Some days, you just crush it

 Some days, you just crush it, and some days you don't. 

Today, I swam a little freestyle--wondering where in the stroke, power is most effectively applied. Then a little backstroke wondering the same and if I rotated sufficiently. 

I saw Michael H. and told him I saw both goggles out the water while taking his breath. Maybe the tips I gave will help eventually.

Did 4-6 laps of dolphin kicks emphasizing the hip as the initiation point of each kick and did a few laps of one-arm-fly. A few 25's of full stroke felt incredibly smooth and fluid. 

A few laps of breast stroke finished the 40 minute workout.

Tennis Progress Nov 14

 YMCA racquetball court. My left handed blister just healed. Today I practiced the serve toss for kick serve. Left handed. My toss has improved in fits and starts but it isn't always right where I want it. When that happens I take a step in the direction of the ball so as to get it in the right position to make the stroke. That works. 

I've greatly improved how my racket contacts the ball while serving. I used to mishit the ball frequently . Born a right hander, I hit balls easily with the racket in that hand. Doing it with my left hand called for a complete restart. I'd been attacking the left handed kick serve many months now. I never had a right handed kick serve, so attaining some facility with a left handed kick serve completely surprised me. I earned a LH blister two weeks ago playing too much and started to practice right handed kick serves. That was fun. 

DIY remote hack of tennis ball machine (Lobster Elite Liberty)

The remote kit for the Lobster Elite Liberty and Elite One sells for $169 ($185 in 2020) and you get one transmitter. Pay it, if money is no object, if you don't DIY or if time is short. If you wear out or lose the Lobster remote it costs $115 to replace. We’ll do the whole thing for under $30 and you’ll have four transmitters!

The Lobster remote only controls the feed and the sweep functions. We'll add control of power for the everything after the power switch—that lets you turn off everything and start collecting balls without draining the battery from the motors running. The feeder control lets me stop the feed motor without having to wait twenty seconds for it to start feeding balls when I’m ready. You could wire a remote to other tennis ball machines. After removing the control panel, you may find labels on the wires (such as “Feed motor”, “upper servo”, “lower servo”, “sweep” etc) . Without such labels, you may follow wires from the motors or start pulling wires to see which motors they control.

You need:

•  a four channel RF receiver and transmitter kit  from Amazon.  It comes with four transmitters ($23). 
• 14 (or 16) gauge stranded wire: one piece of red and two pieces of gray, each 24" long. Two feet of black. Two 24” pieces of single strand green wire.  Two 24” pieces of single strand white wire.  As of November 2023, one store had no single wire red, black or gray—they only had gray casing with 16 gauge red and black wires inside—buy two 24” pieces and pull the black wire from one and the red wire from the other, leaving you with a red wire, a black wire, one red wire with a gray casing and one black wire with a gray casing. 
• wire nuts (I used two)
• one spade terminal, below (for the black wire)
  
• a stripping tool (or a small knife)
  
  stripping tool. It also crimps and cuts.
  
  
• double stick tape (optional)
• screwdrivers for the receiver terminals and for a bolt on the machine to attach wire from the receiver's negative power terminal.

Figure 1. This is the RF receiver with two transmitters.  was $15, now $23 with four transmitters

Figure 2. The RF receiver. In the picture above, Each number after NC, NO or COM stands for a device that the three terminals control.

COM stands for the terminal where one of the two wires to each channel or device must be attached.

NC stands for Normally Closed, meaning that the wire attached here is connected to the COM wire after powering on. Once the receiver has power, pressing the corresponding button on the remote opens the circuit (disconnects the two wires) 

NO stands for Normally Open, meaning that the wire attached here is not connected to the COM wire after powering on.  Once the receiver has power, pressing the corresponding button on the remote closes the circuit (connects the two wires) 

For the Elite Liberty (and probably the Elite One): Remove the four screws holding the control panel to the machine. You'll see a circuit board on the back of the control panel with wires going to various parts of the machine. Labels on wires to the motors that eject the ball read "top serv" and "bottom serv"--we won't deal with these. A label on the wires going to the ball feed motor reads "feed."  A label on the wires going to the horizontal oscillator motor reads "sweep."

Program the receiver

Do this first.  In Figure 2, look for the letters L, S, and T near the coiled black wire on the receiver--each letter has a small pin next to it.  A small plastic jumper may bridge those pins.  Mine arrived with one leg of the jumper on S, and the other leg off to the side, joining no pins. Use tweezers or a like tool to pull up and replace the jumper in the position as shown above. You’ll join the pins next to S and T.

1.  Bring power to the receiver. It needs 12 volts DC. The remote switch receives 4 volts, so wiring the receiver there probably won't work.

The receiver does not receive power when the power switch is in the off position. Three wires, two gray and one red go from the power switch to the circuit board. On my Lobster, pulling off the middle wire cuts power to the ejecting motors. Before you cut the middle wire, pull it from the circuit board and flip the power to "on"--if the motors don't start running, you can cut this wire--no need to check the other wires the same way.  I cut the middle wire. Next, use a wire nut to splice a red wire (we'll call that A) and a gray wire (we’ll call that wire B) to the free end of the cut gray wire running from the on/off switch; connect wire A to the positive terminal of the receiver (marked V+). Wire one end of the black wire to the receiver's negative power terminal (marked V- ); crimp a spade terminal to the other end and loosen a bolt on the machine chassis—secure the spade terminal under it (the machine chassis is wired to the negative pole of the battery)—tighten the bolt. 

After each use, flip the ball machine’s power to "off" to reduce the power the receiver draws from the battery. 

2. Connect the receiver to on/off function.  

Connect the gray wire B to the terminal marked COM4.  Connect with a wire nut, a new gray wire (C in Figure 3) to the cut end of the gray wire attached to the circuit board. Now connect the other end of wire C to the receiver's terminal marked NC4. We’ve just interrupted the gray wire, interposing the receiver, and allowed remote control of power to the circuit board.  

