Exhausted

Only a small rusted exhaust came with the mower motor. It's really loud and might anger neighbors, so i tried making a new, quieter one.

There's many types of exhaust styles. There are high-tech noise cancellation mufflers, but the one i chose, which was also the simplest to make was just a straight baffled design. That's where the inner pipe is drilled out and insulation is wrapped between that and the outer shell.

Here's an example of the basic ideas i tried to follow
After removing the old exhaust i connected steel plumbing pipes.

Here's what the inner pipe looked like after i drilled out the holes
Then wrapped it with steel wool and fiber glass

Here it is on the mower. I'm still working on it because it's still pretty loud.

Mailing Coconuts

While in the grocery store i saw coconuts on sale so i bought 3. I read somewhere and then i saw it was on Mythbusters, that you can send a coconut in the mail. Not in a box, but just by putting the address and a few stamps on it. I decided to mail them to Adam in Arizona, John in Colorado and Katie & John in Michigan.

They each weighed over 2 pounds at first, but at home i drilled a small hole and emptied out the liquid.

Then i used hot glue to fill the hole.

I wrote their addresses on them then went to the post office. At that point, while waiting in line i realized how dumb this was, but the lady there said ya it's no problem. At the post office they weighed about a pound and a half. Postage was $5.
Katie and Adam said the coconuts arrived so i guess the stamps stayed on. I'm not sure what happened to the one i sent John, it's M.I.A.

Wood Bench

Karrie asked if i could make a quick and simple bench for her back yard, just cut a couple of 2x4's and nail them together. Instead i decided to make this:
Obviously it took a bit more time and effort but it was basically the same cost, right around $30. I measured several existing chairs to get the right dimensions and sketched several different designs on paper until i ended up with something i liked. Then i drew it on AutoCAD to get the right dimensions and made sure it all went together correctly. Here's an image of the AutoCAD drawings i made.Here are the actual PDF files:
PDF 1
PDF 2
I printed out the full size pattern then cut out the pieces. I added the holes to lighten the weight, which i think it makes it look better too. Again form and function working together.
I spent a few hours tracing the patterns onto the wood, then cut out all the pieces.

I used a router to round over all the edges, then screwed and glued everything together.
There were a few surprises. One major change was that i decided to make it 4' wide instead of 5' wide. When i put the first 2 slats on i realized that it was too wide, so i cut them down to 4'. That also meant that it was stronger and there would be no wasted wood since they were 8' boards.
It didn't turn out exactly as i hoped. The seat could be longer and back rest could have been be more comfortable.

Once i had it all together i took off the slats then sanded, stained and put two coats of polyurethane on everything.