Pro-Ketch MouseTrap Review

Several years ago I had a mouse in my apartment. Being sadly catless, I found myself being awoken every night by skitterings and chewings. Every night, mulling over different mouse trap concepts in my head.

You see, the mousetrap is a sort of DIY right of passage into inventorhood. It pits the wits of man against those of mouse. Mano a mouseo.

After awaking one night to find the little bastard dragging one of my candles away, I started building. What I ended up with was a contraption built of cardboard boxes, fishing wights, levers and brass tubing. It was hardly Alcatraz, but it was effective enough as long as I got to it quickly after it was sprung.

Catching the little guy came with quite a feeling of accomplishment (and relief). I can’t stand poisons. My neighbors once put out some poison only to have the rat die in my wall. It stunk for months. Poisons come with a horrible death and I worry about the risk of the mouse staggering off only to be eaten by a pet.

The other day we started hearing a scrabbling and squeaking coming from the attic. It’s all full of insulation, so tossing the cats up there wasn’t going to be effective. My previous cobbled together solution wasn’t going to hold up long enough to do the job, and I really didn’t know what manner of animal I was dealing with, so I went shopping.

I started under the assumption that I had a roof rat. Unfortunately, the only rat traps I could find were either big electrocuting steel jawed death machines, glue traps, or really poorly made havahart-style traps, but there was a really great mouse trap at Harbor Freight.

The Pro-Ketch(pictured above) is a bit bigger than an old timey video cassette and has two cleverly designed entrances. It’s designed to be put along a wall to appeal to the natural tendency for rodents to run along the edges. It supposedly doesn’t need bait, and is made of steel with a clear plastic window in the top. The entrances have a steel ramp that see-saws on a central hinge. Laying over the bottom of this ramp sits another smaller one, hinged at the base. When the rodent is climbing the ramp, it is standing on the secondary ramp, but when it steps off, it is already past the central pivot of the first ramp and things start to tip, lifting the second ramp to block the exit. Going the rest of the way into the trap causes the smaller ramp to push the main ramp back into the original position, thus priming the trap to catch any addition rodents that are attracted by the first.

I only have tro complaints about the Pro-Ketch trap. First of all, while it comes in a few configurations for location, it really only comes for one size of rodent: small. Second, it doesn’t have a latching mechanism. There isn’t much to stop a mouse from just pushing open the whole lid.

After mostly unsuccessful attempts for a couple nights with various bait, I baited the trap with sunflower butter, putting a thin row of it up each ramp, and a bigger glob in the inside of the trap. I also added a rubber band to ensure it stayed closed. This did the trick almost immediately. Within a couple hours I had caught my mouse and could hear her trying to chew her way out of the metal box. It turns out she was just a cute little house mouse making a lot of racket.

And what became of our unwanted guest? We went for a little walk a few blocks away, where she will now likely be frequenting the home of a particularly irritating neighbor.

There is another nearly identical version of this trap (available with very quick shipping via amazon), the Tin Cat by Victor. Or you could build your own.

Vibram Five Finger Shoes (reviews)

On the recommendation of Tim Ferris, we went out to our local sporting goods shop to see if they had any of the new Vibram five finger shoes in stock. We were in luck!

I’m a real shoe snob. I still scour e-bay daily just to see if anyone is selling my favorite shoes, not made since 2001. I don’t like shoelaces. I’m of the opinion that tying things to our feet really should have gone out of style with the bustle (I prefer to be asked if my shoes were made by aliens). My usual shoes are lightweight and form fitting running shoes, air padded, so when I tried on the Vibrams, I was expecting something similar with something scratchy between my toes. I was wrong.

I’d seen the pictures online, so when the shoe dude brought out a pair for me to try on, the first thing that struck me was the soles. They aren’t flat and ridgy like shoes, they are smooth and padded like the soles of your feet. If you push on the shoe from the inside, the soles split into tiny herringbone incisions (they refer to it as razor siping). These provide awesome traction. The upper felt like wetsuit material. Pulling the shoe on was easy except for the little toe. I’ve wondered if the shoe would be better of with only four toes instead of five, combining the smallest two, but I really think they just made the smallest toe a tiny bit on the large side. Once the shoe is on though, it didn’t seem to be a problem. The shoes are shockingly comfortable. I wasn’t expecting that at all.

