A Success Story: The Promise of Real Change That You Make Yourself!

So you say that you've never heard of Marcin Jakubowski! Well you may want to find out about him quick, because this is a guy going places. He was recently granted a TED fellowship for his project to remake the world. He's all about putting people back to work making the stuff they need, locally. Jakubowski is a young guy with a PHD in physics and a boatload of constructive energy and it looks like he just may be succeeding.

Open Source Ecology (OSE) is the name of his game. And building Resilient Communities with a Global Village Construction Set is his goal. What it all boils down to is this: With the right tools and some modern computer assisted technologies, he says, we can take control of our lives back from impersonal, multi-national organizations. 

Making the dream real, Jakubowski is well on his way to creating the tools that make up what he calls the Global Village Construction Set. He's building prototypes for machines like small tractors made from used car parts and salvaged steel. He's building machines that crank out compacted soil building blocks, shop tools for building better machines and much, much more.

Jakubowski builds all his farming and community building equipment from common, easily sourced parts. And his plans are being made available free to anyone. That's what open source ecology is all about, helping people use tools and technology to make their lives manageable down at the community level once again.

Jakubowski and his cohorts want to see more people powering their homes and farms from electricity made on site or in the local community. He wants people to be able to tell the regional mega-utility to take their behemoth coal-fired power plant and shove it. And why not, with a solar micro-turbine in your backyard, that you built yourself, you'll be producing all the environmentally friendly energy you need.

Marcin Jakubowski wants you to imagine not having to buy stuff that was produced on the other side of the world, because somebody in your community or region is producing high quality products locally at affordable prices. 

Resilient communities, he believes,  make the conditions right for jobs, prosperity, environmental healing, social well-being and personal freedom. He says that all we need are good tools, open source sharing of ideas and a can-do spirit to reach these goals.

There is way more to this movement than I can tell you in a short message, but from what I have seen I can say that this could be the beginning of something that it is extremely exciting and full of good potential. I urge people to get familiar with the open source ecology movement and then to spread the word.

There is a chance right now to help shift this project into overdrive. Make Magazine is holding a Green Project Contest to find a great, green, do-it-yourself, idea to promote. Vote now for Marcin Jakubowski's Global Village Construction Set.



New! Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) in 2 Minutes - 2 min video

Backyard Metal Casting and Machine Tool Building

Ok. This home-shop metalworking stuff is getting better and better the more we look into it!  Just in the past day we've come across several backyard and home-shop metalworking websites where people with creative minds are casting molten metal and building machine tools from materials sourced from other people's trash. There are people out there who have a passion for this stuff and they are proving that with a little ingenuity, resourcefulness and persistence you can do great things with little money. And thankfully the internet makes it easy to hook up with these people and learn their methods.

The website Backyard Metal Casting is a gem of a resource. Check it out. If you are into the ShopKulture lifestyle you'll love it.

A home shop operation that can cast metal parts and then machine those parts into precision pieces can build or repair just about anything. And if you are building and salvaging stuff it seems reasonable that you'd want to use your skills to furnish your own shop with affordable tools and equipment . In any case, it sure looks like a lot of fun.

A lathe is said to be the heart of a good metalworking operation. If you want to make some serious parts (and maybe you've got some fresh metal castings in need of machining) you'll want to have one. Serious lathes start at around $3000 and go up from there quickly. Even used lathes are usually well over $1000. Did you know that it's possible to build your own lathe from scrap metal and used automotive parts? This won't get you a "tool room", high precision, piece of equipment, but with some care it will get you a machine that is accurate enough to make parts for all those shop tools and equipment we were talking about building and salvaging for pennies on the dollar.

A few good resources for lathe building information are the Open Source Machine website and MultiMachineYahoo Group, and the books of David G. Gingery available from Lindsays' Technical Books. Just from the looks of it we like the MultiMachine information best, but we think there's a lot to learn from Gingery's approach too. That and Gingery has other plans for making bandsaws, drill presses, milling machines and a bunch of other stuff. Here's a list.

If you are just learning machining, you'll know a whole lot more after you build these projects. There's nothing like hands-on experience to teach lasting knowledge. And we figure that once we have some fundamental shop tools working we'll be able to figure out how to put them to work to bring in some cash so that we can afford to buy a fine old (factory built) South Bend Lathe and a Bridgeport milling machine.

The Self-Education Revolution is Underway!!

Self-education, it is one of the most important tools independent minded people have at their disposal. As conventional American education methods and outcomes continue to be revealed as ineffective and/or too expensive for today's students the great news is that resources for self-education are becoming more and more available every day. The internet and other modern tools of communication and publication are making it easier than ever to find learning resources, including texts, curriculum and human assistance to study almost anything.

