Men's style and design from Men and Women of Industry » How To

How to: Concrete counter

heyhansen — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 17:14:29 +0000

After living with a plywood kitchen counter for far too long, I finally tackled this project. Lots of resources out there, but all roads lead back to Fu Tung-Cheng. All in all it’s a pretty straightforward process, build a mold (don’t forget it’s a mirror image!), mix the concrete, polish as obsessively as you’re comfortable with, seal, wax, and install (recruit strong friends). For far too many photos of my project, view it here.

Steps:

Build a mold using melamine
Seal the seams with black (for visibility) caulk
Float metal fencing in middle of mold and add rebar based on size
Mix concrete, add polystyrene fibers, water reducer and of course color or aggregate as desired
Carefully break out of mold and start grinding working your way up the grits
Seal with a food safe sealant and wax

Drink of the Week: Cognac Sour

jrose — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:50:54 +0000

Cognac Sour:

Cognac
Lemon Juice
Grated Ginger
Simple Syrup
Strainer
Crushed Ice
Martini Glass

How To: Townie Upgrade

jrose — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:49:18 +0000

There seems to be a plethora of older American made frames out and about (Schwinn, Ross, etc.) that can be had for dirt cheap. I picked up this American Ross frame at a flea for almost nothing and made a few upgrades. After a bit of searching on Sheldon Brown, I realized that there was an easy way to ditch that old one piece crank and those dopey pedals for a nice new crankset with a decent front ring size. Pretty simple, fun project and a nice upgrade to make the townie more of a force to be reckoned with.

1. Remove old cranks and knock off the metal cups with a hammer and screwdriver. These American frames have a huge diameter where the bottom bracket goes (I’m assuming to allow the one piece cranks to be snaked through the frame) so an adapter is needed to allow modern bottom brackets to be threaded inside.

2. Push in and tighten down the bottom bracket adapter. It helps to dry fit the adapter and bottom bracket beforehand to make sure you’re installing the correct side of each of the adapter pieces on the correct side of the frame (or you can do it wrong first like me).

3. Screw in the bottom bracket with the bottom bracket tool.

4. Screw on the crank arms with an allen wrench.

5. Fit the chain to the new chainring size. Done.

Off the Hanger : Crayfish Boil

jrose — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:22:59 +0000

This is one of those activities that seems like everyone who lives around some fresh water could easily do. Fun for the kiddies too (just keep ‘em away from the sharp end). I’ve done it in the past just catching them one by one, but it makes it rough to get a meal, I think its time to step it up a notch.

Penfield Stapleton (now available on pre-oder). You know I’m a sucker for the zip off sleeves.
Ranchway Tee.
Seward Range pants (I know, I know, but its about the closest I can find to that thickness we were talking about).
Gee’s Trap. I like the looks of this one, but I’m sure the ones here work much better.
Old Bay.
Boris beer. The small bottles will make it look like the crayfish are bigger.
Crayfish Bait.
Industrial Stock Pot.
Hodgman Hip Boots.
Sea to Summit Foldable Bucket.
Outdoor Burner.

How To : Restore Fiberglass Shell Chairs

jrose — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:26:46 +0000

I was lucky enough to convince my sis to give me a couple vintage shell chairs she saved from a remodeled dog track. So, I hunted around and found this article about restoring them to an almost original luster.

Quick and dirty summary of the process:

1. Spray the chairs with soapy water to cut down on the fiberglass dust factor when sanding.

2. Sand with sanding blocks starting with a medium grit and working down towards a fine grit (or if you want to get all Hyde on it, you can go as fine as you want).

3. Clean all fiberglass dust and water from the chair.

4. Apply Penetrol (yeah worst name ever for a product) with a rag that isn’t going to shed into the fibers, I used an old pillowcase. I ended up applying 3 coats due to the fact that they had been sitting outside and lost the clear coat on the seat and absorbed a ton of the Penetrol in the process.