How to Cure an Iron Skillet

 by Tom King

(c) 2009 - Some Rights Reserved

Cast iron skillets are wonderful for cooking in.  My wife makes cornbread in hers and it’s always perfect.  Even I can make great cornbread if I cook it in a cast iron skillet.

“So, how do you keep it from sticking?” you ask.  Anybody who’s ever used cast iron skillets in the past has probably had problems with sticking.  Well, don’t worry, there’s a solution.  Before teflon, silverstone and other nonstick cookware, our grandmother’s knew how to prevent food from sticking to cast iron cookware.  Here’s how.

Wash the skillet thoroughly, towel dry and let it sit until thoroughly air dryed.

Coat the skillet inside and out with vegetable shortening and set it on a baking sheet

Turn on your oven to 180 degrees F.

Leave the skillet in the oven for 15 or 20 minutes till all the shortening is melted.

Remove the skillet from the oven, wipe off excess oil on the outside and set the skillet somewhere to cool.

Once cool, wipe down the skillet with a paper towel
When you store the skillet, place a paper towel in it, especially if you stack it with other pans.

Never put away an uncured iron skillet.  It will rust and stick no matter how much you oil it. It takes time for the oils to bond with the cast iron surface.

*For more in depth information about the care and feeding of cast iron cookware, check out this post on "Art of Manliness".

Unsticking Piano Keys

© 2009 by Tom King (some rights reserved)

A lot of people get completely freaked out over fixing their piano – even when it’s a simple thing like stuck piano keys. Sticky keys can happen because of moisture from a nearby window or outside wall that seeps into the piano case and makes the closely packed hammers swell and stick. I couldn't afford the $300 bucks to fix mine, so I figured out how to do it myself.  If you are at all handy with tools and you work carefully, you shouldn't have much trouble with the job.

Now, I don’t know how to tune a piano and don’t have the equipment to do so. I might could figure it out with an instruction sheet and set of tuning forks, but I’ll leave that for someone with more experience who will tune it for a small fee. The sticky keys problem however, tend to be an expensive repair and being broke is the mother of invention.  If you have broken hammers, you may want to get some help unless you're very good with small woodworking projects like this.

The process is basically a detective job – a task of reverse engineering. I started out figuring out how to open up the top of the case. With an electric drill or screwdriver, the job is pretty straightforward. You shouldn’t have to remove the top lid after you open it. Don’t take off anything you don’t need to. That saves getting things out of alignment later. Look down in the open cover and you can see the strings and hammers. Don’t diddle with the strings or hammers any more than you have to. To unstick the keys you it’s likely you won’t have to.


First remove the keyboard cover – the part of the outside case that covers the area between the keys and the hammers. It didn’t take long for me to remove the cover and lift out the keyboard lid to expose the mechanism.



It was actually a simple matter to remove the keys. Before doing that, I identified which keys were sticking and tagged each of the sticky ones with a tiny Post-It ® note. I thens started working my way from left to right lifting the keys from the frame. The keys sit on top of a rod that acts as a fulcrum. Press down on the ivory part of the key and the other end of it tips the hammer which strikes the string. The keys are balanced so that the weight of the hammer end of the key is heavier than the ivory end and drops back into place of its own weight, restoring the key to its proper height.

DO NOT MIX UP THE KEYS.  Take the keys out and put them back the same way - left to right or right to left, it doesn't matter. Use a sharpie and mark the keys in an inconspicuous way with a number or the key name if you know what it is so that if, heaven forbid, you get them mixed up, you can put them back where they belong. Set aside a large flat table or other work surface for laying out the keyboard. Threaten anyone that comes by with death if they mess with the keys while they are lying loose on your work table.

One by one I set the keys on our pool table side by side in the same order I removed them. Then I took a small vacuum and removed any dust or dirt that had accumulated over the years inside the piano.

Next I cleaned the ivory (actually plastic) covered part of each key with alcohol and a rag to remove any dirt or oil and working from left to right again, began restoring them to their places on the keyboard. When I got to a sticky key I fixed them. Usually there are two or three together where a key has swollen from moisture getting into the cells of the wood. While this may not be the orthodox method, but since I couldn’t find instructions for how to fix sticky piano keys anywhere, I did what seemed logical.

