BMN Build your own Appleseed Biodiesel Processor, Clocks & end of the world

[Boss]

Welcome to Brian's Morning Newsletter for March 10th 2008 posted daily since 1999

Good morning

With the thick layer of wet snow on the ground this weekend, we rarely went outdoors. Saturday was much like any other, with recuperation and rest for most of the morning. We are running low on firewood again. When it began to snow again, I decided it might behoove us to try and split some of the large Piñon pine. That actually worked out well to my surprise, and we now have a week's reprieve before we'll need to get back in the forest and cut more. Many years ago, my parents swapped a tract of land with our neighbor. We call it the 37 acres. It is isolated, with the majority of trees being Piñon. It was in terrible condition. Over the years we have been working on the forest. Pruning and thinning Piñon pines is grueling work, but the forest looks much better now. There are however, small areas which we haven't made it into. Most of the Piñon forests in this area took a beating in the droughts five years ago. It stressed the unmanaged forest to the point of a major die off of Piñon trees. I suppose it can be expected that in these areas we hadn't worked we have a few dead trees. On the other hand, the areas where we worked the forest of Piñon trees is looking healthy and growing like gang busters for a tree not known for spurts of growth.

I am beginning to think I have taken on more projects than I can handle for this Spring. Maybe not, I hope not. I want desperately to get started on the new work shop and we should be able to make it a reality. Probably, the most difficult part of any project is getting started. This building will be designed with simplicity for every aspect. I spoke with our friend, the general contractor, on Sunday and he is enthusiastic. I explained that although I haven't had time to design the timber work, I was readying for the foundation and location, at least in my head. I must keep this project small to insure that we can at least get walls up and a roof by next Winter. Having a place to work means the world to me. It seems like it will come together too. I am juggling a bit too much for the Spring, with NM Synergy Fest coming up on April 25th and 26th. I guess it wasn't enough for me to volunteer to get a wind turbine up and operating for the April event, I had to go and open my mouth about a biodiesel processor for the college too.

Yesterday I came up with an idea to tie the new biodiesel processor for the college together with my knack for chronicling. I mentioned this new idea off handedly to Nell, and see gave me the most wonderful look and feeling of support. Damn, I love this woman. I didn't even think much of the idea until she said, "It is a great idea." Was it? I better work this out if it was that good. After fiddling about in the bright spaces of my head for an hour or so yesterday morning, I cemented a plan. I would add a new section to the biodiesel pages at http://outfitnm.com called, Build an Appleseed biodiesel processor. I've been wishing I had chronicled other projects and with this project I can document every step of the process on the web, while at the same time keeping accurate records for Luna CC as well and maybe even get paid for it. And beginning at the beginning, wow what a concept. Like every project I start with a list.

Please feel free to follow along at the Renewables section under Biodiesel/Build an Appleseed processor. My hope is that there will be enough information there for anyone to follow and build their own biodiesel processor. If something isn't clear there will be a corresponding section in the forum for question and answers. So if you always wanted to join me in homebrewing of a direct replacement for diesel fuel, now you can. It isn't particularly hard to build the processor and run it it in your backyard. The rewards will be obvious in your pocketbook and you outlook for the future. Well, you already know this because you've seen me driving around using homemade fuel with my head in the clouds. It feels great, no doubt, and the price of fuel is doing nothing but going up.

Speaking of doom and gloom. We received our advance copy of James Kunstler's new book, World Made by Hand. In case you wonder where I get my apocalyptic ideas from you need to read some Kunstler. This new book is fiction, which as we all know gives an author leeway to go hog wild with scenarios. I am going to be reviewing the new book which is why he sent it to me. I've never reviewed a book before and as you know I'm a consummate movie addict. Truth is, I haven't read a book in years. I started World Made by Hand yesterday after working on the computer all day long. >From dark - thirty when I began the saga which Kunstler sets in post fossil fuel era in upstate New York, until I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer, it was 12:30AM. Nell asked how it was? She reads a lot, and I think was interested to see me with a book in my face for a change. It indeed began with a terribly traumatized America. No cars for sure, but everything associated with fossil fuel had long gone. The new world was much as Kunstler has been predicting it would be in his other non-fiction books, like "The Long Emergency." Where it took one farmer with magnificent machinery to feed thousands before the collapse of the age of oil, it took half the people farming by hand or with animal to feed the other half.

