Shop heat on a budget...

Back in May of this year (2009), I found myself with a sudden desire to finish off my garage (i.e. - insulation and wall board, new AC outlets, etc..).  But as it turns out I haven't quite finished the effort, and with winter coming on  I wanted heat in my newly insulated space.  I researched the issue online, but didn't find a whole lot in the way of 'DIY' heaters.  I did however find some cool stuff on the subject of building a propane burner from gas grill parts.  I've also been wanting to build my own BBQ Grill, but that's for another time...  For now I just decided to adapt the info for use in my shop heater project.

The whole thing is surprisingly simple and only a few items had to be purchased.  Total cost for the heater itself was about $30.  If I had found an old used grill the cost would have been less, but you sometimes have to spend a bit more to move forward.  The heart of it all is the burner.  Looking like a Bunsen burner on steroids, it pumps out a lot of heat on no more than a half psi of propane gas.  It's built from a few short sections of steel pipe, a ball valve and other odds and ends from the scrap pile.

You can just see the yellow flame above the stack.  Unfortunately, the blue portion doesn't show up in any of the photos I took but trust me...it's there.

Initially, I cut the large pipe section just a bit too short and added a length back to the top end.  I used a short length of 1/8" threaded pipe to carry the gas, and the ignition 'chamber' if you will is made up of the 1 1/4" diameter pipe.  I mounted the 1/8" pipe 'stub' inside the larger pipe section such that their axis are parallel (i.e. - a small pipe inside a large one, both pointing in the same direction...). A pipe cap on the end of the inner pipe has a 1/32" hole more or less in the center to act as a nozzle or orifice to allow gas to enter the ignition chamber.  The piece of sheet metal to the left was curled around a section of 4" PVC (used as a form only!) and then welded at the seam.  I should have built this part from the excess chunk of steel siding, but this whole thing just sort of 'evolved' from things that were within reach at the moment!

Above is the completed burner assembly with push button 'igniter'.  Note all the holes in the base (drum lid).  I used one of those neat little multi-drill bits that's cone or step shaped and nearly takes the place of an entire drill index in a battery powered drill motor.  Very handy!

  I mounted this burner assembly into a 15 gallon steel drum that I've had sitting around.  That's the piece that radiates the collected heat, and prevents me from burning the place down with an exposed flame.  The drum has a single 3" bung mounted in the lid, which was also removable.  So I drilled a bunch of holes in the lid around the bung for airflow, and will mount the burner such that the stack sticks through the bung pointing up into the drum.  Additional holes will be drilled in the opposite end of the drum.  Inverting the drum should allow the heated air to flow in the bottom (through all the holes and bung in the lid) and out the holes around the outside of the top (or, what used to be the bottom of the drum before turning it upside-down).  If you look really close, you can just  see the ignition button peeking out on the left side of the drum.  Since this photo was taken, I decided to remove the drum to burn off the exterior paint.  The burner just didn't create enough heat to do the job and I didn't want to wait.  So out came the Oxy-Acet rig with a 'rose bud' which made very quick work of it!  Now no more fumes from the paint!

Not shown in the photo(s) is a short stand that lifts the drum about 2 inches or so off the floor.  Just enough to allow it to pull air from below.

Trials:
The heater did a great job warming up my 22' x 23' garage.  Only took about 20 minutes to bring it up from 34 deg F to ~49 deg F!  Nice!

One shortfall is the fact that you could eventually asphyxiate yourself if you don't allow for some fresh air to come into the space.  So this is only for short term use or if I want to heat up the contents of the garage...

Cold Smoke(r)

Last month I was on a motorcycle camping trip in Oregon (and while tossing back a beer), a friend of mine started telling me about the finer points of smoked cheese.  "you have to smoke it cold" he said.  "Cold?!?" I replied, "how the hell do you smoke something and keep it cold?"  queried I...  Well my friend did his best to explain, but I'm afraid that by then we'd had a few more beers than what makes for clear classroom instruction and not much came of it.  So after returning home once the campout was over (a couple of days later), I did some quick research on the web.  I found an excellent blog here on blogger by 'Cowgirl' that explains all sorts of food smokers and smoking techniques (see: http://cowgirlscountry.blogspot.com).  After some study of the smokers described on her blog, I decided to experiment with some design ideas and try to build my own 'cold smoker'.  I've really just collected some 'raw' materials at this point.  Once I have a workable contraption I'll post photos...  Stay tuned!