Figure 3. A schematic of how the wires should attach through Step 2.

Now check your work by flipping the power switch on the control panel to "ON" When you flip the power switch to "ON", an LED on the RF receiver should light up and the ejecting motors will activate. Most likely, the remotes are already programmed to the receiver, so if you press A on the remote transmitter, it'll turn off the motors. Press A again and motors turn on again. (Yup, A on the remote controls the wires to NC4/NO4/COM4, B controls wires at NC3/NO3/COM3, etc)

That was the hard part. The rest is easy.

3. Connect the receiver to Feed function. 

Find the two wires that go from the circuit board to the feed motor. Mine had a label marked FEED. Cut one red wire just outside the machine housing and connect the ends to one green wire each. Connect one green wire to NC3 and and the other to COM3 on the receiver. Button B on the remote transmitter will control this function.  Pressing B while the machine is feeding balls will turn the feed motor off. Another press turns it back on.  Test this function before moving on to the next step.

4. Connect the receiver to Sweep function. Look for a pair of wires labelled "SWEEP". Cut a wire (I cut the red one again) just outside the machine housing and connect each cut end to a white wire. Connect the ends of the white wires to COM2 and to NO2 on the receiver.  Flip the control panel "HORIZONTAL" switch to ON. Button C on the remote transmitter will control this function and will turn the sweep motor on.  Another press will turn it back off. IF THE REMOTE SYSTEM EVER MALFUNCTIONS, move the wire from the "NO2" terminal to the "NC2" terminal, allowing the machine to function as from the factory, until you troubleshoot the system.

If the transmitters weren't preprogrammed (mine were) you can program them following the barely English instructions that came with the RF kit. Turn on the machine and test the remote functions.

Mount the remote

You can use double stick tape (may be included in the kit) to position the receiver on a clean, smooth flat surface inside the ball machine. Because the space is somewhat limited, I just pushed the receiver into the machine on the right side away from the ball throwing wheels. Over time the double stick tape will fail and the receiver will find its place. Gently stretch the coiled black antenna on the remote receiver. Push all the wires into the machine.

Replace the control panel. 

Once you've turned on the ball machine, the ejector motors turn on and after a short delay (20-25 seconds for many machines) the feed motor turns on. This is the button assignment:

A: power to all motors.

B: power to the feed motor

C: power to the sweep motor.

D: none

Troubleshooting: 

Nothing works. Check the wire connections to ensure that no wires have fallen out of the wire nuts. Make sure the power switch is in the ON position. Also flip the power off then back on after ten seconds. Does the RF receiver have power? An LED on the receiver indicates power. Are all the wires securely connected to the proper terminals and the other wires?  Ensure that you've flipped the power and HORIZONTAL (sweep motor) switches on the control panel to ON. Do the transmitters need fresh batteries? A red LED on the transmitter lights when you press a button.

The balls don't feed. Ensure that the FEED knob on the front isn't at or near OFF. Lobster left out a small detail here. 

The ejecting motors run but the balls still don't feed. Turn off the machine from the control panel. This resets the RF receiver. Wait 7 seconds and turn it on again. 

Post script

 The Lobster Elite control panel has a jack that accepts a plug from the $169 remote module Lobster sells. Initially, I thought I should wire the RF receiver into the jack, but wiring it would have required guesswork, since I'm not electronically adept with circuit boards. 

If your Lobster had a remote receiver and you lost/broke the remote, you might find a programming button on the receiver and use a transmitter from one of these kits.

The most critical detail after you’ve finished this installation: going out and having fun hitting balls!  

Lobster Elite Liberty tennis ball machine review

Lobster Elite Liberty review

Here's the manufacturer's link to the product.

Product Details:
$949

Oscillation: random horizontal
Speed: 10 to 70 mph
Feed rate: 2-12 seconds
Spin: top, back
Elevation: manual, 0-50 degrees
Ball capacity: 150
Power: battery (ac/dc optional)
Court time: 2-4 hours
Basic charger: included
Fast charger: optional
Remote: optional
Weight: 35 lbs.
Warranty: 2 years

I bought this machine when I realized my tennis wasn't going to improve very quickly by dropping balls to myself or by hitting against a wall--the former leaves out the challenge/anxiety of hitting balls coming at me and the latter doesn't permit me to follow through with strokes.  I certainly wasn't going to improve my volley without a machine or another player feeding me balls. My brother bought a Lobster Elite One $1139 and was very happy with it, paying the extra $169 for the remote, which I had initially ordered direct from the maker in California, but removed it from my order, when I decided it was overpriced for what it could do. Later, I found that ball machine owners with a DIY attitude installed their own remotes from transmitter/receiver kits bought from Amazon for $15-20. From what I could tell, the Liberty has most of what the Elite One has, for less $$.

I didn't buy the fast charger. Regular charging would be enough for an owner that wasn't going to teach tennis. The Lobster Elite Freedom $839 no longer appears on the website. The Freedom has no spin adjustment and doesn't weigh any less.

PROS:
1. capable 

2. The large wheels go easily over small bumps.
3. It's easy to lift to load into my car trunk, though it's a couple inches too tall to fit upright.
4. As far as I can tell, this has most of the capability of the Elite One for $190 less and weighs 7-8 lb. less, but still with enough time on the battery for most people.
5. The battery hasn't let me down yet, but I've yet to push it to four hours. Two hours on court is enough for me. With a remote, I'll be able to turn off after a load.
6. Without the remote, after powering on, the machine delays delivery for about 20 seconds to allow you to walk to the other side of the net.
7. It can shoot balls fast or slow; high or low and soft from baseline to baseline. Something I can grow into. Maybe I would have been OK with a lesser machine like a Slingerbag, or a refurbished Tennis Tutor unit.
8. Speed, angle, Topspin and back spin adjustments work well for this least expensive of the Lobster machines.

