Posted on 05/01/2026 6:24:57 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
The MONTHLY Victory Garden Thread is a gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.
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This is good to know. I take CoQ 10 as a supplement already. My swelling has gone down a lot, but I can use your method the next time. Thank you.
Cats are a bit nocturnal, don’t you think? Our cat regularly wakes us up in the middle of the night. He’s 16 now, so is beginning to slow down, but yeah, when he wakes us during the night, it is sometimes hard to get back to sleep. Hence, this post.
I actually did get back to sleep, but then there was all this meowing outside... Plus, then I discovered our other cat had torn the foil off the leftovers I left out to cool, ate part of them, and then (he’s getting old) peed on the floor instead of going to (the just refreshed) litter box. Sheesh.
Hi, All! I’ve run into an interesting little problem that may, in fact likely does, turn up in other gardening and outdoor places / situations.
The problem is that some plastics are hygroscopic, that is, they absorb water molecules, and when they do, they expand slightly. This can cause problems if, say, a plastic part expands inside a steel part. In my case, it is the plastic body of a Zebco 33 “Authentic” Series fishing reel. The front cover comes off, but, the rear cover refuses to turn, even after employing several tricks suggested by Zebco: (WD-40 “soak”, freezing the reel and then trying to get the cover off (the plastic should shrink more than the steel), etc. ) There’s not enough room to get a strap wrench on it - at least none I have: They grip with a thick “belt”.
If it can’t be turned, the cover pretty much can’t come off without destroying the reel, but if the rear cover won’t come off, there is no way to get inside to service / maintain the reel. This is a shame, as the reel otherwise functions quite nicely, after a little cleanup of the front end, even with slightly old line on it.
A good guess would be that this reel was left in a hot car on humid days.
I have a similar Zebco 33 “Titanium” series reel, from the same source: On it, it was the front cover that would not come off. However, I can get a better grip on it: Between that and WD-40, I was able to free up and pull off the front cover from that reel.
One other possibility would be to leave the “stuck” reel at an elevated temperature in low humidity, for an extended period, to try to drive some of the H2O molecules out, thereby hopefully shrinking the plastic a bit, but I don’t know if that would make the plastic brittle.
I’ve run into a couple other instances of such problems with outdoor / gardening equipment that have plastic-to-metal connections or interfaces, and I expect other FReeper gardeners have also. If anyone has further ideas or experiences, please fire away!
Info. on hygroscopic plastics:
Put some duct tape around the metal section of the reel.
Freeze the reel.
Boil some water and set aside... then take it out and hold with the plastic section on the bottom over a sink, and pour some very hot water over the plastic section and the joint. see if that softens the plastic. Perhaps it will soften the plastic and break the bond?
If yes, WD40 and use a brush to clean the threads both sides.
Then vaseline or grease threads before reassembling. Do not overtighten. Good luck!
The first part of your reply is an excellent idea, and could be taken a step further: Basically, make my own “skinny band” strap wrench. IF I still have some strapping tape around here, I could even up the ante quite a bit!
However, the hot water on the plastic body of the reel is going the wrong direction, because the plastic expands with temperature at several times the rate the steel cover does. So, things would just tighten up until I got to the point the plastic softened enough that I would damage it by putting considerable force on the, uh, “more plastic” plastic.
Zebco confirmed WD-40* is “OK” on these reels’ plastic(s), and yes it does work well as a cleaning fluid, in many instances, here and elsewhere.
However, of note, many Zebco reels (perhaps most?) do not use a thread on front cover, and I don’t think any have a thread on rear cover, except those models in which the front cover essentially screws onto the rear cover, trapping the body in between the two covers. The “33” has separate front and rear covers that separately sort of “key” into the body via indentations in the covers and body. (One might call it a sort of twist lock arrangement.) This arrangement goes way back with Zebco, and works fine so long as the materials are stable and tight tolerances are kept. When Zebco took the manufacturing to China, it appears one or both of those last were compromised.
From experience in manufacturing of my own, working for US manufacturers (and not making fishing reels!), I know some Chinese materials suppliers are some of the worst when it comes to making substitutions they think won’t matter. Typically they think no one will catch it, or maybe even they didn’t, but they either are careless or stand to make an additional fen (Chinese penny) on each kg of material.