In an earlier ShopKulture post, A Great Online Math & Science Resource, we were very excited to have discovered the Khan Academy, an online resource that uses youtube video to make more than 1000 video lectures and presentations available to help people learn math and science. Well it looks like we weren't the only people who noticed that good things were going on over at the Khan website. Now a program, undertaken by the internet giant, Google, to fund "inspiring organizations working on solutions to ... global challenges" has generated a grant of two million dollars ($2M) to help foster the Khan project!

When you consider this great news along with the fact that institutions like MIT and the University of California at Berkeley are putting more and more of their lectures and course materials online, you start to think that we are moving into an era where powerful learning resources are with in reach of almost everyone.

At ShopKulture we are excited about these trends. We believe that it's a great fit with our main idea which is to unleash thousands of home shop inventors and self-trained engineers to tackle the world's problems with human scale solutions and to build resilient economies and vibrant communities of free people.

Teach Yourself Machining: Video Courses

 

Machining parts out of raw metal to make, modify and repair useful machines is fast becoming our passion. Now We've never been much for attending classes or going to school, so we're working to teach ourselves to operate tools like lathes, milling machines, drill presses and surface grinders, etc. Self-teaching is our favorite method of learning and that's why We're excited about the instructional videos that SmartFlix has in their rental library. They have a fairly thorough machine shop course by the American Gunsmithing Institute and various offerings by master machinist Rudy Kouhoupt and others. The American Gunsmithing series consists of about 14 DVDs and costs about $1300 to purchase outright. However, thanks to SmartFlix you can rent the whole series for about $200!!



But wait a minute, how about some free videos to get started. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has a free video series on the basics of machine shop tools and practices. Every semester MIT has a new crop of engineering students who need to learn machining in a hurry. They need to be able to work in the university's well equipped student machine shop where they will make the parts for projects in robotics. Most 17 year olds are a bit short of machining experience so the school has put together a series of ten videos to help jumpstart the student's practical abilities. We watched the first four of the videos. They covered layout, drill press operations, belt sanding & grinding, and vertical milling, We found them well made, interesting and informative (to my novice perspective anyway). So get busy my fellow ShopKulturians and WrenchTech(nicians). Go forth and learn. Next time we'll talk about how to build you own multi-purpose machine tool from scrap metal and automotive parts.

ShopKulture and the Future of the Garage Based Shop

We've seen the future and it looks like making stuff is coming back in a big way. This message is not lost on us. The luxury of playing around with sports cars, motorcycles and 4x4's is great fun, but it is a luxury after all. The serious economic times we are in require serious thoughts and actions. So we've been thinking about tools and equipment for productive work lately. What about building a tractor, a shop heater, a bandsaw lumber mill? And what if you could build this stuff from junk cars, appliances and scrap steel? Count us in!

A movement with the tentative name Open Source Ecology is doing just that. They are putting their money and effort where it counts right now. The stuff they are building is cool and functional. We're so excited we've got to get on this bandwagon!  

 Don't let the name fool you either. These are not a bunch of idle dreamers, these guy and gals are mad fabricating geniuses. They are building great stuff from scrap and low cost parts; lumber mills, tractors, shop heaters, farming implements, construction equipment, well drilling, and most importantly machine tools to aid in their low cost manufacturing approach.


Think what you could do with a computer numerical control (CNC) torch table that let you rapidly cut metal with computer accuracy. Or a CNC router table that could cut precision parts from wood or plastic while you did other things. A serious person could start making some real money and an independent lifestyle that didn't depend so much on the ups and downs of the overall economy.  

Now think about the fact that plans for building metal working lathes, milling equipment, heating systems and CNC tools are now circulating freely on the internet. And not just plans, support groups, blogs and discussion forums as well.  These are great times to be a Maker, a ShopKulture person, a Wrenchtech type.


Keep watching this blog as we focus like a laser beam on these new trends and work to pull together all the information and resources we can find to promote this thing that we love; MAKING COOL USEFUL STUFF ON THE CHEAP!

Don't forget to check out  The Open Source Ecology website. and maybe become a supporter of theirs at $10/mo. I have and I do.

Fun With Fiberglass and Composites

Not only fun, but skills that the home shop enthusiast shouldn't be without.

It seems that most of the shop techniques we've written about so far in this blog have been related to metalworking. We love welding, machining and fabricating with metal, but we can't imagine calling ourselves master craftsmen if we don't have some good skills for working with composites. The word composite as used in this article refers to materials built up with reinforcing fibers and a binding agent, like fiberglass. Fiberglass is the most popular of the composite materials for use in the shop. Once a few basic techniques are mastered, fiberglass becomes one of the most versatile materials available to the home shop enthusiast.

