Hey Doug,
I have some small machine equipment and some reasonable priced
machine shops in my area, If I can't make it I'm sure I can have it made. I
am interested in stirling engines for the exact same use. If the plans look
good to me I might be willing to build a prototype at my expense and will
gladly let you know how it works or possibly ship it for your testing.
Everyone Else,
http://www.lindsaybks.com/
This Site Has some great books at really good prices, I highly
recommend the Dave Gingery Series. It includes Sand Casting, Making a Metal
Shaper, Lathe, Milling machine, Drill Press, Accessories, and Sheet Metal
Brake from scrap. The plans can be size up easily and everything can be done
really low budget. There is also many other books, all the ones I've gotten
have been on metal working. Right now I'm working on a furnace that will
hold 75lbs of molten aluminum, and turn around the spot. From one of the
local machine shops I have a supply of about 400lbs of alum turnings a month
all I have to do is go pick them up. They use only 6061 and have one machine
that turns out the same part 8 hours a day 7 days a week. So it's a good
clean source for strong castings.
Logan Vilas
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of doug swanson
Sent: Sunday, July 16, 2006 7:14 PM
To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org
Subject: [Biofuel] Home energy system ...was Re: {Disarmed} Telegraph - US
"could be going bankrupt"
I agree that in tight times, basic or even primitive skills are more
valuable than gold. Basics in Agriculture, animal husbandry, health
maintenance, knowing how to preserve food without supplies you'd have to
get at a grocer's store, blacksmithing, wood working, etc. are all
skills that should be present in what I see as being a new birth of
communities which will establish themselves once TEOTWAWKI happens.
Energy systems can be a large part of this, since my wood heater
currently relies on a chainsaw to supply fuel, and my biodiesel relies
on restaurant "wastes" and petro-derived methanol, and industry produced
hydroxides, I still don't feel that my current situation is
sustainable. Solar makes a lot of sense in my location, and I've been
working in that direction, but with a twist. The 10' parabolic
collector can collect a lot of heat, and rather than convert it
immediately to electricity, which I'd then have to store in some sort of
battery (with all the problems that batteries come with, ie. disposal
when they don't work anymore, and then having to acquire new ones..., )
it makes better sense to store the heat from the collector in 55 gallon
drums of water, which can actually make up the rear greenhouse wall...
I've been studying Stirling engines for some time now, guess I've read
everything that Google can show me about them, crammed all the ideas
into my head, noted the major disadvantages of most of them, (They've
got to be airtight, precision power piston, most aren't self-starting,
etc...) and have come up with a design that addresses these problems,
and eliminates them by integrating much of the engine into 3 moving
parts. Heat goes in, electricity comes out. I really would like to
build the prototype, but can't afford a machine shop to make a couple of
its parts. Maybe someone on this list has the right tools to make the
parts, and would like to see more detailed plans on this. Eventually,
when a working prototype is producing electricity, the plans with step
by step guidance will be under the "open information license" The point
of the whole system is that wherever possible, the parts should be stuff
that can be found at the junkyard, and that when completed, a home power
generation system is running for under 3-400 bucks. Adding another
collector just for home heat would be even simpler, under floor heat
circulation would increase the cost due to plumbing, thermostat control,
etc., but if the hot water was just circulated through a radiator
(junkyard again) with a fan behind it, the home could be comfortable
without huge expense.
The efficiency of a Stirling engine makes it a potential candidate for a
hybrid vehicle, and I've been working on something along that line also,
but first things first...
Any ideas are welcome, anything I can do to help pull us out of the mess
this planet is in, I will do.
doug swanson
Jason& Katie wrote:
>you dont need money if you can supply a need. i know more than just fuel, i
>can build just about anything a person would have as a daily need. house,
>furniture, small macines, engine repair, anyone with a skill is pretty well
>safe. it is the people who have never had to work a day in their life
(CEO's
>and politicians) that are screwed.
>Jason
>ICQ#: 154998177
>MSN: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Mike Weaver" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: <biofuel@sustainablelists.org>
>Sent: Friday, July 14, 2006 9:01 PM
>Subject: Re: [Biofuel] {Disarmed} Telegraph - US "could be going bankrupt"
>
>
>
>
>>Um, it's not really "they" it's "us" too...
>>
>>Jason& Katie wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>good. its about time. if i were to spend money like that, and then
>>>piddle away my savings and retirement, i would have been bankrupt 2 or
>>>3 times in the last year, so why should they get away with it?