If Kunstler couldn't put some character in the story and pretty damn soon I was going to put the book down. After all, nobody wants to hear that the future will be that bleak. Well, I plodded on... and started chapter "Two." Grin. Then it was midnight. Exhausted, I lie awake, unable to turn off the beautifully woven story in my head. How could a world with no conveniences be beautiful? Indeed the death of loved ones from influenza and Jihad attacks was unfathomable, yet the horses and gardens of necessity made more sense to me than our current disassociated from nature lifestyles. Also I can relate to a younger generation being more than a little steamed at us for not considering what they will have to cope with due to our lack of conservation. Yes our, use it up, wear it out, make it due or do without, attitude isn't going to wash in the future, this much is clear.

Did all of us loyal Americans oblige our fearless leader and change our clocks Saturday? We have a radio controlled atomic clock that receives instructions from the real atomic clock in Denver and it wasn't buying the idea of switching daylight savings time to Saturdays date. My computer clock agreed with Nell when she said Bush wants us to set the clock forward on Saturday. So we manually moved the hands on the atomic clock. I don't know if you are familiar with this type of clock. It can move its hands backward and forward depending on the signal from the atomic clock. This is supposed to keep it accurate, and of course it will move the minute hand forward to correct for daylight savings time. It usually does this in the night and we have rarely caught it, self correcting. Anyway this morning it wasn't quite with the program. Nell's alarm went off at 6:00AM and I looked at the ultra-accurate atomic clock which said, 7:30AM. I have no idea what that was all about. It must've started correcting our correction, then Denver updated for daylight saving time on Sunday and it got confused; backward, forward, just make up you minds, stupid humans! Kunstler's world there are no clocks, just roosters to wake us up.

Great letters this weekend, thank you all. This first one warmed my heart deeply.

Contents

   1. Re: Outfit: renewables

   2. Thank you for shopping with us at http://SeedsofChange.com

   3. Washington Post Mensa List of New Words

   4. The price of gas around the world

   5. 4JB1 into an 82 P'up project underway.......

   6. Astronomy Picture of the Day

Read the rest of the newsletter at http://outfitnm.com

[BigBreaker]

One thing that has me down on biodiesel, at least for self-sufficiency, is that you need a lot of methanol.  I know you can make it but it's an underreported hassle.  Isn't it simpler to adapt the engine to straight or nearly straight veggie oil?

For those that don't know you need about 1/8th the volume of oil in methanol.  It is nasty stuff, a neuro toxin, and can hurt you from vapors alone.  NaOH, the other major chemical you need, is also nasty but relatively safe to handle as a powder.

[spinningmagnets]

I agree about the inconvenience of processing bio-diesel, and the harsh chemicals involved, but...

I recommend adding a heat exchanger to warm incoming Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) with the 180F engine coolant, and adding a small second fuel tank for the diesel/bio-diesel with a tank selection switch-operated valve (WVO in the large main stock fuel tank).

To use WVO you need to run the engine on diesel or bio-diesel to warm it up (in order to run WVO) and also to flush out the injectors for a minute before shutting the engine off.

By having a half-gallon of bio-diesel handy (per trip) you can completely eliminate buying petro-diesel.

