Category Archives: Technology

Mad Max and the Zen of Exterior Decorating

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What started as a simple paint job has taken on a life of its own. Each day I see something that can be added or improved upon. Each day brings more WTF looks, WHY? comments, and COOL! compliments. In addition to the appearance enhancements, I have been treating Rambette to many badly needed structural upgrades and powerplant maintenance services. These last two have me at around $1,500 which isn’t as bad as it initially sounds. I’ve saved massive amounts of money by changing the oil every 30,000 miles (instead of 3,000 miles as recommended by big oil and their whores at the motor oil companies) and neglected nearly every other maintenance procedure. You know the old saw about not fixing what’s not broke… Rambette is at 108,000 miles and still going strong.
Recent maintenance points:
New engine oil, differential & transfer case gear oil, power steering fluid, brake fluid, and engine coolant & thermostat
New spark plugs and wires
New shocks, coil springs, and sway bar end links
New mass air flow & throttle position sensors
New parking brake shoes
New PCV valve and hose
New driver’s side power mirror
New serpentine belt and idler pulley
New front CV halfshafts (axles)

All of these I have done myself and saved a couple thousand dollars in the process. Most of these things YOU, dear reader, can do for yourself. All it takes is a manual, a little bit of time, and suspension of disbelief in yourself. You may have to buy some tools but the cost of these is inconsequential in the big picture. You will still save money, lots of it, and have some pretty cool tools to mystify your friends with.

Recent appearance upgrades include:
Tail light blackouts
Hood, body, and trim details
Lift points on the hood
More paint…

Enough words, more pictures!

To get to the spark plugs, remove this…

And these…

And you’ll end up with this:

 

Installing the new axles. Foxfur loves him some big and sexy tools. The ratchet drive handles pictured are 3/8, 1/2, and 3/4 inch. The 3/4 inch drive handle is not absolutely necessary but sure is handy. The set I have (Proto) will cost you around $600 unless you can find a used set. Mine were free. Right time & place and all that.

New at the top, old at the bottom. The old rubber boots were torn and letting in dirt and crap. It took less than 1 hour per side. To put that in perspective, the spark plugs took 3 hours. It would have been faster but me & Mr. PBR took our time…

Struts, coil springs (and new tool: spring compressor!), cabin filter, MAF, TPS, PCV, etc.

On to the appearance upgrades.

The tail lights were so bright as compared to the paint job that I decided it was time to balance them out. I initially used a tinting spray:

It’s from VHT. I wasn’t very impressed. It’d be ok for building a normal rice racer but looked a bit too glossy for Rambette. I remasked the lights and shot them with flat black.

I came up with the design on the fly and ended up with this. Now it looks like this:

They are nice and bright at night but look cool as hell 24 hours a day.

A friend posted this pic of a Hyundai Elantra on my Facebook page:

Find the entire story here.

It gave me the idea for my next project.

I had a box of 500 3/8 x 1 inch long stainless steel bolts lying around just waiting for that special project. In just 24 hours it went from this:

To this:

The lift points are simple 1/2 x 5 1/2 inch U-bolts from the hardware store.

I also got my veterans license plates! $34 to the state. If you’re a vet please look into getting yours. It will increase public awareness of just how many of us are out there and will allow vets to identify each other.

One night last week I was out in the front yard testing out Grizelda MK VI, my fire poofer, after upgrading the accumulator with an old 5 gallon propane tank. The accumulator allows more on demand volume for poofier flames.

What once looked like this:

Now looks like this:

And just for poops and guffaws, I decided to see how it would look atop Rambette:

Seriously.
Get off my lawn.

Another recent project having to do with Burning Man (besides Rambette and Grizelda MK VI) has been stencils. You saw the BURN SHIT one above. The other one is “KEEP BURNING MAN POTENTIALLY FATAL” which is a plea to the organizers to not try too hard on the whole safety thing. Not that they’re going to, but, with 60,000 people there and an estimated 70,000 in coming years, it represents a real threat to my enjoyment of dangerous good times in the desert.