* BTW, I saw last night @ Menards that PB Blaster has come up with a GREAT idea: An aerosol spray can that has a control over output flow rate! It may still be on sale. I’m still a little hesitant about which plastics PB Blaster is safe on — they used to use the product melting foam cups to “prove” how great it was / is. But, for all bare metal, that control is a great way to reduce overspray, waste, and possibly damage to nearby surfaces. I voted “yes” and bought a can. $5 on sale with rebate, IIRC. I already tried it out on a frozen bolt (will likely require 2-3 applications and some time): The control of the application at lower rates is good. → → :-)
BTW, I’ve also asked one of the most prolific posters of vids on Zebco reel repair, on You Tube, to delve in to this, and he has agreed. When he can get to it, I don’t know, but, I have plenty of reels unless we do another field trip with kids from wifey’s church. :-)
That’s great!
My lower back / upper buttock muscles have just been “killing me” the last few weeks. I finally relented and have been alternating Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen the last few days: Some days I have only modest discomfort until late afternoon, so I hold off on taking anything until that time, and then usually take a single Ibuprofen tablet. Then I’m good the rest of the day into the evening, overnight, and well into the next morning, somewhat depending on how active and “stressing things” I have been.
Today, despite a very active Sunday, I have little discomfort, and will not take anything unless that changes. I seem to be fine, except our cats waking me up twice overnight. :-)
OTOH, usually if a morning or previous day has been more physically stressful, I tend to get to “hurtin’” sooner, so, then I take an Acetaminophen, usually around noon / lunchtime, and when that wears off, usually in the evening, I may take an Ibuprofen.
The Ibuprofen usually seems to be particularly effective for many hours. I suspect that is because it defeats inflammation at its source, and inflammation tends to beget more inflammation, so if you’ve reduced it, it takes time to redevelop, as opposed to the discomfort merely being masked (by Acetaminophen).
I really want to be careful with this stuff, as I have lots of ancestors’ history with stomach and ulcer related problems, including both my parents. :-(
That is so wonderful! Great Mother's Day gift for you, who takes such good care of her! Congratulations!
I wonder if dumping a couple of rolls of pennies would work?!
That one brought me to tears. God bless them all where they are now.
At our Mother’s Day gathering yesterday, without consulting on it, every family brought plants for every other family! Flowers and herbs. Some duplications — ha ha! Beautiful day in the mid-Atlantic region.
It should, but depending on what’s in the water, the thin electroplated copper coating (on all pennies since 1882) might corroded off fairly quickly.
“might corrode off” (grammar)
My 2 cats would sleep on the bed during the day, but at night, when I was in the bed & trying to sleep, they were very active. Anything moving under the covers (my feet) got pounced on. Murphy liked to take a bath near my head .... slurp, slurp, slurp ... maddening! The there was “kitty wrestling” going on and not just one ‘round’.
I finally kicked them out & kept the bedroom door shut. Murphy was NOT happy. In the morning, when she thought I should be “up”, she would hook her paws under the door & rattle it while “yowling” loudly. I slept in one Saturday, after throwing slippers at the door to stop Murph’s shenanigans. When I got up, she was sitting in the den, glaring at me with her green eyes - I noticed something dark on the floor in front of her. I didn’t have my glasses on & had to bend down for a closer look - the stinker had pooped on the floor. As I stood up straight, something else caught my eye - she had chewed the ears off a beautiful horse statue I had. She could be very vengeful, but very sweet, too. If she thought I was sad, she would get in my lap & pat my face with her paw. She was a tortoiseshell, so had a very complex personality. The other cat was a light orange/buff tabby who was very mild-mannered & very straightforward personality wise.
Revenge poop! It happens!
The poop I could deal with but how to repair the ears on that statue? It was plaster with a ‘bronze’ coating. She didn’t just take off the finish, she gnawed the plaster so the ears are shorter (& white with no bronze finish). She could be such a stinker!
It takes months, or more, for egg shell calcium to work into the soil. It’s easier and faster to go to Goodwill or Salvation Army and buy an old beater coffee grinder and pulverize the egg shells. The calcium will be absorbed more quickly because you have greatly increased the surface of the eggshell bits and thus the amount of absorbable calcium. Even faster, take the pulverized egg shells and pour a bit of vinegar on them. Be careful. Use a very large container or it will spill over from the foam. Here is a website that explains how to do it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ycETgNRe5k
It's given me the chance to refine my plant covering setup, but I'd rather be doing other gardening work.
Maybe this super el nino will make up for it, but probably not.
Oh I forgot to mention, I lost my best and biggest indoor started cucumbers four beautiful 6 inchers; 3 Boston Pickling, and 3 Straight Eights in a late April freeze. I germinated and planted replacements and then lost them to another late April freeze. At least I assume they’re lost! No baby leafs where they should be. Started some more a couple days ago but they’re getting the kid gloves treatment like my Roma tomatoes: outside for daylight inside with heaters at night.
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