Sodastream: Instant soda any time you want.

Just before Christmas 2010 I was in Bed Bath and Beyond looking for a new chef's knife for my wife. There was a salesman demonstrating a gizmo that instantly carbonated tap water making it fizzy seltzer water. Then he measured an amount of syrup and slowly poured it into the seltzer. He placed the cap on the bottle and gently turned it over two or three times. I was skeptical, until he handed me a sample of the soda he just made. It tasted almost exactly like diet Coke. As I sipped the soda he began his sales pitch about how healthy it was and how much money we'd save as a family. I thought to my self why haven't I heard of this thing before?

Sodastream isn't a new idea. It's been around since 1903 in England. The home version was introduced in 1955 with 14 flavors according to the Sodastream website. Today there are 34 soda and energy drink flavors with some sparkling water options as well. I was convinced this company wasn't a fly by night get in get out of the market scheme. I still wasn't quite sure how "convenient" it would be. One day I was talking to a good friend and mention the Sodastream, she said it was great and that she'd had one for a year now. She explained that the transition was a little weird, but once you get used to bringing your soda to work with you it was easy. She was able to choose any flavor she liked, it didn't cost much and it had less sugar than regular soda.

I wanted to see the health benefits first so I went to the source at Sodastream's website. Sodastream has 66 less calories per 8oz serving than Coca-Cola. The numbers keep getting better, 17g less carbs, 17g less sugar, 33mg less sodium and 8mg less caffeine. Well I was definitely sold on the lower sugar and sodium numbers so the next thing to look at was the cost.

A Sodastream Genesis costs $99.00 retail at Bed Bath and Beyond. It came with a gas cylinder, the Sodastream soda maker, two 1 liter bottles and an assortment of flavors in sample packs. So my initial investment is $99.00 plus any additional flavors I wanted at $4.99 each. I bought four at $19.96. Now we were up to $118.96. Let's do the math.

I usually bought 1 20oz soda almost every day for $1.69. $1.69 x 30 days = $50.70. So lets say the rest of the family doesn't drink as much soda, say 5 cans a week, since there are 3 others that makes 15per week or approximately 64 cans per month. Our local grocery store has deals on soda all the time so I'll figure the cost of the soda at $3.00 per 12 cans. Now we divide 3.00 by 12 and get .25 cents per can. .25 cents x 64 cans per month =$16.00. the grand total of soda purchases by my family is $66.70 per month. Each Bottle of flavor makes 12 liters (Sodastream does all it's math in liters) and each gas cylinder makes 60 liters. That Means the flavorings cost .41 cents per liter and the gas is .25 cents per liter. Each liter costs .66 cents. Okay, I'm almost there. If one liter is approximately 33 ounces, then each ounce costs .02 cents. and a twelve ounce serving (the same size as a can is .24 cents and a 20 oz serving is .40 cents. What does this tell us?

We save about a penny a can of soda and $1.29 per 20 oz bottle. When we take into consideration that the cost of time and gasoline to get the soda, it's even more savings. If we make about 60 liters per month that's $39.60 for the month. Since we'll have the machine for many years we can add .10 cents per liter and the cost is covered in a bout a year and a half. So the recap is without Sodastream we spend $66.70 per month and with it we spend $39.60 and get about 20% more soda.

I went back to Bed, Bath and Beyond and purchased the Genesis kit. The kids opened it on Christmas morning and ran around with the box screaming. I'm thinking they liked it.

Ultimately I love my Sodastream, not because it's going to make me a millionaire (it's not), but because I am not recycling 94 bottles and cans every month, my family is consuming less sugar and sodium, and it's right there whenever we want it.

You can judge for yourself, here is their website: Sodastream

Quibids: Can I really get a $3000 camera for $234?

QuiBids is a "Fee for Bid" website that allows you to purchase 1 penny bids for 60 cents a piece and then bid on brand new merchandise. It's already sounding a little fishy, paying 60 cents for a penny seems a little silly. QuiBids claims it "isn’t your basic online auction model.  It’s a unique, fun, exciting way to take the traditional auction model that’s been around for 100’s of years and spice it up a bit." The spice they've used is a series of rules and restrictions that prevent you from winning too much stuff. Specifically, you can win 8 auctions every 28 days and only one of those can be a high value item (valued over $999). The details and rules take some time to get used to, but when you do you'll realize that you need more than money at QuiBids, you'll need lots of time. I followed one auction for a Canon D5 Mark ii DSLR camera valued at over $3000 that played out over a 27 hour period. It sold for an astonishing 234.00. People were following the auction just like I was and that took a considerable amount of free time with no distractions.

Let's look at the math of QuiBids. $234.00 = 23,400 penny bids and 23,400 penny bids = $14,040 in bid revenues at .60 cents a bid. Even at .40 cents a bid the revenue would be $9,360. Basically they need to sell 5000 bids at 60 cents to make the retail cost of the camera. It seemed as though they were making out pretty well on the big ticket items so, I checked the smaller ticket items (under $900). An Apple iPad 16 gig model valued at $579 retail sold three different times. Once for 11.96, the second time for 28.82 and the third for 25.87.  3 units at $579 = $1737. The total bid revenues were $11,108 at .60 cents a bid. QuiBids Claims on their website to make 5% to 10% profit. In comparison, A hardware store will do 3% if they are run very well and control expenses. If they are being honest about profits they are still doing very well.