[richhagen]

You could make the ethyl-ester form of biodiesel from ethanol, which can be derived from plant material.  That won't likely hurt you unless you drink too much of it.  You would still need the strong base though.  .  . Rich

[Boss]

Brian's Morning Newsletter March 11th 2008

Good Morning

I am still sleepy this morning. Couldn't sleep last night even after downing two Warsteiner Dunkels (German Pilsner.) We watched two fairly descent flics, American Gangster with Denzel Washington and Russel Crow. Supposedly a true story, but I found the storyline unbelievable. It seemed to be jazzed up for Hollywood. Of course with Denzel and Russel it should have been great, but I don't know that it was. Next, and we probably should have gone to bed instead, but we were celebrating, the completion our debt to society, as they call probation. Three years, the government has been fleecing us for an extra $25.00 per month, over and above the myriad of taxes on just about everything imaginable. Victim-less crimes? After our government has its way the only victim is the alleged perpetrator. Crime only pays the government. Let that be the lesson.

The next movie on the hit parade was Michael Clayton. Another lame plot, with some fictitious corporation named U-North which was obviously supposed to be Monsanto, the evil of the evilest empires. I think the director was playing the poor mistreated consumer sympathy card on this one. Somehow we stayed awake until the climax to make sure the bad company got smacked. I went to bed shortly after the credits rolled. It was 10:30PM, unfortunately I lie awake thinking again. I am worrying about an ache in my stomach that won't go away. Dreaming of terrible scenarios, even worse than the plots of the movies, I must have dozed off, because the next thing I know Nell is calling Cujo at the front door to come inside , no doubt because he has been barking at the door. That was it, nothing I could do would let me fall back to sleep.

Damn, I wasn't going to play the insomniac and lie there unable to sleep or get up. I got out of bed, the clock read 1:30AM, I sat on the couch an opened James Kunstler's World Made By Hand. It took two hours to read several chapters because I was only half awake in my zombie like state.

Okay, I got to get ready for work.

All I can think about is more sleep.

See ya back here tomorrow, ok?

Note to Otherpower folks about biodiesel.

Methanol is expensive and highly toxic so I guess I'll have to be the only one who has the guts to make my own fuel. Smiles

[Boss]

Welcome to Brian's Morning Newsletter March 12th 2008

Good Morning

Lemme see... where to go this morning? I have wind turbines on my mind. Yesterday, was a fairly normal, if not slow, day installing WiFi around town. With the time change, I can fit at least one, possibly two more jobs into the extended daylight hours. Lately, I have more determination to earn, with the renewable energy workshop building project I have coming up in a few months. We have a good start on funding the project thanks to David (The Wave) and Wesley Sandel who both have donated $100.00 to the project. As I stated when I asked for your support for this project earlier this year, the plan is to buy a few truck loads of ready made concrete for the foundation and floor. We built my house down the hill and this place completely by hand, so this will be a blessed departure from the hundreds of cement mixer loads we did in the past. Thank you guys. Ironically, Dave the Wave did most of the cement mixing in the old days, now impaired with muscular dystrophy, he still finds a way to help. Sweet. Thanks again.

If others want to help with the humble non-financed renewable energy shop building project I'll post our address again. Brian Rodgers, HC 68 Box 3A, Sapello NM, 87745. The scale of this project is small making any support you can give, quite significant. For example, $20.00 will buy a box of nails, $100.00 will buy six sheets of tin for the roof. When this shop is finished, although small it will be our (BMN) community workspace. A place to come together and work side by side with like minded RE folks. Like I said, the shop will be small in order to adhere to sustainability rational and make this project doable with limited finances. It will have room to pull one vehicle inside at a time. I see a future where installing waste veggie oil kits in diesel powered vehicles will be a very valuable attribute of our new sustainable lifestyle cottage industries. When we don't have vehicle modifications happening, there will be room for welding on our wind turbines and towers.

Like I said, lately I have got wind turbines on my mind. I feel extra anxious to get a turbine in the wind. I believe that all this reading, writing and research is nothing but talk until one flies the machine he built in the wind 24/7. Lately, I've lain awake worrying about my health, thinking about one idiotic thing and seeing it clearly morph in unfathomable directions. I'm sure everyone knows what this is is like, as it surely has occurred at one time or another. Well, I've got a good one for us to worry about at night, in between vicious circles of men in black busting in the door and the men in white coats putting us away for thinking the dark thoughts to begin with. How about listening to a set up blades whirling above the house? While giving us peace of mind knowing we are independent of the utility companies, we can temper the thought worrying that mother nature's wrath will destroy our hopes and dreams at any given moment.