CONS:
1. expensive
2. A few screws holding the red body cover to the chassis were loose.
3. The release on the folding handle was finicky until I sprayed WD-40.
4. The long end of the interval between balls isn't 12 seconds; rather it's 7.6 seconds--not enough time for a shadow swing or two between balls. Maybe I have the odd machine. Tech support said: "well, you can tape off two of the four holes in the feeder tray." The challenge: blocking the holes so that there last balls don't just sit on the tape--maybe foam blocks with topsides shaped to keep balls moving to the active holes.
5. The remote is crazy expensive at $169 and it only controls the feeder and sweep functions--it won't turn off the whole machine. I bought a $15 Radio Frequency transmitter/receiver kit that I'll install when it arrives. I didn't find much on a search for tutorials on installation, but I'm pretty handy and have it figured out to control on/off, feeder motors and the sweep motor.
6. The path of the balls can vary by a few degrees. Expect it.

7. Up to five balls have remained in the hopper at the end, because of small design issues.  I eliminated those nooks with foam and velcro.

8. If you try to push the Feed adjustment to deliver at a greater than 8 seconds, you'll risk having it stop feeding altogether. Lobster should have engineered a limit to prevent zero feeds.

These three balls found a safe place away from the flinging wheels.

It's the nature of the Lobster that the last one to three balls won't always fly out at expected intervals. Sometimes, after sending balls out every 7.5 seconds, the last ball will fly out 15 or 22 seconds after you thought it had finished. You might assume "all done" and have a ball fly past or into you while collecting balls. Solution: Buy a $15 remote kit--if DIY technique is clear, wait for my upcoming blogpost or YouTube video on wiring it in.

The tops of the red plastic hopper nubbins will often harbor reluctant balls.

Creative foam, double stick tape and velcro placement to prevent sanctuary for frightened balls. The foam on the left stays with double stick tape. The foam on the right, I had to cover with cloth to attach Velcro--removing the foam allows the hopper to fit over the machine when the hopper is removed and inverted.  Note the piece of PVC pipe in the middle of the feeder tray to force balls to flight. With these additions, NO BALLS can avoid flight.

Other things:
If the sweep interval matches the sweep cycle, you'll get many balls to the same area before moving to another area.
If it doesn't match, you can get more of a workout as you don't always know at what point of the sweep the next ball will fly.
Try to ensure your balls are the same brand, pressureless for longer play life, or you'll find balls bouncing inconsistently.

NO REGRETS ABOUT BUYING THIS. IT HAS HELPED ME IMPROVE MY GROUNDSTROKES AND VOLLEY. It has also helped me focus on watching ball contact, further improving my strokes.

Tennis progress today

Focus on:

Watching the ball. Using one tip on watching the ball from Fundamental Tennis Why you keep framing your shots and how to fix it I say out loud, "one" when the other player/ball machine hits the ball, "two" when the ball crosses the net. "three" when the ball hits the ground, "hit" when I hit the ball. 

Seems to work really well for my volley "one, two, hit". Setup: Hitting volleys at sideline with target: opposite sideline 6-10' from the net. I had the camera record where the ball went--if I know I can see the ball going in/out later, I can focus more on ball impact.  "one, two, hit." Here's a few seconds of that video. I did miss about 7 of 44 balls.

The ball landing on opposite side of court

Almost a view of me hitting. A view of the ball landing

Focus on:

The kick serve.  Video from Crunch Time Coaching  

A really good video and I've watched a bunch! Pete helped me understand at 18:00 that the goal of the serve is top spin and a high bounce. A high speed serve isn't the main goal. I really started using my legs to enhance the spin today. I didn't shoot any video;  I put in a fresh battery and misread its energy level as zero. 

Focus on topspin: 

Many parts of both backhand and forehand. keep the grip relaxed. low to high swing path, have the backswing done by the time the ball bounces. the leading shoulder hides the chest from the ball. Non racket hand up and parallel to net to keep from turning early. racket lag. keep my distance from the ball (video link from Jeremy at Fundamental Tennis)

Backspin video. Trying to do it right

I wish I had a program that could show it in slo mo.

I do. It's Filmora9. right click on video on the track at the bottom and choose "speed and duration" see track below.

OH, OH. Tennis nut.

The last time I played competitively: 1971? 72? at Garside Junior High School in Las Vegas, Nevada.. . Wish I could remember more details, like teammates, what racquet I used, etc. The coach Jensen took us around town to play other teams. We played hard, won hard, lost hard. Overall, we had the best time. 

My brother Tom started hitting balls 2-3 years ago. Last fall 2019, on a visit to Vegas, I bought a $20 racquet (a cheap light racquet for beginners) and hit some balls with him.. I hit right handed, but a bike accident a few months earlier made me hit left handed.  I gave the racquet to Tom just before leaving Vegas. Next visit to Vegas, I bought another cheap racquet. Gave that racquet to Tom (he then gives the racquets to people he teaches--not that he's that good; he's just a nice guy) 

At the House of Tennis in Vegas I bought a Yonex Ezone 98 for $135 (ouch! closeout price, new cost $229). 11 months in, I finally broke a string. I made a mistake by cutting away only the cross strings. The racquet could have collapsed except for the low tension in the remaining main strings. Having bought a stringing machine (Klippermate) I replaced the strings. I decided to replace the strings regularly (3 months) or on a 10-15% reduction in string tension per a string tension tester.

YouTube is my teacher. Channels: Essential Tennis, Feel Tennis Instruction, Fundamental Tennis. Often played at 1.25 or 1.5 speed. I'm learning to use my core to lead the arm and racquet. I've tuned the forehand some and I enjoy hitting the twohanded backhand. Learning to hit serves, both slice and kick, with the help of the video, but putting in mindful repetition is the only thing that really helps me progress.

 A Lobster Elite Liberty ($949! ouch) tennis ball machine is my playing partner. I got it before the introduction of a competitor, the Slingerbag at $600 or so.  I'm not really ready to play other people as I get more experience hitting balls, learning to watch the ball and learning to gauge force of impact and racquet face angle.

