Progress on the Workshop

Built two more sets of shelves for the workshop. Here are all three:

Chebran Workshop - Shelves, Desk Supports

My wife drew this design for her workshop:

After a couple weeks of dinking around with different ideas, and acting on the advice of a few people, I set out to begin building the lower shelves, which are also the supports for the work table.

Planned the dimensions, bought the stuff, had the boards cut into sizes that I could fit into the Lexus, and drove home. Opened up my new power tools: a circular saw and a compact router.

Here is one edge that I routed. The router is my favorite carpentry tool so far. Very fun!

In goes the first shelf.

... all three shelves ...

The moment of truth! They fit!

Part Picking a 4-speed Transmission

I'm looking for a GM 440-T4/4T60 transmission to upgrade my fiero. Does anyone want to go with me? Here are the transmission's applications:

* 1982–1988 Buick Century
* 1986-1999 Buick LeSabre
* 1988–1996 Buick Regal
* 1989–1996 Buick Century
* 1990–1994 Chevrolet Lumina
* 1982–1990 Chevrolet Celebrity
* 1982–1988 Pontiac 6000
* 1989–1991 Pontiac 6000
* 1988–1996 Pontiac Grand Prix
* 1987-1999 Pontiac Bonneville
* 1989–1995 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera/Cruiser
* 1996 Oldsmobile Ciera
* 1988–1997 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme
* 1986-1999 Oldsmobile 88/LSS
* 1982–1988 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera/Cruiser

One Success, One Failure

My friend Corey gave me this old hydraulic jack that he didn't need (that he also received for free from someone). A few weeks ago, I tried to use it, but it didn't provide enough force to lift a car, so I just used my trusty tire jack that came with the Lexus. Today, acting on Corey's recommendation, I filled the jack he gave me with brake fluid. Now it works quite well!

So that was the success.



'Parked the Fiero in the garage and jacked it up to look for vacuum leaks. Several sources, including Corey, recommended using a gentle stream of propane to detect vacuum leaks while the engine was idling.

One of my sources was Eric the Car Guy on youtube. Here's a video about detecting vacuum leaks:



'Didn't find any vacuum leaks. I went up and down the vacuum lines and nothing happened. The engine didn't surge. It didn't cut out. Nothin'.

As a matter of fact, the car won't start now. The starter keeps cranking, but the engine won't turn over. Any ideas?

Grilled Chicken Panini with Apple Walnut Mushroom Salad

Last week, we had this exchange activity at church, where people brought stuff they didn't want and exchanged it for stuff they did want. Someone brought a George Foreman grill, which ... I wanted.

So, I took it.

For lunch today, Power Dime Mommy had taken some chicken breasts out of the freezer to thaw.

She needs a back massage, so I'm cutting this entry short. Here's what we ate:

Grilled chicken panini: chicken, italian cheese bread (power dime recipe), dijon mustard, mayo, and mushrooms.

Salad: Lettuce, apples, chopped walnuts, mushrooms, onions, organic cowgirl dressing, dijon mustard.

Lexus Upper Control Arm

Last year, we took our Lexus to a shop for a state safety inspection. The shop failed the car because the "passenger side upper control arm has a lot of play in it." They wanted $3000 to fix it.

No.

Our regular mechanic, who we trust, said that was baloney and that the car could pass the inspection, though we would need to look into getting the control arm replaced sometime in the next year.

It's next year.

Since that last inspection, the car has gradually started to shake more and more severely. So, I ordered the control arm off of ebay for about $80. Granted, the power dime garage was pretty bare on tools. I had a set of box wrenches and another of socket wrenches that my Dad gave me when I was in college. For this repair job, the following items were purchased:

2 3-ton jack stands
Torque wrench
24" breaker bar
20" breaker bar
19mm box wrench
Rope
Tie rod puller
Needle-nose pliers

First, the garage needed to be prepared. It was full of stuff, much of which was leather and other supplies for Power Dime Mommy's shoemaking business, Chebran. The lower-level bedroom is going to be her workshop, so her things got moved there. I hung that bicycle on the ceiling with two $2.00 rubber-coated hooks from the local hardware store. It's so awesome to have a functional garage again:















'Moved the car into the garage, jacked it up, took off the wheel, and got to work. Here's the tie rod puller pulling the steering knuckle off of the upper control arm. This has got to be my favorite tool:















If any of you are looking for do-it-yourself information, the internet is full of awesome sources of information. You'd be surprised how many free tutorials you can find on sites like youtube or eHow. Fortunately for me, some one put up an entire website on do-it-yourself car repair for the 1990-1994 Lexus LS 400. This guy owned a 1991, the year previous to my car. The site is full of clear explanations and photos; all of the pictures are accurate and help me get oriented to my car really quickly. I don't have to interpret ... "How does this photograph apply to my vehicle again?" The site requests that if you find the information useful, that you make a donation, which I haven't done yet, but will.

