Air & C02 Rifles and Pistols

Customizing the Leshiy 2 – Adding the Behemoth and Mounting the Athlon Scope

As mentioned in the last post, I had my various parts and it was time to start assembling them. In this post I’ll cover the Behemoth moderator and mounting the Athlon Midas Tac scope.

The Wolverine Short has a 250mm Walthar Lothar barrel. The four screws you see toward the front of the receiver are what holds it in place. Changing the barrel is just a matter of loosening those screws.

The Behemoth Moderator

Legal Disclaimer – I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. Airguns aren’t covered in the Gun Control Act (GCA) so they aren’t regulated and the moderators that go on them aren’t. The minute you try and put an airgun or paintball moderator on a firearm, the ATF will consider it a supressor, subject to the GCA and you will be in a lot of trouble for an NFA violation. So, whatever you do, don’t do anything or have anything that will let you mount an airgun moderator on a firearm.

In talking with firearm people, the first thing they do when they see a moderator on an airgun is ask if it is a suppressor. Yes and No. Yes, they are designed to reduce the decibels and pitch of the high-velocity air to muffle the sound like a suppressor but they are specifically design for airguns.

You open up a moderator and you will see materials that can’t handle the heat and pressure of a firearm on purpose. For example, a Behemoth moderator uses felt inside – you don’t see exotic metals. They also use a different thread pattern to mount intentionally. A .22 firearm will likely be threaded 1/2-28 and an airgun is 1/2-20. In the case of a Leshiy 2, the thread is M14x1.25.

In short, at this time, we can run moderators on airguns and I am glad we can because I don’t want loud noises to scare the pests or any people who might wonder what the relatively loud “crack” sound is when I shoot. Note, if you aren’t familiar with precharged pneumatic (PCP) rifles, they can really bark. In general, the larger the caliber the louder they are.

Tucked in the handguard is the trilug adapter for mounting the Behemoth.

I run a Behemoth Trilug with extra baffles on the FX Impact Compact Mk II in .25 caliber and it has stunning noise reduction. I bought one for my Hatsan Jet II and was surprised that it didn’t reduce the noise as much so I went with a Huggett Standard Snipe and really like it. So, that’s how I wound up with a spare Behemoth sitting around.

I bought some spare baffles, which you can do as the Behemoth is modular, and started with four to see how it did for sound reduction.

Adding bagFFes is just a matter of unscrewing the Behemoth in the middle, putting a light bit of silicone grease on the new section’s o-ring and screwing it together. The cream color you see in the moderator sections is felt – this was designed for airguns.
If you are thinking that looks really long – it was really long. I was hoping to have it as quiet as possible so I sacrificed my hope for it to be really short. Given a choice. I’d opt for longer but quieter.

Mounting the Scope

When I buy rings or a scope mount, I buy the lowest option I can. I don’t like to have large distance from the center of the barrel’s bore to the center of the scope as that increases parallax and the amount of the point of impact will shift if the target moves closer or further away from the distance the scope was sighted in at.

This is to illustrate the difference between mounting a scope higher vs. lower. So the top blue line is a scope that is mounted further away than the lower scope symbolized with the green line. Look where the lines cross to the right this is where both scopes are sighted in at. Now look to the left and to the right and the gap between the bottom orange line – the change in point of impact is more dramatic for the scope that is mounted higher. Yeah, I’ll never get awards for my drawings but what I want you to take away from this slide is that lower is better when mounting a scope unless you have a reason you need to go with higher mounts such as clearing a rifle’s action, you want to see through the rings or shooting extremely long distances just to name a few.

With that said, I bought my American defense mount with a flat rifle top in mind and the objective lens housing clearing the top of the Leshiy 2. Now, with the Leshiy 2, I figured my mount as though the top were flat, such as with an AR. The way you determine the height of rings you need for a flat top is to get the diameter of the widest part of your scope – often times that is the objective at the front. Let’s say it measures 2.25″. We take half of that and we get 1.125″. Now rings measure from the center of the scope because most rings and mounts crade half of the optic in the lower portion. We need a ring or a mount just greater than 1.1″. Now if you plan to put a lens cap or something else that adds to the diameter, you need to increase accordingly. If you have a rifle where the barrel tapers down away from the receiver, you factor that in also.

The American Defense AD-Recon-30-Std mount raises the scope 1.472 inches – plenty for the scope with a diameter of 2.25″ that has a half-size of 1.125″. American Defense mounts are my preferred mounts hand down. Quality machining and finishing. The things are just rock solid.

