Monthly Archives: September 2018

Creativity is Contagious, Pass It On…

By Tom Pawlak — GBI Technical Advisor

My career at Gougeon Brothers is coming to an end. By the time you read this article, I will have moved on to new things, the things that retired people do such as travel, kayak, volunteer, read books, and tinker creatively in my shop.

There is a place inside each of us where creativity bubbles freely. Creativity is a gift that needs to be tapped into and shared with others to fully blossom into something beautiful. Tinkering has always been a creative outlet for me. I wonder why many of us seldom tap into it. Possibly we were embarrassed as a child after showing someone our creations. The emotional wounds we suffered early in life may cause us to stop sharing ideas and creating things. Continue reading →

300 Mini Pumps

To buy or not to buy?

By Terry Monville — GBI Technical Advisor

Do I really need the Mini Pumps?

If it’s a two-part epoxy, why are there three pumps in the package?

The pumps look the wrong size to fit my cans. Are you sure these are the right ones?

Selling WEST SYSTEM Epoxy in a retail environment for more than 20 years, those were the three most common questions I received.

These are valid questions. We’ve all been in a situation where the salesperson is trying to upsell us or has no clue what we really need. In the case of Mini Pumps, however, the salesperson is trying to do you a favor.

Continue reading →

Fiberglass Repair on a Yamaha WaveRunner

By Jordan Teddleton

I wanted to purchase a personal watercraft so I’d be able to join my friends at the local lake for some fun in the sun this summer. Like most people on a budget, I searched Craigslist for the best deal. I needed something low maintenance, so a WaveRunner™ felt like a good fit. After a week of looking, I found a 2004 Yamaha GP1300r that appeared to be in decent shape; however, a strangely placed sticker on the top port side turned out to be covering a painful past. Continue reading →

Readers’ Projects, Issue 47

Carrom Board

ABOVE: Suresh Kalavala of Galloway, Ohio built this waterproof Carrom game board. The frame is walnut, the corners are quilted maple and the game surface is Baltic birch plywood laser printed with a wide-format UV LED printer. He coated the surface with 8 coats of 105 Resin/207 Special Clear Hardener to protect the design. The resulting finish was actually too smooth and hard for optimum playing (The game involves flicking game pieces into the corner pockets), so he sanded it and added a layer of polyurethane to provide the correct texture. For details, visit diycarromboard.blogspot.com