A couple weeks ago we started talking about how bad Reilly’s shedding was this year with another dog owning couple.  They told us that they had this new miracle de-shedding tool called the FURminator, and proceeded to give us a demo.  Within seconds there was a cloud of dog hair.  I quickly opened up the Amazon.com app on my iPhone and placed an order.  Thankfully it came out to just over $25, so I didn’t need to add anything to the cart to get the free shipping.  Yes, this is an expensive comb, but it was worth every penny.

The FURminator is very well built, with a thick rubberized handle, heavy-duty plastic body, and a well machined solid metal comb.  When we took the de-shedding tool to Reilly’s coat, hair started coming out in clumps.  We now use the tool every other day and Reilly’s shedding has almost completely stopped.  The reason the tool works so well is that it goes after the undercoat.

The revolutionary grooming device utilizes a unique 4-inch stainless-steel edge that grabs loose undercoat hair and quickly and easily removes it, without damaging the topcoat. It actually brings out the pet’s natural oils, leaving a shiny and healthy topcoat. The pet will enjoy the feeling the de-shedding tool provides, and caretakers will appreciate the results. Used by veterinarians and recommended by doctors for people who have allergies, the tool is proven to decrease shedding by 60 to 80 percent for about four to six weeks.

If you have a dog or cat that sheds, do what I did, and go here and buy one.  You won’t regret it for a second.

I followed the instructions on the side of the tin to steep in boiling water for 3 minutes.  I set a timer and pushed down the plunger to stop the steeping process on my teapot at exactly 3 minutes.  I enjoy drinking copious amounts of tea on a daily basis, but don’t like to over analyze my tea.  I will tell you that it is one of the better black teas that I have tasted.  The tea turned into a nice dark amber color (see photo below), and it has a very earthy smell (what black tea doesn’t?).  The taste was very smooth and slightly sweet, and not at all bitter.  The main thing I noticed was that there was a lot more flavor as the tea cooled down.  This leads me to believe that this would make an excellent iced tea.  It is 43 degrees and rainy out right now, so the iced tea test will have to wait for another day.

Overall, this truly was a damn fine tea.  I can’t wait to give the Ceylon and Dragonwell a try.  I am also looking forward to their series 2 set (if not for the tea, then at least to see the label designs).

The first step of the project is probably where I should have known it wasn’t going to be easy.  The author, Andrew Lewis, started by cutting off just the tip of an alkaline battery.  He used a primitive hacksaw to accomplish this goal.  I decide that my Dremel could do it quicker, easier, and cleaner than a hacksaw.  I slowly started cutting through the discharged battery.  As I broke through the thin metal skin and my small rotary disc made contact with the goo inside, the speed of the Dremel tool picked up the black sludge and sent it flying in all directions.  Thankfully I was wearing goggles, as that was the only part of my face that was spared of the not-so-pleasant feeling of the battery acid.  Sometimes primitive tools work better than their modern equivalent.

Once the top of the battery was removed, you are left with the top of the battery, which has a rod sticking out of it, and and the bottom of the battery which is filled with carbon sludge.  The next step was probably the hardest step.  I chopped off the little rod, and then went to work on the plastic that holds the conductive ‘plate’ of the negative end of the battery.  You want to remove this, so you are left with a just the outside ring.  You will eventually stick a little battery in it’s place, which is how you get the 1.5v.  The only problem with this part is that the little plastic piece did not want to come lose.  I drilled, cut, and pulled at the plastic with my pliers.  After about what seemed like an hour of frustration, the plastic piece came lose.

Cleaning out the inside of the battery was actually pretty easy.  Using the right sized drill bit, I just slowly drilled away at the carbon until it was completely gone (carbon is conductive and could short out your USBattery).  After doing a final rinse in some soapy water, I had a nice clean shell of a AA battery.

I found an old cheap 1GB USB flash drive laying around, and pryed off the plastic casing.  The USB drive was too big to fit into the AA batttery, so I once again pulled out the Dremel tool.  I ground away as much of the PCB as I could without hitting any of the traces.  With a bit of a push, the USB drive fit snugly into the AA battery.  Before I could glue it into place, I had to remove the standard USB plug, and replace it with a USB mini plug.  With a little slack in the thin wires coming off of the USB mini plug to the flash drive, I was able to fit them both (barely) into the AA battery.

