Wheeling trips

2015-04-05

Today I went to Flagpole Knob near where I live. And a couple of weeks ago I went down to Big Boys Playground with a couple of friends and we messed around there.

Flagpole Knob

I actually got up this. This isn't part of the main trail, just something on the side of the trail that's fun to play on.






We had a good time.



I was messing around with going door-less for the first time. It's a pretty interesting sensation. Humans perceive inside spaces as much larger than outside spaces. Removing the doors turned my Jeep into an outside space, and suddenly it felt 2 feet narrower... crazy.



Most of the trail was pretty easy, The photo above was one of the harder spots.



Big Boys Playground

Big boys playground has some good mud holes. The folks I went with had a pure trail-toy, an old toyota with a huge lift on it, so we had a lot of fun with that in the mud. I actually went through the spot he's in though as well and didn't get stuck.



Here's their YJ going through that same hole



And here's the YJ after we pulled it out, it ALMOST made it, but not quite



My Jeep is in the background there. I actually winched the Toyota once as well, after they'd been playing in a deep spot. Though, the Toyota made it through another mud hole where it was clear up to the body. It's got an old 22R in it, something like 90 horsepower. He had it floored the whole way through the mudhole.

We tried the heck out of this spot, but with the mud on the rocks, there was just no way it was going to happen without some big tires and lockers.



This is a slightly different spot



Knock on wood, I haven't broken anything on my Jeep while wheeling yet. On Jane I once backed in to fallen tree which slide between the exhaust system and it's mounts, and I screwed several of the mounts. The exhaust is actually still tied on with para-cord - my hack at the time has held on this long. Jess knows about it.

Anyway, besides that *to date* I've avoided destroying anything (the dent in my front bumper doesn't count). It's part luck for sure. I'm also pretty careful despite occasionally trying some harder things.

Note, BTW, that the places I'm going here are frequented by vehicles. The first is a National Forest trail that's designated for this sort of use, and excepting just a couple of spots where people stop to play around on rocks or in a muddy spot, it's a strict trail that we didn't stray from. The second place is an offroad park. It's basically an old farm that someone has put to this use. So... if you're curious, I'm not tearing up random places in the forest, just keeping some nice roads from getting too overgrown to use :P.

DIY: linseed oil treated cotton sheet tarp

2015-04-03

Living in Virginia I ran in to some civil war re-enactors a little while ago. As I was looking at their stuff I got interested in the raw materials the used for rain gear, tarps, bags, etc called "tarred canvas". Tarred canvas is called that because it's literally canvas coated in tar. This material is very tough, and highly waterproof. Unfortunately, it also has an extremely unpleasant odor.

Upon doing a bit more research I discovered that the term is also used for basically any water-proofed canvas. For example, canvas that's been painted. Traditionally this was done with lead paint as the lead allowed the paint to flex rather than crack and fall off.

A 3'rd type I eventually discovered is linseed treated canvas. This fascinated me. Linseed oil is edible, and frequently eaten as a dietary supplement. It's also frequently used as a treatment for wood to help protect it from water.

Considering this, I decided to give it a try. I went to a thrift store and found a densely woven cotton sheet. I went to a hardware store and got a can of boiled linseed oil (boiled to make it thicker) and a can of mineral spirits. The mineral spirits thins the linseed so it comes out even when you treat the sheet with it, and then just evaporates off.



You mix these about equal parts. For either a double sized sheet I used 1 quart of each. Mix these in a bucket, throw your sheet in, and swoosh it around a bit, working the mixture into the fabric and making sure it gets on all of it. Amazingly, the photo below is what was left in the bucket when I was done. If I squeezed the fabric though I could squeeze some out, so it wasn't going to hold much more.



You need a double-clothes-line, if it touches itself as it's drying it kindof sticks and is annoying to deal with. So you want to hang it so no part touches itself. I suggest using clothes-pins to help keep it in place, something I didn't think of until half-way through it drying. Note that it takes a couple of days to dry, and if it rains the top flat part is going to collect water, which would be annoying.



