Next part of the burner is done. I took great efforts to fabricate four identical (okay, almost identical) pot holders and weld them in place correctly. Eventually, it worked and I’m proud that I achieved some ugly but correct welding lines instead of lining up separate spot welds.
I sort of inherited an old fire extinguisher from the previous owner of our northern germany dwelling. Expired and last tested in 2002 it was standing in the corner mostly unnoticed, but now, after almost three years I decided to put it to use. What better afterlife use could there be for a fire extinguisher than to become a fire place 🙂
So after another test fabricating micarta I grabbed the first one again and lo and behold: After 48 hrs more curing time it has become hard and durable! Mental note: The thicker the material the more time needed to cure (who would have thought?) and the specification on the package was just plain wrong.
I’m trying to make my own Micarta at the moment because I want to use it for a new knife project. I made a simple press, took an old t-shirt and some epoxy and started.
Without further a do, my bevel grinding jig for knife making just … disappeared … (somehow, things in my shop seem to have a tendency for that when I’m around…). So I made a new one, this time from aluminium, since it’s simply easier to work on for me.
I grabbed some sweet apples that were on sale at the supermarket, decided to buy some other veggies as well and turned on my trusty food-dehydrator. I tried to slice everything to about the same thickness of about 4-5 mm, as I expected that all ingredients would take roughly the same time to dry.
The groceries I used (apples, button mushrooms and chili peppers) are rather moist material so the drying time was a little longer. It was about 5 hours at about 55°C (131°F) for the shroomz and indeed 7 hours for the apples and chilies. Everything turned out fine.
The dry ager’s compressor unfortunately went belly up lately, so I cannibalized it thoroughly and re-vitalized the northern germany drying box instead (see the munich version here).This time with tolerable wiring and even a light 🙂 It’s going to see some action the next weeks or so.
So, germany is having a turnaround in energy politics… Yeah. More and more voices join in the concern that this energy transition will run all but smoothly this winter, since it is (german standard by now) poorly planned and badly managed just because of too much ideological wishful thinking.
We’ve seen at the Ahrtal floodings (which was just a local event) again this spring how reliable and professional our authorities work in emergencies. Hadn’t it been for loads of volunteers and private helpers, I suppose the area would still be uninhabitable.
Anyway I don’t trust our government farther than I can throw it, should it come to a large-scale and lengthy blackout, so I think being prepared is never a mistake. One among various precautions might be this:
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