Amazon Prime - Municipalities and Tax Payers Shouldn't Pay to Dispose of Packaging - Send It Back

I do purchase things online. It's often cheaper and more convenient that going out to the shop.

What makes me somewhat upset of Amazon is the lack of a circular packaging system. It could be like beer bottles, where the packaging is cleaned and reused. Unfortunately the cardboard boxes and plastic bubble or insulated envelopes are single use - the cardboard may get recycled if there's a market for used fiber, but the plastic envelopes most certainly won't.

Through customer support, I asked Amazon what to do with the envelopes as my municipality does not accept/recycle them. I was given no response.

Given the nature of Amazon's operations, they must have the means to manage waste from the products that arrive at their warehouses.

Packing Envelopes to send back an item to Amazon

Solution : Send the packaging back to Amazon.

I had an item to return because it was sent to me by mistake, so I am using the envelopes from Amazon to send the item back.

They will have to deal with the waste, but if everyone started sending the packaging back to Amazon, or whichever retailer or origin, it will force change.

Product Design Faux Pas

Have you ever wanted to clean or try to repair something? No manual, no image of the parts. That the first issue - all user and service/maintenance manuals should be online available for the consumers and service technicians.

Brave enough, you decide to go in anyway, but find yourself stumbled at one of these Torx Security screws.

Faux pas 1 : Most people have star Philips or flat screwdrivers. Do not use Torx, let alone security type.

You get in, after about 20 screws to the controller board. Then, this

A soldered fuse. Yes, a fuse is there to protect a circuit, but if it's inaccessible, by too many parts or cost to service, the device is garbage.

Faux pas 2 : Hard to reach or replace fuses.

The screws with the arrows are all remove, but you still can't take it apart. You peel an aluminum setting cover with a strong adhesive backing. Given the thickness of the plate, you're unable to put it back.
Faux pas 3  : Hidden screws that require a destructive process.

The molding and over molding of materials is a technical achievement, but decide somewhere. Who is going to deal with this in the future. PC, ABS TPE. Are the plastics miscible. Who will pay for that?

Faux pas 4 : Un-recyclable material

Screenplay has long been in the works - isolation and creative flourishings

An aspiring director from New York working out of a hostel in Peru thinking that he'll succeed in the post nostalgic self isolation period. The product : a political dramatic comedic thriller.

Jennifer, an anti vaxxxer, believes that this the best opportunity to use the global momentum to take action against climate change. As a devout Christian, she confronts the idea that the apocalypse will ever happen, yet expresses her sentiment of feeling indebted to her teachings.
While unsure that her clicking away at the Amazon Warehouse Deals catalog will contribute to saving the world, she reassures herself that it is better than buying cans of Essential Beer located on the lower shelf of her corner store.

Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, she has great dreams of repainting the house, meeting "the one" online, and ultimately learning how to code Python.

Stuck Freewheel - Freewheel Removal Tool Slipping - Grind Weld Heat Remove - Too Few Thread on Hub

My Pacific Cycles winter bike, the Dolomite or Schwinn Biggity, was not properly geared. I decided to replace the freewheel with one that had 34 teeth as opposed to the original with 28 teeth. Lower gearing means less stress on my knees, chain and it makes it possible to climb hills with minimal effort.

A Sunrace  MFM300-7 model was available, so I swapped it out. After about a month, I had a flat tire and noticed a lot of wobble on the freewheel. I couldn't be sure that it was a problem, but it wasn't terribly reassuring. I decided to to go back to the original.
No luck using my cassette tool, which worked with all other freewheels, so I went out and bought the Park Tool Freewheel Removal Tool 1.3. No luck,  the tool slipped. It felt actually looser that then cassette tool. Tape or paper shims made no difference.

I tried the impact wrench and still no luck.

Why not make my own tool? I took a nut that was originally for my angle grinder to belt sander project, ground it to a taper and hammered it in the freewheel. A little nudge, but the nut's steel was too soft and it slipped.  The ideal setup would have been tool steel cut like a screw extractor.

Next up, at least save the sprockets to use on another freewheel: I was a little lazy, so I used the angle grinder to cut off the lock ring and set cog. The remaining six cogs are still usable.

