We have had a dandy past month, or so, working sitting-down, inside a nice, air-conditioned office/workspace, fixing up old electronics. But, with the arrival of Fall, we’re readying for our very serious work mode again.
It’s therefore appropriate to talk a little about safety and recycling.
A Shop PPE Station
Yes. It’s what son G2 does (industrial onsite medic for server farm builds) and he got me to thinking “When he’s away, what have I got handy?” I mean if some project involved an accident.
First thing EVERY shop should have is a phone. If your phone doesn’t work in your shop, at least get a landline in. So, if you need help, you can call for it. Another backup is having the Amazon-Alexa boxes in the shop. Not only can they call for help (with their intercom function) but they can also make telephone calls using their speakerphone capabilities.
Second thing you need is Personal Protection Equipment – PPE. In my shop, it’s always messy looking. Which you can avoid if you want to put your PPE in a nice metal locker. Otherwise…
This is also where my assorted work gloves live. The messy pile (lower right) is the “sticky dot gloves.” They are cheap, light, and not too hot even in warm weather. I learned long ago that when doing real wood projects, the slivers don’t happen is the wood doesn’t slide. You gotta keep things “in hand” as it were.
The plain white are on the right. Good for general work, String gloves are in the mix, too. Too old for blisters but not too old to work, yessir.
I picked out a suitable mix of supplies *(321-piece first aid set) for under $40. To go along with that? And Eyewash kit for about $36. Like the old saying goes, it’s better to “Have the kit and not need it, than need it and not have the kit.”
New Tool Alert!!!
Welder disease is, swear to God, as dangerous as ham radio disease.
You know I’m a total welder slut, right? Always have been, since I was a kid, hauling salmon out of Elliott Bay in Seattle in an 8-foot, high freeboard dinghy with pappy. Dodging tug and barge tows coming down the Duwamish River. Cheese sandwiches and coffee…25-pound Kings for the teriyaki brined filets in the Little Chief Smoker. Sorry to get off track, but there was always welding going on in the shipyards and sometimes we’d only be a hundred feet from the workmen in the drydocks. Welder.
So, I see a new tool pop up on Amazon, right? “Koverflame Portable Electric Welding Machine, Welding Tool Kit, 220V Handheld Arc Welder, Portable Household Automatic Welding Machine – on Amazon.com for $125 less a 5% coupon.
Before you bend the credit card, when I went down a way looking at a similar Faiuot (don’t even attempt to pronounce it) on this page there was a good comparison.
Just remember that a watt is a watt. I’ve still thinking this one through. And will I live long enough to benefit from ANOTHER welder? Um, no, but isn’t that what lunch money trading is for?
(None of this would have ever happened if my friend Ehor hadn’t sent me the Lincoln Welding book – the big Original book. Ever see how many miles of welds there are on the hull of a WW2 Liberty Ship? Measured in miles…)
Recycling Old Electronics
Life in this world is becoming to “micro time-sliced” for my liking. Having my son around has informed me on how this micro-slicing has worked out.
Being the son of Great Depression survivors myself, I have a much different outlook on old equipment than G2. He’s from the use something, if it can’t be readily fixed, get a replacement and keep moving. But then he works around highly skilled tradesmen on server farms who do “infrastructure grade work.”
Rednecking a project, now that’s where recycling comes in.
Brought up – work hard – to always go to self-reliance first (and by default) things like eating begin with a garden of some sort. G2’s generation (he’s 42) have a different take. They live in a “just get it done” world. So, instead of gardening, he is more inclined to click Amazon Fresh! and on to the next thing. God forbid, turning over dirt and then working on it daily for 60-days in the hopes of something to eat.
Two entirely different worlds. Mine is framed by “whatever time it takes” while his is “how quick can I get this done and get to the next thing on my list?”
This also frames the differences – father and sons are always different on some things- as are their times – like when comes to recycling.
G2 lives the Musk type of life. Minimalism. Four main focuses to his Life. Minimal number of items of clothing.
I’m at the other end of things. Love a deep inventory of radio parts for my projects (and an even larger hardware inventory for bigger work around here). This makes him slightly crazier. “Dad, throw all this shit out!”
“Pure gold here, bud…”
Elaine worked construction for a while. How’d a bunny end up doing construction? I keep telling her to finish her book….). Thing is, she see’s G2’s side AND mine…and doesn’t think it’s worth quibbling. We need fresh happy hour topics, though.
Our generation’s parents ground recycling into us at a young age. The only way the Major and I could get radio parts (starting off) was by going through old, discarded television sets. A friend of the Major‘s family was a TV repairman. Bill Lipscomb, I think his name was.
We’d get an old chassis and then spend hours carefully recovering parts. Not only did we get a lot of keen insights into how good electronics were manufactured, but we also tuned up our soldering skill on a bunch of noncritical circuits. That would pay off later in life.
The Major’s late brother introduced us to the fine art of blowing up picture tubes with a pellet gun, too. We didn’t see any recycling use for ’em.
I wanted to illustrate this to G2. So, I snagged an old tube-type radio on eBay. There were a couple of things I wanted in the way of spare tubes, and since there’s a little B&K Precision tube tester handy, seemed like a good move. Let’s do the radio recycling and then some further points about recycling versus hoarding versus Musk-like simplicity in Life.
Meet the Victim Radio
Motorola. Vintage. Let’s see if recycling makes sense.
First thing is the back of the radio is taken off. Here’s a close-up of the “disconnect cord” which was designed to keep troubled young men’s hands out of the radio’s innards. Seems not to work, once you slide off the retaining clip. Out comes the cord and now you have a “cheater cord” so you can mess with the radio while it’s “hot.”
