Saturday, December 22, 2012

blacksmithing take two

With the cold weather ensuing one thing is eminent in my family, a fire. now your normal wood fire has very little practical smelting or blacksmithing applications, too much soot, not hot enough etc. However there is one thing they are good for, making charcoal. We all need some sort of fuel to heat our kilns, and some including me do not have the ability or time to go drive into eastern Oregon to get a tonne or so of coal to use, even though it only costs a few dollars. which leaves my fuel of choice to be charcoal, at least until I can get my waste oil burner working properly.
     So how do you go about making charcoal in a fireplace without it all burning up with the fire? It's really not all that hard, all that you need is a good nice steel can, the thicker the better. The can needs to have a loose lid or holes in the top to allow the wood gas somewhere to escape to. Fill the can full of wood and stick it in your fire and let  It sit in the fire until you don't see any more smoke or flames coming out of the holes or edge of the lid then let it sit in there for another ten minutes then pull it out leave the lid on until its cooled down then use the charcoal to your hearts content.
      About the flames coming out of the lid this is because of wood gas production which then the wood gas catches on fire, you don't have to worry about your charcoal burning. Wood gas is a product of heated up wood it is highly flammable, so flammable in fact that it can be used to power a car if the engine is converted slightly.
      So after an entire winter of this I should build up enough of a stock to be able to run the entire summer without having to buy any charcoal. if you have any questions leave a comment or shoot me a message.

Friday, November 16, 2012

MORMONS ARE AWESOME

So I don't know how many of my readers are LDS, or how we are affectionately known, Mormon. As many in the Idaho area know the Boise temple was just refurbished, redone, redesigned, and redecorated. Now it is time for it to be rededicated, which will happen on this Sunday the 18th. Before the dedication our prophet Thomas S. Monson has asked the youth of the temple district and the rest of Idaho to have put on a cultural celebration.
     For the past couple of months the youth have been meeting in their respective wards and stakes learning the dance routines if they are on the dance crew, and learning the songs if they are in the choir. I personally am in the choir, and in fact so is our very own Dan. its been great because i was able to have a spiritual experience at each of the practices, when we were singing songs of praise, to our God.
     So this Saturday the 17th we are having a huge rehearsal and then do the presentation for our beloved prophet. That is what I get to do all of tomorrow, sing praises and then preform to the mouthpiece of God on our earth at this time Thomas S. Monson. 

Monday, November 12, 2012

Jazz Combo

      A Friend of mine who is in choir with me is an amazing pianist. And a few weeks ago he was playing in our auditorium and he said hey Andrew come in here with your trumpet, and because I'm always the curious type and i love doing anything involving music i said sure what do you want me to do. I walked in there and he played me a song. He told me there were four parts to the song and he wanted to jam with me. So we worked in the next ten or so minutes through the four parts of the song and then jammed on our newly written song. 
     So for the past few weeks we have been developing our sound and working through this song multiple times, just listening and jamming and seeing how it goes. So far its been going great, we play twice a week or so just through the song that we recreate remix distort and fix every time. It is great. The "practices" (more like jam sessions) are different every time  some times the song is super upbeat and happy, the other times its kind of a slow swing jazz where it flows very methodically over the notes. 
      The only reason we call it the same song is because from practice to practice can hear the old song in the new one. Every time we come into practice he says how does it go and I say "A" minor and he says oh yeah, and then we play, and that's why it is different every time, because neither of remember what the old song sounded like. 
     So yeah if anyone needs a little two man jazz combo to come play for hours on end with it all being different and with little to no down time hit me up with a message, we work cheap, and we bothe double up as male vocalists.  

Sunday, November 11, 2012

final note on algae bioreactor

I went outside to check on my algae bucket and found that it was full of water. I stuck a stick down to see if I still had my layer of algae on the bottom, and I didn't. So its still sitting out there, maybe this time next year it will have lost all its water again  but anyways that's the end of my algae project for this year, largely because Idaho just gets slightly too cold every night. maybe Ill work on my VAWT, vertical axis wind turbine, and try to get a battery bank to charge and a use for that battery bank, maybe powering my sisters dogs heat lamp? 

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Reverbnation

So I have had some fun making a reverbnation artist page for myself. Its a cool website and company that is only trying to make a little money out of your, but you can set up and effectively use a page that does its purpose. http://www.reverbnation.com/andrewcwaite that's my page, I have yet to record any songs or make a video, but I will try to do that within the next couple of months. So yah its a cool site go check it out become a fan of me for some updates and free songs.

