/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>128295
From my experience,

-Funnel cooker: Novelty really. Lid gets super hot. Does okay cooking food. The funnel isn't all that great for portability and does not store well and has lots of heat loss. I'm sure you could make some sort of folding one. The unit is pretty light. A glass cooking vessel painted black seems to be best.

-Panel cooker: Functional and quick to set up. It takes forever to cook with for small unit, and has lots of heat loss. VERY portable. Very nice for reheating food.

-Parabolic cooker: Best as a stationary non-portable unit. Can take a long time depending on its size. Lots of heat loss and it has a very finite focal point. Left unattended and it could cause a fire if something was in the focal point and flammable. The focal point changes as the sun moves so helio-tracking by hand or electronically is a must.

-Box Oven cooker: Insulation is key, can be made portable, and collapsible. Depending on the design and size it can be easy to store or take up a lot of space. These can be stationary fixtures as well and can be very large and cook massive amounts of food. Smaller reflector space can be used because of its heat retention. I prefer these over the rest. Great for baking, pizza making, etc.

Another pic of the same cooker. This unit, when empty can easily and quickly reach 450F. All foods cook in about 1 hour or less on a sunny day.

I've made several types of solar cookers. From super cheap and small to one with lots of R-value.

I've made solar funnels, ovens, parabolics, and panel cookers. I've made around 100 meals thus far, have cooked in 2 feet of snow at 2 degrees Fahrenheit outside temp.

Plans and tons of info,

http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Solar_Cookers_World_Network_%28Home%29

My recommendations,

-Build as light as possible.
-Box cookers are best for just about everything and every type of cooking.
-More R-value insulation = hotter ambient ait temps for box cookers
-For affixing aluminum foil to wood or cardboard use a mixture of 1 part water and 1 part wood/Elmer's glue. Spread it with your hand, towel off hand, and roll foil over the glue, wait till it dries, and cut off extra.
-Foil works better than glass mirrors because there's no glass for light to go through
-2 glazings (glass, plastic, etc) are best for the window for a box cooker

continued...

pic is my main cooker

>>125770
>After receiving indictments from a grand jury in Virginia for racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and other charges on Jan. 5, federal authorities on Thursday arrested four people and executed more than 20 search warrants in the U.S. and eight foreign countries, seizing 18 domain names and an estimated $50 million in assets, including servers run in Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Welp. I hope none of you uploaded anything incriminating.

I'll see about uploading a newer updated version later on.

>>125769
Not legally where I live. I plan to get a license eventually so I can sell legally.

>>125775
You can sue anyone for anything, whether or not the suit will be dropped is another matter.

>>125754
>>125755
Megaupload.com appears to be offline according to this,

http://downorisitjustme.com/res.php?url=www.megaupload.com

The links worked when I posted them and have been up for at least 1 year or more I think. Wait until megaupload is back up and running I guess.

>>125759
Hundreds of factors affect the performance of the yeast. It can be the recipe, environment, ect.

>>125750
Incorrect, it can brew up to 19% depending on the brand. Fleischmann's Dry Active bread can do this, but normally only reaches 18%. It's much like Lalvin EC-1118 and can substitute it in many recipes.

Bread yeast is a very vigorous fermenter as it is meant to raise bread. It can cause blow outs much easier and can ferment dry far easier.

>>125538
It should be fine, but depending on what brand you use will matter. What brand did you use?

>>125445
Yes, blow off tubes are better than balloons and 3-piece airlocks. That is for sure. The problem there is you may not have a stopper to use them. You can make a rubber gasket using a balloon. You put the balloon over the carboy top, poke a hole in it and squeeze the tube into the hole. I had to do that once when I ran out of stoppers.

pic related

Dandelions are not weeds. They are food and resource. You can eat the entire plant. Make wine and fried food from the flowers, a coffee adulterant from the roasted roots, latex from their sap, etc. Get the seeds from the ones you can, plant them in a garden space. They will do very well.

>>125447
Thanks for the additional info.

