Schindler Engineering

Today we headed out to SF for the 5th time this month. As with previous trips, we spent a good deal of time visiting up-cycled military infrastructure.

Before leaving, as usual, we covered Safety Training.

Since Bellowing about Abstinence is about as effective as praying for rain, we like to actually teach kinds… instead of passing on the ignorant abuse that passed for teaching kids 30 or 40 years ago. The hope is that they will make good decisions based on sound knowledge.

(Instead of SNEAKING AROUND when YOU ARE NOT LOOKING)

In this case, we broke down a BBQ lighter to its core elements and went over exactly how the Butane gas is stored in a liquid form, how that is released with a lever arm into a silicon joiner, how the vinyl tube takes that up to a brass tit, how the tit does not get hot due to the liquid gas vaporizing (cooling effect + jetting distance).. .. ..

We went over Air Fuel Ratio, how the venturi effect works and why the holes are in the rolled sheet metal. How the sparking system actuates and why getting sand into it causes it to malfunction…

Just stuff like that.

So…

Before going forward here… if you think that sounds dangerous… then you better go watch some Youtube and see what YOUR KIDS ARE WATCHING while they are at other kids houses.

Be the one that teaches your kids. . . don’t let their JackAss friend be the one. We teach Safety at Schindler Engineering… which means ACTUAL WORKING SAFETY.

Speaking of safety. . . the anemone we rescued a long time back is ready to split for the second time. It is a bit hard to see here, but the body has developed 2 mouths while it has not yet separated.

You can see that we spot feed big chunks of fresh shrimp.

This is “little guy” – he was the first split. He is far larger than the original was when rescued. The original is now huge. .. but only as huge as we have fed for.

(they will grow to the size of a basketball if you let them)

Shrimp… Everybody likes shrimp…

And everybody likes coraline algae too.

Mmmm I ate TWO pieces of shrimp

So, since we are legit, it was time for peer review. We rolled thru the Behind the Scenes Tour of the San Francisco Aquarium.

Super Legit Tour, as always. Yea, you are actually looking down from the top, thru the water, at the people in the tube…

Sharks. . .. and they had a Deep Sea Bass that was unbelievable.

Which reminds me that it is time to go Diving

And check this ray out. Total character. He was trying to “Get Some”

Then off to tour the Sub Marine. . .

Fucking Misery is all you need to understand. FUCK THAT.

Not the tour, the REALITY of operating out of a WW2 Sub Marine… FO’Getit

This pic does not catch it, but the trees are huge and the aesthetics here are really appealing.

Speaking of appealing aesthetics… Eh HEM! Those Cuberts are fucking rad.

Who does not want to eat some HOTBIRD WING WING???
Sounds like they were inspired by my DOUBE-FUSION BANG BANG from last week.

🙂

I know I did (only it was hamburger sliders)

We got there right before closing. It was warm. Just enough breeze.

I wonder who use to reside in those buildings back there. . .

Just think about the vibe around WWII… what they had to sign up for… How fucked the machines were that they had to climb into for battle.

…

I was really happy to see that there was something set up to remind people of what happened to the Japanese Americans during WWII. Not subtle either.

No bad vibes. Just happy people eating food and hanging out.

And then we went on a long adventure. . . but ended up back home. Here is Tyler sniffing chicken shit.

That garden is mostly them. I am busy terrorizing the keyboard. You may wonder why I do this. If so, just ask man. It has to do with managing emotions around shit I cant control. Fucking crazy people and a crazy life. Gotta write it down or it will eat me up.

Earlier he was climbing all over the soil bags claiming that he was a Bill Hilly or Hill Billy or Billy Goat or something.

Strictly legit

Then Dinner. SSDD.
3 plates not 4.

That is the portion size we advertise on the internet. I added more stake when the second piece came off of the BBQ.

YES – sometimes pieces of meat come off the BBQ at different times (rolls eyes)

-Schindler

I’ma go’n ah take thater-one there out raht now.

Bastards got me. . !. lol

-Schindler

It was noted by staff that it has been a Looooong time since we have gone on a Schindler Engineering Adventure…

(not really – it has just been a long time since we Posted about it…  )

So – here we go:      Cliff Clambering at Sunset, a Silent Movie

Of course Kimberly had her clamber as well…  so our next silent movie will star her and we are thinking the title will be:

“Treasure Hunting in the Sketchiest Spot Imaginable…  During a Storm Surge”

That about sums it up.