Next, I loosely insert the scope in the mount so I can do some testing in terms of front-to-back positioning to get an eye relief that I like. The eye relief of a scope is how far your pupil is from the glass to get the correct sight picture. I like the scope to be placed so that when I shoulder the rifle, the optic is at the ideal location naturally and I don’t have to move my head forward and backward.

I loosely install the scope in the mount and then experiment shouldering the rifle to determine the placement of the mount and where the scope sits in the rings. The rings are snug enough to hold the scope but still let me move it.

I then put the rifle in my Tipton gun vise, leveled the rifle by placing a level on the picatinny rail of the Leshiy 2. I adjusted it until it was true. I then put a second level on the top scope cap and leveled the scope. The goal was to keep the Leshiy 2 level, the scope level and then confirm by looking through the scope that the reticle appeared true with the rifle – it did.

Lastly, I use a laser boresight to initially zero the scope. Since my desired zero was 12 yards, I used the laser boresight to adjust the elevation and windage of the scope accordingly. I do like laser boresights – in general they at least get you on the paper. Please note, there are and incredible number of variables thaat can and will affect where your pellets actually yet. A boresiht just gets you in the ballpark. You will still need to actually shoot the rifle and do the final dialing in of the scope.

Laser boresights can save you time and headaches by helping you initially dial in the reticle. The boresight projects a laser straight-ish ahead – just how straight it is depends on a number of factors but it tends to be in the ballpark. You project the laser and an object the desired distance away and adjust your elevation (up and down) and windage (left and right) scope knobs accordingly.

First Testing

Filling the Leshiy 2 with my GX CS4 compressor. The Edgun fill probe goes in a port near the end of the buttstock. The red circle you see at the rear is a cover that that is integral with the stock that rotates out of the way. The Leshiy 2 is sitting on a Savior case.

Okay, I used my GX CS4 compressor [click here to see all the posts I did about the compressor] to fill the Leshiy 2 and was super excited. I loaded it up with my favorite JSB Diabolo Exact Heavy 18.13 grain pellets, set up the range, started shooting and dialing in the scope … and the Athlon Midas scope broke within the first 10-15 shots – I was pissed. I was adjusting elevation and windage and all of a sudden a pellet went way off from the cross hairs, then so did another and so forth. No matter what I did, the reticle wouldn’t dial in. I guess the reticle had somehow become disconnected from the adjustment screws inside the scope. Argh!!

I’d only had the scope a short time. I ordered it on February 17th and returned it on February 27th. That same day I bought an Athlon Helos BTR Gen 2 4-20×50. I seriously thought about dropping the Athlon experiment but read good things about the Helos BTR and went that route with “Once more into the breach dear friends” echoing in my head.

The Midas experience wasn’t good but guess what? I really like the Helos. It’s clear and has held zero with countless magnification changes over the months.

Changing topics, the one thing that kind of surprised me was that there was more noise than I expected. The Behemoth on my .25 FX Impact Compact was stunningly quiet. It dawned on me that I was hearing the air venting as the Leshiy 2 cycled the action. It was something that I would need to test more.

Summary

The Leshiy 2 was coming together nicely. To be clear, I never contacted Athlon about the dead Midas. I wanted it dealt with fast so I just did a return through Amazon and bought the Helos BTR Gen 2 scope.

The Behemoth Trilug did not perform the way I expected at all and I had four expansion modules in it total. The sound reduction is ok – just not as much as I had hoped for especially given how long it was. I did change to a DonnyFL Ronin eventually but for a different reason that I will tell you in another post.

In the next post, I’ll tell you about upgrading the onboard air reservoir to a carbon fiber tank.

Note, I have to buy all of my parts – nothing here was paid for by sponsors, etc. I do make a small amount if you click on an ad and buy something but that is it. You’re getting my real opinion on stuff.

If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@*********ps.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.

Air & C02 Rifles and Pistols

Looking for a Wicked Russian Designed Semi-Auto Airgun? Check Out The Edgun Leshiy 2

Folks, in February 2023, I bought an EdGun Leshiy 2 Short Wolverine (REPR) from EdGun West. For those of you not familiar with it, the Leshiy 2 is a semi-automatic precharged pneumatic (PCP) airgun. I can sum up my feelings about it having used it for six months now in one word – “wow!” Now bear in mind, I had to buy this so you are going to get an honest review here.

