Reading the Label: CRC food grade silicone spray

DIRECTIONS: Read entire label before using this product. 1. Do not apply while equipment is energized. 2. Spray in light, even coats to areas requiring lubrication or moisture protection. 3. Repeat step 2 until adequate lubrication or protection is achieved. Use only the necessary amount to achieve results. 4. Re-apply as needed to maintain performance.

Danger: Extremely flammable aerosol. Contains gas under pressure; may explode if heated. May be fatal if swallowed and enters airways. Causes skin and eye irritation. May cause drowsiness or dizziness. Suspected of damaging fertility.

Precautionary Statements: Obtain special instructions before use. Do not handle until all safety precautions have been read and understood. Keep away from heat/sparks/open flames/hot surfaces -- No smoking. Do not spray on an open flame or other ignition source. Pressurized container: Do not pierce or burn, even after use. Do not apply while equipment is energized. Extinguish all flames, pilot lights and heaters. Vapors will accumulate readily and may ignite. Use only with adequate ventilation; maintain ventilation during use and until all vapors are gone. Open doors and windows or use other means to ensure a fresh air supply during use and while product is drying. If you experience any symptoms listed on this label, increase ventilation or leave the area. Avoid breathing mist or vapor. Wear protective gloves/protective clothing/eye protection/face protection. Wash thoroughly after handling. Store in a well-ventilated place. Store locked up. Protect from sunlight. Do not expose to temperatures exceeding 50°C/122°F. Exposure to high temperature may cause can to burst. When exposed to extreme heat or hot surfaces, vapors may decompose to harmful or fatal corrosive gases such as hydrogen fluoride. Dispose of contents/container in accordance with local/regional/national regulations.

Wow. And that's the food grade stuff.

Free associating CRC food grade silicone spray

I saw it at NAPA, CRC food grade spray
I forget what I was reading about it
For hoses, no doubt, as it is "food grade".

//

At StangNet.com: What is best way to lubricate a tight hose onto a fitting? ... from 2005. (I think I was still using my Commodore 64 back then.)

Timeless2 responds:

Silicone spray.
I would avoid using petroleum jelly on rubber hoses.

That again: avoid using petroleum jelly on rubber
Look into that, art.

//

From Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair Stack Exchange: Does Vaseline dissolve rubber?

Paulster2 replies:

I would suggest that those o-rings which are made to work in the automotive realm are made to be resistant to things such as oil, gasoline, and other petroleum products. This would include Vaseline...

Ah... Good point. But I happen to be not in the automotive realm but the garden hose department. I'm remembering Mr Hardware say that he likes the rubber washers or maybe it was rubber hoses. These might be made of modern synthetics. Probably. Synthetic rubber is probably less costly to produce than the natural stuff, so most rubber is synthetic; that would be my guess. But that doesn't really tell me what my garden hose stuff is made of.

Paulster2 continues:

While Vaseline and other petroleum products may degrade real rubber (actually made from the rubber tree), current o-rings technology does not use natural rubber.

Right. But again, he's talking automotive.

Baas says petroleum products like Vaseline might make EPDM rubber products swell so they don't fit. EPDM is synthetic.

//

Stack Exchange is reliably useful.

//

But if I am replacing the garden hose washers every year or so, what would it matter?

Oh, but then there are the rubber hoses also, remember.

//

CRC Food Grade Silicone Grease:

Food Grade Plastic And Rubber Lubricant

CRC Food Grade Silicone Grease is a thin non-curing silicone grease designed for sealing, lubricating and waterproofing o-rings and other rubber and plastic parts used in food processing equipment. It insulates valves, electrical contacts, spark plugs, battery terminals and fasteners from moisture and protects against corrosion. It is resistant to oil, water and chemicals and will not harden, freeze, dry or melt.

Comes in a tube.
The stuff I saw at NAPA was a spray can...

Here it is at Ace for ten bucks, a spray can of silicone "lubricant".

Gotta get some. I want to clean up my hoses and fittings in January so they're ready for Spring. My way to dispose of Winter doldrums.

NH thread

The short version:

The thread standard for garden hose connectors in the United States, its territories, and Canada is known colloquially as "garden hose thread" (GHT), but its official designation is NH... NH stands for "National Hose"... This fitting is used with ​1⁄2-inch, ​5⁄8-inch, and ​3⁄4-inch hoses.
In other countries, a British Standard Pipe (BSP) thread is used... The GHT and BSP standards are not compatible...
Various adaptors made of metal or plastic are available to interconnect GHT, BSP, NPT, hose barb, and quick connect fittings.

Damn! Even the short version is too long.