Trying to cut the outer ring that rotated freely, it seemed pointless as it moves with the grinder and the angle tough to cut. Had I the freewheel servicing tool, to remove the lock ring and remove bearings, palls etc, I would have been less noisy etc. The following steps would not have been necessary...

Somewhat discouraged, welding the core of the freewheel to the outside, where it can be grabbed by pipe wrench, was another effort. The heat of the welding, was intense enough to melt the plastic guard behind the freewheel, seeing it now possible to recover my spokes, but I still wanted to get that freewheel off.

The foot long pipe wrench wasn't quite long enough to make it easy to remove the freewheel to make it budge or even make a sound. Thinking that I should call it day and try to recover my spokes and rim, the blowtorch was in reach. I heated up behind the freewheel at the joint of the hub, gave another shot with the pipe wrench. Voilà! The freewheel came off.

What was the issue? Sunrace tolerances are too low - too much slack, and the freewheel hub was not threaded deeply enough such that the freewheel cut thread into the hub making it so difficult to remove.

Did I put some grease on the hub before installation? Yes. Was it a good idea? Not sure. Maybe it allowed the freewheel to dig in deeper.


Recipe for Removing a Stubborn Freewheel when special tools fail 

Ingredients :

• Angle Grinder
• Welder ( I used a flux core gas-less wire feed. Stick would have been just as good ) 
• Pipe Wrench
• Blow Torch

1. Remove lock ring ( with correct tool / Chain Whip etc.) or cut it with the angle grinder.
2. Remove remaining sprockets to build another freewheel.
3. Weld, 3-4 joints between center of freewheel to outer ring.
4. Heat threaded part of hub and freewheel.
5. Remove freewheel with pipe wrench.

Simple Mayonnaise - Vegetable oil, Water, Corn starch, Vinegar, Lemon Juice, Salt - Variations - Extra Virgin Olive Oil - Balsamic Vinegar

Ingredients
For 500g of mayonnaise

	(grams)
Veg Oil	360
Sugar	13,5
Corn Starch	6
Salt	7,5
Water	113

Vinegar and Lemon juice are includes in the volume of water. Experiment with how it should taste.


Tools
Sauce Pan
Blender

Scale

Instructions

1.  Mix Water, sugar(I omitted as don't like it sweet), lemon juice, vinegar, salt and starch in a sauce pan. Cook at low temperature over stove top until mixture becomes translucent.  If you taste the mixture, it should not taste starchy. Adding vinegar at the end retains more of its flavour.
2. Let mixture cool in the refrigerator.  
3. Place both mixture and oil in refrigerator in separate containers. 
4. Wait until the starch and water mixture is cool and at the same temperature as the rest of the items in the refrigerator. At this time your vegetable oil should be at the same temperature
5. Use blender to mix oil and cooked starch. It make take a few pulses and minutes to make it uniform. 
6. A spatula is useful to extract the mayonnaise from the blender pitcher and put in a jar. 

Extra Virgin Olive Oil will make the mayo yellow, but it tastes nicer.

More starch will make it stiffer. Emulsion isn't as good, but still adequate.

Scale your quantity
For 100g
72 g oil
1.2 g starch
2.7 g sugar
1.5 g salt
22.6 g Water+vinegar+lemon juice (to taste)
A scienticious pinch of paprika and mustard powder.


Note about the mustard which is an emulsifier. In this recipe it may have both roles of improving the emulsion and taste. If you omit the mustard, increase the amount of starch. This will result in a stiffer mayonnaise, but a good emulsion nonetheless.