Next came the inspection of the built-in loop wire antenna. I’ve been partial to these because a loop is often one of the quieter antenna choices in an electrically “noisy” home. I can adapt it easily to the ATS-20 or ATS-25.
After a few more minutes of disassembly, out came the tuning capacitor. Turn the backlight on the meter on, would you?
The dial string mechanism will be useful down the road for the small spring with a hook end on it:
Then of course, there were tubes. Only interested in a few of them.
Now, let’s put our haul into a spreadsheet and use eBay pricing with shipping. I think you’ll be impressed:
So yes, I believe my “investment” of 20-minutes to acquire $100+ worth of useable parts was a reasonable use of $27 bucks plus tax.
The Depression and Recycling
Today’s generation never experienced the lack of resources that were very real growing even into the mid 1970s. Since then, however, as early as CompuServe and Prodigy, though, you could see that the mere existence of the “home information network” we were talking about in the mid 1980s was going to change…everything.
This generation is a bunch of “app drivers” in much the same way old ham radio operators referred to “store-bought radio” ops as “appliance operators. It wasn’t a compliment.
Out behind the food storage building, there’s the hulk of our old riding mower. There because it can still be salvaged for a few parts which could bring in some dough on eBay. Or which might offer the two pneumatic front wheels with tires for some new cockamamie cart idea. Or whatever…
Not saying it’s BAD to just toss things. Yes, there is hoarding. But when you’ve seen hard times – and when your parents have seen the worst of it – then idly tossing out an old lawnmower which hasn’t been stripped of its parts is unthinkable.
I’ve tried to explain this to my son a few times, only to be met with a shrug of the shoulders.
“You know, George, go karts came from somewhere. Probably some guy who stripped an old Mac chainsaw engine and welded up some old pipe…”
“Your point?”
“Well, you need parts to make your ideas, right? So with Go-Karts, the K1Speed site says, “Art Ingels invented the first go kart in Southern California during the summer of 1956. I bet he had a good supply of parts for all kinds of ideas on hand. Creative people need options.”
Either he missed something important (like building go-karts with me – too busy!) or I’m still a (barely) teenager at heart. G2’s solution would be to either rent at a track or buy something like this.
Go figure. My last recycle for all-time is coming, though. But without a couple of old chain saw engines, I would never have been able to drive a twin-engine cart at just under 70-MPH… Try it sometime, if you can.
It’s not like flying, skydiving, scuba, or caving…nothing like that. But getting anywhere you develop more than 1-G of lateral force (without popping for a new Corvette) is a dandy reason to recycle everything into new (every crazier) projects.
Write when you get rich, or you find that #3 Phillips I just had a minute ago….
George@Ure.net
Ah Kemmosabe – U be preaching to the choir this AM.
3rd world living is all about recycle everything. Nothing gets thrown out, cept dirty food containers, as everything can be used or reused for something else..discarded plastic bags.. twisted up tight into new colorful bracelets – sold to touristas for $15 US, ea..
Easy “green” pitch to drunk tourists, mention something about saving baby sea turtles and Ure talking dbl baggers!
Younger members of house of BCN, always comment on how their peers/ generation, have lost all home handy bastard skills, let alone table manners..must be an app for that.
These nue “bearded” mountain men of today – are some of the “softest” Males I have met..WTF is metro, but another term Gay fashion?
No genuises – skinny leg pants on Men looks Gay because it is Gay, and now they all acting Gay – wearing GAY fashion. Should not be seeing a Mans’ bits& pieces from behind- bulging out ! A real badass – pro athlete..after huge play, sure hang em out there, but bearded soy boys sipping on sour IPA’s?
While Im at it, F – LGBT – The RAinbow is supposed to signify a Covenant. NOT a Sign to signify a Gay friendly area/object/person. Gonna stuff the “roaches” back under/into the rocks and closets from whence they slithered and crawled, starting wit that flaming flamer obongo.
“thunderbolt and lightening, very very, frightening me”-Queen https://youtu.be/vbvyNnw8Qjg
Family Farms G – family farms.
“Nothing gets thrown out, cept dirty food containers, ”
what!!!!!!
You toss out the GOOD CHINA…….
my wife has totes full.lol lol lol I’ve been tossing them out a little bit at a time..I had contemplated making a countertop oil reclamation unit..the average person in the USA throws out a gallon plus of oil per day..estimated by weight in spun oil products..
LOOB, you’re a fountain of information! I’d be most interested in sourcing or building the oil reclamation system that you’ve been talking about so much. Also your “electron capture” device, whatever that is. Some things might be illegal to import, but for the moment, we still have the First Amendment, and almost anything can be written up in detail and published. I’d be glad to buy those plans, and I’m sure others would too. I don’t use too much and re-use if possible, and recycle in my own way when necessary. I’ve found no clean way to recycle used tires without monstrous machinery, so I just use them up as rolling rubber on the ranch until they’re truly scrap.
the oil reclamation unit isn’t anything more than a slow cooker pressure cooker..in an insulated case. the gas comes out the top and into a bubbler with a tap at the top of the fluid level..it’s the same principle used as a separation funnel.it really isn’t to complicated a distillation pyro..instead of water your distilled plastic foam etc.
Nicholas Tesla had the idea of wireless transmission. through towers insulated as the radio and television transmission pass by the energy is collected. kind of like putting an led in a microwave. the energy passes through the led lighting it up.
