Here’s another article they’ve published, God only knows why they post the article, maybe it’s all about some big award they’re ready to give someone and then not follow up on it? 

http://www.nrel.gov/news/features/feature_detail.cfm/feature_id=1823

I did call a certain reporter at the  Las Vegas Sun and asked them why they had run so many stories about Amonix and their world Class product and now seem to have no interest in it since it became a reality? The field is full of them, and no interest whatsoever?  So if you think it looks like the Sun was involved in the hype, or were dupes.. do know I talked t a Sun Reporter last week.. and it was brought to their attention.

G 

Next Hype? We’ll see..  

Many of us have studied the Indian Clones, (Listeriods) and we know that almost all of the failures are related to poor workmanship. Most all failures can be traced to errors in cutting the gears, wrong materials used, inaccurate locations for the crankshaft, cam shaft, or idler gear, and more! We’ve all seen the newbies arrive to market their remedies, and two of the more memorable were a bloke from the UK who advertised that the gear he sold would fix it all! Then there was a certain Willem who didn’t understand the value of the bronze idler and condemned it! We know the bronze gear was an effort to mitigate a not so perfect set of conditions, and it did an impressive job in a lot of machines under study.

If there is an opposite to the Listeroid Clone gear failures, it might be the commercial wind turbine gear box. Those on the bleeding left edge of Alternative Energy were born with the knowledge that anything painted green is good, and if it’s not perfect a few trillion printed dollars will likely fix it.  We do know that dark hunter green is a most pleasant color, but beyond that, green is sold to us DIYers on merit alone.

Wind energy on the commercial scale is far different than the personal wind investment, DIYers strive to erect designs that survive in their environments, the commercial industry may benefit from building to the more impressive installed cost per KWH figures.

The facts of wind energy include wind events that arrive on occasion, and test some of the best designs of nature. If you’ve ever taken a drive along the west coast of Washington State, you can drive mile after mile through forests that lie flat to the ground! No doubt, these wind events don’t arrive often, but they only need arrive once to literally tear down a wind farm. 

We expect to see a man or a company offer up the simple solution, like monitor the weather and park the machines when it’s coming, but we learn from aviation that predicting the arrival of these anomalies is not so easy.  

NREL STUDY

As we read the study, we know the Authors might be most optimistic, as we grow older, we become more skeptical not because our brains become less elastic, it’s because we have seen so many men worship the source of their paychecks.

Wind power is a most difficult and expensive endeavor when you abandon the principles taught by folks like Hugh Piggot.  He and others are more focused on building low cost machines, that sacrifice efficiency and power production to assure the machine survives long enough to provide a return on investment.

It wasn’t long ago, I talked to a real Lube Engineer, he was sure that man had not yet designed a lube capable of addressing the needs of a current commercial wind machine gear box.

We need limit the speed of the blades, we need limit the torque through the box, it’s not so easy to design a system to save the gear box when the wind energy could easily overspeed the turbine and cause the total destruction of the machine.

In some machines the lube has reached temperatures high enough to gas off, at some point they permanently lose their engineered properties and they contribute to the destruction of the machine.

I reflect on Chrysler, they’ve put the Cummins in their 3/4 trucks for years, and never seemed to address the fact that the transmission was marginal for the job.  The engine develops a little more torque than the trans can handle, and it’s very normal to lose a transmission long before the engine needs replacement. Why is that? My answer.. the remedy is very costly.

In another post, I pass along the obvious, the Wind Energy Investors maybe minimizing their risks, by piling part of that risk on your back. But they assume that the power they produce will be given the highest priority in conduits they don’t own, and we’ll sit back and watch those who have all the answers attempt to give the highest priority in the grid to AE production. They’ll say “It’s all so simple really”, and of course we know that is was because they are so simple that they overlooked the problem in the first place.   

Shouldn’t those who grow our food have the same privileges? When their crop is ready, they call the FEDs, the trucks arrive, and haul their products to the market. But.. if the feds don’t arrive right on time, we’ll allow the farmer to sue the FED (that’s us tax payers). 

I got a call the other day from a Friend, he knows a group of people who have no jobs, they are very interested in getting into Windpower or Solar. I told him my research finds that many of the folks that have been selling services into this market find themselves un- employed. And that the majority of the work nowadays is done by limited skill construction workers, for solar..bolting together mounting racks, attaching panels, and simply plugging the connectors together. Travel is part of the job, and since there’s no rocket science involved, job security is not so great, it’s often easier to hire locals than to pay to keep you in a motel with a food allowance.

