Autumn Showers

The annual autumn showers have arrived.   Only a month late, but the farmers in the wheatbelt will be relieved! 

Rims

I decided to do something about the steel rims used when going on outback trips.   I have nine.  Five for the 4WD and four on the trailer.   The rims were purchased second hand and are rather battered.

All the rust and old paint was removed using a wire brush which took the rims back to bare metal.

They then received three coats of primer followed by three topcoats of gloss charcoal grey

Silver primer

I started the process by masking between the rim and tyre using duct tape.   That seemed a waste of tape.  Subsequently I discovered a different method using colour sample cards from the paint shop.

My first completed rim.

The tyre now needs blacking

Only eight more to completed.

Battery & Reel

It was time to “re-purpose the bulk of the 18650 lithium cells salvaged from the e-scooter battery.   This time I would use 15 cells instead of the previous 10 cells as the remaining cells have less capacity.

A slight improvement on my previous method.  This time I secured the individual frames inside the battery case using hot glue

There were sufficient cells to make two batteries with cases ordered from Aliexpress.

After completing the spot welding I tested the battery before final assembly

With 15 cells to a battery the rated capacity is 9Ah.   However as the cells have a reduced capacity the batteries have an actual capacity of slightly more than 6Ah.

The last three lithium batteries I “liberated” from the local rubbish tip disappointingly only provided two usable cells.  However that brings my total number of available cells to 11 which means I can make another battery.

That got me thinking about the different types of batteries I have for my power tools

[L – R]

Aldi 14.4V battery for the Aldi drill.  I’ve already replaced the cells in the battery.  They were very poor quality and in future I won’t be buy and Aldi battery devices. 

The next battery is for my Bosch drill which I bought to assist in the fitout of Waiouru.  It still works but only has a 3Ah capacity

The 3rd battery is a DeWalt 6Ah

The last two I made and are 6Ah and 9Ah respectively.  

I’ve now discovered it’s possible to buy a battery adapter plate.  If the Bosch battery fails I’ll buy a DeWalt to Bosch battery adapter plate and standardise my batteries around DeWalt.

After gaining confidence using the drone during the recent fishing competition I realised one limitation was the length of line on my spinning reel.   This prevented the drone from taking the line further out.

A search on Aliexpress identified a trolling reel which a much greater line capacity.  It had an initial price over $100 but had been discounted to $80.  Jan did her magic thing with discount codes and Cashback reducing the price to $40.   A bargain!  she also managed to get $8 off the 1000 mtrs of braided line

 

 

Now I need a cool and still day to test my new drone fishing setup.

Not Totally Stupid

When I found Jan crying in the kitchen I knew I needed to take action.   Time to “man up”.   The obvious thing to do was remove her from the situation and take over.  

I peeled and sliced the remainder of the bag of onions.  One conclusion from this kind act was to realise I need a new pair of goggles.  These don’t fully seal!  Whilst I didn’t cry, I’ll admit to weeping slightly towards the end.

 

Last weekend I attended a fishing competition run by the 4WD Club of which I’m a member. 

I’m not a good fisher and am more likely to catch a cold.   However one of the things I wanted to do during the competition was try out the dropper system I’ve made for our drone.   It was with some trepidation I sent the drone out to sea towing my fishing line.  I carefully watched the drone and panicked slightly received a surprise when the drone jerked in the air.  I had been concentrating on controlling the drone and hadn’t been watching the reel.  I’d used all of the line on the reel.  The dropper system worked and my bait was now 300 metres from the shore.   No bites; but at least I have some confidence with using the drone and dropper.

During the day Phil caught two fish.  Neither were edible and were therefore ineligible to be included in the competition.   Apparently only edible fish count.

Several of the club members were very serious about the competition fishing from 7AM to 7PM.

Then a flathead committed suicide foul hooking itself on my second rod.  The one that was close to shore.  I didn’t even know there was a fish on the end until I recovered the line.

Big enough to be legally caught and edible.   It was the only edible fish caught during the competition.   I now have the trophy! 

What a surprise.  Even more of a surprise when I was informed the winner has to organise the competition for 2026

America Created This Crisis

This is just my opinion and I’d be pleased if a reader could explain why I’m wrong!

