Unclog a Slow or Stuck Sink Drain

The P-trap. It's not so scary, is it?

 So you have a clogged sink. What are your options? Well, you could call plumber, but they can be expensive. You could call your landlord, but what if they are slow to respond or you own your home? Another option is to pull up your sleeves and do it yourself. Sure, the job can be gross, but it's a very simple task and relatively difficult to break something in the process.

Most slow drains are, in my experience, caused by a gradual buildup of debris. Fortunately, sinks and drains are designed to be relatively easy to clean, when needed. Every sink should have what is called a P-trap somewhere near the drain connection to the sink. P-traps prevent things from going down the drain that shouldn't. If you ever lose a ring or other jewelry in the sink, don't worry, just check the P-trap. They are also a handy access point for unclogging drains.

P-trap and wonky connector.

 The first step to unclogging the drain is to remove the P-trap. You'll need a large wrench or pliers to unscrew the connectors. It's a good idea to clear out a space under the sink for you to work, and also have a container on hand to catch any water stuck in the P-trap.  Obviously, don't pour this water back down the sink until you are finished.

 In my case, I had this wonky* flexible plastic connector going from the sink to the P-trap (*not a technical term). I decided to just leave it on and remove the whole thing in one piece. I figured the clog could be in the flexible connector. Your sink setup is probably different, but I'm sure you can figure it out.

Once the P-trap is removed, the gross part begins. As I mentioned, the most likely culprit is a hairball. I had about a one-foot section of wire lying around, so I decided to fashion it into a hook to snag the hairball. It worked well because the wire is flexible, but still rigid enough to hold its shape. A wire clothes hanger would probably work well too.

I used some old wiring for a hairball hook.

Once you fish the hairball, avoid the urge to wildly fling it around the room. It's going to be gross, so be prepared. Have a trashcan nearby to get rid of it quickly. Gloves are also a good idea. If you're not like me, and a sludgy hairball doesn't gross you out, you'll have no problems.

When reattaching everything, take care not to crossthread the connections. Make it tight, but not too tight. Plastic connectors run the risk of breaking if tightened too much. Also, don't tweak any of the pipes. Have a firm grip on them when using the wrench or pliers.

After you're finished, run the water for a while to admire your work (and secretly check for drips if you're trying to impress anyone).

Broken Hammer Repair

I've had this old hammer sitting in storage for a while now. The problem, as you can see, is that it's slightly broken. Well, seriously broken. Fortunately, it's not very difficult to get it back into working order. Here's how I did it:

Most hammers, like this one, are based on a very old and simple design. Basically, the hammer head fits over the top of the handle and a couple wedges are pounded into the wood. This compresses the wood against the inside of the head, thus holding it firmly in place.

Unfortunately, my hammer handle broke inside of the head. This made the head wobbily and likely to fly off at the worst possible time.

You have two options to fix this sort of problem. You can either buy a new handle, or if you're lucky like I was, you can reuse the same handle. My first step was to cut the handle as close to the head as possible. Next, you'll need to hollow the wood out of the head. I ended up using another hammer and an old flathead screwdriver to chisel the wood. If your only hammer is broken, I guess you're out of luck...

If you can't reuse the handle, you'll have to buy a new one. In that case, you can skip this next step. Now if you are reusing the handle, you'll need to reshape the top of it so it can fit snugly inside the head.

I used an actual chisel to shave the top of the handle into a rectangular shape that would fit inside the head. This step will take some patience, but go slowly and keep checking the fit to make sure you aren't taking off too much wood. A nice tight fit is best.

Once the top of the handle is the right shape, use a hammer to pound the wedges back in. I made the wedges go with the grain, but I think the correct way is probably against the grain. In other words, make the wedges cut across the direction of the grain.

Make sure everything is secure, and you're all set.

Welcome Back / How to Use a Stud Finder

Well I'm back. I apologize for the hiatus, but I've been on a blogging break. I had a nice winter vacation and now school is starting up again. Hopefully I'll soon be back in the swing of things and get some regular posts on here again.

I've built up a decent amount of ideas. Here are some posts to come:
- Cleaning the 'fogging' from your car's old headlights.
- More WD-40 tests.
- Cleaning my keyboard (I haven't done it once in a good five years).
- X-mas gift update.
- Roof snow removal.

Also, I'm going to start adding videos to my blog. I've figured out how to do it, but I'm afraid you'll have to put up with the poor video quality. I'll be taking the videos on my digital camera. It gets decent image quality, but low frame rates so quick motion will appear jumpy.

About a month ago I finally acquired a stud finder. Trust me, this is an essential handyman tool. Sure, you can find studs the old-fashioned way by knocking or tapping on a wall and trying to feel and hear the difference between a stud and empty space, but I've learned that roommates and neighbors (if you live in an apartment) find that method particularly annoying.



This stud finder was just $5 at the local home improvement store. It's about as cheap as they come (heck, the two-pack of 9-volt batteries were almost as expensive as it), but it gets the job done. As far as features go, this is plenty.

The tool has a series of lights that flash and blink as you approach the stud. When the top green light illuminates, you know that you've found the center of it. Check out the video; it works.

