Kombucha Recipe

Ingredients and Items

• Tea (I use tetley black green, 8 bags)
• Filtered water
• Scoby
• A bottle of kombucha (yes you need kombucha to make kombucha)
• 1 gal jar
• 1 cup of white sugar
• 8 500mL recappable bottles
• Funnel
• Fruit juice

Kombucha is made in two stages

Stage One: Creating plain kombucha

1. Bring a few liters of water to a boil enough to put in the 1 cup of sugar and 8 bags of tea.
2. With the heated water in the 1gal jar, dissolve the sugar, let the tea steep and wait for the mixture to cool.
3. Add in the bottle of kombucha.
4. Add in the rest of the water
5. Add in the scoby
6. Close the top of the jar with some papertowels and a rubber band (coffee filters also works well).
7. Let the mixture sit for 1-2 weeks in a dark area that is away from direct heat or cold. I usually go for 1 week.

Stage Two: Adding flavor

1. Remove the scoby from the mixture into a bowl.
2. Stir the mixture so that the sediment is evenly distributed. You should already see some carbonation.
3. Use the funnel and pour contents into bottles, fill them to the start of the neck taper. I can usually get about 8 bottles from the 1 gal jar.
4. The remainder of the mixture is used along with the original scoby for the next batch.
5. Use the funnel and fill the rest of the bottle with juice.
6. Cap the bottles and let them sit for 3-6 days.
7. Burp the bottles periodically to release the c02 buildup. If you don't do this steps some bottles may explode.
8. Once carbonation is at your acceptable level you can put them into the fridge which will stop the fermentation process.
9. Carbonation helps hide the vinegar taste of the kombucha. If you notice that your kombucha does not have enough carbonation, you can remove the bottle from the fridge and let it sit in stage two until more carbonation is produced.

Owen River Gorge Take One

It was a late start on Friday as we accidentally drove north of the Owen River Gorge entrance. Driving on the 395 from Bishop towards Mammoth Lakes, you should take the Paradise Swall Meadows exit and not the more appropriately named Owens River Gorge exit which will actually spit you out atht the north side of the gorge. After finally finding the correct exit from the 395, we arrived at the 2nd parking area with a steep downward approach. The temperature was cold, probably the 40s and we only had time to do one climb. I lead Clip Jr 5.6. It was so cold my fingers became numb halfway up. I realized this as I was able to torque my fingers into holds without much pain at all. The return ascent back up to the car was killer on the quads. I'll need to return to this place when the sun is out and the temps are warmer.

Mouse feels "funny" on Mac OSX

At my new job I was given a Mac to develop on. It took a little bit of getting use to to, but after a few days I had almost everything dialed in. The only thing that was super annoying was the feel of the mouse, particularly wireless mice. It was so annoying that I just ended up using a wired mouse.

My trusted wireless Logitech and Microsoft mice felt "funny" when using it on OSX and no matter what I did with the settings I could not get it to feel normal. I finally took a bit of time to look into this and appears that Apple deploys a different curve of scaling the acceleration curve. There have been several attempts to correct this with various apps such as ControllerMate, SmoothMouse, MouseCurves, but I found that the terminal fix to be quite adequate for what I need. Its no Starcraft 2 max APM precision, but enough for what I need on a dev machine.

defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling -1




This terminal command will make mouse movement much smoother and more familiar. To reset it, just replace the -1 with a 1.

2007 Mini Cooper S R56 N14 Turbo Oil Feed Line

Update: Dec 2015. While doing this task it would not hurt to also perform some preventative tasks such as the turbo oil return line, turbo oil feed line shielding (for the ones that did not come with factory installed shielding), and oil filter housing gasket/seal replacement. All of these I have had to do, but if you're already taking the down pipe out might as well save some time and do these cheap preventative tasks.

The oil feed line is faulty for all N14 engines (Mini might have fixed the problem in new models, but since they never confirmed that was a problem who really knows?), which includes pretty much all Mini turbocharged engines. The failure of these lines is usually around 40-50k miles. The design flaw is that Mini used a rubber o-rings in the banjo bolts that connect the line to the turbo. The problem with that is the turbo gets really hot. The constant hot and cold cycle eventually destroys those o-rings and a leaky oil feed line is the result. Mini knows about this problem and even though this part is flawed no recall has been issued. I'm guessing the main reason is that the labor for replacing this line runs about $1200, while the OEM part is about about $70-80.