Last night I rigged up my new tarp by setting rocks against it and tying around the rocks. I made the mistake last time I was testing a new tarp material of doing all the sewing first, and I decided not to repeat that mistake.



It wasn't an extra hard rain last night by any means, but I'd guess that it rained from around 2am until I got up this morning around 8, and there was a decently hard spell in the middle. There was no drip-age at all, and little dampness, the inside side of the tarp was the tiniest bit damp, but less so than I'm used to with plastic tarps. I would definitely use this as a tarp in the future and not worry about it.

The fabric feels like it might even work as a poncho. It's hard to know what the whicking behavior will be, so that will be an interesting test. That test is going to take some sewing first.

One downside of this tarp is that, being made from a double-sized sheet it's not quite big enough. It's okay, but I would like to have at least another foot of length on the tarp. I felt the need to stake out the middle of one side as well as the 4 corners, even for one person. I believe going to a queen would actually resolve this, and make it large enough to fit two people instead of one.

I'm really excited by this material. If I made a tarp and a groundcloth, and one of those doubled as a poncho (assuming the wicking works out not to be a problem), and the other doubled as bag I roll my gear in and diamond hitch to my pack frame, I could potentially get rid of most of the gear I have that needs to be plastic, opening the door to a more primitive style of backpacking. One remaining item is my sleepingbag, although I recently discovered that leaves will often work so I might be able to do some trips without it now. The last plastic item is shoe soles. After much consideration it's unlikely I'll ever give up rubber shoe soles, but if that is the only modern material I carry on some trips, that could be pretty cool.

UPDATE

My mother pointed out something really important that I forgot to mention. Linseed oil soaked cloth will spontaneously combust if not fully dried before folding, or even wadding up. I know someone who nearly burned down their house with a linseed soaked rag they tossed on the floor. So be careful.

Also, Linseed oil fumes are pretty hard on you, and this should all be done outside. Be careful you get the oil pretty dry before you crawl into such a shelter as well, to help reduce the fumes.

The above is true for linseed oil itself. But note also that "boiled linseed oil" is usually not pure linseed oil, so it has stuff in it besides what you would eat. Pure linseed oil is a common dietary suppliment, so it's safe to assume it's no big deal to get on your hands. Boiled linseed can be pure, but usually isn't. Usually it's actually got other not so great stuff thrown in there to help it harden. There's a more complete explanation here: http://www.instructables.com/answers/Linseed-oil-health-dangers/ . When I've finished spoons and the like I've used pure dietary linseed oil, purchased from a health-food store. It's annoying and takes a lot of coats.

FURTHER UPDATE

Before doing this, please read the following post with more experiments:
http://www.blog.smalladventures.net/2015/11/linseed-oil-for-homemade-oil-cloth.html

ANOTHER UPDATE
I don't recommend using the methods from this article at all, this is a dated experiment now. If you just need it to stop rain while not touching anything, get 800 threadcount sheets, and don't treat it at all. If you need it waterproof while touching something (like a poncho) use this method instead:
http://www.blog.smalladventures.net/2017/02/waterproofing-cotton-poncho-experiment-2.html . Lastly, for tieouts, grommets like these: http://www.blog.smalladventures.net/2017/02/myog-plasticless-backpack.html wear better than tieouts do.

DIY: PVC bike rack

2015-04-01

The trails around here are just too perfect for it, so I finally went out and got a mountain bike recently. 5 minutes up the hill by car and I'm at some of the best mountain biking I've ever seen, but I have a job and in the evening I want to spend my time on the trails, not climbing that paved hill. IMHO, this is what cars are for. So, I needed a bike-rack.