One more Burning Man related score. I found some hot short shorts that match my orange unsafety vest!

Until next time…

 

 

 

 

E-cigarette Bulk Tanks: Single & Dual Coil

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I’ve been telling you about the eGo-C tank-fed E-Cig for a while now. While I really like the system, I grew tired of constant refilling of the 1ml tanks. I go through 3 to 5ml’s a day and I’d rather be vaping than filling. I’ve been using a 3.5ml DCT (Dual Coil Tank) for a couple months and am quite fond of it. It gives more vapor and a better throat hit than the eGo-C does and I don’t have to fill or change out the tanks so frequently. The DCT uses replaceable cartomizers that I replace every 10 to 12 days. At $2.95 each ($2.50 each in 5 packs) this amounts to about $10 a month or a pack and a half of cigarettes.

3.5ML Dual Coil Tank

LR (Low Resistance) Replacement Carto (Cartomizer)

LR (Low Resistance) Replacement Carto (Cartomizer)

3.5ml DCT Components

3.5ml DCT Components

The tank works just fine on standard eGo type batteries (650mAh) though I typically use mine on my larger 1000mAh battery. Mine is a passthrough battery meaning you can use it as a normal battery or use it plugged into a USB port. It’s a great battery to have as you don’t need a separate charger and is an inexpensive way to get into vaping at a low cost with a top notch setup. The battery and tank cost $33 at Northwest Vapors. Use the redemption code FOXFUR and receive a 10% discount on your entire order, a foxfuramused exclusive! That brings the cost to under $30…

Installed On My 1000mAh Passthrough Battery

USB Charging Port - Mini-B

USB Charging Port – Mini-B

Another tank I’ve been using lately is a 1.2ml clear carto called by a few different names: the eGo Vision Stardust and CE4 Clearomizer being the most common. I really dig this carto due to the ease of filling and lack of maintenance required. Just unscrew the mouthpiece, fill, replace mouth piece, and vape on. It comes in 6 colors to coordinate with your wardrobe and sensibility or for easy ID of your different juices. This one has lasted more than a month and is still going strong! I just rinsed it out this morning and she vapes like new. These are a steal at $6.50 ($6 each for 5+).

CE4 Clear Cartomizer for KGO/EGO

CE4 Clear Cartomizer for eGo or KGO batteries

Easy Filling. Sealed by two o-rings, no mess in your pocket or hands!

The links in the text above point to my new favorite vape supplier, Northwest vapors. It’s the only storefront vape supply store in Oregon (that I know of) and is a 25 minute drive through some beautiful mountains on Hwy 47 in Vernonia. They can ship almost anywhere on the planet and offer great customer service as well as custom e-juice. Want some blueberry waffle at 36mg with a throat hit like Bruce Lee? They can do it for you. They made up some blueberry for me and it is wonderful. Sweet and true blueberry flavor, mmm! $6.50 for 10ml, $8.50 for 30ml.

If you choose to shop at Northwest Vapors be sure to use the redemption code FOXFUR and receive a 10% discount on your entire order. You can use this on your first and every order after that. I told them I blog about E-Cigs (it is the most frequently accessed topic on this blog) and would like to be able to offer my readers a discount. They immediately created the Foxfur code. I am not paid or compensated by them for traffic directed over there. I simply want y’all to save some money and your health.

Oh yeah, check this out:

Fuck Yeah!

I smoked for 33 years and was at a pack and a half a day when I quit. If I could do it you can do it…

How To Make A Glass Bottle

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Today in 1895: Michael Joseph Owens patented an automatic glass blowing machine that could make multiple bottles at the same time. A represented a huge advance in bottle making, spurring the mass sale of beer, alcohol, and sodas.

I learned the above from a post on a great food blog I recently found, Foodimentary, whose author recently found my blog.

Intrigued by all machinery, I simply had to find details about automatic glass blowing. I found the following video and it is absolutely fascinating. The cinematography and soundtrack truly make the video outstanding. The real action begins at 1:30.

