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What is the latest big real life project you started?


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My current project is to repair/re-do the staircase in our house. The house was build even before the Napoleon wars and close to what could be called a Dreiständerhaus (three-posted farmhouse), the middle house in below picture:

 

700px-Zwei_drei_vier_Staender.gif

 

When it was built the higher mid sector was used to store hay, stray and other food for the animals, the right side was stall, and the double floors left people rooms. The left side of our house is a bit build into the hill and the right side pointing towards the main storm direction.

 

The high middle sector is used as eating room, kitchen, party room, playroom (high enough for ballon defense at table tennis), ... The house got a quite new heating system, based on wood gases used to run an engine which produces electric power and the engine heat used to heat water for shower. We want a second heating system which could be used in addition to the existing one or as a reserve at a failure of the existing one.

 

The idea is to use a wood-fired Grundofen (don't know the english word):

grundofen.jpg

 

The idea of a Grundofen is to lead the heat of the oven around plates to head chamotte stones. The oven would be heated just one time a day and store the heat for a whole day. It is a more natural heat feeling, you heat at full power when you leave the house, highest heat level would be 8 hours later short before you return home and evening to night it slowly cools down so you have a better sleep.

 

Inspired by a picture from a discussion forum for wooden houses I am currently calculating heat flow, exhaust gases, material to build such an oven below the stair case I have to repair.

 

Treppengrundofen_I3309_2010911141447.jpg

 

I like the idea to give the staircase a double using: the steps would be build from chamotte to store heat. Just a few changes needed, our staircase has 2 90 degree turns.

Edited by chattius
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Very cool project chattius. I love this kind of stuff. I'm always looking for ways to use the space I have efficiently and your project does just that. A giant staircase heater. What a great way to heat. I think "Grundofen" might actually be the product name but a close translation to English would be a "Fireplace". A somewhat mundane name eh, but yup, that's what we call it. ^^

 

I'm curious. How do you plan to cover the opening to the fire? Will you make it so the fire will be visible like in the picture? Will you sometimes have just a metal mesh screen covering the fire so you can hear and smell the fire?

 

 

As for myself I'm stuck as to what I want to do with painting. I have some great ideas on how I'd like to paint my room but just can't decide on colour. I'm certain I want a warm colour for my room though. Beyond that I was thinking of somehow stenciling shapes and painting in multiple shades of whatever colour I choose. Not really shapes... More like diagonal bars in very slightly differing shades. Just to be different. I'll definitely need to use photoshop to design the idea first.

Other than that I've been working on optimizing our network of devices here lately. Between us we've got 3 pc's, 2 laptops and 2 ipods. I recently invested in some new network gear such as a wireless N router, adsl 2+ modem and wireless N dongles. Something fun I learned is that since the PC's are no longer using their Ethernet sockets I networked two of the PC's directly. File Transfer speed is AMAZING since doing so. Through the router when we were wired to it the PC's transferred at about 12MB/second, wirelessly the transfer rate was about 2MB/second. While the PC's are wired directly to eachother via Ethernet the transfer speed can be as high as... 120MB/second. For example a DVD movie(approx. 700MB) will transfer completely in about 6 seconds. Pretty cool huh! Never thought I'd see a transfer that fast in my home.

Recently I learned that Ethernet cabling has advanced and that buying new cable might improve speeds more. Most of my cabling is Cat 5 and I've read that Cat 5e or Cat 6 cables might be better. Still learning though!

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At the moment, I'm seeing about getting 24 fluorescent lights at my fraternal lodge rewired with modern electronic ballasts. It's bugged me for years that several are burnt out and they all hum badly, so I seized an opportunity and got a great price on parts. I figure w/ 3 ladders and 4-5 guys, we can get them all wired on a Saturday morning.

 

It won't save enough electricity to matter (the lights are only used about 40 hours per month). But it'll be great to have them all working and quiet.

 

@Chattius - I've found the terms "masonry heater" and "mass heater". I also found where similar is called a "Russian fireplace".

http://mha-net.org/html/gallery.htm

 

http://www.pyromasse.ca/infoe.html

Edited by masteff
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That is indeed one nice plan there, chattius!

