18 March 2024

Composting Toilets

Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 78

Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.


Make your own emergency toilet

Humanure Handbook Sawdust Composting Toilet

Everything you could possibly want to know about recycling human waste is found in the third edition of the Humanure Handbook.

In addition this heroic book tells you how to make your own small homemade composting toilet using 5-gallon buckets and a regular toilet seat, and how to compost the deposits usefully. This can be used for an emergency toilet, for a cabin, or in a motor home, or for everyday use if you have a garden. One of the videos on the book’s website details the clever idea of how a music festival used sawdust toilets instead of porta-potties to much relief.

The book is also available as free PDFs; the chapter on building your own sawdust toilet is Chapter 8. — KK

After using composting toilets on a few sailboats and one in a relative’s cabin, I would say they are all prone to smells, breakage and disappointment. EXCEPT for the DIY five-gallon sawdust bucket described in the Humanure Handbook. Nothing to go wrong. I’ve never had a smell issue either in the toilet or the compost pile. It requires a little bit of ongoing effort, but in my opinion this is ‘positive’ maintenance as opposed to negative maintenance when any other toilet breaks down. As an added bonus the bucket can be built into an attractive box to match the style and material of your space and looks far better than almost any toilet on the market including water closets. — Mackey McLelland

I have used this sawdust composting toilet for 10 years now without problems. There really is nothing to have a problem with. I originally envied a neighbor who had shelled out for one of the big production composting toilets. It broke in less than two years (an important mechanical part of the ‘tumbler’ was poorly designed and failed). He was left with a couple hundred pounds of incompletely composted humanure in his house. To say that he was unhappy is an understatement. He has used a sawdust toilet since then. In short, unless local regulations require a production toilet (increasingly they do not) a sawdust toilet is the way to go.

A couple of suggestions: use wood pellets if you find sawdust hard to come across; they quickly turn to sawdust. Don’t turn your humanure compost piles just leave them…for years. They will take care of themselves. You can find instructions for a sawdust toilet on line easily. It is embarrassingly simple and much more hygienic (even though most people’s first reaction, including mine, is, “Ewwww.”).

The sawdust toilet also provides a perfect emergency toilet (for hurricanes, power outages, etc) Just keep a 5 gallon bucket, 2 lids, and a bag of wood pellets in a closet. Cut a salad plate sized hole in one of the lids for use as a ‘seat’ and put the other over it to ‘close the lid’. Just make sure to dispose of the humanure responsibly after the emergency. — Rob Groesbeck


Composting crapper guide

The Humanure Handbook

This is the definitive source on composting crappers, from why to how, and yes, the scatological humor abounds. Yet this is a serious issue. Biosolids are recycled and used in the U.S. and around the world by governments and municipalities, and not always in the most responsible ways. Jenkins gives you the knowledge to do it yourself and do it responsibly. The entire contents of this comprehensive guide are available as a free PDF download, and the Jenkins Publishing site offers up instructional videos, too. Very helpful when I constructed my own bucket toilet. — Erik Knutzen

  • “We don’t want to eat shit!” they informed me, rather distressed (that’s an exact quote), as if in preparing dinner I had simply set a steaming turd on a plate in front of them with a knife, fork and napkin. Fecophobia is alive and well and running rampant. One common misconception is that fecal material, when composted, remains fecal material. It does not. Humanure comes from the earth, and through the miraculous process of composting, is converted back into earth.
  • That’s also why humanure and urine alone will not compost. They contain too much nitrogen and not enough carbon, and microorganisms, like humans, gag at the thought of eating it. Since there’s nothing worse than the thought of several billion gagging microorganisms, a carbon-based material must be added to the humanure in order to make it into an appealing dinner. Plant cellulose is a carbon-based material, and therefore plant by-products such as hay, straw, weeds or even paper products if ground to the proper consistency, will provide the needed carbon. Kitchen food scraps are generally C/N balanced, and they can be readily added to humanure compost. Sawdust (preferably not kiln-dried) is a good carbon material for balancing the nitrogen of humanure.
  • A wide array of microorganisms live in a compost pile. Bacteria are especially abundant and are usually divided into several classes based upon the temperatures at which they best thrive. The low temperature bacteria are thepsychrophiles, which can grow at temperatures down to -10°C, but whose optimum temperature is 15°C (59°F) or lower. The mesophileslive at medium temperatures, 20-45°C (68-113°F), and include human pathogens. Thermophiles thrive above 45°C (113°F), and some live at, or even above, the boiling point of water.
  • If a backyard composter has any doubt or concern about the existence of pathogenic organisms in his or her humanure compost, s/he can use the compost for horticultural purposes rather than for food purposes. Humanure compost can grow an amazing batch of berries, flowers, bushes, or trees. Furthermore, lingering pathogens continue to die after the compost has been applied to the soil, which is not surprising since human pathogens prefer the warm and moist environment of the human body. As the World Bank researchers put it, “even pathogens remaining in compost seem to disappear rapidly in the soil.” [Night Soil Composting, 1981] Finally, compost can be tested for pathogens by compost testing labs.
  • Allow me to make a radical suggestion: humanure is not dangerous. More specifically, it is not any more dangerous than the body from which it is excreted. The danger lies in what we do with humanure, not in the material itself. To use an analogy, a glass jar is not dangerous either. However, if we smash it on the kitchen floor and walk on it with bare feet, we will be harmed. If we use a glass jar improperly and dangerously, we will suffer for it, but that’s no reason to condemn glass jars. When we discard humanure as a waste material and pollute our soil and water supplies with it, we are using it improperly, and that is where the danger lies. When we constructively recycle humanure by composting, it enriches our soil, and, like a glass jar, actually makes life easier for us.

