Discovering my freedom in Minnesota

I can’t wait for your visit Jim.
I got a 5k generator running today but it was only at 53hz. So I will see if I can increase the rpm to affect the hz. If I can make that happen, I should be able to weld here. I just have to change out the receptacle.
I really enjoy your place. You have a big garage, lots of tools and a lot of cool junk. It’s like paradise.
Take care.

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It’s a little on the pricey side but I got one of these helmets.
http://store.cyberweld.com/jaweheblinau.html
The main reason I chose this one is it was the least expensive one I could find that had the sensors above and below the lens instead of the Harbor Freight helmet that only has them above. Before I’d wind up blocking them sometimes and getting blinded.
I was really surprised how much better I could see while welding too.

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I didn’t know top and bottom sensors existed. So many times, like you said, the one I have has been blocked. Not a bad price to save one’s eyes.

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No, not at all. Extremists do exist on all flanks, but are not worthy our attention, I think.

I was more thinking of our old famous companies beeing sold out and then moving abroad hunting for cheapest labour. Our mines beeing emptied for free by forign big bucks. Stressed out workers due to higher profit demands from forign owners. Elderly people seeing their pensions cut in half, health care, schools…You name it. Criminality is going up - I wonder why?

25 years ago you could not find a singel begger in our streets. Now the problem seems to be big enough that some provinces made it illeagal to beg. What’s next? Beeing poor is a crime?

While I’m at it:
Rural abandonment.
People are moving into the cities in search for jobs. Hardly even farmers left in some parts of the country side.
In the 70s we were almost self suficient when it comes to food. Today only 30%.
Beef is shipped in from Argentina and Brasil, pork from Germany and Denmark, veggies from Spain and fruit from Chile and South-Afrika.
And milk - we have milk and yougurt from Austria in our supermarkets. Why? It’s good for several mounths??? I would never buy that milk.
I don’t know of any milk cows in a 50 mile radius today. When I was a kid there might have been 50 small farmers with milk cows within that same radius. Our neighbour used to have 10 cows or so. Their calfs sucked our tumbs sore.
Me and my friends used to stand barefoot and hold the electric fence as log as we could. I don’t think I ever won but I did start working as an electrician when I grew up.

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Thanks for the link Marvin. That I looks like it nice one, Pretty reasonably priced for a quality helmet. It is not worth going blind to save a c note. I am sure I can sell enough junk that I will never miss to get one.

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The company I work for bought my Jackson auto helmet about 16 years ago for $250. It needs to be crushed to stop it.

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Okay, the wood shed is taking shape. I was unable to make a friend so I continued with cutting the the small timbers in half with a chainsaw.
Other than a tarp, I don’t know what I can use for a roof. Any ideas?


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AG steel roofing panels BillS.
Use screws. Watch your screw lines. Then you can reuse again later.
Regards
Steve Unruh

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I’ve been keeping an eye open for scrap steel roofing in Craigslist to keep my costs down to the screws I have on hand. But…dry wood is more important. So if no other available options, I will purchase new stuff.
Thanks Steve.

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Hi Bill, If you have odds and ends 1/2’‘or 1’’ lumber, cut them into shingles, they will last a long time. Al

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Bill when I first moved here I started a woodshed just like that. I never did get to putting any sides on it. My roof looked just like yours minus the tarp. Then I got a tarp, threw it over the firewood. Never did finish it. It was a few years before I got enough salvaged dimensional lumber to build what I have now. I found it real hard to put a roof on uneven round wood without using more lumber to make it straight than it would take to frame a roof to begin with. Maybe some pine boroughs under and over the tarp. The problem with that is it will have to carry the snow load because it won’t slide off. This year I bought the shed my 69 is in for a woodshed, but the truck gets it till spring.

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If you can find some green houses around,when they replace the plastic covers.the old ones are still good for wood tarps and sheds, good sun resistant plastic.

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Hi, Bill!
11.2.2016
Firewood, and whatever wood has to be ~2feet above ground, even if under a tarp or otherwise covered!
Free air circulation especially under a pile is the only way it can reach some “mean-humidity” and avoid moulding. And dry firewood gives more heat, as you know…
Max

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Bill
If you need free tarps you might check with local lumber yards and see if they have lumber wraps in the dumpster. OK for short term use.

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If you ever got near civilization, try some dairy farmers. They don’t us silos much anymore they put everything in 10 ft dia. plastic tubes or just pile the feed on the ground and cover it with HUGE plastic sheets. I’m sure it it 6 mil or better and after one season they have to get rid of it. TomC

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Hi bill unconventional metal for you above ground pools often have metal sheeting around the whole perimeter and if not the vinyl liner is thick and will last forever. Steel sheds often collapse under snow load but most of the wall panels are salvageable. My first wood she’d looked just like yours. I nailed thin trees close together for a roof then covered with a tarp. Lasted 5 years. Now the wood lives under the deck with steel roofing screwed to the underside of the joints…

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I like this idea David

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So before winter my battery is supposed to shut down at 50% to protect the batteries. Slowly it has progressed to 65%, then 75% now it’s up to 85-90%. This only gives me 10-15% of potential power.
I still haven’t completely figured out my welder yet so I haven’t been able to make a heat exchanger from my wood stove yet. But I have a good plan.
So today I made it a priority to check my levels and found many cells iced up. So I decided not to add any distilled water and will once I can contract the temps adequately. I went to Home Depot and bought an indoor/outdoor thermometer with a remote outdoor sensor. So I hung the sensor inside the battery box and can monitor the temps from inside the cabin.
I made a 2" hole through the house to the outside and ran a PVC pipe to the box. A small 12 muffin fan to a battery inside the house to push ambient air to the box. Yeah, may be a poor solution but it was what I had on hand and ready to go. So I will give it overnight to see the results.
I think 9° will be my current low temperature. Realistically, if I can get it to 65°, I’ll call it good. Not holding my breath though.

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Wow… the ice explains a lot.

Just for the record, I don’t think the house air temperature air will melt much. Think about trying to melt ice with a hair dryer… those put out air at around 130 degrees, in moderate volume. Curious to see your results though.

I think your fastest heat transfer might be a bag of sand, large chunk of steel, etc… warm it up by the stove, as hot as you can handle, then take it out to the batteries. The thermal mass will transfer to the batteries much more effectively.

Vehicle exhaust piped into the box (anytime you warm your engine up) would go a long way too. That’s around 200 degrees.

Check out an article here:

A fully charged battery has more H2SO4 than a discharged battery. The additional H2SO4 depresses the freezing point of the batteries electrolyte to around -70 °C. This is a temperature we do not see in Minnesota. However, a discharged battery’s freezing point rises to ~-10 °C. Unfortunately, the temperature in Minnesota frequently drops below -10 °C.

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Cut the air space down to the least amount you can. Put Styrofoam sheets from the batteries to the top of the box and maybe some in the space opposite the batteries in the bottom of the box. Then hang a 100 watt bulb in the open space to heat it. We use to keep a light under the hood and close to the battery on our cars— back in the dayTomC

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