Porx Taters and Eggs

Leftovers breakfast is by far the easiest breakfast.  Here I have a little Porx, and roasted Potatoes with Eggs.  It took about five minutes to prepare a hearty breakfast.  Two Eggs in a pan, the Porx and Potatoes take a ride in the Microwave, and Bam!  Its on the table...  With a little Hot Sauce...

Barley Tabbouleh

Tabbouleh is usually made with Bulgar Wheat, which is Wheat Berries that are cracked, or busted up.  Maybe fractional Wheat would be a better term.  I have had issues with Wheat lately, so I thought I would try another hearty grain, Barley.  Beer drinkers agree, Barley is good food.  So, I am basically making a Barley Tabbouleh here.  I have fresh Parsley from the garden, and fresh Tomatoes, Cucumbers, and Onion from Rosemeade Market.  Add a little Sea Salt, Olive Oil, Garlic Powder, and Lemon Juice and that's it.

Jackson's Garden

My neighbor got my attention the other day when I was mowing the lawn, and showed me her son's new garden.  So I went to take a look.  He was having problems with his Dog getting into the garden, and they also mentioned Rabbits.  Knowing how to grow food is one of the most essential skills to have.  It is something that people take for granted because we can just go to a store for food.  I have found that homegrown vegetables are always better than what I find in store.

I had some spare Rabbit wire and stakes, and we fashioned a quick Rabbit Fence around the young garden.  We also added a compost bin, and I showed him what waste materials from the yard can be used to make compost, which is what I use for fertilizer in my gardens.

I need to get some more pictures as the garden matures to see the process.  Everything is small sprouts now, and we can barely see what is there, but he's got Beans, Cucumbers, Cilantro, Onions, and Chives.  I'll also get a more complete list from Jackson.

UABMM2 Bent Shaft

The piece of shaft that I used here was from a piece of stock that I had bought at a local hardware store.  I cut six inches off the piece of stock, and used it directly.  Since then I have noticed that it has some irregularities.  One end of the shaft was mushroomed a bit, and I assumed that it was dropped on the end.  The gear would not fit over that end, while the other, sawed end, fit right.  Well I started looking at the shaft carefully, and noticed that the impact on the end of the shaft was a side hit.  There is an indentation which is on a corner, like the rod stock hit the floor, or whatever, at an angle.  So I chucked up the shaft in a drill press to grind down the mushroomed end, and found out that the shaft is also bent.  Look at it, can you tell its bent?

So, today I'll be making a new shaft for the UABMM2.  I assume that the bend was made at the same time as the end of the shaft took the hit.  It sounds like terrible inventory management to be throwing around the steel stock, but, you know, it is just a chunk of steel.  I'll take it as a axiom that I will not assume that a piece of metal is straight, until I verify that its is straight.  A rotating assembly needs to be perfectly straight...

UABMM2 Magnetic Shunts

Now that the UABMM2 is assembled, and I have been playing with it a while, I am starting the understand the magnetic sticky points.  There are spots in the rotation where the rotor will "stick" because of the cross currents between the individual magnets.  I drew this pretty picture you help you visualize the problem here.

The Gap allows a cross current field to form between the magnets.  This creates attraction points for the opposing magnets.  I need to maximize the face currents and minimize the cross currents.  If this were electrical I would short the two together to eliminate eddy currents.  But, seeing how this is magnetic, we need a magnetic conductor, with high permeability, like a piece of iron.  What I am hoping for is the magnetic shunts will help to minimize the cross currents so they will not interfere with the face currents.

The magnets are close together, but there is still a small gap there.  It is in the gap space that the cross currents develop, and make sticky spots.  To minimize the cross fields I am going to insert a piece of iron sheet which is 0.031 inches thick.  I cut out rectangles which are 1/4 inch by 1/2 inch and insert them between the magnets.

Using a high permeability material will hopefully draw the cross currents down, into the iron sheet.  So the overall effect will be to present more face current and less cross currents.

To add all these magnetic shunts we'll have to increase the inside diameter of the stator slightly.  We're adding 0.031 times 40 magnets, so that is increasing that circumference by 1.25 inches.  So I am adjusting each Cant (flat that holds the magnet) by grinding it down about 50 mils.