I simply found where the key was rubbing against an adjacent key or the frame it sits in and sanded the contact point down. Just take a small bit of medium sandpaper and sand the sides at the point of contact. Work slowly and sand very carefully so that you only remove the essential amount of surface wood so as to unstick the key. Keep test fitting the key with the two adjacent keys in place on either side. Sand the adjacent key at the contact point as well. It’s best to alternate between the two keys until both keys move freely. Continue down the keyboard reinserting working keys and trimming the sticky ones until they work.


When all keys are clean and in place, simply replace the lid, screw the cover back in place, lower the top lid and put the trophies back on top and call a piano tuner. Your piano should work as good as new now.


WARNING:

Danger Will Robinson! I am not a professional piano guy. I may be revealing secrets that will get me assasinated by the secret guild of piano fixers, I don’t know. By the time you read this I may be dead. If not, I’d like to state for the record that this is just how I did it. I was successful, but that doesn’t mean you will be. If you break something, it’s not my fault and you can’t sue me for it because I’ve hereby warned you that

If you do pull it off successfully, though, drop me a note and let me know. I looked for hours on the Internet trying to find a description of how to do this and couldn’t find anything. Piano guys are a hush-mmouthed lot (unlike banjo players who, if you ask them how to fix your banjo, will rattle on for hours and you can’t shut them up). There are some pictures I didn’t get because I was busy and forgot to take them till it was too late. If I have to fix the piano again, I’ll add them later. The little woman likes the piano by the door which is a horrible source of moisture, but she’d rather it look good where it is than for it to play well, even though she has perfect pitch and hates it if the thing doesn’t play right.


What can you do?  I was born to repair stuff.


Tom King - twayneking@gmail.com
Flint, TX

A Home Made Telescope - A Quick Run-Through

  by Tom King

Introduction
Galileos first telescope was two lenses and a leather tube. My first was pretty much the same thing only with cardboard instead of leather.  I paid $10 for it at Wal-Mart. For much of the history of astronomy, advances in telescope technology has been driven by the efforts and genius of gifted amateurs. Most serious amateurs at some point in their lives will try building a home-made scope. Here's a simple reflector telescope I'm currently working on. Spacing the optics can be very complicated as I'm discovering, but there are plenty of amateur astronomy sites that give you very detailed directions on lining up your lenses and mirrors. I've included a couple of links to some good astronomy sites at the end.

Materials

• Sonotube with a diameter 2 inches larger than the mirror (For my scope it's an 8 inch tube for a 6 inch mirror). Got this one at the hardware store.
• Telescope primary mirror (This one's a 6 inch gimme mirror from a friend)
• Mirror cell (I was lucky and this one came already mounted on the mirror)
• Diagonal mirror mounted on spider the size of the sonotube (eBay - $20)
• Focuser (eBay - $35)
• Eyepiece to fit the focuser (home-made from Lens Surplus kit I bought on-line - got 5 really good lenses out of it)
• Sheet of plywood I like 1/2" for sturdiness and sheer heft.
• Two old vinyl phonograph records (Perry Como Christmas and "The Blodger Family Sings Todays Hits")
  

The Reflector Telescope


The Optics

Start out by drawing up a diagram of the telescope you are building. Get help from one of the astronomy sites below to help you figure out the spacing of the three primary optical elements of the telescope - the mirror, the diagonal and the eyepiece. For this example we wil use a 42" focal length, six inch mirror. The radius of the 8" tube is 4 inches. Take the 42" focal length, subtract the 4" radius and you have 38". That means that the surface of the primary mirror needs to be 38 inches from the center of the diagonal mirror. Measured from the surface of the primary to the outside of the eyepiece hole, should give you 42" (the focal length of the mirror). Your eyepiece, inserted into the focuser should be able to bring the image into focus at that distance.


The Tube

Measure from the base of the cell, add the 38" to the diagonal, add enough for the spider mount plus a couple of inches and cut off the Sonotube there. You can get Sonotubes at the lumber yard or concrete supplies. Concrete contractors use them to make concrete pillars. Spray the inside of the tube with flat, non-reflective black paint. I used a flat black over textured paint. To break up any reflections on the inside of the tube.


The Cell

The cell on which the mirror is mounted has screws on the side for mounting to the telescope tube. If your cell is separate from the mirror, mount the mirror as the cell's instructions tell you to. Then screw the cell into the tube by drilling holes in the base of the tube to match the mounting screws. Install the mounting screws and tighten to center the cell. The mount is adjustable for lining the mirror, but wait to do fine adjustments till you have the spyder, diagonal and eyepiece focuser installed.


