What other projects are you working on?

Here it is all buttoned up. It weighs 40 lbs. I didn't do solar but if I do I will get a portable array with a built in charge controller, or put my own together with an external controller, there is no room inside the case for a controller. It's a total of 1,250wh and will run my 12 volt fridge for several days. I can also run my 500 watt weed wacker on a place on my property that has always been a pain to get power out there.

The nice thing about building your own, besides saving a little money, is you can build a better one and it is 100% serviceable. I can replace any part easily, I don't have to throw the whole thing away when it fails and buy a new one.

If and when that battery ever dies they now make one the same size with 140ah, and as time goes on they will probably keep improving on that. There are also mini batteries with 100ah that will fit in an Apache 3800 but they are pretty expensive, like $400. If I get bored and find one on sale I may build one of those just to have an even lighter and more compact one, I already snagged a 3800 case when they were on sale.

B1Toad said:

Here it is all buttoned up. It weighs 40 lbs. I didn't do solar but if I do I will get a portable array with a built in charge controller, or put my own together with an external controller, there is no room inside the case for a controller. It's a total of 1,250wh and will run my 12 volt fridge for several days. I can also run my 500 watt weed wacker on a place on my property that has always been a pain to get power out there.

The nice thing about building your own, besides saving a little money, is you can build a better one and it is 100% serviceable. I can replace any part easily, I don't have to throw the whole thing away when it fails and buy a new one.

If and when that battery ever dies they now make one the same size with 140ah, and as time goes on they will probably keep improving on that. There are also mini batteries with 100ah that will fit in an Apache 3800 but they are pretty expensive, like $400. If I get bored and find one on sale I may build one of those just to have an even lighter and more compact one, I already snagged a 3800 case when they were on sale.

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So if you connect an extension cord from the outlet to the inlet, it'll run forever!

Seriously, NICE job!

This pain in the ass is finished.



Scoots fairly quickly, tops out around 30. It can roll at walking speed just above idle. And brakes are for sissies.

Cheesy said:

And brakes are for sissies.

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That's why when we had our minibikes we never had much left of our shoes. One of my friends was too poor to buy a clutch one time so he would sometimes pick the back wheel up off the ground as he came to a stop. Easy to push start though.

BTW I was born up there in NW IL. Lived in Crystal Lake the first 12 years of my life.

B1Toad said:

That's why when we had our minibikes we never had much left of our shoes. One of my friends was too poor to buy a clutch one time so he would sometimes pick the back wheel up off the ground as he came to a stop. Easy to push start though.

BTW I was born up there in NW IL. Lived in Crystal Lake the first 12 years of my life.

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I never had a mini bike as a kid, so this is new to me.

I grew up in Wisconsin, just north of Antioch. My job out of high school took me Illannoy in 74 and left me here. We moved to Carpentersville in 78 and lived in Dundee Township for 41 years before moving to Elburn, in the SW corner of Kane County, in 19. I can remember the intersection of highways 31 and 62 in Algonquin being a four way stop, only 15 minutes to get to the Crystal Lake Mall, and the only back up on Randall Rd was farm equipment.

Side project of replacing safety chains and emergency brake actuator on the trailer. Someone recently borrowed it and drug the chains. I wasn't confident in their strength so I ordered some coiled cables. Cut the old bar and chains off, welded new back on.



Also found out on the trailer job that my heat gun isn't working right. It will come on for a second and then turn off. It's a Hercules and I haven't had it very long. Going to have to take it in and get a replacement. It's supposed to have a 5 year warranty.

We also started prep for the carport today. 26x26 VersaTube with 13' walls. The side away from the house is about 10" lower so there will be a bit of a wall on that side and then we will fill the inside with gravel and grade it out and then it will taper off into the driveway.

Had to go 13' walls to be able to back the truck camper into it and unload. The Jeep will also live here out of the weather.

Finished up replacing most of my plug-in electro-mechanical timers with Shelly smartplugs, 14 of them. No more time drift, bumped-on occurrences, and they track sunset. We have a bunch of display cases,ornamental lights, and a couple of fountains - some of which haven't been on the correct schedule for years. I still have three electro-mechanical timers, two of which are running battery charge racks that I don't care about the absolute time they're on, only that they're on for 15-ish minutes a day at some point, and another one that re-boots my router in the middle of the nite, it can drift quite a bit before it becomes a problem. Not worth spending another $60 on smartplugs for that stuff.

The Shellys are expensive, about $20/ea, but they apparently work with darn near any kind of server/hub setup out there. The selling point for me was they also have an onboard webpage, and for something uncomplicated like this, that's all I need. And yes, they BlueTooth to a PHOOOOOONNE as well, although why anyone would want to do that is beyond me!

The only negative, shared by most smartplugs I've seen, is that they plug into the outlet, then the cord plugs into the face of the smartplug. Doesn't work too well when you're trying to bury the things behind furniture. I had to use a "power strip liberator" shortie cord with a flat sideways plug on about half of them to get things to fit the way I needed them to.



I wish they had a version with the receptacle in the top, bottom, or ends. But I made it work.

