Hoarding is exactly what the government is doing right now by filling the SPR, and frankly it's the best thing that could happen. It drives prices up. High prices encourage demand destruction. They also finance new well development. The hoarded oil gives us a buffer to fall back on once shortages become more prevalent. High prices are what we need in order to adapt to what's coming, and the sooner they happen, the better.
Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 11:57 am Post subject: Re: Today I made / bought / learnt .... (for a post oil worl
Thanks, DomiusAlbion,
Harbor Freight has the 8 ton long ram jack for $39.99, 19 1/4" stroke, and mounts with pins at each end. It should work, for those who are inclined to build something.
Joined: Sep 16, 2007 Posts: 1003 Location: Oklahoma City, USA
Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 5:10 pm Post subject: Re: Today I made / bought / learnt .... (for a post oil worl
Started my front plot -- my quest to relandscape my front yard into edibles...
I've got several different kinds of herbs, onions, garlic, ready to go into the ground. _________________ What, so I'm in no end game
Move my piece right off the board
Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 8:25 pm Post subject: Re: Today I made / bought / learnt .... (for a post oil worl
I got some new OJ gloves work gloves...
Hehehe and yes I know these look like dress gloves, but honestly they
make the best kind of work gloves.
* They look nice anywhere.
* Cost $5
* Thinsulate insulation, they aren't puffy and don't look insulated.
* With Glossy Leather, they are water resistant, dirt tends not to stick.
So they are great for gardening, metal working or a night out on the town.
* Thinsulate + Leather means you can grab a burning log out of a fire
and wave it around, arrange burning charcoal, camping oven mitts.
So really they are a good kind of glove for any situation.
Joined: Jun 21, 2006 Posts: 1135 Location: Burgundy, France
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 6:00 pm Post subject: Re: Today I made / bought / learnt .... (for a post oil worl
drew wrote:
I have been working on a modification to the Stirling cycle for the past year or so. I am in the process of converting a Virago bike engine over and have fabricated two valve bodies, a cylinder head and have begun making heat exchangers. I thought I had a novel and patentable improvement and found out I had reinvented the Stoddard Cycle, which was patented in 1919. Surprisingly I wasn't even that upset when I recently uncovered his patents. Maybe later I'll post some pictures of the parts I've fabbed up.
Drew
Can I assume that you're implementing an alpha-type stirling engine using a 90 degree V? What about the fact that the cold end should have a smaller piston?
Are you trying to incorporate the heat exchangers into the cylinders or external to the cylinders? In an alpha configuration, I think the latter is preferable, as it allows dedicated heat exchanger design without compromising the design of the exchangers. Furthermore, the gas should really be cooled/heated prior to entering the piston rather than in the piston itself. This allows the pressure to be applied correctly and is far more efficient. If you want the Stirling cycle to approach the theoretical Carnot efficiency, you have to have good heat exchangers as the basis of the design. You may get slightly more "dead gas" but this is far outweighed by increased performance (if I worked it out right!). Let me know how it's moving along... I've been at the design stage for far too long. I'm not an engineer and struggle with the realities of turning what I see as a sound design into a real-world engine.
Edit: I've just looked up the Stoddard Cycle and it's not an alpha arangement, so ignore that...
Talking about reinventing stuff, I spent a sleepless night once reinventing a version of the rotary stirling engine, before getting shot down in flames on a Stirling Engine forum. Anyway, it's nice to know that I got the benefits and drawbacks right But I'm convinced that using external heat exchangers for an alpha setup can yield good results. I've never seen anyone do it, so it'll be fun getting to grips with my lathe and giving it a go when I get time. _________________ All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become. - Buddha
Joined: Dec 08, 2004 Posts: 1498 Location: Nez Perce Nation
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 6:32 pm Post subject: Re: Today I made / bought / learnt .... (for a post oil worl
An unfortunate event will force an unanticipated but good step toward our post peak plans.