Mas largo at Wikipedia, under Garden hose: Standards and connectors:

Garden hoses connect using a male/female thread connection. The technical term for this arrangement is a "hose union". Spigots or sillcocks have male hose connectors only, and the mating end of a hose has a captive nut which fits the threads there.

The thread standard for garden hose connectors in the United States, its territories, and Canada is known colloquially as "garden hose thread" (GHT), but its official designation is NH (NH stands for "National Hose"; ¾-11.5NH is for full form threads as produced by cutting material such as the brass spigot outlet or hose male or female end fitting found on more expensive hoses; ¾-11.5NHR is for thin-walled couplers produced by rolling thin material, usually brass, typically found on less expensive hoses; ¾-14NPSH is for female hose ends that mate a hose to a tapered pipe thread without a spigot). The standard was defined by NFPA 1963, "Standard for Fire Hose Connections",[1] then later by ANSI-ASME B1.20.7,[2] which is 1 1⁄16 inches (27 mm) diameter straight (non-tapered) thread with a pitch of 11.5 threads per inch (TPI). The female thread is abbreviated FHT, and the male part is abbreviated MHT. This fitting is used with ​1⁄2-inch, ​5⁄8-inch, and ​3⁄4-inch hoses.[3][4]

In other countries, a British Standard Pipe (BSP) thread is used, which is ​3⁄4 inch and 14 TPI (male part outside diameter is 26.441 mm or 1.04 in). The GHT and BSP standards are not compatible, and attempting to connect a GHT hose to a BSP fitting, or vice versa, will damage the threads.

Various adaptors made of metal or plastic are available to interconnect GHT, BSP, NPT, hose barb, and quick connect fittings.

//

This topic comes up because I was confused. Or maybe I still am. I think "fire hose thread" and "garden hose thread" (GHT) are two kinds of "NH" thread. I think all GHT are NH but not all NH are GHT. Garden hose thread indicates one size of NH specifically. Fire hose thread is bigger and varies in size.

FireHoseDirect has a good info page on fire hose and the NH standard.

Gender inequality

At plbg.com, an interesting situation. jmoody76 says:

I'm looking for advice on what I need to go from a 1 1/2" PVC pipe to a garden hose. I found [www.plumbingsupply.com] and was looking at all the fittings but I'm not sure what combination to get or maybe there is a different way to go about this. Thanks.

Steve says use one of these:

1½ coupling or fitting with a reducing bushing

and then, he says, use

a brass fitting or hose bib, MPT x garden hose thread screwed into the bushing

[MPT = Male Pipe Thread]

In the next comment, packy says go with the hose bib:

screw one of these into the PVC adapter.

Yeah. Why didn't I think of that? The hose bib has pipe thread at the inlet end and garden hose thread at the outlet end. And it has a shut-off. And it's brass, which is always nice.

hj then replies to steve:

quote; screw one of these into the PVC adapter.

And have a few more PVC female adapters on hand so you can replace it when the male metal thread cracks the female adapter.

Ah, it's the PVC-screwing-onto-metal problem, again. This has come up before. Maybe the metal expands more from heat than the PVC does. So on a sunny day the PVC fitting may break and mess you up.

Mr leak says

Sarcasm aside
you need to know that fittings as you show i.e the pvc threaded female is not to be used Reason: the fitting will likely break Not to code
Male threaded plastic into female metal is ok
Think about the reason and it becomes clear

Steve adds:

I've never seen it in the California Plumbing Code, but it is in the California Mechanical Code.
"309.5 Plastic Fittings. Female PVC screwed fittings shall be used with plastic male fittings and plastic male threads only."

Okay. That's the idea. When I read something like that, it sticks in my head forever. I can come back in 6 months or a year and talk about it like it was part of the same conversation. Politics? Nah. Current events? Nah. Sarcasm and unfinished thoughts? Yep.

Anyhoo, I now have a better answer to that problem. In part, it comes from the same PlumbingSupply.com site that jmoody76 was using, at the Frequently Asked Questions page:

Q: "I've had a few female adapters break. What am I doing wrong?"

A: Many codes (such as UPC 1994 sec606.2.2) prohibit female PVC screwed fittings for water piping. The reason for this is pressure is exerted outwardly and eventually a female adapter can crack. We always recommend instead using PVC male adapters with metal female fittings. Specialty female threaded transition adapters, incorporating a reinforced outer stainless steel retaining ring, can help reduce problems associated with over-tightening, outward stress, etc. and may help provide a strong, leak-tight seal for plastic-to-metal transitions. Note that in some codes even these reinforced female threaded fittings are not accepted as well.