I bought it for pest control with fast follow up shots in mind. When I went from single-shot pellet guns to bult-action with a magazine, that was an amazing improvement. Semi-auto thought, that’s a whole new game – your eye doesn’t even have to leave the scope and the follow-up shot is just a matter of pulling the trigger.

The Leshiy 2 is pricey but it has some amazing engineering in it and is built very nicely. Is it worth it – I’m going to say “Yes” at this point butt we need to view it as a tool and as such it excels at certain use cases but not others. So, what I want to do is to share my experiences for the last six months.

What you are looking at is an Edgun Leshiy 2 Wolverine Short with a REPR valvle. That means it has a 250mm (9.3 inch) barrel, an upgraded Edgun Carbon Fiber air tank, DonnyFL Ronin airgun moderator, ADM scope mount and an Athlon Helos BTR Gen2 4-20×50 Mil-Dot scope. How I arrived at this current configuration has a story that I will share over the next few posts.

Some Background On The Leshiy 2

The airgun company “Edgun” was founded by Eduard Gafarov in Russia in 2005. His designs are unconventional and very interesting to say the least. I’ll let you Google some of his other airguns – I want to focus this article on the Leshiy 2.

The word “Leshiy” refers to a male forest spirit from pagan Russian mythology. Literally “He from the forest”. Wikipedia has more if you want to open tab to read more.

This is actually the second generation of the Leshiy. The first, which is still availble as the Leshiy Classic, is a single shot model. I first heard about the Leshiy 2 in 2021 when I was searching for a new pest control airgun and bought a FX Impact Mk. II Compact. At the time, I went with the FX because it was more affordable and I was a little bit leery of the relatively new Leshiy 2 design.

What Was My Use Case?

No tool, no firearm, no knife, no airgun does everything. You must think about your intended use – what engineers call the “use case”. You want to thing this through to aid you in your selection. If you don’t you risk buying something that doesn’t meet your needs.

For me and pest control, I needed the airgun to be:

  • Quiet – this was for residential pest control and I needed the sound signature to be as low as possible so the muzzle needed to be threaded and the bore reputed to be true to the threads and vice versa. Barrels that do not have their bores centered in their barrels will risk shooting their moderator resulting in poor accuracy and damage.
  • Compact – small enough to not attract attention and be maneuverable
  • Accurate within 100 feet almost always – it’s very rare that I shoot further and the bulk are between 30-60 feet. I needed dime sized groups or less within 25 feet.
  • Regulated – I’ve owned airguns both with and without regulators. If you want accuracy and consistency, then you really need a regulator that keeps the pressure relatively constant until the pressure in the onboard tank dips below the relator’s set limit.
  • Semi-Auto – I wanted a fast follow up shot but didn’t want to worry about batteries. I just didn’t see the point of full-auto unless playing around and this was for work.
  • Magazine Fed – I wanted an airgun where the magazines could be replaced when empty. Not all airgun designs support this.
  • Reliable – I needed an airgun I could count on that wouldn’t be jamming constantly.
  • Air Capacity – I am busy so filling up an onboard tank or reservoir isn’t in the top 500 task list of things I need to do so I wanted it to go at least 30-40 rounds before I needed to refill it.
  • Stopping Power – the targeted pests were mainly tree squirrels and ground squirrels. Anything bigger and I will get out my .25 FX Impact. This was a big deal for me. I didn’t want the constant over penetration I encountered with my .25 but I was also fearful that .177 might not hit hard enough so I went back to .22 caliber for this one.

For me the first three are critical and I call them my QCA criteria – Quiet, Compact and Accurate. Unless I have have a use case that requires a 100 yard airgun, I will view QCA as mandatory table stakes. If an airgun doesn’t have those three then they are not in the running.

In reading and watching reviews, it appeared that the Leshiy 2 more than met my needs. Given the Leshiy 2’s modularity, I could change it as my needs change. If I decided I wanted a different length of barrel or caliber, I could change the set up.

I Decided To Buy One

At the time, there weren’t many vendors carrying the Leshiy 2 and I had a bunch of questions so I talked to Brian Meckler at Edgun West. He talked me through the options.

One thing though – I already had one of the Behemoth moderators so they had basically assembled one of their Leshiy 2 Short Wolverine models with the REPR valve but without the Behemoth. I made it almost 9 whole days until I decided I needed the larger carbon fiber air cylinder and a spare parts kit called “The Drivetrain”.