More work on the carport. We poured the side walls the other day and got the forms set for the rear today. Going to pour tomorrow. Then we just need to grade out the inside and get a load of rock hauled in. Also need to go pick up a dump trailer load of soil to fill in on the outside of the walls. There will be one more small pour on the front to taper the taller wall down, just for looks.

Very thankful for my father-in-law next door with all of the tools and equipment, and many decades of experience working concrete.

I still need to inventory the parts. Then it's going to be time to build the building and get it sheeted. Want to get it done before the rain gets here.

bbaldwin237 said:

More work on the carport. We poured the side walls the other day and got the forms set for the rear today. Going to pour tomorrow. Then we just need to grade out the inside and get a load of rock hauled in. Also need to go pick up a dump trailer load of soil to fill in on the outside of the walls. There will be one more small pour on the front to taper the taller wall down, just for looks.

Very thankful for my father-in-law next door with all of the tools and equipment, and many decades of experience working concrete.

I still need to inventory the parts. Then it's going to be time to build the building and get it sheeted. Want to get it done before the rain gets here.
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That's a lot of work, but will be worth it when it's done. But I wouldn't even want to have to pay for the form material right now, let alone the concrete. My dad is in the process of building a garage right now and things are way more expensive than when I built mine 8 years ago.

WVJeep304 said:

That's a lot of work, but will be worth it when it's done. But I wouldn't even want to have to pay for the form material right now, let alone the concrete. My dad is in the process of building a garage right now and things are way more expensive than when I built mine 8 years ago.

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My father-in-law always has scrap wood around from projects that we use for forms. It's rare that I've had to buy form material. And then for a project like this we pour in sections and mix it all ourselves. We just buy cement, sand, and gravel and go to work with the electric Ryobi mixer. He used to have an old gas one but got rid of it. This Ryobi has put in some serious work over the years and works great. I can't do finish work so I'm just a strong (ish) back and a shovel! lol

bbaldwin237 said:

We just buy cement, sand, and gravel and go to work with the electric Ryobi mixer. He used to have an old gas one but got rid of it. This Ryobi has put in some serious work over the years and works great. I can't do finish work so I'm just a strong (ish) back and a shovel! lol

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Well, my strong back took some damage back in 2013, so I'm mostly just around for my brains and good looks when that heavy work starts . The last concrete work we did here was with my buddy's HF electric mixer he's had for YEARS. I couldn't even begin to estimate how many yards of concrete that thing has mixed. Definitely not as fast as a truck, but WAY better than a hoe and wheelbarrow.

bbaldwin237 said:

My father-in-law always has scrap wood around from projects that we use for forms. It's rare that I've had to buy form material. And then for a project like this we pour in sections and mix it all ourselves. We just buy cement, sand, and gravel and go to work with the electric Ryobi mixer. He used to have an old gas one but got rid of it. This Ryobi has put in some serious work over the years and works great. I can't do finish work so I'm just a strong (ish) back and a shovel! lol

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That's how we did it when I was a wee lad. Dad bought a mixer from Sears that was on a tricycle carriage much like a wheel barrow. Bought the rock/sand by the ton delivered by dump truck, Portland cement, and Goddess only knows how much 'crete that thing mixed over the years. I ended up with the thing, and had some re-enforcement work done to its frame, repacked the drum bearing, and gave it a new belt and it was still going strong the last time I saw it.

Dad started getting too old/tired to continue using it - when I was about 15 years old, we had purchased one of those tin shed kits - a rather large one - that just sat there and sat there because dad couldn't get the foundation poured. He was back east dealing with his mother's death, and I'd had enough. I'd helped him all my life, I knew what to do. Forms got built, and the foundation was well along by the time he got home...

Yep, hoe and wheelbarrow for this young kid back in the '60s. At least the hoe had a couple of holes in it and the corners were torched off.
And then an electric mixer from Sears. Still have it too.

Minor homeowner stuff this morning. One of our toilet supply lines started leaking recently. They used pex risers on all fixtures when the house was built which I hated. When I replaced the faucets as soon as we moved in, I replaced the lines on 5 sinks. Now that one toilet was leaking, I decided to replace all 3 and then the last set on the mud sink. No more leaks (for now) and everything matches, even though you can't see hardly any of it lol

I finally applied reflective privacy clings to the upper windows at our condo.
AC couldn't keep up with these things sucking in the heat all day.

I did the master bedroom windows a few weeks ago, but had to rent a tall enough extension ladder to reach these last 4 in/around the stairway.

Of course it rained today instead of being 95°, so I can't tell how much it all helped.

Frame is up, now for the sheeting. Well we still have to do some work to plumb the walls and trusses.

Woodworker guy across the street came and got the old front door to refinish/refurbish. I had told him to simply board the opening up with plywood, but he actually *made* a temporary door from scratch out of what amounted to basically "garbage" according to him. So this temp door went in, and looks better than 99% of the new doors out there!



It doesn't have any varnish or anything on it as its just temp. He also installed it upside down from how I'd want it done, but again, its just temp!

Been working on getting a rental unit going in my wifes childhood home.
Been a long journey but we're finally getting closer, thanks in large part to a contractor we hired.
Lately, I've been working on getting doors varnished.
We put in tongue and groove pine wainscotting, so the doors are solid pine.
Yes, I know, too nice for a rental but we live next door and plan to eventually move into it.