I've got a Jeep wrangler. I wanted to be able to swing the door open without the rack in the way so I didn't want to deal with a hitch rack. This was my plan from the start, and I installed new hinges on my swing gate as one of my first modifications, to accommodate the weight of a bike-rack and bike in addition to the large tire. When I went looking for a tire-mount bike-rack I quickly discovered that a decent tire-mount bike-rack starts around $200. That's insane for what amounts to a couple of aluminum pipes bent in a pipe bender, a bolt or two, a little rubber, and some webbing. I thought about making one and decided eh, I really just want to throw money at this problem and solve it.

But then I started reading more details and found that NO tire-mount bike-racks would fit my 33" spare tire with low backset rim. So, not only would I have to pay $200, but I'd have to modify it even still! That was just too much.

So, one day I went down to home depot (or maybe lowes, whatever) and stared at their pipe selection. I had originally been thinking metal, but when I saw the PVC I realized how much better it would be. It's lighter, easier to cut, easier to bond, and won't scratch the finish on my car, rim, or bike-frame. This means no need for all the complex rubber doodads, no hours of hack-sawing, etc. Perfect. Standing in the store I came up with a somewhat complex design involving a hinged bar that would lock open, like you have on the lid of a trunk, to hold the whole thing rigid. I bought all the stuff I needed for ~$30.0. Beat $200 by quite a lot!

A few days later I grabbed the stuff and just started building. With PVC you can test fit everything which is super helpful. So, I did only the most minimal of sketching and measuring and then just went by eye. I got it half-way built and realized my idea wasn't going to work. The hinged bar sitting at a 43 degree angle between the horizontal and vertical bars was going to hit the bike-frame... duh. Then I looked at what I had and realized it didn't matter. I didn't need the brace at all since the rope hold it at the right angle. I had made the design far more complex than it needed to be. In the end I only used maybe $15 in materials, probably a bit less. I drilled 2 holes in the wrong places, but that's fine..

This evening I finally took it for it's first spin, just over the ridge for a nice evening ride. Because of my bike's very tight frame geometry it's a little bit harder than optimal to get on and off, I have to tip the wheels towards me, seat away from me quite a bit to get it over the "hook" at the end of the bars. Still it's well within reason, and it means it's really secure once it's on, which is awesome. I tied it on, but just for comfort, I didn't really need to since it has to turn almost horizontal to come off. Seems like a fair trade.

So, if you're looking for a cheap bicycle rack, here's a dead simple design you can build in an afternoon. The construction is pretty self-evident from the photos.



There are a few interesting details though. Note how the top bars sit over the tire so that the rear cross-bar is actually behind the tire. This means the rack is stable and kindof "on the tire" before you even tie it on. That's nice as it makes mounting it really easy.

The P-cord holding it on is tied to the top with double constrictor hitches on both sides, effectively making them permanent.

At the bottom under the tire I have an alpine butterfly in each side that I use kindof like a truckers hitch to help me get it tight, then I just tie it off with 2 half-hitches.

If you've never glued PVC together you may want to look it up. Note that I test fit everything and then knocked it back apart with a hammer. For the final fitting after gluing I also knocked it together with a hammer. Be careful as PVC can shatter, I did in fact shatter one elbow, a rubber mallot or a block of wood between the hammer and PVC may be in order. To actually glue it you use 2 different products. First you use a prep, then a glue. I used these



Note the of the materials in that picture, one is purple. It tends to run all over. So now I have white pipe with purple streaks covered in mud. Fine, and functional, but I decided it was worth a tiny bit of effort to make it not super ugly.

Most paint won't stick to PVC. I went to a hardware store and simply asked what would work and they pointed me at this stuff. It seems to have bonded okay, we'll see in a few weeks. I spent as much time painting it as I did building it. I did a lot of coats trying to get good coverage.



Oh, one more heads up. Note that I'm a small person, my bike has a tight geometry, and it's a 650b (meaning not that large of wheels). My bike's rear wheel comes out flush with the right fender. A bike with a more horizontal top-tube would have less trouble with this, but that gets offset by larger bikes or bikes with more open geometries. This property is not particular to my rack design at all and is relevant for any rack carrying bikes cross-ways on the vehicle, but it's a consideration. I personally hate having stuff hanging out to catch on trees and the like. So think it through for your bike and your vehicle. One advantage of making things yourself is you can make them custom for your needs.

