home improvement turns into science fair projects?

Relax in southern comfort on the east bank of the Mississippi. You're just around the corner from Beale Street and Sun Records. Watch the ducks, throw back a few and tell us what's on your mind.
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JR.
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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

Post by JR. »

My speed control caps arrived but still sitting untouched.

My immediate concern yesterday was that I was not getting the expected temperature/humidity normalization between the two rooms. It turns out I was getting some circular air flow from the doorway where air was returning into the main room and the inlet port... Moving that intake port 8-10' further into the room reduced the circular flow and now I am seeing better temperature/humidity equalization.

My plan keeps changing, sometimes more than once a day. mounting this up in my attic gained some currency because it would simply breaking the circular flow. Downside to attic install is that ducting and blower would need to be insulated from temperature extremes (and I don’t want to muck around in the attic in July, in MS.)

Latest-best plan so far is to mount the blower up in my bedroom closet, then punch holes through two walls to route the duct through my bathroom and into the main room, near the heat pump unit. My wife wouldn’t like the ductwork in the bathroom, but not my problem… :lol:

Since I broke up the circular flow, the back bedroom temperature is lower, and main room humidity lower in the day time hours… Last night I had another epiphany about the heat pump and humidity. It appears that its energy saving mode just shifts the thermostat temperature several degrees and that works well ,,,,, BUT, last night I noticed when I shifted to energy saving mode, the room humidity bumped up about 5 points…. Apparently the cooling coils were wet, and when adjusted warmer, that moisture simply evaporated into the room…. In the future I will reserve the energy saving for night time hours when the main room dehumidifier is running, while the humidity was still moderate.

Last night after seeing the humidity jump, I reset the thermostat lower and the room humidity dropped again but much more slowly than it jumped up.

No hurry, but if my plans don’t change again soon, I may look into using a saber saw to cut some 8" holes in a few walls. My neighbor probably has one I can borrow.

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JR.
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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

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My steel U-channel to pull my small mower as a slave, never showed up... tracking showed it last scanned about 50 miles away almost 3 weeks ago. I cancelled that order and ordered a new piece of U channel from a different vendor (I think).

That project is postponed for another week. :(

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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

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DSCF0180.JPG
Maiden flight today and sucker actually works.... :lol:

There will be adjustments but better than expected for first cut (pun intended).

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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

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rev 2
DSCF0181.JPG
View from behind for trial #2 Putting slave mower on left side, quiets the muffler noise, but now the grass discharge chute is pointing right at me. I prefer the noise so will flip it back to right side next weekend.
DSCF0182.JPG
This shows the pulley but thin wire rope already has a kink in it... rather than fatter wire rope i will probably try some nylon line. It doesn't need to be super strong.
DSCF0183.JPG
This shows the two piece attachment strategy. The short section stays on the mower, and longer end gets mounted with the slave mower. This is symmetrical so relatively easy to flip back to right side.

Something unexpected, the steel this sign post was made out of is unusually hard... it was pretty much impossible to drill a hole to accommodate the spacing of bolts on my mower. My neighbor had an air powered hand grinder with a carbide (?) wheel that was able to connect two holes and make them into a slot. He also had a cut off saw with a similar cutting wheel that cut the U channel into short and long pieces. I expected the steel to be much softer and easier to work than it turned out to be.

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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

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I am getting caught up on my "Johnny do" list...

#1 I just swapped out the Ls in both of my Franken-driveway lamps to make them a little brighter than version 1 (with two stock Ls in series), and not as bright as stock L value.

I may have to wait until the fall/winter season to see if this meets my desired criteria (light all night). The two solar panels in series, turn on later, off earlier, and charge better in low light conditions. I also upgraded to higher capacity battery (600 mAH).

Time will tell.

===

Item #2 on my Johnny do list was speed control for my roaring "whisper" fan.... It was still blowing pretty strong with 22uF in series with the motor, so I tried 11uF (2x22uF in series). It starts, and now is truly whispering. I may look for a way to select between 22uF and 11uF, I can not imagine ever needing full blower speed.

I need to see how effective this is "whispering". I could try 22uF in series with 44uF for an intermediate speed, but right now it is moving air quietly. 8-)

I was already getting used to the noise, but looks like i do not have to. :lol:

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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

Post by mediatechnology »

The slave mower looks cool.
For some reason I'm reminded of "King of the Hill."

You might want a full blower speed as an optional noise masker mode.
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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

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mediatechnology wrote: Tue Jul 30, 2019 2:37 pm The slave mower looks cool.
Thanks, the early prototypes are working better than expected. Still a little dangerous to defeat the kill switch with towed mower tilting up at odd angles. But I am being careful. I have some vinyl coated wire rope that I may use to replace the bare wire rope that kinked up. I can't swage it, I do have some u-clamps.
For some reason I'm reminded of "King of the Hill."
you are not the first... I have seen videos of people doing far crazier stuff....
You might want a full blower speed as an optional noise masker mode.
with two dehumidifiers, two air filters, and sundry appliances, I have no shortage of masking noise... Right now sitting inches away from the inlet port at my computer desk, I can hear it just barely, but mostly blower fan noise coming through the duct, not wind noise... I don't need much actual flow to turn over the air in my small back bedroom... The 22uF speed seems more than adequate for "high" flow.

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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

Post by billshurv »

mediatechnology wrote: Tue Jul 30, 2019 2:37 pm
For some reason I'm reminded of "King of the Hill."
I thought King of the hill was a parody...Then I discovered it was all true!

Just for lolz I googled proper attachments for lawn tractors for doing this sort of work. Hmm 2k and up. Yeah I'd try and DIY a solution too! Or get goats.
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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

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billshurv wrote: Tue Jul 30, 2019 4:17 pm
mediatechnology wrote: Tue Jul 30, 2019 2:37 pm
For some reason I'm reminded of "King of the Hill."
I thought King of the hill was a parody...Then I discovered it was all true!
It is a caricature but there is often truth in comedy...
Just for lolz I googled proper attachments for lawn tractors for doing this sort of work. Hmm 2k and up. Yeah I'd try and DIY a solution too! Or get goats.
If i could get the goats to just eat my rain ditch weeds... :lol:

Of course then I would get pinged for animal cruelty.

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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

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Professional audio and video systems design/installation/maintenance.
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