I then went to work on the cap of the USBattery.  The first step was to solder a little button battery to the top ring of the AA.  This sounds a lot easier than it really is.  You only have a tiny bit of the battery to solder to the metal ring, and if you apply too much solder to the battery, it will short out the battery.  After many failed attempts, and some dumb luck, my solder bound the battery and the ring together without any shorts (yay!).

All that was left was to add the tiny magnet into the case to hold the top into place, and also act as the conductor between the negative side of the battery and the AA casing.  This, like every other step in the process, was harder than it looked.  You have to line up the magnet so the right polarity is facing the bottom of the battery.  Unfortunately, the magnet did not want to face this way, and insisted on facing the opposite way.  So, I held it into place with a tiny set of pliers, and quickly covered it in 1 min epoxy.

I did some quick tests to make sure the flash drive was still in working order, and the battery would read 1.5v off of a multimeter (almost done).  The last step was to make a nice label.  I decided to make my label look as close to a Duracell battery as possible (mainly because it is pretty simple to duplicate).  I started up Photoshop, and went to work.  Using the Make template as a size guide, I took the actually Duracell logo, and cut and pasted the text to spell Datacell (clever).  I printed it out on some sticker paper I picked up at Office Depot (expensive!) and it fit perfectly.  In one final stroke of genius, I took some clear heat shrink tubing and covered the label to protect it, and give it a nice shine.

Overall, a frusterating project, with a great ending product.  Even though I never use the little flash drive, it is fun to show off to friends.  See some final product pictures below.

Building, tinkering, and racing rc cars was a kind of closet hobby of mine about ten years ago.  It is one of those hobbies that not too many people quite understand.  This is because they think of rc cars as the ones you see on the shelves of your local Wal-Mart.  The cheap plastic TYCO models that can barely make it over thick carpeting, and crumble when you take it off of a small jump.

The hobby type of rc cars and trucks are in a completely different league.  These little machines are meticulously engineered to be strong, fast, and light weight.  There is also a thriving aftermarket parts business, which means that these cars can be repaired and tinkered with, which is half the fun of the hobby.  This is also why I was able to take a 10 year old nitro rc car that was completely non-functioning and rebuild it.

A lot has changed with rc cars and trucks in the last ten years.  The first thing that I noticed that had changed was the speed of these little machines.  The HPI Nitro MT truck that I had purchased in 2000, was a very fast four wheel drive truck for its time, and could achieve speeds of nearly 40 miles an hour right out of the box.  The new cars and trucks are being advertised as running at speeds of 70+ miles per hour.  That is freaking fast.

The second change I noticed was the cost.  Owning an rc car in 2000 was not cheap, even with some of the entry level stuff.  Just to get going with a new nitro rc car, you could easily spend $500+ on the most basic kit.  Now, you can get your hand on a new nitro kit for less than $200.

The third change I noticed was all of the RTR (Ready to Run) machines out there.  These dominate the shelves of my local hobby shop.  It is a very disappointing trend, as half of the fun of owning an rc car was driving one that you build.  The other benefit of building your own kit is that you know how to repair it.

The last thing I noticed was the technology that goes into the newer kits.  Many of the electric models come with brushless motors, which are quiet, and crazy fast.  The remotes don’t use crystals to communicate anymore, instead they opt for 2.4 GHz communication.  This allows for telemetrics to be received by the remote telling you the state of your battery, or the heat of your nitro engine.

Rebuilding my old Nitro MT was a very satisfying experience.  At first I was nervous that I wouldn’t be able to find parts for the truck, but thanks to eBay and Google, this wasn’t an issue.  I first tore the whole thing apart and cleaned it up.  In the process I noticed many broken parts, and quickly had a nice long list of parts to buy.  I started by ditching the old engine, which had been neglected for a long time.  I found a new engine on ebay for $55 (I had purchased the engine I was taking out of the truck for over $200 ten years ago) that came out of a RTR box for the HPI MT2 (my truck’s younger brother).  I slowly started receiving packages from hobby shops all over the country, and began to bring my truck back to life.  The parts all fit perfectly, and the final product looked almost like a brand new machine (see all the pictures at the end of the article).

Unfortunately, the weather here in Minnesota has gotten pretty ugly.  As I write this, it is raining, and the temp is supposed to be below 0 tomorrow.  I plan on breaking in the rc truck as soon as the weather gets a bit nicer, and will hopefully post a video of the machine running in all her glory.

If anyone is interested there are some great forums at rcuniverse.com, and there are still plenty of kits you can build from the ground up available at your local hobby shop (or at towerhobbies.com).