In wind energy, you need ask, where are these machines made? Where are the parts manufactured, and how many permanent jobs are there? One guy I know manages several huge cranes that are used in the installations, he has trained to know every part of the crane, the electronics, the assembly of the crane and take down, the certification of the procedures. He’s no wind energy specialist, but he may have the more reliable job BECAUSE he is not so easily replaced by a man off the street.

The free market was designed to sort all this out, but our youth mostly are so wise… they see the wisdom of handing the decisions to our elected officials who most often have the same mechanical aptitude as used car salesmen and occupy wall street attendees, and of course they often do for themselves first. 

As we study the efforts of the NREL, we note what looks like the blatant promotion of Amonix, a real Lab would be most anxious to follow the product and know how it’s working in the field. These Multi Junction Cells, highly efficient they say! And of course we DIYers are not so impressed with a Lab experiment, we want to know how that cell performed in the field, it’s what real Labs do I think.  So you disagree and i’ve got it wrong; that’s what the comments are for.  Just how long will the entire world ignore the results of the NREL and Amonix and the corn they planted in that field? Did it ever grow?  

GB

http://www.nrel.gov/news/features/feature_detail.cfm/feature_id=1491

But as we know, a real LAB would be so excited about how the Amonix 7700s were doing in Hatch, I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t have been in the field with Amonix this spring to learn how those multi junctions were doing? You see any signs the NREL was following up, or even interested? After all the pimping? Maybe they just call it a Lab? 

So, it’s my understanding that NextEra owns the 5MWs of 7700s at Hatch… If the 7700s don’t live up to the hype, could the NREL have any liability? Is it the Goverment’s job to promote one product over another in the market place?

What kind of KHW production does NextEra make at Hatch, is it anywhere near what the NREL would lead one to believe? Was NextEra mislead?

Lately though, electricity, not recreation, has become the big-ticket wind client in the Columbia Gorge. Wind turbines have sprung up all over the blustery hilltops in eastern Washington and Oregon, an area soon to become home to the largest wind farm in the world, developed for customers of Southern California Edison. Indeed, half the massive new wind power generated in the Pacific Northwest goes down the grid to California.

For the last three weeks, however, many of the wind farms have been ordered to shut down their generation for several hours a day — victims of an unusual surplus of hydroelectric power that has confounded regional electricity operators and infuriated renewable energy advocates who have worked so hard to develop the region’s wind bonanza.

The problem is an unexpected collision between two of the Northwest’s most treasured environmental assets, wind power and endangered salmon. Spring flows on the Columbia are so high that power system operators say they cannot dial back hydroelectric generators without harming the small juvenile fish now making their way down the river in their spring migration to the sea. With the turbines generating so much electricity, there is much less room on the grid for wind power.

“We’ve now got a situation where we’re protecting our customers and we’re protecting fish, but obviously the wind community is very upset about it,” said Elliot Mainzer, executive vice president for corporate strategy at the Bonneville Power Administration, the federal power marketing authority that operates the massive hydropower dams on the Columbia River.

Wind operators say the cutbacks are costing them millions of dollars in broken contracts and lost tax and energy credits. On Monday, five wind companies filed a claim with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, alleging that Bonneville is using its transmission market power to curtail competing generators and protect its own customers.

Some of the leading conservation groups working to restore salmon are suspicious of Bonneville’s motives.

“We think Bonneville is using salmon protection as an excuse for a policy they are implementing for other reasons, namely their desire to have hydroelectricity filling the transmission lines, more than wind energy,” said Pat Ford, executive director of the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition.

Bonneville has historically been a major supplier of power across the Northwest and down to California. One of the reasons wind power has taken off in the region is the unique ability of BPA’s hydropower — which can be ramped up or scaled back as quickly as opening the spillways on the dams — to act as a balance to the highly unpredictable flows of wind power, dependent on weather, making sure a steady supply of power is flowing through the grid.

The power authority is now carrying 3,500 megawatts of wind-generated power through its transmission lines, more than half of it under contract to California utilities to comply with the state’s tough new alternative energy portfolio requirements. An additional 3,000 to 4,000 megawatts of wind energy capability is scheduled to be installed over the next decade.

