Saturday, February 23, 2008


COME ROW THE BOAT!


The Emergy boat will be at the final Friday event this week at Art One Gallery - Tempe Marketplace. If you would like to try rowing for power join us on Friday, February 29, 5-8 pm and Saturday, March 1, 1-4 pm. Please pledge a block(s) of time to come row during the exhibition in March at the Harry Wood Gallery! You will be part of a worthwhile project, get great exercise, and receive some gifts from our sponsors.

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02.23.2008


For weeks I've been trying to find LEDs since sending back the test strips because they malfunctioned. The anxiety of the past week was partly my fault for not keeping on top of it. When I finally found some online that were on a roll and seemed they may be perfect for my application, the dealer handling it informed me that it would take 2-3 weeks to receive from China. It took everything I had not to panic. Late one night while revisiting a site I found the same surface mounted lights on a roll - and they had them in in stock IN the USA. I'm holding my breath - they are to arrive on Monday.

In the meantime I had taken apart the mechanism and replaced the shaft. I also had Tom Wykes fabricate a new intermediary shaft out of hardened steel. He's still trying to find me a new flywheel. I need one much bigger than the 12" in order to keep the shaft spinning so that the power is consistent.

Today Lisa von Koch and I started on the walls. It took the better part of a day to scrape and sand the remnants of spackle off the edges and prep the panels for painting. A tedious job. It will take many more hours of prepping and painting to return the walls to their original state.

02.09.2008

I started the photography aspect of the project this week. For three-half days I got the chance to immerse myself in the desert, albeit urban desert. South Mountain may have spectacular views of the city but it's the moments and spots where the city disappears from view that are truly magnificent and hard to believe where one finds oneself--in a city park essentially!

View of Phoenix from South Mountain

Fifteen minutes on the freeway going NE one also discovers a gem. Tonto National Forest and the Lower Salt River. Thursday and Friday I went up the Bush Highway numerous times scouting around for the location and higher ground view of the Salt River, it's flow seemingly less after just one day. Again, I marveled at how close this 'wilderness' is to the city.

Lower Salt River from Coon Bluff

After hiking up and down hill after hill, hungry for that perfect shot, I ended up back to where I had started late afternoon the day before. At the top of Coon Bluff. I got my shots, some short moments of introspective stillness sprinkled with dreaming, and carried down as many strewn bottles and beer cans as I could. I just can't fathom the need one would have for soiling such a place.

Saturday, February 2, 2008


01.31.2008

I entered the Focus the Nation event as a way to get the boat out there and hopefully solicit participants. It was a great day! Lots of people loved it and signed up. Some seemed very reluctant to try but once I gave a demo and they heard the music on the tape they felt they could do it. Still need a lot more folks to sign up. If you are interested please send me an email at treiastudios.emergy@gmail.com or mariamichails@gmail.com and put ‘participant’ in the subject line. Please copy and paste this in the email and fill in. We will be in touch with you soon-thanks!

Name:
Age:
male/female:
Address:
Phone:
Email:

Please answer a few questions:

1. How many times a week do you exercise? ____
2. Do you have any health issues that may affect your ability to row for 15 min. consistently? Yes ___ No ___
3. Have you ever rowed before (machine or actual)?
Yes ____ No ____
4. How many 15 min. blocks of time can you commit to during the exhibition, March 24-28?
One Block ___ Two Blocks ___ Three Block ___Four Blocks ___


Here's some photos of the event.

Mr. Recycle rowing the boat.

























Giving a demo

An excited participant!














01.30.2008


All is not lost. Committee was still pleased with results but requested another couple meetings before the show. After talking with Tom Wykes (machinist extraordinaire) I had a friend come help me drill a hole through the hub, aluminum shaft and steel shaft to put in a pin. A temporary solution that helped immensely but there was still some slipping. We think it’s the sprockets. We now had power—too MUCH power and too much friction. With a load it was extremely difficult to row. We reconfigured the pulleys by removing one altogether. Still a little erratic but it ran the little tape deck I had attached. Gene saved the day! I was going to have a working boat in the event.

To much friction and too much power with this setup. Had to eliminate the second pulley and attached the generator to the small pulley of the 6:1.









01.28.2008

Designing the framing was more challenging than I had imagined it would be. A few days later, late the night before my committee meeting, with frame finished, I tightened the belt and pulled the pull handle on the row machine. To my shock and horror, the mechanism failed. I examined where it was slipping—the inner aluminum shaft (not the main steel one) must’ve gotten worn. It was what kept the bicycle hub attached to the flywheel shaft. Disappointed that I couldn’t produce power to show the committee I went home and figured I wouldn’t be ready for the Focus the Nation event 2 days later.

01.23.2008

The mechanism is also getting close to completion – and functioning. I finally purchased the generator. Dave and Sheila at Winstreampower were an amazing help. Dave looked over my design and gave suggestions for gearing. Sheila went beyond what any company owner would ever do to make sure I got the generator in time with all the right stuff plus more. For all you DIYers out there, I highly recommend you support this small company.


The initial setup.
Notice the intermediary
aluminum shaft that failed.




A decision on which generator to choose from had to be made as my design came in between the high rpm and the low rpm generator available. How do I make my creative choices work with what is mechanically possible? What am I willing to compromise and what won’t I compromise? After consulting with Byron about all the possible end results as well as what it would look like, I decided on the high rpm generator. Which meant I had to gear it up and went out to buy the right pulleys and belts. I worked out a 6:1 ratio then on a jack shaft added another 2.5:1 pulley.

01.18.2008

The boat nears completion. Over the holidays I prepped it for the framing, sanding down the lap edges so the stems will be flush. No matter how much sanding (and there was a lot!) the stems needed much adjusting. The stem at the bow, because of the somewhat messy job I did, took quite a bit of work. I grinded, chiseled and sanded as much as I could and it will still need a cap.

A finished boat! All that's left to do is detailing,
the frame support for the row machine
and mechanism.