Fall 2012

11/9/2012

Drafted a proposal for my return to FeF. It can be found here: File:Work Plan 3.pdf
Been working on that video. It's coming along. Thinking of throwing in the Cuban National Anthem as the soundtrack for montage scenes. hehe

11/6/2012

Spoke/interviewed with Parker today. Video of Skype Call on YouTube.
Found the right cable for my camera after a long search. This means I'll begin working on that video today.
As a side note: this week is my house project for the Tree House at OWU. Anybody reading this should check out that post and do it yourself or at least consider the questions raised at the end.

10/10/2012

Back at college in Ohio.
Intended to begin working on inverter design with colleagues and professors when I came back in late August, but taking a look at the preliminary readings I realized that this stuff is still way over my head. I intend to take some classes in electronics either here at Ohio Wesleyan or in a community college back home. For now, I intend to focus on what I can do. That includes work with CAD, research on the Wiki, and a blog post for future volunteers.
I also intend to finally edit that self-directed learning footage and compile something worth sharing. The only real block I have on that project is my lack of a usb cord for my camera...
For this weekend the plan is to find a cord and throw that video together. Then, time willing (Relativity exam on Tuesday), I will outline a blog post.

Summer 2012

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)

Create quality control checklist for CEB & LifeTrac II before they ship out. Video and wiki page.

Set up second whiteboard (almost done)

Set up workshop trash cans (done)

Get a quote on the scrap cars

Clear space for long-term metal storage

Finish moving random wood piles to central wood storage

build platform for recycling bins.

Definitely doable.
My own tasks this week:

Get SolidWorks logs online

fabricate produce rack for refrigerator (we can call it that now!!)

Find some local food sources

Things I did today:

Filmed Marcin discuss quality control points for LifeTrac

Ground sharp edges on LifeTrac to be shipped

Framed Whiteboard

Finished welding rusty old chair with 90 AMP flux core welder. Needs a paint job now.

Revised my work plan

Cut some rain barrels for the shop: Designated Plastics and Trash

No video today. Camera is out of batteries and I forgot my charger. It will arrive tomorrow in the mail.

Week 2

6/10

Hello everyone! Sorry it's been so long since I updated. Honestly, not much has happened. Things I can remember i've done:

Started to have old cars cleared out. Thanks to John who also dug the leech field for starting that process. I need to do some ground clearing for him to continue that tomorrow morning.
Built recycling bin platform to keep bins off the ground. I will need to paint it. Couldn't today because of predicted rain.
Started stuccoing the remaining HabLab walls with Yoonseo. It will take another several hours to finish.

Thing I need to do:

Publish LifeTrac quality control checklist
Paint recycling bin platform and post signage
Build two bunk beds for hablab
Get solidworks files online
Make Kickstarter rewards magnets
Build more racks for shop

Will post video/pictures as soon as possible.

6/13

I'm actually writing this on the morning of 6/14 but whatever. Yesterday morning James Slade, his friend Aaron, daughter Savannah, and Ian Midgley showed up hauling a pimped out LifeTrac and a couch. I learned how to torch and filmed a bit of a video on that. Need to edit and upload it. I torched about four feet of quarter inch steel from a 5x11 slab that will eventually become another welding table. I hope to fabricate that from the ground up. My horizontal MIG welding has come a long way and I feel comfortable with this basic task. I will study the ones Jose made for reference. Sadly, Jose will be leaving tomorrow or Saturday.
I don't think I've mentioned this in the log yet, but about two days ago Marcin and I decided to have some straw mattresses made. We need about 10 twin mattresses to be fully prepared for the incomers. The cheapest traditional mattresses are $100 so that is a 1k pricetag. But while I was doing my consumers research I stumbled upon this lovely website. I was immediately sold and passed the information on to Marcin. He agreed. So we decided to have three made. I sourced some fabric and took it to a seamstress yesterday. Tomorrow I will pick it up and we can begin stuffing and sleeping on them. No more floor! Although I have thoroughly enjoyed the time I spend centimeters from the dirt.
Even thought they are only passing through and will be leaving shortly after I am writing this, I really enjoyed the time I spent with James and Ian. Both are thoughtful, interesting, kind men. Last night I threw a pasta dinner together and we all (all eleven of us) got a chance to unwind and engage in some much needed communal mirth. One should never underestimate the adhesive and rejuvinative power of a family meal. Even Marcin was seen smiling.
Tasks left for today and tomorrow:

Install curtain rods in bathroom stalls
Find/order parts for welding table. Then make it.
Order parts for bunk beds.
Post some videos!
Get Marcin to send off the Wisconsin title request paperwork so we can get these cars out of here!

