Link's first ebike. (Now: The S-Go)

[Link]

I might go with one of those if I can either find it in black or it takes well to spray paint (ha). The other stuff is expensive.

Anyway, I went to a random thrift store to find something with a heating element. I only found one toaster oven that looked like it had a very thick element (can't use it), and they wanted like $7. I was like, Forget that, so I found and grabbed a $3 crepe maker.

I get home and open it up, and lo and behold, the heating element is a copper wire (looks about 16" in length) cemented into the middle of a copper pipe. Dammit. I knew I should have gotten the hair dryer.

So now I guess I have a crepe maker. But, considering that I barely know what a crepe is, I'll probably use it for making quesadillas deluxe.

[Link]

WELL.

Wasn't today interesting?



So, I'm helping my uncle install a new A/C thing for my grandma when this happens.

We're taking out the old unit. I'm holding the thing up while my uncle is unscrewing the supports. All of the sudden, one of the screws on the other side of the unit pop out (damn rot) and it starts to fall into me. I realize in the split second before I drop it completely that if it keeps falling where it is, I'm going to have the corner of an 80lb+ (might be over 100; it's pretty heavy, and I tend to underguess when gauging weight) metal air conditioner fall on my foot.

I'm wearing flip-flops. (STFU, I know I should have been wearing proper shoes, and they wouldn't have helped, anyway.)

So, before it pushes me back, I hold as much of at I can, and toss it over to my right. I don't know exactly when I got cut (I didn't even feel it), though I think it did it right after it started slipping.

Anyway, I look down at my arm to see if I'm cut, and I can see that white stuff that covers your muscle. My only reaction, is, "Holy shit."

I'm washing it off, staring at it, and then the weirdest feeling comes over me. If you've even been knocked out for surgery (I was when I had to get my wisdom teeth removed), it felt like that. I got really tired and light headed. Almost passed out. I decided that I've officially disconnected with the "freaked out" emotion, because I knew that's what was making me turn dizzy and even whiter than I am normally (the cuts were quite bad, but I wasn't bleeding), though I didn't FEEL freaked out. Hard to describe. Very weird feeling.

Anyway, now I've got six stitches and my arms in a bandage that limits my freedom of motion. I have to eat with my left hand, dammit. Plus I'm probably going to miss a couple days of work, and bowling this Thursday is going to be a joke.

Ugh. I literally can't look at that picture. It make me dizzy again.

[TylerDurden]

Wow... thanks for posting. I haven't seen real-gore like that since the last issue of Clinical Practitioner landed in my mailbox. My ex and I used to call it "wound of the week".

Now you can practive your left-handed crepes!

They gave you a Tetanus booster, yes?

Since you pedal & shift, I guess that qualifies as a "damaged component".

[docnjoj]

I'd go for workers comp and disability for a year or 2 , maybe get SSI:) Thats about a 6 on the Prudential ouch scale!! Heal fast!
otherDoc

[Link]

The crepe maker has sat unused so far, since I had a box of Costco Chicken Bakes in the freezer. I ate the last one today, though.

No booster. I just had one a couple years ago.

I suppose it does, though I think this will heal before the bike.

Had to change the bandages today, so here's a pic of the stitches.



Nasty business, air conditioning.


Anyway, does somebody mind doing me a quick favor? I was shopping around for ABS sheets, and http://www.interstateplastics.com/ seems to have the best prices if you buy more than $50 worth of stuff (otherwise they add a $15 small order fee). Problem is, I can't seem to get to the checkout screen. If anybody could put something in the shopping cart and see if they could get to the checkout forms, that would be great, since I'd know it was just this computer.

If not...

[Ben]

I can't access it here.

[biohazardman]

Ouch ugly arm! Mine was messed up too at the time of my first build but not on the outside. Still is for that matter. I tried to get to the checkout for you and could not. They may require registration and log in for to purchase as some places do. I am trying to do a new build myself found out I am to old and beat up for my first build the GM36 500w Schwinn hardtail. Need a nice marshmellow bike with the cushy suspension so I can enjoy my ride instead of pay for it afterwards. Good luck with your build.

http://goldenmotor.com/SMF/index.php?topic=279.0

[docnjoj]

Sorry Checkout doesnt work 4 me either! Wadduwant, these folks are from Alabama
otherDoc

[Link]

Hmm, I noticed the little checkout button in the upper right, but trying to get to that screen gets the same result. Seems to be the secure server they're using for transactions rather than the site itself.