During the last two weeks the world became a far more dangerous place and in my opinion it was caused by the historical actions of the USA.

During the past 150 years America has oscillated between isolationism and acting as a world leader. Culturally, your average American is an isolationist. They are inward looking and are not particularly interested in what is occurring in the rest of the world.

The USA only entered WW1 at the very end. Afterwards the US President, Wilson was a strong support of the establishment of the League of Nations (first attempt at the creation of the United Nation) but America never became a member and reverted to isolationism.

During the period 1939-1941 the US President (FDR) walked a quiet and fine line attempting to support the Allies whilst pacifying an isolationist Congress and Senate. It wasn’t until Pearl Harbour that the USA discarded isolationism.

In the immediate aftermath of WW2 the USA entered a number of security treaties (eg, NATO, ANZUS). However it didn’t take long for US politicians to decide this wasn’t in their isolationist interest and there have been no legally binding security treaties since. No doubt Israel and Taiwan would love a security treaty with the USA!

America saw communism as a threat to their capitalist beliefs and set about isolating the USSR. The Cold War commenced. In the picture below I show the world from the USSR perspective. The USA was successful in surrounding the USSR. The consequences of a nuclear war between the superpowers resulted in a number of localised conflicts. However the superpowers ensured none of them came into direct conflict (Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan).

The Cold War ended when President Regan’s “Star Wars” caused the financial collapse of the USSR.  Gorbechev agreeing to the reunification of Germany and the independence of USSR satellite states.

During the 1991 negotiations between the USA and USSR Gorbechev reputedly asked the USA Secretary of State, James Baker if Russia could join NATO. This was refused. However Baker gave a commitment NATO would not expand further East.

In 1999 NATO expanded accepting Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. The USA had breached the agreement.  Russia was not happy.

With President Clinton’s approval NATO further expanded East in 2004 when a further 7 former USSR satellite states joining ( Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia) Then in 2007 Albania and Coatia joined. Russia saw a tightening net encircling her.  A second breach of the agreement.

In 2017 Montenegro joined followed by North Macedonia.  A third breach of the agreement.

I don’t doubt the majority of these new member states were fearful of Russia and saw NATO as a security blanket.

Talk of Ukraine and Georgia joining NATO was the final straw for Russia.

Putin had already destabilised Georgia and saw a rapid military action as a means to ensuring Ukraine became a client buffer state between Russia and an expanding and threatening NATO.

The invasion didn’t go to plan. Putin’s advisers had over estimated the ability of their military and under estimated the resolve and capacity of the Ukrainian’s.

The west saw an attack on a sovereign democratic country and poured resources into Ukraine along with attempts to isolate and financially cripple Russia. The problem was the USA, which was vacillating between support for democracy and isolationism.

During Trump’s first term (2016-2020) it was quite clear he is an isolationist and his focus was MAGA. The MAGA supporters are clearly isolationist and have a strong powerbase within the Republican party.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 Biden was able to send support to Ukraine, but it was sporadic as he attempted to garner support from both Democrats and Republicans. However Trump was able to thwart or delay support by appealing to Republican politicians through his MAGA base.

If Harris had been elected president of the USA then support for Ukraine would likely have continued.  Whilst Russia has vast reserves of manpower and would have continued to fight irrespective of casualties,  it would be a shortage of military equipment and the collapse of the economy that would have forced Russia to the negotiating table from a position of weakness. Putin would have been replaced as he cannot afford to be seen to have failed.

However isolationism in the USA was on the rise. Americans were not interested in a war that they didn’t see as relevant to them and were more interested in MAGA. They voted for Trump.

Trump promised to end the war in 24 hours and then within 100 days of taking office. In order to achieve this he will give Russia what it wants; Ukraine as a destabilised buffer state. In return America will gain access to Ukrainian rare earth minerals.

NATO member states are now fully aware they can no longer shelter under the American military shield. Trump is right! The reality is they have been taking advantage of the USA and spending significantly less on defence since the end of the Cold War. Finding the money (and people) to increase military strength will be a significant issue for NATO countries.

I suspect Ukraine may have the resources to continue fighting for another 12 months whilst it endeavours to reach some type of conflict resolution with Russia. However the result will be that Russia keeps all the territory it has gained and there will be a neutral Russian compliant government in Kyiv. Forget any thoughts of NATO and EU membership.

