07/17/10

091024 - Forgot the camera at the can!  Darn - will try and upload some pictures tomorrow.  We had a dinner party last night, with the two Doug's and their wives, Joan, Judy and my buddy Chris.  We stayed up way too late, drank maybe one glass too many red wine, and six a.m. came early today. 

We did the 7:15 a.m. breakfast (winter hours), did some material shopping, then Chris and I were back on the project until about 3:00 today.  Chris had correctly pointed out that the 'posts' had become walls.   We braced the beams, and then took out the posts.  Chris cut out the steel that was between the two C cans, and then we put the posts back in - three 2x4's on each side of the C can.  It was tough work, but it was the right thing to do.

Jeff had dropped by last night, and we had gone over the wiring plan for the project.  We are going to be using a lot of coreline - 1/2 inch, 3/4 inch and one inch.  We went over how to set it up - and where to make the home runs to.  Paul was going to drop by today with his two boys, but got going on a project, and has rescheduled for Sunday.

We broke Al's Sawsall - but Chris thinks he has a screw to fix it.  Chris will be back in early afternoon tomorrow, so we will have to make do without that tool for a couple of hours.

091021 - Dropped by this afternoon - we had heavy rain over the last 24 hours.  The C cans were dry - wow - excellent.  The plan is coming together.  Chris has pointed out that the 'posts' are becoming walls - so I talked to my brother, and I've got the specs on how to replace them with a single screw type post.  Chris - you get to cut the steel out again!

091020 - Went over to the project late this afternoon.  It was apparent that the dozer operator had been back in there and cleaned things up some more.  I've got some pictures below.  I cleaned up the C cans a bit.  I added a duplexer to each of the CFL lights, and a second CFL light to each duplexer.  I cleaned up the wiring (ok, I made it easier to add things to the battery bank - not cleaned it up).  I wired in a single LED light above where I have the station mounted.  It gives off a wack of light.  These new LED's are excellent - but can only take about 12 volts nominal.  I have been warned that they should not be subject to the voltage present when the batteries are being charged.

I have the Buddi-Heater down there, running at 50% - and it was excellent at taking the chill off of the can while I worked the radio for half an hour.  I took the automatic antenna tuner to the project, but didn't get it hooked up tonight.  I ended up having to do some more work, so it cut into my 'play' time.  I talked to a gentleman in Calgary on 80 meters (the only antenna I have up right now).  He was 20 over.  I then had a quick chat with Al VE7CYY, Drew VE7DR and another person or two where I didn't have the calls recorded.

East end of the can opened up - one door only.  Two six volt Golf Cart batteries - my Yaesu 897D, and one of the new high intensity LED's hooked up for light.  I also wired in the 800 Watt inverter, but it would not run the CFL bulbs - even when I reduced the load 50%.  I need to research why that didn't work?

091019 - Ben L. was on the project since 10:00 a.m. this morning.  He tack welded 3 inch by 1/8 flat steel across the top of the cans.  Al, talking to an acquaintance of his, has come up with a roofing material that will go over this flat steel.  This will make it totally watertight.  Ben then moved on to working on the container's doors.  A couple of them were very difficult to open and especially to close.  Ben lubricated them up, and then ground down where they were binding.  Huge difference when he was done.  Ben also 'adjusted' the round locks so that they closed easier, and finished welding them.

The CFL bulbs seem to be working ok on the inside.  Got another four installed in the other can.  I think I will look to see if I can pick up a double bulb adapter and that will give us sixteen bulbs x 13 watts.  It will be interesting to see if they will run off of a modified sine wave adapter - as it would be nice to run these bulbs without running the generator - just off of one of the battery banks.  I'll try and get down there after work tomorrow.

Leaving the site just before dark tonight, I spotted a medium sized buck deer skulking along the fence line.  I tried to get a picture, but only had my BlackBerry camera, and it is really poor.  I'm sure there will be another opportunity.

091018 - I was down at the project this a.m. early.  I put together some CFL lighting - for construction lighting in the cans.  Al showed up, and then so did Paul, Christian and Kenny.  On the goal today was to get the cans waterproof.  They were leveled a few days ago, left to right, front to back.  The space between the two of them at the bottom is very close - like maybe 1/8 of an inch.  This needs to be welded together - even tack welded would do.

So - the plan today was to put some 1/2 inch square steel mesh into the openings.  Then we would put in foam filler.  We then covered the whole thing with the left over steel cut out from the openings.  One wrinkle today was that as we went to put in the mesh, we realized that we needed to weld the cans together so that they wouldn't move, relative to one another.  I had some four inch by four inch - four inch long angle iron (did I say that right?).  This was intended for the big green containers - to make a type of lock for them.  Al welded both the bottom and top together, and it held it exactly in place.

Ben and his family dropped by today.  Ben is going to help me out with some welding.  Welcome to the project buddy. 

Al and I also trekked across the Lower Mainland this afternoon.  Kathy H. donated a leather couch and a bunch of ceramic tiles to the project today - thanks Kathy!

Here are the pictures from today.  They are thumbnails - so click on them for a bigger picture.  Those are the new CFL construction lights that I have put in.

This is looking at the end wall, between the two C cans.  This is similar to what we did at the top of the C cans as well.  Again, this is stuffed with 1/2 inch mesh (rodent control) and then filled with expanding foam.  My expectation is that this will seal the openings, and keep it waterproof.  We'll give it a couple of good rainstorms and see how well it works.  Once we're happy, this will be covered with plywood.  For info, we were just closing up the C can, and this end was already locked up when I took the picture.

This is looking at the end wall - West side - nice job Paul.