11 thoughts on “Linkage”

  1. The rainbarrel is nifty – I’ve taken the cheap route – trashcans under the downspouts for now (with Mosquito Dunks (wait.. “kitchen?”)).

    But a new co-worker just alerted me to a far far far better idea….

    The local “Army/Navy store” (with required oddball proprietor) sells food-grade 55-gallon drums for $10. I’ve seen them, never really thought about it.. They’re Pre-threaded for 3/8″ connections, so you can set up a series of them. Now I’ve got to go get a number of them and some PVC….

    The generator I haven’t thought of for a while, but I’ve got a lawnmower with a dead tranmission (hydrostatic, $425 for a new one), and a 16.5 HP engine in good shape… And a rather pressing need for a generator. Thanks for the reminder.

    (The 16.5 might be a bit big, but I’m thinking I’m going to see what I might could build with it… It’s available, and the mower’s probably not cost-effective to fix. And if I can get a big enough generator, it should be able to power everything I’d want to.)

  2. I’m such a lazy bastard, I got the generator bracket and pulleys from the epicenter about five years ago and have yet to build the dam thing. I really am pissing myself off about it. Especially since I’ve got a battery bank that I could charge with it.

    My main problem is that I’m going to have to buy an engine and if I’m going to do that I think I would rather go with a horizontal shaft engine and a new alternator (I’ve spent enough time screwing with junkyard alternators) so of course it never gets built. I really need to put this back on the project list.

  5. Hrrrrrrrrrrrm.

    1) it’s HF.
    2) Hrmmmmm.

    Buddy of mine ordered a car alignment setup from them – they sent him the front half. He’s been trying to get the rest/a replacement ever since. Been … 16 months now.

    He did get a delivery from FedEx one day. Piece of plywood about a foot by a foot and a half, with a fedex sticker with his name and address. “Shipping weight: 150 pounds”.

    HF and FedEx couldn’t decide who’s responsible for that being pulled off of the crate (or where his crate supposedly is)…. Nor did the driver find it odd that the pound of plywood being labelled 150…

    But. Huh. Huh. Huh. Any other ideas other than HF? (That at least is all-contained…)

  9. Island people are really into rainwater harvesting. They actually have cisterns with simple purification systems and run their whole house with rain water only. I’ve learned a lot from visiting those places. Especially how to live more simple and self efficient. My Dad had a restaurant in Cozumel Mexico for a number of years, all of their water was collected from the roof too. It was the only place in town people trusted the ice or the frozen cocktails.

    The hurricane Rita story.. Fuel is king!! Fuel is king!!!

    I will second having a gagillion baby wipes stocked up. They are so awesome. You can buy them in bulk too in tightly sealed packages.

  10. Damn seductive…

    Hrm.

    Ok, wait… I need… Crap. You know, I used to know how to do this math. Boy, that was a while back. (Trying to figure out how much power I’d want to have, max, …)

Comments are closed.