Also, while its taken apart I made another, tighter flat on the shaft for the shaft key that holds the split taper bushing in place.  I made that joint a lot tighter, and can now use the split taper bushing as the bottom shaft keeper, and eliminate one of the shaft collars.  I'll find another use for it.

Turning 1/2 inch nuts into 1/2 inch shaft collars was neat impromptu experience.  When you can't find what you need, you can usually find a way to make it.

Compressor Fan

Its Memorial day, 95 degrees Fahrenheit outside, and the Air Conditioner quit working.  We knew that the Compressor Fan motor bearings were dying, making squealing and grinding noises.  Well last night (Sunday) it quit running.  No way to get parts on Sunday night, and today is Memorial Day so none of the Industrial Supply places are open.  Last week we had the air Conditioner company give us a quote to replace the Compressor Fan motor, and it was $670!  We decided to wait until the motor failed.

No Air Conditioning makes some people in my house very cranky.  So I really needed to get this fixed pronto today, and had to find someplace that was open who would have a quarter horsepower, single phase, AC motor.  Turner Hardware in Farmers Branch came to the rescue, again.  They had the right motor, and the matching capacitor it needed.  This is a universal motor, so it required that I modify it a little for this application.

I needed to trim the case bolts, and also cut the shaft to the length on the original motor.  It was fairly easy to trim the case bolts and the shaft with a hacksaw.  The motor is mounted from the backside, and the shaft points down when its mounted in the Air Conditioner chassis.

There are four wires that go to the electrical control box, a ground wire, and a couple of wire to control the direction of rotation.  It is a proper replacement, so I didn't need to alter the mounting, and it fit the same holes.  There is a conduit which routes the AC wires away from the fan.  The ground wire needed to be attached to the chassis in close proximity to the motor.  I used a sheet metal screw to secure the ground wire to the sheet metal frame.  I used a couple tie wraps to secure the direction control wires to the louvers on the top of the assembly, keeping them away from the fan.

After the motor and wires were secured I fitted the top back on the rest of the Air Conditioner, and secured it with its screws.  I would up taking to unit apart and putting it back together a couple of times because I had the rotation wrong.  It was turning the fan counterclockwise, and should have been turning clockwise.  This is a simple change, by reversing the rotation control wires, but you have to take the Air Conditioner top off again, change the rotation control wires, and then put it back together again.

Then the last step is to wire the new motor into the control box.  This new motor was a little different than the units original wiring.  This unit had been modified by service people before, so its not quite the same as the wiring diagram posted on the unit from the factory.  Between the wiring diagram on the motor, and the wiring diagram on the Air Conditioner I was able to get it hooked up right, and working.  I only paid $130 for the motor at Turner Hardware, which is only about 20% of what the Air Conditioner guy wanted for his repair.  I did also have to buy a 5 uF Capacitor, which was $15.  I took about four hours total to make this repair, and now we're cool again...

Jalapeno Bacon Mac-n-Cheeze

Bacon makes everything better.  Toss in some Chiles and its Heaven.  I was thinking noodle Bowl, but wanted something more like comfort food.  So Mac-n-Cheeze it is.  First we'll start with the Bacon.  I fried up a pound of thick cut, hickory smoked bacon.

I'm going to use the bacon grease for the oil in the Roux for the Jalapeno Mornay sauce.

I diced one Jalapeno and a thick slice of white Onion.

I'll fry the Jalapenos and Onion in a tablespoon of bacon fat for a few minutes.

Then add a tablespoon of flour to form a Roux, well really a Jalapeno Roux.

Add a cup of heated milk slowly, while whisking to make a Bechemel sauce.
Also added Sea Salt, Black Pepper, and Red Chile flakes here.

Finally, adding a cup of shredded Cheddar turns the Bechemel sauce into a Mornay sauce.

Add the noodles, and crumbled Bacon last.  In this case I used wide Egg Noodles, but any pasta will work.

Garnish with some more crumbled Bacon on top.
Mmmm, Nomlishious Bacon....