Commercial options

Carousel Composting Toilet

I grew up with a Carousel composting toilet in our house. It works well, Draining the urine, using a scoop of sawdust every time, and the occasional insertion of beneficial bacteria, all help prevent odors. We had a 12V fan, as well. Two years is the recommended time for between deposition and cleaning. We used it as our primary family toilet for over 15 years, before my father no longer wanted to clean it. It never broke down, and never had any issues. It can handle a whole family year round.

For individuals or occasional vacation use, I’d recommend the Sun-Mar standard Excel. — Courtney Ostaff

03/18/24

17 March 2024

Retro Recomendo: Analog Wearables

Recomendo - issue #401

Our subscriber base has grown so much since we first started seven years ago, that most of you have missed all our earliest recommendations. The best of these are still valid and useful, so we’re trying out something new — Retro Recomendo. Once every 6 weeks, we’ll send out a throwback issue of evergreen recommendations focused on one theme from the past 7 years.


Long-sleeved T-shirts

I’m my own boss, so I set the work dress code and it is: t-shirts. But I live on the Pacific coast in the fog where it is cool year round, so I only wear long-sleeved t-shirts. And I don’t wear logos. For many years long-sleeved t-shirts in color without logos were hard to find, but I recently got my newest batch from Amazon of all places. The Amazon Essentials long-sleeved t-shirt is heavy duty, inexpensive, and prime delivery. Perfect for my office. — KK

Best belts

I no longer use leather belts. I only use nylon web belts, sometimes called tactical or military belts, even for dress. They look like a belt but since they don’t have holes, they are infinitely adjustable. And they use hard plastic for the buckle so I don’t have to remove it in airports. There are many styles and colors, all can be trimmed for length. The one I use is this generic model. — KK

Logo-free baseball cap

In my never-ending quest to wear clothes without logos, I found a great source of logo-less baseball caps (better than the discontinued Daiso hats). These hefty Falari caps are $9 and come in a refreshing variety of 34 solid colors. Mine are canary yellow. — KK

Super comfortable slippers I can wear outside

I rarely drive anywhere these days, and aside from taking walks a couple of times a day in the neighborhood, I’m sheltering in place. I decided to give my feet a break and I’m wearing slippers instead of shoes around the house. These $15 memory foam slippers from RockDove have an open back that makes them easy to slip on and kick-off, and the memory foam insoles are incredibly comfortable. Importantly they have a thick waterproof sole, so I can wear them in the backyard. — MF

Better laces 

I have replaced all my regular shoelaces with these no-tie elastic laces. Ultra thin bungee cords snap the shoe closed without having to tie or untie. Instant on and off. Easy to slip your foot out, yet snug when needed. Not too dorky even for dress shoes; in fact, they look cool. — KK

Non-iron shirts

All my dress shirts are now “Non-Iron” cotton material. I don’t know how this stuff works, but the ones I clumsily fold into my luggage, will unwrinkle shortly after I put them on. I use Non-Iron Oxford shirts from Land’s End and L.L. Bean, but most clothing brands seem to carry them. Eagle brand Non-Iron shirts are popular on Amazon. — KK

03/17/24

16 March 2024

Gar’s Tips & Tools – Issue #175

Weekly-ish access to tools, techniques, and shop tales from the worlds of DIY

Gar’s Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales is published by Cool Tools Lab. To receive the newsletter a week early, sign up here.


9 Great Grinder Hacks

Via Maker Update comes this gem of a video showing nine different jigs you can build to turn your angle grinder into a spindle sander, drum sander, belt sander, disc sander, edge sander, adding a depth gauge, and more. The builds involve common metal working tools (drill press, tapping set, angle grinder!), but they all look fairly straightforward.