Monday, July 16, 2012

camera

so guess what guys i found out our family does have a camera with a cord, so later today ill upload some picutres of my bio reactor and some of the ideas ive been working on coolio

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

more on my bioreactor

I've been reading about separating algae from water and it seems like their are several different methods that can be used. you can just let it dry out in the sun without a lid, this however presents some problems, it needs to both be very hot, or mildly hot with a breeze, and bugs.

now bugs are really annoying hence the name, bug, they like to lay their eggs in still water that then create larvae which in turn will eat your algae. and then they become whatever including mosquitoes so putting open containers out in the open is good as long as its hot and you have a draft and a way of covering the containers without restricting air movement by too much. one thing i have found works is you get some netting like the kind you can buy at jo anns fabrics something kinda like this would work i think http://www.joann.com/nylon-net-72-many-colors/prd7200/ I would be wary of this it seems like the holes might be too big but you want your holes to be smaller than the oppening of a water bottle and the netting needs to have an inch or more of space between itself and the water so no eggs get laid through the netting.

another method is to use a process called auto-floculation,  auto-floculation is the raising of the PH of the water to 10.5 or more (for most common species). this causes the algae to clump together and sink to the bottom of the tank, this doesnt remove all the algae from the water or any of it for that matter, all it does is make it easier to gather the algae. so the algae is then in clumps on the bottom of the container you can either use a find combed net to get the algae out or you can slowly drain the water off of the top and collect the remaing algae afterwords. the nice thing about this method is then you dont have to worry about getting a new starter culture you just reuse the water give it some more nutrients and wait.

you may be asking right now, (or googling) how to raise the PH level in water, well one way to do it with the algae is to remove the carbon dioxide supply the algae will continue to consume carbon dixide raising the PH and making the algae flocculate. another way i have read about but dont know how well it will work is by adding baking soda to the water. baking soda is sodium bicarbonate which is supposedly a basic substance therefore raising the PH (correct me if im wrong), therefore flocculating the algae.

well thats all i have for you for today (and the last couple of days) check in soon and i might even have a working camera to take pictures on!

Sunday, July 8, 2012

facebook

so facebook is for laughs not drama not your terrible life its for laughs and big things that happen k deal please stop posting all your crap

Saturday, July 7, 2012

algae bio-reactor

So my algae bio reactor (sorry i didn't write this yesterday got caught up making a second story in my dads shop)

First thing why did i decide to build a algae bio reactor (tanks of water that grow algae):
well the short explanation is i thought it would be cool to make some bio diesel but what i tell my parents so they don't get too mad at my tanks of green water in the backyard is that its good for the environment and if i actually make enough diesel i can start selling it and get a little income for myself (although I'm pretty sure that you need to have a license to sell diesel to anyone but oh well.)

Second, what is an algae Bio-Reactor:
An algae Bio-Reactor is in short clear containers of some sort with algae growing in them. That means that even your dogs water holder that has that green tint you have been meaning to clean out is technically a Bio-Reactor. My Bio-Reactor is a collection of water bottles, power drink bottles, Henry Weinhard bottles, clear plastic feeding tube iv bags, and a couple 5 gallon buckets filled with my algae water solution.

Thirdly how to make an algae bio reactor and a few tips and tricks to make it better:
first of all you need to grow your culture and how to do this is go to some public lake or stream and get a rock out of the bottom the slimier and grosser and greener the better while you are there get your five or seven gallon bucket of of nice lake/stream water and put a couple small scoops (2-3 cups) of dirt from the bottom of the water into the bucket and put your rock in their too.

That's where your algae will grow after a few days it should be getting greener. one thing you can do to significantly improve the growth rate of your algae is to get an air line and drop it into the bottom of the tank and have some constant bubbling going on that can effectively double the rate at which your algae will grow. once it starts getting really green turn off your air line in the morning and by the end of the day your water should be more green than brown, this is because the dirt has settled but the algae doesn't settle.

Now that you have a decent culture spot you can take your empty bottles and fill them up with water from the tank, you'll want to fill them up to the point closest to the top with the most surface area, so in beer bottles and Henry Weinhard bottles that would be right before the neck, in water bottles that's before the last curve, on all of these bottle you'll want to take the paper and packaging and what not off of them, to allow more light through.

now that you have a million and four cans full of algae water let it grow ill post in a week or so so more stuff on what to do next maybe tomorrow ill post some more tips and tricks to help your algae grow better, just go research it up their is a ton of places with information one great site is instructables.com they have a lot of stuff on algae just search for it if you have any questions leave them in the comments have a great day!

