Hauling, digging, etc, Transportation
How Not to Transport a Ladder with a Snowmobile
Spent a few days up at the cabin messing around with projects. The weather was quite mild and it made it easier to get outside projects finished. One of them was to go up on the roof and remove snow and fix a leak. I needed an extension ladder to get on the roof safely. […]
adventure, black ice, cargo sled, crash, extension ladder, Fail, ladder, off grid, snowmobile, trail head
Power generation, Wind Turbine Projects
Testing a Yardworks Cordless Lawnmower for a Future Wind Turbine Build
Found this little cordless mower at the recycle dump. Thought it would be fun to turn into a wind turbine. Decided to run a few basic tests and see what’s inside.
Buildings and Renovations, End Cuts
Epic DIY Deck Project 7: Tips For Deck Boards
I took a couple days off my full-time job and worked at getting most of the deck boards down. As I was securing the planks down, I ran into a few problems. For example, I miscalculated how much lumber I actually had in-stock and was short by a 120 lineal feet. Lucky for me, I […]
A Parcel of Goodies from YouTuber SolarShedParts.com
This video is a shout out to SolarShedParts.com. A few months ago, I received a present from solarshedparts.com and didn’t open it until now. It was a box full of hard drive, rare earth, magnets for the Vertical Axis Wind Turbine project. Sweet! Totally appreciate the effort and time involved stripping all those hard drives. […]
Power generation, Wind Turbine Projects
DIY Wind Turbine Works Great in Wind Storm
DIY Wind Turbine Works Great in Wind Storm Three years have past, the PVC blades on the wind turbine are working just fine, and do well in high winds. A few hours after this video footage was taken, our the testing facility (the cabin) was hit with a massive wind storm. Lot’s of trees were […]
Power generation, Solar Power Projects
Human Powered, Solar Panel Tracker Mount
The short video below shows how I made an adjusted solar tracker from common materials. It can be manually “steered” to follow the 10am – 6pm sun. It can be adjusted vertically and follow the winter or summer place of the sun. This particular solar tracker has been set up for my place. I wish […]
easy to make, human power, manual tracker, solar, Solar Energy (Industry), solar panel, solar panel mount, solar tracker, steer, tracker
Other, Power generation, Wind Turbine Projects
Generate Power from a Hockey Puck!
This video was part of the Garage Door Motor Conversion for Wind Turbine series. Decided to make a stator out of a hockey puck. The stator (in this case, a hockey puck) was drilled with eight, half inch holes. Then 3 sets or rare earth magnets would be inserted into the holes. The modified stator […]
cedar, cedar fence, earth, easter, Electricity, free power, Hockey (Sport), home made, magnets, make electrcity, make power, make projects, n42, power, power failure, rare, rare earth magnets, solar, spring, spring break, student project, thatcher
Power generation, Solar Power Projects
Generating Springtime Solar Power for the Cabin
Generating Springtime Solar Power (2013) The solar panels were collecting just a bit of electricity from the sun on the Easter Weekend. The sun is still low in the sky and in the tree line. I’m running a 12 volt system with four 6 volt deep cycle batteries. So, with my rig, the amount of sun and […]
12 volt, alternative energy, cedar workshop blog, charge controller, deep cycle, easter, making power, mppt, solar panel. solar, solar power, upgrade
Hauling, digging, etc, Power Tools
A Tree’s April Fools Trick
Things don’t always go as planned.One of the trees close to the lake was rotten on the inside. The best time to trim trees is in the early spring before the ice thaws on the lake. The plan was to drop the tree on the lake and then buck it up in smaller pieces. Parts of […]
april, april fool, chainsaw, pine, pine tree, sthl, tree, tree felling, trick
Power generation, Wind Turbine Projects
VAWT Made From Wood Siding
This video and blog post is about a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) made from mostly a wood called Western Red Cedar. It has contains images from the first attempt 2 years ago and video update of of the second attempt with modified blades/airfoils. It’s a fun project to work on, especially when it’s in your living […]
make a wind turbine, vawt, vertical axis wind turbine, wood siding
Power generation, Wind Turbine Projects
Garage Door Motor Converted to Produce Electricity
Due to chilly weather, there’s been a gap since the last video. So, I decided to answer a viewers question and do a step-by-step about converting a regular AC motor to a generator. The motor in this video was from a 1/3 HP garage door opener. Someone left it next to a municipal garbage can, expecting […]
door, drill press, garage, garage door motor, gears, magnets, N 42 rare earth, plastic worm drive, rare earth magnets, recycle, shaft, stator