I'd really like to say, that I'd have some nice renovations in mind. But money's always the issue... Not that my condo would need anything major.

If it counts, I've slowly started fiddling with chiles. Nothing grand, but got an Ebb & Flood system from a friend who kinda got tired with water farming, and once I get the missing incredients, we'll gonna plan in some seedlings. One can only wonder where this could lead. :D Hopefully I can get even one own pod of heat this summer. ^^

Edited by Stormwing
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Thanks for the pictures. I think the difference between a Grundofen (ground oven) and a masonry heater is that the Grundofen is designed as part of the building, not easily removable.

 

Metal Mesh Screen

@Schot: With little kids (twins are just 3) in house a heat resistant glas cover will be it. But since it is easily removable, I had a mesh screen as a winter/party solution in my mind. I plan to attach the glass/mesh screens wih just 4 nicely decorated wingnuts. No tools needed to open them for cleaning, exchanging. The mesh screen demands some calculation, it is a slightly change of the heat flow. I have to show both screens to the official chimney sweep who has to do a savety okay.

 

I always hated it, when my parents said: don't sit on the cold staircase, you may get a cold. With this heated staircase this is another problem solved ;)

 

Room painting

This is tricky. The only part of the walls which can be painted is the wooden frame. And the frame is painted ancient brown. Same colour as it was painted for hundreded of years. Not easy to change the colour: old century old paint layers would have to be removed till the original wood would be reached. So the painting of the wooden part is more a 'cleaning and re-oiling the paint' work.

The fillings between the wood is: first some halved beech twigs bowed/pressed into the oaken frame elements, then elastic willow twigs woven around, then all covered with a mix of clay, horse apples, fine cut stray and hay. Only this filling is then painted white with lime mortar(?).

 

If you use the wrong colour or even worse: cover such a wall with a dry wall, the wooden parts may start to rot. 4 of my cousins earns their money with repairing historical wooden patchwork houses:

p4_bau1.jpg

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That fireplace/heating system is really cool (err hot?)

 

Never seen or heard of a staircase being used that way before.

 

As far as projects I've got going, does work or the wiki count ? :D In the middle of a 5yr project at work for one customer and might have another similar project coming soon for another electric company.

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Since my house is fairly new, the backfill has settled, and needs to be topped up. We noticed this one year when water came into the basement on one side (driveway side), so I finished that side of the house 2 springs ago - but did not do any more last spring. Springtime is my only option, as I do not want to use any heavy equipment... shovel and wheelbarrow (and elbow grease) gets the job done :sweating:. The biggest pain about this project, is that the back side of the house has a deck across the entire span, and the front deck covers about 60% of the front. I forsee a lot of working on my stomach (deck is too low for me to be on my knees) this year, as I cannot rely on having slow melts / dry springtimes to keep the water from entering my basement forever :oooo:.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sounds/looks pretty impressive Chattius!

 

Not sure if I have any "projects" other than our third child (~10 weeks old), not turning into a fat ####### (we bought an exercise bike a few weeks ago & I've got up to two sessions of 20 mins a day ~7km each, not too shabby concidering I wasn't doing any exercise this side of uni) & we'll probably have our loft/attic converted into another bedroom at somepoint in the next year or so when the mortgage fixed term ends (since you then don't incur any fees for switchin mortgage providers)... Oh & the kitchen needs painting...

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My last big project (besides the eternal graduating project which is much like a perpetual "Main quest" :P) was cleaning my room, divided into various "sub quests". My room has lots of areas that needed to be gone through, having stuff sorted out, dusted and vacuumed and reorganized, including the space under my desk, everything on my desk (which housed a huge DVD, book and magazine collection, that combined with my computer hardly left me any room left on it), bookshelves above my bed, storage space under my night stand, compartment in the side of my bed and the room and shelf above my closet. It's a good thing I wasn't allergic to dust, I would have died ten times over as some of those areas of my room (especially behind my DVD collection on my desk and the shelve above my closet) hadn't been visited by me in literally years.