This is a pretty major problem because oil is essential in keeping the turbo cooled. If your turbo cooks you're looking at several thousand down the drain. Furthermore the Mini N14 engine already consumes a lot of oil, add in a leak like this you're doing to have a lot more problems if you don't keep your oil levels in check. The symptoms of the problem is easy to spot. The top banjo bolt that connects to the turbo can be easily seen. If there is any discoloration or wet oil spots around that connection, then the problem has already started. I initially noticed a small ring of oil around that connection. A month went by while I closely monitored the leak and oil levels. After talking with Mini of San Diego and getting a $1200+ quote, I decided to this fix myself. Below is a picture of what my turbo oil feed line looked like just before I replaced the oil feed line, this is at 53k miles. Notice the dark oil stains around the banjo bolt.

Parts

• Oil Feed Line (1 end with a 90 degree bend)
• 2 Banjo Bolts
• 4 Crush Washers
• Turbo to Downpipe gasket
• Exhaust V-clamp
• 3 turbo to downpipe bolts (optional)

Tools

• PB Plaster
• Anti-seize
• Metric Ratcheting wrenchs
• Metric Sockets - Regular and Deep wall
• O2 Sensor Socket or a 22mm wrench
• Various length screw drivers
• Low profile ratchet (recommended)
• High tooth ratchet (recommended)
• Rubber mallet
• Ducktape

Torque Specs

• V-Clamp 25 Nm/18.4 ft-lb
• O2 Sensors 50 Nm/37 ft-lb
• Oil Feed Line Banjo Bolts 30 Nm/22 ft-lb
• Support Bracket to Engine Block 19 Nm/14ft-lb
• Turbo Charger to Exhaust Manifold 20 Nm/14.7 ft-lb

Labor ~ 2days

Exhaust Manifold Diagram

The Mini Stealership wanted $80+ for just the line show as #6 above, probably the same faulty line that was originally in my car. Since turbo oil feed lines are nothing special or unique to Mini, I decide to go aftermarket. You can pretty much order any turbo oil line in size 4A with length of about 16-18in. One end of the line needs a 90 degree bend and other can either be straight or a slight 10-15 degree bend. The banjo bolts are standard 12mm.

Pretty much any auto store that stocks turbos will have turbo oil lines. The Mini OEM line is rigid and there are bends already in the line, aftermarket lines are stainless steel braided and they are completely flexible which makes install much easier. I did some research and found TechnaFit which stocks a Turbo Line Kit (Kit MCTL-0911) for Mini Coopers.

Although the title says 09-11, this kit does fit my 07 and I'm fairly certain all other N14 engines as well. And although the pictures shows straight connectors, they are actually bent at 90 degrees for the bottom connection and a slight 10-15 degrees for the top connection.

Downpipe Diagram

In addition to the turbo oil line kit, I also purchased a turbo-downpipe gasket (#2 above), 3 turbo-downpipe bolts (which I ended up not needing) and finally an exhaust v-clamp (#6 above). This brought the total to <$70.

Lower O2 Sensor

This repair, requires access to the top and bottom of the front engine compartment so jack stands are necessary. Once the car is on stands I would start off by soaking the turbo-down pipe connection area, v-clamp area and the upper and lower oxygen sensors with pb blaster. The upper oxygen sensor is easily spotted to the left of the turbo. The lower oxygen sensor is attached to the bottom of the downpipe. This will give it some time to penetrate while you work on other things.

V-Clamp

Remove the top heat shield (#17 - Exhaust Manifold Diagram). This is held on but six 10mm screws. The top three are easy, the bottom 3 are extremely difficult to get to. The clearance is limited. I had to improvise and create extended ratchets using screwdrivers and both my 1/4" and 3/8" ratchets to reach those screw. To the left of the downpipe is the black flap that says Castrol on it. I loosened the bolt on that piece and rotated it out of the way. This is is the part that took a lot patience and time, below is what the turbo looks like with the heat shield removed and the two makeshift tools I used to remove the lower screws.

Once all the screws are out, you must remove the oxygen sensor before removing the heat shield. Use an oxygen sensor socket to remove the top oxygen sensor. I didn't have too much trouble with this one but additional pb blaster and a breaker bar may be necessary. Be real careful as not to damage the sensor. move the sensor off to the side. Below is the oxygen sensor.

