Razor E100 Conversion

A friend of mine gave my son one of these Razor electric scooters.

It wasn't working properly, the battery charge would not hold past five minutes. I did some research and found someone on YouTube who rewired the scooter to use an 18 volt drill battery. I decided to do the same except I wanted to remove the controller in the scooter and use a 24 volt battery to match the existing voltage.

 I read somewhere that the controller in the scooter plays many rolls so I needed to decide whether or not I wanted to loose those features. One of those features was the push start ( Rider has to push off to get the scooter going before the motor would engage.), the other was using the twist handle to make it go. My reading and research indicated that bypassing the controller would possibly burn out the twist mechanism

because the controller regulates the amount of voltage going to the twist handle. In the end i decided to remove the controller and the twist handle and build a push button and a holder for it on the handle bars.

I started by cutting all the wires to and from the controller and those going to and from the old batteries. The scooter had (2)12 volt batteries wired in series. I removed the twist handle and and controller and batteries. I went to "The Shack" and bought a two pack of momentary push buttons rated for 120v 

and a three pack of Red,Green and Black 300v 18 gauge wires. 

I took a 4 foot piece of the red and black and used my drill to twist them together.

I made a hardwood box to house the push button and cut a hole to use as a compression clamp on the handle bar. 

I ran those wires from the handle bar down into the compartment where to batteries will be. I then wired the motor to the charging port and then to the battery and switch as shown below.

This above wiring is very basic and I wasn't looking for very much functionality with the exception of being able to make it go. I plan to buy another used scooter and make improvements to both speed and functionality. Right now the scooter goes pretty fast for my sons age. I would like to add a braking kill switch to the motor and make it a 32 or 48 volt system with a pneumatic back tire. Currently the back tires is an over sized roller blade wheel. I would also like to add  lights for night riding.

The battery used in this system is a Black and Decker Fire Storm 24V Lithium Ion battery. I used slip on connectors since that's what the battery has and I want to be able to disconnect the battery and charge it using the quick charger BandD made for it.

 

 I also wanted to be able to remove the battery easily for use with the drill it belongs to, until i can buy another to use permanently on the scooter.

My shady wiring. Not pretty but it works!!

I also added a hinge to the top plate to make battery access easier than having to unscrew 8 screws.

Happy Child!!!

Hard Wood Bird house

My son and I decided to build a Large Bird House (In the fall, go figure). We were lucky enough to be given a bunch of common and exotic hardwoods we stripped and glue jointed to make the panels needed. The MLSC store in PA had a box of awesome hardwoods they gave us. in the box was some awesome dark Tiger striped Walnut (I think) that we used for roof shingels. The pictures below show the progress.

The woods used...

Hard Maple
Red Oak
White Oak
Walnut
Ebony
Hard Pine
Mohogany
Red Wood

Don't mind the mess in the background, i am in the process of redoing the basement...

The above picture shows all for panels glued and pin nailed, and the roof on. There is two coats of natural stain applied and no clear coat yet.

The above is a close up of the roof, roof trim and panel, with 2 coats of natural stain.




More pictures to come.....

10,000 Volt Ozone Generator

I built this Ozone Generator for a friend. I had built one other one for my self a couple years ago and it worked well.

Ozone is a very active form of oxygen.It is formed when oxygen is exposed to a high-energy field causing some oxygen molecules(O2) to break down to oxygen atoms(O).The oxygen atoms (O) then react with the oxygen molecules (O2) to form ozone (O3).Notice that this is a reversible reaction meaning that ozone can decompose back to oxygen.

Ozone,sometimes called"activated oxygen",because ozone (O3) is very unstable and likes to turn back to pure oxygen(O2),it can oxidize with all kinds of materials.The extra atom of oxygen destroys odor,virus,moulds and bacteria in addition to oxidizing pollutants.Ozone is possibly the greatest purification element we have available to deal with man-made pollutants.

Otherwise inhalable airborne toxins(nitrates,sulfates,auto emissions and more) from your breathable air.