Neither way to test those is a flourescent bulb walk close to the sub station the bulb will light up. that is actually the big debate with 5g.
I believe I would invest in solar. it harvests the electricity from the sun..
I could go into my rant on solar towers and co2 filters and greenscaping the cities is not ever g oing to happen..
https://youtu.be/dWffP7oHh-k
Son #1, was a young Cub Scout. Fortunately I was joined by several of the other dads who shared the same hands on mindset. Once it was my turn to host a weekly Den meet and rather than playing parlor games I came up with an idea to put together a go cart. Having some salvaged wheels and plenty of scrap lumber I spent a couple days cutting parts and such so the chance of separating little fingers was diminished. The boys had almost as much fun assembling and fine tuning the vehicle as the boys did and the testing had to end when it became too dark to see. The biggest achievement was most of the boys learned what a crescent wrench and socket wrench was. A few weeks later was the fall camp out where lats of activities were planned. The go cart came with us and the line to take a ride down the hill on it was huge. Even some of us “adults” got on it. Great fun.
Best part was after all the boys were in their sacks asleep with some mom’s watching over them us dads walked over to the parking area and had adult beverages. We didn’t even get caught……that time.
Stay safe. 73
That “welder” looks more like a gimmick than a useful tool. Sorta like the plasma cutter I ordered from the Zon recently. It cut a couple of pieces of 3/8″ spring steel that I tested it on, then quit working when I got into the project I bought it for. Sent it back for a refund and put some of the money into angle grinder cutoff disks that I KNOW work.
I upgraded my welders with a Titanium 225(from Harbor Fright) and a cheap imitation from Amazon. Both were on sale, and both work well for the short time I’ve used them. The HF machine seems far stronger at 16lbs than the Zon machine at half that weight. Obviously both are inverter stick machines. Both can work on 120 or 240V input, though the HF machine current limits output to 70 amps on 120V to meet some regulation and prevent tripping breakers. These things are incredibly useful – no need of 240V except for the higher current ranges. It certainly beats dragging around a tombstone machine and wiring into the closest breaker panel. I personally don’t find MIG especially useful for my work, though many others disagree. I looked at the handheld unit in this column and it looks much heavier in the hand than a stinger with a rod. That’s got to be tiring for any serious work. I’m sure others’ opinions will vary.
I don’t know..I plunked one in ?y amazon basket..just waiting to hear is it junk..or is it a genius idea
https://youtu.be/06Iq-XwIfyA
watch monkey werx … with AI every WiFi router becomes a camers.. every phone a tracker..we already know that the Cloud is accessible. A couple years ago several thousand security systems were hijacked.. ten years ago every camera a d microphone was turned on even baby monitors..
we already know that the pocket brain can be used to triangulate a position..and remote controllable items hijacked.
in the early eighties a neighbor was Windows peeking.. I seen it got irritated so..his television had the same ir remote mine did..I focused the beam from my house to his tv room and every once in a while would change his channel ..
That’s old technology.. consider today and today’s technology..
Google earth online home sales..many homes are from a blueprint.. floor plans made by one contracted will be replicated.. drive down the road and you know the. neighborhood from home sale ad’s you know the layout from WiFi transmissions you who’s where and doing what..auto cameras security ..
Just another reason to have multiple security systems and options, most of which are not connected directly to the net. Avoid wifi or wireless if at all possible.
We do need to remember that most of these commodity security things were developed and sold by China. Most work, if you understand them and use accordingly.
If you’ve not watched “Dragon Day”, it’s worth the popcorn.
I get you on that one Mike.. wifi.. cell phones.. a few years ago my then three year old logged onto the cloud of a friend.. I had access to his whole life.. I could turn on the cell phone cameras his audios.. videos.. he cameras.. his bank and credit card accounts.. our lives are totally exposed to anyone ..the funny part was even though I was adding contacts to his cell phone and downloading movies and videos to it.. he didn’t get it.. then I shared a funny http://hoaxes.org/weblog/comments/lottery_winner_meets_love_of_his_lifephoto,..
I cropped the girl out then would drop that in a file called photo.. he would delete it so every time I thought about it like every couple of hours.. I would drop it in the file.. after about a week of playing with him.. the IT tech guy that thought I was messing with him when I told him that I had his cloud..
I sent the ipad back to him.. he called I said.. hey I thought you got it when you kept deleting that guys photo.. he said what guy.. I sent him the photo and he said thats the pervert.. what pervert.. he said this guy kept running up to his house and ringing the door bell.. he had a doorbell that takes your photo.. every time I dropped that into his photo file his door bell would ring LOL LOL LOL
I could track him.. through his phone..
I subscribed to a paper called Farm Show. Had the most amazing home made contraptions ever conceived.
Side by side tractors, lawn mowers that had buckets on the front. Just all kinds of amazing things built out of the imagination of the American farmer. Give it a look and I am not a paid spokesman. Just a wish I could have thought of it and had the left over parts to play with guy. Like any of the typical man diseases out there like fishing begets boat, and bigger faster boats, hunting begets lots of peripheral diseases, target shooting, tools,classic cars, fast cars, or whatever male (or multiple) disease you have acquired, as an old cowboy poet wrote once, Faster horses, Older Whiskey, Younger women and More Money about sums it up. Some of those are just memories.
Off to get the Tri-Tip ready to cook.
Used to get it until I ran out of time…too many great ideas https://www.farmshow.com/
thanks for the link..
I love diy projects and that sounded like my kind of place to go
George
On the recycling topic I agree to the max.
If you have an old and dead washing machine or dryer you have several options.
