tony uljee

hello , some info i read whilest looking up ideas for my own stove ,lots of stuff on the M.H.A of North America site    , for some real hands on and use of basic materials to build a working stove, Cinva Ram Earth Block Heater with Tom Trout  , and Energy Efficient Cooking and Heating Stove by Richard Jussel , hope it inspires

i am one of the ---"i will give it try ,because i am to blissfully ignorant to know any otherwise "   gang  , so lets add some more mud into the puddle , how about hydraulics, going to need someone to correct me here , i built a 15 hp hydraulic motor powered mixer, this is low speed of course 400 rpm but its very small -- 4.5 inch dia by 9 inch long, perhaps a bigger one with a gearbox to power the saw ?. Could a suitable sized electric motor be powered from the panels and inverter to power the pump for a hydraulic 15/20hp ----- the long travel of the saw ---reminds of my telehandler  which has long attached hydraulic hoses on the boom.

after seeing that clip ,now i want one of those , to add further complication to my already lengthy projects to do list, so anyone know the biggest horsepower electric motor that could be run on single phase , or in this case off the inverter ? Plus i am now starting to think of woodgas powered generator, too much ,too many distractions on this damn site, but i do hope some solution comes around

i built a rotary  converter, to run a 3phase pillar drill, i did not design it --that wizardry was done for me by an old electrical engineer friend, but he insisted on using a 5 hp as the rotary  to power the 1.2 hp drill, as it was the only tool in the workshop on the converter. The rough rule of thumb being 3 to 1 needed as the surge of draw on start up is the problem and overheating , the more equipment running off the converter starts to balance the 3 phases out better as well ---as far as i could understand. So to start and run the single  existing 15 hp would need a large 45 /50(plus) hp as the rotary ---roughly speaking , i have an old 20hp 3phase motor and it needs a machine to lift it ---bloody heavy.Plus you would have to start that off your supply, lots of or big start capacitors (and run capacitors) ,of course thats all homebuilt , you can buy these as well and they would be better designed and to run.

the west coast and the northern parts are very wet ,try and check out the soil types in an area you might be interested in ,all of ireland has been surveyed and bore/ core samples done, take this as a warning as well,any area that has an underlying  layer of shale has been logged and charted for possible future exploitation---most of our west coast. Besides the poor drainage of bog and peatland soils, upper mountain areas and boglands are attractive to the multi national renewable energy companies and unlike the rest of europe we dont have the legal setback of 1.5km, ours is .5km---500 meters.The best way to check an area for its future development plan is each local councils planning department ,most are online with a copy of the 4 year plan reflecting their wishes and further digging around in the applications being made or granted.  its also possible to do a property price check of housing and possibly farms around the area you might be interested in that have been sold in the past. The southern part and east coast lower have our milder climate from the gulf stream ,look at places like fota island , bantry and other parts of cork ,that have planted collections of exotic plants that are growing very well, east coast is our grain growing crop region --always has the mildest temps and most sunshine for ireland .There are approximately 174000 eu directives, and we follow nearly all of them to the letter and inforce them, it can be made difficult to follow an alternative way of living or farming.

its an old machine and low to medium range quality, so repairs would be more expensive than its worth , thats if its faulty, if the transformer is gone ,definitely too costly to repair, i cant say for sure looking at the pics ,but it does nt look like it has been "cooked" ,its just old, as said-- just give it a gentle clean up ---un plugged of course and then a  low setting with a small 2.5mm rod  to try out. Theres a thermal cut out on these to prevent overload ,so if that has failed thats when or how they overheat from over extended use at high settings. Some have a fan for cooling the trans down that is too small or jammed up /damaged .   The pic of the front of the machine shows an approximate guideline of settings and the arc welding rod size diameter 2.5 to 4 mm to match them , the metal printed on plate  is showing its rated output and use time at settings, its 45 amps draw at its max of 200 amps .These old tech welders are at the limits of most older electric boards and the 13 amp fused plugs , they also lose efficiency as they age , so okay for small jobs and repairs, but bloody annoying for when you want to make something like a trailer as it will slow you down and keep tripping the rcb or worse ----the main fuse. When new it had a 30% use at  200 amps ---flat out --max setting   , so 3 mins of use and then 10 mins of cool down ---if the thermo cut out was working.

those are iron plates all stacked  together as the core for the transformer , they are first varnished to insulate each plate from the next ,then stacked and pressed and either bolted or tack welded to stay compressed, and then dunked into varnish again , giving an old brownish colour to it all ---then a few years of dust thrown in , those could just be old solidified  drips and runs of it . But if theres any blackening  to the varnish and the drips are black crumbly charred , could be that the machine was running far to hot and the core has overheated causing the varnish to melt and leak out between the laminations of iron plates.

forgot this, the nhl5 lime is a hydraulic setting lime ,so it is lime but with added pozzlans and has been manufactured /processed to accelerate its setting time, which the added in portland cement would have a similar  effect on  ordinary lime as well , the ordinary lime is hydrated lime ,which is made from purified lime and water putty mixed  and then has been dried and milled to a powder. Sorry for sounding like an expert knowitall, just have a friend who has worked all his life as a stonemason on historic conservation sites mostly--i get corrected or guidance from him on my projects

my own interest in lightweight mixes was for the making of  panels ,for a raised bed and the best info i have seen so far is from a site ---man about tools---  , he has done various experiments and all recent stuff  ,but i have since had a re think about light weight panels though might be too fragile for the project i am planning ,hope it helps , the weather heat problem sounds trying---could it get worse in the future ?, maybe a start for going underground totally or even partially with a root cellar type build and earth roof.

sorry no experience of using this method, helped out a friend do the aerated concrete stuff --needs a compressor though of decent volume out put ---but from this and my own preferred h/crete use for my project. The dry mixing first of the various ingredients then adding in water helped us on the small batches of stuff we were mixing  , but that means 2 mixers ,as one has to be kept dry and tipped into the wet mixer for each batch.