Fire and Steel

One of the more 'fun' toys I've picked up over the last 5 years has been a 'stick' welder or 'buzz box' as some call them, as well as a wire feed welder.  The adjoining photo is of my older son learning the basics once he overcame his initial intimidation.   The wire feed or 'big red' is just visible in the background...  That table he is working at was built using a combination of the stick welder and a wire feed unit borrowed from a neighbor prior to my obtaining the one I now have.  The table is made of salvaged steel from the local scrap yard.  The top is a piece of 'catwalk' grate.  It's basically a bunch of parallel strips of flat stock set on edge and held in place with 1/4 in rods on the bottom side.  The rods keep the strips on edge, and the strips provide a relatively light weight but very rigid platform.   The thing I like about it is that I can cut steel, drill, weld, etc., with minimum damage or alteration of the table serface. You can beat the hell out of it and it just takes it. The junk piled up on the bottom are miscellaneous GoKart parts...(that's for another time).  The second photo is of the pipe sections my son was practicing with.

This shot (sorry for the poor quality...it was taken using the camera in my cell phone ) also shows the grate or strips on edge that make up the welding table's top.  I mounted casters (wheels) to the bottom of the table so that it could be moved around as needed.  If you do much welding sooner or later you'll want a platform to get your work up off the ground.  It's a real lower back saver...!  Sorry I don't have better pictures of everything.  Maybe I'll add them as time goes on(?).

What's in a name...?

Gee, nothing written in a couple of days.  I was just putting breakfast away, and for one strange reason or another that dreaded phrase by the late comedian Jim Varney: "know what I mean Vern?" just popped into my head...   ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Varney )

There was a time when I wished my first name could have become my last, and I could have a more 'normal' first name like 'Andrew' or 'Mike' or even 'Steve'.  But no, the fates (and my parents) determined that I should forever be the boy with three last names and no first (I won't mention the middle name)...  The big reason was that hardly anyone it seemed had the worldliness to understand that it was a traditional Dutch name, that my first name wasn't 'Van' (a mistake some still insist on making today) but rather a variant of the German 'von' meaning 'from' or 'of'.  The other irritant bit of trivia is that some would clumsily insist on trying to pronounce the 'd' at the end of 'Zandt', not understanding that it is silent.  Some 'Van Zandt's' have even long since dropped the letter from their name.  Perhaps just to avoid the frustration of hearing it.

One day while sitting in class in Junior High School, I was summoned to the office over  the intercom.  Someone in the front office had handed a poorly written note (some irony here I'm sure) to a student who's sole duty it was to earn extra credit by mangling names over the intercom. She had uttered my name in such a way as to sound a bit like "Varoom Von Zip".  The class erupted in laughter as I tried to slither out of my desk, along the floor and under the door into the hallway...  (A musician friend of mine actually wanted to form a band with that name after hearing the story)

But I have to admit that Jim changed all that.  Thanks to all his hill-billy antics on TV,  I only hated my first name.  Mostly because I couldn't go a day without hearing some smart-ass repeat that nonsense as if they thought they were being original and funny...   But as time went on, I got used to it and realized that I could do the joke and get a bigger laugh than anyone over it.  After Jim Varney died, so did the joke and life went on a bit less goofy.   But I don't blame the guy, nor do I gain satisfaction in his passing...if anything experience helped me to grow a skin and learn to take but one more joke.  And after all he paid a pretty hefty price for all of his success and the abuse of cigarettes.

Thanks for all the laughs Jim...

Radio Active...

I've been a radio geek since about 1965 and a licensed Ham radio operator (off and on) since 1971. I didn't really understand much of the technical side of things until about 1977 or so, so much of my activities up until then were limited to just trying to make 'contacts' with other hams on the air...  Remember, this was long before the personal computer, the internet or cell phones!

It really wasn't until about the last 15 years that things really started to 'take off' for me in regards to building equipment for use in my station. My latest creation is an antenna tuner that is loosely based on one published in the 1995 ARRL Handbook.  What I couldn't find locally or in my 'junk box', I purchased online. But the majority of the parts (right down to the rectangular knobs) are surplus, NOS (new old stock) or 'used'.   I was able to produce the meter faces using software available on the web.  The cabinet is Aluminum sheet stock that a local metal fab business cut and bent per my specifications.  This was a design process from start to finish and I'm really happy with the way it functions.  Unfortunately the paint job didn't turn out well at all, but that's another story...  This ATU will provide a 1.1:1 SWR on all bands with my 140 foot wire antenna from 160 thru 10 meters.  Measured (estimated) loss is nearly non-existent on 160 thru 40 and about 3% at 10 meters.  Good enough for what I use it for...

