The CBDC is gonna be bad.

 Yesterday I went to a shop to buy a big engine for the wood chipper.  

It turned into a nightmare.

I paid via bank app.  BUT the receiver has a monthly limit of around 5k usd transactions and my purchase was 30 bucks over the receivers limit. So it did not go thru on her end, but the money came out of my account.

Normally when this happens the transaction does not go thru, but yesterday the app ate about 750USD.  On a weekend and no recourse, no one to call until Monday.

I still needed the damn engine so I had to pull 750 in cash out and buy the motor.  

I better not lose the money, it is my rent payment for the month or a weekly payroll.

Just imagine when this is mandatory to use these damn apps everywhere?  Nightmare fuel.

Other day I was observing just how bad the driving is here.  I'm in some backed up traffic, waiting to turn left and in my mirror I see a mess of lunatics driving the wrong side of the road to 'go around' the traffic jam which then blocks the oncoming lane too, not to mention shows that they are just assholes.  

I stopped counting at 20+ jerks driving the wrong way down the street.  Motorcycles, trikes, and even a couple flatbed trucks.  

The bad driving here is way past out of control.  Turn left?  expect one asshole to swoop in from behind you cutting the corner to pass you while you are turning and simultaneously 2 more passing on the right IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TURN, while at the same time a couple more assholes driving the wrong side of the road are swooping over to block me from even completing the turn.  

Days like this, I just wanna stop, parks sideways across the street.  put the parking brake on, cross my arms and let the fuckers stew in a monumental traffic jam.  

Also in wood chipper news.  Original plan was to use splined shafts adapted to work with the Deere mower blades...  Well splined shaft is not gonna work.  Luckily the blade is machinable, so the machinist is making the hole at the center of the blade to an inch, machining some shaft collars with a keyway, and set screw.  I will weld the collar to the blade so it has some meat to hold on to the shafting.  

Also checking my stocks of materials I got those extra diesel engines, a few extra mower blades and 2 more rolled 1/4 inch steel rings to build 2 more wood chippers.  Not lacking in work for the boys.

Tomorrow (Monday) I will run 8mm wire to the out building.  I will keep the shredding and messy work in a separate building. We really made a mess in the building mixing in pigment to the shredded flake the other day, and that needs to not happen again.  I got a fresh new box of 150 meters of wire and a couple circuit breakers+ industrial plugs and light sockets to install there.  

Meanwhile remember the 'missing amonium nitrate'?  Well turns out the hopper on the bottom spilled it across the country and the first rain will wash it away, if it has not already been washed away.  

BUT the news will nto report the full story, just hysteria about it and scaremongering of terrorism to sell more clicks.

“The railcar was sealed when it left the Cheyenne facility, and the seals were still intact when it arrived in Saltdale. The initial assessment is that a leak through the bottom gate on the railcar may have developed in transit,” said the company, adding that the two-week trip included multiple stops. They report having had “limited control” over the railcar operated by Union Pacific.

The railcar is being transported back to Wyoming for inspection.

Meanwhile, a representative for the Federal Railroad Administration says the investigation points to an improperly closed hopper car gate.

Orders, orders...

 I ran out of brown pigment Wednesday, and next batch arrives today.  I bought from 3 different online shops because I was unsure which one would have a delay.  turns out all three orders will arrive today via 3 different couriers.  So I will have 50+ kilos of pigment on hand.  

Also I desperately need to move the shredder to the out building.  It rained yesterday and the boys were shredding indoors.  Unfortunately the whole shop is covered with a fine layer of red dust on the floor now.  

I got a big tarp coming today too for the welding area.  At 25 bucks it is what I can afford rather than building a steel awning over the weld area.  Ideally I would like to have one of those USA style cheapo sheds made from tubing and corrugated roofing, but I need to conserve the cash.  

I bought a trailer to mount the 25hp shredder Wednesday.  Made in USA.

This is the shredder that will go on it.  4 AR500 blades cutting like a mandolin, then a couple 20 inch Snapper lawnmower blades and then to the end with a centrifugal blower made from 6mm steel plate.  

The mower blades chop and pull the material in the machine like a propeller, where it hits the centrifugal blower and tossed out the side.  Driven thru a PTO shaft with a clutch and shear pins.

Feed from the back.  discharge to the left.  6mm plate construction for the housing. 1/4 inch is 6.35mm so a hair under a quarter inch thick plate.  

I am lasering the plate in a polygon rather than slip rolling the housing.  it is just too thick to roll consistently more than 4 inches wide without goin to a shop that will charge a boatload of money.  I will lose a tiny amount of efficiency, but not enough to worry about.  The discharge chute is not shown on the drawing but it only discharges via the blower, not the whole width.  

Compost barrel order below.  Will have a electric motor on it with a timer to rotate it every few minutes and a aquarium pump supplying fresh air thru it.   Built to client specs, not my original design.

The steel frame inside will get a polyurethane rubber coating like a bed liner.  

The wagon that the small wood chipper/mulcher will go on.  The boys spot welded it with the stick welder and will full weld it with the MIG welder today.   7hp liquid cooled diesel engine spinning a 18 inch John Deere lawnmower blade.  Basically it is just a lawn mower turned on its side.  Just don't tell the locals as they overly complicate their designs and end up making a shitty product cause they cheap out on the materials.  Even still, at 35 some odd dollars for a Deere blade to run a 1200 dollar machine, powered by a 300 dollar diesel engine, and a couple hundred in materials/labor, its a nice margin.

Some plastic lumber pics

 Don't know if I posted it here before, but here it is. 

The shredded plastic feed stock and the final product.  Colored with iron oxide pigment.  

I ran the boards thru the thickness planer which makes it look nicer and I get a little bit of plastic back to make new boards.  I then use the trim router to round the corners.  

This is also a new design of mold.  I got some 2x4 C channel stock 1/4 inch thick, and a 4 inch piece of flat bar to close it off into a tube. The board is smaller than the other 2x4 but the mold is stronger and is not blowing out like the other molds.  

Machine building has been slow last few days cause rain, and the fact we working outside.  I got a big tarp on the way, and will set up a 16x20 foot awning, supported by steel tubing for the boys to work underneath, and run some outlets to the work area so they can ditch the big heavy extension cords.  

Wood chipper number three

 Chipper number three.  Goin big this time.  25hp.  20 inch mulching blades discharging out of a 4x4 inch chute and 4 primary cutting blades.  

Basically it has the first stage like a mandolin cutter in your kitchen.  Which is how the big boys work, then they got some lawnmower blades in them to chop it up like a food processor and pull the material away from the hopper to the centrifugal blower, then it hits the blower and thrown out along with a lot of air.  

I got a 3x5 foot made in USA trailer to put it on. It had a genset on it, but the buyer only wanted the genset and had a bunch trailers left over after he pulled the generator off it.  

Second wood chipper housing built

 Since I realized that the housing was pointed backwards, I made another one and the first unit will be for a dust collector/blower.  Wood chipper still needs a feed chute, shafting, bearings, pulleys, a frame to mount it all, and rubber engine motor mounts.

Today I build more on the 1 ton compost turning machine. I have to build everything in place which is more difficult rather than building in sections and lifting with the forklift that I do not have.

Weather is hot as hell and humid.  At least the weld space is on the north side of the building, shaded by avocado, mango trees nd the building.

Since is it Mango season for the next month or 2, I am getting a steady rain of mangos falling down.  Me and the boys are stuffing our belly with them. 

Building a new office door from the plastic lumber.  It has a lot of colors in it.  But I hate that the gheys have appropriated the rainbow of colors or pretty much any color chart to their own purposes.