So do you have any more blog / video ideas for the new year?

How-to: Replacing a Clothes Washer

A washer and dryer. These are two essential items for any college house. I mean, how are you otherwise going to wash your clothes? Take them to a laundromat? Hah, I don't think so. You'll wind up going quadruple-duty on that Star Wars shirt you got when you were 12, skimping out on an undershirt with dress shirts (who are you, Magnum PI?), and worst of all, eventually stealing your roommates socks. After all, they are always the first to run out. Let's not even start on underwear.

Up until yesterday, we had a washer that only kind of worked. It washed everything just fine, except it didn't move itself through the different cycles. So basically, you had to manually change the setting from wash, to rinse, to spin, etc, every 10 min or so. That sure was a pain.

So we got the washer and dryer from our old house and hauled it over (the new people that moved in were going to buy it but didn't pay up, so we repoed it). Here is how to go about replacing a washer:

First of all, unplug / disconnect everything. It's usually just a power cord (do that first), a hot and cold water connection, and a drain tube. You'll probably spill some water, but don't worry about it.

Next, muscle that sucker out of there. This will probably be the hardest part. Washers are a lot heavier than dryers. It's definitely a two person job. We had to haul it down some steps too. It would be awesome to have a hand truck for this part.

Notice the drain pipe on the bottom-left. That usually just pulls right out of another pipe in the wall with no problem.

Whao! What is that nastiness on the bottom of the wall?

Looks like we could have some water damage. Let's take a closer look...

Do I even want to take a closer look?



Yep, water damage. I would say that this picture actually does do it justice. That's just nasty. See that pipe right in the center with the "residue" on it? That's the drain for the two toilets in the house. I'll leave it at that.

But seriously, it's not *that* gross. The toilet drain wasn't leaking. All that mess is from a leaking water pipe. That will be another blog sometime, but for now, I'm going to hide all of this with the replacement washer. If I can move it...

New and old washers side by side. Not shown: my hernia.

Ironically, the new washer is the exact same model as the old one. Two of my three roommates probably won't even realize I replaced it and will figure it magically replaced itself.

All that's left to do now is reconnect everything. Make sure you get the hot and cold connections right. It's probably a good idea to try to get it somewhat level, too If it's really out of whack, it could get damaged by spinning off center. Now, after all this work, will you get the old one out of there?

Growler Lamp

So I was tidying up the garage today, and I found this broken old table lamp. About two years ago, I got the cheapo lamp at a local evil big-box store. Within a month that thing broke. One of the "metal" legs gave out. So I pulled a MacGyver and attached the workings of the lamp, which amazingly still worked, to an empty beer bottle.

It was quite handy, but the 12 oz. beer bottle didn't serve as a good base. I didn't give it much use. Back to the garage this morning, and I'm wondering what I can do with it. Well, I decided to use it with a growler bottle which would serve as a much better base.

This is an easy project and here's how to do it...

You'll need the workings of a lamp. I discovered today that you can easily get everything you need at your local home improvement store. It's all very easy to put together if you have all the pieces. Of course, you'll need the growler bottle. Here's the tricky part, you'll want to be able to pop the lamp part off if you ever need to use the bottle. So the best solution is to attach the lamp part to a cork, which fits snugly in the bottle neck. So go get yourself a cork too.


Here, I had just drilled through the cork and attached the lamp part to it with a bolt. Be gentle when drilling through the cork, since it is a cork and all...


Depending on your lamp pieces, you may not have this problem. I had to find some way to attach the bulb holder to the shade holder. I used a cable tie and some hot-melt glue.

Here's the final product. Not too shabby, huh? It might be a good idea to fill the bottle with something to give it a solid base. Grain or hops would be appropriate. Beer is probably not a good idea.

Not shown is how I did the wiring. It's pretty simple. Just attach the wire to the two connections on the bulb holder part. Pretty easy stuff.

This is a fairly easy project and it sure won't take all day. In fact, this went very quickly and I didn't run into any problems at all.

I hope this inspires you.

Broken Office Chair... Again!

Not again! Why can't a good office chair last more than two years without breaking? Remember this?: http://collegiatehandyman.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-to-2-fixing-that-busted-office.html

This time, my friend was just sitting there, albeit perhaps leaning back a little too far and maybe a little intoxicated, then WHAM! He's on the ground and there is a chair arm flying through the air.

It's the classic 'lean too far and end up ass over teakettle' scenario. Wheels are a nice convenience on an office chair, but they can quickly go from your best friend to worst enemy in a split second. To recreate this incident and warn everyone of the dangers of leaning back too far, I've enlisted the help of a local 3rd grade sketch artist. Here's what he came up with:

Please excuse the simplicity of this illustration. I hope you get the point - DON'T LEAN BACK TOO FAR!

Now, what to do about that arm? Well, first gather up all the pieces; those are probably important.

In this case, three screws along with the arm went flying. The screws actually tore out of the wood, so we'll have to get creative to reattach it, since those screw holes won't work with the screws anymore.