Seems to me the answer is for California to shut down the energy companies, they’re out of compliance! So turn out the lights California!  

The wind farms have been given every kind of subsidy and tax break, and now they demand priority in a conduit they don’t own.

Imagine a tomato farmer building a huge farm with green houses and never questioning  the need to arrange a way to take his seasonal crop to the market place. Imagine him squealing like a thoughtless pig when the truck were not there to haul his crop.

there are a lot of technical people who question if the present crop of wind turbines will ever produce a return on investment to humanity, but that really isn’t even a consideration to the faith based movement that forces the tax payer to invest.

History will tell the story, and our grandchildren will ask… “What the hell were you all thinking?” Our Govenor hold services for the Wind faithful, it’s been worth so many unenformed votes for her party.

Here’s the story

Meanwhile, there’s been huge investments in Solar PV, have you EVER seen an audit of the claimed electrical generating capacity and the actuals? Of course not.. this is a faith based movement, there is no need to validate more than your forced contribution to the effort.  If subsidies are involved, the public should have access to the installed cost per KWH, and the Monthly production figures, they also need access to the efforts and expenses required when AE falls short of delivering on their contracts. If it’s all private investment, then who should care?

Point me to the hard data.. 

GB 

Easter Island 7700

Power Companies are of great interest to me, for the most part, they attempt to take as much risk out of the future as possible by making the most prudent and responsible investments in energy production.  They do it on behalf of the most important group they know.. their Customers and Stake Holders.  It’s not always easy, as there are many entities demanding that they be part of the decision making, Investors, State and Federal entities, Enviromental groups and more.  

El Paso Electric is a Company I’d consider investing in, they have more than a pretty Website, they are far more than a reseller of electrical energy.    

EPE like many other Power Companies is forced to buy a certain amount of renewable energy, it’s as simple as that, they don’t need waste time with the merits, it’s a necessity, and one of the agreements EPE has forged is with NextEra who owns the Five Mega Watt power plant in Hatch New Mexico.  EPE gets there fair share of calls abotu Solar Enery Power Production, and they decided to allow their Customers direct access to a meter that measure power production out of the Hatch PowerPlant. Instead of taking the calls, just post it on line, what a great idea.

http://www.epelectric.com/renewable-energy/NX01

Above is EPEs link to this page, and as you can imagine, the meter and software is at NextEra’s site, and EPE has little control of how it tallies, and how it presents the data, but don’t we know, the metering is normally certified, and normally NextEra wouldn’t want to give away KWH power production, nor would EPE wish to pay for something they really didn’t receive.

Just how is this Contract between NextEra and EPE written up? I don’t suggest I know the details, but we do know that EPE is required to produce a certain amount of renewable energy, and many lie EPE choose to buy that energy from those who specialize in the business of renewable energy production, it appears that NextEra is focused on buildign their brand in this market.

NextEra does have some Investor relations data on line, and of interest to me was the fact that Solar Engery makes up the minor part of their investments at one percent or less of their holdings. Their largest holding are in Wind Energy, and they have hydro, and even an investment in Nuke power production.

We assume that both EPE and NextEra would need expertise inside their own company to survive, sorting out this meter/software package seems like it would receive a rather high priority at one end or the other.

I did talk to a person in EPE who was able to shre that there had been a few calls about the meter, and those curious as to why a power plant rated at 5WM wasn’t producing near that at the more ideal time of the year, nearing the summer soltice, and on cooler and cloudless days.

My own comparisions of other Solar PV power plants like Mono Crystaline Flat Panels shows they are at their rated output, and in one case, the owner says his panels have an obvious yellow color due to a layer of pollen, and still they are making full rated output.

Regardless who makes or loses money on the 7700, this site above tells us the owner of the power plant and apparently El Paso Electric has obligated itself to buy the power production, does the page accurately reflect power production, doesn’t live up to the claims? You be the judge..

It should be mandatory that any system receiving subsidies or federal funds (tax payers money) need keep all rolling data on-line for the public’s review.

It will make it easy for us to see how the systems perform.

My condolences to Amonix employees who lost their jobs following the dream.. yes this is the last time this page will be changed, I think I finally got this out of my system..

Something seems not quite right, but today, that’s more the norm isn’t it?

NextEra owns the Hatch Site Now, apparently El Paso Electric buys the POWER, how much? Performance of the the Worlds Largest 5MW CPV plant? Does the NREL care to follow it? the DOE? the Las Vegas Sun? The so-called Solar Tech sites?