Non Hobby Tools Perfect for Hobbyists

Miniature painter and YouTuber Ninjon has a fantastic video looking at tools to use in hobby modeling and painting (and similar applications) that are not necessarily designed for that purpose. He covers everything from tattooist’s squirt bottles and manicurist’s vortex mixers to things like craft store wooden candle stick holders for holding minis for painting and double-stick foam tape for holding them to the candle stick. I use many of the tools he recommends in my miniature painting work and swear by them, too. I recently got a vortex mixer and it’s my new favorite thing.

Fixing an Irwin “Slip Grip”

If your Irwin Quick-Grip bar clamps are slipping, Joe from Joe’s Shop offers a quick fix to restore their grip.

Building Hero of Alexandria’s Programmable Automata by Hand

In this rather mesmerizing video, Fraser reconstructs one of the ancient Greek engineer Hero’s programmable automata. Fraser builds everything by hand, starting with turning trees into lumber. The whole process is fascinating to watch and the mechanisms are ingenious. After putting it all together, he finds issues with various systems and goes to work troubleshooting and repairing. Inspiring stuff.

Life Hacks: Time Management Methods

From Justin Mecham LinkedIn page.

Don’t Buy This!

When we moved to California a few years ago, we made several trips to IKEA to outfit our new house. On the way out, I saw a stack of these MOPPE birch plywood “mini storage chests” for $25 each and thought they were perfect for miscellaneous materials, supplies, and tool storage in my office/hobby studio. Don’t buy this! The lack of hardware in the drawers and the cheap, inconsistent construction mean they constantly bind as you try to open them. I dread having to open one. Really annoying.

Shop Talk

Readers offer their feedback, tips, tales, and tool recommendations.

Eric Kaplan writes about non-toxic paint removal using a kitchen slow cooker:

My house was built in 1910 and still had the original doors and mortise locks, but previous owners had painted over the hardware. I knew there was beauty under all that paint, but wasn’t sure where to start when I moved in 12 years ago. I started looking up “non-toxic paint removal” and came across an article about cooking the metal parts in a Crockpot/slow cooker to remove the paint. It works!  This past weekend, I was thinking about getting back into toy restoration but doing so in my home shop, which does not have a sandblaster. I decided to try the Crockpot method on this old Tonka truck, and was very pleased!

  • I started with an old (obviously) Crockpot sourced from my local Goodwill store for $6. 
  • Place the parts to be stripped in the pot and add enough tap water to cover them. 
  • Add detergent. I like these dish pacs for the dishwasher, but you can also use a laundry pod or a small capful of liquid laundry detergent. 
  • Cook the parts on high for at least 4 hours or low for at least 8 hours. 
  • At the end of the time, use a pliers or tongs to pull the parts out. Likely, the paint will have fallen off or will slide off easily (often looking like it had been treated with chemical paint stripper). 
  • The paint that hasn’t come off should come off with a brass brush, old toothbrush, or dental pick. If not, put the parts back in the cooler for another hour or so. 
  • To dispose of the waste, I like to pour the liquid through a coffee filter to capture the solids (which go in the trash) while the liquid goes down the drain. 

    Note: Do not use your regular cookware for this process. The old paint likely contains lead and other harmful substances that could contaminate your food.

While this process doesn’t have the satisfaction of the sandblasting process, there is definitely joy in removing the bare parts from the cooker. And it’s cleaner and less “hands on” time. Plus, I can do it in my basement shop. 

It’s not perfect. Sandblasting also takes off surface rust, which still needs to be removed with cooked parts. I found that a wire brush in my rotary tool worked really well for this.

03/16/24

15 March 2024

Adam Hill, Software Business Analyst

Show and Tell #404: Adam Hill

Adam Hill (He/Him) is a dad who loves science, cooking, math, engineering, skepticism, espresso, and politics! He has been a teacher, an engineer, and now a software business analyst. Curiosity now and forever!

TOOLS:
0:00 – Intro
0:46 – Burley Bee Bike Trailer
5:20 – Nanofoamer Pro
12:07 – Magsafe wallet
16:22 – Eat Your Books


To sign up to be a guest on the show, please fill out this form.

03/15/24

14 March 2024

Safer in the Air/Dead Bodies in Museums/Worldschooling Take 2

Nomadico issue #95

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

A Record Year for Airline Safety

This may be the shortest report we’ve ever linked to but for a good reason: 2023 was officially the safest year for jet travel since… we’ve had jet travel. According to the IATA, “In a significant achievement, 2023 saw no fatal accidents or hull losses for jet aircraft, leading to a record-low fatality risk rate of 0.03 rate per million sectors.” There was one turbo-prop fatal crash, a Yeti Airlines plane in Nepal that went down with 72 people on it, but considering how many planes take off and land each day, this is a remarkable achievement. “Overall, there was an average of one accident for every 880,293 flights.”