I’ll never look at glass bottles the same…

Fire Toys

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Here’s some photos of propane burning fire toys I have built. While I’d love to make a step by step tutorial, the nature of these systems prevents me from doing so. They aren’t inherently dangerous, quite the opposite actually. Rather, the construction and operation of them by individuals unfamiliar with building systems like these may lead to accidents that can be prevented by a little bit of knowledge. I built this “fire poofer” based on seeing photos and diagrams elsewhere on the net. The first two photos show the construction details of poofers. These are from The Department Of Spontaneous Combustion. The concept is simple. The poofer consists of an accumulator tank that also serves as a base. Rising from the accumulator is a manifold consisting of an inlet for the propane gas, a safety valve to shut off flow to the solenoid valve (or hand operated whistle valve), a solenoid valve (or whistle valve – a quick opening and closing valve typically used on steam whistles and air horns), a vertical ‘stack’ or pipe leading upwards, and a pilot light to ignite the released propane as it emerges from the top of the stack. My manifold is truly overbuilt. It is made up of stainless steel and 5,000 PSI hydraulic fittings (propane gas pressures seldom exceed 150-160 PSI). It’s what I had laying about in my workshop. It can easily be built from plumbing fittings available at most home improvement stores for less that $100.

Poofer fired by electric solenoid valve. It allows multiple poofers to be fired individually or simultaneously by remote control or programmable controllers. Of course, it can run a single fire poofer using a button like I do with mine.

A manually operated poofer. I’d recommend stepping up to a whistle valve for smoother operation.

The rest of the pictures are of my fire poofer.

Yes, yes I can!

Overall view

A closeup shot of the manifold

The pilot light

A wide open blast. It sounds like a jet engine. Has a deep throaty whistle / roar.

At Burning Man. Running it with short bursts or ‘poofs’

Controlling the solenoid valve with a signal generator

My “Auto-Fire” control

A finished view of the “Auto-Fire” controller box. The 10-turn pot allows fine control of the firing rate. It ranges from around 1 shot per second to 17 per second. On and off periods are identical, i.e. 1 second open, one second closed. Future iterations will allow adjustable periods independent of each other.
The timer circuit is based on a 555 timer IC and a solid state relay. It’s a 4 channel relay so it has expansion possibilities.

A video of the poofer running in Auto-Fire mode:

In manual burst operation it will produce fire rings in still air

I don’t know what this one came from but it’s from something of ours and looks cool

One of our propane flamethrowers (modified Manchester Power Jet commercial weed / brush burner)…

The Manchester Power Jet hand burner puts out 750,000 BTUs. See details at Manchester’s website. They’re not cheap. Expect to spend around $200. Here’s one for $130. That’s just the burner, no hose or regulator. They have a package deal including them which costs $220. I don’t use a regulator with mine, never have, not needed. I want wide open, right now, burn it all kind of flames. You can get a 10 foot hose online or at a propane dealer. The valve that it uses is what’s referred to as a whistle valve. It allows nearly instant full opening as well as infinitely variable flame adjustment.

A whistle valve available online from McMaster-Carr.

Here I’m running two Power Jets and the fire poofer at the same time. I’m using a foot switch to run the solenoid valve on the poofer.

 

A manually operated poofer:

The manually operated poofers can use a whistle valve (best due to the speed of operation) or a ball valve (less expensive). Electrically operated (using a solenoid valve) poofers cost the most to build and require a power source to operate the valve. I like them due to their adaptability to automation and remote operation. Manual ones are quite safe to operate but you are so close that you can’t appreciate the look of the fireballs and flares.

Be careful and have fun. Wear all cotton, wool, denim or aramid clothing when operating any fire toy. Synthetic fabrics melted onto skin are decidedly un-fun…

Update, May 5th, 2017. Nick Poole, another flame effects and electronics enthusiast, has a poofer build at Sparkfun you should check out. He listed this page as reference used in his research, AND, he’s still alive! If you’d like to improve your chances of survival and integrate a microcontroller into your project, go and learn how here.

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