Fact is no one, gives a shit! Weird huh?

George  

I suggest you read along, it’s a short read, but it does require you look at a few webpages, but I promise it will be near painless.

If you are old enough, you’ll remember the round head lights we had in cars for so many years. The lights were called sealed beams and they concentrated the light from the element and focused it into a specified area. The sealed Beam head lights used in Autos are noteworthy because they worked so well AND they ‘concentrated’ light just like a CPV system does. 

I’m not sure when it was, but somewhere in the 80s, the Automotive Engineers had a better idea, maybe it was style driven, maybe some of the Engineers who were after superior aerodynamics liked them as well, but no matter how few or how many reasons, the newer units took over.  The glass enclosure now had an opening in the back, and there was a smaller light bulb that could be pulled out the back and replaced when it was bad.

It took only a bit of time for people to realize the downside of these new lighting units, a rock chip could and did break the seal of the enclosure, and when you pulled into your drive at night and turned off the key, the light would cool and often drew in moist air. The next morning when the air temp picked up a bit, the moisture inside the head light enclosure would condense and make a soup of sorts. This could lead to growing a culture of algae like green, red, and might even help remove that few microns thick of shiny stuff on the back called a reflector.

Soon, a lot of folks were driving down the road thinking they’re going blind, some checked in with their car mechanics and found that the lighting enclosure had been compromised and needed to be replaced because it no longer concentrated enough light for one to safely see at night  The Owner often said OK, replace them, call me when you’re done.

This lead to owners going into shock when they were presented with a $300 plus bill (in the 80s remember). The  new enclosures were $120 and up each, and that didn’t include installation, or the new light bulb. They were expensive for a reason, part of it was they were sealed from the elements that can and do destroy or rapidly degrade the reflective elements that concentrate the light.

This caused a lot of people to think about what they had lost with the old system, as it was just a few dollars for the entire unit, and they were quick and easy to replace.  The first aftermarket plastic covers came out to snap over the head lights to save you from rock chips that were VERY common. The plastic got dirty, the sand and grit wore the surface and cut the light transmission, they aged in the Sunlight and turned yellow too.  Soon, people couldn’t see again, and thought they were going blind.

There was another problem, after some years, the plastic holder for the light bulb wore, and so did the O ring, when it started to leak, you could bring in the moist air, and foul or lose your internal reflector coating by growing a culture inside. I personally know people who do not drive at night anymore than they have too, it scares them, and they think it’s their failing vision, hard to convince them their concentrating system has degraded to the point of being dangerous.   

All of this is a lesson that it takes a while for a concentrating light unit like I describe to show us both the advantages and disadvantages, and there is no doubt in my mind that this new system added to the cost of car ownership.

The discussion of concentrating light beams is about lenses, mirrors, and little more, it can work well WHEN the environment is sealed and moisture, dust and dirt have no chance to get in. Of course what one man calls sealed, another won’t and the discussion can get down to “sealed for how long?” then, we get into the lens material, there’s glass, and many types of plastic, some plastics are wonders, and they stay fairly clear for years, and the biggest problem comes when they aren’t cleaned with the utmost care. If they’re loaded up with sandy grit and you attempt to rub them clean with a dry rag, it can turn ugly. Not only have you scratched the surface, but you may have made it toothy to the point where bacteria can set up housekeeping and further impede light transmission. Glass sounds like a great choice, but what about 50 MPH winds and dust storms?

In concentrated PV, we have the same issues as we do with a common auto head light, only we multiply any problem with degradation of the light transmission path 10,000 times or more from a maintenance point of view.

In concentrated PV, we have the same issue with pointing  the CPV panel at our light source, it’s reverse of pointing our light source in the direction of travel, but very similar. In the car, we turn the steering wheel, in CPV, we have electronics that know where the sun is, and make use of gears, hydraulics, servos, or a number of other parts to make sure the sun is aligned accurately with the lens, and concentration elements, when this doesn’t happen, no electricity is made.

There’s other automotive data you might consider. People here in Washington State who commute daily over our mountain passes are normally forced to replace their windshields annually. This is because they can become so sandblasted that they are literally dangerous. What is it like in areas where CPV is deployed? Wind speeds, driven sand and dust?