What happens to the people who spent .60 cents a bid and lost? Well, they have a few options, they could purchase the item they bid on at just below retail with the cost of bids subtracted or they could just quit the site and get all unused bids refunded or they could just keep putting in money and hope to get the next win. QuiBids states that they don't want people to have a bad time using their site and have made an on-line learning center available for anyone to use.  They will also warn bidders when the cost of their bids could exceed the retail price of an item.

I'm still looking at QuiBids like a casino, they can't lose, but most of the bidders do. I must admit though part of the reason I looked into QuiBids is because a friend of mine became rather involved with the site. He spent about a month of constant watching and bidding until he won a "new in the box" Camera priced over $3000 (his total investment was about $600 which is not bad). He did tell me that it worked for him because he had lots of time to invest. When I asked him if he would recommend it to anyone else he said that he wouldn't.

I'll be interested to see if in the future regulations are established for this kind of site. Until then it just doesn't seem like a good way to get a new TV or X-box.

Stitch and Glue Construction

The 1/4" plywood hull of the Apple Pie is constructed using a method called stitch and glue. There are numerous books and websites on the subject so I won't go into detail here. Here is a link to Duckworks Magazine, they have extensive links and files for boat builders, designs (free and pay), and an entire webstore with everything you need to build your own boat.  Devlin Designing Boat Builders is a great resource for information on stitch and glue boat building. I purchased the book, "Boatbuilding For Beginners (and Beyond)" by Jim Michalak. I found it to be very helpful and quite interesting. It also comes with plans for six boats. The book can be purchased at Duckworks Store.

I will start by saying, that this method of boat building allows even a novice to build a strong yet light watercraft. Stich and glue uses wire or zip-ties to hold bowed wood panels together. Then, while all the parts of the boat are snugged in place each seam inside the hull is filled with epoxy and wood fiber. The seams are reinforced with more epoxy and fiberglass cloth. Once the seams dry the wire or zip-ties can be removed and then the builder repeats the same steps on the outside of the hull. After the seams have been sanded smooth the entire hull is covered with epoxy and fiberglass cloth. The finished product is surprisingly light and strong.

The Plans

Here is one of the 16 pages provided in the file for the Apple Pie 7' Yacht Tender. All of the drawings are easy to read and understand, not to mention they really get the imagination going. I can almost see my finished boat floating in the water with fishing poles extended.
The plans are prefaced by the story of the origin of the design for the boat, "Slogging to Windward", penned by Chuck Merrell. I like that there's more to this nifty little boat than meets the eye. Merrell had a unique experience with the original boat which makes his plans special because it's obvious how much care and attention to detail went into these well made blueprints.

The Apple Pie's plans gives one all the information needed to build the hull. A comprehensive set of drawings with plotting information, so sketching the design on wood will be a breeze, is just the beginning. Merrel also includes a recommendation for a book about the stitch and glue building method called DEVLIN’S BOAT BUILDING (How to build and boat the Stitch-And-Glue Way) By Samuel Devlin, International Marine Publishing Company (perfect for DIY boatbuilders). After that, it's left up to you how to outfit the inside. Be sure to take into consideration how any changes may effect the way the boat sits in the water. A couple of the Apple Pie projects I've seen had adjustments to the design in that a seat was added at the bow and flotaion compartments were included under all of the seats. A flotaion compartments is when a builder encloses the space under a seat and fills it with foamboard or expanding foam. This little update would make the boat difficult if not impossible to sink. The Apple Pie allows for some room to really make it yours for fishing or rowing, even tending a yacht.

You can download a set of the Chuck Merrell designed plans here. Just click on the image and download the .zip file.

The Boat I'm Going to Build

So, I've decided to build a boat. A tiny little boat for fishing named "Knucklehead". I spent a bunch of time looking and researching designs and techniques. Apparently one can built a nice boat from some 1/4" plywood and epoxy resin (and fiberglass cloth, and wood flour, and expanding foam, etc.). After copious consideration I've decided to build the Apple Pie Yacht Tender by Chuck Merrell for three reasons.

1) The plans were free. A Christmas gift from Chuck to everyone in 2000. Thanks!

2) A guy named Dale Austin aka Mr. Wizard has a beautiful photo diary of his build. His finished product is quite exceptional. Not to mention his whole website is very cool. He's a real Renaissance man.

3) Most importantly I like the Apple Pie. I will be perfect for fishing in the Skokie Lagoons with the kids.

I am starting with a 1/2 scale model so I have a nice little boat to use in case I shrink to 1/2 my original size. Once finished the full size Apple Pie should be cake.

I purchased some 1/4 super cheap plywood from Owl Lumber in Des Planes. It was about $9.00 and they cut it into 4-24"x48" pieces.

The plotting of the pieces was the hard part so far. With kids and work and my maniacal desire to sleep it took about 2 weeks to plot the cut lines for the bottom and one side piece. My estimation is the boat will be finished in about 5 years. We'll see.