Today began the Great Secret Lair Siding Project in earnest. Finished the biggest part of the wrapping day before yesterday, yesterday was spent on laundry and a massive, destructive windstorm – that didn’t hurt the tarpaper, so I must have done something right.
Today I got started hanging siding on the front and sides of the Lair, but didn’t get as far as I would have liked. I did all the work on the sides I hoped to, but was stalled on the front when the sky clouded up.
Run a power saw with my little sample-sized power system and you can bring the indicated battery voltage down a volt and a half in just a minute or two. It’s no problem, really – as long as the sun is shining. Mark a sheet to fit around a window, make the cuts, hang the sheet, measure and mark a next sheet, and by the time you’re ready to make the cuts the voltage has made up all its losses. If the sun is shining. If not, it might take quite a while. So half of each side of the cabin is sided – and those are the time-consuming ones, the ones that needed cutting and fitting around windows – but only a third of the lower front, and I planned to finish that today.
The sheets I cut to fit around the windows are fairly easy to hang by myself. They’re lighter, and by their very nature I can hang them on the windows to carry some of the weight. Then I can get them lined up straight and still have a hand free to run the screwdriver. So ironically the lower sheets I need help with are the simple ones that go straight up with little or no modification. It takes two hands to hold those ones straight. So I left those for tomorrow.
Tomorrow Neighbor D is coming over. We’re loading the Jeep trailer with a generator, so that excuse problem will be done away with. And another good ladder and hopefully even some scaffolding, which should make the upper part of the Lair much more doable.
We shall see. But either way, there is progress. Yes, there’s progress going on right under my nose.
This is very exciting news! Also, you may have bad weather coming next week, so it’s good that you’re getting the tarpaper covered.
Pictures. Got to have pictures.
And, totally OT, I just bought your solar system book. We’re moving to town and the new to us house has a 9×12 well built shed that DH is going to use for his reloading room. The subject of power seemed limited to running a long extension cord or running the Coleman generator. Then I remembered your system which would probably be the perfect size. Thanks for sharing the fruits of your labor and the experience of your first efforts. Makes the learning curve less painful when someone else has figured out the pitfalls and shortcomings. 🙂
Great, CH! Glad it’ll help.
However, if he’s going to be spending lots of time in the shed he’s probably going to want to construct a lean-to or something to put it all in. Batteries and inverters – even small ones – don’t make good roommates.
Dear Bog… You’re running a high current draw device like a circular saw off that itty nitty system? Knowing Ian, doesn’t he have a MEP-16 or two sitting around that you could borrow?
Suggestions (more for the future, unless the siding project drags on):
1. Bleg for a little camping generator with just enough oomph for a circular saw (then it’ll also handle other stuff, one at a time). Bonus- you can also use it for emergency charging on your batteries during cloudy periods.
2. Scround around for old battery-powered tools that people tossed because the batteries crapped out. Install wires and alligator clips so you can run them off the jeep battery (don’t forget to run the jeep to charge up). Yeah, spoiled rich folk actually throw out those things. Dumpster diving in your area is probably a bit limited [grin], but a bleg. Shoot, I’ve got a drill I could kick in.
3. Make a jeep (either ‘gator clips or cigarette lighter plug) to PVC battery bank extension cord for emergency recharging.
Hell yes. In fact when I rebuilt the system to its current 4000W magnificence a few years ago, the ability to run power tools was the very first item on the spec list. I don’t want to run a lumber mill, but I absolutely did want to be able to run a power saw. As soon as it started taking shape I sent away to Amazon and bought one. 🙂
Also, forget the cigarette lighter adapter plugs. As I learned with the tire inflater someone sent me, on recently (well, relatively recently) built cars those won’t handle more than 10-12 amps and a lot of appliances such as the compressor are at least 15 amps. That was why I had to cut off the plug and retrofit alligator clips.
Sorry, I didn’t make that clear. The jeep-bank extension cord would only be for recharging, not actively running other gadgets. I’d still recommend gator clips, but the plug oughta work. (My own stuff uses clips, except for one short cord with plugs on both ends for recharging my portable power box in the truck.)
Now, my old (’96) truck’s cigarette light circuit is rated at 15A. My inflator (which works pretty well) only draws 12A max, a good 3A below the circuit. What the heck kind of inflator do you have?
My 1kw gen from Farm & Fleet was just $80 on sale. The 1kw is kinda optimistic; I plugged in a 300W bank of incandescents and it about choked before recovering. So, charging batteries or simple tools good; running sensitive electronics, not so much.