No doubt I should throw some legal disclaimer in here to not be an idiot, bla bla bla... So... you know, be careful and try not have your bike and/or rack fall off your car, it'd be embarrassing. If you don't know knots, maybe use truck tie down straps or something.

So, there you go. A functional bike-rack for ~$15 bucks. Makes you wonder how they get away with charging so much doesn't it?

Fire extinguisher

2015-03-28

Ever wonder what it's like to actually use a fire extinguisher?

Well, the one in my Jeep got recalled. A few days ago the replacement finally arrived. As a concerned citizen and proper adult I wanted to make sure I disposed of the recalled fire extinguisher properly. It wouldn't be responsible of me to leave a possibly faulty fire-extinguisher lying around.

As it turns out the proper way to dispose of a fire extinguisher is to first discharge it, and then throw it away.

So, I was obliged to discharge the fire extinguisher. A tragedy:



I think it actually shot a bit farther than that, and the camera caught the beginning of the first burst (it took 3 photos in a row, the first 2 had no burst yet). This is an ABC extinguisher I believe, using a powder, so the powder blew a short distance as a cloud like if you were throwing flour in the air to try and light it on fire (not that I've done that... no never, certainly not).

Again, this is my car fire extinguisher (I got a new one, since my old one is mounted in Jess' truck, and I figured she might need it too), so it's tiny. It probably shot stuff for about 4, maybe 5 seconds. I see why people say to use very short bursts, if you miss you want to get a chance to pause and re-aim, not use it up n the wrong direction.

That is all, I just thought I would share the amusing experience.

Metal Working

2015-03-28

For christmas Jess got me a metal-working class. 4 3 hours classes in a metalshop learning from experienced folks. As it turned out it was basically open ended "so, what do you want to learn?" With 2 guys running the shop, 2 of us taking the class, and maybe 1 to 3 other folks hanging out in the shop and getting help occasionally, there was lots of 1-1 time. Here's some of the stuff I did.



I decided to touch on blacksmithing, but I have a decent idea how to do a lot of things with blacksmithing. So I wanted to focus on getting welding to the point where I could actually go out and buy a welder, and weld something that mattered. At that level of welding, MIG is what you generally want to use, so that's what we learned (though a lot of it applies to other welding as well).

Day 1
We spent the first day just getting a run-down of the shop, how to use a coal forge, figuring out the welders, loading in a new wire spool, making a few beads, and covering the basics.

Day 2
Both of us decided to get in our blacksmithing. So I made the hook you see on the bottom left. The process goes like this (skipping all the heating it up parts)
1) pound out the tip to make a square
2) roll it on the anvil as you pound it to make it round
3) start the curl on the anvil horn
4) finish the curl by holding the straight part flat on the anvil and striking far down on the curve towards you. Then bring the bar up a little off the anvil, and correspondingly strike the curve a little closer to the tip and a little lighter. Repeat until the bar is vertical instead of horizantal and you are striking down.
5) make the "hook" on the horn
6) hammer the segment you're going to twist so it has flat sides or grooves or something, so the twist shows up
7) grab it with a vice and twist it!
6) cut the end off in the right spot using the... thingy who's name I forget (it's basically an edge you set the rod on and hammer *almost* through, then you brake it off with pliers)
7) make square tip at the other end
8) hammer it flat
9) drill it


Oddly, getting an even twist is actually easy, you just do it not too hot. it's a bit harder to make it *uneven*. This is true because we were working mild steel (as most blacksmiths do these days), that means it is very consistent in it's carbon an allow content. Traditionally blacksmiths worked wrought iron, which is far less consistent and thus to get an even twist you have to work it unevenly, so you have to do it very hot and it takes a lot of skill

Day 3
Down to business on welding. The goal was, making a box that will hold water. In a more serious class for professionals the goal would be to make that box hold 100 psi for 24 hours. We're just mucking about though, so didn't go that far.



