If you give a man a fish...

[blueb]

It's from the supermarket but it's called 'barbecue strength' foil and it's much wider than a typical roll of foil and about 3 times as thick. My heart's desire is to get a large mirror and cut wedges out of it to glue to the wooden wedges but I'm such a hamfisted donkey when it comes to cutting glass that there's little point in trying. I just end up with broken shards of glass everywhere.

... or you could cut the wedges ffrom #11 finish stainless steel sheet (mirrored SS) and you could probably forgo using wooden wedges.

[netmaestro]

Where would I get that stainless steel? Is it expensive?

Today's test: frying eggs. 30 minutes to preheat the pan, 20 minutes to fry:

[electrochrisso]

Today's test: frying eggs. 30 minutes to preheat the pan, 20 minutes to fry:

Mid summer, in Australia: 1 minutes preheat, 1 minutes to fry, and that's without the solar oven.

[blueb]

Where would I get that stainless steel? Is it expensive?

Any sheet metal fabrication shop would have some on hand. They could shear it to the sizes you need (a lot faster than by hand!)

The last price I could get was:
Stainless Steel #304 with a #8 Mirrored finish
is .031" thick (22GA)
and weighs 1.28# per sq. ft.
and priced at $10.25/ sq. ft.

Pop-riveted together you might eliminate the tire (save valuable space and weight)

I know all this because I just retired and sold my sheet metal shop

[netmaestro]

Thanks for the info, I'll see what our local shop has. I don't want to eliminate the tire though. It serves a purpose. A black rubber tire sitting in the sun absorbs and holds a great deal of heat and the dead air inside it makes for great insulation. I estimate that the temperature inside the black pot in the main reflector would be significantly higher when surrounded by a tire compared to without it. I haven't done any tests to find out if that's true though or if so by how much. I know that without the tire the thing would fold up very small, which would be an advantage as everything we own has to fit in an 8' x 6' pickup truck bed with a cap on it.

[electrochrisso]

I know that without the tire the thing would fold up very small, which would be an advantage as everything we own has to fit in an 8' x 6' pickup truck bed with a cap on it.

Are you also towing a caravan, or are you going to sleep in tent and go full on camping.

[netmaestro]

We're towing this:





It's a 19ft Prowler. An oldie from 1976 but everything works fine. It has 35 gallons fresh water, 30 gallons black water, 25 gallons gray water, 3 piece bath, propane/electric fridge, gas stove & oven, 120v ac wiring and 12v dc wiring. A 12vdc pump pressures the water if you're using from the tank. We're carrying quite a bit of propane, generator and charger for the deepcycle batteries and we hope to get solar and wind up and running soon. So if we can stay near fresh water we should be able to boondock for long periods at a time. The solar oven will keep propane use down to minimal.

[IdeasVacuum]

Your 19ft Prowler looks a lot better than my house!

I do fancy the idea of driving an RV around Great Britain (fuel costs far too great for us at this time), but towing anything like a caravan is just too scary for me (even though I'm not easily scared and have been in more life-threatening scrapes than most people). What does amaze me is when I see a huge RV towing a caravan AND a small car

[netmaestro]

I understand the fuel prices are high in the UK. Here in Canada they are higher lately than we're used to, approx. $1.20 to $1.25 per litre. If Americans were paying that it would come to $4.72 per US gallon, which would have them writhing on the floor and slitting their wrists. The problem with Canadian gasoline is that too many politicians have seen how much we consume and have become addicted to taxing it. Just recently in Ontario we had federal tax only on gas, then some prick got the bright idea to join federal and provincial taxes on everything, called the 'harmonized sales tax' and it applies to all goods and services. When that went into effect the price of many things went up by 8%. Houses, cars, electricity, gasoline, technician labor, etc., etc. This is the main reason gas is 25% more expensive in Canada than it is in the US. It's had the shit taxed out of it. Very frustrating given the fact that we produce a shitload of gasoline right here in Canada, but the producers sell it all offshore to the highest bidder and make their neighbors buy it back from foreigners at an exorbitant price. There's got to be something wrong with that somewhere, I'm sure of it.

[IdeasVacuum]

There's got to be something wrong with that somewhere, I'm sure of it.

There is! Most of the UK price is tax too.

[electrochrisso]

Neat van NM, looks nice and cosy in there. I am doing up a 23 footer at the moment.
Is that an evaporative air-con on the roof.
Have you got your generator yet!. If not get one of the good brand name inverter ones, they are very economical, about 4hr to the ltr, for the 2kva, and last for years. Forget about those cheap Chinese ones they only get 1hr to the ltr and blow up in no time at all.
The price of fuel here is $1.40 for unleaded and $1.50 for diesel, the cheapest its been for years, but will probably go up soon, as the price of oil is back on the rise.

[Zach]

What's is this fresh black gray water stuff

[netmaestro]

Fresh = you can drink it or wash in it, it's pure clean water

Gray = you washed yourself or dishes in it, it can be dumped anywhere (within limits)

Black = you pooped in it and it has to be dumped in a sanitary dump station or buried, otherwise a .net coder might find it and eat it.

[Zach]

I had my suspicions..

Doesn't Microsoft have a black water recycling program? I think there is a dumping station right out front that takes it to the cafeteria by hose