Tips and Techniques:
For you folks that like to get your hands dirty.
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It's getting cold out so I guess I'm going to yak about the #1 most annoying thing in the spring. Stuck floats. With the proliferation of methanol in gasoline this is getting out of hand. Methanol is hydroscopic, it absorbs water and keeps it in suspension. This is fine as long as the engine is running, bad while its sitting idle.
When I winterize I always remove the fuel filter housing, replace the filter element, fill the filter housing halfway or so with Marvel Mystery Oil. Screw it back on and start the engine. This puts a healthy mix of the gasoline and oil in the float bowl of the carbuerator and coats the top end of the cylinders at the same time. I will also pour a small amount down the throat of the carburetor while its running.
Standard disclaimer: Always wear safety glasses and don't smoke while playing with gasoline.
You can use kitchen garbage bags as a paint tray liner for your roller trays. I've been doing this for years. I've got paint roller trays that are 20 years old and still look like new. What you do is: Get yourself a can of 3M Super 77, open up the new gargage bag and mist a little on the inside of the bag, then put your roller pan into the bag and press it to the inside surface of the tray. When you are finished just turn the bag inside out , removing it from the tray and taking the residual paint with it. If your working in the house this works great with latex paint as well.
One more for today, We store our badger hair brushes in new transmission fluid. I have done this for as long as I can remember. If we are going to reuse the brush within a day or two we just give it a quick rinse with some turpentine then dip it in tranny fluid and stick it in a ziplock freezer bag. Just clean the tranny fluid out with a few ounces of turps and you are good to go. Transmission fluid has never had an adverse effect on any oil based product I've used. I have stored brushes in tranny fluid for years. My favorite brush is about 20 years old.
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