It comes in a surprising small compact box.

I’d also ordered in an American Defense AD-Recon-30-STD scope mount. Folks, I pretty much swear by American Defense now. Their mounts are solid as a rock, repeatable zero and the quick release levers are superb. Take an AD mount and put it side by side with a cheap one – you’ll see what I mean real quick.

As time has past, the best way I can describe it is that airgun scopes are kind of odd ducks. Guys using them are way, way closer to their targets than a firearm shooter, need an adjustable objective that goes down to 10 yard/10 meters, and has quite a bit of elevation adjustment. I also like having an illuminated reticle for shooting pests in low light. Lastly, we want a lot of magnification with clear glass to shoot at relatively small targets.

For an optic, I went out on a limb and tried a new brand – Athlon. I spent some time reading on the airgun forums and their Midas Tac HD 6-24×50 scope seemed to have the features that I wanted at a price I could afford – I bought it for $650 off Amazon.

Here are the partsa – front row – the Leshiy 2 receiver group, the Behemoth moderator under it and the rear stock and air reservoir assembly to the right. At the top, we have the Athlon Modas scope on the left and the American Defense rings on the right.

So, the big day arrived and I had all of the parts – the next post will get into assembly. Everything was going well up to this point and the next post will get into assembly.

I do want to share something a bit out of sequence with the story – the Midas Tac was dead on arrival butI didn’t find this out until testing. I’m mentioning this early because I don’t want somebody rushing out and buying a Midas after just reading the above. In digging deeper on the Athlon line, I read comparisons of the Midas vs the Helos BTR Gen 2. Thanks to Amazon customer service, I returned the Midas Tac and changed to an Athlon Helos BTR Gen 2 4-20×50 that I am happy with and am still running just over six months later.

Summary

Without a doubt, the Edgun Leshiy 2 is a novel airgun and one I like – I’ll tell you that right up front. I did learn a few things along the journey that I will share over the course of a few blog posts and the next one will be about assembling carbine.

Note, I have to buy all of my parts – nothing here was paid for by sponsors, etc. I do make a small amount if you click on an ad and buy something but that is it. You’re getting my real opinion on stuff.

If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@*********ps.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.

Uncategorized

Thomas’ AMD-65 With Our Blue Grips

Hi folks, Thomas shared this cool photo of our blue AMD-65 grips on his rifle. It looks pretty cool!!

A big shot out to Thomas for sending me these. His rifle is definitely cool – note the riser he installed on the buttstock to make it more comfortable also – nice touch!

If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@*********ps.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.

Photos, Sunsets

Sunset at Lions Beach, Saint Joseph, MI, July 22, 2019

Yeah, I should be working right now but in digging for photos for a project, I found these sunset beach photos from four years ago that I thought would be cool to share.

We were a few hundred yards North of the water treatment facility near the playground equipment. There had been some violent storms that had washed out tons of sand (literally) and uncovered some of the old breakwaters that had been mostly hidden for years. The waves were hitting them and splashing up plus the sunset was quite pretty that night.

The following is a gallery, if you click on a photo, it will open up full size and then you can move around.

I hope you enjoyed the photos!

All photos are the property of SGC and Ronin’s Grips. Enjoy them for personal use, please, but contact us for commercial use.

If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@*********ps.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.

Photos, Sunsets

Saint Joseph, MI, piers at sunset – August 11, 2022

It was a nice night for a walk at sunset and captured a few photos I like. You can click on one and start the slide show.

I hope you enjoyed the photos!

All photos are the property of SGC and Ronin’s Grips. Enjoy them for personal use, please, but contact us for commercial use.

If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@*********ps.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.

DIY - Do It Yourself, General, Uncategorized

Fixing the Water Inlet Valve on a KitchenAid KRMF606ESS01 Refrigerator

Well, when I was little it seemed like fridges (“refrigerators” for people who prefer the full word) lasted an eternity. When we bought this KitchenAid KRMF606ESS01, I thought I was buying a top of the line quality fridge, but that’s no longer the case – appliance manufacturers don’t necessarily want them to laste forever because that means no more sales to a given customer.

A year after the warranty the ice maker stopped working and the service person whom I trust told me it would cost a considerable amount of money to replace the circuit board. So, strike #1 against the KitchenAid. Despite being “stainless”, the shell of the fridge rusts. Strike #2. Strike #3 is the topic of today’s blog post. The water inlet valve failed and leaked water all over our wood floor.

