Aidan Williamson Log

Week 1

5/31

Arrived at FeF at 10:30 AM. Thanks to Chris DeAngelis for picking me up.
Went grocery shopping.
Moved CEB rollers to dry location under old workshop eaves.
Helped Jose begin to move and reorganize hardware from old workshop.
Practiced MIG Welding under Jose and Brianna's helpful supervision. Need more practice.
Began work on FeF disposal infrastructure redesign.
Tasks this week:

Locate site for trash units

Design & Build Trash units for segregated trash

Collect & organize construction waste around site

6/1

Assessed distributions of recyclable materials in area surrounding HabLab, workshop, and old workshop.
Built structure for dry storage of biomass and construction wood scrap for burning. Much thanks to Chris DeAngelis for all his help.
Contemplated household recycling storage

Design would need to both store 1-3 months of materials (depending on amount of visitors at FeF)
Needs to be easily moved manually onto truck bed
Made of materials already on site

Two options presented themselves:

5 gallon paint buckets. Advantages: Abundance of buckets on site. easily transported when full of heavy materials, can be used inside house then simply capped and brought outside.
55 gallon rain barrels. Advantages: Abundance of barrels on site. stores more material in less space than stacked 5 gal buckets

Decided to go with rain barrels because the main advantage of 5 gal buckets, that they are easily transported, was nullified when Yoonseo Kang and I lifted a 55 gal bucket full of glass (heaviest configuration of recyclable household mats) the height of a truck bed.
Stil Need to do:

Organize materials outside hablab

Organize materials in area surrounding workshops

Find someone to take old cars

Fabricate recycling barrels.

Video is a brief look at current material distribution and a view of new wood scrap & biomass storage spot:

6/2

Felt tired for most of the morning. Drank a cup of coffee and was ready to go at ten. Need to get to bed before 1AM from now on. Already breaking that rule tonight...
Organized HabLab construction materials. Took most of the day.
Collected wood for burning to stock wood pile.
Reassessed water management at wood pile site. Designed a water management system. Cut materials.
Rake broke so I got to practice welding while fixing.
Acquired SolidWorks 2010 from Yoonseo Kang. I plan to document my entire learning experience with SolidWorks. It will be my first time using CAD so this will be an experiment to see how long it takes someone to learn and then contribute to the project. Here are my thoughts on the process:

Record entire time while using the program
On-screen timer while recording.
Video recaps with voice-overs on sped up recordings discussing what I did.
Start with tutorial, then some practice, then CAD the sawmill.

Will be interesting to see how long this takes. It will take place mainly in my off time. For screen capture software I will try to use CamStudio which is open source.
I felt like WALL-E today when I was cleaning the construction site. It was difficult work on my own. I really enjoyed it, though. Tomorrow I will build my water diversion system, stock the woodpile, and begin the recycling bins.
Tasks still remaining this week:

Complete woodpile

Build Recycling Bins

Organize scattered materials around workshops and in fields

Will need to use tractor to do that. Need to practice driving that

Find someone to take junk cars. Have a lead on that thanks to Brianna Kufa

I've thought about long-term outdoor metal storage. We have large (3'x3' ish) concrete slabs that can be laid together outside the workshop to create a space for that. Could be something to tackle after we get the cars hauled away.

6/3

Finished water diversion at woodpile.
Practiced Flux Core Welding. Shot some footage of the machine for a video for future visitors.
Strained my back and neck while digging the canal for that. It's pretty serious. Need to take it easy for the next day or so.
Tasks remaining this week:

Build Recycling Bins

Organize scattered materials around workshops and in fields

Call Steiner's Auto Salvage to see if he can take the cars

6/4

Neck and back felt somewhat better when I woke up. I decided, because of my physical condition and the heat (94 degrees!) that I would take a break from organizing the site and instead focus on learning SolidWorks.
I started by downloading this timerwhich will appear on all my videos I record with CamStudio (open source!). I had some difficulties setting CamStudio to use the right codec (still not fully working) but eventually I got some quality video of myself doing the first lesson. Here is my plan for this endeavor:

I will do the entire SolidWorks tutorial

Record each session with the timer running

Drop the file into a video editor and speed it up. Watch it and do a voice-over. Add that to the video. Render and put on youtube.

I would have had something to post today, but I had many problems setting up CamStudio. Need to convert what I shot today and do my voiceover.
Tomorrow I will set up the recycling bins. I have delayed that too long already. I will also continue the SolidWorks. Need to call my grandparents too...
Practiced more flux core welding today. I am rebuilding a rusty chair that was left outside HabLab. Will post a video of it tomorrow.
Unproductive day overall. Bound to happen. Tomorrow I hope to get the ball rolling again.

6/5

Started to organize materials near junk cars. This includes glass, rusty steel, bags of plastic, fiberglass insulation, ceramics, aluminum and steel cans, and many other materials that do not belong in lush, wooded areas. It has been slow going.
Went to Maysville Recycling center to drop of some recycling and to see their organization. They separate clear glass from brown, have containers for plastic 1&2 and for general plastics, and take plastic bags. They also sell potable water for $.01/gallon. Good deal for a farm with a dry well.
I am having more issues with my SolidWorks recordings. It's the editing of the video files in particular. Need more time to figure it out. Sorry to keep delaying this. Should be posting by the end of the week. I keep recording, though. So more videos are piling up.
The tractor is out of service, something with the power cubes. So I cant move the heavy equipment. Marcin and I discussed building temporary shelter for them while a barn is built. I will need to talk to Gabby about what she needs for her operation.
The welder was offline today (power issues) so I could not practice welding and finish my chair.
I cut the recycling bins and drilled holes in the bottoms for rain. I will have to build a lid for the cardboard/paper bin, as well as a base for them all to sit on. Yoonseo does not want me to label the bins with spray paint (unsustainable in his opinion, mine too) so I will instead label the platform I build to house them. Hopefully it works as well.
Tasks for this week (ends on Thursday):

Figure out a path for these cars to move

Finish stocking woodpile

Build recycling bin platform and a lid for fiber bin.

Figure out a place to store large farming tools (i.e. hammer-mill)

Get SolidWorks videos online! and complete tutorial.

Bri suggests I be the FeF cook. I was interested at first, but now I think it would be better to just continue to work unpaid. Money complicates the cooking process. I enjoy sharing the dishes I cook. It imbues me with a feeling of love that eclipses the value of the money I could make by it. And besides, I don't want to have to cook dinner every night!
Video relates to moving the cars:

6/6

Here are some pictures of highly concentrated, problematic material distribution.
NOTE: These images are not representative of the general situation at FeF. They merely show small areas of high concentration.
Thought I should say that so people don't get the wrong impression.

Scrum Tasks this week (due next friday)