Water heater: Replacing the dip tube. The wh-a-a-at?

I've had my Kenmore Powermiser 12 electric water heater since 2004. Lately, my hot showers went from hot to a cool version of warm. After checking the internet, I learned how to assess the heating elements and the thermostats; all tested OK. I adjusted the thermostats to make the water hotter, with no improvement. Additional research uncovered a detail of water heaters that few people know of. 

Hot water flows from a pipe at the top of the water heater. The cold water supply attaches to the top of the water heater. But the cold water doesn't stop at the top of the water heater. Water heaters have a tube attached to the cold water pipe at the top and run down to the bottom half or third of the water heater to make the cold water bypass the water at the middle and the top. This is the dip tube.  It keeps the cold water from chilling the hot water that's about to flow to your shower, tubs and sinks. If the dip tube breaks or cracks, cold water will mix with the hot water at the top of the tank and result in tepid showers.

I ordered a dip tube from Amazon. It was a 54" long 3/4" diameter tube with a flare at one end.  Home Depot had a dip tube with a 2.5" long 3/4" threaded tube attached--I ordered that, too, because I wanted to have one part that fit. 

I turned off the power to the water heater and turned off the water going into the heater. Next, I removed the flexible water supply pipe and the 3/4" pipe (this 5" long pipe with threads on both ends is called a nipple) that connected it to the water heater. The dip tube, or what remained of it, would be below that. Looking down into the hole from which I removed the nipple, I saw a mangled rubber/plastic washer, which came out with slight effort. I poked around below that with a thin long rod and felt nothing; the old dip tube had broken off and was sitting in the tank somewhere. The dip tube from Amazon wouldn't go down that hole. Just below the threads of that hole was some kind of fitting with an opening just slightly smaller than the outside of the dip tube. I widened that opening with a a round file until it was large enough for me to slide the dip tube through it. I cut the dip tube to fit inside the water heater so that the bottom end would be at about the level of the lower heating element. 

When I bought the water heater, the hype said that its coiled dip tube would make incoming cold water stir up the sediment on the bottom and prolong its life. I flushed a gallon of water out of the heater and saw very little sediment. The coiled dip tube worked, but I couldn't find one online and the local Sears store had closed. Installing a straight dip tube will obligate me to flush the tank annually. 

Learning to play tennis with my left hand

 Bike crash in November (?) of 2019. That hurt my right hand--I'm right handed. Trip to Vegas to visit family. A tennis racket and brother Tom's friend Greg, on the other side. Ow, that right hand hurts. Better learn to play with my left until the right heals. 

Fast forward to August 2020. The COVID 19 coronavirus pandemic has the world in a vise grip. Finally, a month ago, the tennis courts opened up again. My left handed LH forehand FH has improved some over 9 months ago. I want it to get better, but don't have a regular partner to feed me balls, which would be pretty boring anyway for that nonexistent person. I can hit dropped balls with a forehand, but the backhand has special needs, a higher toss and two bounces instead of one before I hit. That doesn't simulate play with another person. Still, I hit against a wall to work on finer points of the form. I hit balls on an empty court and orient my racket face to keep the ball in the court. Still, it isn't the same as having someone send the ball from the other side. 

Other players have said they would like to play me, but I don't feel I'm ready to keep them entertained. I don't want to waste their time and respectfully decline. I can volley and hit forehand, but I don't have a backhand and serve. I want to develop some basic strokes before playing can make my fragile strokes fall apart.

Now I'm working on a LH serve. The ball toss poses problems. Mine lacks consistency. YouTube videos abound. YouTube tips are great but don't have much effect beyond frustrating me. Then,  I had my own Aha moment today (I hope) which was: keep my eye on the ball starting from before the toss to racket contact.  Having my eye on the ball from waist-level to strike is like watching the ball going from the other player's racket to where I hit the ball. In other words, not watching the ball from waist-level is like shutting my eyes before the other player hits the ball, waiting a half second he hits to open them and trying to prepare for it. In the fifteen minutes I had to try that before darkness made me quit, I had a better ball position and a better connection with the ball--this with my non-dominant hand. Going back for more tomorrow, hoping to confirm this basic (for me) part of the serve. I have to train myself to watch the ball, the most basic principle of playing tennis.

I'm getting a ball machine so I can improve my strokes. 

Three Mile Island was a nuclear disaster in 1979.
Trump is 2020's Three Mile Island nuclear disaster. He's built a mere three miles of new wall on the southern border. He's becoming more and more isolated, more like an island that no one wants to visit. The economy is in shambles, infrastructure rebuilding is less than a wisp in the memory banks, his poll numbers have plummeted, he separated and caged immigrant children, he tried to blackmail Ukraine to get "dirt"on his political opponent, he embraced autocratic rulers of Russia, North Korea, China and the Philippines, he defiled the Bill of Rights by having protesters tear gassed and beaten for a photo op with a Bible and over 120,000 Americans have died in a pandemic so poorly mismanaged that while countries like Cambodia (Cambodia?) and New Zealand have triumphed, the numbers of afflicted in America are still rising as fast as before.

Letters to president trump

Oh boy, Donald. Give yourself a 10.
10 out of 100,000. 100,000: the number of people killed in this pandemic because of your incompetence and stupidity. You ignorant buffoon. You're a carnival barking orange clown.
You should quit now. It would be much less complicated than declaring bankruptcy, which you've done multiple times. Look, just sign one of your hats with a sharpie pen and walk away.
You could play lots of golf and advance conspiracy theories until far into the next week, without any consequences. CNN and MSNBC wouldn't attack you, if you weren't president. Really, now, did they attack you much before you became POTUS? They didn't.
Oh, yeah watch out for Steven Miller. He wants badly to be you. Watch out.

Steven Miller is young and has a healthy body and is probably already immune to COVID-19. You should exchange bodies with him. Just take your hairpiece with you. Steven would die for you. You know that. But he won't really die from the body switch, not right away. He'll just die when you would die if you keep your KFC bucket corpse.