Always cut off the power cord and save it for a future project. Do not put that machine out on the curb for the trash pickup. Strip the sheet metal cover off the back of the control panel. That’s free stock you can use in other projects. Just invest in a good metal nibbler for that. Now the machine itself makes a dandy stand for a drill press or other work station type of activity where you stand up to perform the task.
You can take two of these machines and put a plywood shelf on top and make a very serviceable work table or storage area.
Super glue and sewing thread seem an unlikely pair but can be put to good use to secure a small part to a backing if needed.
In one project I needed to make a cheater part. I was replacing a one turn potentiometer with a 15 turn pot. I used a 1 inch by 1 inch piece of scrap vector board, some stiff copper wire for circuit connections and sewing thread to lash the new pot to the board. The pot was soldered to the copper wires so it could be inserted into a circuit board. Many turns of sewing thread were used to lash the pot to the board. Then saturated with super glue. Let sit up overnight to cure and those bands of thread were super strong. This part is still in service.
Need to encapsulate or pot something to make it water proof? I use the clear gorilla glue. It flows well and will seep into small spaces. It may take a day or two to set up but it does the job. Just remember when you do this it is permanent.
Recycling and repurposing are only limited by you imagination!
Updating this a bit – you can get Kevlar leader in the fishing section cheap nowadays. Some 20-40 pound test and a dozen or two turns – and moar suprglu…. yessir fine tip! Thanks!
The washing machine tub makes the most wonderful firepit with the holes sparkling light. Put an old oven grate on the top and you got a ‘Q ready to grill. Has a vent hole in the bottom,, are usually ceramic glazed, last forever.
Stiks
https://youtu.be/t146CkzLtJU
if it’s a front load..keep the frame rake the laundry hanging on the exercise bike off hook it up to the drum..now you have a peddle washing machine. most women are dieters.. this is the perfect dual tool.. gravity drain
How about a scratch built BD-5 ? If I’m not mistaken didn’t those originally spec a Evinrude outboard motor driving the pusher prop? Crazy?
I would love a BD5 – fast as hell. m They also had a small jet version of it, too…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bede_BD-5 for those who have remained grounded
“Even the cost of operation would be extremely low, offering fuel efficiency of 38 mpg?US (16 km/L). With the wings removed, the aircraft could be packed into a small custom trailer, allowing it to be towed away by car for storage in a garage, and from there to any suitable flat area for takeoff.[4][8]
Bede published an information booklet about the BD-5 in November 1970. Several very positive magazine articles appeared at this point. The October 1971 issue of Science & Mechanics had the BD-5 on the cover, listing the price as $1,950. The associated article showed the construction of the original prototype, with numerous claims about how easy it was to construct. The August 1973 issue of Popular Science also covered the aircraft, although it listed the price at $2,965 with the 40 hp engine.[9] The “miniature fighter” generated intense demand. As one author put it, “Even before the plane first left the ground, thoughts of flying the sleek, bullet-shaped aircraft with its pusher prop stimulated the imagination of nearly everyone who had heard of the program.”[3”
Yep, fast as hell for us old cessna drivers:
While the new Hirth engine was being tested, Bede decided to create a variant of the BD-5 with a small jet engine. The result was the sleek BD-5J (also known as the “Acrostar Jet”[33]), a 300 mph (260 kn; 480 km/h) aircraft. The design used the PBS Velká Bíteš PBS TJ100 turbojet with 337 lb (1.5 kN) thrust[34][35] and the Sermel TRS-18-046 turbojet which produced 225 lbf (1.00 kN) thrust and which was used on a Caproni certified motorglider design. The original Sermel engines were produced under license by Ames Industrial in the USA. The wing was modified to an “intermediate” size between the original A and B wings, with a 17 ft (5.2 m) span.
AKA flying crotch rocket. Hell yeah!
The bad news (other side of 250 knots, lol) might glide like a lawn dart…
there is a reason why they are referred to as DONOR Vehicles …
I remember the BD-5 articles! I also remember the laments of one pilot who constructed his and ‘loaned’ it to the military for testing and proclaimed it ‘unsafe’ after the test pilot pulled the wrong lever in the cockpit and crashed it. The owner was not compensated for the plane, either.
I was fortunate to see a BD-5J in operation at an airshow at Hickam AFB in Honolulu back in the 80’s sometime. Neat little rocket, but needed a long runway, too.
I got to see a BD-5J in action flying at Oshkosh back in ’85 or so. Excellent flying machine and pilot too, but the time and money sink to build and maintain such a thing is more than I have left in this life. Pusher props are great too, since they’re efficient and out of the way, but any nut or bolt can hit and damage the thing. I do believe that the accident rate for the BD-5 series was uninspiring. It also has tiny wheels(non-aircraft), not good for such a high speed airplane. Where I live at 1.25 miles MSL, density altitude would be a real problem, along with rough fields, so it’s not ideal, but it sure looks like fun!
Youse guys prompted me to open an old, dusty file cabinet located somewhere in the back of my brain (probably behind my left ear…)
Back about the time the Bede hit the cover of PS someone offered a delta wing 2-seat ultralight. IIRC level take off was ~280 feet. Does this tickle anybody else’s memory…?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B094V67QPP/ref=sw_img_1?smid=A2BE5ZV3W052RG&th=1
I want one lol lol..
seen one by rigid that is automatic..
https://www.amazon.com/RIDGID-72553-RP-115-Press/dp/B0B9G23GCG/ref=sr_1_4?
the thing is.. would I use it?
since you can’t hire a plumber around these parts..to many new builds.. my grandson says they finish a house every three days..
