Build Bath & Shower

Staying fresh and clean on the road without getting a hotel room can be tricky. But if you build your own car-top ‘solar’ camp shower, you can stay squeaky clean wherever you roam. This DIY is a bit challenging, but with the right tools and materials, you’ll be ready to hit the road in no time. [embedded content] Tools: Hacksaw Drill with 1/8″, 3/4″ and 3/8″ bits Marker Materials: One 10′ length of 4″ Schedule 40 ABS pipe (this will depend on how much water you want the shower to hold) Two 4″ ABS end caps One 4″ T- joint ABS fitting with threaded top opening 4″ ABS cleanout cap for T-joint One 1/2″ brass locknut One flat rubber O-ring Two canoe foam blocks (optional: these go on your vehicle’s crossbars and keep the shower more secure and held off the bars; alternately you can just tie the shower directly to the bars) One Schrader valve from an aluminum wheel; available at any tire/wheel shop ABS cleaner/primer ABS cement Waterproof silicone sealant Sandpaper Tie-down straps Petr...

Q. We clipped your column titled " Silicone caulk doesn 't stand up to polyurethane," knowing that we would need the product you recommended Sikaflex-1a which we couldn't find at Home Depot or any local supply houses . And since our clipping is missing the bottom of the column, we can't make out the other product you recommended. We intend to use it in our shower to caulk where the wall tile meets the shower base. A. The best answer to your question is a reprint of my advice regarding my experience with bathroom caulks: Over the years, I have been asked many times what is the best caulk to use to seal the joint of a bathtub and the wall above it. For years, I had been recommending Sikaflex- 1a polyurethane caulking , which I have been using in construction and home maintenance since the 1950s. A couple of years ago, I experimented with a different caulking, because several readers wrote to tell me that Sikaflex-1a was turning pink or yellow. I tried DAP Kwik ...

Bruno Goussault, 63, is both a scientist and an economist. He has been training chefs like Fabio Trabocchi at the Ritz-Carlton and Michel Richard at Citronelle, both in Washington, Dan Barber at Blue Hill in New York and Daniel Boulud at Daniel, also in New York, not only how to use sous vide but also to understand the science behind it. Where Escoffier organized the way chefs cook, dividing the professional kitchen into stations (sauces, cold foods, sautéing, pastry), Goussault has reprogrammed their approach to temperature, technique and taste -- their fundamental understanding of cooking. At Charlie Trotter's in Chicago, the intense heat and scrape of pans against the stove is giving way to an almost placid atmosphere, the barely audible hum of water baths that run 24 hours a day. Dufresne, the chef at the innovative Manhattan restaurant WD -50, calls Goussault's contribution to cooking "monumental." The advancements he has made are on par with the invention of t...