Walking around in these isn’t like light running shoes at all. It feels like walking around in thick socks, but with the protection of a tough sole under your foot. I expected the wetsuit-like material to make my feet really hot and sweaty, but it really didn’t.  I bet these would be unbeatable on a rocky shore or tide-pool. They don’t seem like they would suffer at all out in the gritty sand either, since there isn’t really anywhere for them to chafe. I was trying on the Fivefingers FLOW model. They had another model, the KSO, which has a nice fabric mesh upper instead of the rubbery stuff. Trying these on took things one step further. I no longer felt like I was wearing thick socks, but more like being barefoot with tough soles. They are super light-weight and breathable. I bought a pair of the mesh shoes.

Wearing these toe shoes is such a pleasure that I found myself wearing them most of the day, around the house and in the yard. I don’t tend to wear shoes unless I’m going out, so this is a big seal of approval. After wearing them all weekend, I decided to wear them to work, which is about half a mile away. Walking to work, I took things a little slower than usual. The shoes didn’t hurt, but I could tell they were using a different set of muscles. When I got to work and sat down however, I felt a burning sensation across the front of the pad of my feet, like you might get from a few minutes of walking across asphalt barefoot. It didn’t go away, so I switched back to regular shoes for the day.  I think I was really close to giving myself a blister. I would recommend your first brisk walk in these be no more than a quarter mile with a day afterwards to see how everything feels. I have sore muscles down my calf and Achilles, and in my foot, which considering how much walking I do and how often I’m barefoot, surprised me. These shoes are marketed towards marathon runners, and I hear that you just need to adjust to them. It didn’t feel like a flaw in the shoe, except that maybe a bit more than the usual proportion of  stepping force is applied to the front of the pad. They don’t feel like they slip or chafe, and it would be hard to roll your ankle. I would say that as compared to normal shoes they vastly increase the pleasure of walking on natural terrain and indoors, and somewhat decrease the pleasure of walking on asphalt.

I’m giving myself a couple days off from the shoes to make sure I’ve recovered from the first outing and then I’m excited to wear them again, this time with no extended walks until I’ve worn them a bit more. I’ll update this post further as I break them in some more.

Update: After a couple of days of rest, I was able to walk a few miles over the course of the day with no ill effects. My first attempt at running lasted a coupe blocks before I could really feel it down the back of my legs and quit just to be safe. I ended up with sore calf muscles (in a good way). The shoes do put a lot more emphasis on lower leg and foot muscles while running. After two weeks, I’m now able to walk several miles at a stretch on asphalt without discomfort. I wore my five fingers shoes to the Kinetic Sculpture Race, and they were great in the sand. They didn’t pick up much sand, and since your foot doesn’t slide inside, there is none of that sandpaper feeling at tender spots on your foot.

I’ve been wearing them everywhere, and without socks. They do need to be washed often. I threw mine in the washing machine and they came out great with no sings of wear. I’m finding myself unwilling to wear my other shoes now, so I’m going to buy Vibrams to wear while my others are waiting to be washed. They don’t soak up much water when washed since they don’t have all the spongy stuff most shoes do, so I just wore them rather than drying them and it didn’t seem weird.

Update: I got a second smaller pair (to keep a good wash cycle going), and I like them even better, so if you can’t decide on a size, go with the smaller. Over the 4th of July weekend, I took the FiveFingers out to the beach and still had no problems with sand (they leave great footprints), and they were great for climbing on the rocks.

There was none of the pain of walking on barnacles barefoot, but none of the slippery feeling of being in shoes.

I also went out to the redwoods and walked around in the forest. My balance was much improved walking on small downed trees (the shoes wrap around instead of sitting flat like a platform). I found some stumps about twenty feet tall and had no trouble climbing straight up them. Making it up in running shoes would have been unlikely since there wasn’t much in the way of visible footholds. The soles were grippy enough to make it a breeze. I don’t know how they would be for hard-core rock climbing, but they are excellent for casual climbing.