Thursday, July 5, 2012

hey so I'm back

     So I've dived into the realm of awesome green technology, let the record hold i am a strong conservative but this stuff is cool and renewable and largely you can do it yourself. if any of you guys have instructables.com accounts my username is zaronas and you can find me there, then again my username is zaronas on most things so that's probably me if you see that username.
     tommorrow (because this is my post for the day) ill talk about my algae bio reactor and some of my plans for that. first i have to find my camera because cameras are cool(doctor who quote, that reminds me i should post about how awesome doctor who is). hey if i for some strange reason have some rich fan who has to much money and doesnt know what to do with it feel free to message me so i can give you details for my paypal account so you can give me donations so i can spend more time on here and can build more project and give you guys more awesome stuff, then again if you click on my ads then i can spend more time on here because then i will be earning more money, and if this becomes some sort of actual base of income then i could do some awesome stuff like get a better camera or my own, and my own laptop, and a better bio reactor, and some land to make my kiln on so i can get myself back into blacksmithing, ill have to tell you guys that story later but for now this is me saying click on the ads or give me money! and goodnight from mountain standard time!

Saturday, May 5, 2012

My Novel


i am writing a book, a future auto biographical fiction novel. it is about how i took over the world and the long grueling process it took to get there.
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/300268?chapter=1

this is the prologue:
some people are born with certain ideas, certain wiring in their brains. Some are wired with the idea that they need to do good for the world. Some people are like me, but not exactly. some have the desire to control, others have the capability, some have the natural talent, few know what to do with it. I was born with all of these. I have the talent, the desire, the capability. Few can recognize this in me, i tell them, they listen, they laugh, then they will be brought down into the depths of humility.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Begin dictating

so i just found this new program. it's the school program called tatzi. It is when I'm using to read this article right now.unfortunately it is not very good at recognizing my voice right now but is still a lot faster than typing. their command such as in delete last fragment, and commands such as spell but which allows you to spell out words that do not come out correctly when spoken or you do not know how to pronounce. It's really actually a great program the only problem i had with it so far is it does not understand the phrase delete last fragment which causes writing to be very annoying. because every time up but the program here something it's not supposed to i have to manually goal and backspace through the entire thing, up to but it still is a great program. Luckily for but up you who decided to read my blog that's all you have to do but to download the program from my personal database that is to comment on this post and i will give you the link to download it. As you can tell but i have not taken out some of the many colman homes that happened when using this program ip i live in and not so quiet house of the only thing going on in the background is my dad watching tv and that is causing all of the errors the buts and everything else. 

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Smithing smelting and learning

     Today i completed my first ever smelting with a little homemade foundry. it consisted of 10 1' x 2.5' x 1.5" gray blocks, a bent 2 centimeter diameter steel tube, the front off of a large dog carrier approximately 2' x 3.5', a lot of a dirt, charcoal, a iron/ steel can, 3 wire metal hangers, and a large air compressor. well obviously that is not real helpful to anyone looking to create their own foundry for aluminum, so i guess if you know you clicked on my ads and made me some money i could continue to write on here so you would get more consistent information.
     So what did i do to make my little foundry and melt my aluminum cans? first i took three of my nice large grey bricks and lade them out in a blockey u formation, =| like that so that the outside edges were flush. next came the dog grate, i just put that right on top of the blocks. then we take four more bricks and lay them on top of the grate on top of the bricks but on the skinny face. so that the foundry is taller.in a block formation |=|. the reason we didn't put a fourth block on the bottom row is so we can put our bent pipe in for air flow. now as mentioned previously we take the bent pipe and put it into the bottom where we left out the fourth bottom brick. now we take a lot of дирт, preferably wet dirt. when i say wet i don't mean sogging almost runny mud, just wet enough that it doesn't have lots  of porous holes for heat and air to escape out through. then we take this dirt and pack all the way around, make sure to get a lot of dirt around the bent iron tube, you can go as high up as you want but a minimum of four inches above the top of the bottom blocks for sure. you could even put dirt all the way over the top when your done. now we take the charcoal and put a 1 charcoal high layer down. then we take the iron can or other crucible and put the aluminum into it, then we put it inside the box we have made on the opposite side of the bent iron tubing. after that we need to put as much charcoal as we can around the can. now light the charcoal however you normally would, for me this was a little bit of trial and error but what i found worked was dumping tons of starter fluid on the charcoal. once the charcoal has gotten hot and red take the air compressor hose and put the nozzle end on it and put that end into the end of the iron tube. so that means:    air compressor>tube-------->nozzle>bent iron tube------>furnace>charcoal>iron can or other crucible. then let the air through at full power. at this point when you look at the coals there should be ones that are glowing red still and slowly getting brighter and spreading around the base of the can. if this isn't the case you need to make your charcoal hotter before letting the air loose. then take the remaining three bricks and make a roof for our little box. after a few minutes the metal you had in your crucible should be melted and you can do whatever you please with it.
     As i said earlier i really probably wont continue to write stuff unless i realize someone wants to read my stuff, and the way i know that is when my ads get clicked on cause then i make money and i remember to keep writing stuff. good luck with your smelting, tomorrow we will talk about smithing and my future plans for my smithing.