Thursday, January 22, 2015

On the Bench- Building a Bigger Plywood Battery Box
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Project for January, 2015

With my birthday coming up, I wanted to work on a project of my choice. In this case, it was a bigger battery box made from plywood. This project has been lingering in the background for 6 months.
The box would hold up to ten 6 volt deep cycle batteries. The batteries are an important component of an off grid power system. The primary use is to store the power generated from the solar panels and wind turbines. An inverter is then hooked up to the batteries and it converts the battery electricity (DC) to regular household electricity (AC).

Batteries are expensive and should be looked after.
They can range from $90 - $240 each. Three years ago, I purchased (4) 6 volt Exide batteries for $98.00 each (on sale). In the Spring of 2014, managed to pick up another four, used, 6 volt US batteries (brand) off craigslist for $40.00 a piece.

If the batteries have a clean, ventilated, safe, dry place to sit, they will last many years. With my experience, it's best to take care of them as long as I can. Don't let the charge get below 60% and check the levels of acid. I felt a little bad, that I had left the batteries just sitting under the cabin and not being tended. Batteries will slowly lose their charge over time and die a horrible death.

Back to the box... for the last couple of outings to the cabin, the plan was to get started on the box. I had even pre-cut all the plywood, but it just sat in pieces, waiting to be assembled. The winter chill made it hard working outside using the cordless tools.


The other day when I was driving to work, I thought, why not work on it during my lunch hour and get it knocked off. So, a few days before an outing to the cabin, sat down at the kitchen table and sketched out some rough plans.
Next, I went to the computer and figured out how the get the best use of a piece of plywood and made a cutting guide. It helps if you have all the information from the battery manufacturer. Using this as a guide, designed a plywood box that measures 24 inches wide by 48 inches long by 15 inches tall.  I purchased a 4' x 8' sheet of 3/4" thick Oak plywood. It was a damaged on one side and got it for $10.00. Sweet! That saved me at least $50.00.

With the sweet tablesaw at work, I ripped all the plywood up and started to assemble the box. Used 1-5/8" screws and Gorilla Wood Glue for all the joints. Got 80% of the box finished on my lunch break. Came back after work and put in another 20 minutes. Took the box home and applied 2 coats of Kilz Odorless Primer on the inside and Varathane America Walnut Wood stain on the outside. It came out pretty sharp.

Next, was a stand for the battery box to sit on. I personally hate bending over to work on stuff, it eventually hurts my back. I came up with a stand made for 2" x 4" and 4" x 4' posts for legs. The legs will be notched to fit directly under the 2 x 4 frame. I might add a 2" x 6" to tie in the legs with the frame for some added support.
Below is some of the videos of making the boxes.



Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Christmas Stocking Stuffer Ideas: Jelly Wax Fire Starters
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These simply fire starters make great stocking stuffers the for the outdoorsy type of people.  It's one of the projects my family likes to work on and give to the rural neighbours as a small Christmas gift. They work fantastic in getting the wood stove fire started, especially when it's super cold or the firewood is damp.

Monday, October 20, 2014

Testing Out Wind Turbine Made from Recycled Parts
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Great news! The wind turbine I was messing around with back in 2012, is working! (no load)
Now, I know that sounds really odd, but it has been on the back burner for quite sometime. I had a special location picked out and was planning to use it with another set of deep cycle batteries.

This particular wind turbine project started back in October 2012. My good neighbour, traded the wind turbine generator for a portable boom box. He mentioned that it wasn't working after an accidental shorting out of some wires. (He was extension cord style of wire ($69.00) than (2) 100' of 6 gauge welding cable ($140.00). Click on the links below below for more information.
drilling a hole into the tower and the drill bit struck one of the wires). So I took it home and messed around with the factory rectifier. Once it was removed, it was modified to a three wire AC system which would then be rectified closer to the battery box. To handle a 20 amp load, its much cheaper to run 100 feet of 12 gauge, AC, 3 prong,

Made a series of YouTube videos:
Part 1- Recycled Mount for Wind Turbine  
Part 2- Recycled Wind Turbine Mount- Stronger standoffs and a fancy cowling 
Part 3- Recycled Wind Turbine Upgrades 
Part 4- Homemade Wind Turbine Project v1.0 
Part 4- Buck Rogers Upgrade to Wind Turbine Project 2.0 
Part 5- Fancy Tail Fin for Wind Turbine Project 

So, with the completion of the new side deck, it was an
ideal spot for the big wind turbine. The plan was to erect the tower on top of the deck, next to the cabin and use the roof line as a support. Ended up moving the location 3 times before I found an ideal spot where it could be raised and lowered easily. Finally,  a good location was found at the corner of the cabin. Once it was in place, my next concern was the sound of the blades spinning and vibration.  But the next day, (the last day) there was no wind and I couldn't complete the test, bummer!
So, I let it sit for 3 weeks and see how it does. On October 17th, 2014, came up to the cabin to do some work on the insulation and check on the wind turbine. It was still there is one piece. Nice! Plus, it was a windy day and I heard it working. Boy, did it make a racket. Sounds just like a working power drill being pushed into a some wood with no drill bit. Quite loud and annoying!

So, the next plan of attack is move the wind turbine tower to a different location, but close to the cabin, with good wind and eliminate some of the noise. Below is a video of it working.


Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Cedar Workshop Facebook Page
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If your looking for more up-to-date information on some of the Cedar Workshop projects, be sure to check out the Facebook page.

I'm finding the more I get busy with YouTube videos and projects, the less time I spend updating the website and social media sites.
So the plan was to update the Facebook page with current projects, a weekly video on YouTube and then every other week post a project in the works on the Blogger site.

I have tons of videos, but not all them are very interesting and should be edited. Plus I really suck at doing the commentary.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

The Epic DIY Deck Project- Part 6 First Time Building a Railing for a Deck
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Early morning shot of the completed railing on the Epic DIY Deck Project
The rail system came from a children's homemade tree fort that I dismantled a few years ago. It was a Craigslist find by my spouse. The catch was, I had to do the demolition, but got to keep all the lumber. It had tons of 2 x 6, 2 x 12, decking lumber and these pre made rail sections.

Put the shorter rail section near the corner. Add more strength to the railing

I actually had to trim an inch off the bottom rails, but it worked out just fine. 

This style of railing is actually quite easy to put together. It consists of a 6 foot long 2 x 4 rail at the bottom and the top, then (15) 3/4" holes were drilled 4.5" apart. A powered coated black, aluminum spindle was inserted in the holes.

I need to make my on section for left over lumber and it took about 30 mins to turn out a 6' long by 42" tall rail section.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Epic DIY Deck Project -Part 5- Cedar Decking and a Helping Hand
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Another instalment of the Epic DIY Deck Project series. The last of the joists were secured in place with joist hangers and hurricane ties. Then it was time to dig out the 2" x 6" x 16', 18' and 20' cedar boards. A big bonus for the weekend, I hired my 10 year son as a worker. He was a huge help in carrying lumber, air nailing and using the impact drill. (All my kids are trained on power tools) All I had to do was keep him busy and break for a soda on coffee break.

Hope this series has been interesting and helpful for other people who plan on building a deck by themselves.

Thanks for watching!

Music Credit: Eviction, by Silent Partner

http://youtube-audio-library.storage.googleapis.com/25c42ce2e052d37e, http://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary?

Monday, July 7, 2014

The Epic DIY Deck Project- Part 3B- More Joists & Minor Fix
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Scarfed a newer 2" x 10" into the beam

Side view of the deck project

My son gave a hand measuring

Lake side picture on July 13th

Road side view of the deck