This is all about light being able to get through a lens, or a clear cover, and how reflectors degrade, in autos, they degraded far more rapidly than some thought. How will the Concentrator elements in the CPV systems perform, and what problems might already be showing up in Hatch for instance Does anybody care to know?

Now it’s time for you to do a few web searches, it’s all so easy, and we’ll assume you use google since most do.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_photovoltaics

Now that you have a little back ground, just hold the analogy of a rifle scope, all is well when you have the scope on the cross hairs, all is in focus, lenses are clean, and the solar cell is working of course.

If you do a few more google searches, there’s little chance you won’t run across this site  http://amonix.com/content/solar-pioneers

Why not use the touted leader for our study? We form the questions you’ll entertain your expert with. We know we don’t have the answers, but decent questions will allow us to express some interest in the topic.   

Potential questions follow:

Hey, I ‘ve seen the Las Vegas Sun has been covering Amonix all along, and isn’t it great we have those huge deployments in Alamosa Colorado and Hatch New Mexico! What I’m curious about is why they all of a sudden dropped the Coverage of Amonix just when they have something to show off?

I hear the wind blows pretty hard in Hatch New Mexico, and the air is so full of sand, dirt, and grit, this ought to be a great place to prove how well the product is doing, how do we find out? Are these solar modules holding up well, how many have they had to replace?  Any wind damage? I’ll bet the whole CPV community is discussing this somewhere, where do we find the conversation?

Hey, when is the factory in Las Vegas going to roll out the next batch of product? I see the Los Vegas Sun hasn’t said a word about Amonix since they announced all the job layoffs there, what’s up with that?

Amonix, the leader in CPV, and with enough trackers in the field to prove just how good they are. This is a fact as far as I can access.

Let’s look over this claim:

http://amonix.com/content/no-water-operation

No water used for cooling, impressive savings? Do we really save a valuable resource?

More questions for our Professionals, and maybe we go right back to the Automotive World and look for analogies?  CPV is a power plant, so are air cooled engines and water cooled engines, have you ever seen an air cooled engine maker advertise that they are saving a valuable resource by avoiding the use of a water cooled engine?

I think the average man or woman notices there’s no garden hose hooked to the car, and perhaps there’s very little water in the cooling loop, and not so much of a loss, it does beg thinking people to ask, just what group of people was this page designed for? It’s not an answer, just another question for our professional.

Of course this leads to more questions, and that is, we know that near all of the automotive industry has adopted the water cooled engine, and now we see that the majority of motorcycles have gone that way. The whole point is to carry off waste heat, and allow the machine to operate at a more ideal temperature. We learn from the WIKI page that heat is a problem with efficiency, and by cooling the CPV modules we can increase efficiency.

This leads to another question we ask our professional. Isn’t the whole idea of a CPV system that it is more efficient? If this is true why is the problem in the CPV different than in the automotive engines, and why have the Automotive engineers who have been dealing with the problems of carrying off excess heat to assure both efficiency and longevity of their equipment finding water or liquid cooling the more ideal answer?

Isn’t the problem exactly the same? Shouldn’t the CPV engineers recognize the automotive Engineers have about 130 years of experience in optimizing their cooling systems, AND have given up on what Amonix has deployed in their current tracker?

I remember sitting in a 1976 Fiat, and I noticed they had used some optical fibers to actually report on whether the head lights were on, innovative I thought, a different approach, but who could argue the stake holder (the one behind the wheel) could tell both lights were working.

This creates more questions for us:

How automated is the leader in the field? How do you know if a module has over heated and burned out, or is not performing as we expect? Is there any remote way of telling if a cell is bad, and how much effort does it take to get to the cell and replace it?

Do we break any seals getting  in and out to replace it? Do we need wait till the blowing dust and dirt stops to do it?

Where is the group of people who care what the actual performance of these panels are? If the US Government has given any incentives at all to Amonix or those who bought and deployed the product, should we Citizens enjoy the privilege of learning how they are working in the field?

Why is it that EVERY Green Energy Site I can find looks more like a place to market Green Energy, and not to discuss the technical merits of the product?

I’m sure the DOE has the results of this deployment at Hatch for instance. do we have any right to know?

added 5/8/2012: I see the NREL has posted comments on Amonix, here’s an example:

Cost savings were factored in every step of the way — from foundry to grid — said Bob McConnell, who worked at NREL before he left the lab in 2007 to join Amonix and help bring the research to market.