Building Your Kevlar Canoe: A Foolproof Method and Three Foolproof Designs

So what are composites exactly? In most cases they are reinforcing fibers embedded in a plastic resin. The resin usually starts out as a liquid which is combined with the reinforcing material and a a precise amount of a hardening agent. The reinforcing material be in the form of loose fibers, mats of short fibers, and/or woven cloth. The result is a very workable material that can be hand shaped, laid into a form, or draped over an existing object. The shapes and types of objects that can be made with composites or assemblies of composite components is almost limitless. Once the composite material is cured it can be cut, sawn, drilled and sanded to make finished objects.

An example of resin and cloth construction could be that of a boat hull, made out of another material like wood, which is then covered with fiberglass cloth and resin, which forms a waterproof skin and which may contribute some strength to the overall structure. A number of small aircraft designs consist of foam cores that are covered with glass-fiber cloth and resin. In this case the fiberglass skin provides almost all of the structural strength of the aircraft. A mass produced car, the Chevrolet Corvette, was for many years made with body panels of fiber reinforced plastic.

Glass is not the only fiber used to make composites. High tech fibers like Kevlar and carbon-fiber are also used where either super strength or very light weights are called for. Composite technology is making advances into areas where other materials have long been used. Large commercial ship and aircraft builders are increasingly turning to composites to build stronger, lighter, faster and more fuel efficient vehicles. Consider for example the New Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a 300 passenger commercial airliner. It has an all composite fuselage. Even the U.S. Navy has designs on the table for warships that will have superstructures made largely of composites.

For the home shop enthusiast an introduction to working with composites could be a simple as using fiberglass putty and/or matting to restore rusted automobile body panels. A great project for composite beginners could also be building a canoe or kayak. There are many plans and even parts kits available for small boats. Automotive enthusiasts can also find simple projects that can teach the principals of composite construction. Learning by doing is what we stress here at ShopKulture/Wrenchtech.

Some good videos that teach the fundamentals are available from FiberGlast Developements. These videos can be purchased directly from FiberGlast or through Amazon.com. They can also be rented from Smartflix.com. Small amounts of resin, fiberglass mat and cloth can be purchased from home stores like Home Depot and Lowes. Larger amounts of materials can be ordered from FiberGlast or FiberglassSite.com

Here are some links to resources for the composite construction:

FiberGlast Developments
EpoxyWorks Magazine
West System
West System Techniques & Materials
FiberglassSite.com, Discount Fiberglass Products

A Dodge Truck So Fine

We spend a lot of our time obsessing about cars, trucks and motorcycles. Maybe it's unhealthy, but we don't care. It's also a fact that not much of our time is spent thinking about the Chrysler Motor Company's products. We just weren't raised that way. We've had Chevys and Pontiacs; and Toyota's and Yamahas. It's just the way things worked out and we don't feel like we have to make any apologies.

 

None the less, our interest is piqued when people start talking about the Cummins diesel that Dodge was smart enough to install in some of its pickup trucks starting in 1989. The Dodge Power Wagon is another Dodge product that has a permanent place in our hearts. Originally built as a military truck in the 1940's and continued almost unchanged into the late 1960's has to be one of the most iconic, and dare we say "bad ass" designs in 4x4 truckdom. Most that are encountered today are in rough shape. These trucks have been worked hard and they often show it. In many cases you find that they were worked out years ago and left to rust in some neglected farm yard and overgrown with weeds and rusted through. Nice original examples are occasionally found in arid regions of the Rock Mountains and the southwestern deserts of USA.

There is a small legion of Power Wagon diehards out there and you can find them if you look hard enough. If you agree with us that the Power Wagon is indeed worth checking out, if just on the strength of it's unique style, we hope you'll look into making a project out of saving one of these icons of the American Iron Age. It's our short list, that's for sure. In the mean time get a load of this eye candy.

Go to Hot Rods & Custom Stuff Power Wagon page for the rest of the story and more pictures. And go to their home page to see one of the most incredible Hot Rod sites.

I'm in Junkyard Heaven Thanks to car-part.com

My computer's web browser has a button in the bookmark bar that lets me see which sites I visit most. I was surprised recently when I saw car-part.com in the top ten. car-part.com is a search engine website for finding used auto parts from wrecking yards. I really like this website because it lets me search hundreds (maybe thousands) of yards all over North America for parts from a staggering list of car and truck makes and models.

