mine explosion

When you have an explosion that rips the ventilation fan off its base there is not much hope of someone left in the mine. If you look at the images of the NZ blast you will notice the carbon marks on the trees near the entrance. This was a methane and or coal dust explosion and the cause was some sort of ignition most likely from a hot roller on a belt. When these explosions hit they give no warning and every thing is blown from original resting place. Pipes twisted like spaghetti and blown to the nearest intersection. Pit props blown out and unsafe conditions are all that there is left.  If you watch the video you will see how they treat the explosion as if it is nothing.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc0GqjPvZ7Q  
or the closed tank explosion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxhEln1LiYk&feature=related Which I think was irresponsible as the tank could have blown to smithereens could you imagine the pressure that was instantly in that tank. Or this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM2TbddOhN0&feature=related  That was on the surface how would it have been underground sucking up all the air to burn. There is still a big risk of the mine exploding again.
I will let you know this is serious stuff and should be treated with respect. I know as I worked in a coal mine doing underground roof support and working with methane gas. There is a culture in coal mines that needs to be changed, My father worked in a coal mine and there was a fire in the mine that he worked at and he was lucky to get out. I suffered burns to my face and chest from a gas explosion in a model boat that I made and this was about half a ltr. of gas and air. I do hope for miracles though. I was lucky to be carried out Wongawilli mine on a stretcher and still be able to walk and live the rest of my life. Yes I do have mental scars.

ACCC

The ACCC is set up to stop monopolies taking over and stopping competition in Australia. This is a commendable roll but I know they have lost there way. I know that David Hughes called the boss of the ACCC a Pseudo professor wonder why....?

drug sub

Drug sub is probably not a good image to portray for a recycled sailing boat. This lead me to what to call it, Its made from glass and plastic commonly called glass reinforced plastic ( G.R.P.) Now if it going to float then Jesus what a miracle.
So we put the two together and we get Plastic Jesus.
Now there is this song Plastic Jesus  which is a fun song about a plastic Jesus doll riding on the dash board of a car. This doll is filled with booze which is a drug of one kind which brings us back to weather the boat is going to sink!
Drug sub, and it looks like one a bit.
Think it all ties in so there it is. That's how I came about with the name. Plastic Jesus...


I have been working on the navigation lights and interior lights and doing the wiring which is all soldered and shrunk wrapped on all joints. There is also a hole on the interior of the boat that has been fixed and still needs about an hours work to finish. All of these jobs are not ones that I will bore you with but need to be done. I have just ordered a 6 HP Tohatsu four stroke outboard motor .with power propellor and control stuff so this will be installed in the coming weeks.

Starshipchurch

 Warning
Starshipchurch  
This is where I do some mad thinking. But please look and don't be offended as I did offend my readers there and they all stopped reading. Yes all of them so be warned it might make you think. Just click on the word starshipchurch

Good work I found this on the net under rubbish makes my day seeing someone do clean up work

Rubbish man gutted

Kathryn Greensill | 27th July 2010

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Henry the rubbish man was torn apart on Saturday night

IT was a dirty and low act.
After The Morning Bulletin on Friday highlighted Des Covey's efforts to clean up a section of the Capricorn Highway by packing litter into orange overalls to create rubbish men, someone disembowelled one of the creations.
It was no way to say thank-you to the Gracemere engineering contractor who braves the blazing sun on the road between Rockhampton and Gracemere in his spare time, collecting rubbish.
One of his creations named Henry was sitting alongside the highway on Friday night, when vandals attacked.
By morning Henry had been torn apart, leaving a pile of rubbish sitting around him.
Rockhampton couple Noelene and Phil Smith were appalled to see Des's hard work gone to waste.
“It's disgusting,” Noelene said.
“Somebody's out there trying to do good for the community and then someone just goes out and deliberately destroys it. We just want to encourage (Des) to keep up the good work.”
The couple said they couldn't understand why someone would do something so deliberately destructive.
“We don't know Des but it was really good to see the article and see what he's doing,” Phil said.
“I was a bit concerned on the weekend to see that it looked like it had been shredded and someone had undone his good work. Instead of destroying something they should do something constructive.”
Don Close, of Close Constructions said the people responsible should be found and punished.
“I think it's despicable,” Don said.
“Someone, out of the kindness of their heart, is doing the clean-up like he is and he's doing a tremendous job. It's really good to see how clean he's got the highway looking. It's really disappointing to see that someone can just come along and wilfully destroy his work. They should be found and made to clean up another street.”
Don was glad, however, to see someone had stopped on Saturday to clean up the mess.
“There were two vehicles and they looked as though they must have seen the rubbish and come back to clean it up,” he said.
Don said he hoped it didn't discourage Des from continuing his good work.
Des did not want to comment further on the situation, for fear of further repercussions.

Had a small job waylay me

I did this small job to a dingy that had a hole smashed into it, It is easy to do small jobs like this one the photo shows the finished result.

Front end loader

The photos of the front end loader were taken today. It has just come back in my hands after fifteen years away. It was built in my shop by my son who was fourteen at the time. It is capable of lifting over a 1/4 of a ton on it forks. 

It has two Toyota diffs in it, one is turned upside down and are coupled together making it four wheel drive, it is articulated and the gearbox is from a Toyota Dyna truck. The axils have been shortened about six inches on both sides if the center. This is done with an angle grinder cutting threw the housing and the axils and then re welding the pieces back together. The hydrolics came from the scrap yards, This is hard to do these days as they wont sell to the public for fear of insurance claims, crazy isn't it.

The machine weighs about three quarters of a ton. It evolved to where it is as the original hydrolic pump was a piston pump and has the movements of start and stop as the pump delivered its load to the cylinders. Finally a vane pump was found and installed with smooth operation as a result. He went on to make a hydrolic car for the Shell mileage marathon and a hydrolic train as seen in a previous post.

He is now a electrical engineer and was considered a no hopper at school. He built a truck and took it to the school fete and made  the school hundreds of dollars for the school by giving rides and was never given any credit or thanks, If he played football by there rules they would have given him everything, he was good at football but hurt too many of the players and wasn't allowed to play. I wont tell anymore as he gets embarrassed by me telling his stories. Nuff said. The photos speak for them selves.