As you may know I grew up with Volkswagens. I studied and learned to a mechanic to keep my little Beatles and Micro-buses running. Many of the Volkswagens I owned were 6 volts instead of the 12 volts we see in vehicles today. Tape decks being 12volts were then a luxury we had to do with out. I became an incessant engine listener. I didn't drive my Bug anywhere without an ear to number three cylinder. What was that? I heard a tick or tap that wasn't there before. Stop check the oil. Run a feeler gauge through the valve clearances. Always worrying that this was the day the little air cooled engine was going to show signs of an inevitable demise. When I sold the last of my Volkswagens it was such a relief I can only describe it as a ball and chain gone out the driveway on a trailer because, inevitably number three piston was tapping again.

So in the same vein I can imagine what it will be like laying in bed at night listening to the wind in the forest howling, wondering if that last sound I heard was my wind turbine. Was it normal? Was it still on the tower, or was part of it hauling ass over the house? Nah, I trust my craftsmanship. When I build something, it is done right, history has proven this, except for the little air cooled VW engines which I never got the hang of rebuilding. The thing is though, when I finally get my tower up, I will need to pay attention to it. Homemade wind turbines absolutely must be monitored, and shut down in winds over 60 miles an hour, maybe less. This is what I want to learn from experience. And damn it I want to get my turbine in the wind soon.

I dropped in to see Louie P. at his shop in Las Vegas yesterday after work. Louie is working on the second set of props for our wind turbines. The first set are made from kiln dried Sugar Pine a light-weight yet tight-grained pine which grows locally. Louie had trouble with his band-saw and it made wavy cuts down the length of the props. This next set are made from locally cut and and kiln-dried Douglas Fir and he went to Luna Community College where we are building the mechanicals of our turbines and introduced himself at the school woodworking shop where he then used a three inch wide band-saw to make a much cleaner cut on the props. I stressed that I was stressed about getting out turbine in the wind by April 25th and I was going to focus on building the tower from now on. We have one complete 10 foot turbine which we build at Otherpower in Colorado, and goldurnit I am going to get it in the sky by hell or high water.

Contents

1. Letters
   
1. Subject: BMN Books, movies, beer, still no sleep.
   
2. Re: Outfit: renewables
   
3. Shroud?
   
4. I've learned a valuable lesson about WVO.
   
5. what to do with your extra eggs
   
6. Brian: Here's todays BMN astronomy photo, corrected to show the Sun's illumination coming from the upper right, as referenced in the text. The photo, as shown in the BMN, was upside down. -- Ken
   
2. Your Quotes of the Day for 12 March 2008
   
3. Astronomy Picture of the Day
   
   

Please visit the community web site at http://outfitnm.com/ to read the rest of the newsletter

Sincerely,

[Boss]

Brian's Morning Newsletter Thursday March 13th 2008

Good morning

Reading not writing, this has been my morning. A brief visit to James Kunstler's web site took me on a informative and un-merry ride. Still think the energy crisis was made up by bankers to steal your hard earned cash? Sigh. I signed onto a free, daily e-mail service brought to you by the authors of the New York Times bestsellers Financial Reckoning Day, Demise of the Dollar, and Empire of Debt called The Daily Reckoning . I'll post excerpts from this and other news sources to keep you apprised of the state of the economy which you surely aren't hearing on CNN. Then there is this group who will be happy to explain why oil is going to hit $125.00 per barrel by the end of the year. There is a fine history lesson there, read if you are interested to find out what is going on in the Middle East from a energy commodities investment consultant point of view. I found all of these links on Kunstler's page http://www.kunstler.com Of course I'm reading his work of fiction right now called World Made by Hand, so yeah I'm a little biased. Which you can read about on a new web site http://www.worldmadebyhand.com/

