Stupidly Simple Automated Appleseed Processor, or, bite me, BioPro
Today I had one of those interminable airport days, starting with getting a ride to the airport 5 hours ahead of schedule (I slept in the lobby for a while). My second flight involved a guy next to me fiddling loudly with a Rubik’s Cube (which was actually kind of cute, he was friendly and at one point was entertaining the other woman in our row with the solution, which I haven’t thought about for at least 12 years) while my feet fell asleep and my brain just wanted this limbo to end. I have started on a new strategy with the last few flights- getting up and walking around. Yep, not much new news to report in my life!
I’d loaded my laptop with about 100 web pages and forum threads, and waded into the intricacies of the Dieselcraft and Spinner centrifuge threads, info on commodities pricing and what it’s done to commercial biodiesel in this country, and a bunch of oddball permaculture stuff from my hippie social networking site. Eventually this was all read, and my new laptop has awesome battery life, so I was just sitting there noodling away on a piece of workshop syllabus. I was trying to write down every single possible trick there was to teach in the next System Tricks class, when I got slammo’d by a bright new idea for how to caveman-automate the Appleseed process using only timers, Rick’s heater controller, and a couple of extra pumps. I think I can actually make this thing compete with the BioPro for something like $600 of controllers/timers/pumps or $700 more in auxiliary heating equipment, and, no welding needed yet. I started fidgeting in my tiny airline seat and had to fight down the massive urge to get on the internet up there in the air and yell at all my biodieseler friends about the grand new discovery.
I needed to build one here for some future classes anyway, might be doing that this weekend.
I’m so fricking excited.