Until next time…  we are super busy…  but we always make time for exercise, and we only do exercise which is fun.

Why    would    anyone    do    exercise    that    is    miserable   ???

Solve that riddle and staying fit gets easy.

-Patrick

This adventure has been all about BOATING!

Since we moved closer to the sea (we are a block from the harbor small-craft launch now…) interests have shifted to powered water craft.  Where we are ultimately headed is a Zero Motorcycles 75-7 driven by a Sevcon Gen 4 in size 6…  but before we jump into that we had to freshen up on some basics.

Here is a pic of the Size 6 Sevcon with a custom harness that we spec’ed and built from scratch over at Calfee Design

Of course that all gets split-sleeve for abrasion and overall aesthetic but you get the idea.

The motor will look a little something like this:

That is an up-cycled Zero motor that has been carbon wrapped on a lathe and drilled for ventilation.  That particular motor has an interesting future …  ours will be a bit different.

 

Transoms:

The Transom is the mounting point on your boat for the motor.  In this case…  a small electric outboard you will recognize as a “Trolling Motor”.  These motors can be quite over-volt friendly…

You will notice that is a REALLY ROUGHED OUT example.  We built this from no plans in 45 minutes using nothing but some cabinet wood we found in the garage, an angle grinder (no saw!), and a drill.

The assembly mates to the plastic Kayak via blind rubber nuts…  you basically over drill, insert, and expand.  They work quite well and do not damage the kayak in the process.

In the spirit of ROUGHING OUT A PROOF OF CONCEPT we picked that Trolling motor up for free in Laselva, nabbed the battery out of my car, and headed for the harbor for a test run.

 

Testing, testing, testing…  I cant say it enough!

At Schindler Engineering – before we dive head first into an expensive venture we spend AT LEAST 20% or 30% of our time bounding the problem.  We start simple and cheap…  with a test that will help us understand what sort of hurtles we will see as we start to scale.

If the 2 person Kayak is hard to handle on 30lbs of thrust…  it will be unmanageable with 300lbs.  🙂   Seems obvious, but you would be surprised at how often we have seen a system getting finishing touches that fundamentally just will not function well.

So with the boat in the water and a better understanding of how it will load down under the weight, how the steering will feel, whether it will need stabilization…  we decided further testing was in order.

Off to Washington…  our official test site for all things ridiculous.

Here is a shot of our test fleet:

The Trusty Aluminum cruiser, the not so trusty foam floater, and the ultralight inflatable.

For the record…  the foam bit of business up there was built by Mathew R. back around 2013.  We were on holiday and I challenged him to make a seaworthy vessel in less than 15 minutes.  That’s what he came up with… quite clever…  and so as soon as he announced completion I tied a rope to it, asked him to board, and took off across the canal!  Lol…  We motored until the battery died and then I rowed him back in.  Confirmed…  his vessel was indeed seaworthy.

Mk2

Weight and draft is everything…  followed closely by steering and the ability to stay afloat.  This fine vehicle can be hand carried with ease but is hell to steer.  Right off it is clear that we will need a boat which is not flat bottom if we are going to harness the Zero Power Train…

It needs to be light…  it needs to hydroplane to some degree…  it needs to turn on a dime WITHOUT FLIPPING.  (Reference future photo which is not yet taken of the 5 gallon jugs on a boom we will soon add to the test Kayak)

So…  all of these rigs have been slow so far

(Unlike this snail we found at low tide which when fully extended was the size of a cantelope)

But….  just like a goat in a diaper with a cast on its leg at a laundromat…

Good things start small, Fast things start slow, and boats with enough power never sink!

Until next time…  on Adventure

-Patrick

We had our first official company outing yesterday.

In celebration of Kimberly passing her second CPA exam…  and in anticipation of a lot of hard work coming…  we decided to repel down a cliff to a very hard to access “moonscape” beach.

Here is a map of the location

 

Here is a Photo Sequence

Looking forward to the next trip and hope you will join us.  Here are a few videos

Tidal movement 1 of 3

Tidal movement 2 of 3

Tidal movement 3 of 3

-Patrick