New Hobby

I recently mentioned in a post that I might be picking up a new hobby that should have good synergy with my woodworking hobby.

A quick springtime ride

Below are a few pictures I took of the bike while on a ride yesterday. 

Supplemental Shop Lighting

The roll-up door in the shop is opened by an industrial type chain-drive opener.  Although it's industrial, it still has a standard socket for a light bulb.  Unfortunately, like most modern fixtures, the light bulb socket is only rated for 60 Watts.

Synchronous Generators - an overview of construction and operation

I've posted quite a bit about other aspects of power plants - posts about gas turbines, steam turbines, the steam cycle, nuclear reactors, and done a few posts about different or interesting places where I've worked in the past.

Oddly enough, I've never posted about electrical generators before, except for historical electrical progress and small household emergency generators.  It seems a bit odd that I've overlooked this for so many years, because the entire reason power plants are built is to spin the generator!  The machines we will be discussing are actually an alternators, because the output is alternating current.  In the business, we tend to use the term "generator" more often than "alternator", so please bear that in mind while reading.

Annual fire extinguisher training

This is actually pretty fun, even though I lost part of a day off to attend.

Stihl Chainsaw Repair - Model MS362 - *UPDATED*

Late last year I was dropping and limbing a few trees, when I noticed that the chainsaw wasn't using any bar oil.  I stopped using the saw, and shortly afterwards heavy snow fell.  The trees I had felled were buried in snow all winter long - so there was no clean-up.

Minor shop improvements...

I had a little bit of extra material remaining from the big cabinet project, so...

Spring Vacation 2018, Part 2

Part 1 is here:

I did not complete the big project I was working on during vacation in March.  It was a little discouraging.  I was uncertain about my skills building and hanging the doors on the new cabinets, so I held back from doing that.

The Berkely Pit - an unfolding environmental nightmare

I don't suppose many people are aware of the Berkely Pit.  If they live anywhere in the Northwest US, they should be aware of it, and they should be knowledgeable about it.

The past weekend...

...was cut short, as I was called in to work one day.  That left me with 48 hours off, the beginning 7 hours of which I had to sleep.  I got off work at 6:00 AM and trudged off to bed.  That left me with half of Saturday.  Church took half of Sunday.  The weekend was brief.