That's useful. It provides enough of an answer that I can continue designing my hose stuff and not be stopped cold by things I thought I knew, but didn't.

PS, Pipe threads are tapered so when you tighten the connection it's like a wedge creating pressure on both pieces. Under that kind of pressure, the outer piece is more likely to break.

Back to Harbor Freight

Well, I finally did it. Made myself a way to move the bagger.

Maybe I should say: I don't have a lot of tools. I'm not what you'd call a "tools" person. First time I ever went to Harbor Freight was maybe three months ago. It's a Wonderland!

I've come around a little, now I'm retired. I have time for things other than work and my computer. Time to invent little projects for myself to do. Not necessarily to do them, but at least to think about. I'm a How would I do that? kind of person. I'll think of something and ask myself "How would I do that?"

If I can answer the question, I'm satisfied. I don't get satisfaction from doing things. I'm not good at doing things. But I get great satisfaction from working out how I would do things. Plus, it saves me all that work.

But I'm coming around a little. I have time to do things, now. And now I want to tell you about something I did.

Maybe I should say: Don't expect too much.

//

I have a 25-gallon garden sprayer. To use it, I hook up the garden cart to the garden tractor and put the sprayer in the cart. It works, but it's not satisfying. The sprayer deserves its own cart. So I started thinking about making a cart.

Then I started thinking about building a cart for the rototiller.

Then I started thinking about hooking up the wheelbarrow like a cart, to the tractor. In case I put too much in the wheelbarrow and can't push it up the hill.

Somewhere along the way there, I bought myself two ten-inch wheels. That was my second visit to Harbor Freight. I went back for the wheels because I saw them on my first visit: $4.99 apiece. With all these carts in my head, I had to have those tires. I knew I'd need em.

A month or so later I picked up a three-foot round rod to use for an axle. Again, I knew I'd need it. Whatever I was gonna build, it was gonna have wheels and an axle.

That was late October.

The stuff sat in my garage for several weeks. I didn't give up on it. I had it on hand, but I wasn't ready to use it.

//

Lately I've been fixing up the spare room in the basement. Cleaned up. Painted. Moved some shelves and installed some more. I'm calling it my "project" room: a place where I can work on little projects I come up with. The room even has a sink: a utility sink, American Shower and Bath, model DFC-1. Looks like they are no longer in business. Plastic tub screwed to the wall, sitting on four plastic legs.

I had to put spacers under two legs so the water would drain rather than pooling at the front of the flat-bottom tub. Half inch, no problem. Then I went looking for concrete anchors to anchor the legs (and spacers) to the floor. So I was down at the far end of the "nuts and bolts" aisle at the True Value, looking at concrete anchors. And I happened to see "shaft collars" there. Shaft collars! To hold the wheels on the axle. I grabbed four of em, $3 apiece. In the moment, it even seemed like a low price.

I went home, finished up my Projects room, and got ready for my first project.

//

The bagger for my tractor installs easily. It sits on a little shelf at the rear of the tractor, and hooks over two bolts to keep it in place. It's okay for the summer, putting the bagger on and taking the bagger off, when everything is right there in the garage. But come winter, the bagger goes away and the snowblower goes on, and there's no room in the garage for the bagger. So I have to lug it down the hill to the shed. Or up the hill to the garage, as the case may be.

The thing is heavy.

So I was looking at the bagger one day, looking at the mounting. There's a plate that sits flat, that sits on the "shelf" on the rear of the tractor. And there are two upright plates, rectangles with a little notch in the bottom edge, that reach in and hook onto bolts to keep the bagger in place.

I suddenly realized that those notches could just as easily sit on an axle and keep the axle in place. If I had wheels on the axle I could move the bagger. Bingo!

I already had the axle and 10-inch wheels. I needed only to drill the axle, or find shaft collars, and to have a design that would work. On a recent visit to Harbor Freight I had seen 8-inch wheels at a good price, $6 and change, max load 300 lbs. The bagger ain't that heavy.

I checked dimensions on the bagger. The 8-inch wheels would work better than the 10s. Back to Harbor Freight.

Out-to-out, those two notched rectangles on the bagger are just under 14 inches apart. So I put collar-wheel-collar on the axle, left a 14-inch gap, put again collar-wheel-collar, then cut the extra off the axle, half an hour with a hack saw.

Tipped the bagger a little, put wheels under it, and dragged the bagger up to the garage and back. It works!

//

Oh, but I need something better than a hack saw.

The River Birch in mid-December

The dogs wanted out since three in the morning. I took one on a leash. The others can wait.

