Life goes on - Summer 2021

Armstrong Economics= Martin Armstrong. He predicted the crash of '87. He went to prison for 11 years. Some say he went to prison for stealing 750 million dollars, others say he wouldn’t divulge the secret of his 1987 precrash knowledge.
He was on Peak Prosperity in 2019 and predicted the housing run up and the DJIA making 30000.
He’s weird, but right often enough to make people listen.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-23/democrats-agree-to-slim-biden-plan-giving-irs-bank-account-data
So they want to look at every transaction in your bank account…perhaps this should be in “things that make you go hmmm”

https://www.advisorperspectives.com/articles/2021/03/29/say-hello-to-fedcoin-the-u-s-digital-currency

"They can demonetize cash. People are given until a certain date to turn in their cash for a credit to their bank accounts. After that, the paper will have no legal tender value. But, as Yellen noted, many people are kept out of the banking system.

Last, they could issue a fedcoin and force everyone to trade their paper cash for it. But fedcoin would be nothing like bitcoin."
-A quote from the article.
They have already done this in India. A test program that got everybody to drag their cash out from the mattresses, and then pay tax on it.

It looks like it’s coming here so, what do you do? Barter? We could make bullets a medium of exchange ( there are less of them, then dollars).
Anyhow, I see this as a major disruption, especially in the type of economy I participate in ( yard sales, cash deals, farm markets).

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Sorry guys, cant comment on that. At least not before I read it on my laptop instead handy. Strange time it is, I just told my daughter. Dont be afraid just make sure you gather some basic skils. Woodgas is one, growing your own food should be the first. Left or right, fear is the wurst advisor. I had this conversation before and have realy no idea what to if things go wrong. Jump in the North Sea? With 18 milion on this poststamp size area…Belgium? Germany? A little more room, but not enough.

Anyway. I am playing another sunday, inspired by positive energy. Thank you Mr Gilmore.


It seems that this method is working for me

This is the feedstock. Small wood from the rebaki. In this first run we only picked the big pieces. I hope it will do ok and next time try the small also.
At a moment the thing started smoking badly. Probably the barrel got so hot and grew so much that the outer pipe got stuck. Some pipes in between and a torch to lite the woodgas did the trick. Maybe some day I am going to understand what is going on.

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Went into the shop to work on the Micro truck and all I’ve managed to do is begin to finish an even older project. My electric stretch cruiser bicycle.
I originally wanted it to be a gas electric hybrid but the weaker engines didn’t mount well and bigger engines would have torn up the wheel.

This is supposed to be a Micargi Seattle SS frame with disc brake hangers. What they forgot to mention is they made two SS models. The Seven Speed(disc brake) and the Single Speed(coaster). I got the Single Speed frame. Had to weld in my own hangers. Worked out just fine I think.

With the lifepo4 battery I built I expect the bike to go at a pretty energetic clip of 35mph. Just fine by me. It’s a direct drive wheel hub so it can regenerate via coasting or braking. I wanted disc brakes because of the steep hills in my area. I’m really tempted to build a sidehack for this cruiser for storage in case I need to go to the country store but want to enjoy the weather.

A lot of guys put goofy ape hanger bars on these bikes but I went for the more old school reins look for handle bars. I might roll out a set of half moon bars instead.

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Well, yesterday I welded my vise grips to what I was welding and today I spent some time trying to start a gasifier with the lid open. Maybe I need another brain MRI . . .

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Jeff, that sounds pretty normal to me. lol
Bob

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Checked it this morning. Top. Finally it worked. Way better than a hookway. Right the first time now. And while I was watching it, I found this

Someone here did the same. That will be my next try before a final.

And something else. After houseprices, now energyprices exploded. Electr is from 5 ct to 15 ct. Consumers pay 36 ct instead of 23.
The same with natural gas. 1,36 euro / m3 consumerprice. Average usage is 1500-2000 m3. Some people are getting into trouble.
For me? I have to convince the chief to stop cooking. It is cheaper to go out. For the test we use neither gas or electr.

