I gotta hand it to B.J.'s Craft Supplies....I ordered 200 one inch diameter mirrors from them on Thursday morning at 7:53AM and they arrived by mail today! Now that's what I call service...Benita had some guests today...8 cows and 3 calves. Everyone seemed to get along quite well....a little bit of feeding and lots of napping. One calf was here without its' momma and bellowed all day long.
Ran down to Bee Mountain Hardware and found just what I needed as usual - some 5 minute epoxy. High winds all afternoon but managed to glue down 198 mirrors onto the satellite dish - soon to become my solar fryer. Need to place another order of at least 60 more for this dish and perhaps a load for the next one. I think this is going to work quite well. 69,83,45,0
I tuned in to the Stickcam this afternoon and saw you poking your fingers into the focal point of your dish. Watch out! :-) It's looking good.
ReplyDeleteWhat a neat project! I cant wait to see the final product.
ReplyDeleteOh, Ive been meaning to ask what the numbers at the end of yer posts mean. ~jen
Temperature at 8PM, High Temperature, Low Temperature, Rainfall Amount.
ReplyDeleteSeeing this parabolic mirror makes me wonder if you've considered a similar experiment with a small sterling engine to generate electricity. I imagine if a small scale sterling engine was possible someone would already have built one but who knows it might work. The only downside I can think of would be the noise.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.stirlingenergy.com/
ReplyDeleteHow are you going to keep the curious longhorns safe from the focal point of your solar dish? Kind of scary the heat it creates, if what I have read online is correct.
ReplyDeleteHi John, looks like you need about 100 more. I did a quick count of your remaining spaces on the solar fryer. Are they glass or plastic mirrors? I've been following your blog since almost day one. Could you give out your latitude and longitude please? take care.
ReplyDeleteZole
so cool, makes me think of the studio 54 disco ball.
ReplyDeleteGreat solar fryer. I've got an old Direct TV dish in my garage this gives me some inspiration.
ReplyDeleteWhat did you put down before the mirrors? Is that foil?
Yeah that's what I'm talking about John... but smaller... and bigger than this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q4UENGN_Yk
ReplyDeleteI've just never seen anyone do a DIY stirling engine at a useful scale. Seems like a good idea though.
Zole,
ReplyDeleteYou can get it from google maps:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=29.548792,-103.585378&spn=0.003108,0.006899
(satellite images predate TFL apparently)
So that's what Bin laden looks like when he stares at a disco ball in the desert?
ReplyDeleteMr. B,
ReplyDeleteBefore I glued the mirrors down, I used a grinder to remove the paint and rough up the surface of the dish. I mixed up small batches of epoxy - enough to glue about 15 mirrors at a time...it starts to harden in about 3 minutes. Starting from the center, I applied glue to the back each mirror (one at a time) and placed them rather than brush it onto the surface of the dish.
I watched you today (Sun.)on RFD, I REALLY loved the tour of your Home ;)
ReplyDeleteGranny R
Is this what the big glare is coming from your direction?
ReplyDeleteThis is pretty neat, John.
so that's what a fly sees just before you kill it! great idea...i wanna build one for the back yard now....
ReplyDeleteThe Archimedes Heat Ray – myth or reality?
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes
This is all i could think of (that episode of mythbusters)
I just love the stuff you come up with!
ReplyDelete