Next I removed the lower oxygen sensor and v-clamp. For me both these two items took overnight soaking of pb plaster before I could get them removed. I ended up almost breaking my O2 socket. I eventually used an open ended wrench to remove this sensor. I duct taped the sensor off to the side so it is out of the way.

My V-clamp was so rusted that the bolt fell apart. I used a hammer to get the bolt out. Even with bolt off the ring was still welded on. It took more pb plaster, hammering and prying to get the clamp off. This was probably one of the more frustrating parts for me. I decided to replace the V-clamp with a new one.

I then moved to the lower heat shield (#5 downpipe diagram). This one uses the same 10mm screws as the other heat shield. There are four to remove, two on each side. This heat shield cannot be extracted until the downpipe is loosened and removed first, so just let it sit there for now.

The bottom of the downpipe has two brackets (#4-downpipe diagram) that attach the downpipe to the engine. There are four nuts that connect the two brackets to the engine and downpipe to the brackets. I removed the nuts that connected the downpipe to the bracket and I only loosened the nuts connecting the bracket to the engine, leaving the two brackets loosely hanging.

With the bottom of the downpipe detached, I moved to the top connection. I used a deep wall socket to remove the 3 nuts that connect the turbo to the downpipe. I was told that sometimes these nuts and bolts need to be replace.  For me all three nuts were removed without any problems. I read that sometimes the studs will come off and the nuts are actually welded onto the stud!

With the downpipe completely detached from the top and bottom, I used a piece of scrap lumber and a rubber mallet to get the downpipe to detach from the turbo. At one pointed I also used a pry bar wrapped in a towel so I wouldn't scratch things up.

Now that the downpipe is detached from turbo, wiggle the lower heatshield and the downpipe. This takes some fiddling around but eventually I was able to work the downpipe down and out the bottom. The lower heatshield was removed afterwards. I ended up removing the brackets too, I'm not sure if this step was necessary but it made re-install much easier.

Now that the lower heat shield and downpipe is removed there is a lot more space and you should be looking up into something that looks like this. I saw some oil and decided to take this opportunity to clean all that up.

The final heat shield needs to be removed. However this shield is blocked by a support arm bolted to the middle of the heat shield to the engine block. The bolt is a 13mm. That bolt needs to be removed and the pivot bolt needs to be loosened. Then the support arm should swing out of the way.

With the final heat shield removed it should look something like this below. You should now be able to see the bottom connection point of the turbo oil feed line. All the previous work was just to get to this connection point.

Old oil line

At this point remove the oil feed line. Since the OEM line is rigid it takes some fiddling to get it out. The new line, if you went the stainless steel braided, is much easier to install. Make sure you use two crush washers for each banjo bolt. Install the new line with the 90 degree bend at the bottom. I inserted the line from the top to bottom. My new line looks like this.

New Stainless Steel Braid Line

New Stainless Steel Braid Line

To get to this point, here is all the hardware I had to remove and the faulty oil line.

After the new oil line is installed, I just worked backwards and re-installed all the parts. I put anti-seize in the threads of the O2 sensor, just in case I need to get those things off again. I replaced the gasket between exhaust manifold and the downpipe as well as the V-clamp between the downpipe and exhaust.

This process took two days. It probably could have only taken one if I didn't have to let the pb blaster soak in for the V-Clamp and O2 Sensor removal. I would definitely recommend replacing both the V-clamp and gasket at the minimum.

Rebirth: My Stanley #7 Jointer Plane

I've been keeping an eye for a Stanley #7 Jointer Plane for quite sometime now. After watching several dozen of them get sniped in the last seconds of an ebay auction, I was finally able to win a used Stanley #7 Jointer Plane. At $64 shipped, I couldn't be happier.

Contrary to the initial appearance, these pictures from the auction looked promising. All the parts, aside from a layer of what I hoped to be surface rust, seemed complete. This plane had everything I was looking for including a frog adjustment screw and brass depth knob. With my limited knowledge of planes, I would peg this example to be a Stanley Type 16 judging from the kidney lever cap hole, raised tote and new frog design. This would date the tool between 1933-1941! It was interesting to discover that during WWII metal was need to make ammunition, so the depth adjustment screw was replaced with plastic ones for WWII era planes. Luckily this particular plane is pre WWII. (Type Study). It was pointed out later to me in the comments that this is actually a type 18, because of the 1) Ogee style frog 2) Brass adjuster 3) Black painted handles. 4) Diagonal knurling on the brass adjuster. Thanks for the info!