The result is a generator manufactured at about a third to one half of generators using crystalline silicon or thin-film approaches.

Multi-junction cells can operate at higher ambient temperatures than traditional PV cells, making them ideal for sunny and dry climates in the southwestern United States, and ripe for future cost reductions.

The concentrator also is kinder to the environment than most large systems, using no water in its operation. Propped up two feet above the land, it doesn’t hinder the movement of wildlife.

“You simply can’t put enough solar systems on rooftops to achieve the scale and capacity necessary to generate electricity in the quantities required by utilities and by society,” said Amonix’s founder and chief technical officer, Vahan Garboushian. “This is a technology that can meet the terawatt (trillions of watts) needs of the world for clean electricity.”

As we attempt to digest what the NREL writes here, does it seem the relationship is a little like a marriage between first cousins? I mean the mention of the water savings again.. just how much water do you save in a closed loop glycol system? And don’t we know there would be a lot of consideration to using a lifetime waterless coolant as well. Some who read this will see it more as an advertisement. I think it might cause some of us to question the NREL’s mission.. but hey, I only have the questions here.. not the answers..    

G

GB      

Laidong1115

“We are able to make the distinction between bad designs, and poorly made parts. We know how some of these defects are created.. often by people who are paid by piecework versus the hour, and who have no understanding of the parts they pour, hammer, and machine.”    George B 2012

That statement by George struck a chord with me as I have long held that certain engine designs exist in only two states, failure and rapidly heading that way. This goes back to a 1980 Chevy with a  350 CI diesel.  I am pretty sure that if Mercedes Benz built one of those engines and  it be as short lived as the GM.   One of my buddies would say, ” you can’t polish a turd”.  This is part one of George’s equation, a bad design. Side two of  the bad engine world,  engines of sound designs that  are not built to a high standard, or maybe more correctly a high  enough standard is a field that is harder to properly dissect.  I stress high enough as engine build quality is always a compromise, cost vs what market will bear for cost.  The horizontal diesels from China are the best example part 2 that I am aware of. I own quite the pile of them, I am like the neighborhood shelter operator.  Once tossed out and abused they end up at my shop.  I have also collected up some new old stock engines from here and there. For the most part the design has a pretty poor reputation with our big local users of such, the Amish community. Myself I am impressed with the design but to tell  the truth not one of the examples I had in my possession impressed me for build quality.

 Although simple and slow speed as compared to more modern designs the horizontal is not as “underbuilt”  friendly as say a CS Lister.  With the slow RPM and other over engineering in the CS design Lister created a low stress environment. They could almost be built  in a cave  and have some life expectancy. Build a 200o RPM horizontal with the same quality that our current crop of Indian Lister clones enjoy and you would have a grenade with a very short and fast burning fuse. More HP into a smaller package equates to more highly stressed parts and there is no way around the materials and tolerances needed to make it all work.   The engine the Chinese chose to clone needs a lot more attention to build quality than the one that India chose, that does not make it a bad design. It means it is ,much easier to build bad ones,,,big difference

Recently  I laid my eyes and fingers on a Laidong brand 1115 and was  impressed. How good is it? The difference between the Laidong and my other examples is about on par with comparing my 1938 Production 6/1 Lister to a Listeroid. While I am not about making claims that cannot be supported with operating hours this one has a chance to be the real deal in my opinion.  I crowed to George about it and thus received the job of starting this blog. All I know at the present is there has been an attempt here to import a high quality engine and I think they have met with success. Hope that the importer and his “man on the ground” chime in. Will make for an interesting read.  Meanwhile I will be adding some content here myself with pictures and material details soon and putting some hours on one.    

You can check out  the 1115 Laidong at Belleghuan Ltd http://www.woodnstuff.ca/

We have posted a short clip of ours on you tube.  Impressive for sitting on rubber-tired casters I think?  Will be motionless when bolted to it’s work platform driving a 15KW ST head.  Vibration is only one portion of build quality but it appears that Liadong has it down pat.

Thanks,

Butch 38C 

Interesting short lecture. Food for thought.

A snapshot of a website that praises Willems Work

 Again I find a need to quote Mr. Diesel:

The Genesis of the idea is the joyful time of creative work of the mind, as everything seems possible because it still has nothing to do with reality. -Rudolf Diesel

No doubt, there were many people who found a lot of entertainment in the Willem pages, and Videos.

