I am a highschool shop teacher from Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada.
Check back frequently, as this page changes often!
Check back frequently, as this page changes often!
I had a good bunch of kids in Electronics for Term 3. Only one block though. The rest of my subjects are Drafting 9-12, Mechanics 11-12 and Math 9. Booyah! I've got some of those PICs - Programmable Integrated Circuits. Blank chips that you program on the PC and burn with what you want it to do. Fun fun fun! Actually, I have no idea how they work. Not yet anyway.
Geocities has changed their advertizing, and since I'm too cheap to pay to have it removed, I re-designed my site to work with it. What you see now is based on CSS coding. Cool stuff! It makes modifying the site super easy!
And it's not likely to improve either. The first of my offspring arrives in August. That's right world, I'm going to be a dad. My hope is junior will be as crazy and dented as me. Exciting stuff! We can feel the baby kicking inside. Cool and yet very freaky. Ever seen "Alien"? Gives me the jibblies, really.
Learning how to prune trees. We have a sour cherry tree and an apricot tree, as well as a grape vine. Last year we made some sour cherry pies and made out own grape juice (I don't drink, so wine is out :) ). We got a few apricots, but I think it was coddling moth that got them. Spraying would reduce the bug thing, but I'm not a big fan of chemicals. I may just chop it down.
Late last year I bought my first digital camera. Being the cheap bugger I am, I bought it at a midnight-madness sale at the Brick, door-crasher special. It was a Polaroid PDC2030. Garbage camera. Absolute garbage. They go on ebay now for $1. Picture quality was garbage, use of it was garbage. Garbage. Turned out that particular model is really only used for promotional gimicks.
London Drugs had a sweet deal on a Sony DSC P73 for $199, so I got up early to get one. Stood in line (amazing) and was the first person in line to NOT get one. Figures.
Staples has a 150% price guarantee - they'll match a competitor's price, plus give you 50% of the difference. Since Staples retail on the same camera was $325, I figured this would be sweet. But no. They lowered their price to match LD's. Oh well. Bought it anyway. Sweet camera. I'm really happy with this one. (The pictures in "SkinnyG" are taken with the stupid camera - I haven't uploaded any new ones yet.)
Yeah, so that's about it.
We get two weeks off for spring break here, so I'm just winding down the first week of it. From here on up it's all downhill.
Stuff I've found on the web:
Well, I'm still working on the Lotus. Suspension is slowing me down. I'm trying to build it on the cheap, so
I've been doing alot of adapting and fabricating. The entire front suspension is completely hand made. The back
is as well, but is 80% done. Pictures
I ran into problems with the rear shocks I was going to use. They were fronts from an 80's Chevy Blazer 4wd - but they were too large in diameter to fit springs that would fit the frame. Springs that fit the frame won't fit the shocks. Springs for the shocks won't fit the frame. I returned them and now I have 70's Corvette shocks in the rear. They should work, I'm trying to get the right springs though - 140lb/in should do. you want the rear fairly compliant in a rwd vehicle. The fronts are 225lb/in, and I may go up to 350 or 450lb/in if they're too soft. I'm stoked about the rear panhard rod (lateral locater for axle) - I mounted it under the frame for a lower roll centre......
You can see why I think I should go into engineering.
In "Dwarf Car Technology," Steve Smith suggests some Gabriel shocks for those on the cheap (like me!).
FRONT: 81494 (mid-70's Chevy Nova fronts)
REAR: 81496 (early-80's Chevy Blazer fronts, quad shock)
The fronts worked out fine for me. I made my own coilover sleeves and mounted some 225lb/in springs at a 35°
angle, which provides me with 120lb/in wheel rate.
The rears, unfortunately, were too large to fit. They would only fit a 2.25" or 2.5" spring, but that spring wouldn't fit the frame. And still a pretty large shock. I went back and exchanged them for a set of rears from a 70's Chevy Corvette. MUCH less compression damping. These apparantly are a hot swap on triumphs and other obscure British cars where nothing is available. Now I'm just waiting on a set of springs and the rear should be done.
I had to change the trailing arm locations, as they weren't clearing the brake caliper. I had moved the caliper to the rear of the axle, but then the e-brake cables got in the way and were too short. I was able to put the panhard rod under the frame like I wanted to. Had to clearance the frame 1" for full bump travel, but it worked.
I was able to get the e-brake cables mounted nicely too, snaking up the right of the differential. Man this is a lot of work.
I picked up a bunch of plate aluminum, for the floor and for the gas tank. Had a heck of a time trying to re-learn TIG welding to get it together. Ended up using a Spool-Gun on a wire feed (MIG) welder which worked well. Ugly, but easy.
I ran into problems with the rear shocks I was going to use. They were fronts from an 80's Chevy Blazer 4wd - but they were too large in diameter to fit springs that would fit the frame. Springs that fit the frame won't fit the shocks. Springs for the shocks won't fit the frame. I returned them and now I have 70's Corvette shocks in the rear. They should work, I'm trying to get the right springs though - 140lb/in should do. you want the rear fairly compliant in a rwd vehicle. The fronts are 225lb/in, and I may go up to 350 or 450lb/in if they're too soft. I'm stoked about the rear panhard rod (lateral locater for axle) - I mounted it under the frame for a lower roll centre......
You can see why I think I should go into engineering.
In "Dwarf Car Technology," Steve Smith suggests some Gabriel shocks for those on the cheap (like me!).
The rears, unfortunately, were too large to fit. They would only fit a 2.25" or 2.5" spring, but that spring wouldn't fit the frame. And still a pretty large shock. I went back and exchanged them for a set of rears from a 70's Chevy Corvette. MUCH less compression damping. These apparantly are a hot swap on triumphs and other obscure British cars where nothing is available. Now I'm just waiting on a set of springs and the rear should be done.
I had to change the trailing arm locations, as they weren't clearing the brake caliper. I had moved the caliper to the rear of the axle, but then the e-brake cables got in the way and were too short. I was able to put the panhard rod under the frame like I wanted to. Had to clearance the frame 1" for full bump travel, but it worked.
I was able to get the e-brake cables mounted nicely too, snaking up the right of the differential. Man this is a lot of work.
I picked up a bunch of plate aluminum, for the floor and for the gas tank. Had a heck of a time trying to re-learn TIG welding to get it together. Ended up using a Spool-Gun on a wire feed (MIG) welder which worked well. Ugly, but easy.