We're having a new concrete patio installed just off the entrance to our house. The old pads were rotting away and the rest of the entrance area was covered with concrete pavers. We're having a six inch slab poured so the contractor had to dig out some soil under the old junk.
Well the previous owner (the jerk! He was a building inspector, no less) had buried the drain from the kitchen just below the old concrete and pavers. Talk about not being up to code! Of course the concrete guys totally broke the old pipe. We're temporarily without the use of our kitchen sink.
So now, instead of digging a trench and laying new pipe to our septic tank, I'm going to set pipe out to a new gray water system that will filter the water and direct it out to our pond. This will take some stress off our septic system and recycle the water for irrigation. _________________ "Modern Agriculture is the use of land to convert petroleum into food."
-- Albert Bartlett
"It will be a dark time. But for those who survive, I suspect it will be rather exciting."
-- James Lovelock
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:18 pm Post subject: Re: Today I made / bought / learnt .... (for a post oil worl
davep wrote:
Can I assume that you're implementing an alpha-type stirling engine using a 90 degree V?
Edit: I've just looked up the Stoddard Cycle and it's not an alpha arangement, so ignore that...
I'm not convinced Stoddard got a working engine. There is no literature on him. As for phase angle he is unclear. His patents show at least two (or three?) arrangements; 180 out of phase, and 90 deg out of phase. I don't know if it matters much in his (or my?) design. The cold piston is simply recycling the spent hot gas. (I believe that it would create a partial vacuum which would aid in evacuating the hot piston swept area). The hot exchanger should merely act as a reservoir of pressurized hi temp gas that does work on the hot side, controlled by mech. valves.
I wasn't paying close attention when I bought my Virago motor from the wrecker, it has a 70 deg angle between the cylinders. It sure looks like 90 from a distance. Anyways, who knows if it will run. I expect that it would need to be pressurized. I don't know if I can plug up all the leaks the cases would have. I have a hell of a time just getting welds without porosity in the parts I've made.
I often jump before I think and this has been the case here. It is quite amazing to find out how little one really knows as a project progresses.
Joined: Sep 16, 2007 Posts: 1003 Location: Oklahoma City, USA
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:03 pm Post subject: Re: Today I made / bought / learnt .... (for a post oil worl
DomusAlbion wrote:
Well the previous owner (the jerk! He was a building inspector, no less) had buried the drain from the kitchen just below the old concrete and pavers. Talk about not being up to code! Of course the concrete guys totally broke the old pipe. We're temporarily without the use of our kitchen sink.
I feel your pain. The heat exchanger went out on our tankless water heater and we're without hot water until Wednesday (when the part comes in).
Quote:
So now, instead of digging a trench and laying new pipe to our septic tank, I'm going to set pipe out to a new gray water system that will filter the water and direct it out to our pond. This will take some stress off our septic system and recycle the water for irrigation.
Oooo! Very nice way for that to turn out... _________________ What, so I'm in no end game
Move my piece right off the board
Joined: Nov 16, 2007 Posts: 254 Location: Rural Western Idaho
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:00 pm Post subject: Re: Today I made / bought / learnt .... (for a post oil worl
DomusAlbion wrote:
We're having a new concrete patio installed just off the entrance to our house. The old pads were rotting away and the rest of the entrance area was covered with concrete pavers. We're having a six inch slab poured so the contractor had to dig out some soil under the old junk.
It's cool that you are doing the 'grey water' thing -- but why are you installing a patio? Why not make a sun room or something that would be useable for more than just sitting around on.
It seems to me that you could get some good postPO use of the new slab. Maybe the floor for a green house ... or a summer sleeping porch so you don't have to air condition your house at night ... or something?
Lumpy _________________ "Run when you can, walk when you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up."
-- Dean Karnazes, runner and author of Ultramarathon Man
Joined: Dec 08, 2004 Posts: 1498 Location: Nez Perce Nation
Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 9:18 am Post subject: Re: Today I made / bought / learnt .... (for a post oil worl
Ah, prescient as always Lumpy.
Yes, I will be building a covered screened porch on the new slab. In the winter I'll install storm windows over the screens.
The porch will become our mud room, summer evening lounging and perhaps even an occasional summer sleeping room. We don't have A/C except in the bedroom and for the most part we have not needed it. It gets quite cool here at night. We've had summer temperature swings from 104 F in the afternoon down to 45 F at night. _________________ "Modern Agriculture is the use of land to convert petroleum into food."
-- Albert Bartlett
"It will be a dark time. But for those who survive, I suspect it will be rather exciting."
-- James Lovelock
Joined: Nov 16, 2007 Posts: 254 Location: Rural Western Idaho
Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 9:34 am Post subject: Re: Today I made / bought / learnt .... (for a post oil worl
DomusAlbion wrote:
Ah, prescient as always Lumpy.
Yes, I will be building a covered screened porch on the new slab. In the winter I'll install storm windows over the screens.
The porch will become our mud room, summer evening lounging and perhaps even an occasional summer sleeping room. We don't have A/C except in the bedroom and for the most part we have not needed it. It gets quite cool here at night. We've had summer temperature swings from 104 F in the afternoon down to 45 F at night.
Maybe you could get a couple of those minature citrus trees ... if there is enough sun in the location of this portion. I've been thinking about those. You can bring them in the house in the winter. Even (if like it is at our house) you don't heat the house at night, you can keep them alive if it's above freezing in there.
I'm also checking out those potted tomatoes ... patio tomatoes, I think they are called. They grow on tall plants, but narrow, in regular planting pots. Also can be brought in the house in late summer, to extend tomato season for a while.
Just a couple thoughts on additional use of that space of yours -- if it gets enough sun.
Maybe this is all extraneous, though ... because now that I think of it, didn't I read a post from you somewhere that you have or are building a greenhouse? Still ... those extra minature citrus trees would be a good idea in your new screened porch -- could put them in greenhouse in winter.
Lumpy _________________ "Run when you can, walk when you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up."
-- Dean Karnazes, runner and author of Ultramarathon Man
Joined: Sep 09, 2004 Posts: 379 Location: Upstate New York, U.S.A.
Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 1:09 pm Post subject: Re: Today I made / bought / learnt .... (for a post oil worl
Ordering up more than 500 trees to plant on the property my wife and I are getting ready to close on. These include trees for wind breaks, screening, additional habitat, fruit bearers, nut bearers, and some for eventual firewood and possibly timber. We plan to start prepping the land in April.
I continue to work on my smithing skills, currently running a propane forge out of my garage. Just this week I finished my first axe with a forge weld.
Olaf _________________ "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." - Henry David Thoreau
Joined: Sep 16, 2007 Posts: 1003 Location: Oklahoma City, USA
Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 8:49 pm Post subject: Re: Today I made / bought / learnt .... (for a post oil worl
Ludi wrote:
RedStateGreen wrote:
Started my front plot -- my quest to relandscape my front yard into edibles...
I've got several different kinds of herbs, onions, garlic, ready to go into the ground.
Don't forget there are many kinds of edible flowering plants, if you want to maintain a decorative look in the front yard.
Already have lavender, saffron crocus, and ornamental sweet potato (the purple kind). I ordered flax seeds too, just haven't gotten them in yet.
ETA: almost done with the front plot, just have to put the edging in. Finished pictures soon, or go to my blog to see the in-progress pics. _________________ What, so I'm in no end game
Move my piece right off the board
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But I'm convinced that using external heat exchangers for an alpha setup can yield good results. I've never seen anyone do it, so it'll be fun getting to grips with my lathe and giving it a go when I get time.
Of course the concrete guys totally broke the old pipe. We're temporarily without the use of our kitchen sink.
