ShopTalk Sunday: Old Man, Hot Welds, and a Rack

by

NOT that kind of rack; listen up old men. Today we’re walking through how Mr. Ure slapped together some primer-coated solar rack extensions — in the kind of heat that’d melt a possum’s tail. If you’ve ever had to work in blistering temps but couldn’t wait on weather, there are some field-tested hints here to keep you vertical and uncrispy.

As you may be able to see in background, modern solar panels are bigger than the little ones that were affordable at the time we started “getting back at the power company” by powering the UrbanSurvival office with the Sun in 2008.

There are a million details to the over-all project.  If you don’t know exactly what you are doing with solar, there are three forks in the solar road.

  1. Hire it out. Professionals cost money, but so do burned fingers and fried gear.
  2. Find a COTS solution. (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) — like the slick new stackable microinverters popping up on Amazon.
  3. DIY if you know what you’re doing. I’ve been running our solar since 2008 — built it myself, tested quarterly, grid-drop safe. Local linemen appreciate not getting zapped. Backfeeing can kill.

Unlike most (this isn’t a brag, but…) I’ve wired 2 houses, two radio station studios, our own here, and as an extra class ham radio fellow, I know AC and DC wiring, gauges, ampacity tables and all that. Lived on a 40-foot sailboat for a decade where shore power, wind machine on the stern rail, solar panels on the dodger, and a high output externally-regulated alternator played nicely at all times.

To us, solar is more than “insurance power” – it’s our back-up pressure water *(and fire suppression) system. Too many people go into power “eyes wide shut.”

Weather and Working Conditions

As I wheeled the welding gear up to the job site Friday morning, it was already hot. 84 with a “feels like” of 94F. Humidity was up and a single jaunt up from the shop door got the fishing shirt wet.  Our first point: dress for success.  The super lightweight SPF 50 fishing shirts, white or close to it (for minimal heat gain) are the uniform of the day for hot weather work.

The day’s work would involve framing with T-post and 5/8th rebar.  The cost of a 6-foot T-post at Tractor supply is just a bit over $5-bucks  Building with new material you’ll spend $22-bucks for posts.  Then rebar – whatever-which-way your local pricing comes in. Still, less than $50 bucks in most locations.

You can buy panel racks, but with 30 main panels and eventually another 20,  you’re looking at 200 lineal feet of rack.  Years of hard work has revealed “Money spent on material is less money for beer.”

Welder Choices

All the welding I’d previously done was with our Old Reliable – a Lincoln I bought years ago. Wire feed and it’s been generally reliable. MIG (mixed-inert gas) is easy-to-learn and since it had been a half century since I used an oxy rig at the time, MIG was easy.  On the welding table.

BUT, as I can now confirm, you can do as good, or better, using sticks and one of these new-fangled $100 class “welding guns” you can pick up on Amazon.  Got a 110V Handheld Welding Machine, 20-250Amp Portable ARC Welder Hand Held Welder Machine, LCD Display/IGBT Inverter/Rotary Button Adjustment, Stick Welder Gun Kit Fits for 3/32″-1/8″ Welding Rods about this time last year.

At time of introduction these ran $145 – a bit more than  a conventional “buzz box” but now? OMG $50 bucks.  No excuse for not using a stick welder.

Stick Technique is Harder

If you look at the picture above, you will see there is a red plastic thumbscrew on the tip.  The first couple of passes, this adapter can work loose, so pay attention.  It’s a close clearance (try zero) to the plastic, so reef it down.

There are no real secrets to running a bead with stick.

I go scrap-diving at the local steel fab in town and the WIC (Welder in Charge -dandy fellow) told me some time ago that the secret to stick welding was run “hot and fast.” “Hot” means amperage. Keep that bead tight and don’t pause mid-pass unless you want to gouge steel like a can opener. If the tip is sticking, jack up the amps and burn that stick.