I have contemplated going to plumbing school just so I know how.
Just practice soldering copper and use PEX or (C)PVC when possible. I’ve done lots of plumbing my entire adult life and never used the Propress. It’s good when you don’t want to set the house on fire, I suppose. That could be a problem in a few situations, and I know of one house fire that started from a plumber’s torch. I thought that unit would cost more – probably worth looking at, but it’s yet another tool I don’t really need.
Get a Bernz-o-Matic torch and a roll of solid solder, a battery-post-cleaner wire brush, and a can of flux instead.
Much cheaper, and it makes joints you can take apart & put back together.
There is one item that doesn’t show up in generic first-aid kits, and that is a professional grade tourniquet. Mcgyvering an improvised tourniquet sounds vaguely plausible, but it isn’t, especially when you are bleeding out. I keep one in my car, the tractor, & on the bicycle. Typically one of those is nearby when I am doing higher risk activities.
On the subject of minimalism, you have to distinguish between things of value, and clutter. Parts and tools are valuable. Cardboard, Styrofoam and paper not so much. Serviceable four seasons clothes and outdoor living equipment are valuable. Clothes you have no intention of ever wearing again go to Goodwill or equal. Junk computers, unless a collectors item, are just clutter.
Real collectibles in moderation make life more pleasant. That’s especially true if the collectable actually functions.
I have hauled out something like 35 lawn leaf bags of clutter since the Spring. In doing so, I have reduced fire-hazards, given Goodwill a lot of serviceable clothes which no longer fit, or are of no use to me, and found a lot of valuable things half forgotten.
Be not a hoarder of useless things, or a buyer of things you already have, but can’t find. Conversely, be not wasteful.
Wise words…will add one!
n____
August 13, 2023 at 10:27
There is one item that doesn’t show up in generic first-aid kits, and that is a professional grade tourniquet. Mcgyvering an improvised tourniquet sounds vaguely plausible, but it isn’t, especially when you are bleeding out.
_________________________________-
Read about this after the A-holes blew up a bomb at the marathon races and took off some people’s legs.
WEAR A BELT in your trousers. A medium grade leather one will suffice. Use a leather punch and put in a hole every inch from the tip back to the buckle and you will have a tourniquet that you could apply on adults or kids if needed.
I make quick clot bandages using the sea shell powder ..and keep a bottle of capsaicin
Gauze pads (your choice in size)
Vinegar 4% acidity (its usually the cheaper stuff)
Small Containers such as Rubbermaid
Chitosan powder
Small Cooler or Medium Plastic Container
Food Plastic Wrap
Pour your vinegar into a small container.
Place your choice of gauze pads in the vinegar. The pads will sink to the bottom when they are fully soaked.
With your pliers or surgical forceps grasp a single gauze pad and place it into your chitosan powder.
Gently shake the chitosan container side to side to fully cover the bandage. Now let the bandage soak in the chitosan for 30 seconds
Repeat this process 1 more time by dipping the powdered gauze into the vinegar and then back into the chitosan powder. A quick dip in the chitosan is all that is necessary for the second dip.
After you have completed coating the pad, place it on your cookie cooling tray or sterilized chicken mesh. Have a baking sheet or tray below to catch any excess powder or vinegar droppings.
Place the cooling tray and baking sheet on the top rack of your deep freezer near the cooling element.
If you have a deep freezer that lays on the ground make a space near the cooling element and close to the bottom for the quickest freezing time.
If you don’t have a deep freezer you can use a regular refrigerator freezer, but it will take more time to freeze.
Wait
The bandages will freeze after ~1.5 days
During this waiting period enjoy a soda or somthing
When they are finished freezing the bandages will be able to hold a firm shape.
this is the perfect core for hour freeze dryer.
you can use dry ice..it forces the moisture out of the bandages.
package in sterile packages.
There are a number of things all the kits seem to be lacking — even the fanciest kits lack workable tweezers (and needles), tourniquets, slings, clotting agents, etc., they have an abundance of things that’ll never be used, and cheap shit they use to “up the count” on the stuff in the box (like Craftsman including 62 screwdriver and nutdriver bits and 18 Allen wrenches in a “108 piece [tool] kit.”
Some will have “tweezers” and “tourniquets,” but they’re junk, and not very serviceable. I bought some Uncle Bill’s: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GD53R49/ and added one to everybody’s GO-Bag first aid kit. I also added smelling salts, a suture kit, styptic pencil, colloidal silver ointment, Quick-stop band-aids (1″ and 3″) and gauze, paper gauze tape, conformal tape, Lidocaine spray ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Z7S4CWC ), N-95 masks, povidone-iodine presoaked 1x1s, a REAL tourniquet, a magnifying glass, etc.
Daughter and I also carry burn cream…
BTW the GO-Bag kits we have are these: https://www.walmart.com/ip/538010603
Canvas, zippered, about 2x4x6 inches, and roomy (once you take the cardboard and garbage out.)
I bought them at Menards for $4.49ea, several years ago. Menards still had them (for $6-something) the last time I looked, even though Curad stopped making their soft-side products a couple years back.
The canvas bag takes significantly less space, and is conformal, so is a much better backpack kit than a hard-shell first-aid kit. GO-Bags need to be efficient…
LOOB: I like your quick clot recipe, a lot!
