Almost Got an STD in the Fall!!!

I ALMOST got "Slowest Time OF the DAY" this Fall when I competed in the Miami Valley Sports Car Club's Points event number 6. I beat a Porsche Speedster by a tenth of a second and achieved "Second to last!!" In doing so, I achievedmy goal of "Beating Someone" with my Electric Triumph!!! The noise you hear as I go around is the output u-joint on the transmission hitting the tunnel cover as I broke the tailshaft mounts loose :-( - otherwise it would have been nearly silent. I will return in the spring and hope to improve the performance quite a bit. I was pulling 375 AMPS instead of the expected 550AMPS, and was not pulling over 100 off the line. I will pull all brushes, resurface them, and install batteries with 900 AMP discharge capabilities and see what happens :-)

Fingernail Progress!!!

Snow...

Fingernail Progress!!

Two months after near-amputation... not too shabby. I'm impressed with the code that the great spirit wrote!!! :-)

happy Halloween!

From the Satanic Mechanic!

Gone Racing!!!

With 2 miles on the clock as an electric - what to do? GO RACING!!! I trailered the car to KilKare and competed in points event #6 of the MVSCC Autocross Sunday. Everything worked great - except that I had only about 1/4 throttle (125 AMPS rather than 550.) I kept looking for a bottleneck... but there was nothing getting hot to be found. I'm thinking now, that I need to check the resistance of the Pot Box. I bumped up all the values to max on the controller. It is funny - it felt like I was tuning up a carburettor. :-) I believe I got STD (Slowest Time of the Day) by 2 seconds behind a Porsche 356 Speedster. All and all, it was awesome!

Motor Mount is in place!!!!

Sitting on e30 BMW Transmission mounts, this quarter inch steel front motor mount resembles a subway sign in Great Britain. It supports a mid-70s 11-inch GE manufactured fork lift motor. You may have previously read in this journal that the motor turns the stock 4 speed transmission via a 14 - to 10 spline adapter. You may also have read that i lost part of my finger in this motor - so there is a "little piece of me" in the "NAIL-BITER." Number 8 hardened bolts have been employed, and it happily supports the motor and transmission - and my 230lb self! AMPSURFING, BABY!!

Contact open

Contact closed

Mounted battery trays and installed batteries

I installed the 3 battery trays tonight, lined them with weatherstripping to cushion the bottoms from cracking against the heads of the bolts that are holding them to the frame and trunk well. I used 2 inch wide nylon tie downs rated at 2500 lbs each with large ratcheting... well... ratchets to secure them. The rear batteries look awesome - the ones bolted to the frame where the radiator was look a little crappy... oh well... the 24 pound batteries are not going anywhere :-) just need to install the 2 last batteries next to the motor. I took a piece of 1/4 in steel from Lowes to the machine shop today to be made into my front motor mount to replace my wooden functional mockup. Tomorrow night I will cut cables and crimp ends. I am dreading that part - it seems like it is gonna be extra tedious. :-(

Happy with the progress tonight. Also messed with the leviton 3 prong male plug I'm gonna use for the charging - gonna put it in the antenna hole :-)

ALIVE!!!

It is alive!

Coming Together nicely

Thanks to some kindly neighborhood kids who came around, I was able to install the motor today after picking up the adapter from the machine shop (widened to 4.135 in to fit over center schnozel on the forklift motor.) The kids pushed the car toward the hoist and I fed the tailshaft into place - the front mount is presently a tie down strap and a 2x4 The weight distribution is close to 50/50 with the placement of the batteries as 4 in front and 8 in back. The motor and transmission weigh 275 lbs together with the adapterShould make the wheels turn tomorrow :-) Warning, I've sneaked in a picture of my finger - it is getting better :-)

Committing a crime

Yesterday, I cut down the output shaft of the forklift motor, and cut 3 inches off of the coupler. I did it with a heavy heart as it was perfect - and it cost 250 bucks :-) The good news is that I have a new ker-chunk situation - once I mill the 1/4 in adapter plate and put it into place, it will all bolt up. There is still about a .008 wobble - but I think that will diminish when it is bolted together. I measured the size. pitch, and depth of all the bolts needed and will buy them tomorrow. :-) Interestingly, when using a depth gauge in measuring the depth of the bolt holes adjacent to the fan blades, I withdrew the depth gauge and it was covered in my blood :-) it was still wet and red because I had previously gotten some gear oil on the top of the motor when positioning the tranny. It was pretty awesome - Like I said before, "A little part of me is in that motor forever." :-)

Wrapping a wounded, broken finger with missing nail

I found a great product that will not stick to the meat under my fingernail - it is called adeptic. if it sticks, I just soak it in hydrogen peroxide and off it comes. It is a petroleum product - maybe someday it will be made with olive oil or something :-)
http://cgi.ebay.com/Adaptic-Non-Adhering-Dressing-/130411070302?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e5d1b035e

I put a 1cm strip (cut from the larger strips) around the tip, put regular gauze over that, put a bottom and end supporting splint under the finger and then use another awesome product I scored from the hand surgeon - tube gauze. they told me to change it out daily.
http://www.pocketnurse.com/sc/details.asp?item=06-51-0701

In addition to a tetnus shot the other day, they started me on cephalexin - an antibiotic called a cephalosporin that kills bacteria by "weakening cell walls." I wonder if it is also weakening the cell walls of the "scab" joining my semi-displaced distal phalanx.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cefalexin

Hand surgeon is waiting to xray it until next week so the swelling is down a bit. Hopefully it is knitting fairly straight - i don't want hadware in my hand.