But, as you can see, Mr. Ure was still getting the hang of things when I paused which in “hot” stick welding is a no-no.  On the other hand, it’s a quick way to drill a pilot hole if you need to put a bolt in. (I haven’t figured what a bolt could do in this location, but if I ever need one, by God I’m ready…)

Yes, brothers and sisters, Mr. Ure writes better than he welds. Which doesn’t seem to say much… hmm…

I only run thin welding rod with this buzz gun (keep up – that’s a handheld inverter stick welder). 3/32nd Forney E60013.  Without emptying out welding schools by revealing too much weldinbg arcana…

E6013: Ideal for small buzz box welders due to its smooth arc, low amperage needs (70-100A for 3/32″), and ease of use on thin or mild steel. Perfect for beginners and general fabrication.
E6011: Good for AC buzz boxes, offering deeper penetration for repairs or rusty metal, but less smooth than E6013.  We roll with smooth feed rates, so 6013, thanks.
E7018 AC: Stronger welds but trickier to start on low-voltage AC machines; use for clean, structural work if the welder can handle it. Focused on 3/32″ and 1/8″ as these are common for small welders with limited amperage (up to ~160A). Larger rods like 5/32″ may overtax these machines.

These descriptions are tailored to the capabilities of small Chinese buzz box welders, which often have low open-circuit voltage and AC output, making rods like E6013 and E6011 more forgiving.  Ours runs 67V open circuit.

Now, in my little project, the getting of the MIG rig (stand, tools, anti-spatter cans, etc.) was a real PITA.  My little “buzz gun” gave a stronger weld, but remember the MIG is only good to 1/4″ or so, and doing butt joins double beading and maybe a 3-bead gusset would work best.

5/8 rebar is out of the MIG range, but with patience and s l o w you can make it work.

Extension Cords – WYCG

WYCG = Wisdom you can’t Google…

The buzz gun runs on electricity.  And of course, the lighter weight 50 foot #12 ended 10-feet too short of the job. (Repeat after me: “Shit.“)

We keep a 100-foot (read: very heavy duty) extension cord because one of our fallbacks is to have power anywhere we need it off the power center.

So there I am, on about my 8th ten-minute cool-down time out in my office drinking water like a fish, and the idea of standing outside in super-humid and almost 100F on the feels like and I get angling clean-up hacks.

“Ure a smart fellow…so come up with a way to make a neat hank of cord, but without having your left arm holding 25 pounds chest high and sweating out…”

Then it came to me!  I had a squeeze clamp at hand.  And I keep a wood ladder under cover at the welding table (shop north door) because ladders are always useful.

The hand clamp is squeezed on into position.  Then you  put a turn of wire on, repeat, giving each the same amount of dangle off the ground…

Then you finished the job by plugging the plug into the outlet end.

“Why?”

Isn’t it obvious?

We’re in Texas — peak mud dauber season. And apparently, old man sweat is nature’s Gatorade to ’em. Leave a plug open and they’ll turn it into a wasp daycare. Trust me: plug it in when not in use.

Hydrate hydrate, hydrate.  Take cool-down breaks. Watch pulse rate.  Cool down to 90 BPM before resuming tasks…

Get good and cool inside, until the shirt stops dripping.  Then another 10-15 minutes on task, got it?  When done, reload the sodium and other electrolytes.  A couple of hot dogs will hit the salt numbers. A bar-type dill (huge, delish) will make sure you’re ready to sweat more when you get back out. 8 ounces of milk to help on sodium.  Doesn’t sound Gourmet, but it works and it’s quite refreshing.

Hotdogs are hot weather consumables.  Use a pulse-ox or BP cup to track vitals is you’re over 75.

One More Arcane Shop Lesson

Again, if you are a dedicated coop-dweller and never plan to leave the impact zone of foreign enemy targeting packages, you may not be around long enough for this to matter, but…

20-years ago, there was an outfit called Cummins Tools (not related to the big trucks) and they used to have traveling tool shows all over the country.  They set up down at the Civic Center in town and they’d sell out a whole 40-footer of tools over the course of a day.

I picked up a dandy 4 1/2 inch grinder back in the day and have used it every since.

Why do I care?

Well, rebar and T-post only take a few seconds to cut IF you remember there are two kinds of grinding wheels every home handy-bastard must know.  Thick wheels are for grinding.  Thin wheels are called ‘cut-off’ wheels.  They are thin and just for setting the T-posts to length ate about half a cut-off wheel’s worth.  The are planned to wear out so that’s why these are “consumables.”  Elaine worked construction when she was younger, so I don’t need to read her into shop arcana. But if you’re wife can’t run a jackhammer, Sawz-all, and field strip an M14…  (*I get an unlimited consumables budget because it means I’m building something we both benefit from.)

Tool Slut Week Ahead!

Yeah baby!  Still have that Alaska Pro bike from Freesky in my sights.  Amazon Prime Days just ahead. July 8-11.  Keep the neosporin ready (for credit card burn) and click here for details.