Here's all the old Homebrewmen archives, link list is copy/pasted from older threads:

-----

95.37mb
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=A0UQOL5Z

95.37mb
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0H7BJ5I9

95.37mb
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=MKF29Q88

75.61mb
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=I96QJ2G4

Download all 4 parts. Use 7-Zip or WinRAR to open and extract only the first part. Then the rest will automatically extract at the same time.

I highly recommend that you extract this into a new folder with a very short name on your hard drive (C:\a\). This is because there are VERY long file and folder names that can exceed the maximum file+folder name length and give you an error while extracting. If that happens it'll look like the archive is corrupted when it's not.

I know Windows XP can have that problem, but I don't know if Windows 7 will have that problem since I think its limit is much higher.

Most recent part is a stand alone file and you need to open it separately from the above:

Filename: Homebrewmen Threads 98-110.7z
File description: Homebrewmen Threads 98 to 110 - Tepache
File size: 66.95 MB
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BICQT6Z9

>>125429
Potassium sorbate is the only preservative you need to watch out for in store bought fruit juices. Even then, baker's yeast isn't affected by it all that much. Regardless, One should use fruit juices without anti-yeast preservatives.

>gelatin

Gelatin is a standard wine fining agent.

>methanol

Fruit pectin is what produces the most methanol. In wine there is methanol produced. However, it is at such small quantities that it does not harm you. The ethanol helps protect your nervous system from its affects and the ethanol itself does more harm to you than the minute amount of methanol in wine. However, when you distill wine to make brandy the methanol content can, but does not always, increase to dangerous levels IF you fail to distill correctly. This also depends on the type of wine. For instance an orange or pear wine, that has not had pectic enzyme used in it, will have more methanol content than any other wine. If it was distilled IMPROPERLY there's a chance of mild methanol poisoning. Cases of methanol poisoning with distilled spirits come from when the person distilling it actually voluntarily puts methanol into the spirits in order to up the alcohol content cheaply. They normally do that by using denatured alcohol which is ethanol that has methanol put into it to make it undrinkable for industrial uses.

Essentially, if you are mentioning methanol poisoning in wine making you are either a troll or you are completely ignorant of the subject.

>>125279
>>125283
I've brewed nearly 1,000 gallons of wine and mead. I've won a couple of local contests with my mead and wines. About 200 gallons of that was with balloon air locks in plastic jugs when I first started out a few years ago. The reason I advocate balloons is for beginners how want to get brewing ASAP while waiting for an order of brewing equipment or when you've all your current air locks are being used and you need to brew more batches. They also make great air locks when used properly.

Prison wine is called Pruno and is made in an entirely different way and with quite different ingredients that you make standard wine. Pruno will always be the absolute worst tasting alcoholic beverage ever created because of the ingredients and methods used to make it.

You are most likely thinking of hobo wine. Hobo wine uses store bought fruit juice, sugar, and baking yeast. Which, if done correctly can make an excellent wine. Some of my best wines have been hobo wines.

>>125412
Great idea, only there's no children where I live.

>>125255
>>125127
Dandelion wine is pretty easy to make, but picking the flowers is horrible and plucking the petals is worse than horrible. You can google several recipes. I recommend Jack Keller's website this dandelion wine and other wine recipes as well as tons of wine making info,

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/dandelio.asp

>>125001
Plastic, glass, BetterBottle, stainless steel, etc are all fine for brewing. The OP's problem was a contamination. It could have occurred from a faulty airlock or something was not sanitized first.

A good batch is a batch you personally like. There's far too many variables for that. For instance, a contamination may turn out great or horrid.

>>125020
StarSan is better than bleach and does not need to be rinsed out. If you do use bleach, make sure to rinse it out with boiled water that has cooled enough to use with your equipment. Rinsing it with non-boiled water is a contamination risk.

The only time an airlock fails is near the end of the fermentation cycle when outgassing CO2 pressure drops very low or stops. Then outside air can get in. During that time the microbe resistance of the yeast and brew will be dwindling and contamination can occur rapidly.

>>124980
Hmm....I guess that measuring cup was filled to the rim. It's more like 3 cups of sugar then.

>>124974
>>124966
That's 2.5 cups of sugar, FYI. It turned out to be one of the best wines I ever made.

>bitter

That usually means a bacterial infection and of course a bad batch. Sour is still good though, depending on how sour.