 

But I'm proud to say it was done. Sorted out a lot of crap, reorganized my desk and shelves and in doing so I could store all books elsewhere and put the games and DVDs that resided on the floor on the closet. It felt SO much better after I had done all this. My "quest reward" was a big sneeze for a few days though with all the dust I'd thrown up, LOL. Since my floor was dusty during cleaning anyway I also took the time to clean out my computer from the inside. I had bought a pressurized air can...cleaning is so much effective with such a thing! I used an old paintbrush before to clean the dust out of my heat sinks and fans, LOL. For those interested, on the DA forums I have a small photo documentation of some of the work (on my desk) in progress.

 

I'm not sure what my next big project will be...I should really graduate and then find a job. The next big project would be moving out I guess :D

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@Llama: yes, even we had already 3 daughters, the mixed twins were behaving different. asynchronous, one was sleeping the other crying, then they just changed roles, ... they took more time than a single baby. But since we now count 40+ and we are not planing more kids, we wanted 4 but are at 5 now because of twins, I can start to do some bigger house projects, which got delayed as long we had kids below kindergarden age in house.

So with our oldest becoming 16 soon it is time to move her from a kid room into a young lady room (one wing of the attached barn is planed for our 2 oldest daughters, including adding another bathroom).

The staircase and oven is just the first step, rooms have to be reached, and I like it warm when working :)

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  • 1 month later...

I finished all the heat calculations, got the savety papers signed (fire insurance). The staircase is already build, but lacks the oven. Now all I have to do is to build the oven in. The heat storage and flow is calculated as: heating up at 7am in morning with open heat window (fast warming of eating room for morning breakfeast). Before leaving home: closing heat shield/window and maximum storage heat will be gained at 5pm shortly before everyone comes home from school, work, ...

 

Project

Our oldest is getting 16. You can't do a car license with 16 in germany. We paid her the T-license for big tractors (40km/h below 18, 60km/h at 18, no weight limits). The license incluse small motorbikes (till 45km/h) and light cars (up to 350kg weight and 45km/h), so mainly what we call quads in germany (all-terrain-vehicles.

 

So she could drive the Unimog with it's gearbox limited to 40km/h. Buying a small Motorbike with just 45km/h is a waste, because you can get same speed with e-bikes and we consider buying a second E-bike addon-set. We got good results with the kit for the bicycle of our second daughter who has to do muscle rehabilation training.

 

But we wanted something which can be used at bad weather and in winter too, so no quad. But new light weight cars are expensive 10000-20000 euro for a micro-car which gets unneeded once the driver is 18. So when asking I was told that only 300 were ever sold in germany. And since only 300 were sold the second hand prices are still very very high.

LIGIER_400_D.jpg03I4F510491204A.jpeg

 

So when looking at the freshly done driving license of our oldest:

 

350kilogramm max weight, 45km/h max speed, engine limited to 50cubic centrimetres if normal fuel is used, no volume limitation for diesel and electric, but a limitation of power to 4kilowatt, ...

I had a stupid idea and called my father in law (former motorbike champion). We build already Royal enfield bikes with diesel engines and I use one of them for my daily driving to work at good weather (depending on speed 1 to 1.4liters rapeseed oil per 100 kilometres). So he appeared at saturday and we put the old Isetta out of he barn. Empty weight 345kilogramm-ufff, that was close to 350, but still below 350kg.

Engine weight of original engine is 5 pounds more than new engine, but new stronger gear box (more torque because of the diesel) would add 4 more pounds. The new fuel tank would be leightweight plastic so he thinks we could stay below 350 kilogramm. Old parts will of cause be stored, so the Isetta could be switched back to original oldtimer status.

 

Fuel tank - 15 litres rapeseed, 1.5 litre diesel - 40 euro. The diesel is needed to start the engine, then you switch to rapreseed oil once running. - 40 Euro

 

Engine - 80 euro second hand - I have 3 more of small diesel engines, bought last year at a saleout of a bankrupt company.

 

Gearbox - 350 euro

 

small parts: 50 euro

 

savety license 80 euro (technical okay from a federal licensed person)

 

estimated 80 hours work: -600 euro else spend on tickets for concerts, theatre, sports, restaurants ,...

 

So it would be cost neutral :whistle:

 

Even the US army found a way to drive an Isetta without fuel, I think that using a diesel engine would be best I can do.