I think we better get ready for some changes in this country. Starting with the end of cheap gasoline. I also found a link there on Kunstler's page for the National Association of Rail Passengers. I know I have harped on the need for a passenger rail system many a time here. Nevertheless, Bush seems to think that American's can do without passenger rail transportation and is of course, cutting funding. There is a link on the NARP site to write to your bureaucratic representative. I do think we need to continue to subsidize Amtrak, but I feel even more strongly that an all new high speed light weight passenger rail system for this country needs to be designed. From what I've seen of trains which of course is very limited because we are isolated in the country with nothing but an occasional hint of a whistle from the train off in the distance as it travels along the edge on the mountains in the plains past Las Vegas NM. Amtrak cars are ridiculously bulky and far too luxurious as far as I am concerned. Right, Nell and I are used to traveling around in 25 year old four cylinder noisy and smelly diesel powered vehicles. Why, for instance, if we wanted a ride the rail the 150 miles to Albuquerque would we need to travel in a fifty ton rail car with porters all sorts of other features we don't need and aren't used to anyway? It is absurd that we do not have a choice in the country. I would rather get there fast instead of it taking twice as long as driving, and to hell with the comfort, make it cheap! If I want a slow luxurious cruise, I'll take an ocean liner.

This is part of the problem with this country, everything needs to be so damn safe and comfortable. That's fine for the people who can afford it, but what about the rest of us? At the risk of standing out like a sore thumb in a crowd of mindless consumerism, let me just state for the record that I don't care about what my car looks like or feels like to drive, it is a tool to transport me and my tools to work, that's it. My truck isn't a penis extension, not a chick attractor, not a neighbor impresser, it's a focking tool. It's no wonder that this economy is about to take a dump on America's front lawn. We got our priorities in the wrong order. Who's fault it this? What ever the answer, I doubt any fingers get pointed in the mirror. We place our family and our very survival behind our precious cars. We are giving the sex starved extremists in the Middle East all the money and power they need to make our lives a living hell. People have forwarded me pictures of the outrageous and outlandish images as examples of what the Saudis are doing with our gasoline dollars. Indoor ski areas and man-made lake resorts in the desert.  People please. You better be naïve and not just stupid. Our gasoline dollars are buying our deaths and the destruction of our families.

Every time you "fillerup" you help an extremist buy our demise. Go ahead and believe they spend all that money on gold plated Bentleys if you want to help bring about the end of the once coveted American lifestyle. I suggest you spend your money on anything besides what is in your driveway. It'll do us all a world of good. Oooohhh, is Brian having one of his little moods? Not really, in fact I am happy, because I have done something to break the vicious oil based consumerism cycle. What irritates me to no end is that pretty much no one else in my group seems to think there really is a problem, least not one worth taking the extreme resolution of sending the car back to the dealership with a note saying, "Thanks for selling me this gas hog, when all accounts show a steady rise in fuel prices and green house gas emissions." I have a fun poll for the BMN: List the year and make of your car(s), List the miles per year driven and you miles per gallon. Now just because we use homemade fuel and drive four cylinder diesel powered vehicles doesn't mean we get good mileage. Hell no. I don't know what is happening with the Isuzu Trooper but it is getting atrocious MPG right now.

I can tell you this though, once I have the new renewable energy workshop setup and functioning, I will be able to work on the vehicles and get the fuel mileage back where it should be. This is why I want the support of this group. You have been listening to me rant and rave about passenger rail systems, biodiesel power solar and wind charged electric vehicles for years. You must think I have something going on with my ideas. If so show me, support the sustainable community workshop. Instead of sending Osama bin Laden another $50 to fill your tank give Brian's idea a shot. I definitely won't buy any guns or silver plate my Isuzu with your money. What I offer is options for our future. Not everyone's future, I can't deal with the whole world's problems. However if at some point you do want to get off the terrorists oil nipple and want my help to convert a diesel powered vehicle to run on waste vegetable oil or learn how to make your own fuel then please help me now when the time is ripe and we aren't getting any younger.