I'll flip them an email to let them know. Normally, I'd just find someone else, but I can get ABS sheet for about half of what I can in most other places, and they've got a bunch of beige ABS surplus for like $0.53/ft².

[Link]

Interstate Plastics just got their site up and I FINALLY got my order in. Two 24" x 48" sheets of black 1/8" ABS and 30 pieces of 12" x 24" beige ABS surplus. Think I'll be set for a while. Now, about that toaster element...

I am so broke right now it's not even funny. I've got like barely $100 to my name.

Oh, yeah: I got my stitches off yesterday and the crepe maker makes excellent quesadillas, even with its odd shape. The microwave makes decent ones, but the crepe maker makes the tortillas a little crispy. Nom!

[Link]

I'm expecting the plastic Monday or Tuesday.

In the meantime, this thing arrived.



It's freaking HUGE. I mean, yeah, I know a 400A controller is gonna be big, but that's a 12" ruler. The thing weighs like half of what my Ping pack does.

But I got it quite cheap as a project piece, as I guess it needs a rebuild. I have absolutely no idea what exactly that entails.

[TPA]

A separately excited motor controller works with your hub motor? (Forgive me but I'm new at this).

I like the little critter templates in that ruler

[Link]

Nah, that's for a separate project not yet worth its own topic. The goal is to get that thing running at over 100kW. Haven't specced out the parts yet, but I took the thing apart and counted 20 1,000µF capacitors and a whopping 36 FETS.

In relation to the bike, I checked over the bent rim to see if I could bend it back. I could, but, unfortunately, the join in the rim split. It'll probably wear a hole in the sidewall if I tried to use it.

I like the little critter templates in that ruler

My favorites are the chicken and the moo-cow. XD

[Link]

Gave up trying to find a broken toaster/whatever (I'd have to go outside! Le gasp! ), so I just got 16ft of nichrome ribbon with something like 1.2Ω/ft of resistance. Should give me about 1kW if powered straight from a wall outlet.

I'll dado out a groove in a thick sheet of plywood and basically just wrap and solder the stuff to a few nails. Power that through a light dimmer/router controller and I should have a nice little variable strip heater. I might put up a short tutorial post on how to do it.


In unrelated news, I just bought a Casio Privia PX-200 digital piano. I found a code that got me $75 off orders over $500 from Musician's Friend. It would've been just the piano and the pedal, but neither of the good pedals they had were eligible for the discount. So, I got the keyboard, a sustain pedal, and a cheap X stand for $460. A certain parent with whom I live chipped in for half, so I only paid $230 for it. I've been without such a thing for too many years now, so I'll be ecstatic when that thing gets here.

[Link]

Woo, plastic's here.



Quite a bit of it, I might add. Now, I just gotta wait on that nichrome.

...

*twiddles thumbs*

[kbarrett]

My favorites are the chicken and the moo-cow. XD

Post gifs after you rattlecan those onto your ride.

[Link]

My favorites are the chicken and the moo-cow. XD

Post gifs after you rattlecan those onto your ride.

...

Dammit, now I'm tempted to do it. >_<

Also: The nichrome showed up today. I may see what I can do after work, but I dunno how the neighbors would react to a table saw being run at 9PM.

[TPA]

if your tablesaw splinters and cracks the plastic....look into getting a plywood blade...they are faily cheap.

[Link]

I've already cut a little of the stuff. The blade that came with the saw makes a pretty smooth edge by itself.

Makes a mess, though. That bag on the bottom of it is useless. One of my projects is going to end up being making a proper dust collection system for that thing, I know it.

Mebbe just stuff a big fan in the opening of that bag...

[Link]

Well, I finally got off my lazy ass and built the thing.



Working out how to get five strips of nichrome into the thing without them touching proved troublesome, so I just used a single strip and decided to run it on 48V. I decided on 24V later.

What a good idea that was.

For starters, I had forgotten exactly how much this stuff expands when hot. Had I been running five parallel strips on 120V, they would have for sure touched and then blown something up.

