Pressure washer

Yeah, I bought one. I remembered that I had a Home Depot gift certificate for $40 in my wallet so I went to the depot and grabbed their cheapest model. It's the 1300psi model that they hide from you so that you look more at the expensive models. While it's certainly a bit underpowered, it'll do what I need it to, and was well worth the $12.97 after tax. I can think of a billion uses for the thing. Things like removing the mildew from the siding, washing the Jeep, the dishes, the toilet ... heck, this could cut my daily shower time in half. That would give me an extra 3 minutes a day to play with.

Jeep Ramble

I’m starting to get antsy to do some work to the Jeep. The oil that covers the underside is a big problem though. I need to get rid of that oil and grease before I can weld in some floor panels. I’d really prefer not to burn down the house that Lisa just bought in June. I’m not sure how I can wash the damn thing in this cold weather though. I guess I could drive it to a carwash but there is no top on it and holes in the floor so I need to wait for a warm day or I’ll freeze to death in the process. Weekends lately are spent looking at reception halls or visiting friends, leaving little opportunity to utilize the rare warm day in a New England winter. If only the days were longer so I could have just a little more time to work on the heap. I guess that I just have to keep a look out for a warm day and jump on the opportunity when it arises.

Project: Biodiesel Processor; Post #1

My coworker Lee and I decided about a year ago that we both wanted to make a biodiesel processor. For those of you not familiar with biodiesel I'll give you a summary: Biodiesel is a fuel that is derived from vegetable or animal oil, which can be run in any diesel engine. Basically you take veggie oil, add some lye and methanol; heat it up and mix it well, and voila! you have biodiesel. A majority of the plans that we've found on the internet have recommended using a water heater as a reactor vessel, due to the fact that they are well insulated, have a thermostat controlled heat source, and can be found in working order for free. Lee and I happened to stumble onto just such a water heater on our way back from Wendy's one lunchbreak, so we tossed it in my Golf and headed back to work. We then proceeded to hook up a pump and rewire it to eliminate the top heating element because it would not be submerged in the oil at all times and is therefore a fire hazard. Anyway, as you may be able to tell from the picture, it isn't quite finished and it has been sitting like that for several months now. Eventually we hope to finish it up and find a restaurant that would be willing to donate some greasy goodness for us to run in our beaten up diesel VW's. This project is currently on hold. There are too many others that need to be completed first. I think that the CJ gets top priority, because I've expected the Golf to die for more than a year now and I need to free up garage space to fix up the Golf's replacement, a 1981 VW Diesel Rabbit Pickup. Somewhere in between these projects I hope to turn a three-season porch into a year-round sunroom, get married to my nearly perfect fiance, and try to keep our new house from falling apart around us. It should be a pretty exciting time.

Project, Codename: CJ; Post #:1

The first project that I'll post here is my 1982 Jeep CJ-7. For those of you not familiar with the CJ-7 it is Jeep's predecessor to the Wrangler. The CJ is a great vehicle - especially if you are handy with a wrench. The first thing you need to know about CJ's is that they leak fluids... always. You can replace every seal and gasket in the vehicle, but there will be something that will start leaking as soon as you finish. Jeep enthusiasts typically say that their CJ is simply, "marking its territory". If that is true, my CJ has claimed a large part of New England as its territory, so all other cars beware. Even with the many leaks that plague my CJ, rust is the biggest problem that I face in keeping this bad boy safe and road worthy. My friend Jon owned the CJ before me, and installed a carpet to make the CJ seem a little more civilized than it did with the interior being the same metallic brown as the rest of the Jeep. The only problem with the carpet is that it prevented water that entered the Jeep via the missing or nonfunctional door gaskets from escaping. This caused the floors underneath the carpets to be constantly exposed to water, thus turning them to that lovely compound that car enthusiasts like me dread so much; iron oxide. I despise rust so much. My poor VW beetle was plagued by it as well, and someday I will do a frame-off restoration of that, but right now the Jeep takes first priority. I'm not sure whether or not I will be able to do anything resembling a frame-off resto of the Jeep, but I absolutely have to take measures to remedy the rusty areas in the floors and prevent rust from eating any more of my poor CJ. Pictures of the rust can be seen on my flickr site by clicking the title of this post.

DIY Stuff

I like to do DIY projects. Sometimes they actually work. Sometimes the only thing that they accomplish is wasting hours and hours of my time. Regardless, I still like to figure out how to do things without having to pay someone to do it for me, especially when there is somethign that I could learn in the process. Besides, as my friend and coworker Lee likes to say, "When the apocolypse comes, you'll be glad you know how to do these things yourself." Alright, he may never have actually said those exact words, but if you knew Lee, you'd know that that pretty much sums up his DIY mentality - that, and he's a cheap bastard like me. Some of my DIY projects are home improvement related, others are car repair and restoration related, others still are electronics related, then somewhere one the fringe are things like biodiesel processors and wierd projects that I find on the internet and seem exciting to me. I'll do my best in this blog to keep you informed and updated on all of these projects. Hopefully I can do so in an informative and entertaining way.

Post numero uno

This is a picture of me. OK, so it's a picture of me back in college when I had long hair, or any hair for that matter, and I look nothing like that anymore. Regardless it still reflecs my personality pretty well. I'm a little wild at times and oodles of silly. I'm a relatively socially liberal guy(unless of course you live in The Peoples Republic of Cambridge, Massachusetts where I'm considered a right wing conservative), but I am a design engineer for a firearms manufacturer; which to most liberals is a deadly sin. I won't elaborate any on the company I work for, for legal reasons and such. I don't intend this blog to be a political soapbox of any kind, nonetheless I must say that none of the view expressed here are endorsed by my employer... now that the legal disclaimer has been written lets get on with the blogging.