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Bike is now rideable. No brake cables installed yet so I’m still using the Flintstones Brake System with my Dunlop rubber boots. Just going up and down my driveway right now.

There really isn’t a satisfying way to mount this battery I built in the tubes of the bike. I might take this apart and just build a super nice 12v battery out of them.

I really want to build a sidecar with a Ural-like trunk for storing batteries and tools. I’d need to upgrade from a 750w to a 1500w to make up for the weight gain I think or my legs would get pretty tired.

Goes uphill like a champ if I hold the throttle down and pedal like a madman. It’s a fixed gear using a 6 speed freewheel cog though, set to the smallest cog for chain alignment.

I am never satisfied with this motor and I think I should order one of the Cyclone motors that go into the bottom bracket itself and buy a Sturmey Archer 3 speed fat bike wheel. Leave underdrive and overdrive for just pedalling and run ebike on the 1:1 gear for strength.

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This made me laugh. Brought back memories of my teen years. One of many crazy projects we did was to take a regular old electric golf cart and install a 650 Honda motorcycle engine in it with a tiny little old 70’s era rear wheel drive Toyota transmission. Cut and weld some cv axles and pillow block bearings etc…

To finish the project, the very last thing we did after stitching each other up with vodka and horse hair, was to start thinking about how to install some sort of braking system.
It just never came up before that. The game warden said we were doing 78 mph when we passed him. :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

Praise be to the Father that all of us survived those years. We sure didn’t deserve to.

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I think for my own luck this bike tops out at 30 or 35mph. It’s one of the cheaper kits that I bought December 2019.

I might take this motor off and assemble it on a mountain bike and sell it. Change it out for a mid drive motor with a Sturmey Archer 3 speed internal gear hub.

I was given advice that the headway cells I’m using are the explodey kind and I should get different cells. Might buy a few of the cheap hoverboard batteries and daisy chain them in parallel to get some amphours I like. 39 dollars a pack and they already come with connectors and balance boards!

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I have been going wide open in the hay the last several days. It is about 5 miles to the barn and all of this will be haul in with wood power.

If anyone needs hay for their filters I will be glad to give them a life time supply :grinning:

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IMG_1343

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Yup Joep, and UK is about to be tied into the northern Europe grid, which will affect prices even more.

We don’t use natural gas up here. Most people use heat pumps and their electrical bill will soon be the same as before, when heating straight electric.

Are you still running your Atmos boiler? I have date in the basement with my mistress Bella right now.

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Yes, me too. Shut off the air/water heatpump and back to wood again. Heatpump is also new to me and I dont think it will stay for long. Didnt cost me anything because it is subsidized. Government wants us all on the heatpump. Grazy, it will only work in winter if your house is really isolated and you can use low temp heating. Big bubble it is. Only a little nice in summer for sanitary water (COP is 2,5 and should be 4 according to salesmen). You all use the ground heat exchanger over there? I hope horizontal instead of vertical? The last one will mess up water resources and everyone gets poisened by drinkwater.
For me, only one last step to make, real woodgas and not playing around.

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Level score I guess. From what I heard the ground hose is filled with alcohol.
However, the air/water type is becoming more popular with higher efficiency and the lower initial investment cost.
And of course plenty of air/air for those who don’t already have the plumbing.

I hope I don’t have to worry about artificial heat sourses anytime soon. A lot more convenient to stick to wood.

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So I can’t get the camera to focus. Sorry guys. I just wanted to give you an idea of these little slips I hand out. The 1998 red Dakota with the tall gasifier attracts a lot of attention. Every time I am out in the truck I get two or three asking questions. I explain about woodgas and they act like they want to know more. Before Argos 2021 I made up a little hand out and print 4 to a sheet on goldenrod paper so they don’t get lost when a guy sticks it in his pocket.