I'll bet Twitter is thinking about cancelling your account. You will die. The hormones that surge while you're tweeting are the only thing that keep you alive. You don't have a substitute for Twitter. You will die.

June 6, 2020
Dear Conman 1
I was thinking about how presidents die. Considering how you've hurt a great number of people, by your words or your presidential orders, I didn't have pretty visions of how you'd meet your end.  .

1. From Wikipedia, how Benito Mussolini met his maker:
"tried to escape to the Swiss border. He and his mistress, Claretta Petacci, were captured on 27 April 1945 by local partisans near the village of Dongo on Lake Como. Mussolini and Petacci were shot the following afternoon, two days before Adolf Hitler's suicide.

"The bodies of Mussolini and Petacci were taken to Milan and left in a suburban square, the Piazzale Loreto, for a large angry crowd to insult and physically abuse. They were then hung upside down from a metal girder above a service station on the square. The bodies were beaten, shot at, and hit with hammers. "

2. You didn't die. Instead, an atherosclerotic plaque broke off from your carotid sinus and lodged in your brain, killing your speech center and leaving you unable to walk or use your hands.

Tesla Model S Roof Rack Version 1.0

I've published this blog, even though I haven't quite finished the project (a few bolts, primer, paint). I thought, right or wrong, that some folks who viewed the YouTube video I uploaded, might like to see the process of puddle of consciousness. Check back sometimes to maybe see another picture of the "ready for prime time" product. Here goes:

I have this inclination to DIY just about everything. Mom thinks I got it from my late Uncle Freddy, who used to build radios back in the 1930's and also work the electrical lines so as to get power without paying the power company in China.

I made a wooden rack to carry my canoe for my previous car, a Toyota Avalon, because the Yakima clips that held the Yakima rack to the roof edges slipped enough to put two canoes at risk. The wood rack for the Toyota was sturdy--not welded steel sturdy, but epoxied wood sturdy. I made it of 2x4 runners on each side with 1 x 6 x 4' load boards--a big rectangle that was a touch heavy and cumbersome. I'd glued and screwed it and it always felt rock solid. I don't have a picture of that rack--I've already scavenged parts for a rack for my new car. Can't keep this stuff around. I have enough clutter around here.

Why build a rack? I have the $ but I didn't like how the Tesla rack attached, where you slip a clip under the glass in four locations--online forums indicate the clip can bend or the glass can break if bolts or nuts are turned too tight. Neither Thule nor Yakima make a rack for my car.  I could make another wooden rack or I could make it of steel, which I'd learned to weld recently. Questions I had: could I design one strong enough to withstand 60 mph with a canoe on top?

Well, I bought some 1/8" steel, but I thought using it as a 48" load bar, it wouldn't have sufficient rigidity. I bolted to it, the wood board scavenged from the rack for the Toyota.
Here we go with the process.

Buy steel for load bar, uprights (towers), and clips.
Decide where on the car I wanted the mount the racks.
Decide what other materials to use besides steel. Wood from the Toyota rack to stiffen the load bars,
Measure the angle of the roof at the attachment locations for the rack's uprights (towers). Cut tower pieces of 3/16" steel. (I bought more steel)

Cut bars of 1/4" or 1/8" steel. Weld to towers. Bolt to wood load boards scavenged from previous Wood rack. For future iterations consider load bar of:
angle iron
or 1/2 in. x 1-1/2 in. x 36 in. Plain C-Channel of 1/8" thickness
or 1/2 in. x 1 in. x 36 in. Plain C-Channel of 1/8" thickness below:

I've already welded for the rear, uprights of 1/8" x 2" to a 1/8" x 2"x 48" bar, too floppy by itself and
therefore bolted to the wood 1x6 used on the Toyota . Also, already welded for the front, uprights of 3/16"x2" to a 1/4 x 1.5" x 36" bar
(stiffer than 1/8" but still needs the wood).
Below: the first version of my design for the attachment hardware.

Below: A simpler, easier-to-build design.

I'm excited about my design. It's not pretty, but it'll work. The Toyota rack connected to the car more like the first picture above, but without the bolt G to pull the plate C up against the roof edge. Likely, the lower lip stayed up against the roof edge because the hole for the bolt was in the right place.

What I've done so far:
I've welded a 1/8" x 2" x 2.75" long arm/wing to each of the rear towers, extending laterally 1.75" above a bolt.
The clip.  A 3/16" x 2" x 7" long plate with a hole that slips over the bolt. The bottom end of the plate has an 8 mm lip that wraps under the roof overhang. The top end of the plate extends up past the the wing and includes a 1" lip that hangs over the 2.75" arm.
I welded a similar arm to the sides of the front towers.

The front rack with the two inch deep base. Most people looking at this wouldn't think it very stable. If I had drawn before building it, would I have thought it stable? Probably not, considering my excitement at just being able to do it.

April 27, 2020. I finished with the clip and bolted the racks to the car. It had two problems. 

1. The 1/8" steel clips deflected when tightening the nut

2. It felt stable laterally but wiggled fore and aft--makes sense, with only a 2 inch base for a 6 inch tall tower.

For problem #1, I welded a 1/8 x 1/2" piece of steel to reinforce the plate. It took 4-5 hours to weld, clean up and drill a hole. Things just take longer. Maybe they'd have happened faster if I'd written a list of actions instead of relying on a puddle of consciousness. Later, I concluded that laying a few beads of weld might have sufficed.


For problem #2, I placed a piece of cardboard edgewise to the roof where I wanted a front rack, drawing a line to match the roof line and made a custom plywood base for each end that would expand the fore and aft dimension of the base to 8 inches.

 

April 28th 2020. I made a custom plywood base for each end of the rear rack.