6/14

Interesting day.
Jose and I started to work on the welding table. We found the 2 inch angle we needed for the entire thing. We cut it using Brianna's Ironworker. That video should be on Marcin's youtube. I will link to it when it uploads.
Before that, though, I got a chance to do some dirtywork on the power cube. James and I were moving the LifeTrac to be shipped out into the workshop so that we could add on the tractor weights. As I was driving, with James walking beside me, we noticed the tractor was moving slowly. When we got 3/4 of the way there Marcin came out and noticed that the hydraulic outtake line was not attached to the second power cube. The pump had been heating hydraulic fluid but the fluid had not been moving anywhere. This caused the pump to overheat, the bottom to loosen, and the entire thing to bow slightly so that it leaked hydraulic fluid constantly. This was a very messy period of troubleshooting. Aaron mistakenly removed the wrong cable while attempting to cut the faulty powercube from the working one and we lost quite a bit of fluid. Eventually I was tasked with removing the bad pump and installing a good one. It was a great learning experience, albeit messy and I did get electrocuted once during the process.
Aside from that, today was another day to practice torching. I need to find a way to steady my hands better.
I will update more tonight.

6/15

Logging, especially video, has become very difficult for me. Finding time before I crash at night and even just motivating myself to document is not as easy as it once was. Still, I will attempt to maintain my mentality of full documentation while I stay here.
Today I welded the welding table together. Video by Sunday night at the latest.
Also went to seamstress to pick up mattresses. Gabbi (new arrival) and I tried to stuff them with "straw" chopped with the intake fan of a leaf blower but this turned out to be too tedious and messy. Tomorrow I will attempt to come up with a better method to chip the straw. As we searched today, we came across the old hammermill. My next project, after the table is up, will be to restore and improve that machine. And maybe CAD it up! Although CAD has been on hold for now...
Things to do:

Finish welding table and document it
Make some vlogs
Document progress on removing old cars
Move Hammermill to workshop.
Stuff straw mattresses
Make another Shipment video. Use Neil Diamond's Heat of Gold as soundtrack per Marcin's request

Night all

Week 3

6/18

Yoonseo's birthday today!
Finished the 5' x 11' welding table today and moved it into position.
Developed comprehensive work contract for the next month. Looks like I'll be busy!
Made a video of the torch table first test. Uploading now.
Finally have something to upload onto youtube. The video will show the table before moving, grinding, and cleaning. I can document it further when it's all together.
I worked with Grahm on his welding and grinding skills a bit, too. He is a natural and will progress very quickly.

6/20

Things I did today:

Completed 4x8 steel ironworker table for Ironworker I.
Assembled Iron Worker I on the table
Buried Internet Cable in front of FabLab to protect it from LifeTrac traffic
Moved the lifetrac with broken powercube with the Creation Flame tractor. That was fun!
Talked to mom!

Things to do:

Finalize accurate workshop design with Aaron.
Punch Kickstarter Magnets
Finish installing Iron Worker I
Organize this place!
Transcend the I - other dichotomy
Relinquish my vinculos to the mind and body
Exist purely as energy
Know pure Love

6/22

Today:

Organized shop with Aaron, Gram, and Chris
Finished digging up garden for Gabi

For this week:

Get KickStarter rewards sent out
Finalize FabLab organization and start on old workshop
Build more fabrication tables.

6/23

Woke up to rain today. It took me a few moments to realize that 1) the noise I was hearing was actually rain and not just the scurrying of many rats festering and fucking one and other in the crevices of my roof and 2) That this meant I had to run in circles outside carrying objects and furrowing my brow. The LifeTrac, generator, and chicks will survive. Aaron leaves today.
Found this lovely video on grahm's computer. He uploaded it and now I want to share it. Enjoy!