Let me set the stage – I went through the kitchen to my shop and when I came back in I saw wet footprints – my foot prints – from the floormat in front of the fridge to my shop door. ARGH! I was hoping maybe someone spilled water and didn’t clean things up so I removed the mat, mopped up the water with a towel and watched new water slowly emerge from under the fridge. Crap. I immediately wondered about the water lines on and in the fridge. The supply line was copper tube and it had looked great the last time I pulled out the fridge so I doubted it was that but I couldn’t ignore it either or it would ruin our real wood plank floor.

Turning off the water

Most fridge installers put a vampire tap on a water line to get the supply needed. In my case, I knew there was a tap under the house. We have a crawl space that isn’t bad compared to some that look like they are a scene from a horror movie but being a pretty big guy with a sore back I have to fold myself in half and do a crab shuffle over to where it is about 50-60 feet from the entrance. Short translation – it’s doable but I swore the whole way over to it.

See that far center column in the dark? Yeah, I was heading just to the right of that and swearing the whole time. It was way easier getting under there 25 years ago.
I don’t know if these things have a formal name – I’ve always heard them called “vampire taps”. They re put on copper supply like with a rubber gasket between the part of the saddle with the valve and the pipe. The two halves of the clamp are screwed together and then the handle is screwed down until the sharp end of the valve pierces the relatively soft copper. You then back the valve off (meaning turn it counter-clockwise) and water begins to flow through the supply line. So, with this in mind, I needed to close the valve which means turning the small handle you see clockwise until it stops thus closing the valve. I’ve needed pliers in the past to deal with hard turning valves and these things are also known to leak when you try to close them. I got lucky – it both turned easy and it shut the water off entirely just the way it should.

Confirming it was the inlet valve

In reading, there are a few ways these inlet valves fail – they can leak water on the floor but still work and dispense water, not leak but dispense water very slowly, or don’t work at all. I was 90% sure it was the valve given past experience with other fridges so the first thing I did was to pull out the unit.

If you have never pulled your fridge out before, let’s start here. See the plastic facia/cover below the door? That is just for looks and pulls off but you need to open the lower freezer door to do so. Note the rust on the “stainless” steel skin above and to the right of the KitchenAid logo. “Stainless” is a generic term and really the resistance to corrosion is dependent on the alloy used. Whirlpool/KitchenAid went with a cheaper alloy to save money so it’s not very “stainless” over time.
By pulling the freezer door open, the entire plastic covering is exposed and it literally just pulls forward – no screws or freaky little clips to deal with. They know folks will need to pull this off periodically (or they should) to clean the condenser coils under the unit. So, pull it off and completely remove it.
The fridge has four wheels to allow you to move it but if these small levelers are in use it will not want to move. Take a small wrench and turn the head of the bolt to retract the leveler on each side. The fridge will now pull forward. Peek in back to make sure you have enough water line to do so. The water supply line and the power cord will limit how far you can pull the unit out until you disconnect them – if you even need to. I never unplugged my fridge while working on it for example.
There was a real small chance that the supply line was loose so I tightened it just a tad and then hand my wife watch the valve for leaks as I went back under the house to turn the tap back on. It’s way easier and cleaner to do it with two people. So, I turned it on and she called down that water was going on the floor and I shut it off. The water started right under the valve and everything else was dry … my money was on the inlet valve was the culprit and it was.

Okay, the water inlet valve is a small electricslly controlled valve that is turned on and off by either the ice maker (that no longer works) or a person wanting cold water from the dispenser pushing their cup against the on-off switch. The valve body is made of plastic and that is what failed. The only saving grace is that the engineers put it at the back of the fridge and it is very easy to access and change – literally a 5-10 minute job. You can easily buy one online without spending a fortune.

To order parts for your fridge, you need to know the exact model number – in my case it was a KRMF606ESS01. You can find this info inside your fridge – in my case this sticker was on the inside top left of the unit facing down hence the camera angle is looking up.

I spent some time searching on Kitchen aid KRMF606ES01 water valve and found out that my fridge has two – one at the inlet (that I needed) and one inside that I did not so make sure you order the right part. The valve part number I needed was W10394076.