This recipe is based off a commercial mayonnaise. I just looked at the ingredients and nutritional information from the Hellman's brand :

Vegetable Oil (72%), Water, Vinegar, Sugar, Salt, Corn Starch, Natural Flavouring (contains Mustard), Lemon Juice Concentrate, Antioxidant (Calcium Disodium EDTA), Colour (Paprika Extract)

Nutrition

Typical Values	Per 100g	Per portion**	%* per portion**
Energy	2738kJ/	411kJ/	5%
-	654kcal	98kcal
Fat	72g	11g	16%
of which saturates	5.3g	0.8g	4%
Carbohydrate	3.9g	0.6g	<1 td="">
of which sugars	2.7g	<0 .5g="" td="">	<1 td="">
Protein	<0 .5g="" td="">	<0 .5g="" td="">	<1 td="">
Salt	1.5g	0.22g	4%
Omega 3	6.6g	0.99g
*% of Reference intake of an average adult (8400kJ / 2000kcal)	-	-	-
** 1 portion = 15g (pack contains 18 portions)	-	-	-

Soy Milk Recipe - Pressure Canner - Shelf Stable - Make more - less cleaning

Soy Milk

This recipe is prepare soy milk that can stay on the shelf. No refrigeration required.

Using a pressure canner can prepare a large amount of soy milk with less cleaning of the blender, pots, bowls etc per litre. As the soy milk isn't cooked on the stove top, there is no risk of the bottom of the pot burning the milk. The temperature of the steam is the limiting factor. At 15psi, it could reach 120C, but is closer to 112C as the pressure cycles up and down.

Tools Required

• Blender (giraffe or regular ie Vitamix. 400W is sufficient )
• Kettle or pot to boil water
• Pressure Canner (15 psi is ideal - Throw a towel on top to increase the pressure isn't safe...)
• Sieve
• Large Bowl or Pot  
• Canning Jars
• Heat source 

Ingredients

• 85g of soy beans 
• 1250ml of water

Preparation
1. Soak beans in water for 6-8 hours. Shallow containers work better to avoid the beans on to bottom not swelling equally.
2. Discard the soaking water.

3. Boil water in a kettle or large pot on the stove if available.

Grinding beans
4. Measure 1 cup of soaked beans.
5. Put in Blender with 300-500ml of hot water. Cover lid of blender with a towel to limit the mess from the pressure drop blasts.

( Movement or flow causes pressure drop - the built up vapor pressure in the water is released and cause a burst. Try pouring boiling water out of the kettle into a water bottle. Close the lid and shake it. The bottle will burst and water will spray out.)

6. Pulse blender at lowest speed to break the beans.
7. Run the blender continuously while pouring hot water from the top. Fill up to the lid of the blender.

8. Pour the soy bean water emulsion through a sieve in a large pot or bowl. The okara will be collected in a sieve.
9. The okara can be put aside in a container for a secondary blend or for cooking.

Repeat the above for the amount of soy milk you'll be making 

Cooking
10. Pour 100ml of vinegar in the pressure canner.

11. Add 2000ml of water to the pressure canner ( my pressure canner is 18L).
12. Boil the lids of the canning jars in water for 3 minutes.
13. Pour the soy emulsion in to the jars through a finer sieve. Leave 1cm from the top of the jars.  Discard or collect the okara for later cooking.

Make sure the lids and bands are well seated. Otherwise you'll have tofu, doupi or bean curd film, in your pressure canner and all your bottles as seen below.

One jar's lid wasn't fastened down.

14. Close the canner with lid and pressure weight. Bring to pressure and cook for 35 minutes.
15. Turn off heat source, let cool and pressure drop. Using jar pliers, remove jars and place on a towel. 



Notes :
It may require much less time to cook. I'll have to experiment. Given the volume, low acidity and no salt, I err on the side of caution.

In one bottle, I added some maple syrup with the soymilk before cooking. It curded a bit. It could be the water that had some gypsum or other coagulant. This would be something to consider : dessert tofu in a jar using flavouring, sweetner and gypsum or another coagulant.

Amazon Customer Support Chat - What a Waste of time ! - AI or Real person. Either way, totally useless.

Chat is supposed to be faster means for resolving an issue than email. Having real time conversation would help, but in the case of Amazon. It... is... not.

I write my question/issue in the first prompt of the chat. A support agent asks me what is my problem. I copy and paste my original question  The agent asks me to wait a few minutes.
After waiting 5 minutes, I write "Hello, are you still there?" I am asked again to wait for a few more minutes.

You get the picture.

Expect to wait, and wait and wait. It's worse than waiting on the phone because your attention is probably elsewhere.

Use e-mail - describe the problem. Propose a solution.
It may take a day or two to get a response, but it's only a few minutes - not half an hour to an hour of chat.