Found this video on the top of my log

Thanks Aaron. That was lovely.
Finished punching the 350 magnets today. I glued a couple prototypes to see whether they are functional. Tomorrow will be gluing day if, indeed, they do work. Many thanks to Grahm for being my lever operator as I held the awkwardly sized piece of metal and moved the horseshoe with both hands. It made it much much faster.
I will focus on getting the kickstarter rewards out before Wednesday for the next days.
Some visitors from near Chicago showed up in the afternoon. A polish family. They were interested in the social ramifications of the Open Source hardware movement and talked with us about their ideas on socioeconomic organization after a short tour. Their son, Kyle, is a potential contributor, one day. I encouraged him to visit the wiki and find a project he is excited about. The wind turbine seemed to catch his attention.
I wouldn't change a thing here. Everything is just as it's meant to be and everyone is exactly how they are.

6/24

Wonderful day today.

Week 4

6/27

Spent Monday making magnets.
Tuesday I ran around buying envelopes and stamps with Grahm. It was a good day.
Today and Yesterday I addressed all of the ~500 envelopes with the help of Grahm and Gabi. I am so grateful for their help!!!
I also drafted a documentation masterplan which is available in site systems, sent some emails to kickstarter supporters, fiddled with booktype (not promising due to HTML format). I think it would be better to use open office and googledocs for peer review at this point. The collaborative features embedded in booktype are unparalleled, though.
I'm tired of all this sitting in front of computers. I am going to bang out a sketchup model of a metal rack tonight and hopefully get the approval of Marcin to begin building it.
I am feeling myself become embedded in the community here. Not just at the farm, but online as well. It will be hard for me to leave this place. For now, though, I am perfectly content with the way I spend my time.
I should also mention this website: www.dozuki.com. Eric Doster who works for them was here and pressed the idea on me. I don't like it because it runs on a closed-source platform, but it does offer extremely beautiful user interfaces and is a wiki. Could be of use to OSE some day, if it ever decides to go open source.

6/28

I need to organize my tasks. Things I need to do:

Design metal rack from scrap parts available on site.
Build it
Stuff a mattress for myself
Return address and stamp kickstarter packages

This place... it's amazing.
Marshall Hilton arrives tomorrow. I am anxious of his arrival because it marks a change in my role here, potentially. I spent the last month learning fab skills, practicing, and teaching others what I have learned. I feel confident in my ability to grind, weld, drill, and cut metal. Torching is another story, but I have basic proficiency.
The point of all this is to be able to assist in production runs. Marshall needs to build CEB Presses. I believe I now have the skills to help him. I will speak with him, in due time, and gauge whether I fit into his team. In the meantime, I will continue to familiarize myself with the CEB fabrication process and improve my fab skills.
This could change the way I approach my time here.

To anyone who may be reading this off site and wonders what a month (almost) here has been like, here are my first thoughts.

Week 5

7/1

It's been a month! Feels like longer and shorter. Whatever.
I'll now look back on what i've done here in these past four weeks.

Learned how to weld, torch, grind, and generally interact with steel.
Built storage for wood.
Set up recycling infrastructure
Began to clear out junk in front of solar cube.
Helped with kickstarter rewards structure
Plowed a garden
Built 2 fab tables
Learned how to make parts in SolidWorks
Oversaw the introduction of straw mattresses to the site. Eventually these can be made for all new visitors.
Learned to drive stick!

Some things I would have done better/differently

Spent more time on SolidWorks
I wish I had fully completed the junk car area cleanup. I need titles!!!! I wish Marcin had been more helpful, but I need to find better ways to entice him to help me.
I could have spent more time with Jose when he was here. Although I did learn so much from his teaching. One day he will make a wonderful father.
Managed my schedule better. I would prefer to go to bed earlier and rise earlier. It is hard to get to bed early here. So much to do on the computer...
I want to get away from my old dietary habits and really embrace a responsible diet. This means no more coffee, imported fruits/vegatables, corn syrups, and oils.