Seven AM. Daylight. Dogs are out. I'm sittin on the porch with my Irish coffee. Cold but not windy. Comfortable enough. And I see the tips of our River Birch tree, tips of the twigs, They don't look like buds.

This is December. The thing's not growing now. I'm seein what'll be growing in the Spring.

Still not even light out yet. (Facing North West)

What are those tips? Here's a detail view:

A few minutes later, facing East

That's not one bud. It's a whole package. Follow the twig up from the bottom edge of the picture, you'll see a bud or two that do look like buds. Next year's twigs. Yeah, but not that stuff at the tip. That's next year's flowers or somethin. And by midsummer I'll find seedlings growing in my gutters.

The touch of white in that detail photo, that's probably frost. It was a cold morning.

snow sticks in snowblower

Ariens Non-Stick Polymer Coating
$9.98 at Home Depot / 11 oz can (91 cents an ounce)

Lowes offers it for two cents less for the can, but my local store is out of stock.

JBAD0 at Home D says

I used this for the first time last winter on my Ariens 30" snow thrower auger and chute assembly. The polymer coating helped a lot and made heavy snow throw further. I resprayed the snow thrower for this pending winter. I also used it on all my snow shovels, which made the snow slide off easier. I purchased an extra can and sprayed the chute on my riding lawn tractor which helped to prevent the grass from clogging.

I'm sold!

---

DuPont General Purpose 10 oz. Dry Lubricant
$7.59 at Ace Hardware / 10 oz can (76 cents an ounce)

Oddly, we've had snow already, but my local Ace doesn't have this stuff in stock.

Odder yet, This item is no longer available on Lowes.com.

Not at all odd, the 10-ounce can is available for 90 cents less at Walmart than Ace, until you add the $5.25 shipping. So $4.35 more than Ace in the end.

Walmart adds: "Pickup not available". Now that's odd.

At Walmart, BarJoseph says

This product makes wet snow slide right off of both shovels and the chute of the snow blower. Result: less clogging of the blower and the I don't have to lift a heavy snow laden shovel or constantly be banging it on the ground to get the snow off of it. Awesome.

Sounds good.

---

Does Anyone use Pam to keep snow from Sticking?

Several replies:

Yes... I use the cheapest generic cooking spray I can find... I apply it each time I use any of my snowblowers, single or two stage. If they get used they get sprayed. I spray the chute, the impellers, augers and inside of the bucket. Usually try to have a decent coat of good wax on the outside so snow won't stick as well.

Some use WD-40...

I use spray silicon down in the impeller housing... and then I use ski wax on the inside surface of the chute... the ski wax I am hundred percent sure of the fact that it is actually formulated for cold snow, super slippery, and durable.

... fluid film... you can get it off line or at a Deere Dealer.

I never had a snowblower chute clog ... I wonder what is causing your chutes to clog?

---

How to Keep Your Snow Blower Chute from Clogging

As Google summarizes it:

• Use a Non-Stick Spray. Snowblower non-stick spray coats the chute and auger just like a cooking spray, shielding the metal so snow passes through without sticking, clumping, or clogging. ...
• Use a Clean-Out Tool. ...
• Go Faster.

Go faster. Wow. I'll have to try that. I've been slowing down, to go easy on the machine!

Notice the recommendation seems to be to use a spray that works like a cooking spray, not one that is cooking spray. However, I'm gonna try "the cheapest generic cooking spray I can find" first, as that's what I have. And maybe I'll go faster.

How to get those brass fittings apart

Lots of notes at this link:

How to remove garden hose nozzle that is stuck on a hose

.These stand out:

retiredjg:

Boil a big pot of water - in a pasta boiling pot. Carry the pot out to the recalcitrant hose/nozzle. Dip the nozzle and a few inches of hose into the pot for 30 seconds or a minute. Unscrew it. If this does not work, try again using a longer or shorter dunking time.

Masterblaster:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BibpHxS4ako

jharkin:

Usually the nozzle is in pretty bad shape as well and getting it apart requires techniques that may destroy it anyway, so I just cut off the hose with utility knife. Then repair it with a hose mender and a new nozzle...

sam5:

For the future, this situation can be prevented by using pipe tape (white teflon tape) when assembling the nozzle onto the hose, or the hose onto the house faucet.

LifeIsGood:

Be careful using Vice Grips on a soft metal fitting. Too much pressure can deform the fitting making it even harder to remove. I have had great success getting stuck threaded fittings apart with PBblaster. Readily available in hardware, auto and home centers.

So heat, or a saw, or PBblaster, or throw it away. And use teflon tape. Got it.