For this particular job, I had to pull the shock absorber out:

"Give me your tired, your poor ..."


















Here's a quick video comparing the old and new control arms:



Just to recap, the shop wanted $3000 for this repair. My mechanic probably could have done it in two hours, so $100 worth of labor, plus the part would cost $100 if I provided it, or he could buy it new for $300-$400. My wife and I figure we saved at least $100 worth of labor. In actual parts, I spent less than $100. I did have to buy a couple hundred bucks-worth of tools, but I get to keep the tools.

If you're looking to live on a power dime, NEVER go to a big franchise. Just do it yourself. It's so much fun!

Power Dime Fetus

Most of you have probably already seen him on facebook, but here he is:

Multi-grain in loaf pan

'Haven't written in a while. My bad. It's because I'm busy doing things ... power dime kinds of things, all of which I will write about. It's just been kind of crazy. Probably every blogger deals with this once they get over that initial hump of enthusiasm.

Just to have something to post, here's a couple of shots of a multi-grain bread that I made today. This loaf was supposed to be for our friends, the Egans. It's the third loaf this week that was supposed to be for them, but somehow, between me and the Power Dime Mommy, we can't seem to get our schedules to coincide with the bread being fresh at the right time to take over to the Egan's house. So, Egans, we still owe you a loaf for helping us pick up the green armchair, which I also still need to write about.

Here's the bread:


This loaf was inspired by the Costco multi-grain loaf, which is not baked in a form, but is baked as an oval lump of dough. The bread contains the following types of meal:

White flour
Hole-wheat flour
Rye flour
Whole grain rolled oats
Course-ground corn meal
Cracked wheat germ
Millet
Sunflower seeds

I will post a recipe sometime soon, but I want to post a video on how to make a basic white artisan loaf. Stay tuned.

Freecycle Baby Boy Clothes

Let me tell you ... the hand of Providence has been upon us. This woman on freecycle was giving away baby boy clothes. Power Dime Mommy contacted her to express interest and they arranged for me to go pick the clothes up.

When I arrived, I discovered that this woman's sister had, for whatever reason, given her a shopping bag full of new baby boy clothes, but this woman was going to have twin girls, so the clothes were useless to her.

These are new items. As I pulled them out of the bag to examine them, I realized that my son now has a nicer wardrobe than I and he isn't even BORN yet!



















These are the items. They include:

23 Onesies
5 caps
1 Elmo cap/footie set
4 bibs
2 burping rags
4 top/bottom sets
1 starter quilt
1 pair of sandals
1 nascar pacifier clip
3 striped tops
1 diaper
1 tube of creamy diaper rash ointment
1 unknown object

Here are a few highlights:


























Here is the unknown object. Can anyone tell us what this is?




















Like father, like son...

Freecycle Rocking Chair

There's this concept called freecycle, where individuals within a certain geographical area post things they are giving away for free on an email list. Everyone on the list receives a notice about the item to be given away. Users can also post things that they are looking for, in case anyone has any of those things.

Our freecycle list is a yahoo group. You can check out other yahoo groups at groups.yahoo.com.

We've used freecycle to get rid of a ton of things, like old jackets, clothes, rubber matting, an old suitcase, and a whack-a-mole that I somehow inherited from my sister.

Power Dime Mommy posted that she was looking for a rocking chair. Some lady responded that she had one that she could give us. Here it is:

Hanging Bi-fold Closet Doors

Warning:

When buying a house, be suspicious when the closet doors are not already hanging.

When I bought this house, it had these white bi-fold closet doors everywhere... well, in the two upstairs bedrooms and also to hide the laundry area. However, most of them were not hanging at the time. Someone told me, "Ah, these are easy to remount. You just..."

So, I bought the house.

I must have hung those doors 5 times in the first 3 months and they just kept falling off of their pivot joints, so I just gave up and let them stand there.

My nephew Callahan became the victim of one of those doors three or four years ago when one of them fell on top of him. Not good.

And really ... they were an eye-sore.

The problem seemed to be a little screw that held in the snugger that secures the upper pivot joint. No matter how hard I screwed that thing in, the joint kept sliding. Eventually, my screwdriver stripped the slot on the head of all my screws (the drive wasn't very deep and didn't offer very much torque resistance).

I drove all over Harrisonburg and Braodway looking for replacement screws: Lowes, Home Depot, Ace. I took the little screw with its stripped head and showed it to the associates at each location.

"I'm looking for this." In every location, we went over to the screw aisle and searched left to right, top to bottom through all the little drawers. No one had anything close to what I was looking for.

I searched online again and again. Couldn't find it.

More recently, I became resolved to fix those doors no matter what, even if it means replacing the hardware. But then it hit me: Don't replace the whole assembly. Just find the part that has the bolt in it. And here it is:

Remember, it's just the screw that I was after. Now I have 4 extra track sockets.

