Heading West
Elections were held in the middle of my last break period so it
wasn't worth spending all that time driving to the ranch only to come back a
day or two later to vote. I really hate it when I can't go down
there, but it did give me a chance to work on some things at home.
The first project I had was to replace the aluminum handle bars on my brush cutter with a steel one. For most people the aluminum handles are probably fine, but I tend to be a little more rough with my cutter and have accidentally cracked the handles off a few times. The first and second times I used my aluminum MIG welder to repair the aluminum handle tube. However, although the weld on the handlebar seemed to hold, the tube continued to crack in the heat-affected areas of the tube. After the third crack, I decided to fabricate my own steel replacement handles. To do this I used a short piece of steel electrical conduit tubing I bought at the Home Depot. I would never recommend anyone else try using electrical conduit tubing for a welding project. For one thing, you don't know for sure what grade of steel is it, so you'll have no idea of its strength or how well the weld will hold. Another reason I wouldn't recommend using steel electrical conduit tubing is that it is usually galvanized with zinc, which will burn off during welding and form toxic fumes. I justified using the tubing to myself at the time with the following logic: 1) it wasn't going to be used for a critical, load-bearing application, 2) it was the exact diameter tubing I was looking for, 3) I planned grind-away any galvanization near each weld area before welding and maybe hold my breath during welding, and 4) it was only $3 for a five foot long piece. After cutting the correctly sized pieces with a chop saw, I heavily wire-brushed the galvanization off of the tubing near any of the areas that would be exposed to high heat. This seemed to prevent any burning during welding as I didn't see any of the yellew-green smoke I've read about. Just as a precaution I worked in the open air and took frequent breaks. When I was done with the welding I wire brushed each welded area and then, after it cooled, sprayed the whole thing with Rustoleum cold galvanization spray. I've never used it before, so I don't know how much better it is than other types of coatings, but I thought I give it a try.
In addition to the handlebar project, I also worked on the
surveillance system. Because I'm doing everything myself, I would
define this as a “multipronged” effort, meaning certain elements
within the effort are distinct enough that they can pretty much be
developed in isolation from the other elements until the entire
project is assembled into the complete system. For instance, the
outdoor weatherized equipment housing can be designed and fabricated
independently of the remote access programming, while the video and
acoustic monitoring can be configured from both of these. During the
past break I progressed along several fronts.
One area of advancement was in my method of “secure” remote access. There is a ton of information and theory about Internet security, but, I'm not going to go into it at this point. For obvious reasons, I don't plan on delving too much into how I plan on remote accessing my system. I will say that I'm around 60 to 70 percent done with this solution. Most of the remaining work centers around selecting specific technologies and configurations.
Another advancement has been in the fabrication of the outdoor housing for my central server and monitoring station. My design for the housing is to have a tough, weather-proof exterior composed of aluminum and plastic (plastic housing for the transmitting antennas) and a custom formed inner insulating layer. Last night I finished welding all of the pieces of aluminum sheet I had cut the day before and am ready to create the interior insulating layer.
Finally, along a third surveillance front, I've now acquired a
total of five cameras. Three of the five at HD quality and one of
them is supposed to have an optical zoom capability. All of the
cameras can record sound.
I'm taking leave to travel out west now to view bison for a potential purchase this weekend. Hopefully things will workout.
The first project I had was to replace the aluminum handle bars on my brush cutter with a steel one. For most people the aluminum handles are probably fine, but I tend to be a little more rough with my cutter and have accidentally cracked the handles off a few times. The first and second times I used my aluminum MIG welder to repair the aluminum handle tube. However, although the weld on the handlebar seemed to hold, the tube continued to crack in the heat-affected areas of the tube. After the third crack, I decided to fabricate my own steel replacement handles. To do this I used a short piece of steel electrical conduit tubing I bought at the Home Depot. I would never recommend anyone else try using electrical conduit tubing for a welding project. For one thing, you don't know for sure what grade of steel is it, so you'll have no idea of its strength or how well the weld will hold. Another reason I wouldn't recommend using steel electrical conduit tubing is that it is usually galvanized with zinc, which will burn off during welding and form toxic fumes. I justified using the tubing to myself at the time with the following logic: 1) it wasn't going to be used for a critical, load-bearing application, 2) it was the exact diameter tubing I was looking for, 3) I planned grind-away any galvanization near each weld area before welding and maybe hold my breath during welding, and 4) it was only $3 for a five foot long piece. After cutting the correctly sized pieces with a chop saw, I heavily wire-brushed the galvanization off of the tubing near any of the areas that would be exposed to high heat. This seemed to prevent any burning during welding as I didn't see any of the yellew-green smoke I've read about. Just as a precaution I worked in the open air and took frequent breaks. When I was done with the welding I wire brushed each welded area and then, after it cooled, sprayed the whole thing with Rustoleum cold galvanization spray. I've never used it before, so I don't know how much better it is than other types of coatings, but I thought I give it a try.
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| The replacement handle ready for installation. It's not as elegant as the professionally bent aluminum tubing, but it matches the overall form of the original handle and is 10 times stronger. The rubber hand grip on the right side of the photo was simply slide off the old handle bar and pushed onto the new one. The hand grip for the other side is connected to the brush cutter via an electrical cable and will be attached when the handlebar is installed. |
One area of advancement was in my method of “secure” remote access. There is a ton of information and theory about Internet security, but, I'm not going to go into it at this point. For obvious reasons, I don't plan on delving too much into how I plan on remote accessing my system. I will say that I'm around 60 to 70 percent done with this solution. Most of the remaining work centers around selecting specific technologies and configurations.
Another advancement has been in the fabrication of the outdoor housing for my central server and monitoring station. My design for the housing is to have a tough, weather-proof exterior composed of aluminum and plastic (plastic housing for the transmitting antennas) and a custom formed inner insulating layer. Last night I finished welding all of the pieces of aluminum sheet I had cut the day before and am ready to create the interior insulating layer.
 |
| The aluminum box after welding. The two top openings are for antenna protrusions. |
I'm taking leave to travel out west now to view bison for a potential purchase this weekend. Hopefully things will workout.
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