At one time I was intrigued with building 'recreations' out of old issues of QST magazines that featured construction articles.  One such article describes a 'regen' from the mid 1940's.  I incorporated a couple of 'upgrades' to make it a bit safer and also less obtrusive from an RF standpoint.  The original circuit consisted of a 6J7GT as a regenerative detector with a 6V6GT in a single ended amp configuration.  Band changes occurred by swapping out plug-in coils.  While I kept the plug in nature of the coils to change bands, I mounted toroid coils inside the tube bases rather than 'air' windings around them.  This coupled with changing the 6J7GT to a metal jacketed 6J7 and the addition of a 6J5 metal tube as a RF pre-amp, helped to reduce generation of RF from the receiver.  The safety enhancement consisted of using a cable that plugs into the remote power supply, rather than the exposed screw terminals originally used by the Author. This eliminated any exposed contacts reducing the potential for any 'shocking' experiences.  I was pleasantly surprised at just how well the whole affair worked.  Regeneration was smooth and easily adjusted.  Finding parts that allowed faithful reproduction outside of the changes mentioned above was somewhat of a challenge.  The original cabinet wasn't available, but a similar 'slope front' cabinet was obtained from Bud Industries by special order.  Some components also had to be substituted, but for the most part remained very similar.   The interesting similarity between the original and the one I built, is that in 1944 some component shortages (due to the War effort) presented builders of the day with similar challenges.  The Author of the article claimed that parts shortages wouldn't pose as big a problem with this receiver (perhaps due to use of more commonly available items?).  At any rate, it is a nice addition to my 'Vintage Homebrew' radio collection.

Motor boating

I didn't build the boat that I have, but I did pay for it several times over. My initial goal was to have a boat I could live on, and if I had to flip burgers to pay for moorage, etc., then so be it. But it's good to keep in mind just how easily a fantasy can get away from you...

The first departure from my seriously half baked plan was when I got married. The second was when my wife and I were about 7 months pregnant. It was then that I spotted my boat in a slip in Friday Harbor just sitting there minding it's own business. Not being able to leave well enough alone, I asked the couple that was on board if I could have a look around. They didn't seem all that enthusiastic at having a 6ft 2in Sasquatch invade their floating vacation world, but a glance at the big "For Sale" sign reminded them that this sort of thing might happen. I got the 'grand tour' and the rest is history...

Now, don't for a second get the idea that I'm complaining about the whole marriage - kids thing. I wouldn't trade it (or them) for anything. I love them dearly. It's just sort of weird how it all came about and sort of confirms the old saying: "never say never". I was at a point where at worst I figured I'd spend the rest of my life either as a confirmed bachelor, or (at best) in the company of a female companion. The 'having Kids' part of the equation hadn't really occurred to me...

Looking back, I also couldn't have lived on a boat the size of the one I own anyway. Some people do it, but I don't think it would have worked out for very long. I still complain everytime I have to take a shower on board. The 'head' is not only the throne room, but also shower room and powder room (for the ladies). My refrigerator at home has just about as much room as the bathroom on my boat. So I'm quite satisfied that I deviated from that part of the plan as well...

Analog thoughts in a digital world...

Ok, so I'm a bit slow to start one of these bloggy things. I don't usually have that much to say much less try to share it... But this is a grand experiment and well, you'll always have the option to change the channel so-to-speak. I might post anything from navel lint to plans for a new flying machine... Professionally I have training in several areas. Like Material science (corrosion mainly), Internal dosimetry (they call it 'invivo bioassay' or some such thing nowdays), Robotics/Electronics and Computer Science. In my spare time I've enjoyed SCUBA diving, hang gliding, wind surfing, bow hunting, fishing, boating, water and snow skiing, brewing beer and biodiesel, motorcycling, trying to play a guitar, welding and well, the list goes on... I'm adding to it almost on a daily basis and that's really no joke!

Since I do like to build things, I figure I'll use this space to share that. Take it or leave it, I don't expect anything here will lead to universal answers or the meaning of life. If it causes you to suddenly experience an epiphany then my effort here won't entirely be for not.