The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

The New Hotness

  • Worm Bin Valve Transplant

    For reasons not relevant here, I have a spare water heater drain valve with a thread matching the drain valve for the Can-o-Worms bin:

    Can-o-worms drain valve vs. water heater valve
    Can-o-worms drain valve vs. water heater valve

    It lacks the flange required to seal the O-ring against the outside of the bin, but I can fix that:

    Can-o-worms - sleeved valve
    Can-o-worms – sleeved valve

    It’s a chunk of PVC pipe faced to the proper length, bored to fit the valve body, then gooped in place with acrylic caulk.

    Snug the nut inside the bin and it’s all good:

    Can-o-worms - new valve installed
    Can-o-worms – new valve installed

    The original valve depended on having a smooth plug turning inside the outer shell, but years of grit scarred the interface enough to produce a slow drip. It also had the annoying mis-feature of aiming the opening inward, between the bin legs, where a jug didn’t quite fit.

    The water heater valve depends on compressing a smaller O-ring against a seat inside the body, which may tend to clog with crud. We added a mesh filter to hold back the worst of the gunk, so this is in the nature of an experiment using free hardware.