On The House tips

Gooey Oven Solution

Has holiday cooking rendered your your kitchen oven "gooey"? Here's how to clean it without a lot of effort. To give your oven a good cleaning, pre-heat it to 200 F before going to bed. Then, put a bowl of ammonia on the center rack, close the door and leave the kitchen exhaust fan on low. Next morning you'll find the ammonia has softened crusty spills and they'll wipe up easily with a damp rag. To clean gooey oven racks and barbecue grills, put them in a plastic trash bag with ammonia, seal with a twist tie and let them soak overnight. Next morning wash them in the tub or hose them off. If you hate ammonia and live in warm weather, just leave them on the lawn overnight. Evening dew and enzymes in the grass will do the job. And that's the On The House tip for today.

See more tips in the Appliances category!

Clean Good Wood to a "T"

The tannic acid in tea works wonders on many types of fine woods and high-gloss lacquer finishes. Brew a strong pot of tea, let it cool and then gently apply it to wood with a soft cloth. Then wipe it off with a clean cloth. You'll be pleased with the smudge-free luster it achieves—especially on high-gloss black lacquer.

See more tips in the Cleaning category

Get on the wagon

Scott Sklar is President of The Stella Group in Washington, D.C., a distributed energy marketing and policy firm.

Scott, co-author of "A Consumer Guide to Solar Energy", uses solar technologies for heating and power at his home in Virginia.

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Velcro Extreme

Extreme Hook & Loop Fasteners
Specially formulated for rough surfaces and all weather conditions.

Superior holding power meets requirements of demanding indoor and outdoor applications. Adheres to porous outdoor surfaces such as concrete, brick and stucco.

No need for drilling, nails, screws or epoxy. 1" x 4" strips. Ten sets per pack. $6.00

Bendy concepts

Neatflex has a unique construction
that enables it to be quickly formed
into strong, smooth custom curved surfaces
with less weight than other techniques.

Perforated mdf panels

T&G-look mdf panels

Neatform – the double skin technique is a particular gem, because fabricators can easily create freeform frameless curves.

repeat: Trim ideas & fast glue

garymkatz.com:
Fastcap recently introduced a revolutionary new fast-acting glue that sets in about 10-15 seconds. and is virtually unbreakable. I cut miters on the ends of several pieces of baseboard about 4' long and no one's been able to break one yet, at least not without stomping them on the floor.

Unlike Gorilla glue, shelf life is guaranteed two years.

Other Fastcap innovations: sumostrap
A $20 belt holder for any object --

tapes,
phones,
bottles,
tools,
gear

YOU adjust it
for YOUR needs.


Check out the Hooker for help with countertop sink cutouts. Check out SpeedTape to eliminate slow and messy contact cement. Check out the dripless glue bottle, Glü-Bot, plus the applicator time-savers.

I think this company is thinking.

Blum supplies

Blum Hinges -- more than I was expecting.

INTERLACING COLLECTION, Woven Square

Under $20 for an excellent gingerbread piece.
More in Wood Products.
About 100 variations.


Blum manufactures hinge, drawer and pull-out systems as well as assembly devices for furniture fittings, but sells quite a variety of products:

HERA ARCLAMP at about $50 for over-cabinet installation.

Tradition can kill sales.

I haven't been able to find the words to describe the error of many marketing firms that insist on describing their products by using internal codes.

Supposedly to encourage you to see the range and caliber of their offering, for example, here are a variety of shape profiles:

Cabinet Door Edge Details

U-0860 U-0340 U-0114 U-0644 U-0215 U-0162 U-412 U-0870 U-0207 U-0677
U-0358 U-0360 U-0175 U-0090 U-0198 U-0122 U-313 U-0108 U-0285 U-381
U-0099 U-0154 U-0190 U-0885 U-314 U-255 U-284 U-322 U-454 U-0220 U-453
U-0241 U-0147 U-0230 U-0065

Informative, huh?!?

I am instantly suspicious if a firm takes no interest in saving time or money for their customers.

Woodworking Wheels

Bardo Flex Woodworking Wheels are polyurethane foamed wheels with either Garnet or Silicon Carbide, and they are the hardest wheels available for sanding knife marks off raw boards only.

• Rotate 8" OD wheels
800 - 1000 Rpm on hardwoods

• 1700 Rpm for sanding on MDF & pine

• 4 densities available - Xtra, High, Low, Soft

"Flex Flapwheels" are flexible, very conformable wheels made with all non- woven abrasive material. Very soft finishes can be achieved at the end of staining or sealing process. • Defuzzing wheels for raw lineal mouldings. • Removes raised fibres after stains, primers & sealers without disturbing coat below.

Much more tool design and development needs to be encouraged in the non-woven and foamed arena. Field technicians in specialty millwork and construction could shave significant costs if portable and handheld innovations were introduced.

Flex Flap. Sounds like something I've noticed accruing near my belt line over the years.

California Plants

If you overindulge your desire to make a "statement" through your garden, you'll kill the forest.

Superb, complete and thoughtful Guidelines for Planting California Native Drought Tolerant Plants. Do all states and regions have activities encouraging native restoration?

California Native Habitats, communities and plants.
Habitat, niche, plant community, biome, ecotone, and ecosystem are different ways of attempting to define a group of plants and their associated situation(s)(plants,animals, insects, non-living, etc.).Sometimes habitat is used incorrectly as a synonym for niche, sometimes as a synonym for biome, we're using habitat as the step above community but below biome, where a set of unrelated plants inhabit the same situation over multiple plant communities. In many areas of the state it is difficult to define which plant community is on a site, as the plants from several plant communities intermingle together along the ecotones (the areas where plant communities overlap or merge). Other areas of the state are so trashed that only one or two native plant species are left, and they exist in two or three plant communities.

Communities/Habitats by City Name

Communities/Habitats by Zipcode

cost of the bulb

"LED lighting will be used to replace virtually every type of light, bulb, and lamp that is currently in use." Light Components LED Corp.

The operational life of current white LED lamps is 100,000 hours. This is 11 years of continuous operation, or 22 years of 50% operation. The long operational life of an led lamp is a stark contrast to the average life of an incandescent bulb, which is approximately 5000 hours.

There is no comparison between the cost of LED lights vs. traditional incandescent options. With incandescent bulbs, the true cost of the bulb is the cost of replacement bulbs and the labor expense and time needed to replace them. These are significant factors, especially where there are a large number of installed bulbs. For office buildings and skyscrapers, maintenance costs to replace bulbs can be enormous.

UNDERSTANDING WOOD STRUCTURES

UNDERSTANDING WOOD STRUCTURES
Washington State University's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering has put together a series of learning modules that provide an introduction to the behavior and design of wood and timber structures. The information was developed to build an understanding of wood as an engineering material. Includes a useful simple-span calculator for joists and rafters.

PREPPING FOR WALLPAPER

PREPPING FOR WALLPAPER How do you strip wallpaper without taking the drywall facing with it? Unless the wall was treated with a wall-covering primer, the drywall paper will come off, too. Tish Iorio recommends a suitable prep coat, as well as a coating to repair the damaged drywall.