If you can't find the screws, you'll have to go get some new ones from the hardware store. You may need longer ones if this next step doesn't work for you...

Here you can see that the screw holes are torn up. Now I could use longer screws, but I managed to find all three and I plan on making them work.

This picture is actually of me in the process of turning that bracket around. I'm going to use those screws on the other side of the wooden arm support. Genius!

If you have access to a drill, predrilling the holes makes it a lot easier. Otherwise, wrestle them in there.

That's it. You're office chair lives to break again.

Guest Blog: Vacuum Fix.

How many broken vacuums do you have? We discovered one in our garage, and my girlfriend took it upon herself to handywoman it. Here's her story:


Vacuum cleaners, like office chairs in a college environment, tend to have a short life span. Even the smartest bag-less that boasts 12 amps and has a washable filter isn’t invincible to the demands of a collegiate household.

Recently, I was perusing the shop outside the house, which is home to a random assortment of dilapidated washing machines, office chairs and furniture that we inherited upon moving into our house and I saw a black vacuum, standing neatly against the wall.

Upon first inspection, the vacuum looked fairly new, just a little dusty. So I plugged it in, and tried to vacuum some dirt, but realized not only was the vacuum not sucking, it was blowing! I flipped it upside-down and examined what might be the problem, and noticed a large buildup of hair and lint behind the brushes.

I traced where a tube, leading to the bag-less dirt chamber, connected to the underside of the vacuum, and realized there was major clogage. I unscrewed a screw that was holding the tube in a curve, and was able to shove a long metal skewer (mmm anyone want to BBQ?), through the tube, unearthing about 4 solid inches of sawdust, hair clippings and lint. I put all the pieces back together, plugged it in, and viola, it sucked in a good way.

TOOLS NEEDED
-multi tool or drill

-skewer or plumberesque tool

How-to #2: Fixing that busted office chair.

Difficulty: Easy.

Everybody has them well, at least one of them. How many office chairs do you have that are in need of repair? There are two in our garage alone. Granted, those are waaay beyond help, but I'd be willing to bet that there is a squeak or wobble in the chair that you're sitting in right now.


Guess what? You don't have to live this way. Here are a couple easy tips on getting that chair of yours back in shape. Think about it, no more stretching back and wondering if that rickety chair is about to send you ass over teakettle...


So I just fixed my girlfriend's chair a few minutes before this post. It was very easy. The problem was a missing screw, which caused the back to basically hang there ready to fall off.

The solution was simple. All it needed was another screw. Anna went off to the local hardware store with the one good screw to find a match. She was able to find it without any problems, and now the chair is as good as new again.

The chair that I'm sitting on right now is actually a repair job. I bought this "broken" chair from my old roommate for $5. It's a nice chair that was probably about $75-100 brand new. The only problem was the back was pretty much hanging by one screw (I'm starting to think this is a common problem in office chairs).

Again, one trip to the hardware store solved this problem. The screws didn't quite have a big enough head on them, so I MacGyver'ed some washers out of beer bottle tops.

So why not stretch back and spin a few circles? Does that chair of yours need some work?

How-to #1: Installing a can crusher.

Difficulty: Easy.

Ok, my first real post. Here's a little background on this project. Last year I lived in what you could call a "party house." Think of the stereotypical college frat, but without the frattiness. We would have parties every weekend with often dozens of people showing up. This created quite the garbage problem for us.

What we would usually do is just bag it all up and throw it away. But this got to be pretty expensive from all the extra garbage cans (garbage pickup billed per can). The garbage from parties in addition to the normal trash that six guys make on a weekly basis really started to add up. We first tried limiting ourselves to cans and no bottles. This cut down on garbage a little bit, but it wasn't the solution we needed.

We eventually started saving our cans to take them to a recycling place that actually paid us for them. Yes, they paid us! Aluminum can actually be worth it to save up and sell to recyclers. I don't remember the exact figures, but I think we had well over a hundred pounds after six months or so, and they definitely gave us about $80 bucks for it. What really made it a lot easier was having a can crusher on the wall. We eventually trained people to take their own cans over to it, crush them, and drop them in a special garbage can for cans only. Here's how to make one:

What you'll need:
1. A store bought can crusher (duh).
2. Tools: A hammer, and a screwdriver (preferably a drill instead).
3. Supplies: One small finish nail (to find a stud), and possibly some 2" sheetrock screws.

Step one: Find your spot for the crusher.
We found it's best to put the crusher at about chest height. Find a spot on a wall where you can put a trash can to collect the cans in. This is where you'll put the crusher. You can try knocking on the wall with your finger to try to find the stud. Use the small nail to check if there is actually a stud there (the small nail will either hit or miss a stud. If it misses, it's just a small hole that no one will notice).

Step two: Install the crusher.
The crusher will likely have more than two holes. Just make sure that two of the screws hit the stud. Also, the screws that come with the crusher might not be long enough. One inch would be the minimum that you want if you're putting it on a sheetrock wall. Just screw it in and you're done.

One more thing, don't crush full cans! The best that could possibly come from this is making a huge mess. Ok, better tip, don't let other people crush full cans!