Tag: Gardening

Growing and sometimes fixing

Worm Bin Fly Trap

Despite freezing the kitchen scraps going into the worm bin since the previous fruit fly infestation, a zillion flies are now in residence. Lacking the peppermint-stick tube of yesteryear, I conjured another fly trap from common household items:

Worm Bin Fly Trap – overview

The gap around the top got a strip of tape after I took the picture.

The gallon jug has cardboard stiffeners supporting a sheet of the sticky paper I used for the onion fly traps:

Worm Bin Fly Trap – sticky paper holder

I was all set to 3D print a threaded adapter to join the two bottles when I realized they already had lids. A few minutes of lathe work added a passageway:

Worm Bin Fly Trap – Bottle caps

They’re held together by a generous ring of hot melt glue:

Worm Bin Fly Trap – lighting detail

The LED strip provides enough light to simultaneously attract the flies and repel the worms.

The laser cuttery looks like this:

Worm Bin Fly Trap – LightBurn parts

The white shape in the black block is a scan of the cut-open jug, with the other shapes in that row being rectangularized versions. The two tiny notches in the Top and Bottom shapes hold the sticky paper.

The two rings at the top adapt the LED-wrapped bottle to the existing fitting on the worm bin from the previous episode. They’re visible as shadows near the bottom of the bottle.

The circle is a laser-cut hole in the gallon jug bottom for the screened plug made for the pepermint-stick tube; the less said about that operation the better.

So far, so good, although previous experience suggests the flies will be breeding ahead of their (considerable) losses for the next few weeks.

2025-09-30
Taylor Rain Gauge Holder Spike

One of Mary’s gardening buddies gave her a Taylor rain gauge he picked up at a closeout sale, but the exceedingly thin aluminum holder obviously wasn’t up to the task:

Taylor Rain Gauge – OEM metal stake

I briefly considered 3D printing a better bracket, but came to my senses:

Taylor Rain Gauge holder – front

A generous fillet of tan JB PlasticBonder holds the thin aluminum clamp ring to the top of the ~~dagger~~ spike:

Taylor Rain Gauge holder – rear

The spike is 6.3 mm acrylic and should survive for a while despite the stress-raiser corners. The next iteration will have radiused corners and could last longer:

Taylor Rain Gauge Holder – LightBurn layout

The holes will fit 4 mm screws, although the OEM holder isn’t good for more than 3 mm.

The LightBurn SVG layout as a GitHub Gist:

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view raw Taylor Rain Gauge Holder – LightBurn layout.svg hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Took longer to write it up than to do it, even counting mixing the adhesive.

2025-08-13

Hose Fitting Grip Redux

Replacing the sun-rotted hose for Mary’s garden called for a new grip, because of course all hose fittings are different:

Garden Hose Fitting Grip - installed — Garden Hose Fitting Grip – installed

The ridges on the fitting looked close enough to half-cylinders and the fitting wasn’t tapered enough to worry about:

Hose Fitting Grip - simple - solid model — Hose Fitting Grip – simple – solid model

The OD came from the original grip, because it neatly fits Mary’s hand, and the nubbles are round-end cylinders.

Got it done the day after the old hose split, glued it on the hose with E6000+, installed it the next morning, whereupon the weather delivered three inches of rain. It’ll get screwed onto the faucet in a few days …

The OpenSCAD source code as a GitHub Gist:

	// Hose fitting grip – simple plastic extrusion
	// Ed Nisley – KE4ZNU
	// 2025-07-30

	include <BOSL2/std.scad>

	/* [Hidden] */

	HoleWindage = 0.2;
	Protrusion = 0.1;
	NumSides = 324;

	$fn=NumSides;

	ID = 0;
	OD = 1;
	LENGTH = 2;

	NumRibs = 8;
	RibOD = 3.0;

	GripOA = [32.5,66.0,16.0];

	KnobBallOD = 6.0;

	union() {
	difference() {
	tube(GripOA[LENGTH],id=GripOA[ID],od=GripOA[OD],orounding=2.0,anchor=BOTTOM);
	for (a = [0:NumRibs-1])
	rotate(a*360/NumRibs)
	right(GripOA[ID]/2) down(Protrusion)
	cyl(GripOA[LENGTH] + 2*Protrusion,d=RibOD,anchor=BOTTOM);
	}
	for (a = [0:NumSides-1])
	rotate(a*360/NumSides)
	right(GripOA[OD]/2)
	up(GripOA[LENGTH]/2)
	cyl(GripOA[LENGTH]/2,d=KnobBallOD,rounding=KnobBallOD/2);

	}

view raw Hose Fitting Grip – simple.scad hosted with ❤ by GitHub

2025-08-04

Solar Garden Light

I salvaged a solar garden light from the Vassar Community Gardens midden heap and stripped it down:

Solar garden light – internal

The single IC is a YX805 “solar lawn light boost control chip” and the resistor-like thing is a 82 µH inductor setting a 13 mA input current.

Cleaning off some minor corrosion, charging the NiMH cell, and soldering an amber LED onto the pigtail wire brought it back to life.

It’s now perched on the porch railing where it catches some afternoon rays:

Solar garden light – deployed

Maybe we can think of something better for it to do …

2025-07-25
Dripworks Micro-flow Valve Knob Crack

One of the Dripworks Micro-flow valves in Mary’s garden blew a fan-shaped spray into the air when she turned the water on for the first time this season. Fortunately, the main valve is far away and she didn’t get hosed down.

I replaced the deader from my Bag o’ Prepared Spares and autopsied it:

Dripworks Micro-flow valve – knob crack

The poor thing may have frozen and cracked during the winter. Seeing as how this would have been its fifth year in the garden, we can’t kvetch too much.

2025-05-27
Champion Hose Nozzle: TPU Washer

There being nothing like a good new problem to take one’s mInd off one’s old problems, I set the Makergear M2 to printing TPU and made a washer for the Champion Hose Nozzle:

Champion hose nozzle – TPU vs rubber washers

It turns out PrusaSlicer can produce models for simple shapes using the Shape Gallery. Subtracting a 7.5 mm cylinder (as a “negative shape”) from a 12.7 mm = ½ inch cylinder does the trick, with the washer all of 2.5 mm thick.

The ID of the thread inside the nozzle is slightly smaller than 12.7 mm, but TPU is bendy enough to let me push it through sideways and reorient it against the front of the nozzle.

The conical part of the nozzle seals against the washer, leaving only a very slight ooze of water, and opens far enough to produce a jet. The TPU is solid enough to not vibrate in the flow and the nozzle no longer howls at low flow rates.

None of the other nozzles in the box have a washer up in there, so they all depend on a much better machined fit than I achieved.

At least the Champion nozzle is once again usable, should it ever emerge from the bottom of the box.

2025-04-29
Champion Hose Nozzle: Needs a Washer?
An email discussion suggested the Champion hose nozzle might, once upon a time, have had a washer between the conical and cylindrical sections.

So I made one:

Champion hose nozzle – rubber washer

The details:
- OD = ½ inch
- ID = 9/32 inch
- 2.5 mm stamp pad rubber
It sealed perfectly, but, just before shutting off, the washer vibrated in the water flow and gave off an ear-shattering (even to my deflicted hearing) howl.

Perhaps a stiffer and thinner washer with a slightly larger OD would work better.

A quick check of similar nozzles in the Box o’ Hydraulics shows none of them feel like they have a compliant washer in there, but any sufficiently old rubber will have long since fossilized.

This seems like a good job for a 3D printed washer with a conical face, made from slightly squishy TPU plastic to ease it past the nozzle’s internal threads. All I need is the ability to print TPU …
2025-04-22