>>>
>>>Jason
>>>ICQ#: 154998177
>>>MSN: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> *From:* Kirk McLoren <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>> *To:* biofuel <mailto:Biofuel@sustainablelists.org>
>>> *Sent:* Friday, July 14, 2006 6:04 PM
>>> *Subject:* [Biofuel] {Disarmed} Telegraph - US "could be going
>>> bankrupt"
>>>
>>>
>>>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/07/14/cnusa14
.xml
>>>
>>> US 'could be going bankrupt'
>>> By Edmund Conway, Economics Editor
>>> (Filed: 14/07/2006)
>>>
>>>
>>> The United States is heading for bankruptcy, according to an
>>> extraordinary paper published by one of the key members of the
>>> country's central bank.
>>> A ballooning budget deficit and a pensions and welfare timebomb
>>> could send! the economic superpower into insolvency, according to
>>> research by Professor Laurence Kotlikoff for the Federal Reserve
>>> Bank of St Louis, a leading constituent of the US Federal Reserve.
>>> Prof Kotlikoff said that, by some measures, the US is already
>>> bankrupt. "To paraphrase the Oxford English Dictionary, is the
>>> United States at the end of its resources, exhausted, stripped
>>> bare, destitute, bereft, wanting in property, or wrecked in
>>> consequence of failure to pay its creditors," he asked.
>>> According to his central analysis, "the US government is, indeed,
>>> bankrupt, insofar as it will be unable to pay its creditors, who,
>>> in this context, are current and future generations to whom it has
>>> explicitly or implicitly promised future net payments of various
>>> kinds''.
>>> The budget deficit in the US is not massive. The Bush
>>> administration this week cut its forecasts for the fiscal
>>> shortfall this year by almost a third, saying it will come in at
>>> 2.3pc of gross domestic product. This is smaller than most
>>> European countries - including the UK - which have deficits north
>>> of 3pc of GDP.
>>> Prof Kotlikoff, who teaches at Boston University, says: "The
>>> proper way to consider a country's solvency is to examine the
>>> lifetime fiscal burdens facing current and future generations. If
>>> these burdens exceed the resources of those generations, get close
>>> to doing so, or simply get so high as to preclude their full
>>> collection, the country's policy will be unsustainable and can
>>> constitute or lead to national bankruptcy.
>>> "Does the United States fit this bill? No one knows for sure, but
>>> there are strong reasons to believe the United States may be going
>>> broke."
>>> Experts have calculated that the country's long-term "fiscal gap"
>>> between all future government spending and all future receipts
>>> will widen immensely as the Baby Boomer generation retires, and as
>>> the amount the state will have to spend on healthcare and pensions
>>> soars. The total fiscal gap could be an almost incomprehensible
>>> $65.9 trillion, according to a study by Professors Gokhale and
>>> Smetters.
>>> The figure is massive because President George W Bush has made
>>> major tax cuts in recent years, and because the bill for Medicare,
>>> which provides health insurance for the elderly, and Medicaid,
>>> which does likewise for the poor, will increase greatly due to
>>> demographics.
>>> Prof Kotlikoff said: "This figure is more than five times US GDP
>>> and almost twice the size of national wealth. One way to wrap
>>> one's head around $65.9trillion is to ask what fiscal adjustments
>>> are needed to eliminate this red hole. The answers are terrifying.
>>> One solution is an immediate and permanent doubling of personal
>>> and corporate income taxes. Another is an immediate and permanent
>>> two-thirds cut in Social Security and Medicare benefits. A third
>>> alternative, were it feasible, would be to immediately and
>>> permanently cut all federal discretionary spending by 143pc."
>>> The scenario has serious implications for the dollar. If investors
>>> lose confidence in the US's future, and suspect the country may at
>>> some point allow inflation to erode away its debts, they may
>>> reduce their holdings of US Treasury bonds.
>>> Prof Kotlikoff said: "The United States has experienced high rates
>>> of inflation in the past and appears to be running the same type
>>> of fiscal policies that engendered hyperinflations in 20 countries
>>> over the past century."
>>> Paul Ashworth, of Capital Economics, was more sanguine about the
>>> coming retirement of the Baby Boomer generation. "For a start, the
>>> expected deterioration in the Federal budget owes more to rising
>>> per capita spending on health care than to changing demographics,"
>>> he said.
>>> "This can be contained if the political will is there. Similarly,
>>> the expected increase in social security spending can be
>>> controlled by reducing the growth rate of benefits. Expecting a
>>> fix now is probably asking too much of short-sighted politicians
>>> who have no incentives to do so. But a fix, or at least a
>>> succession of patches, will come when the problem becomes more
>>> pressing."
>>>
>>>
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