Georgia will also decide against NATO and EU membership.

Yet more ideas

I’m starting to be convinced that Jan thinks of more projects to keep me occupied.

After her successful cataract operation she has returned to playing with her organ.   Not that one…… I mean the one she gets a tune out of.  That doesn’t sound right either!  The organ has a keyboard and plugs into a 240V power socket.   Apparently the problem is there isn’t enough light to read the music and the wall socket is a single into which the organ is plugged.  could I replace it with a double socket allowing her to have a light.  It’s a 10 minute task but I need to buy another dual wall socket.

Meanwhile I’ve visited the local recycle centre to dispose of the old engine oil from the last couple of oil changes I’ve completed on the 4WD.  I usually replace the engine oil and filter in between the manufacturers scheduled services.   I also took the opportunity to deposit the dud 18650 lithium cells that failed the capacity testing.  Whilst doing that I noticed someone had left three lithium power tool batteries in the disposal bay.   I might be able to salvage a few good cells from them.

They are all 36V but one is considerably lighter than the others.   I suspect it is a 5S1P with only 5 cells whilst the others are 5S2P containing 10 cells

After pulling them apart I was surprised to see the ‘light’ battery actually contained 10 cells.  But they feel very light.  It’s a ‘no brand’ battery and I suspect they are very cheap low capacity cells.

The other two battery looked to be well made with the AEG containing a heat sensor.  An indication of a high quality battery

I’ll test all the cells and see if any are worth keeping.

A few days later

Only one of the batteries had any cells worth salvaging.  The ‘light’ cells had a capacity between 300-400mAh which was woeful.  They are obviously very poor quality cells.

Meanwhile, I’ve finished the cover for Jan’s kitchen gas hob.

 

Catch Up

The extra socket in the pantry has been installed

No rest for the wicked when Jan mentioned she no longer used the five ring gas hob in the kitchen.  Could it be converted to additional bench space?

I’m not going to remove the hob as that would entail capping off the gas line and filling a large hole in the granite bench top.  My alternative is to make a timber frame to surround the hob and cap it with a square of coloured acrylic sheet.  Jan selected the colour for the acrylic, red.

The frame was made from scrapes of timber

It received a coat of primer followed by a pink topcoat (surplus paint)

It’s now receiving as many topcoats of red that are necessary to give an acceptable finish.

My remaining timber project has been paused whilst I wait for some router bits.

The bits I had ordered won’t fit in the router.   My error.  They have the wrong sized shank for my smaller DeWalt router.

I’ve made a jig to go around the cutting board I’m making.   I want to use the router with a bullnose bit to rebate a draining groove around the perimeter.

The jig will ensure (I hope) that the groove is cut exactly where it should be in straight lines with nice corners

Meanwhile Jan suggested the study was too cluttered and perhaps I could make some shelving to get everything off the floor.  This would make it easier for her to vacuum.

It was cheaper to make than buy so I made it from melamine particle board and did a test fit before screwing it to the wall.  I’ve already managed to fill it.   there is a principle involved here “Stuff expands to meet the available space”.  I suspect it won’t be long before the floor is again covered with more “stuff”!

Another small job

Yesterday Jan asked whether we had a multi socket 240V power board.  She wanted one for the pantry as she now has more appliances than sockets.  A multi socket board on the benchtop would look ugly so I suggested I install another dual wall socket instead.

You may recall it’s only in the recent past that I installed the splashbacks in the pantry and I didn’t want to attempt to remove one of them!

Eventually I suggested a location which appeared suitable.  It was just above the lower splashback and almost above an existing wall socket.   I could run a cable between the existing socket and the new location.

Here looked a good spot

I marked out the outline of the socket and then the inner portion of it which would need to be rebated into the wall.   Houses in western Australia are usually constructed of double brick walls with a cavity in between.

After marking the location I scored the outline of the rebated portion with a knife cutting the top layer of fine plaster.  Doing this would prevent the edges chipping (I Hope).  Next I drilled a matrix of holes using a masonry bit and my hammer drill.  Afterwards I realised the drill was being powered by one of my recently made batteries.  Then I used a cold chisel and hammer to knock out the rebate ensuring the hole reached the cavity between the inner and outer brick walls.   I’m not going to install a socket enclosure box in the hole so I marked out the location of the mounting holes instead

I used a punch to mark the centre of each hole and then drilled with a 6mm masonry bit.  The holes were then filled by hammering in a plastic rawl plug.  Obviously I’m getting old as I can remember the days when we had to make our rawl plugs from timber.   These plastic plugs are much easier to use.