Direct from KitchenAid I could get the part for over $95.49. No, Whirlpool, I didn’t feel like spending a fortune by ordering it direct. I kept on searching and found it in the $70s then the $50s and then hopped over to Amazon and found it for $27.99 with free Prime shipping. It got great reviews and I ordered it on Saturday with delivery on Monday. Guess what – it was the exact same valve. Strike #4 for KitchenAid by the way.

I’m jumping the gun a bit but this is the sticker on the original that I removed from the fridge. Note the maker is Robertshaw and their part number was K-78282 with Whirlpool’s W1039476 part number indicated.
Same maker – Robertshaw – slightly different part number K-78282-AM — the suffix probably denotes some relatively minor changes. No Whirlpool part number on and and no ghastly markup either. It is an exact match otherwise.

Replacing the valve

First, make sure the water supply is turned off and have a container you can set the supply line in just in case it drops. I’ll step through this with photos:

get the the fiberboard back cover out of the way by removing the screws around the edges. Doing this gives you easier access and you can make sure there are no drips when you are done.
Always compare new and old parts to make sure they match. I have been burned so many times over the years that this comparison is automatic for me now – don’t assume anything.
I’d recommend moving connections one by one. Take one off the old valve and put them on the new one. Then again, you have three very different connections so mixing them up would be next to impossible. Do note the orientation of the electric connection and keep it the same. In this case, I am using the adjustable wrench to hold the steel bracket and a flare nut wrench to loosen the water supply line. Never use an adjustable wrench on flare nuts – if the jaws give you can round over the nut so at least use a fixed wrench or better yet a flare nut wrench.
The waterline in the bottom is connected via a “push-to-connect” or “push connect” ,fitting. Push the blue collar in towards the valve body while pulling the outlet water line away and it will come right out. Note where the white electrical wire is for reference. Looking at the valve from the back, it is on the left side.
This is everything moved to the new valve. I then put it in place and secured it with the original screws. Again, note where the white wire is at. I didn’t want to find out if it mattered which side was connected so I just followed the same wiring orientation on the new valve, Also, use the adjustable wrench to hold the valve body while tightening the flare nut.

And with the new valve unit installed and my wife watching everything, I headed back down into the crawl space and turned the water on. No leaks. She tried the water dispenser and it was actually putting out a larger volume of water also – our jet had always been on the anemic side.

So, I waited while she filled a few big cups of water and threw them out to purge the lines. She also didn’t see any leaks so I headed back up after a few minutes hoping my crawl space work was done … and it was.

I looked for myself and it was definitely a much stronger jet of water – it had never moved that much water.
After a half hour of careful monitoring for leaks, I sealed it back up. I then waited a few hours and double checked by moving it forward a tad and checking around underneath with a flashlight and no leaks so I slid it back in place. When you slide it back, make sure the power cord and water supply line do not get caught on anything.

With the fridge back in place, use the levelers if you need to – I don’t actually.

I didn’t get photos but the last thing I did was to use a long brush made for cleaning condenser coils to do just that. As lint and dust build up on the condenser it becomes less efficient, the fridge runs more and your electric bill is higher. The lint and dust there by the way because of an electric fan that is running underneath to help cool things off.

The last step is to open the lower freezer door and push the plastic cover back on the bottom. Done.

Summary

A week later and it is still running great. I hoped that the ice maker might start working again but no luck there. We bought am Aglucky counter top ice maker a few years ago that we’ve been very happy with.

I paid a premium for a supposed top-of-the line KitchenAid fridge and I don’t think the same level of quality is there. We have a Samsung fridge downstairs that has been flawless for us. When we replace this main fridge in the kitchen it may very well be a Samsung but it will not be a KitchenAid.

In the mean time, if you are having problems with your water inlet valve, I hope this helps you solve your problems and save some money.

3/2/24 Update: The new valve is still working great. We noticed we have more flow also – glasses fill faster. So, if you want to save some money, it’s an easy DIY repair that valve is still only $27.99 off Amazon.

If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@*********ps.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.

DIY - Do It Yourself

Replacing a Husqvarna 020490 Pressure Washer’s Soap Tank

We’ve had this “Husky” pressure washer for years and years and stored it outside. I’m sure it’s pushing 15-20 years old. We bought it new from Lowes way back when because the first one we bought when we were married had a cracked pump from water freezing in it over the Winter. That was a lesson learned. Don’t store a pressure washer and freezing weather unless you purge the pump.

