Hello,
Welcome to my blog. I plan on using this to share some of my projects. I'm a tinkerer, and love to know how things work. I enjoy fixing things, and teaching people about technical subjects. Currently the projects on my to-do list include: evaluation efficiency of wheels and drive train designs of LEGO Technic and Mindstorms models, updating the brakes and suspension of a 1967 Chevy Camaro (a friend's car), and building myself an SVO Mustang.
If you can name it then I've either driven it, broke it, or fixed it. I've always been very mechanically inclined. When I was six years old my Dad was teaching me about carburetors and brake systems. When I was eight to ten I was often taking things apart to learn about them. Such things include, my bike, TVs, tape decks (cassette and 8-track), remote controlled toys, stereos and anything else that could be torn apart and possibly re-assembled. For a while my attention turned to plastic models of cars and planes; specifically World War Two aircraft, all the while I was fascinated we LEGO Technic.
Eventually I got into high-school and got really interested in cars. I was fortunate enough to have an auto shop available (complete with a Dragster Team) and a teacher whom I still consider as one of my best mentors. Also available at that school was a metal shop, where I learned welding and machining. This school was a smaller school in North West Oregon, and yes it did have a "school of forestry" and plenty of kids active in FFA. Yet it was a very diverse school and also had a club that sparked a new interest in me. This club was called Electron Run, and we built and drove and race electric cars.
These were not regular production cars converted to electric, nor were they small toy cars. They were purpose-built cars designed for efficiency and speed. The rules were pretty simple: the car had to have at least three wheels, it had to have brakes on at least two of the wheels, it must have a proper seat-belt and roll-bar, and it was limited to a max of 64 pounds (29 Kg) of lead-acid batteries. Teams from around the state would meet during the spring and take-over a parking lot. A mini-Indy style track would be made with small orange cones, typically .25-.33 miles long. The format of the race was to get as many laps as possible in one hour. My freshman year we won first in state with out ever getting first in a single race, but by consistently placing near the top and being at every race.
In addition to this I met the Love of my life, her crazy family, and her 1965 Chrysler New Yorker. We've been married since September of 2000, and the Chrysler (named Ramble) currently lives with my parents and has over 400,000 miles on the original drivetrain.
After high school I joined the Air Force. I won't go in to detail about what I do here, but I will say that I spend a lot of time using radios, computers, interesting vehicles, and other cool toys. Shortly after arriving at my first duty station (in Hawaii), I bought an 1984 Mustang SVO. I loved that car and it really opened my eyes about automotive performance. Before then all I knew was muscle cars, carbs and V-8 engines. Now here I was driving a small, light, turbocharged, fuel injected, four cylinder car with a very interesting "personality". I had that car for the better part of seven years, and miss it dearly now. I will have one again, I'm just waiting for the time to be right. ;)
After Hawaii I moved to South Carolina where I acquired a '68 Mercury Cougar; and a diesel 2005 Ford F-250; and two kids, one daughter and one son. And started to learn about file and web page servers. After SC we moved to Germany, where I started to become interested in renewable energy, and rediscovered LEGO Technic (apparently it's quite common for Adult Fans Of LEGO or AFOLs to go through "dark years" such as I did). Now I live in Texas, and since I'm back in the states I can get into my other interests of cars, bikes and tinkering in general.
Hopefully my future posts will teach you something and inspire you to learn about things around you. Please feel free to ask questions about anything you see in these posts.