The very reactive nature of ozone makes it the ideal oxidant for air and water treatment.Ozone will:

• destroy bacteria and viruses
• precipitate heavy metals(example iron and manganese) allowing them to be filtered
• eliminate color from water (for example,like the yellowish colour caused by tannin)
• remove rotten egg smell from water (caused by hydrogen sulfide)
• oxidise organic compounds to form compounds that can be easily fluctuate and filtered or to form water (H2O) and carbon dioxide(CO2)
• eliminate bad odours from air

Wiki Info:

Ozone (O₃, pronounced /ˈoʊzoʊn/), or trioxygen, is a triatomic molecule, consisting of three oxygen atoms. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic allotrope .
Ozone is a powerful oxidizing agent, far stronger than O₂. It is also unstable at high concentrations, decaying to ordinary diatomic oxygen (with a half-life of about half an hour in atmospheric conditions)

Corona discharge method

This is the most common type of ozone generator for most industrial and personal uses. While variations of the "hot spark" coronal discharge method of ozone production exist, including medical grade and industrial grade ozone generators, these units usually work by means of a corona discharge tube.^[45] They are typically cost-effective and do not require an oxygen source other than the ambient air to produce ozone concentrations of 3-6%.

Some environmental friendly pest control companies are getting wise to the use of commercial ozone generators in lieu of pesticides to kill insects, especially in home with small children and pets. High levels of ozone kill dust mites, ticks, ants, cockroaches, even bed bugs! Unlike pesticides, ozone converts back into oxygen after it's done it's job and leaves behind no harmful by-products, only oxygen rich air (High oxygen environments very healthy!) after it converts from ozone into oxygen after 30 minutes.

My build included the following:
2 three inch round glass tubes (Not Pyrex, but should have been because they don't crack)
3 Gutter mesh pieces form HD
couple feet of heavy gauge wire in black and red from HD
three inch fan from TRGT
A 120V red light for RDO SHK
Wood for the box
Solder
Stainless Steel Wire
Stain for the box
Cool Neon 10Kv Transformer

So, here is some snap shots of what i built.

The above picture shows the inside of the box, the mesh wrapped tubes and wires.



The above is a close-up of the tube and fan running. I built a stand for both tubes and for the fan.





The above shows the neon transformer on the left. It is the Cool Neon brand rated at 10,000 volts. It has a pull string built in on/off switch.'



How it works:

The tubes are wrapped in metal mesh both on the inside and outside. The two wires that come out of the transformer are split and soldered to the mess. Positives to the inside of the tubes and negative to the outside. When the power is on the two mesh sleeves make just enough contact through the glass to create a constant blue spark (Mini lightning). That spark creates O3 or Ozone. The smell it produces is awesome. It smells like the air after a lightning storm, mixed with a light bleachy smell. As you read earlier, the O3 kills mold, Bacteria, and Odors. The trick is to get rid of the odor, bacteria and Mold source, then run the Ozone Generator to kill and clean the air. It also cleans water but I have not tried that myself.

Re-Decking

I did the project with a my friend Franky Scissors, It was for his girl friend. The project was to remove the old decking and rails and replace them. I was glad to see the old framing was in good shape so we didn't need to replace it. First is a few before and afters:

This is the "Third of Three Decks" The pool Deck. We did a alternating plank pattern and added a lamp post instead of the little deck light it had. The steps were redone adding kick plates . We also removed to telephone posts on either side and added huge plant boxes, you will see those later.


Next is the main deck and connected mini deck which we did in the same 30 degree setup it was orginally done in. We made the mistake of not covering the wood durring a 4 day rain storm and had a really hard time straightening the bowed wood.

Next you will see a series of just before pictures:


Small Deck


Large Deck


Third Deck:

Demo Time:


The Big Deck:


The Attached Deck:


The Pool Deck:




The Railing:


Big Planters:



The Final View:


The Solar Caps on: (4 Bucks at HD)

Making Mozzarella Cheese From Scratch

This is my new thing, see the video below: its the best step by step i have found.

Mozzarella Cheese Raw Episode from Tomm Johnson on Vimeo.

Custom Kitchen Sink Base Cabinet

The Story

This is a cabinet I built for my parents. They had and old aluminum base cabinet their kitchen sink sat on. I had already built them a pantry base cabinet in the same color so I wanted to add to the current furnishing with something nicer.

The Framing

Framed with no bottom

















Framed with bottom
















The Drawer supports offset to accommodate the sink.
















Stained and drawer fronts mounted (both false face and real).
















Closer Look at Drawer during stain.
















Drawer hardware on and to the left, the framing of the hidden kick plate drawer.
















The Kick plate drawer in and the doors being hung and stained
















Doors hung and last stain coat about to go on doors and sides.
















Kick Plate Drawer hardware going on.
















In its new home with the sink mounted.

















Hidden Kick Plate open

















The inside of the cabinet floor was lined with rubber matting to protect from water damage and the left drawer (The real drawer) was lined with black felt to match the previously built cabinet.