pgtruspace's blog
about things that interest me.
The New Old New Project continues
Posted by on September 1, 2020
Continuation of the continuation
The new old project continues, The Little Robot is turning out more parts as we continue to manufacture more test units and send them out to new homes to improve inside air quality
using only electricity and water.
Our little Genii Airwashers are on test in places from the Oregon border to Grass Valley as California is again blanketed with a pall of smoke from hundreds of grass, brush and timber fires.
pgtruspace's blog 
at present there are 17 units at work, the thrust bearing rework seems to be working well and the cp-2 pump motor seems to be the best choice for motor to power the machine.
We are located about center of that map, nearly all of which is covered with smoke.
Our two units are cranking away this minute.. The outside air PM 2.5 metric has been averaging about 150 for the last 10 days or so. Our indoor air is squeaky clean!
The Purple Air monitoring system is a great way to find out what the current PM levels are in our area as outdoor sensors are located just to the east, west and north of us. We use their real time data and Channel 40’s forecasts to decide when to visit family near Lake Tahoe(1). Robin took one of our units up to the Lake when she visited her aunt recently just in case the smoke settled around the lake.
Can’t wait for the next PSPS! Likely to be called on Monday when the temperature hits 105 in our area! Stay safe and lets hope the grid isn’t the cause of any major fires in the upcoming months.
1) We have Cliff’s blog post via a RSS feed. His recent post talks about the smoke. https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2020/09/smokestorm-heading-for-washington-state.html
@Kakatoe, pleased to hear that your Little Genii’s are helping out. I have 2 operating in my space to help keep the air breathable here. Dust and dander that the cat and I bring in from the gardens is also greatly reduced, I put a spash of Clorox in the make up water to prevent mold slime buildup in the scrubber.
These power shut downs are annoying, as they require us to generate our own power to keep things going during the interm. 2-3 days is far too long to go without water and refrigeration. I can deal with the hot or cold weather. Their massive increases in rates while their increasing undependability of supply is not acceptable. their total system should be condemned and turned into an REA. Do it right now while their stock value is low. The people are going to have to foot the bill in any case as there is no magic barrel of cash to pay for everything. That wealth has long been removed from the Company, no sense giving Management another chance for more looting.
It is 8:30 am here, the Sky is a deep blood red and it is nearly as dark as night. A”Snow” of ash is fallowing from the sky. The power has been off for 30 hours so generator is roaring away destroying our tranquility. At least I have 2 Airwashers humming away making the air quality a bit more breathable while I surf the web.
I just finished watering the live stock- with our generator providing the power to run the well as we have been without grid power for 30 hours too. In theory we will have the grid back up by 3:55 pm this afternoon…… It was 100F in our area starting at about noon yesterday. Like your area our outdoor air quality was terrible off and on throughout this PSPS. We had to run the generator a lot longer this PSPS, our 6th!, so far as the previous ones were in the fall and our air was clear.
It seems that the Tesla supercharger in town is down due to the outage too. One model S was in the lot. Not sure if it’s awaiting the grid to be up or not. A local gas station less than 100 yards from the super charger was open this morning at 6am. We got fuel for the generator- $3.43 gallon- in case we need to clean the interior air later today. It seems part of town is operating with grid power, some facilities are operating on islanded diesel generators- possibly provided by PG&E.
Have you figured out how to power the Air Washers with batteries yet?;).
PS The Dawn detergent I used in the Air Washer yesterday really was 4x more concentrated then regular Dawn.
4x ! LOL! that must be fun. 😉 any at all is more then enough. I’ve been running 2 Airwashers in my space while the generator is up. Looks like we will be powerless ( in more ways then one) until 3:00pm as well, as that is the latest guess from Public Graft and Extortion. If that air quality and visibility remains this poor they can’t fly the line inspections so this might continue for some time. We will have to make a fuel run soon as well. They do have power on in Chico.
Wonder if those big brained Ecoloons concidered the concept of Electric Cars and No electricity, I doubt it as their Huge IQs can not hold 2 concepts in their brains at the same time. An all electric transportation system only works in a SciFi novel , It can never work in reality, The laws of physics are against it working, Not to mention “Murphy’s Law”s. Transportation requires you use Liquid fuel, even if you have to make it. A matter of energy density, storage and handling. O well there is no cure for deliberate stupid. I am working on a few more Airwashers but erratic power-supply prevents using the 3D printer.