From now on I will begin to keep track of my consumption, as I did in February. I will do this using the Ecological Footprint method outlined in the book Radical Simplicity by Jim Merkel. I emailed the author a minute ago asking for updated footprint conversion factors. Hopefully he responds. In the meantime, I will copy his accounting tools into a googledoc and update it with my log.
On a more personal side, I love it here. Interesting people, stimulating conversation, challenging work physically and conceptually, great food. Living off grid, helping create appropriate, open technology, showering minimally, smiling, laughing, sweating daily.
Today was a fun day. I helped Graham stucco for a bit as I listened to the Euro 2012 final. Later on we played our first Factor E Farm soccer game! I made a small court next to the camper using the string trimmer and some palettes as goals. It is just about big enough for a 3v3. The teams were Brianna, Chris, and Me versus Matt, Marshall, and Graham. We had a blast until I skewered the ball on a locust branch. RIP Franklin. I will purchase another from the hardware store soon. After the soccer game I rescued the projector from Marcin's room, set up a screen in HabLab, and we all (Gabi, Marshall, Chris, Brianna, Vann, and I) watched Much Ado About Nothing.
I can feel a change coming here. Marshall, Matt, and Vann have brought a new feeling to the air. Movie nights, soccer games, talks of book clubs are threads that may stitch this heap of rags together into a handsome, albeit raggy, community. Although it is premature to speculate on this nascent vibe, I am a fool and call it the infectious power of sharing. I hope that this will translate into some very tangible changes to the environment here.
Much love to my family, friends, and anonymous readers
-Aidan

7/2

File:Metal Rack ADW.skp
Today I listened to Marshall and Brianna talk about changes to the CEB Press for the next release. It was good for me to interact with the machine today because yesterday I screened the Civ. Starter Kit DVD and was exposed to much of the technical and assembly documents about the press. Talking about it again today cemented what I learned last night. I have a good understanding of how it works and how it is built now. I feel comfortable explaining it to someone else now.

Good day today. Fixed 4 wheeled cart. Redesign of metal rack on the way. Got a good schedule set up with Marchan. Drank fresh milk. Contemplated.

Lots of driving tomorrow.

7/4

Had a great idea today. Because I am here to experience, critique, and create the OSE Learning Community, I will make a self-directed learning video after I complete the metal rack. It will contain segments of the genesis, planning, execution, and evaluation of my metal rack. The video will also be a template for future self-directed learning projects. I think it will be super useful.

Lots of cutting today. Spent the whole day cutting!
I can begin welding tomorrow as long as the wiring in the shop is done by then.

Yesterday I picked up Yoonseo from the airport and got the wiring we need. It was fun being in the car with him and our conversations were informative, deep, mirthful, and exciting. It took us way to long to get the wiring, though.
Happy fourth of July everyone. Although, as Thad puts it, there's no independence left to celebrate.

Todo:

Finish metal rack
Ship kickstarter rewards
Build another fab table
Build modular casters for all tables
Get a background check on materials sources for Marshall
sleep

7/8

Relaxing weekend featuring RAIN!!!
I did very little work this weekend, unfortunately. Friday I was hotasballs and tired and only did some torching for my gussets. Saturday I relaxed and almost went to the lake. Sunday I relaxed, made a video, listened to the rain, and watched Citizen Kane with everybody.
Hopefully I will get the rack done by Wednesday and I can finish the table by Saturday night.
We'll see.
This place is all in a stir. It's something to see...

Week 6

7/9

Today I did 1/3 of what I wanted to do. I built one leg of the metal rack with arms attached. I did not finish the other two because I am sick and was not feeling well enough to stay in the workshop. I drank the tap water too much here and now am frequenting the composting toilet.