At any rate, this Husky model 202490 3100 PSI pressure washer has served us really well. Every season it is used for pressure washing our deck, cars, you name it. I think we did replace the gun at one point and use one of the “all in one” sprayer heads so we can adjust to the nozzle we want without swapping heads.

We started running into a problem a few years back. I could tell the washer tank was oxidizing and cracking around the screws that held it in place so I hit them with some Goop to stabilize those parts.

Last year, a small hole opened in one top corner of the the tank because it was so brittle and this year, it just fell apart. Guess what? You can’t find those tanks anywhere and I didn’t have any luck finding a relativeluy close size. At the same time, everything else was just fine and I didn’t want to just throw it away either.

The sun had really taken its toll on the plastic of the soap tank.
I taped the top corners first but this season is just falling apart.

I was complianing to my best friend John and he said “It’s just a siphon feed right? No pump right?” Of course he was right – yeah the tank was over the pump and gravity fed it down to the inlet but it was just a siphon feed at the end of the day.

When a person refers to a siphon draw, what happens is when air or water rushes by an opening it creates a draw and that can be used to pull in either air or water. In this case soap is pulled into into the water stream.

John told me “Dude, just drop a hose in a bottle of cleaner and it’ll suck it right out! You don’t need to spend money on anything fancy.”

You ever have one of those “Duh!” moments where the light bulbs just go on? Yeah, I did right then. I removed the remnants of the old white soap tank and there was actually a shelf there above the engine I could set a bottle of soap on.

Sometimes I get lucky. I could set a bottle of pressure washer soap on there and put a little plastic box to hold stuff.

I then measured the inlet nipple down by the pump and it was nothing more than a 1/4″ fitting. 1/4″ hose would slide right on! Okay, I headed off the Tractor & Supply (TSC) to get some tubing. They tend to have a pretty good selection of bulk tubing.

TSC did not let me down, they had a 1/4″ x 25′ EVA tubing package at a very reasonable price of $20. That would give me plenty for this project and more for future work.

Let me show you some pictures so you have a better idea what I’m talking about.

So the old yellow hose ran from the plastic detergent tank down into that Inlet nipple. I just removed that hose entirely once I pulled off the tank. There was a nice little on/off valve there but I didn’t need it and given its age and that it was made out of plastic you know it was getting ready to fall apart as well.
This is the quarter inch Eva tubing I got from TSC.
I put the tubing on the old siphon nipple and then I used a hose clamp to Snug it down and keep it from falling off.
I then did a bit of experimenting about how long I wanted the line before I cut it to the final length.
You know I also scavenged an old ice cream plastic box that I glued in place next to the soap. That is just a perk but definitely not something I need. I can stick the I was only thinking about you end of the tubing in there when I don’t need it.
I figured while I was at it I might as well change the oil. I hadn’t done that in a long time.
Kind of an anti-climactic photo but the soap part works great. I’m back in business. The only thing I spent money on was the hose. Everything else I had in inventory.

Summary

If you have one of these old Husqvarna pressure washers, just yank out the old soap tank and call it even. Go to your favorite source of quarter inch tubing that will stand up to UV light, water and soap and you’ll be in business.

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Automotive, Cars, DIY - Do It Yourself

Repainting a 2004 Toyota Solara’s Spoiler Using AutomotiveTouchUp.Com Paint

My wife’s convertible Solara is her pride and joy in the summer time. We bought it back in 2017 and it has proven itself to be a reliable and fun car. One issue it had was related to an aftermarket spoiler the previous owner had installed.

In 2021 we waited to take the cover off and there had been a number of hot and humid days. When we removed it, the clear coat on the spoiler was popping off. The factory paint on the car was just fine – the spoiler on the other hand looked tough and by the end of the 2022 Summer driving season it really looked bad so I knew I needed to surprise her by refinishing it.

The clear coat was peeling all over the top of the spoiler but not the bottom.

I do own a full set of automotive paint sprayers but I didn’t feel like getting them out and set up just to do a spoiler. I decided to go with AutomotiveTouchUp.Com who I had bought touch up paint from in the past and had pretty good luck with. The only issue I have ever had with them is that you will wait around four weeks for them to make and ship your paint.

The paint code for a Toyota is one the door sticker and her Solara was “Absolutely Red – 3PO” which describes the bright red on the car very well. I knew I would need primer, that base color and clear coat. I always buy extra just in case so I bought two cans 12-oz cans of each and then I waited for it to show up.