As far as the nail goes, doc says that you only need one nail bed cell to fire up nail growth. and he described the nail linda coming outta a pocket slot opening - and that sometimes one has to massage it open if it is damaged... and coax the new nail out - interesting.

Transverse or Tuft Fracture of Distal Phalanx with nail bed removal

Could have been so much worse... :-)


Pictured are the outside view, inside view, and the only damaged parts I found on the garage floor.




Here is a link that shows different types of fractures and their names:

http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec21/ch309/ch309b.html


and describing distal phalanx fractures specifically:

http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec21/ch309/ch309b.html

this link shows diferent finger injuries:

http://www.aafp.org/afp/2001/0515/p1961.html

as does this one:

http://www.eatonhand.com/hw/hw011.htm

OUCH!!!

Today, I cut off the input shaft on the Triumph Tranny. No Problem - I wrapped electrical tape around it - and that made a nice squareish place to cut. When it came to the output shaft on the Forklift Motor, the tape wouldn't stick right... so i fired up the motor - picked a spot and scribed a mark on it with a scribe. then, I rested my hand on the top of the motor - my finger went into one of the radial rectangular cutouts in the frame for airflow and got caught in the fan and I chopped off the end of my finger and finger nail and part of the nail bed and broke the finger while I was at it. Worst of all, it tore off 2 cooling fan blades. Bummer. I bled after that - and went to the urgent care where i got x-rayed, antibiotics, and a tetnus shot and they are getting me in to an orthopedic hand guy. Here is a picture :-) (X-Ray picture only - I cannot stomach looking at the finger long enough to photograph it. :-( )

Progress on Spacer between Motor and Transmission

Went to Mendleson's yesterday and picked up a new old stock 13 inch stamped steel wheel and a couple 16 inch flange covers that are about .150 inches - I cut them down with a reciprocating saw with a bimetal blade and will weld it up soon. Best part... it KERCHUNKED with an awesome kerchunk when I sandwiched it together between the motor and tranny - haven't added the drum heads and cut bolt holes - but it is the correct thickness!! Sadly, I measured the runout of the output shaft of the Motor - and it is bent as I suspected... I will cut it in half to reduce the wobble and will work on the grooves and splines with a file to minimize the wobble - hopeflly removing it altogether - it is out by .013 in. - not much - but when amplified by the coupler... it has a good wobble to it at the moment.

Progress on the Triumph (Nickname Pending)

I have decided to go with 144 volts rather than 156. 156 just seems kinda rude - and not even or lucky and not divisible by 48 (as in not able to be charged with 3x 24 dollar 48v Chinese chargers.) So, Nickname is now Pending. Thought about TR-96 (too anemic.) "'Lectric 6" rolls off the tongue - but 6 what? 144 could be a gross... but how does that relate to a car... I'll update when I discover what the car wants to be called. for now, I'll post a picture of the awesome Fork Lift Motor I bought in Amish Mennonite country Indiana. They had to sell it as the Church was getting on 'em for building electric cars. (Just Kidding.) Also, I installed some guages and placed all of the parts where they'll go. Only thing I need now is to weld up a spacer between the bell housing and motor. (The most exciting part so far has been the custom 14 - to 10 tooth adapter that a fellow made for me in West Virginia - I've fired up the motor and spun the tailshaft of the tranny and it was awesome if slightly vibraty - I think that when I bolt the motor to the transmission - most of the vibration will go away - either that or it will waste the bearing on the output shaft of the motor. :-) )

HAMVENTION !!!

I always go to Hamvention. I have a secret parking spot I always use in an nearby neighborhood and hoof it to the show. This proves difficult when I purchase something like, say, a Heathkit SB-102 with power supply. :-) SO - this year, I pulled a Sturgis (Trailered the electric bike close to the show and rode in triumphantly) and got a great parking spot next to the Porta-Potties! :-) It was another great show - unfortunately, upon my arrival, I keyed my Yeasu VX-5R and lost all output (Dead Finals) :-( My Kenwood is still chuggin away though) --> See Sidebar over there on the right column.

JUMP THE SHARK!!!

I attended the 2010 "Jump the Shark" Scooter rally in Cincinnati recently - here is a picture and a link for more info - It was a great time - I was unable to ride the whole 70 miles this year - maybe next year after I upgrade my batteries and solar!!:

http://scoot.net/gallery/2010/04/wkrp/

Project Triumph TR-156v

Repairing a BMW via Ebay

First tip - stay out of the way of people who are late to work.

Second tip - find a parts car on Ebay that is the same year and color. :-)

Monitoring for Haiti Traffic on the Emergency Nets

I have moved my shack out of the bedroom and into the office. I am running 2 antennas - a longwire at about 20 feet strung up N/S and a G5RV jr. dipole at 20 ft going NNE/SSW. I seem to have a pipeline to Maine and Texas :-) This week, I have spent a lot of time listening for any traffic coming out of Haiti. I haven't heard any personally, but understand they have made contact with a few hams down there. I am hearing reports that they are so desperate that some aid groups have had to pull back their crews after getting attacked. The situation is pretty bad from what I'm hearing. I have been monitoring 3.720, 7.045, 7.265, 14.265 and 14.300MHZ.

MMMM Electric Snow Doughnuts!!!!

Since I'm not allowed to commute until the ice is off the street (by order of the boss), I decided to run amok the other day doing Electric Snow Doughnuts in the driveway and running through the yard. Afterward, I realized that the lawn may not have been as frozen as I thought and that I may be making a resodding entry in the Spring. :-)