Stay safe, we have to survive the Democrats coup attempt this winter, should be an interesting election over the next 4-5 months!…pg
Hi, p.g.! I haven’t stopped by for a while. I may or may not add more comments, but I’ll be looking around and trying to catch up a bit.
My torn up shoulder really put a crimp in my Spring, Summer, and it still has me extremely physically limited, though my wife is amazed at what I can do one-handed, left-handed.
I’m champing at the bit to make a shave horse.donkey/bodger. Same thing but different names. I have been restoring some tools I have from the 1800s and early 1900s. The metal restoration is fairly straightforward. It’s the handles that are impossible to buy. So I’ll have to make some replacements starting from tree parts and work them down with a draw knife and spoke shave. A shave horse is indispensable for that.
OK. I’m off to wander around a bit.
Oh, after seeing your bowls, I’ve taken an interest in carved bowls, not turned ones, and I’ll be trying to carve a couple of those when I’m up to full speed.. You can make some bowl holding features on a shave horse that makes it easier to hold the bowls while carving them.
@HR, yes, some kind of hold down would be handy. I do much of my heavy carving work out in the wood yard. Amazing the amount of debris created in making a roughed out big bowl.. It is rare that I make them because of the amount of work involved. I generally use power tools to do much of the hogging out and approaching the finished shape in chunks out of the firewood pile so they are fairly green and the roughed out pieces need a year or more to cure out and become stable enough to finish shaping or return to being firewood if they warp or check beyond repair.
I often work in chunks that are so tortured in grain that they would be nearly impossible to split as they are more resistant cracking and splitting and have the most beautiful colors and graining. But! you never know what you might encounter in defects inside until you get there. So I shape the outside then the inside and back to the outside then in again to feel out the internal quality of the chunk. Sometimes I start with the butt cut off of the stump, it is the most clear as well as the most tortured in grain. These pieces seem to be the most stable as well.
It seems that women really cherish a big wood bowl no matter the design or how crude the shaping as long as the finish is is clean and smooth. Must be a generic imprint of status for them to have one to display. Something sensual in a good bowl shape and finish I think. So one must approach the task of making a display bowl as a work of Art rather then a craft object of utility. The damage from wear and tear of life just adds to it’s charactor and value, just wash and oil it to renew it’s value and it will last generations. 😎
At least that is the way I approach it as it takes too damn much work to be a thing of commerce. Be interesting to see what you come up with…pg..
I don’t know if you have read; https://pgtruspace.wordpress.com/category/wood-carving/ kind of old, I should add some new material on this subject. as well as work over some of the roughed out bowls to finish them for gifts for Christmas…pg
I was thinking of making bowls using a scorp, p.g. I’m pretty sure you know what a scorp is, but here’s a link in case anyone wandering by doesn’t know about them.
https://toolsforworkingwood.com/store/item/MS-ISCORP/Scorp_by_Ray_Iles
I’m trying to locate some at antique malls and flea markets. You need three or four radii to shape the middle and down around the edges of the bottom of a bowl.
No luck finding one so far.
The exterior can be shaped using draw knives and spoke shaves.
@HR, those look like just the thing but $100 ! is a bit rich for me. I use a 4 inch offset grinder with a dead man switch, A sawchain disk and various sanding disks, also a heavy router. I keep hoping I can set up a smithy to make my own tools, Also use a power planer and chainsaw for rough shaping . Generally what ever might for the required outcome. So straight chisels, files, etc then lots of hand scraping and sanding.
My object it to create a BIG bowl out of a chunk of wood that escaped from the firewood pile. 😎
I have made a few special ended chisels out of old files or odd chisels I have picked up in garage sales and flea markets.
I keep looking at the pile of semi finished bowls and wood chunks and think I really need to make a big pile of chips and sawdust, while finishing a few more bowls for gifts.