>pic

The biggest mistake is the airlock. At the very least, use a balloon with a few pin pricks in it as the air lock.

>>124961
Plastic and baking yeast is not a problem with wind making if you use them correctly. Contamination is the most likely problem with the OP's brew. I recommend HDPE #2 plastic and Fleischmann's brand baking yeast if you must use either. The Fleischmann's yeast must be used like Lalvin EC-1118 yeast.

>>122966
>>124183
>>124170

I already own a face shield and safety goggles. I really hate using them. They get in the way often and tend to slip. I've even had things hit my body and bounce up under the shield and smack me in the face and eyes, same for the air holes in the safety goggles.

so, I opt to have a shield right down at the work where it deflects everything and leaves me without needing to wear something on my face.

>>123286
There's no temp regulator and the soldering iron has no off switch. So, it heats up far too much on long jobs. It is a $5 soldering iron.

I have an $80 iron in storage that I rarely use. It's the kind with the trigger, light, magnifier shield, and 10 styles of tips. I also have a ColdHeat soldering iron (b-day gift), but I can't seem to find it for the life of me. I think someone tossed it out (good riddance). I didn't like it because the tips were so fragile that bumping or setting the unit down too hard would often times break the tips. It worked like a charm for individual leads though. It's use was extremely limited, especially so if you accidentally touched two leads at the same time it'd instantly fry everything because the tip uses electric to heat the solder. I also have a butane soldering iron, but I've not used it all that much. I recall it taking forever to heat up properly.

I'd prefer getting the style I have now with one of those big temperature controlled bases.

>>123241
Yeesh, forgot a link,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_casting

It shows some fairly detailed images of casting.

>>123212
It depends on what kind of mold you are making. With a lost wax mold you make the sculpture out of wax first. Then you have several options for the mold material that goes around it depending on the detail level of your mold and several other factors. You can pour plaster over it, leaving pour holes where ever you think you need it on one side. Then you put it in an oven upside down with the pour holes facing down. The wax melts and pours into a container. Then you pour your metal into the mold. You can use silicone or even a special clay slip, in place of the plaster, but clay slips are for patient people. If you are making a mold to reuse the mold then you make a clay sculpture and pour whatever material you want around it to make the mold (a metal with a higher melting temp than what you'll be using for instance.) You'll need to leave places for seems and hinges of course. Often times you don't make the entire sculpture mold as one mold for complex or big items. You design it so you can open the mold once your secondary metal is cooled inside. Then you shape the sculpture so that you remove the seems. The tighter the seems the less shaping you'll need to do later.

With a clay mold you'll normally lose the mold when you extract your item. with a silicone mold you can often time save your mold for later use, though you'll need to carefully cut it away in suck a manner that you can easily close it up. for the next pouring. Seems may be larger too.

Sorry, if my grammar, spelling, or wording are getting off, I've been up for 48 hours.

[spoiler]>>123219
I'm salvaging all the parts actually. They are useful to me. I've already downloaded the power amplifiers' data sheet. Which gives me all the circuit diagrams on how to use it and what it can and can't do. Each one of these semiconductor chips costs about $18, fyi and I have two of them.</spoiler>

[spoiler]>>123207
This reminds me, wouldn't a pressure gauge that outlets into the surrounding water, with the readable part inside the sub give you the PSI at whatever depth you are currently at? If so then a pair can be rigged to adjust internal pressures.</spoiler>

[spoiler]>>123208
I'm re-purposing only I'm doing it in a way that I gain more from it than simply selling it.

>cost a few cents

Then I should be buying these exact parts and using them to construct dozens of these amps and selling them instead. If I wanted a job of making money I'd do that instead of simply selling this one amp.</spoiler>

>>123199
Good tips. Dental tools are great for details in clay sculpture and wax for lost wax casting.

[spoiler]>>123178
It's worth more to me in pieces than working as a amplifier unit.

>you don't even know what to do with the rest of the parts

True, I have yet to make up my mind which projects I want to launch next. I need to look at all available materials then cross check that with my list of projects and see what comes first.

>>123182
Scavenging is going through stuff, looking for salvageable parts.</spoiler>