Archive for November, 2011

Lyra that I made. Cromoly steel, 1″ x (I forget the tubing thickness and should measure it for reference). I bent it with my hossfeld bender; the top turned out a little flat, darn it! I’m still getting the hang of using the bender.   

So, that ad on the right side of my website…how much does it get me? Well, not much. In the years I’ve been running it, I’ve received one check for $100 (hey, that’s better than nothing!). I earn about $.02 a day. Here’s a screen shot from adsense: In other words, don’t quit my day job. Wait, I really like my day job, so I wouldn’t quit it even if the blog was pulling in millions!

I’m still working on learning the cyr wheel. I haven’t spent quite enough time to really get the hang of it, but I’m starting to get a better feel for the basic “spin”. Here’s a video from yesterday: The best part is when I whack the edges of my carport!

I got tired of the old layout. It was a few years old: The new version has a graphic on top and a lighter gray themed layout:

Lost a Wheel? November, 2011. Oh where was this? Uni-something-town, Washington

This is a late post…but oh well! Well, late last winter I got a new fireplace. I did a design in sketch up and rendered it to get a good idea of what it would look like. It easily let me try out various materials and get a feel for it: I decided I didn’t like the red on the inside walls, so when I repainted it I went all white (and it looks much better!). Here’s the old fireplace, which just looked horrendous: I took it out with the help of beer and Aaron for some heavy lifting. I... [read more]

What a better use for an old VW brake drum? A few in progress shots: Initial sketch and idea:

I got a new tool a few weeks ago. A plasma cutter! After doing some research, I went with a Thermal Dynamics Cutmaster 52. It is awesome! I also had to get a new air compressor to keep up with it. I went with a Husky one from Home Depot; it has a three year warranty, whereas most other ones of the same size have a 1 year warranty. Plus, there were lots of good reviews on HomeDepot.com.

So, how far can it go? Today I drove home from a Plug In America gala event in San Francisco. I maintained 55 mph on highway 101 and 85 — relatively flat highways. This is the path: The car was at 57% State Of Charge (SOC), meaning it consumed 43% of the battery (depth of discharge – or DOD). That was a 55 mile trip. So, in theory, that is a 127 mile range to 0% SOC! EDIT: I originally thought it was 60 miles, because that is what the iPhone GPS said…but looking at google maps at the point... [read more]

The bug has about 8700 miles so far. I had to change the front right wheel bearing about 1000 miles ago. It started getting loose and making a lot of noise. When I took the bearing off, it was clear that it was trashed. There was lots of dirty grease inside it too. I think the brake dust contaminated it, along with the excessive heat from using the brakes so much (without any engine braking). At about 8600 miles I also changed the front brake pads. The front pads were nearly gone. Yeah, that’s not a lot of miles! I... [read more]

John Foss San Francisco, California. September 2011.