I wanted maximum contact between the rack base and the car roof to minimize stress and wear on the car. I didn’t want to make the bases by just cutting a rectangular block of wood and bolting it to the rack uprights. I would have to consider the changing angles in the fore and aft axis and the left-right axis. The first picture below shows how the roof climbs going from the side of the car to the center. The second picture gives a side view.

The difference in slope (from front to back) between locations 1 and 2 may differ by 5 degrees, enough that a straight cut base will not have optimal contact with the roof. 

In version 2 of the rack I’d make the base in steel and attach a base plate (maybe 1/8" x 3/4" x 1.5") wherever the base touches the roof. To attach the base, I would have to either use a hinge or tack weld it on the car. Welding it on the car could be done if I took special care to properly drape the car to protect the car's finish from the heat or from weld spatter. The heat from even a tack weld could melt the paint. Conceivably I could use a large cotton tarp and put a piece of aluminum, foam or rubber inner tube under the base to protect the paint.

Next task: rout the top edges of both bases except where they touch the tower. Bolted the base to the tower. Add a rubber foot made of bike inner tube sections. The clips need to have their holes redrilled, because after adding the strips of reinforcing steel, I must have made the holes in the wrong places. Even without having bolted the clips on the rack seemed quite stable. It still bothers me that the back section sits on the painted part of the car instead of on the glass, which will never need repainting. A future task might be to cut and reweld where I want it.

Also done today: I cut a cardboard pattern for the base for the front towers. I’ll make the base of 3/4" plywood and will have a 10" length overall. I measured the angles between the front and rear contact surfaces and level--the difference was 5 degrees.

I quit at 4 p.m. to take a walk. No marathon session in the garage today. More tomorrow.

April 29, 2020

Next, extend the holes in the rear clips. Use the plasma cutter. Done
Mount the rack to the car and wiggle it around. Done. I've made something good here.



.One helpful thing about hybrid construction: screw holes slightly bigger than the thread diameters allow for some movement. One foot didn’t fully contact the roof--after loosening one screw, I improved the contact.

Cut the bases for the front

and measure the angle of tilt left to right on the roof (smartphone app Clinometer works really well for that). Cut a bevel per that measurement.


I got lucky doing this for the rear rack, but for the front, the right side turned out OK but not great. For the left side, I didn’t get the side to side bevel right and I didn’t get the angle difference between the front and back right either. After a few tries at cutting the bevel for the side to side angle, I redid the left side .

The bottom part of the cardboard pattern wasn't very accurate. I redid it in paper. I drew a straight line about an inch away from the edge of a sheet of paper and marked the midpoint  

using a protractor set at the center of the line, I marked 2.5 degrees below each side (the angle between contact lines differed by 5 degrees for my car).

Tracing the top part of the cardboard pattern onto my new pattern

I cut the paper pattern out and traced it on 3/4" plywood. I cut the front top and rear of the base square to the face of the wood. I cut the bottom at the right-left angle of the roof at the rack location. In my case, 12 degrees.



Bolt the bases to the towers. Attach the clips and check stability: excellent.

I laid down those weld beads to add some steel to stiffen the clip.

Buy t-nuts for rack accessories. At least four of them for one canoe accessory.

Almost bought: compression springs to keep the clips away from the towers during installation and therefore the car's roof edge, to ease tower installation. Instead, a ghetto solution, open cell foam.

May 8, 2020. I moved each tower in the rear 1.75 inches inboard.  The bases will now be on the glass.

New (better) configuration for the attachment hardware

 This move forced a few changes, including extending the wing that allows me to raise the clip. I've also moved the horizontal part of the clip to below the tower wing, with plans to weld a bolt, threads up. I'll have to drill a hole in the tower wing for the bolt to go through, where I can turn a lock-nut to raise or lower the clip. I worry that a bolt will work its way up over 50 or 100 miles. This will also permit adjustment of the hardware with one tool: a 1/2" wrench. I had to extend the bolt holding the clip using a coupling nut, because they just don't make a 6.5" carriage bolt. The best part of this is that I got to use the welder again, but it did delay the project finish.

May 17, 2020. For version 2.0. use of shock cord/bungee cord to raise the clip.  If it works, yay.  Keep it Simple.

May 19, 2020. For version 2.0. The bolt sticking out from the towers doesn't always match the holes/slots on the clips. I bent the bolts rather than extend the slot on the clips. Maybe replace part of that bolt with chain/cable plus bolt or with eye bolt plus a hook bolt.

May 21, 2020. A note on the location of the racks. The front rack is where a Tesla made rack would go. The rear rack is pretty close to where Tesla locates theirs. My design adds an inch or so to place the tops of the racks at the same height from the ground. The separation between the centers of the bases is 37.5" (95.25 cm). The glass roof has subtle marks for Tesla's locations for a separation of about 35" (88.9 cm) between front/back.

June 6.
I have a 20' canoe. The racks are 37" apart; having the canoe on cradles 37" apart would leave me to divvy up 17' past each rack. Vern said having 8-9' hanging out like that would stress the canoe, and risk damage. He said to put the canoe cradles on an 8' rail. I welded two 4' steel tubes end to end, added two mounting plates and drilled holes to match threads welded to the rack. I welded t-nuts to the end of the rails for the canoe cradles

Trail work in the Chiricahua Wilderness

Sometime in 2017

"a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little Minds. "

The Chiricahua Wilderness in SE Arizona, Sierra Club trail maintenance service trip for one week,  bucking logs (cutting downed trees) and grading the trail where needed at about 9,000' elevation .

After walking 2,000 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail PCT in 2015, I pledged myself to volunteer for trail maintenance.  This was the trip to fulfill that pledge.

Preparation. I was looking at either Capitol Reef or Canyonlands for a service trip, but then Lydia wanted to go on this one, with me.  I loaned Lydia my Osprey Exos 48 pack, thinking
 that she wouldn't take too much gear--her pack still weighed more than my Exos 58, even with the 41 ounce tarp and net tent in my pack. Maybe I should have given her the Exos 38. I brought my thru hiker gear, but forgot my down jacket, down pants and sleeping hood.