Before scrapping a junk computer, consider the case(lots of heavy gauge sheet metal) and power supplies. The rest may have useful parts or not, but cutting the case into flat sheets gives lots of useful stock. The rest of the metal is probably only good for the scrapyard. The circuit boards and internal peripherals may or may not have value. Even the screws might be worth tossing into the junk bin to use in more modern machines. Probably the most valuable part is what’s on the hard drive – make sure it’s backed up in some retrievable format if needed. Then you can use it for parts or target practice. Personally, I like to toss it into a furnace or slice it with a cutting torch to wipe the data.
Modern cases are 22ga or 24ga steel, or 20ga aluminum. Older cases are better (Dell, Gateway, H-P &c are 20 or 21ga, IBM and Compaq, 18 or 20ga). Bridges, CPUs, and GPUs contain roughly a gram of gold, each (which require special processes to extract.) Resistors are usually 1% or ½% (and caps are usually junk) but I’m not scavenging ANY board-level components unless TEOTWAWKI is in the rearview and there’s no other source.
Hard drives are mostly aluminum, and I have a sodapop-can forge…
I got into Electro Culture this year. Heard people swearing by it and others saying it’s a waste of time. So I thought, what the hell, I’ll try it just see what happens.
We have some variety of bamboo growing behind our garage, so I chopped down a few 6 footers and wrapped some 10 gauge wire around it and stuck them in (some) of our flower beds in early spring. Those beds did exceptional, while those without a stick seemed to be lacking in growth, comparatively.
Well, when planting season came, I put a stick in with the tomatoes and the peppers. Gotta tell ya, I’ve never had bigger plants nor as many tomatoes and peppers in my life !! Next year, I’ll space the plants farther apart because they’ve grown into a massive cluster like a huge bush. Never had to “climb into” a tomato plant to see what’s ripening in there. No shit !!
And seriously, all we did was water them. No fertilizers, no chemicals … nothin. Just watered them.
For us, this is a year of abundance.
How many turns of wire, how deep did you plant the “ground” of it – and was it (looking down from the sky) right or left hand coil direction? Clockwise looking down seems to be the hot rumor…
I start the copper at the top leaving about 2 inches sticking strait up, and spiral it down in a clockwise fashion. I wasn’t really concerned about how many times I rapped it. 9 or more is obviously sufficient on a 6’ stick.
I did make a tight spiral of 4 raps at the bottom and bent about 2 inches strait out from the stick, as if to aim toward the plants. Then, put it in the ground about 5 or 6 inches deep.
Believe me George, I didn’t get fancy about it.
The copper wound sticks are antennas that collect the electric energy in the atmosphere and it flows down into the ground. Since that’s what it does, keeping the soil damp, helps the electric charge flow out to stimulate the root systems.
The current is so minute, you can’t feel it at all. – I’d seen where some people ran a copper wire to a small copper coil made of 1/4 copper tubing. They said if they held or stepped on the coil for about a half hour, it relieved their arthritis pain.
I’ll attest to that as well and, I give a wink and a nod to who ever figured that out. :)
Just keep it simple and let nature do the rest.
Wow, George, what a column you wrote today. You nearly always hit it out if the ballpark every day, but this one really jogged my memory.
Back in the late 1990’s, I was fortunate to hear a presentation by Jaime Escalante, the famous educator from East Los Angeles. He taught calculus to high school students there, and the test scores from his classes really rocked the boat.
His remarks concerning the way different generations looked at life were exactly what you stressed in today’s column.
Jaime was born in Bolivia in 1930 and was no stranger to hard work. Reaching America, he taught in the East LA high school system and stressed the value of hard work to his students. His methods paid great dividends, as his students realized their potential was much greater than they could have ever imagined.
Jaime also explained that his own children became products of the reigning culture there, as his kids felt the entitlement from successful parents. However, Jaime’s grandchildren were different, in that they did not relate to how their parents behaved and, consequently, thought differently. How interesting it was to hear this, having each generation thinking so differently. The grandparents stressing hard work, the next generation looking at ways to avoid hard work, and the generation after that re-evaluating hard work.
I do not mean to generalize this, but the contrasts between generations can often be stark. Your mileage might vary. I related more to my grandparents and their friends than to my mother and step-father. What is valued in each generation may be unique to that generation and may be different in the generation before it as well as after it. I am seeing different perspectives in your viewpoint of life and to your son’s way of seeing things. You relate to how things were and may well become again, while your son sees the potential in time being more relevant to tasks at hand. However, his views may change with the future that we could have.
(denada!~)
I think it is a cycle..those that experienced the last depression are gone.. the business model amplified in the early seventies and took off during the Reagan administration.. kids today in their fifties and down have not experienced the drama and event’s if that time period..
then we dumbed down the kids.. I use to be able to do Calc without a pencil and paper.. remembered every phone number etc. with the pocket brain and calculator.. I lost that ability the use it or lose it. instead of repair we throw away..totally dependent on our modern technology to survive
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
? G. Michael Hopf, Those Who Remain
https://youtu.be/3Qy6awPeric
if its legal in texas…why not grow hemp for construction materials..
Morning and Yes it was worth reading!
IMHO go with the 110v machine vs the 220V. You will have more place to hook it up, like an inverter under the hood of your truck. I was attracted to the $199 100/220V TIG machine in the list of other attractions at the bottom of the page.
Meanwhile here is the trick for making a lawn mower into an off road go cart.
Strip the chassis and you will find a big channel tub about as long and wide as the mower and with 3-4″ channel walls on the side.
Now you Invert this chassis.
Now the back axel is above the chassis, not below.
Hang the front axel in a similar manner using all this great tooling you have. The front is usually hooked to one bolt through a crossmember to allow it some swing pivoting suspension.