Me?  Think I’ll have another cup and ponder this from the AI stack about the passing of Cummins tools:

“A lawsuit from Cummins Inc., the diesel engine manufacturer, forced a name change around 2008, as the tool company’s use of the “Cummins” name infringed on the engine maker’s trademark. They rebranded to ToolsNow.com and later operated under names like National Liquidators, but their reputation for poor-quality tools and declining interest in their traveling sales model led to their eventual exit from the tool market. Their last known shows were reported around 2013-2015 in some areas, though exact closure dates are unclear. Today, no direct equivalent exists in that niche; Harbor Freight has largely filled the void with permanent stores, offering affordable tools in rural areas, while online retailers like Amazon dominate broader tool sales.”

Don’t get me started on having to drive an hour plus to get a Harbor Freight do-dad.  Hate it.  Loved the shipping.

Next week plan on the Evolution table saw report…and don’t hit the tool lists on the Zon without a card ready.

Write when you get rich, or check into rehab for chronic tool addiction,

George@Ure.net

59 thoughts on “ShopTalk Sunday: Old Man, Hot Welds, and a Rack”

    • This man will need no embalming procedures when he kicks the ketchup bucket. He’s totally preserved already!

        • Yes..I had someone on a crew I had that made hot dogs.. he would tell me stories..ruined store bought hot dogs for a couple years lol.. the only ones I could eat were either made to order from the beef processing locker where I could watch ..or made by me lol lol…

    • Any time limit for a distended stomach to hold all that before it regurgitates behind the judges table?

  2. “But if you’re wife can’t run a jackhammer, Sawz-all, and field strip an M14…”

    Lol, maybe I haven’t had a need to try a jackhammer, but I have operated a walk behind trencher to run a long rainwater pipe, saws-all (easy enough), but you got me at field stripping. Guns are not my forte. This week I will be outside to put together a platform deck to match the front porch height. Using 6″ Menards blocks with treated lumber and mix and match composite decking with a ramp for wheelchair accessibility. It’ll extend the current 8×5 porch to a 55×8 foot. My husband likes to be outside with me at the porch, but it’s limited on where he can go, so this gives him just a little more space to visit without hassle. Ever since he became disabled, I’ve discovered that I CAN do a lot more hands on work, though admittedly I’m still not confident in how it chalks up to professionally produced products.

  3. I’ve had better luck with the 7014 rod than 7018. The 7018 is sensitive to humidity, and I don’t have a rod dryer. The 7014 works great even in high humidity storage. My welding technique is still poor at best, but my welds have improved 90% since I found the 7014.

    • That’s one of thge key problems in ShopTalk – I doni’t do enough welding of any kind to justify a rod dryer – and the forney 6013 thin stuff strikes well but you’re right – not as strong as 7014 – I will look for some – and thanks for the tip

      • I have never welded since shop class in highschool..today kids don’t have any of those things we did back then..I have to get someone to weld an extension table on my lift table..for the cornmeal extruder..

      • Steel cookie sheet. Place the rod in your oven and bake. Convection oven at about 250 degrees is best. I learnt stick with the 6011, 6013, and 7014 (my fav) — first two digits is the steel’s tensile strength (60xx=60,000psi, 70xx=70,000psi, etc.) Third number is weld position and fourth is coating specifics. When welding the first two numbers are important, but when drying (“reconditioning”) the rods, that last digit is the one which tells you how long to bake, at what temperature. The coatings are all metallic in nature so they’re not likely to contaminate an oven. Hobart is a good information resource…

        • That’s really good information. I didn’t know that..
          Thats similar to how retail stores set up their labels to A lot of product codes are similar numbers representing the cost date price they paid.. HEAVY STOCK / 0123456789..so you run into buy something you know when it was ordered and what the purchase cost was..

      • If you have no rod dryer, why not use a piece of screen the day before and put a cookie sheet full of the rods in to bake the moisture out of them so they are ready on the planned workday? How easy to use as a workaround. Work out a ‘deal’ in advance with the wife about using her oven for this. Not all of them will understand…

    • I have to agree on the 7014, probably the most overlooked common rod. It’s high build, easy strike, forgiving, and actually great for most things that are not super structural. It likes to run hot, but don’t melt the damn thing. The 7014 can be stored almost anywhere. For strength on thick steel that matters, a first pass with 6011 for deep penetration, and then continue with 7018 as you build. It’s probably as good as you’ll get unless you’re a pro welder. I never really liked the 6013 other than it can be made to look good and it’s everywhere. The 6011 penetrates almost anything and done right, it’s good for most jobs. Rods are almost like guns – the best one is the one you can reach out and touch! The exceptions are obvious – high strength on critical parts or specialty rods for cast iron or aluminum.