 

1000_041005_2_Isetta_usa-480.jpg

 

The police in our neighbour district (Car sign MR = Marburg) still has an Isetta, now in the police museum. It was the cheapest way to bring a typewriter and foto-camera to an accident place.

 

BMW-Isetta_2000x1714.jpg

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Even the US army found a way to drive an Isetta without fuel, I think that using a diesel engine would be best I can do.

 

1000_041005_2_Isetta_usa-480.jpg

 

The police in our neighbour district (Car sign MR = Marburg) still has an Isetta, now in the police museum. It was the cheapest way to bring a typewriter and foto-camera to an accident place.

 

BMW-Isetta_2000x1714.jpg

 

The UK hit series Top Gear featured one of those Isettas. James May had the distinct honor of displaying that vehicle's primary drawbacks - the lack of a reverse gear. He drove it right up to a wall and found he couldn't get out.

 

The Peel P50 - made on the Isle of Mann in the 1960's - at least had a door on the side of the car, not in the front. It too suffers from the lack of a reverse gear as seen here:

 

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You mean this funny video?

 

http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/more-outtakes-from-series-15-bubble-wrap?utm_campaign=ongoing&utm_medium=syndication&utm_source=truveo

 

It is repeating old jokes by the english, none of them is actually true. Actually the Isetta's build by BMW for germany had rear gear and 4 wheels. The centre of Gravity is behind the front wheels ,...

 

And you are allowed to park it sideways, as the nowadays Smart, so even foolish English can leave it :) And he could have left through the canvas top...

 

But if english can not even drive english made three-wheels, perhaps it are the drivers:

http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/clarkson-tips-over-reliant-robin

 

Count the crashes the Top Gear guy did in this short video.

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You mean this funny video?

 

http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/more-outtakes-from-series-15-bubble-wrap?utm_campaign=ongoing&utm_medium=syndication&utm_source=truveo

 

It is repeating old jokes by the english, none of them is actually true. Actually the Isetta's build by BMW for germany had rear gear and 4 wheels. The centre of Gravity is behind the front wheels ,...

 

And you are allowed to park it sideways, as the nowadays Smart, so even foolish English can leave it :) And he could have left through the canvas top...

 

But if english can not even drive english made three-wheels, perhaps it are the drivers:

http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/clarkson-tips-over-reliant-robin

 

Count the crashes the Top Gear guy did in this short video.

 

Nope. This was in an earlier series. The car was in studio - and James May got inside and drove it up against a wall - and couldn't get out. The car seemed to have a hard top as well. I didn't see the particular video in question on TopGear's site - nor on YouTube.

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Well I know our Isetta has a rear gear. And the joke in the top gear video: If you drove too close to the back wall of your garage you couldn't leave because of no rear gear and a front door. And you could neither call help with a mobile phone because they were not invented them, nor cry for your wife or girl friend because you never would have one if you drive such a car...

 

One of its german nicknames is actually Knutschkugel = kissing/petting ball/bubble. If you drive with your girl/boy friend you sit really close together.

 

It is true that many micro car of this time had no rear gear. The BMW Isetta actually had. This Kleinschnittger not:

 

225px-Kleinschnittger.jpg

 

One of my teachers had one, you had to lift it up to turn. But since it was a cabriolet you could easily leave and do it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hmmmm my biggest project would have to be a novel I'm working writing. As well as doing some body repair to my fiance's car and as soon as I can get a truck and car trailor to texas I'll bring home my baby and start back working on her :) gotta love antique cars

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  • 2 months later...

Addon to the oven/staircase:

Changed the design of the oven a bit. inspirated by this nearly 400 year old picture of a drying oven:

 

obst.jpg

 

The U-turns of the heat flow are normally filled with heat storing stones. By attaching grips to the 2feet*2feet*3inches heat stones I can pull them out easily. The room they were in can be used to dry fruits.

 

way healthier apple-chips instead of potatoe chips

 

Cchocolade/chilli cherries: dried yellow cherries (a sweet variant, and its yellow colour makes it less apeetizing for birds) put into a mix of liquid chocolade and chilli. Once the chololade couverture is hardened it are nice pralines.

 

Next week we will try:

Dried blackberries, blue-berries, ... used to marinate and fill meat...

