5000 Bricks and Counting
We pressed 5000 CEB bricks by now. We have enough for 3 of 4 walls for our living-roofed flexible fabrication workshop addition. At present, we collected funds to complete the roof, but not for any insulation or windows/doors. Please consider a donation...
CEB Foundation and Trusses Complete
from 2008. We have finished laying gravel and insulation for the CEB addition foundation. It is a shallow insulated foundation, made with 2″ extruded polystyrene insulation going down 18 inches, plus 1 inch gravel as the fill. There is a drainage...
October Progress Report: Major Success in Crowd Funding
Thank you to all the people that supported us for the month of October – our transition to support via crowd funding. The October funding and corresponding progress were a major success. Here is the progress report. Overview: We are on our way to...
Going Further Off Grid
We are setting up our 15 kWhr battery bank and solar panels – so we’ll be off off-grid for the next few days as we set up the system. The new system is sufficient to power all of our facility except for the welder. You may not hear from...
Crowd Funding Progress Report – Week 1, Month 1
We started our first crowd funding cycle one week ago – for October. We collected $1254 to date – not bad. The goals are – and our timeline for October is – . We’re moving along. The Babington burner is flaring, ,...
Factor e Live – Episode 9 – Rototiller, More Solar Panels, Biodiesel Reactor + Crowdsource Funding
Here is the continuing saga with the open source tractor. We built a quick attach plate for rapid interchanging of implements. We built an open source rototiller as the first such implement. Now we can switch readily between the tiller and loader bucket...
Factor e Live – Episode 8
This week’s episode of Factor e Live features the CEB press in action (in addition to the documentation of our first complete solar panels). It is a perfect union – the LifeTrac open source tractor powers the Factor e Liberator CEB Press....
Factor e Live Part 4 – Digging for Water Completed
In part one of “Digging for Water”, we drilled a hole 85 feet deep, hit water, and tried to insert a 6 inch casing (pvc pipe) into the hole. When the 6 inch pipe didn’t fit, we decided to use a 4 inch casing. Although the 4 inch casing...
LifeTrac Alive!
Yesterday, LifeTrac rolled out of the shop under the power of its own engine. It purred like a cat, turning smoothly over the ground with its articulated steering. Brittany, Jessica, and I celebrated with elderberry champagne. Farm-fresh organic, of course....
Summer Heat
We are in a backlog for Factor e Live documentation and updates in general. It’s a busy time – so here is a few notes. I shook the cobwebs off the CEB press, and our team is doing 3D and finite element analysis modeling. We are days from finishing...
