In article >,
"Pete C." > wrote:

> > > You should be able to find heavier mylar in like 2'x3' sheets at a good
> > > art / craft supply place for a few $.
> >
> > Hobby Lobby?
> > I've not looked. I'd have to check.
>
> I haven't looked for it there, but they likely have it.

It's the closest craft supply store. ;-)
Just give me an excuse to "browse" Hobby Lobby!

> > >
> > > I've got an ambitious solar project on the drawing board for when I have
> > > some time. The parabolic collector is 10' dia
> >
> > What are you building?
> > I'd love to get my hands on a dead LARGE satellite dish for a solar
> > stove.
>
> The base for the collector is a 3m solid fiberglass commercial type
> satellite dish
>
> The multi step plan:
>
> - Get dish reflectorized and on a tracking mount

Cheater! :-)

> - Get a steam boiler setup working on the collector
> - Build a steam engine (piston type, not turbine) to spin a large truck
> alternator to provide DC power to a battery bank and inverter
> - Run residual / condensed steam through a heat exchanger to extract
> heat for hot water and house heating
> - Build an absorption chiller to go before the DHW heat exchanger to
> provide for cooling / A/C
>
> I figure that's a decade worth of project

Consider putting the fan unit underground.
I read a website once on underground AC units to increase efficiency.
I moved mine into full shade and it's helped a bit. Supposedly putting
the condenser underground helps too.

Our local caverns here are generally 72 degrees. So is the water coming
out of the aquifer.

> >
> > Tools of power? <G>
>
> Tools, and the knowledge to use them properly = power
>

That was a Yolk. ;-)
I once saw a beautiful carved staff made by someone dressed as a shaman.
I asked him if he'd done it by hand or used power tools. It was at an
SCA event.

His comment was "I used tools of power"...

I've been working on a rune staff now for over 20 years.
Most of it is done. I just need to add the inlay (some day) and the trim.

It's made from an Aspen sapling that sprouted off the root system from a
mature tree that I harvested in Colorado.
--
Peace, Om

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"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson