What did you do today?

[Mark J]

That's interesting.  The charging rate does decrease as the percent of charge increases.  

I don't recall getting similar instructions with the i3, in fact I'm not sure that there is a way to program it to stop the charge at 90%.  

[wtnhighlander]

1 hour ago, JohnG said:

They recommend 85-90% for daily driving when you don’t truly need the full range. I’ve heard a few reasons for this from different sources-

1. Charging the last bit takes longer and is less energy efficient to charge, since it has to slow down the charging rate. 
2. Regenerative braking does not work when the battery is full, reducing driving efficiency. 
3. Long term life of the battery. The batteries do lose some capacity over the long term, and charging to a lower % on a daily basis is supposed to extend the capacity.

4. Batteries charged to maximum capacity are more susceptble to breakdown of the internal electrolyte / separator layers and self destruct.

[drzaius]

The last 10% of the charging process is the hardest on battery life.

[Mark J]

Interesting.  This is so contrary to the wisdom of the NiCad days.  I wonder that cell phones don't have a 90% stop point on charging.  

[Coop]

Years and years ago, some of the bicycles ( not mine as we couldn’t afford them) had what we called magnetos or dynamos that would run lights for night driving. I guess now days they are called alternators. Do electric cars have something similar to help charge the batteries? 

[Mark J]

Regenerative braking.  The first level of braking engages a generator.  With further braking effort the disk brakes engage.

When I drove a hybrid I got very good at planning my stops and using only light brake pressure to the point that at 80,000 miles I got a call from my mechanic telling me that two of my brake calipers were completely frozen with rust.  I never noticed a thing.

[wtnhighlander]

10 hours ago, Mark J said:

Interesting.  This is so contrary to the wisdom of the NiCad days.  I wonder that cell phones don't have a 90% stop point on charging.  

They probably do. The "100%" indicator on screen can mean anything the designer wants it to.

[wtnhighlander]

Took down a troublesome tree by the house today. Root system is contributing to cracks in the foundation.

Sad, because I planted it as a sapling about 27 years ago. Took almost 3 hours to fell with my little 33cc Homelite. That is just not enough power for a 16" bar, and I had to cut from each side, even near 20' up the bole. Only 8' of clear material here. Gonna try to slice it up and dry it, because, why not?

Oak is some tough stuff. Even with Cody pulling it with my truck, and me driving wedges into the back cut, the crazy tree held on to almost 25* of incline before this little bit of 'meat' in the middle finally broke loose.

We put in a good 8 hours, felling and limbing enough clear the driveway. This is one of those oak varieties that grows all sorts of crazy little zig-zag branches everywhere. Makes great shade, but I feel like I've been through death by a thousand stabs.

Anyway, I know one young man that should sleep soundly tonight.

Cody probably will, too.

[Coop]

Good job, Ross and Cody! 

[RichardA]

You had great assistance, especially since Cody has wood lot experience.  Nice job. 

[Chet]

When you post photos of chores around the house only Cody is presenting the picture, Hmmm? 

Are you going to mill up any of it? 

[JohnG]

Yardwork all day. Mowing the pastures took a while because I had let the grass get 2’+. Then some work on our landscaping and bushes and shrubs, and made a little more headway clearing a trail to our creek. 
 

Going to sneak in a few minutes of woodworking while my wife and kids are out of the house.

[wtnhighlander]

6 hours ago, Chet said:

When you post photos of chores around the house only Cody is presenting the picture, Hmmm? 

Are you going to mill up any of it? 

Well, somebody has to snap the photo!

I'm going to try to mill it, but no promises. It's just red oak, after all. Might be able to hack enough for a slab table out of it, though. If I can manage to dry it well enough.

[wtnhighlander]

State of my house this morning -

Foundation repairs under way. Of course, the main water line is between 2 of the holes, and we heard water running about 15 minutes after the crew left. So I spent the next 4 hours digging this out:

The plumber had to install the offset because of how much tension was on the line from movement when they started jacking up the house. I hated to call a plumber for a simple pipe joint, but no DIY plumbing job I have ever attempted has gone well, and the local hardware store was closing, anyway.