  4. oh the joys of welding, I am wondering about the shirt’s fibers,
    fire-resistant? any polyester? I knew an owner of a weld shop and was the supt over welders during constuction of unit 2 a 650 MW plant, receiver of major burn from a shirt catching on fire, just a quick weld repair on a saturday, when shop was normally closed, he did months of skin repair , lucky to survive it, yup ,it was a polyester shirt.
    a light weight welding jacket or shirt,,, cotton, yes sir
    https://www.amazon.com/Magid-SparkGuard-Resistant-Cotton-Jacket/dp/B00BAZRARA
    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TSLLJSF

    • Agreed. Welding without a shirt is dumb, but probably not as dumb as thin polyester that will burn, melt, and attach to your skin as its burning. I watched this happen when trying to iron a shirt with the iron set for cotton. At least it only attached to the ironing table and made a mess.

    • Yes.. nylon is the worst..had a young kid patient that was in a pickup that had been hit by a motorcycle.. the gas tank exploded and melted the shit into his body..nasty.. wool is Great..leather aprons..back in the early nineties we had leather fire aprons for our smokers at the nursing facility.. here at home we have fire blankets and escape hood’s, rescue oxygen.. and more fire extinguishers than we needed have eight staged around the house..three AEDs.. one in the car one in the shop and one in the house..a fire alarm or smoke alarm that calls the fire delartment..it went off one time when TBE wife forgot a pot of soup on the stkve.. we went out to eat.. the fire department called us and asked if we would like them to air The house out lol..

  5. pickel juice during hot weather is a life saver. it’s an old construction hack to beat the heat. no muscle cramps.

  6. (“there was an outfit called Cummins Tools”)

    got to say I loved going to those tent sales lol..now we have harbor freight..I had a suburu back in the day..great car.. loved it.. but similar to the Mini Cooper today..you couldn’t get parts..and no one knew how to work on them also similar to the mini Cooper car repairs.. my daughters mini Cooper she ended up trading it off because she couldn’t find anyone that could work on it and absolutely no parts stocked anywhere.. the Subaru needed a seal.. it had to be shipped took months to get it then the mechanic messed up.. he didn’t know anything I never drove that car again..I ended up getting the seal by a salesman for kt tools whose boss was from japan.. they called someone in Japan to run down to the store then air freight it..

    • Thank God for Harbor Fright! This weekend 15% off on any one item in stock at a store if you have the coupon. If you don’t, it’s probably posted online somewhere.

      • Not all of us are lucky enough to have that problem! A small stove picked up off the street would likely work well enough if out of the rain and out of sight. Only the oven needs to work well enough and you can scrap it if it fails. tack a sheet of scrap steel over the top as a useful surface.

  8. Went to see the movie Prime Cut in 72 with some friends. Have never even thought about eating a hot dog or any packaged dog or sausage since.

    Stay safe. 73

  9. OMG. A ladder, a power cord AND a welding rig all in one small area. Where is G2 when you need an EMT on watch duty? Well, at least there isn’t a water hose and sprinkler in view. Fiberglass ladder would be a good investment.

  10. Yo TTS,

    Youse got a tool for avoiding DEI hires in Airline industry ? Like anyway to avoid getting on Flight piloted by a DEI and or Vaxx victim ? That would be an App I would certainly use, and willing to pay a fee for.

    Try to imagine a Millennial operating a Jackhammer, like just a small electric one -bwahahh aint gonna happen. A sawz-all ? – no way, Millennials are afraid of their own shadows..Field stripping M14 or ANY Gun for that matter – forget it. But for some reason “they” want you believe it is SAFE to Fly DEI – I strongly DISAGREE and see IT as a Threat to My wellbeing…fkrs!

    Fly DEI -https://youtu.be/JBym0UZJheQ?si=KLyCmdzhlAKiDDc1

    *Old tool suts can ROCK, Big Ole jet Airliner-https://youtu.be/pEp_IAfyldo?XzF-J

    • My kids may be the exception. They had to help dad do all kinds of things with heavy equipment and fabrication in their younger years. None so far has expressed interest in aviation beyond flying commercially, though one seeks to skydive solo at least once.