7/14

Still recovering today.
There is so little power here that I cannot work in the workshop. I think we should cut off power to hablab today.
I'm feeling moody and unsociable today. Probably residue from my mom's visit. We all revert in our parents' company...
The cordwood reeks of rotting corpse. I think a mouse died in here. It is NOT pleasant. I haven't drunk coffee in a long time! woot

Week 7

7/17

Here's a tasty little nugget that Graham left on my youtube channel

Week 8

7/26

Ok so I am coming to terms with the fact that my time here is limited. This means that I am defining some very clear objectives for myself that I know (or hope) I can accomplish in a month.
These things are:

Finish Cold Saw with Yoonseo
- Callin up momma sweiger after we realized our annular cutter was shittin all over the vice.
Help Greeks build a trencher
Finish table/caster system for workshop
Help Graham Design AND Build Microtrac.
- This one is tricky but possible.

So what happened to site cleanup?
Too much in too little time. I need to focus on what I think is the most effective use of my time. I continue my stance that what matters is not only what you do/produce but also how you do it. How in this case is understanding/quantifying/curbing waste streams at the Farm; reducing, reusing, and recycling (that's a hierarchy - thanks Sam Sonnega); and organizing, organizing, organizing so that nothing can be lost.
Can "appropriate tech" be born from inappropriate use of "inappropriate tech"?
This place is a pool replete with materials, ideas, and activity. How do we extract from these swirling waters of innovation something meaningful - something needed?
A reporter from Business Week was at the farm today. When he interviewed me I learned that he writes for the Science & Tech section of the paper. This information gave me pause. I think I know why. At my core I don't really see OSE as a technical or scientific endeavor. Instead, I have come to understand Open Source Ecology as a human project. Quite possibly one of the last human projects this Earth will see. Without losing myself in that romantic notion of timeliness I thin I should take some time to explicate my personal relationship with the idea of Open Source Ecology. Since I'm writing from a cordwood hut in the United States, perhaps it is apt to employ some familiar language: A project for the people by the people. Was there ever such a project? Phrases like "Practical Post Scarcity" and "Global Village" not only appeal to that far sequestered utopianist but also stand strong against the criticisms of the disenchanted, post-romantic hide that's grown over the child I am no longer.
Politics may be essential to the freedom of a people, but distributed production and diffusion of knowledge are as well. They compliment each other. They could keep each other in check. Consider the intersection of natural building, Open Source hardware (including clean energy production and networking) and software, local food production (permaculture), radical simplicity, Open Source medicine. Practical Post scarcity means we (not the right stuff) can travel to the stars.
Before It gets much later and I fall asleep in my chair I would like to say one more thing about why this is a human project more than a technical one.
Getting to that place where we all want to be (keep it abstract as we think together) is not a technical problem. We are already there and have been for much time (since the moment we fell out of a chimpanzee's pussy). Obstruction of radical acceptance takes place in our minds. Yet we still need a project. Something to excite us. Something new to experience. Open Source _______ (fill in the blank) can be that avenue.

7/28

"Dude, but no, ... I'm proud of you man" ~ Poppa FeF

7/31

Today I got a lot done!
In the morning I helped John do some roofing in HabLab with Chris, Marcin, and Aaron.
After that I started moving cement blocks into position for my rack. I then taught Big George and Marshall how to use the lifetrac and they teamed up to learn how to operate it while moving the remaining blocks.
While that was happening I got Cowboy George set up making a table for Yoonseo's mini lathe. He did well by himself.
Meanwhile, I was consulting with Theo about his trencher. I think they are almost ready to build it.
By the end of the day Nassus and Big George and I finished the cement base. It looks a lot better than I thought it would.
Things for me to do tomorrow:

Weld on supports for metal rack
Finish table for Yoonseo
Finalize trencher design with Greeks
Design new hoist
Convince everyone NOT TO SWITCH TO ON GRID WATER AND POWER!!!
Install vices
Refill old battery bank with water

That should be enough for tomorrow.

8/4

Need to organize my thoughts. Things I want to do:

Fix trencher and use it
Set george and nassus up on hoist project
Make caster system
Make self-directed learning video
Upload trencher vids
Make another fab table
Paddle out cold saw bushings and test that mother effer!!!
Paint Torch Table
Get Millermatic running
Get hobart running?
Get welder power supply moving
Clear out shelves from workhop
develop 2 year plan for off-site collaboration after skewl
build microtrac?

Aidan Williamson Log 2012

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