Update: Took them out to the river and they were awesome for puddling around in the water. I didn’t try swimming in them, but walking on the normally treacherous slimy rocks was like a foot massage and quite stable. I also walked on some really scary looking blackberry brambles and none of them made it through to my foot, which I have to admit, really surprised me. I’ve been seeing a lot of people worrying about whether it is bad for your back or arches to run barefoot or in FiveFingers. I’ve suffered no ill effects now after several months. This is how we were designed to run. If you doubt it, just check out this video of an ancient hunting technique. I found it inspirational as a runner.

I know a lot of you don’t live near stores where you can buy Vibram Fivefingers, and most of our readers are international, so I’m posting an amazon link (international variants at the bottom of the resulting page) which I still find to be the safest and most convenient, but I’ll keep an eye out for better deals and post them here as I find them.

There are several colors and styles. I went with black mesh KSO (pictured). The well placed strap system makes them flexible enough that being a size off shouldn’t be a big deal. These are listed in European sizing, so I’ve put up a sizing chart, which I found to be quite accurate.
Here you can find Assorted Vibrams available on amazon. Scroll down to the bottom of the amazon page to find them for your country if you don’t live in the U.S.

Electrically Conductive Wire Glue

If you ever have a delicate electrical project where you are afraid that the heat of soldering will damage tiny components or melt nearby materials, you should try out this electrically conductive Wire Glue. It isn’t terribly easy to work with, being runny and inflexible. but if you are in a delicate position, or you are trying to solder to things that solder just doesn’t like to stick to, it becomes an invaluable addition to any geek’s toolbox, and it is lead free.

Update: The stuff is water based, but after using it to glue together the leads for the under water portion of an electrolysis unit pulling around 80 volts, it has held up fine for weeks of under water load (as long as you let it fully cure first). It worked as advertised for our uses, but we haven’t tried replacing the ink in our inkjet and printing out a circuit board or anything. We leave that bit of fun to you.
 

The cheapest place I’ve found it is through ThinkGeek Gadgets

Amazon also carries Wire Glue, and it is still cheap enough you could just toss it on your next order and not feel like you spent anything.

Ultrasonic Fog Maker

Every year when Halloween comes around, I carve a watermelon. I don’t have anything against the carving of pumpkins, I just find the watermelon to be a superior choice.

They are easier to carve.

They are more directly edible.

The green on the skin contrasts nicely with the red interior.

The interior looks awesome when lit.

The biggest flaw I’ve found with the watermelon is that it doesn’t take the heat of a candle very well. This year I tried this little ultrasonic fog maker with LED. Even with a windy Halloween, the results were impressive. The interior had a shifting glow in the swirling fog.

When submerged, the device uses ultrasound to resonate the surface of the water and break it into extremely tiny droplets. The fog feels cool to the touch, but not very damp. In my tests, the effect worked through thin solid materials, so you could hide it in a device. It also worked with some success on other liquids (including Vodka). You may have seen these in use in small fountains, or for reptiles, terrariums, or humidifiers.

Update: Here is my watermelon carving for 2009:

For 2009 I had a small melon. I did’t have much room inside for a water reservoir, so I just put the fog maker in a jar of water. I could hear all of the trick or treaters coming because of all of the exclamations ver the smoke coming from the teeth of my watermelon. The empty eye socket was carved to a thin shell so it lit up nicely without being open to the interior.

Speedy Sharp Tool Sharpener

There are a lot of specialized sharpening devices out there. everything from that big glorified rat tail file you see cooks often using as a knife sharpener, to flat stones, to contraptions with guides and ceramic wheels. I was recently given a Speedy Sharp and I think it is enough of an improvement over the others in a general purpose sense to have achieved design perfection. It isn’t much more complicated than it looks, just a well shaped chunk of carbide with a rubberized grip, but it works better than you would imagine. I don’t think I’ve ever needed more than a few swipes to sharpen anything and it doesn’t chatter or leave rough spots, and it is small enough to not take up a noticeable amount of room wherever you may keep or carry it. It is great for tools or sharpening knives.