    • The DEI Pilot song is hilarious! I downloaded it immediately before youtube can pull it!

    • The airline I retired early from required all employees to get the vax, and to turn a copy of the vax card into your supervisor. At the same time, a lucrative buyout was offered… almost 1800 pilots out of 12,500 took the buyout. You had to be 62 or over, 10 years of employment, and you got paid a reduced number of flight time hours until you met the FAA required retirement age of 65. So… I got 30 months of pay, and did not take the shot.

      With so many senior pilots leaving, hiring ramped up at all the major airlines, and they were competing for the same candidates. A few of the majors had recommended getting the shot, but was not required. My airline required all to have the vax, and I believe that requirement is still in effect, just to get an interview. An applicant for any position still has to present the vax card to be invited to apply.

      So the CEO came up with an innovative plan to open an Aviation Academy in Arizona with an almost guarantee to be hired in the future. In the video above the CEO specified that 45% of the applicants had to be women or people of color. Intense training at a fast pace, go to regional airline for experience, then guaranteed job at a major.

      Loved the parody, drive most places now.

  11. You’re do it yourself tenacity is impressive ?

    We had 18 solar panels installed on the south facing roof in 2015, and added 14 more with micro inverters on southern/west side of house with a solar battery in 2021. We had to upgrade the electrical box too, it still had the 1976 original one. We spent cash paying professionals do it, had some decent tax credits, blessed we could do it without any financing.

    We replaced our 1990’s air conditioner with a heat pump last Spring, and used 2,500 Kilowatt hours less energy in 2024. The old air conditioner couldn’t keep up, and it was pulling so many amps it burned out a couple breakers. We kept our gas furnace, I prefer it for heat, only use heat pump for cooling.

    PG & E, the power company, came out and installed another new meter, said we needed it, they put a new one on in 2015 at the initial solar install too. I’m not a fan of Pacific Gas and Electric.

    • When your reported electric usage suddenly drops, the local electric company always first assumes your meter is crapping out, so they replace the meter as SOP. I’ve heard of folks who had their meter replaced 3-4 times before their local utility thought to have a rep actually talk to the homeowner.

    • Might be ?

      Practice, practice, practice.

      ..thinking Steam Punk Sculpture with a Texas/SW flare. Also steel targets for the Range , like Whats His Nutz on Youtube..older Shooter, dude does his own steel targets, pots, soda bottles..Hickock45 I think???

    • I agree with Wilson on this one. Also, MIG stands for metal inert gas, not mixed inert gas. MIG and TIG terms are no longer used it is SMAW for stick welding, and GTAW for tungsten arc welding.

      • Sorry – a misfiling in Ure’s normally reliable brain – because I used mixed argon in the MIG rig… (First thing you know I’ll be as unrealiable as AI!)

  13. This is a good analysis of the fallacy underlying the AI balloon:

    https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/rickards-superintelligence-will-never-arrive

    You ask, how can so many business executives, politicians and billionaires be so taken in? Well, these “leaders” typically get where they are by playing off coworkers against one another, plagiarising Others intellectual achievements, and never taking responsibility for the psychopathic carnage they leave in the rear view mirror. And that is why the leaders are so enthralled with AI; the large language models appear to “think” like their own personal business model. Confusing intellect with abnormal personality disorder just comes naturally for many leaders.

  14. With a hat tip to ‘olfart’, I’m writing up a missive about how to get started in Mesh networking. I will post it here later today, but George might not get it posted until tomorrow. Just a heads up to look for it if you are interested.

  15. “— like the slick new stackable microinverters popping up on Amazon.”
    Caution! Caution! Those damnable things can be RF noisy as hell! You may find the ham bands buzzing at S9+ if you install those. Check them out for noise emissions BEFORE you commit!