Need a flywheel for your old Toyota 4x4 with the 22R fourbanger? No problem. Need a set of factory aluminum wheels for your Mercedes Benz 190E 2.3? Not to worry, car-part,com has pictures of all the choices to help you make the right selection.

Not only do you have access to tons of parts for sale, you have access to information about what fits with what. It's not a perfect interchange guide but you can usually tell if a part fits in several different models by seeing what the sources are for the parts being offered. I find it to be a treasure of information that helps me to be a better gearhead.

Prices and part grades are listed too, so you can get an idea of what the range of prices is and have some way to tell good parts from the real junk. This has helped me to get a good part at a good price on several occasions.

When I was kid, big store chains like Sears used to put out Christmas catalogs for children, I used to spend hundreds of hours figuring just exactly what I wanted from Santa. I'd weigh all the details and go to sleep at night dreaming of the cool things I imagined I might get. I feel the same way about car-part.com. If I had a magic credit card that only worked on car-part.com I'd be buying parts and building cars and 4x4s from parts for the rest of my life.

The Datsun "Z" Car: 40 Years Old & Still a Hot Choice

In our last blog post, Dirt Cheap Collectible Cars, we commented that we were glad to see the Datsun 280Z named as one of Money magazine's favorite low cost collectible cars.

We can't believe that this is a 40 year old design. It just goes to show that some designs are so good, so in touch with what really makes people feel good about cars, that they are timeless.



The "Z" car is a two seater with low-to-the-ground seating that makes drivers and passengers feel like they're going a hundred-miles-an-hour, even when it's standing still. But this car is not just a styling exercise, it has the makings of a real sports car under that pretty skin.

This is a vehicle that came onto the North American market in 1969 just a few years after the Ford Mustang and the Chevy Camaro, yet while those cars have solid axles and leaf springs, the "Z" has coil springs at all four corners and a fully independent suspension all around. The Datsun engine, an inline six, while no match for the American V-8s, was a pretty good choice for the much lighter "Z" car.

Today this car still has a strong fan base. The sporty styling, the excellent suspension and the roomy engine bay, have made this car an engine swapper's dream. The engine of choice has always been the Chevy small block V-8 and that hasn't changed with the advent of the LS1 series aluminum V-8. Team the LS1 with a T-56 six speed out of a late model Camaro, Firebird or Corvette and you've got something hot. Add some floor stiffening ribs and a big brake kit and you have a car that is almost track ready.

The engine bay is so accommodating that chevys are not the only engines that have made their way into "Z" cars. Ford V-8 drivetrains are common too, but swaps involving exotic power plants like the BMW V-12 are not unheard of. For our money we think an inline six is what Datsun intended and what this Datsun deserves. It's just that we think the six of choice is a Toyota! The 7M-GTE engine out of the '87 - 92 Toyota Supra Turbo, with a matching Asin R154 transmission, is the dollar for dollar so much fun for so little money that we wondered if we ought to keep it a secret.

The 7M-GTE is an electronically fuel injected, turbo charged engine that makes 240 hp in stock form. The incredible thing about this engine is that it has internals that are bullet proof to roughly 500hp. The engine control computer on the 7M is has simple wiring and is easy to fool into much higher power output, so with some exhaust tweaks, an upgraded turbo, some larger injectors and a good head gasket you can add an easy 200 - 300hp. Did I mention that you can often buy a Turbo Supra donor vehicle for less than $1000 and a nice fresh Japanese import engine, with no more than 50k miles on it, for about $795?

If the 7M engine is too mild for you there is one other Toyota inline six that is a good match for the "Z" car. It's the little known 1JZ--GTE. This was a successor to the 7M motor, but it was never offered in any North American market Toyota. Yet it is easy to import and substantially cheaper that the popular 2JZ-GTE that came in the '93 - '98 Turbo Supra that has become one of the most prized sports cars on the planet. The 1JZ engine has less displacement at 2.8 liters, but it has a shorter stroke that allows it to rev to 8,000 rmps. Tune one of these up to 500 - 600hp, put it in a prepared "Z" car and you will be treated to the rush and the music of something you could only experience on a racetrack in a professionally built race car.

We are talking about so much fun, for so little money, that I almost can't imagine another project that I'd rather be involved with. Well, there are a few other projects that are in the running, so stay tuned. I'll be writing about those soon.

A super source for Datsun Z info and images is HybridZ.org

Dirt Cheap Collectible Cars! We Love It!

Dirt Cheap Collectible Cars. Now here's a concept we can get behind! My list would be very different, but I'm really glad to see the Datsun 280Z and a classic BMW 3 Series in this list. Still we can't do enough to emphasize the benefits of low cost collectible cars. Go man go!