Yours truly

Brian Rodgers

Table of Contents

1. I have wind turbines on my mind.
   
1. Git-R-Dun!
   
2. RE: wvo oil burner
   
3. Gosh, another critique, Sorry.....
   
2. Your Quotes of the Day for 13 March 2008
   
3. The Clusterfv(k Nation Chronicle:
   
4. Astronomy Picture of the Day
   
5. Welcome to The Daily Reckoning
   
6. The Full-on Oil War of 2008 :
   
1. A Collaborator Countdown:The 4 Horseman of the Oil Apocalypse
   
1. What Does This Matter to the Price of Oil?
   
2. The Middleman:Playing a Most Dangerous Game
   
3. The Radical:Why We'll Never Gain Access to Iraqi Oil
   
4. The Mastermind: How a Blacksmith's Son Just Engineered the End of Cheap Oil
   
   

Read the rest of the newsletter at http://outfitnm.com

[Boss]

Brian's Morning Newsletter, March 14th 2008, Est. 1999

Good morning

What a let down my day at Luna Community College was yesterday. As you know I have a fairly high opinion of myself and like to think my reputation precedes me. Dealing with bureaucracies is enough to demoralize anyone. Certainly I have ulterior motives in wanting the college to get the sustainable energy department going. Building wind turbines requires a wider array of resources and tools than I currently have. Kevin the head of the Renewable Energy department and I worked out what we thought was going to be a plausible method to have the college get going on the biodiesel program which the IT director asked me to work on last month and put a proposal together. Okay so I will need to do this on a volunteer basis to get it going as the college can't find the money to support a local do it himselfer. Fine, I will, and have already begun the process of building the college a biodiesel processor. I have the list of supplies and parts ready for the director, and we set out across campus to meet with him after lunch.

He wasn't in his office again. His secretary said he was taking the afternoon off. You can imagine how our bright dispositions slumped at the news. Wouldn't do us any good to wait half the day like last time we needed to meet with him? Nope. Dang. On top of this Kevin asked where the tools and supplies  we ordered to build the school wind turbines were? Only to hear that the company was waiting for an application to be filled out. Waited for a whole month, did they? Jiminy Crickets! I shouldn't go into what we later found out about why the director left for the afternoon, as it is their business and I am only a pawn, but I feel more like a worm on a hook. Politics, the bane of modern society; smiling and shaking hands while the real deals have already been cast back stage.

This really cements my determination to get on with building the renewable energy workshop here at Las Tusas Ranch for our community. Which brings me to another point which I hammered in yesterday probably a little harshly. I see this morning that Sue T. is behind my community RE shop  idea and for this I am deeply grateful. My intention is to keep the workshop building expenses extremely frugal. With my experience at the college I will make every attempt to leave the bureaucratic nonsense out of the equation. Sure it would be nice to have a business plan, but I don't and I really don't have the time nor inclination to make one. I believe with the level of physical labor people here have offered that the building can be built or at least a shell erected for a couple of thousand dollars. There will not be plumbing and the electrical may need to wait for next year.

In my mind, this project is an old timey type of thing, like they used to do in the old days, you know? Community came together to build a barn. If everything goes as planned, I would like to see us do this again for family members and friends as well. In order for a sustainable community to function properly we need you. Imagine, having your own renewable energy powered cabin here on the ranch, because this is where my thinking is going. This property in is a trust, I believe we can lease cabin sites for sustainable lifestyle homesteads. Anyway, this is one way I see our future heading, together. See I'm not a doom and gloomer, I have hope, a lot of hope.

Read the rest of my newsletter at http://outfitnm.com

[BigBreaker]

I didn't know that ethanol could be used.  That is a big help.  NaOH/KOH can be made in a number of ways, including from wood ash, but you do need a fair amount of it.

For maximum independence I still think gasifiers are the way to go for generator fuel.