This was a treasure trove of  enlightenment, like a trip to Never Never Land.  The application of a little fairy dust, and one could fly through the entrance of this portal and view marvels that seem to contradict all you’ve been taught by people bound to the earth by gravity, laws of nature, and hands on learning. 

WE need think about Mr. Diesels words and realize.. Willem was on his first book, the Willem Book Of Genesis. I do hope he returns, as he really did bring joy and entertainment to a lot of people, and I’m sure he has more to write.  His designs are a testament to what the un-tethered mind can accomplish, and of course this is all my opinion.

Thanks Willem, as I told you years and years ago, don’t let anyone chase you from the market place, you have a purpose in life.  I’ve been thinking about that legal mini distillery up in Carbonado, with the State getting out of the business, maybe it’s time we get in? 

GB

Here’s what caused me to post, I quote one of our DIYer Brothers:

Seems lots of folks have been deriving serious entertainment value from Willem’s adventures with his video camera. His You-Tube vids are all gone as are his websites, http://www.wcaeaps.calm/ and www.oldstylelisters.calm   Wonder when he’ll re-appear, and in what form .

I think this stuff is headed for pay per view..

And perhaps we need offer alternative Entertainment, pretty girls, cute mouse? likely nothing will fill the void..but we try..

GB

There’s valuable lessons to be learned from the Edsel, we spawn a new generation of consumers every 20 years, and each generation sees itself born of a new age and discounts the critical lessons of the past. It’s as if the human mind has some initial programing you need find your way around to discover the realities that lie at your feet, if only you look!

What does a Company do when they’re buiding cars no one wants? well in the case of the Edsel, Ford managed it all internally, and part of their efforts were to give buyers and incentive to stay loyal to Ford. Following is an allowance certificate and letter dated March 17, 1960. I had just turned 12 years old.

Edsel-Allownace-Certificate

This (Government subsidy free) Certificate above was issued through a small town dealer who was also a Oldsmobile Dealer at the time if I recall correctly.  The Olds of the day had a good following, and those who owned them >knew< they had purchased a car ‘a cut above’ the Chevrolet. In the day, it was a two-minute walk between dealers.

I can’t imagine what the Ford Dealer was thinking at the time. I’m sure he thought he had been loyal to Ford Motor Company and now they betray him by selling the Edsel Franchise to his competition just down the street allowing that Dealer to offer his customers a choice between a GM or a Ford made product.  There was so much hype over the Edsel Brand, a whole new exciting line of cars, and don’t miss the once in a lifetime opportunity to buy a Franchise.

There’s a lot on the net to research, including the songs about how wonderful it was to be the wife of an Edsel dealer, yes, Ford seemed to know even back then that women were part of important decision making in households, and normally any man that had more than two cents at the time was married. This does suggest Ford Execs were consulting their marketing arm for advice, and many blame the down turn in the economy for the failure..

Edsel-Letter

The Certificate idea may not have had the intention of betraying the Edsel dealer but in this case and other cases it did.  Here Ford is offering Robert’s customer a rather significant amount of money at the time to buy their next car at the Scarff Ford Dealer just down the Street.  Having some sense of what Ford was up to,  he may have prudently mistaken who the sale of Edsels were made to. What would you have done?

Following are a collection of blunders, ending with the Edsel. 

But there’s the ultimate ugly contest, our Edsel did well, but there’s so much more competition that you may have EVER imagined on the scale of ugly, but not likely on the scale of cost per ugly car made indexed for inflation. Thanks to new generations of consumers who don’t yet understand the dangers of allowing people in politics to manage the car business, we will eventually replace the use of the term ‘Edsel’ as the colossal mistake of our time in the car business. I still believe GM has a top contender in the Volt, as this should still be an R&D project according to marketing data about people who want to buy a car hybrid car.  It may become known as the largest mistake in the car business, but those in Washinton DC will wear the blame.  So few will care till their cupboard is bare, or they own something they can’t have repaired.  

Poor Edsel, what did he do to deserve his name on such a car? There’s a wiki page that likley gives us a best ideal of reality, and the actual sales of the Edsel,  63,110 Edsels  sold the first year how does this compare to the Chev Volt?

I’m pretty sure my next car will be a Ford, I’ll post what happens when I attempt to turn this non expiring certificate into cash.

   GB