Some of the bottom pivots were also poorly installed, had wiggled their way loose, and left our home to start lives of their own. So, some of them also needed to be replaced.

Up they go ...




















Once we finished, the first thing that Power Dime Mommy said was, "It changes the whole room."

And so it does.

Checking Engine Error Codes

The Pontiac Fiero has an Engine Control Module (ECM). It's a little computer under the arm rest that registers error codes when any of the car's sensors detect a problem. Here's a quick how-to to check the engine codes.



As you can see from the video, I have a code 15 and a code 44. You can read about Fiero engine codes on the Fiero Forum.

Here's an explanation of my two error codes:

Code 15: Coolant Sensor (high voltage)
Because the Coolant Sensor never has an infinitely high resistance, the measured voltage should always be lower than the reference voltage. If the measured voltage is the same as the reference voltage, a problem exists with the Coolant Sensor. The ECM will set this code when it detects a problem with the Coolant Sensor (or when the coolant temperature actually drops below -30°C/-22°F).

Code 44: Oxygen Sensor - Lean Exhaust
The ECM will set code 44 when the ECM detects a low voltage from the oxygen sensor and the system is operating in Closed Loop (conditions must exist for longer than 20 seconds).Check the wires of the oxygen sensor, making sure they are not in contact with the exhaust manifold.

1. Check the oxygen sensor and replace if necessary.
2. Check the MAP sensor. If the ECM detects a higher than normal vacuum then this will cause the system to go lean. Disconnect the MAP sensor. If the lean condition goes away, then a problem exists with the MAP sensor.
3. Check for lean injectors.
4. Check for fuel contamination (specifically for contamination with water).
5. Check fuel pressure. If pressure is too low, the system will be lean.
6. Check for exhaust leaks. An exhaust leak can cause air to be pulled into the exhaust and past the sensor.
7. If you have spark knock, check the EGR system.

It's probably not a problem with the oxygen sensor, since I just had that replaced. My bet is on the fuel pump. Again, I'm not an experienced mechanic, but I do know that the fuel pump is sometimes weak and the engine sometimes has a hard time staying strong. Plus, my friend Corey tipped me off. He also said there's probably a vacuum leak. Both are probably true.

Intros

Well, I'm not really a daddy YET, but I will be in about 4 months. My wife and I are expecting a little boy in June and there is a LOT to do between now and then... and ... forever. Over the past few months, Power Dime Mommy and I have been playing the Power Dime game. The rules are very simple:

Make your lifestyle completely awesome while spending as little as possible.

Admittedly, one motivator for playing this game was the check I wrote to my mechanic last month to get our second car to pass inspection. The check was for over five hundred dollars and most of that was labor.

This car isn't worth that much.

I don't mean that the value of the car is less than $500, though my mechanic would have you believe otherwise. I mean that piddly little fixes on this car are not worth the money to pay a mechanic for labor. This means that I will no longer put off learning how to be a mechanic.

But it's not just about being a mechanic. It's about the three P's in my church's declaration: "The Family: Proclamation to the World." I quote:

"By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families."

There you have it: Preside, Provide, Protect. It sounds more catchy if you say them in this order: Protect, Provide, Preside.

That's irrelevant.

This blog is mostly about the provide part. One of the names that was considered for this blog was "Provident Daddy," but that just sounds awful.

To explore this paternal adventure, there will be several "series" or topics on this blog, all of which will involve spending as little as possible, while getting the maximum ROI:

Fiero
The 1986 Pontiac Fiero Restoration Series. This involves learning how to do mechanical work ... and body work ... and interior work. Basically, it's the whole car. Disclaimer: I'm not very knowledgeable about cars. I can't say I don't know anything about them, since my own Power Dime Dad and Power Dime Uncle helped me rebuild the front end of my Lexus a few years back ... twice. But in terms of understanding all the different systems and diagnosing problems, I'm a novice.

Bread-making
How much do you spend every year on bread? And let's face it: store-bought bread in America is froth. It's like eating a sponge. If you want to learn how to make awesome artisan bread in little time and for a fraction of what it costs to buy a similar loaf of bread in a bakery, you've come to the right place.

While we're at it ...

Gourmet Cooking
How about an occasional post on how to provide your wife and family with a yummy meal? Yes, dads can cook.

Home Improvement
Oh, boy. Lots to do here. We have walls to paint, a nursery to set up, furniture to acquire, a workshop to organize, a garage to bring back to life and a water heater to save.

Education
One of the missions of the Aaronic Priesthood is to help each young man obtain as much education as possible. It's time for me to get an MBA, but since we're doing this on the power dime, you can be certain that I'm not quitting my job and going to Harvard. I'm really interested to see how this series will turn out.

We've only got four months until the baby comes. Let's get crackin'!