The trip leader said "get Personal Protective Equipment", which included:

1. Quality high top boots.  I didn't have any such thing for hiking.  I tried to imagine how that would help "protect" me and failed--the trip leader couldn't really provide a reason beyond "protection." After the trip, I couldn't recall any situation in which they would have prevented injury, other than a rolled ankle that I never suffered in 2,000 miles of hiking the PCT wearing trail runners. I bought a $20 pair of high tops from Big 5 and wore them for the work detail.  Everyone else wore high tops, overkill for trail hiking.  I wore trail runners for the hike into/out-of basecamp.  The boots, laced only as much as I would have for trail runners, were easy to walk with.  I donated the boots before boarding the plane back to Seattle.  "Quality" didn't mean $100 boots for me.
2. gloves.  I sent a picture of my gloves, the thin ones with which you can almost pick up a dime.  He wrote back yes that'll do.  Thorns easily penetrated them. Acht.  
3. eye shields.  I sent a photo of some 3M shields that provided coverage over glasses, front and sides.  Yeah, he wrote.  During the demo of sawing technique, he said, no you don't have to get them out.  I never used them and he never commented. Ugggt.
4. Long sleeve shirts & pants. Trip leader approved of REI Sahara convertible nylon pants.  I saw some $20 pants at Big 5, but not in my size.   I walked to/from basecamp and the work venues in my Patagonia boxer shorts.  I endured a few scratches from some shrubs that hung across the trail, but nothing more.  I brought jeans for the work days--protective, but heavy.  Arrrgh.
5. Hard hat. Provided by the Forest Service.  Unventilated and just damned hot.  

Everyone else complied without complaint. I wanted everything just right.

For all that fuss, I still got a minor cut from a saw blade whose end tooth wasn't covered by the blade guard.
Many saws didn't have proper blade guards, and some participants were cavalier about safety around the blades.

Food fight. Ann the cook and two trip participants worked each p.m. and a.m. to make meals for the group in an attempt to feed everyone without offending. It largely succeeded.
I couldn't guess the caloric values of the food fed us, but it wasn't enough. I was  hungry 2-4 hours after dinner. Each night, I ate the nuts I bought for such cravings, and ran out on the fourth night. After that, I raided the food boxes and found the peanut butter, bread and olive oil.  I didn't bother to get my spoon to measure out the olive oil--I just took a few sips straight from the bottle.  When you're burning calories at high altitude (>9,000') you don't care where the calories come from--you get 'em.

The high mountain desert air was so-o-o dry, our noses bled just enough for scabs to form inside our nostrils--we were pulling out small pieces of it to decongest our airways.


As for the trail work itself, trail crews use the acronym OHLEC for approaching a log.  O for Objective: remove the part of the log blocking the trail.  H: Hazards, like overhanging trees/limbs or loose debris that could cause workers to lose their footing.  L for Lean/lie of the log, i.e. which part of the log would be under compression forces and which under tension forces.  E for Escape route, for how you'd position yourself before and after the log started to roll.  C for Cut plan, as in cutting from above/below/ angle of cut(s) to facilitate the cut piece's roll from the log/things to put under the log to change the direction of the roll after the cut.

I learned some things. The best situation is to cut on the tension side, but if you have to cut on the compression side you can hammer a wedge into the cut once you have enough of the blade into the log.

"Butt rolls" were pushes with the soles of the feet on a log with the legs from a sitting position above the log.  That was fun when several people combined their power to move logs.

Base Camp
We base camped 3.5 miles in from the ranger station at Rustler Park next to a well built cabin down the Greenhouse Trail.  Cima Park Fire Guard Station near Douglas, Arizona was built in 1934 by the Civilian Conservation Corps. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993 for its "vernacular, log" architecture. It was designed by the USDA Forest Service and served as institutional housing. The listing included four contributing buildings (a cabin, a toolshed, an outhouse, and a barn). I didn't see a barn. Two dead trees, 80 and 120 feet high stood about 100' from the cabin, and though neither seemed about to topple, fearless leader warned against camping anywhere close. Seven people set up their tents within range of those trees. No one stayed in the cabin, as it had a few mouse droppings, (risk of Hanta virus?). Lydia and I camped just out of the trees' striking range under my Ray Jardine tarp. The tarp effectively tempered the sun's power while I napped and allowed cool air to flow through. Once I added the net tent, to add another layer to protect the air mattresses from the ground, it was as hot as every other tent.

On day 6 on the way to the work site, I got a bad left sided headache along with excessive fatigue for an easy walk--I knew getting altitude sickness.  I returned to camp  unaccompanied for meds (Diamox and nifedipine) I'd brought with me. The sweeper decided that I had enough experience to return alone.  In camp, I napped for a hundred minutes and exerted myself minimally for the next 48 hours. My only task was to move the sunshower bags to keep them in the sun all day. Neither the Basecamp nor the work site had cell coverage.  I and no one else had a Garmin Explorer-- the group wouldn't know I was ok until they got back to camp at 4 p.m.  After  the trip, and the descent to 4,200' it took a day before i felt "normal".

"Foolish consistency" Nearly everybody "learned" to backpack in a camping store, where the goal was to sell us as much gear as possible. They probably asked how long a trip we were planning, helped us select a backpack and then took us through the store, picking up everything that we'd  "need".  If everything spilled out the top, we bought the next larger size pack.  No one but I had the benefit of having hiked a long trail (Pacific Crest Trail) and the lessons of how to keep a backpack light, safe and comfortable. 

Bottom line on the trip:. It was my last service trip at high altitude and maybe my last trip cutting logs. I'm not sure I like group camping.  Not very many people know much about altitude sickness.

DIY roof rack v. 2.0

I've already built this. I'm just showing how I did it.  I don't have pictures of the finished rack, because I can't find them anywhere. Just maybe my Verizon cloud account has one that I can download for this blog post.  I've dismantled the rack to be used in other projects.  