The Spyder

Mount the spider in the opposite opening of the scope (the one that points at the sky). The diagonal mounts on the spider. If it didn't come mounted, follow the instructions that came with the spider to mount it to reflect the image precisely 90 degrees.

To position the spider figure the distance (in this case 38 inches) from the mirror to the center of the diagonal. To figure out where to drill holes for the legs of the spider, measure the cell thickness to the center of the primary mirror, add the 38" we figured earlier to the center of the diagonal, then add the distance from the center of the diagonal mirror straight back to as close as you can figure to where the screws in the four legs of the spider line up. Cut a slot shaped hole for each spider leg so that they are spaced at 90 degree intervals round the top end of the tube. The slot allows the spider screws to slide forward and back so you can center the diagonal and align it with the eyepiece later.


The Focuser

Find the spot on the outside of the sonotube that is directly perpendicular to the center of the diagonal mirror. Double check the spot by measuring to the center of hole. Add the distance from mirror to diagonal to the depth of the cell that you figured before (in this case 1 3/4" + 38" = 39 3/4"). Drill a hole the width of the eyepiece mounting tube to allow the light to pass through to the eyepiece. In this case I've installing a 2" eyepiece focuser, so I'm drilling a 2" hole. Then all I have to do is screw the base of the focuser (which is conveniently curved to fit the tube) into the sonotube over the hole.


The Eyepiece
To adjust the mirror and diagonal, simply look down through the empty focuser hole and lining up the diagonal and primary so that you see a centered image of the sonotube opening and the spyder in the eyepiece hole. This could take a considerable amount of fiddling, but isn't that difficult to do, especially if you have a little help.

When everything is lined up, place the eyepiece in the focuser and test it by focusing on a nice bright land target. The finderscope is ready to mount.

The Finder

Screw the finder scope mount to the tube somewhere so it's handy to where you will be standing to look through the eyepiece, but so it doesn't interfere with your view or is obstructed by the mount or eyepiece. It must be lined up parallel with the tube. Focus on a large, easy to find target during the day and then clamp down the tube. Next use the alignment screws on the focuser to align it so that what you see in the finderscope is exactly what you see when you look in the eyepiece (only in the finderscope it will be smaller).

Now we're ready to build a mount for the very fine Newtonian reflector we just made.


The Dobsonian Mount

Cutting the Pieces
Mark your plywood sheets as indicated in the diagram and cut them out and assemble them as shown in the diagrams.


The Tube Mounting Box

Assemble the tube mounting box so that it fits around the tube snugly. Cut the circular ears out and mount them to the sides of the tube mount box. Hold the box by the "ears" and slide the tube up and down in the mount to balance it.

The Base

Assemble the support pieces so the ears of the tube box will fit in the cradle. Glue felt along the cradle arc to provide friction with the "ears". If the ears still move too freely, add a lining around the edges of the ears.

The Stage
Drill a hole in the center of the wooden circular stage piece and mount the upright support on the stage. Glue a phonograph record underneath the stage centered on the drilled hole. Glue a second phonograph record on the second stage piece and drill through it. Set the top stage on top of the lower stage so the records sit face to face. Bolt the stages together. This allows the stage to rotate smoothly with slight friction.

Set the tube and tube box atop the mount and the telescope is ready to collimate (line the optics up).

Collimating
Cut the bottom off a film canister or large pill bottle the diameter of an eyepiece and drill a quarter inch hole in the center of the lid. This is a simple collimater and forces you to line up the scope with your eye in the exact center of the eyepiece. Now adjust the primary mirror so it appears centered in the secondary mirror (the one on the spider)

Adjust the secondary mirror (the diagonal) so the reflection of the diagonal in the primary mirror is in the exact center of both the primary mirror when viewed from the center of the open end and should center underneath the focuser hole.

Focus the telescope on a distant object, leave it pointed, then align the finder on the same object so the finder points at the same thing the telescope does.



Additional Information Resources


A Homemade Telescope: Mother Earth News


Homemade Astronomy: Larry Brown

Plans for a homemade Dobsonian telescope


 (c) 2009 by Tom King
All images (c) 2009 by Tom King