I’ve temporary stopped here as Jan is watching the TV and I suspect it is on the same power circuit as the socket in the pantry.  Years ago I would probably have just done the connections live.   But poor eyesight, shaky hands and a number of years of additional common sense means that isn’t going to happen.

Nerd Battery Post

 

Back in November I mentioned Ken had given me a old lithium battery which I disassembled to salvage the useful 18650 cells.   There were 60 cells and during the last two months I’ve been testing each cell with my special battery tester.  The tester charges, discharges and recharges one cell every 24 hours.  This provides me with the actual residual capacity of each cell.   A new cell has a capacity of 2400mA and those I’ve recovered from the battery range between 2359 to 1806mA.  No battery retains full capacity after use.  Each cell has received new shrink wrap cladding and insulated washer around the positive terminal.

 

None of the cells were dead which left me wondering how to use them.  I decided to make some batteries for my DeWalt power tools.  I have more tools than batteries and find myself swapping batteries.   This situation occurred because the batteries are expensive and obviously I don’t use all the tools simultaneously.   An 18V 4Ah DeWalt battery cost $200.

 

After searching on Aliexpress I ordered two kitset batteries (less cells) and a portable spot welder.  The kitsets were $21 each and the welder $80.  For an outlay of $140 I should be able to make two batteries which would have cost me $400 from a tool store.

 

My batteries will be 18V with 4Ah capacity.   The cells need to be configured as 5S2P (two rows of 5 cells in series).   Each cell has a voltage of 3.7V so five in series is 18.5V   It is important that each row has a similar capacity.  To achieve this I created a small spreadsheet.  By shuffling the cell capacities on the spreadsheet I was able to achieve the desired result.  The rated capacity of each battery was approximately 4.6Ah.

 

It only took 10 days for the battery kitsets to be delivered.  Interesting to note the EU and UK representatives on the package label

 

The other interesting piece of information was the naming of the battery.   One assumes this is a effort to avoid breaching DeWalt copyright.

The cases looks very similar .  Importantly, it fits my DeWalt tools

Inside each case were a printed circuit board, cell holder, screws and decals

No instructions!!

I needed to do a test fit of the cells and printed circuit board to ensure I had the cells correctly orientated.  The nickel strips were then added and held in place with a rubber band.

I then soldered the Tabs on the nickel strip to the board

I probably made a mistake here.  Before soldering the Tabs I should have soldered the battery indicator wires to the circuit board.

 

With poor eyesight and shaky old hands the subsequent soldering of the indicator wires proved to be problematic.

The board and cells were then removed from the case so I could spot weld the nickel strips to the ends of the cells.

I’ve never welded and this was a learning experience.  The spot welder is portable and powered by a rechargeable lithium battery.  Each cell needs four spot welds at either end.  It took a significant number of attempts to establish the required welding settings.  Too low and the nickel strip doesn’t weld to the cell.  Too high and a hole is blown in the nickel.  Working my way up through the power setting I established the setting 10 appeared to work.

My little spot welder

After establishing the correct settings the welding went rather quickly.

The cells and circuit board went back into the where I then tested the terminals to see if the connections were working

19.97V for an 18V battery.  Everything looks good.

The battery indicator wires were soldered and the top screwed into place

I fitted the battery to my DeWalt drill and tested it worked.   Now I need to assemble the second battery.

Cut, Squash, Twirl

A second or less.  That’s all it took to cut, squash and twirl a piece of metal of a length of steel rod and you have a wheel stud.

 

So why did something that probably cost less than $0.01 to manufacture require me to pay $15.  To add insult to injury there was a two week wait for it to be delivered from the other side of the continent as there were none in Western Australia. 

If parts are so scarce for a common Isuzu I’d hate to be an owner of a Chinese EV.  There are so few of them and the models change so rapidly; sourcing replacement parts must be a nightmare.