This is the only DIY project I've seen for a roof rack for a sedan that doesn't involve welding, or running a strap into the inside of the car.  Undertake this project:

1. if you already have some tools
2. if you don't trust the products from Yakima or Thule for your car
3. If you're cheap like me 
4. If you just like to tinker, or
5. a combination of the above

For me, the Yakima clip would start to slip off twenty minutes after I'd cinched it down on the door jamb.  I didn't want to risk broken boats or bikes and damage to the finish on my car if it slipped off at highway speed.

You need tools:

• Tape measure or yardstick
• Level 
• 4' long straight edge 
• Power saw or hand saw
• Waterproof wood glue
• Epoxy cement.  Wood flour or saw dust to mix the epoxy into a paste.

Other things you need:

• 2 boards 1x6x6' I cut each to 1x6x56"--these are your two load boards that will hold lumber, boat mounts, etc.  If you want shorter/longer load boards, plan accordingly.  Narrower boards may hum more when the wind strikes them.  Actual measurement of these boards in cross section: 3/4" x 5.5"
• 2x4 four pieces 5.5" long. These will be the towers that hold your load boards. note about 2x4's: they actually measure 1.5" x 3.5

Make the load boards.  Boards cut to 1x6x56".  Aerodynamic shaping for noise reduction:  Sand or rout the leading corners of each board & make a 1" or longer taper for the rear edges.

Making the rack towers. Cut 4 lengths of 2x4, 5.5” long.  Lay them on the 1.5” x 5.5” side and mark the centers on the top sides. 

Position the 2x4's on the roof about where you think they might work.  The tops of the blocks won't be level for most cars, nor will they be at the same level from front to back.  Orient the blocks in line with the long axis of the car--don't line them up with the roof structure--If you feel the need to be exact, find the midline of the car and use as a guide for the rack tower positions.  Position them so the front corner of the front tower is level with the rear corner of the rear tower. 

In this photo, the tops of the front blocks don't line up with the tops of the rear blocks. The front corner of the front block is slightly lower than the rear corner of the rear block.

Trim the bottoms to bring the tops level and in line from left to right--use a level and a pencil.  Then trim the tops to bring them level and in line from front to back. Lay the load boards across and check for contact.  It doesn't have to be exact--then, shape the towers for aerodynamics.

On my 2013 Toyota Avalon, the bow pieces go 7.75” from the windshield and the front end of the stern pieces trail the front end of the bow pieces by 39.5" I didn't align the block (as shown above) with a structural element of the roof because it might have made trimming it more complex.

This shows the alignment of the front block after completion.  The difference may be subtle and may not matter, but I wanted as little as possible to mess with the build.

 

All four blocks mostly shaped for prime time.

This is one of the blocks after reshaping for the roof configuration.

 

The rear blocks after shaping.  The straightedge shows that I've shaped it about right.

Measure the distance from left to right of the front pair (42.75" for my Avalon) and then of the rear pair (42").

Front rack  Subtract 1/4" from the 42.75" separating the towers as measured above= 42.5"  Subtract 42.5" from the length of the load board 56" =13.5", divide the result by 2 = 6.75"   Measure 6.75" from one end of the load board and mark, and make marks 3/4" on each side of that, then on the other end of the board 42.5" away, make similar marks to these.  Cement the towers using those marks--use epoxy thickened with wood flour/sawdust.

Epoxy mixed with wood flour.  Thick enough not to sag.

Rear rack  Subtract 1/4" from the 42" separating the towers as measured above= 41.75"  Subtract 41.75" from the length of the load board 56" =14.25", divide the result by 2 = 7.125"   Make a mark 7.125" from one end of the load board and make marks 3/4" on each side of that, then make similar marks 41.75"  from those.  Cement the rear towers to those marks.
Let the epoxy cure indoors, overnight.  Clean up spilled epoxy immediately with a rag and vinegar.





Aluminum attachment clips and bolt:

Each assembly attaches to the car with a bolt and clip scheme.  The clip is riveted to a stiffener plate that hangs from the load board.  The clip bends at the bottom end to conform to the door jam.  The bolt runs through the rack tower horizontally and through the clip.  . 

Bolt length.  The bolt should be stainless steel for my part of the country, but it can be zinc plated for Las Vegas or Phoenix.  It can be a threaded rod with nuts and washers or a carriage bolt.  I placed the front assembly on the car in the position described above, 7.75" behind the windshield.  I placed the back assembly 34" behind the front.  The measurements for the threaded rod used to attach the door clips: the distance from the tower to the point above the car door jamb plus 1.5" for the thickness of the tower.  Add 3/8" for a nut and washer on the medial side of the tower.  Add 1" for a nut, a washer and a hold-open length to hold the clip in position against the car.  For the front of my Toyota,  3" + 1.5" + 3/8" +1" = 5 7/8".  I'm using 1/4" stainless threaded rod.  I haven't looked for a 6" long carriage bolt   Rear bolt:  3 11/16 +1.5 + 1" = 6 3/16"

Clip length.  I used an app on my phone called Clinometer to find the angle I would need to bend the clip to match the sheet metal of the car's door jamb where it turns in. Use a protractor and a level to find this angle if your phone can't do that.  The clip mounts to the load board in a vertical position. Clip material:  1/16x1.25 aluminum.  About 5/8" will extend past the end of the thick piece and will be bent to follow the door jamb.  Both Front & Rear clips are 4" before bending.

 

 Clip stiffener:  1/8"x 1.25" aluminum.  length:  Front:  4.5"  I could not achieve the 90 degree bend at the top end in my home shop safely & easily.  I cut a 1" long chunk of this 1 in. x 1/8 in. Aluminum Angle Bar in lieu of bending:

Oops, the aluminum flexes.  maybe time for steel or plywood.

The whole project has been cancelled, due to my ;replacing the car for my dream car, a Tesla Model S.