  16. GETTING STARTED WITH MESH NETWORKS
    I felt a bit sorry for ‘olfart’ who sounded disappointed that he started to play with ‘Meshtastic’ but there was no one to talk to in his area yet. First off… if you are solo or just getting started, I recommend you get two new nodes to experiment with. That way you will be able to set things up and see results as they talk to each other. Plan on one ‘Base’ node, and one portable you can carry with you or keep near your phone. The portable one I got is a “SenseCAP card tracker T1000-E for Meshtastic”.
    https://www.seeedstudio.com/sensecap-t1000-tracker
    Available from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=sensecap%20t1000-e

    For a base node you probably want to build an outdoor box and antenna. Small fiberglass antennas for 908mHz are available, but a small rubber-duck antenna that comes with a node will work also. Most of us put together a small battery and solar panel charger that can all mount remotely on a mast.. Meshtastic nodes are made by Heltec, lillygo, RAKwireless and others. Mine is a G2 made by B&Q Consulting: https://shop.uniteng.com/product/meshtastic-mesh-device-station-edition/

    These nodes have a bluetooth wireless interface to your phone. You will need the ‘Meshtastic’ app from your App Store. It’s available for both Android and iOS. I found my first base station had a weak bluetooth and I had to stand outside under the mast to connect to it. That’s where the secondary mobile card comes in handy. You can have the mobile card near your phone and connect to it. Then the mobile card can connect to the base node and you can set it up that way. My second try at a base station with the G2 works well with a strong bluetooth connection I can use inside the house. The G2 is a good base station with a programmable PA that can boost the output power to compensate for cable run, and it also has a preamp on the receive side. Because I am a critical corner node at the tip of east Hawaii, I got a big panel ‘sector antenna’ with a 60 degree beam width that covers upslope to Volcano village to the west, and along the shoreline to the NorthWest that covers Hilo town and up the Hamakua coast. On the map, it is an ideal 60 degree wedge of coverage. These two strips of nodes are somewhat isolated from each other by the Mauna Loa ridge, so my node out on the point is the ideal ‘bumper corner’ for the network. In most cases though, a simple omni antenna will work best in ‘client’ mode on the network.

    Getting a network started is a community effort. You need to meet with and talk up the idea with neighbor hams. Also computer and networking geeks will be interested in this. No license is required. One science teacher up at Hawaii Prep Academy also got his students interested and they have constructed and placed many solar nodes on the mountain elevations in the area. A couple hams in our club got interested and kept bringing sample nodes to our monthly ham meetings and talking up the interest. Within six months the project has just exploded on this island. We have placed nodes at the local hospital for the health network, and also at civil defense ops center. Neighbor island hams got interested and placed nodes on the Maui mountain top that connects to our two mountain tops and spreads the network all the way to windward Oahu now within the past couple months. I connected to Palolo valley in Honolulu, some 250 miles away, in 4 network hops now! Seven hops is generally the maximum for distance, but you can program your nodes for lesser, like 3 or 4 hops if you want to keep your range more local.

    Managing your nodes, setting them up, can be done with the ‘Meshsense’ program that runs on a newer PC, I believe requires Win10 or better. It will also show you maps and trace routes of your network node connections out there in the wild.
    https://affirmatech.com/meshsense
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mivmc3zbCtw

    Like I said, it’s a community effort. Spread the word among potentially interested people in your area. It starts with a few, and soon you will reach a critical mass and the network will grow. Happy Meshing!

    • Thanks for the info and encouragement. I’ll look into establishing a self-powered node on one of my towers (30′) to expand my range a little. Our ham club has set up a node on top of our only “mountain” (600′ msl, 300′ agl), but it’s over 7 miles from me line of sight, and there are 70′ pine trees between here and there.

      I have a steel roof, so I may not be able to connect to my elevated node from inside the house.

      • “… it’s over 7 miles from me line of sight, and there are 70? pine trees between here and there.”

        Try it! You may be pleasantly surprised. 900mHz does some weird propagation you would not believe. I have some direct hops thru my local trees that reach 30 miles up the shoreline! And any elevation helps.

  17. You’d likely have your place confiscated in CA for your solar work. Aka, red tagged.

    Like, where’s the wet stamp and engineering for your PV array mounts?

    Even the utility company would be pissed and want $

    But as always, ‘own your power’ and be self sufficient!

    • You have not idea the feeling of freedom to live in a county with no building dept.
      As for wet seal plans?

      Who uses plans? This whole deal is just like it fell out from between the ears. I will write down a measurement now and then, but even that is rare…

  18. I saw an episode of Mission: Impossible last night which totally staggered me. I don’t know the working title of the episode. Rollin and Cinnamon were regulars, and Martin Landau had 2nd billing in the opening credits, so I assume it was 3rd or maybe 4th season — ca. 1967, or thereabouts.

    The IMF was to stop a foreign country’s president’s widow from pulling a coup and becoming the nation’s dictator.

    They operated on the widow, ostensibly to shave years from her appearance, implanting silicone into her face, then healing the surgical scars with a red laser.

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