Take the dashboard off the top and rivet/weld/bolt it in the channel at an appropriate length for your arms to reach the steering wheel which I will leave you to connect to the front wheels; You will figure that out. The mower seat is positioned in the channel at a place where you can fit in, and the clutch/brake pedals are repositioned to fit your feet and operate the belt drive idler to make it go, and stop etc. The motor is usually a horizontal, vertical crank type that you position behind the driver and connect to the drive/trans unit by belt.
With the tractor type tires you end up with plenty of ground clearance so you aren’t hitting hidden stumps.
Off you go through the woods!
I have not built one for me yet but have witnessed many of these things built by other engineers with a little of my assistance for kids and they are a great way to recycle a big-box store MTD built lawn tractor.
I am not the inventor of this idea, I have seen too many Redneck Rocket Scientists build them but the design is firmly in my mind so I can have one for my old age.
The other thing I am thinking of is a neighborhood grocery getter type cart recycled from a lawn tractor smaller and cheaper than an EasyGo.
Oh, just to be clear, that wire to the coil tubing, I just rapped it around one of the stick I’d had in the ground already. Just toughing that copper to make a connection.
Guess it’s a homemade Tens Machine. Lol. Hey, it worked !! :)
I have a friend that did this – this Summer – using basically the exact same method as you described here. He made one for each plant using a six foot dowl. On the four Roma tomatoes plants alone, he figures that he had four times as many than in any other year. He is ecstatic ! And his canned tomato sauce, more than tripled over last year. And he has never seen his brussel-sprouts do so well.
I will be doing this next year – already have a spool of 10gauge copper wire and will be collecting the poles over the Winter.
Wonder if it will work as well in my small corn patch??
Corn plants are tall, and I hear that for normally tall plants, use a taller pole. Instead of 6’ might try 8 or 10’ pole.
If you have galvanized chicken wire around your plants, you can run a wire from the pole to the wire and that’s suppose to help gather even more energy out of the air. – stripped coax wire is great for that. I did that around my cabbage.
One pole is suppose to cover about 250 square feet of ground. But I just stick a pole in each garden area.
I have raised beds.., so – one per bed ?
I was wondering if the height of the corn would interfere with the collection.., will work on that.
Thanks for the info
Larry hall in Brainerd Minnesota.. the rain gutter grow system..nice guy really nice guyp
https://youtu.be/KOZKkpyJLf0
he has a huge following .. anyway he did corn in the air pruning bucket to show the difference.. he did tomatoes to.. the root ball for each filled the five gallon bucket.. I believe the corn was 19 feet tall or maybe that was the tomato plant.. huge he needed a ladder to pick the fruit..L
Why such heavy gauge wire? I’d think far less copper would be needed unless it’s the HF skin effect making a difference.
Not knowing what field is involved, could be a that cross-sectional area may matter as well.
MAUI death toll up to 92 this morning. Only TWO have been identified. Searchers report most remains just ‘fall apart’ when removed. Well cremated. Many will likely never be positively identified. Ugh!
I could have gone for the rest of my life not knowing that. Ugh ! Is right.
My heart and prayers go out to everyone in Hawaii..
so sad..
Only four tubes listed from a five tube radio? They only add up to 48 volts in the string. Where’s the 50C5? Gotta make up a 110volt filament string in these radios with no filament transformer!
Yes, after learning to solder at age 10, I took apart radios and TVs for parts. When I moved to Hawaii at age 25 I tossed out barrels of those parts that could not come with me. I did save old equipment at some TV stations I worked at, but never at home. When you live in a small concrete box in a crowded urban center, all those dreams get left behind for awhile.
Greatest heart-wrenching ‘throw-away’ was a Rhode & Schwartz precision NTSC televison demodulator. It was THE source for getting your TV transmitter fine-tuned to perfection. When NTSC TV was shut down in 2009 that box had absolutely no use. Into the trash amid great wailing and gnashing of teeth. ($20 grand, new price!)
George:
“if my friend Ehor” wait … you have a friend Ehor? Must be a cousin and they speeled his name rong.
I have a sick number of tools. Prepped pole barn to finish the wood shop wall to focus on metal shop wall.
Tools: how many is enough? All of them, with redundancy.
ATL: for now I’m sailing up a storm. Hosted a kids event yesterday and raced today 2-5-3 (*)
(*) lost TWO photo finish endings. It’s usually me picking up places at the wire. Sometimes you eat the bear …
More rain mana. Local farmers are making bank.
Write when you get wet,
Egor
I spent a couple days in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky last week. Corn in west-central OH and east central IN was 12-13 ft, and got less-tall as I went either west or south. Lotta corn in S IN and N KY running 6-7 ft and looking drowned. I didn’t get up to your neck o’ the woods so didn’t see any Michiana or N OH corn (or Michigan ‘taters or hunyums). Beans looked good everywhere. The Soy grower’s Assn will be rolling in biodiesel, this fall…
hey Ray, yep, tall cotton, err corn. I wonder if they need extra tall combines this harvest? Egor
“Welder disease is, swear to God, as dangerous as ham radio disease.”
and kitchen gadget…
Yes the answer is yes all they have to do is pump the right frequency in and it cures all the diseases and it cures all negative thoughts,
As I have posted right after the covid came out that there are people using musical frequencies to cure all 19 variations of the covid at that time now we have a lot more variations,
Yes they have the technology to replace all your organs and your body Limbs, and completely clean your body of all viruses we have the technology and it’s being used but not for you , the future will be here sooner than you think ,,,,,,,
So I encourage you to keep practicing with your mind to have all these Revelations revealed and the people or the beings that are overseeing and causing these problems will be overtaken and you and I and the rest of humanity will be able to be relieved from these puppet Masters who have only one goal and that is to keep you a slave ,
May all beings be lovingly fulfilled and they do not want you to be lovingly fulfilled they want you to experience fear and disaster,
May all beings be financially fulfilled and they do not want that ,they want for you to beg at their door for another dollar,
May all beings be readily fulfilled, they do not want you to be ready for what’s happening
The wife just had a picture come up on her FB feed of a notice that has been posted on the door to the local Wells-Fargo saying all cash withdrawals are limited to $1,000. No word yet on other area banks coming out with similar limits.