[legenddc]

Dang, I bet that was some frantic digging too! Seems like you got out mostly unscathed except I'm sure the bill from the plumber.

Just got back from picking up a decent chunk of wood from a local guy who was clearing out his shop. No real plans for it, but for $50 the 14 board feet of semi-curly soft maple was a deal. With the rest of the curly maple, some walnut and cherry thrown in I think I made out okay. I guess some boxes or picture frames are in my future with some of the 18" long curly maple pieces.

[Chestnut]

Ross is your topsoil that tan orange color? Around here we can't get any thing to grow in soil that color, topsoil is black.

[RichardA]

I can't speak to Ross's soil, but here in Middle Tennessee, we have clay for soil.  In lower valley's the soil looks great, but in the flatter areas, ..clay.      75% of the private homes that were built here before the 1990's were clay brick, and still standing.  There are older neighborhoods with nothing but brick homes.  In order to get a good garden space, $$$$$$ for compost, manure anything that will build soil.   I use all that plus Sheet composting.   Which is a 6", 8" or 10" layer of leaves spread over your garden space in the Fall when the leaves fall and let Ma Nature break them down and in the spring till it all into the soil.  It breaks up the clay and holds moisture.

[wtnhighlander]

Drew, I wouldn't call that "topsoil" by any stretch. It is mostly clay, and no, it doesn't grow stuff very well. All my digging required a pick, its almost like concrete. The crew was using a bob-cat mounted auger, and had to switch to hand work because the auger couldn't penetrate.

[wtnhighlander]

1 hour ago, legenddc said:

Dang, I bet that was some frantic digging too! 

Yeah, I'm glad today's crew is led by Juan. I got to familiar with Manuel yesterday.

Manuel Labor, that is...

Between removing gravel from the flowerbeds and digging out that pipe, I think I shoveled close to 5 tons of material.

[Tom King]

4 hours ago, wtnhighlander said:

Drew, I wouldn't call that "topsoil" by any stretch. It is mostly clay, and no, it doesn't grow stuff very well. All my digging required a pick, its almost like concrete. The crew was using a bob-cat mounted auger, and had to switch to hand work because the auger couldn't penetrate.

I know that kind of ground all too well.  We have to wait for the right amount of moisture in it to even put in a fence post.

[Tom King]

First rainy day in a long time here, so I couldn't find anything better to do than to go back to work on the rental house floor.  It's a bad job by myself, but looks like that's the way it will be for a while.  Every piece requires getting up and down off the floor more than once.

I got the hall finished, and am going into the big living room.  I have the two bedrooms at the end of the hall done, and their big walk-in closets.  Still have the other two bedrooms to do, off either side of the hall.  I had been dreading the angled meeting of the slate floor in the entryway, but it went right in.  

Next up was fitting it to the stone chimney, but that wasn't too bad anyway.

The lighting in there is currently terrible, but I love this little battery powered Makita worklight.

I really don't like thresholds in interior doorways, so there won't be any.  Any meeting floor surfaces, whether the right height or not (none are-tile in bathrooms, and slate in the entry) will be flush on top.  I've built up slopes that work out with concrete, and mortar.

 

[JohnG]

Felt good to have some shop time, and to finally make more headway on this project. Just need to cut the french cleat and hang it now.
 

[pkinneb]

10 hours ago, JohnG said:

Felt good to have some shop time, and to finally make more headway on this project. Just need to cut the french cleat and hang it now.
 

John I must have missed it... what will you display in it? Looks great!

 

 

[JohnG]

11 minutes ago, pkinneb said:

John I must have missed it... what will you display in it? Looks great!

It’s for my wife to store her quilting thread spools and bobbins. The brass pins are to keep them organized and in place, and can keep a spool with bobbin of matching thread together. I’ll take another pic when it’s in place and in use. 

[drzaius]

4 hours ago, JohnG said:

It’s for my wife to store her quilting thread spools and bobbins. The brass pins are to keep them organized and in place, and can keep a spool with bobbin of matching thread together. I’ll take another pic when it’s in place and in use. 

I'm not showing that to my wife. At least until the house painting is finished & the new master suite is done, Oh, & the raised beds for the garden. Then I'll show her the pic.

That's a beautiful way to hold thread.