 

kirschen_1.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

My latest real life I've started is trying to find a new job, at a decent well paying place where they will treat me like a fellow human being.

 

delta!

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Addon to the oven/staircase:

Changed the design of the oven a bit. inspirated by this nearly 400 year old picture of a drying oven:

 

obst.jpg

 

The U-turns of the heat flow are normally filled with heat storing stones. By attaching grips to the 2feet*2feet*3inches heat stones I can pull them out easily. The room they were in can be used to dry fruits.

 

way healthier apple-chips instead of potatoe chips

 

Cchocolade/chilli cherries: dried yellow cherries (a sweet variant, and its yellow colour makes it less apeetizing for birds) put into a mix of liquid chocolade and chilli. Once the chololade couverture is hardened it are nice pralines.

 

Next week we will try:

Dried blackberries, blue-berries, ... used to marinate and fill meat...

 

kirschen_1.jpg

 

 

These drawings are so beautiful Chattius. Are these actually being custom drawn by you? :o Are you using a architectural table, formal training for this?

 

In itself, just the planning is art for me

 

 

My latest real life I've started is trying to find a new job, at a decent well paying place where they will treat me like a fellow human being.

 

delta!

 

 

Nooooooooooo

 

Theuns, that really is a challenging project, it's journey start can be disheartening, but you're a very positive spirited person who works hard. I just know something good is going to come about if you're appyying the same anergy and forbearance as you do in your posts.

 

Keep us informed, maybe open up a job search topic for you so we can see where your search takes you.

 

Good luck!

 

:)

 

gogo

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@GoGo

It is the 1633 drawing from an old book. The writing in ancient german reads: the oven which is heating with only a small amount of wood.... If you ask anyone who owns a wooden patchwork house if he is doing plans and drawings with measures in millimetres--- all will say no. Wood works with centuries and a wall or floor is not a streight line. You have to search wood which is grown naturally more or less following the old wooden parts. So perhaps with a 3D scanner I could do a drawing, but I normally follow my belly feeling. So the removable heat stones are not in a strait line: their placement was dictated by how the oaken planks worked last 350+ years.

 

Leitz/Leica is placed in my home-town and they build cameras, microscopes, ... and in the list are also 3D scanners. I asked a friend working at the company to test one when io had to send drawing for tax reasons, except the old house never had them. So placing the scanner in the room, starting the software and the beast did the drawings: http://www.leica-geosystems.com/en/Leica-3D-Disto_94606.htm

 

@Delta

Good luck with your job hunt. I know from my own kitchen experience: experimenting with lunch for family is fun. But being forced to do mass production can result in hard boring work. I learnt that when my younger sister married years back and I had to do food parts from a recipe list without knowing the final results.... A former classmate of mine said: becoming a cook is like climbing ranks in army. You start very low , only cutting vegetables, 2 years later you can perhaps do a salade on your own, then 2 years laters a desert, ...

 

He was so frustrated that he hired on a ship (container, then tanker, then research vessel) as cookie for 5 years, just to be his own chef - at least for the kitchen. A good cook wants to be creative, but is most often forced to do someone else recipes - at least my friend is saying so.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I got a new Job, starting there in 3 weeks time, (17 October 2011 will be my first day there), only sad part is, it is over a 1000km away from where I am now, and leaving my friends and cousins behind in Pretoria is going to be sad. The new place is called Delaire Graff, a beautiful boutique hotel in the heart of South African Winelands, Stellenbosch, Western Cape and they have 2 restaurants, Delaire Graff, and Indochine(more Indian/Asian inspired recipes) and the hotel has their own kitchen as well. They also produce fine wines on the farm. Handing in my resignation was one of the scariest experiences I've been through.

 

post-15332-0-82062000-1316874179_thumb.jpg

This is one of the desserts I had the responsibility of plating when I went for the interview. it is called "a taste of caramel" and the components are, Creme brulee, Creme Caramel, Caramel mousse/gel like foam with caramel brittle and caramel popcorn, and a profiterole with caramel creme pat and caramel sauce and maldon salt sprinkled on top. Garnish is deep fried mint :BlobRed:

 

But I'm super psyched!

Thank you everyone for the well wishes and prayers!

 

Delta!

Edited by Delta!
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