I decided to do this by sitting the box corner-to-corner, welding the inside first, and then filling the space on the outside of each crack. I did this to build 2 half-boxes of 3 sites making a corner, then attached the two together (welding only the outside at that point of course).

The idea was good, but I missed one KEY step to really doing it right. The right way to do it (besides cutting more carefully) is to *tack* weld before you make the real welds. I could've tack welded the 3 sites together seperately and checked that everything was really going to fit *just* right. The inner welds I did weren't of much use. If I did this again I'd probably skip them and simply tack-weld the 2 3-sided pieces together at that point and make sure it all lined up *perfectly*... if not cut it apart and try again. Then you fill the outside.

That said, even though I had a huge gap I filled it in well enough and the end result does hold water without leaking. Pretty cool.

Note that what looks like a good weld might not really be a good weld. Prettyness is a sign of skill and thus a proxy for knowing technique, but not necessarily a sign of good binding. It's possible to make a bad weld look pretty. Good binding has to do with avoiding gaps, how much you heat up the metal, and how well you get the metal to blend together, and mostly... prep.

Most of the time spent building this box was spent not with a welder, but with a grinder. We cut the plates first. Then I had to grind all the faces to ensure I'd get a good binding. Being new to a grinder this took quite a while, but no matter how good you are... most of welding is actually grinding, not holding a welder and laying a bead.

Day 4
Now comes the real challenge, taking BIG pieces of metal, and joining them with a tiny little MIG welder. This is done by cutting V-notches in to both sides of the metal then slowly filling in the space one bead at a time. You start with the pieces not quite touching and fill in the almost touching points, then flip it and do that on the other side, avoiding ending up with any air gaps. Then you work your way up filling in the V cut.




If you are anything like me, this probably looks like a pretty bad weld to you. This weld represents about 1.5 hours of grinding and a half-hour of welding. We didn't want to waste time, so I didn't grind it out to make it all pretty, and I didn't add a cap-weld (though the bottom side of the upper picture was cap-welded by our instructor, just t show us how it's done).

Interestingly, while this weld is far from ideal (the root pass is pretty bad), it's a lot better than you might expect. Unfortunately we missed the real center of the weld when we cut it, but still, it shows that this metal really is bonded together.



What you see as vertical ridging is just marks from a very sad band-saw. If you stare at that image really closely you can see horizontal marks. At first we thought those were showing lines between my beads of weld, but after staring at them and considering how I was welding I'm certain that's not what they are, I believe they also are a side-effect ot he band saw.

BUT if you look really carefully at the outer 1/4' of the cut on each side (the part that cut through my actual weld), you can see that there are little pits in the metal. These are air-gaps due to poor technique on my part, and they shouldn't be there.

I'll need a lot of practice if I want to be a professional welder (which I don't), but for my first heavy joint I'm pretty damn happy with it. For things like building armor for a 4x4, welding up a picture frame or a metal fence, etc. I can weld!

We also took some tubing and tried welding that, as well as patching it after we blew through it by accident (which is easy to do on pipe, due to how it traps heat). With mild steel you can patch it and grind it and make it pretty much as strong as new. This isn't true for steels that are more heat sensitive (crystallize more easily) and need to be re-tempered after you weld them to get full strength (e.g. cro-moly). This is dependent on the alloy, carbon content, etc.

Conclusion
Unlike my last welding class, now I feel like I can go buy a MIG welder, and actually weld something. I have some vague plans to build rock-sliders for my Jeep... maybe. We'll see. If not maybe I can find another excuse to do some welding, like shoring up cave entrances for caving, repairing tools, etc.

I'd actually be helping clean up the entrance to a cave today, but I'm stuck at home due to an on-call shift. Oh well, I guess you can't play all the time. It's a good chance to write up some experiences though :).