I printed 50 sheets so there were 200 of these. I only have 19 left. I did this in a hurry so I could use some suggestions from you guys. I handed out 42 of these at the hit and miss engine show in Portland, IN. And I handed out 33 of these at two car shows. This is what it reads…

What’s in the back of the truck? It’s a wood gasifier!
Simple version…
Scrap wood is burned in a closed container,
the smoke is cooled and filtered and then burned
in the engine. The truck can run on just woodgas
alone.
See on Youtube… enter in the search bar
Woodgas the buck stops here
Wood Gas (See thru Wood Gas Generator)
See some of my friends… We have a meet up in
Indiana search Youtube for Woodgas Argos.
For more info…Driveonwood.com

I put the Argos line in there because I wanted them to see all the different trucks we have at Argos. Help me come up with a better small handout. Sorry for the long post.

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That’s a pretty good hand out. I hope you don’t if I make up some like that and hand some out too. I don’t get into to much detail. If they are really interested they will go to Driveonwood.com.
You might mention that they need to sign in as a free membership to have access.
Bob

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Ok. I thought antifreeze. That changes everything if alcohol is in drinking water. :grinning:.

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Maybe put the titles of the videos in quotation marks. Make them more bulleted

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seems like the right propane regulator if I ever get it installed . Was first sent CNG regulator and then was sent LPG regulator

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Ordered 4 hoverboard batteries off of eBay. They’re 4.4ah each, I’m hooking them up in Parallel, so I’ll in theory have a little over 17ah so maybe 17 miles of distance at worst. It recharges when braking and coasting so some of that loss is made back up.

Also had to order an 8 foot long brake cable and housing for the rear brake. This bike is pretty dang long. Still need to get a front wheel that can mount a disc brake, my springer front end has hangers made for them.

I want to make a false Harley Split Tank to store the batteries, and a false oil tank to put my controller into. Dad’s gonna show me his old indian tricks for fiberglass making, he used to work on corvettes a lot. The old Confederate Corvette Club seemed to like his handiwork according to all the show trophies he collected.

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Also getting more parts for the Honderson Dual Fuel bike.

Going for a V Belt primary and a chain secondary.

4" pulley to a 7" pulley on a jackshaft, which spins a 10 tooth 41# chain centrifugal clutch going to my 48 tooth sprocket on the wheel. Assuming engine plateaus at 6000 rpm that gives me a top speed of 55mph. More than fast enough! Gives me a very comfy cruising speed of probably 35 or 40mph.

The advantage of the v belt primary is I have a little bit of slip on takeoff and won’t overheat in high rpm like a chain primary could. Also means my drive shaft on the engine has room for a second pulley to drive an alternator.

Guy on the motorized bicycle forum has had good success running a similar Predator 212cc Hemi on a beefed up Schwinn Panther frame, and he lives in San Francisco so I know he can climb those hills. That also means the centrifugal clutch won’t be spinning right next to my leg and burn the bajesus out of me or grab my pants leg and pull me in, both have happened to me before on another bike I built using a chain primary.

Next I need to figure out what kind of charcoal gasifier I want to build for this bike. Do I want to take a page out of Mr Van Lookens book and go for a sidecar mounted unit, or try to do a semi faithful copy of the Swedish downdraft motorcycle reactor that I’ve linked before? I have an air compressor tank that I haven’t cut into yet so that would be the body. 10" ID pretty sturdy but not heavy.

If I went for the Swedish reactor I would just need a single nozzle going in the side and use a removable grate, run the gas over to the other side with some cooling pipes in parallel where my filter box would be. I’ve considered recycling my filter from the Mazda because it’s low profile and the flow would be great. Doubling as a drop box and sack filter. Nozzle would need to be very beefed up, I could do EGR or water drip but I want the security of knowing the nozzle wont burn up suddenly. I have those wrist pins and I could double over that using some worn out bevel gears to give a wide surface and heat sink.
The big faced back end of the bevel gear would be almost like a mini Pedrick plate, and give me indication of it being too hot in that area. I’ll weld in a plate opposite of the nozzle in case the jet blasts to the other side.


Or I could KISS and build an updraft.

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