The History and Fascination With Dead Bodies on Display

I live in a historic Mexican city that’s a UNESCO World Heritage place, but what’s the #1 tourist attraction? The Mummy Museum of Guanajuato. This BBC article looks into the fascination with bones and bodies and investigates the sordid past and the economic incentives behind the relics displays. The sinister history behind the world’s first tourist sites.

Mexican Rental Cars, Minus the Scams

As a Mexpat without a car, I often need to rent one when going on vacation or taking a road trip. After too many incidents of facing inflated insurance rate scams at the counter with the likes of Budget and Europcar, so far my streak is up to 3 rentals in 3 cities without this hassle with Mex Rent a Car. Their site has this refreshing bit on it: “All of our rates within Mexico include third-party liability up to 750,000.00 MXN and coverage for the vehicle rented in case of an accident or total theft, with a 10% deductible (CDW).” Any good credit card should cover the rest. Their sister company Mas offers the same deal.

A Complete Guide to Worldschooling

A while back we referenced a good article on “worldschooling,” the idea of educating your child in different ways in foreign countries, and reader Jake S. sent us a tip that there’s a whole book on the subject if you want a deep dive. See more here – Wonder Year: A Guide to Long-Term Family Travel and Worldschooling.

03/14/24

13 March 2024

What’s in my NOW? — Michael A. Denner

issue #170

Sign up here to get What’s in my NOW? a week early in your inbox.

I’m a professor of Russian literature at Stetson University. I am the editor of Tolstoy Studies Journal. I’ve written a cookbook on Georgian (Black Sea!) cooking. I am a fairly competitive powerlifter. I was attacked by a rabid raccoon recently. I’ve lived in places and done things that most people can’t imagine. I restore used cowboy boots. — Michael A. Denner

Restored boots.

PHYSICAL

  • My knife/awl/scraper, prybar, handmade from a lawnmower blade cut in half and wrapped with leather bootlace, and absolutely necessary for restoring old boots.
  • Good tape. Never skimp on tape. Use it exorbitantly. One minute on job prep means saving 10 minutes on cleanup. Like everyone else, I use FROGTAPE.
  • baker’s bench knife. It should always be on the counter when you’re cooking. I use it for everything.

DIGITAL

  • Take a few minutes and turn off everything that makes noise, vibrates, flashes lights, whistles, blows bubbles on your phone. Then, throw your phone away.
  • I have become somewhat addicted to Soft White Underbelly on YouTube. “Soft White Underbelly interviews and portraits of the human condition by photographer, Mark Laita.” If you want to understand the human condition, watch it.

INVISIBLE

  • Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes. (Annie Dillard)

What’s in your NOW?

We want to know what’s in your now — a list of 6 things that are significant to you now — 3 physical, 2 digital and 1 invisible. 

If you’re interested in contributing an issue, use this form to submit: https://forms.gle/Pf9BMuombeg1gCid9

If we run your submission in our newsletter and blog, we’ll paypal you $25.

03/13/24

EDITOR'S FAVORITES

img 12/18/20

Analog Atomic Wall Clock

Constant automatic accuracy

img 05/27/22

Set

Pattern recognition competition

img 03/8/13

Pogo Connect

Best iPad stylus

img 12/31/04

T-reamer

Hole expander

img 12/9/11

The Wondermill

Countertop flour mill

img 08/15/12

GetHuman.com

Direct line to a warm body

See all the favorites

COOL TOOLS SHOW PODCAST

03/15/24

Show and Tell #404: Adam Hill

Picks and shownotes
03/8/24

Show and Tell #403: Mia Coots

Picks and shownotes
03/1/24

Show and Tell #402: Josué Moreno

Picks and shownotes

ABOUT COOL TOOLS

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One new tool is posted each weekday. Cool Tools does NOT sell anything. The site provides prices and convenient sources for readers to purchase items.

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We recently posted a short history of Cool Tools which included current stats as of April 2008. This explains both the genesis of this site, and the tools we use to operate it.

13632766_602152159944472_101382480_oKevin Kelly started Cool Tools in 2000 as an email list, then as a blog since 2003. He edited all reviews through 2006. He writes the occasional review, oversees the design and editorial direction of this site, and made a book version of Cool Tools. If you have a question about the website in general his email is kk {at} kk.org.

13918651_603790483113973_1799207977_oMark Frauenfelder edits Cool Tools and develops editorial projects for Cool Tools Lab, LLC. If you’d like to submit a review, email him at editor {at} cool-tools.org (or use the Submit a Tool form).

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