Another win for solar this year :D After a few minutes of rejigging I've got my lithium solar rig humming along quite nicely. It charges the battery in like an hour or two even if it's cloudy, and after that it's all electric gravy for things like other people's batteries, a buffer massage station, ...

I did laundry in the shower again. This time I wish I'd brought clothes pegs XD

Glad it worked out

When this happened to my ride we 'burped' the radiator and that fixed it.

It is common to have overheating in cars that have recently had their radiator serviced.

I noticed that my shade structure had some light coloured stains or bleached areas on it after I washed it. The cloth is cheapo stretchy cotton(?) spandex and it had sat dusty for a year before I washed it. Maybe the playa dust reacted with the fabric dye. Has anyone else encountered playa dust disc...

Post burn report on straight razor shaving at TTITD: It works! Yes it's actually a compact shavette that I use, so there was no stropping or honing, just a double edge blade from the drug store. First shave was in a moving car bumping along the playa during early entry. Yes it was fine. No I wasn't ...

I hope this worked out

For anyone designing water rigs for the playa, bear in mind two things.

One, gravity feed your water, it never burns out and never needs electricity.

Two, evaporation is worth investing in. Get evaporation right and you eliminate an expensive ongoing cost.

-Don't bring a janky bike. Bring a properly maintained bike. -Don't bring a 2000Watt generator to charge a cell phone. Bring a bit of solar. -Don't bring your cellphone. This may be your only opportunity to really unplug. -Don't bring a 2000W generator to run a 2100W air conditioner and then realize...

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48728580291_93d1e66ca9_z.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48728754067_ba85199a4b_k.jpg And the original that I copied from: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48728269898_522dc5cac2_k.jpg TLDR: It works. Cheap, flexible, repairable. One person set up. Fou...

I've since moved on to a super cheapo 'shavette' mini straight razor with a finger ring. It takes disposable double edged blades from a safety razor. The result is zero clogs and fewer nicks, surprisingly. I'll see how it works on the playa in a couple weeks.

Bear in mind that playa dust destroys the tender bits of bicycles. You might want to forego the full suspension for a simple springy seat on a hard tail. This could give you most of the comfort and avoid deterioration of your nice full suspension bike. My personal favorite is a single speed with a s...

Okay birgins, listen up. This is important. She'd tell me to go ahead, then get pissed off at me for going off and doing my own thing. That right there is probably the bigger issue. I invited a dear friend to TTITD and quickly remembered that radical self reliance can sometimes mean emotional self r...

Ah yes, ski goggles are what I use for sunglasses over my glasses. I haven't needed them at night.

Did anyone else try these?

I may be wrong but it almost seems like playa dust grabs oil off glasses lenses. I've wiped dust off my glasses using my t-shirt and they seem to come out as clean as if I'd used soap and water; no smudges.

Anyone else have this experience?

Another vote here for butane soldering irons. Due to their autonomy, they're especially handy if ever you need to repair your main electrical system.

Brilliant!

For chain, I kept the cut piece from each segment. (make one cut per link and bend it open) These pieces make handy hooks for guy lines. They also fit over lags that are a little too thick. Yes, they're not as strong. No, strength hasn't been an issue. To cut chain like this, use the type of compact...

Pappachuck, I'm being hard on you because I can't stand generators especially somewhere so sunny. Mine runs the lights phones, music, and camera charging for fifty odd people and I've had a lot of positive responses. Resource sharing is good though. You're sort of on the right track; maybe your effo...

evathedefiler wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 15, 2019 10:19 pm

... really glad I did the work to adapt my electric pump to my deep cycle battery and solar set up.

That's awesome!

Could you provide some details about how you adapted it?

Here's a theoretical hybrid between a FIGJAM cooler and an evapotron. -no electricity -'reverse stack effect' aids convection, maybe. -bag pump powered by foot traffic. -gravity based pump can be 'charged' quickly but actuate slowly if desired. -cheap! The filter outlet is not properly drawn, I know...

I love using a double edge 'safety' razor because my multiblades clog. Shaving with cold water works fine for me. My friend used a straight razor at the last burn to good effect. I can never get mine sharp enough though. For a stove, I often camp elsewhere with a 'penny stove'. They're pretty elegan...

I see your

chainsaw-blender

and raise you a pedal blender.

My all-time favourite tool is the Speedy Stitcher sewing awl. It's no sewing machine but it works great for repairing backpacks and shoes and it fits in my pocket.

With uncomfortable amounts of sunlight in an era of dirt cheap solar, it seems like a hop in the wrong direction to bring a hub-and spoke model of electricity, especially so with an air-MOOPing generator. The future of the powergrid is decentralization so it's worth thinking about how to apply this ...

I'm sort of a hybrid. I try to keep my personal items minimal and I also bring a lot of stuff to contribute to my camp. For 2018 I brought: Personal: basic tent and camping stuff, groceries, BMX bike, warm clothes, a few costume items. No cooler, no stove, To share: 780W of solar, 2.6kWh lithium bat...

Heh heh heh... It takes like what, an hour to zip around with a schlopping cart at TJ's or wherever to get two weeks of groceries. You may have a hard time getting clientele who don't know how to buy groceries, maybe. Anyway, the real trick is to understand the meaning of decommodification and radic...

Yes please

Just photobomb all the pro photoshoots. An amorphous cultural problem might require a cacophonous cultural solution. Photobombing in diapers seems to be part of the equation. It's classic culture jamming and it works. Here's how to DIY: https://www.burn.life/blog/weirdout-wednesday-keeping-burning-m...

Our home away from home is a pretty good place to try out a smart grid. Black Rock Labs was working on some hardware for this a while back. We should try it out. A simple smart grid is a way of sharing electrical storage between camps in an intelligent manner. I'm thinking something like: -Your camp...