Follow the leader... He's on a Honda...

Swiftlock Laminate Flooring installation (Gunstock)

Since it has been 3 years since project Basement Wall Excavation, it is time to finish the basement!

Removed old drywall and blown insulation, hit the walls and floor with a wire brush, etched all surfaces with bleach/water, filled all imperfections with hydraullic cement, hit walls and floor with two coats of Drylock, R13 in the walls, Green board drywall, Black Vapor Barrier underlayment, Premium Underlayment (sandwiched with the black underlayment with 100% Silicone caulk at the corner trouble spots that potentially could see moisture), Swiftlock Laminate (gunstock) on top. Resin Molding, and T- Type Transition piece ripped down the middle made a nice Fireplace molding piece.

Used a 10 Inch Skil Table saw with the stock blade to cut everything including the miter cuts on the molding.

Earth Day 2011!

I was invited to show off the Triumph at Earth Day 2011 at work. I answered a lot of questions, and talked to a lot of people who were excited about electric cars. Due to heavy rain, I towed the Triumph with the Beater-W, but at least I was burning Gas for a good cause :-)

Fingernail Update!

Almost there!!

EV Friendly Businesses

I found that my parking lot was all parked up this morning - so I parked across the street where I'll be eating lunch anyway! Many Thanks to them!!!

Successful test of Motor wired as Cumulative Compound Wound

Last night, I took 2 lengths of 4GA copper stranded wire and wired up the fork lift motor as a compound wound motor. By connecting S2 with F2 and connecting A2 with F1. I'm not sure if it would best be called a cumulative compound now, or a long shunt compound - but it gave a performance boost off the line in 2nd gear and pulled 400 amps almost right off the line. RPMs started dying out around 4 grand, though. SO, the hot setup would be to incorporate a contactor to open the Field windings after it grunts up to 2 or 3 grand - leaving the series windings to spin the motor to oblivion (6500+RPM is what the bearings are rated for). Nothing got hot, and there were no fires. :-) The battery pack was pretty discharged at the start of the test - I'll test again tonight with full charge. Next step is to advance the brush holder 10 degrees to cut down on arcing and maybe get some better prerformance off the line. This test makes the car feel like it has a lot more low and mid range - feels like installing a towing cam. :-) Very cool stuff....

Homelite 14 inch electric Chain Saw

The Ice storm the other night took down a lot of branches - I stood out on the back porch and listened to the trees exploding... Both of my Ham Radio antennas came down :-( and a 300 lb branch was left teetering over the back yard. After connecting 2 8ft 2x3s together and then attaching my tree trimmer and getting on a ladder, I was able to cut it all down (in 3 1/2 hours.)

To cut it all up, I bought the Homelite UT43100 14 inch Electric Chain saw from Home Depot (I had a gift card.)

It is AWESOME! Outperformed my small old GAS Chainsaw - it cut through like it was cutting butter. Speaking of butter - I chose to keep it a Petroleum virgin (except for the plastic it is made out of) and I put vegetable oil in it - it worked great.