IMHO, it turned out pretty damn good. It was certainly a lot of work. Here it is under construction at a fairly early stage getting checked for fit. I had built my own radius bender, and used it to form...Continue reading
A Day in the Life of an Off-Grid Solar Installer
This is our project journal — field stories from off-grid solar installs around Northern Arizona. The 4 a.m. starts, the parts that don't show up, the problems solved on the fly, and a behind-the-scenes look at how these systems actually get built — plus a bit of life on the fringe along the way. Originally posted on the River Daves Place forum; you can read the full thread here.
The electrical system of Project Bronco remains largely non-existent at this point.
I have, however, located the batteries and built the mounts for them. Tucked away infront of the rear tire, and just behind the driver’s seat is a custom mount designed to hold two Odyssey 925 batteries as the accessory batteries....Continue reading
Project Broncos on board air is something of a more-than-meets-the-eye crazy experimental project unto itself.
As I had stated in an earlier post, I had to use a Sanden style compressor because a York style will not fit. Now, generally speaking a York style air-conditioning compressor is a better onboard air compressor because it uses...Continue reading
Yesterday afternoon after I got a chance to put some more work in on the plasma table.
When we ordered the machine, we ordered it with an optional laser pointer-but unfortunately the machine didn’t ship with the pointer, and it took another 7 months for it to show up. 🙄 And when it did show up, it...Continue reading
So, I’ve been pretty busy the last couple of weeks, and obviously haven’t had time to add anything here.
And while I’ve still got my hands full, I thought I’d switch gears here and post up an old story I originally wrote for the old glamisdunes.com pages years ago. Back then, I somehow had time to write a number...Continue reading
Chapter 2 The desert, in the morning, is a beautiful and still place.
It is a time of peace, quiet, and a little magic as the sun comes up and graces the landscape with it golden rays, a precursor to the heat it will blast out in just a short while. Birds sing...Continue reading
Chapter 3 It is amazing, in life, how things can go from OK fine to total crap in seemingly the blink of an eye.
And you ever notice how when things do start to go wrong, that every little thing suddenly turns against you? Well, I was noticing that now. However, being too stupid to just give up and let gravity take this hunk-of-crap-broken...Continue reading
Chapter 4 I saw a bumper sticker once that said, “ Don’t worry, things can always get worse!” It…
Chapter 4 I saw a bumper sticker once that said, “ Don’t worry, things can always get worse!” It would seem that perhaps I needed that bumper sticker right now. My angry, laundry-wielding neighbor and her extra-large German Sheppard both...Continue reading
Epilogue While that pretty much concludes the story, there is a little more.
This is also the story of how I first met my neighbors down the street. Laundry Lady’s name is Cloie. Her husband, Steve, was the school district electrician. I wouldn’t meet him until several years later, when I was working...Continue reading
It’s been a crazy bunch of weeks around here.
Here’s some random happenings. I finally got some time to wrap up the control panel for the plasma table pumps. Here’s the prints I designed for it. All done. And here it is all installed. We had some snow around...Continue reading