Since this a not considered a collector's plane, I plan to restore this and make it a user. The first step is to strip down all the parts and get a good look at what needs to be done. There is a light coating of surface rust on the lever cap, cap iron, and cutting iron. I plan to use some steel wool to remove a majority of that. The body of the plane has a thicker layer of rust, but luckily no major pitting. The frog is also rusted towards the bottom. All the screws are rusted and the brass is faded. I started off with a wirebrush on a rotary tool which easily polished all the brass pieces to their shiny former selves.

I decide to use electrolysis to remove the rust from the frog. Since the frog is such a odd shape and the rust can be difficult to reach with steel wool or sand paper, this process makes it much easier.

Electrolysis uses electrical current (DC) to drive a chemical reaction of interchanging atoms and ions from one item to another (in the direction of the electrical gradient). The part being cleaned is connected to the negative terminal of car battery charger and a sacrificial piece of metal (anode) is connected to the positive. I am using a coffee can as the anode. Having an anode surround the piece being cleaned helps remove rust from all directions. Both items are submerged in a electrolytic solution, I am using Sodium Carbonate aka washing soda.

Once the battery charger is flipped on the rust will actually move from the part being cleaned to the anode, hence sacrificial piece of metal. This process will only remove rust and leave the metal in tact. The by product of this is a small amount of CO2, which can be seen in the bubbles rising from the frog. The reaction will continue until all rust particles have moved to the anode, in which case the bubbles stop and you are left with a rusty soup. An hour later, the bucket looks like the second image. Here are a couple great resources about electrolysis (Article1, Article2)

Once the frog comes out of the electrolysis process, it still needs some work. The electrolysis process leaves a black risdue on the surfaces of the metal which needs to be removed, I use steel wool. And the face of the frog, where the cutting iron sits, needs to be flatten. I need to do with without damaging the lateral adjustment lever. To do this I created a sanding jig.

The japanning (black paint) on the bodyof this Stanley is 90% in tact. Since I don't feel like repainting the the body of the plane, I will again be using electrolysis to remove the rust. This should leave the japanning unharmed, help minimize the amount of metal removal, and remove rust from the tapped screw mounts.

The length of the Stanley #7 is 22 inches and since this process requires that this item be submerged, I have to do this process in two rounds. The size of the plane also made it awkward to position the anode so that they do not touch. I had to get creative with some clamps and scrap wood to make it work. After the first round of electrolysis the difference is very apparent.

The most difficult and labor intensive task is flatting the bottom. A jointer plane is useless if its not true and flat. I was able to acquire a long piece of granite which will be my reference surface. I use 3M adhesive to stick sand paper on this surface. Now with all the parts reattached, I slowly slide the plane back and forth until the bottom is flat. Make sure the frog, iron, chip breaker and lever cap are all attached for this process, since these items do put tension on the body which can affect the lapping/flatting process.

I use a sharpie to mark the bottom surface. This will help indicate whether the bottom is completely flat. As I run the plane along the sandpaper, I can see that sharpie lines (metal) is being removed from the sides front and back of the plane. This tells me that the middle part is low and the edges are high points. I continue sanding and remarking the bottom, until the sand marks appear evenly across the entire length of the plane, telling me all high spots are flattened. This takes forever and I go through over a dozen sheets of 50 and then 150 grit sand paper. I do the same process for both sides of the plane body.

Personally I am not a big fan of the smooth surfaces and the look of the black painted knob and tote. I decide to remove the paint and see how the wood grain looks. The knob was easy. I attached a long bolt through the middle of the knob and inserted it into a cordless screw driver, with it spinning the sand paper made easy work out of the paint removal. The tote was a different story. It took much longer and the paint along the convex part of the curves was annoyingly difficult to remove.

I sharpened the blade iron using some diamond stones and reattached everything back together. Here is the restored Stanley #7 Jointer Plane

Here are a few more shots of it in action several months later. I am pretty happy with the restore and this plane has given me a lot of great performance. Its amazing how much a little TLC, can change piece of junk to a fine woodworking instrument.