Why do we need a wheel stud?   One on our Isuzu is damaged.  Apparently the thread is stripped which the garage identified during the recent 75,000km service.  They would have replaced it but there was no stock in Western Australia. 

I enquired about the time it would take to replace the stud and was informed about an hour.   The garage hourly labour rate is $140.   So $155 to replace a wheel stud.   I’ll do it myself.  But not until the weather is cooler.

 

Plugging On

According to yesterday’s weather forecast the high temperatures will be with us for the rest of the week.  It’s so hot the birds have stopped singing.  Actually some are falling out of the trees.  We’ve left some water out for them.   Meanwhile I need to check the water level in the pool as it is rapidly going down.  Hot water is running out of the garden taps. 

Last night we went to bed leaving the air conditioner running.   I felt slightly guilty (for a very brief period) as some suburbs have experienced power failures.  I eased my conscious by reminding myself our solar array sends more power to the network than we take.

Today’s small maintenance task is to replace the European plug on Jan’s new slicer which arrived from Germany yesterday.   She has had her old plastic slicer for many years and I think I’ve sharpened it’s blade on the oil stone several times.  However the plastic body had started to distort with age and use.  Actually it’s well used as Jan bakes all our bread before slicing it with the machine. 

I suggested she replacement be made of metal and she couldn’t find one in Australia.  Hence the overseas purchase.

Off with the old and on with the new!

 

Every three hours I’ve been dashing out to the workshop in the heat to continue my project of reconditioning the lithium 18650 battery cells salvaged from the e-scooter battery.   A new cell has a rated capacity of 2400mah.   The capacity of these cells is between 1950 – 2350mah.  I’m considering using some of the cells to make a couple of additional batteries for my DeWalt power tools.

Hot

It has been so hot over the last few days that I’ve seen birds blowing on the worms before eating them.

At 46+ we have rarely ventured outside other than to water the plants.  they are drooping in the heat with shrivelled leaves.  At least the solar panels provide power for the air conditioners, otherwise our electricity bill would be astronomical!

Humphrey arrived with our small package.  An eleven day trip across Australia.  The poor devil had to immediately turn around and head back. 

Meanwhile the package Jan ordered from Germany arrived today.  It took less than a week! 

My small eBay package arrived from Taiwan.   Replacement idler wheels and bushes for the bike chain tensioner.

No sign of wear on the teeth of the worn original wheel.   However the steel bearing (sleeve) has worn through which has resulted in the hole in the wheel being extended

The failure of the bearing resulted in the wheel wobbling and rubbing against the inside of the chain tensioner frame (below)

There are two idler wheels and only one is badly worn.  I’ve decided to just replace the worn one and keep the second new idler wheel as a spare.  The bike has done approximately 10,000km and I should probably expect to replace worn parts.

 

Humphrey

Early last December Jan purchased three items from Aliexpress.   Two were less than $20 whilst the third was moderately expensive.  The two cheap items arrived within a fortnight being delivered by the Australian courier company, Fast Horse.  They are very reliable and take a photo of the item at the postal address when the item is delivered.  They also send a text message immediately it’s delivered.

The Aliexpress seller of the third item has made a poor selection when choosing their Australian delivery provided.   Aramex is notorious for being very slow.  Our order was sent by air from China to Melbourne and collected by Aramex on 6 January for the final domestic leg of the journey. 

The Aramex estimated delivery date was 15 January.   Nine days to cross Australia.  The journey can be done in 5 hours by air; 21 hours by train and 48 hours by road.

My assumption is Aramex uses Humphrey; the blind, geriatric, three legged camel for delivery across the continent.  By today Humphrey had only covered half the distance and appeared to have stopped for several days.  He was likely exhausted.

Apparently I was wrong.  When I checked the Aramex website for the reason the delivery had been delayed I read it was caused by a rising volume leading to Christmas.  

As they received the package on 6 January I can only assume it’s the lead up to Christmas 2025!

My guess is Aramex business model is to be the cheapest courier.   They probably retain packages until they have a full shipping container before despatching it.  Melbourne to Perth is probably by rail.   The high number of complaints on various internet forums indicate significant delays with deliveries along with losses, damage and poor customer service responses to queries.  There is a price for going cheap!

I could be wrong and Humphrey might be slowly plodding west! .