OH yes! that sawchain disk is very dangerous, users have been maimed or killed by the Damn things. I am bull strong but the thing scares even me. Imagine a chain saw tip right in your hand. it will hog out a lot of wood fast but requires 100% attention. I generally rough shape the out side with saws and power planer, the inside with Router and chisels. Then I go to the 4inch offset grinder with sawchain and sanding disks to clean out the inside. Problem is that the cutting tools work best in wet green wood while the sanding works best with dry wood
I read one fellow’s method to prevent checks and cracks was to do the inside of the bowl first. He always works with green wood, as it is very easy to shape with chisels, scrapers, draw knives, etc. He also has a curved cooper’s adz. It’s a curved blade adz and about the size of a hatchet. Those are very hard to come by.
Anyhow, to keep the wood green while he is working it, he places it in a plastic bag. He didn’t specify where he got plastic bags large enough for the bowls he makes, which are similar in size to yours.
So he does the inside and bags it, a few days later, he’ll start on the outside. In the bag will be some water, which he’ll dump. He roughs the outside and puts it back in the bag for a few days. Then he dumps more water out of the bag and works on the smooth finish shape of the exterior. Then back into the bag.
What he’s doing is slowing the drying process so the wood never splits and is green throughout most of the process for easy working with old hand tools. He then lets it continue to dry slowly in the bag, dumping the moisture every few days until it quits shedding any more water.
That’s when he does his scraping and sanding as the wood is pretty dry by then.
So he’s noticed the same thing as you have, but his solution is to slow the drying process using the plastic bag, and do the sanding last, when the bowl is dry and just needs sanding.
@HR; hadn’t thought of bags or wrapping in plastic. I do use a lot of boiled linseed oil to slow drying, warpage is a big thing as I often use tortured wood to get interesting grain and color. I always want to complete the job with a good oil finish as these are for food use as well as display. a few small cracks are ok as I fill them with epoxy, There is always the chance of pin knots and worm holes hidden in the core of the chunks I work on, so if needed I plug them if that works out ok of they become bowls to put things in. Surprising how handy big wooden bowls are for everyday things even with a few defects.
As you noted, the green wood is easiest to work.
The other point of hi; carving the inside of the bowl first… I’m trying to recall… I think his experience was that the thicker walls made it less likely to crack as you shaped the inside.
So if you’re losing moisture from 1″ – 2″ or more walls, the percent difference in water loss and shrinkage – say, 1/8″ – in all of the walls is small compared to the percent change of 1/8″ in a 3/4″ wall. So he said that the walls and bottom, which will never dry exactly evenly, will have more mass to keep out checks and splits.
And even bagged, the bowl has been loosing moisture all the while, so by the time you’re ready to do the final shaping on the outside, There’s still some moisture for workability, but the bulk of the water is gone so the wood won’t warp, twist, or crack much. It made sense to me.
Oh, darn! I wish I had marked the site. It’s a 5 or 10 minute read and would have given you a few of the tips directly instead of a second-hand account from me. But… I didn’t. I found his site while looking for cooper’s and bowl adzes.
They do sell bowl adzes new. There are two or three makers; Swedish, I believe and I think a US maker, and… I forget… Swiss or German? Someone sells a set of 3 with three different radii for either the size of the bowl or for working a bowl that changes its radius as you move up the sides.
I’d like to find an old bowl adze. I think the steel was better and the heat treating of the cutting edges was better on old chisels and tools. Too many shortcuts nowadays.
I often make my own cutting tools from old files, slowly grinding them into shape desired. they are hard and tough, I have smithed iron into shape and made it hard , get it super sharp really cut well, but brittle as glass. Guess I need more practice at being a smith. Have watched a lot of blacksmithing videos and covet a forge, 😎 another project!
I recall a bowl gouging tool that I wish I could try. It had a heavy gouge that was attached to a 3foot lever. You placed the edge of the gouge to begin the cut and pulled down on the lever to make the cut. Quite impressive wood cutter. the guy hogged out the interiour of a big bowl fast. Wish I had paid better attention, but that was before my bowl making days.
Maybe I should create a bowl making post for us to kibitz on ? I really need to launch back into bowl making as I need them for gifts. My giving them away has cleaned me out of the finished ones. Think I have a half a dozen roughed out and dry and several chunks of promising wood on hand.