, causing a serious case of gaposis near the top. I decided that a set of eye bolts, some cable and a turnbuckle would straighten it out, so I returned to my local BigBox store where I'd bought the lumber (blue, not orange). There on the hardware aisle I found a National Zinc Anti-Sag Gate Kit (V-852) and brought it home.

Patch Holes in Subfloor (or Drywall)

As much as we adore our furry friends, sometimes  they make a mess. One of the biggest messes any of our dogs ever made was the time she knocked over a lit floor lamp, which somehow managed to stay lit instead of shattering. It took some time, but the 150-watt bulb melted clear through the carpet and pad, eventually charring a perfectly circular three-inch hole in the subflooring of our upstairs. We came home to a house filled with smoke and a two Labradors cowering in the back yard – no flames, though, so no visit from the fire department.

So… how do you patch a hole in the floor? Well, here’s how I did it…