Vaxdemic Chapter 8
Chapter 8
I remember when I was in middle school, my science teacher would talk about how Thomas Edison tried hundreds of times to make a light bulb before it worked, or something like that. I also remember in college people calling him a fraud who stole his inventions. Regardless of which is true, electricity is a fickle bitch.
I have learned some important stuff beyond how much getting shocked sucks. I’ve learned how current and voltage change in a circuit, mostly. I’ve also learned it is possible to damage a voltage meter. I’m growing two piles, one of small electrical devices I’ve ruined, and another of electric tools I’ve fried. Most of it is small stuff. After destroying one of my big volt meters, I decided it was probably best to burn through all the crappy ones before I ruined the big ones with other functions. I’m still hesitant to move on to bigger stuff because I’m a little scared of being shocked.
It’s not like I have much else to do. I still go salvaging once or twice a week, but it’s starting to get cold and gas is becoming harder to find. We have commandeered a third house just for fuel storage. I’m not sure how long the gasoline will keep. We have about fifty gallons and all of it was pulled from cars. We have even less diesel. Ruth tells me it goes bad just like gas, but there are additives I can add to that will extend their lives, but she’s not sure what they are.
Luckily, we’re warm and can cook because we have more propane than we can use. I’ve read the literature I took from SpeedyGas, it turns out that propane will last pretty much as long as the container it’s in. I also found an old house two blocks away that had several barrels of kerosene, and Ruth says that stuff will keep for years. We’ve only got the one kerosene heater but it’s nice to know we aren’t going to freeze anytime soon.
With travel being our biggest concern, I’ve spent some time each day riding one of my bikes. It sucks. I can’t believe people used to ride these things for fun. According to the markers on the near by trail I’m either up to one and a half miles, or one and a half kilometers. I’ve now abandoned my love of the metric system because miles sounds more impressive. Either way riding a bike in the cold is not fun. One of my ears got frostbite and it took a while to find a first aid book on how to treat it. I was worried I was going to lose the ear for a few days, but it slowly went back to normal. Now I make sure to wear something over my head when I’m outside.
The electricity problem still bothers me. At first, I thought I would just salvage some solar panels from the few houses. The first problem I encountered is the panels are wired through a lot of stuff I don’t recognize before it makes it to the breaker box. I’m not quite sure what it all does and I haven’t found the instruction manuals in any of the houses. The second major problem is, they’re really heavy. I know I’ve seen ads for light weight solar panels on the internet but these people must not have gotten the memo. I detached one after tying a rope to it so I could lower it to the ground. Thank God I’m weak, because that thing started down the roof immediately with the rope slipping through my hands, leaving me alive but with minor rope burn.
I thought I might try an experiment. We have a lot of empty cars I’ve parked on one of the roads in my neighborhood. They aren’t doing much good since none of them have fuel but they may be useful for parts. I’m going to start this out by saying I’m no mechanic. I’ve never once fixed my own car, but I have taken mine to be fixed more times than I can count. I always took it to the same guy. He would always make the same joke that over half the miles on my car were from the tow truck bringing it to him. He could usually fix the problem in a day, usually because I offered him extra if he could. One time I remember him telling me the alternator was out. It sounded like a weird name for a car part so against my determination to never know how my car worked I asked him what it did. He told me it takes power from the motor to keep the battery charged. It’s one of the few car facts I accrued before everything stopped.
After raiding an auto parts store for tools, I started taking things out of the emptied cars. Finding the alternator was not as easy as I thought. Most car parts don’t have labels that tell me what they are. Using deductive reasoning I had to assume it was connected to the battery, there should be only cables going to it, and it had to be connected to the motor so it could generate power. It took a few hours to find the right part and remove it from the car, but with the help of a wrench and some improvisation for a turning handle I was able to make the connecting wires spark together. I was pretty sure I had gotten the alternator.
My plan was to create a windmill to generate power. Since I have access to every hardware store in the area with unlimited “credit” acquiring material wasn’t too difficult. I rigged up a stand from some metal plumbing pipes, fasteners, and copious amounts of duct tape. I made some blades out a PVC pipe and spent a day rigging the whole thing up. I knew that it would only generate DC power and after some quick experimenting with a hand crank, I was able to hook up a light bulb that would glow when the alternator turned. I put the bulb at the base of the stand once the alternator was set up on top. Then I waited.
A few hours passed and nothing happened. The blades of my makeshift generator didn’t spin. There was wind, but the blades simply didn’t want to move. After climbing the ladder and spinning the blades by hand I could see the bulb glow dimly so the problem wasn’t with the alternator. The blades were kind of small, mostly because I was worried about bending the shaft of the alternator when I made them. I took the old blades off and made a set twice the size. This time it started to turn but stopped. Aggravated I climbed back to the top of the windmill to see what was wrong. This time the shaft was sitting at an odd angle. Turns out it hadn’t bent the shaft. The weight of the blades had pulled the shaft loose and now it wouldn’t turn. I think it may need some kind of support to keep the shaft in place.
After going back to my own personal scrap yard called Silver Oak Blvd, I got a second alternator. This one had a brace installed in the car which I took with it. I have to admit it looks better than the ratchet strap I was using to hold the first alternator on. This one’s also a little bigger. After attaching the blades, a gust of wind started them spinning and they smacked me in the face nearly knocking me off the ladder. After covering my mouth in a moment of blinding agony I looked down and saw the bulb was burning bright. I climbed down to enjoy my triumph. I even called Ruth outside to see. She arrived just as a massive gust of wind came through and the bulb got really bright, then popped and went off forever. I think I need some kind of regulator.
I climbed back up and after some wrestling stopped and tied the blades so they wouldn't spin. I’m not sure it’s a good idea to just let them run freely with nothing to power. I brought some of my books outside and started to read in the free light of day. The wind continued to blow around me. I was just starting to think I may need something to block the wind while I read when I heard the windmill creek. When I looked up, I saw it swaying back and forth. The duct taped joints that felt so sturdy before were bending and stretching as the windmill rocked. Then a pipe popped out of one near the middle and the whole structure fell to the ground. Note to self, duct tape does not fix everything.
The good news was the alternator appeared to be undamaged. The bad news was the tower I made was now just a pile of pipes and tape. The pipes that had been in fittings were almost all bent. Those wrapped in tape were salvageable. I decided I needed a better way of building. I may have to go to the community college and pick up a welder, but I’m not sure if they need power or not, or even how to weld. It doesn’t seem like a good time to bring fire into this mix.
Finding the fittings, I can use has been difficult. It looks like the stores didn’t stock that many. I may have to make my own. Ruth told me to find a table vice and some metal cutting bits for a drill and make my own. It seemed like a good idea, this way I could hold the whole thing together with bolts which the stores carried in large tubs. This led me to a new discovery. Apparently, the different metal pipes at the hardware store have more differences than color. Some of the pipes I’ve been using take forever to put holes in, others just give way with a few seconds of drilling. I’ve also noticed some are starting to rust while others don’t seem bothered being outside.
All these differences and new problems are starting to get annoying. Who knew there was so much to consider with building materials? I used to picture the hardware stores just being full of wood, tools, and pipes. Now I find out each has their own specific use for specific situations. I’m beginning to question everything I’m doing. Are these bolts going to work, are they going to last, what if I can’t use them with this type of piping, can the pipes hold up what I need them too. Life was so much easier when I could just pay someone to fix things for me.
Bob Stackey
December, 17 2021