Before you do anything – read their instructions. I went with spray cans so I focused on that section – click here.

Getting Ready to Paint

The first step was to remove the spoiler from the car. This was done by removing the body push pin rivets and moving the interior cover out of the way. Don’t be surprised to find out some of the rivets are missing or broken on an old car. You can easily get them on Amazon along with a tool that makes removal very easy.

Those little push pin rivets do the job and the tool you see makes it really easy to pull them out. If you don’t have a tool use a small blade screw driver or flat edge to get under the pin-part of the rivet and lift it up.
You don’t need to completely remove the cover – just remove as many as you want to get access to the onme screw and one stud on each side that holds the spoiler.
You will see something like this on each side. Remove the machine screws first and start to back off the nut on the stud. If the spoiler stays in place, then remove the nuts completely and the spoiler will lift straight off. In my case, my wife held the spoiler so it wouldn’t fall off when the nuts were removed.
I took one look at the old stuck on seals and left them alone. Trying to remove them would only tear them up. I decided to leave them alone, re-use them and if there was a leak then I would decide whether to replace them or just put a bit of black silicone RTV gasket glue around the two holes to seal it. I didn’t want to jump right to that because if I needed to remove the spoiler again, it would tear up the seals. You can buy black rubber seal material in sheets and you cutt out whatever shape you need but I wanted to avoid that path if I could.
I put the spoiler on two wood sawhorses to do the refinishing work. Note, I added blue painter’s tape to the sawhorses right after this was taken.
I have a 5″ Dewalt orbital sander that I used with 150 then 220 grit sandpaper to remove all of the bubbled/loose clear coat. I wasn’t worried about removing everything down to the bare bare material underneath but did want a solid surface on the top and edges for the primer to grab hold of.

Painting the Car

With the surface prepped, let’s get into the painting process.

This is red primer – not the base paint. I did three coats with wet sanding at 150 grit. No matter how hard and long I shook the rattle cans, the primer would spatter / blow larger drops into the paint vs. the fine mist you want. To be honest, I was regretting not just getting out my spray guns at this point.
I applied five coats of red paint. Light coats are the way to go and what you are looking for is a nice even rich color. I was still fighting the spattering even with the paint. So I did wet sand a few times. There instructions tell you not to do this but they also didn’t have their paint spattering everywhere.
This had six coats of clear coat. I did not wet sand between. The trick is to build up a relatively thick clear coat so you can wet sand it even and then later polish it.
Let it cure for an honest day so that it is hard enough to wet sand and then use rubbing compund to polish it. Water acts as a lubricant in the very fine 1500 grit sandpaper. If you don’t use it, the grit will fill with material and be useless. I keep a bucket of water next to me and keep dunking it in there. In this photo you see a sheet of 1500 grit sand paper that I wrap around the foam block to support it when I sand. I sand the clear coat using 1500, 2000 and 3000 grit sandpaper.
This is a random orbit 6″ bonnet washer. The terry cloth surface holds the rubbing compound and you keep moving around the clear coat removing all of the fine scratches.
The result turned out great. One important thing to remember – it looks and feels cured but it isn’t. There normal one part clear coat needs 30 days to cure the rest of the way. If you wax it, you will probably watch your finish peel right off so be sure to wait.
It wasn’t perfect but way, way better and my wife as thrilled.
The spoiler had rubber bumpers under the front part where it was close to the body. I bought these little 1/4″ tall rubber self-adehsive bumpers at Ace. They looked identical to the originals and will prevent the spoiler from hitting the body for whatever reason.

Summary

Because I had the sprayers, I regretted using the rattle can approach with the spattering that I could not get rid of for whatever reason. The time I thought I would save by not setting up my finishing automotive paint sprayer I lost doing extra sanding to get a relatively smooth finish.

In terms of color, they did a great job matching. I’m writing those blog almost two months after painting and it is nearly an exact match. Only at certain angles and lighting do I think I might see a difference – it’s that close. I’ve used them for other vehicles for bottles of touchup paint and their matching is always really good.

Here’s my advice – if you don’t have a good car air sprayer, these rattle cans (spray cans) from the company will do the job. Just be prepared to do extra wet sanding but not between the clear coats.

What is the ultimate gauge of success? My wife is really happy with the results.

3/2/24 Update: The paint is still holding up just fine. No bubbles, peeling or fading.

If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@*********ps.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.

When Strength and Quality Matter Most