Anyway, moar pics. Here's an interesting one.



What!? Less than 0.1W!? Tell me if you can figure out what's wrong with that picture.




My Wattmeter (after I plugged it in the right way ) said that this thing was drawing 6.6A, which gives me about 150W. This seems to be just about right for bending this ABS, so it's a good thing I decided on a much lower wattage.

On 36V it turned bright red and started charring the wood, as you can see in that last pic. Luckily, I tried that first, so I avoided the disaster 48V might have caused.

Interestingly, the wire under the plastic still gets a dull red on 24V, since the air is somewhat trapped under the plastic. I'm guessing this is the secret to why these work so well without being variable. Awesome for me, since this means that I only had to buy $7 of nichrome to make this thing, and I only used a little over 3 feet of 16.

I might make another, longer one of these since it was so easy to do, and I still have over 12 feet of nichrome strip left. BTW, that stuff makes some really weird noise when you wiggle it and it scrapes against itself. I was standing there for like five minutes just playing with it. Sounds kinda like a baby Metroid, actually.

EDIT: Oh yeah, keyboard gets here tomorrow and the dehydrator in my room is now being used. If my nose doesn't deceive me, it's full of pineapple.

[TPA]

A new work bench!!

Glad to see that you've given the dryer a break.

[Link]

LOL, yeah. My grandma was MAD when she saw how scratched up the top of the dryer was.

Anyway, that keyboard got here and that's pretty much what I've been playing with for the past, oh, 5 or six hours. I'm only stopping because my wrist is killing me and it's 3:30AM. The keys on my typin' keyboard barely feel like they're even there after the action on this piano. Quite heavy.

I was supposed to go to Disneyland tomorrow, since my little cousin is down here and I know a guy who works there, but it turns out it's a blackout date. So, I figure I'll mess with the bender tomorrow (maybe make another, better one), see what I can get done with the box, and then end up giving myself carpal tunnel with this Casio.

I put in an order for about $50 (plus $10 for tax and shipping) of connectors and whatnot from Powerwerx, since I only have four pairs of connectors left. Not enough to get that free mousepad, though.

[Dee Jay]

Please tell you got MIDI on your new keyboard . . .

gotta have MIDI . . .

J

[Link]

Of course! It's got a MIDI out and in, but I've been running it through the USB port since my computer doesn't. Reason has some very nice instruments in it, I must say.

I'm waiting for the pedal and stand to show up a few hours from now, because the cheap little one that came with the keyboard keeps sliding around, and this desk makes the keyboard a bit too high to be really comfortable.

In the meantime, I'll go mess with the plastic some more. I didn't really notice it before, but the bend I made with it was surprisingly tight; moreso than any of the ones I made with the clamp/heat gun method.


Also, I just found out that today I'm supposed to register for school. Blaaaah...inneruptin' ma toosday...mebbe do it tomorrow...

[Link]

Well, it's been a while, but I finally got a little more work done. I made another heater before this one, but it failed spectacularly. So, like a phoenix from the ashes (not too far from the mark with all the charred wood that I left...), I rebuilt it. It's not perfect, but it's much better than before. I discovered that the size of the airgap the element rests in is fairly crucial: too much and it will heat too much of the plastic; too little and it burned it before it got hot enough to bend.

First, I cut a new channel into the wood. Wide enough to staple down two strips of nichrome.




Then added some connectors. The black connection really needs more wire between it and the strip, because it gets the connector pretty hot (feels around 120F). Not really a problem, though.



The nichrome strips are in parallel, so they draw about 11A from the 35Ah SLA I'm powering this with after it's heated up.



This nichrome stuff really expands when it gets hot. It was scalloping in between the staples (which is why I had them there), and wasn't heating the plastic evenly. So I doubled the number of staples and it worked better. I may double them again...

The wood smoked for a little when it was charring, but it doesn't anymore. The channel should really be ceramic, but I doubt it would make a difference to much but aesthetics, so it doesn't matter to me.




The heat seems to be forcing water out of the wood. Huh.



Anyway, it's a pretty okay heater, and I was testing it on some plastic scraps. FAR easier than the heat gun rig.