Good info! I was at a WF ATM yesterday and never saw a notice, but I wasn’t looking for one. No problems getting cash from the machine, but it’s a good warning. They did say changes were coming to their accounts on or about Sept 25.
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4149441-cost-elder-care-soaring-baby-boomers/?email=cf4cf539349d7ee1747b4302557eb76b3925d925&emaila=d0c863b0061998e46adc1951a8fe2edb&emailb=268d2135a444a51cca72e44ecef57ea170ace1299ad4cfac77aa1bc48070e11e&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=08.13.23%20CD%20Price%20of%20elder%20care
you would be shocked at how many people that have ended up living in their cars.
one gent lost his farm his rental home his business just to pay his wife’s final medical expenses..came to our home with just the clothes on his back..medical insurance unless you have the golden goose government plan do not pay..Medicare will cover a short term..
I’m getting my SS payments set up since I’m finally 66 and a half. I’m losing 45% of my full payment because I’m taking Texas Teacher Retirement and didn’t get all the “Significant Income”, or whatever they call it, throughout my 40+ quarters of SS taxed income but the extra I’ll get through SS will pay for the hybrid TRS/Medicare payments. My knee is killing me and if I don’t eat right the old ticker does flip-flops at weird times but I’m not going to see the blood suckers until I get the insurance set up.
One neat thing is, though, we got a nice tax refund this time due to my wife having less income than she estimated on her Obummer Care insurance last year. It at least makes up a little for the penalties I paid when I didn’t take it and the scam was going on.
Medical expenses kill us.. there’s no mercy..
A person assumes that expenses are covered.. many doctors refuse to accept Medicare ..those that do are usually at retirement.. don’t care been in the business to long and second rate..
the dr. they wanted my mother to have was so bad that he was the butt of the staff comments .. ( yup wanna get a good dr. ask those that work with them..if their own staff can’t stand them..well that gives you a great indication.. check out their rating for infections to..if they have an excessive amount of after care infections..)
My ex..had a great deal of issues from the shield..
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalkon_Shield
it was horrible.. every couple of weeks she would be back..low grade infection given some antibiotics sent home..
it was driving me nuts..then change doctors the charting following her..
finally we got a fresh young doctor .. he visited with me.. said well its just a low grade infection.. I said come on doc.. take a look at her chart.. she will be back in a couple of weeks..what is the common denominator ..shizt doesn’t just happen..
he did some real doctor work and found the stream cancer associated with the iud. did the surgery needed.. no more issues..
my doctor (just retired.. dam them)was in it for the right reasons..dr. Dan is still working unfortunately he isn’t my doc.. but I do love to debate him..
“I’ve tried to explain this to my son a few times, only to be met with a shrug of the shoulders.
“You know, George, go karts came from somewhere. ”
“Your point?”
____________
Forget it. You two are speaking two entirely different languages. G2 can not understand where you are coming from, because he has never had to actually scrape for anything, and he has never had to repair anything, because Amazon is a click away and Tyler’s just up the road, an hour away.
G2 is incapable of visualizing a situation when he won’t be able to use either the Zon, or Palestine’s or Tyler’s shopping areas, to get whatever he wants, no matter what it is. He sees only cost as a delimiting factor. and can’t conceive of a world where stuff is simply not available, no matter who you are or how fat your wallet is. Most of your readership can, because although we didn’t live through the Depression, we lived with our parents, who likely threw nothing away, rarely ate out, and generally lived under their means… And then there are the clues, like the big balls of string and rubber bands Mom had in the junk drawer in the kitchen, or the tools Dad had, that he made himself.
p.s. If you ever figure out a way, short of an EMP or atomic war, to adjust his comprehension to your level, please share your solution with us…
https://youtube.com/shorts/yTAYgFVedHk?feature=share
Exactly Ray.. my parents rarely ate out.. it was community first.. they lived the hardship of the depression.. there was a small garden and each family in the community or neighborhood.. had one thing.. one raised chickens.. one a cow.. they canned and made do.. my mother and father were great gardeners. my father wood lot.. when they sold out.. I didn’t have a clue what they had in their pantry..I was amazed..
I see that in my own self to.. been through some pretty horrendous times.. trials that most of the kids today.. heck my kids have never experienced.. My wife gave me guf because of my insistance that we have a few extra meals on hand.. then the year without an income.. hit her hard.. she realized just how important my obsession was..now she helps..
George, I found your next project:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/285422943838
Just sayin…
Great old transmitter!
OMG! Local hometown radio station had one of these. During a weather related long term power outage, the boys there dug up a large inverter hooked to a running car to get the thing back on the air at 250 watts ‘low’ power. Then a salesman came in and plugged in a coffee pot and put them off the air.
Why is it I suddenly see Herb Tarlek…?