A Rather Gloomy Update, I'm Afraid

I had hoped that the next time I was able to make an update to this, I'd have much better news. Unfortunately, however, it hasn't worked out that way. After about two months of working 50-60 hours a week at work, I was suddenly laid off on Thursday, with no warning. (Admittedly I wasn't the only one to get the ax, about a quarter of the workforce was let go as well.) Needless to say, this puts a bit of a crimp in my plans. I've filed for unemployment, and I should get it, but I won't know for a week or more.

On the upside, however, I'm going to have a bit more time to work things out on paper now. (I doubt if I'll be able to find a job before the election, and it quite possibly might not be until next year, with the way the economy is going.)

About the Lack of Updates or Anything Else

I've been busy with a number of things, including work, and items related to working on the designs as well as a bunch of other things. While I hope to be able to update this a little more frequently in the future, it all depends upon my work schedule and how progress goes in other areas. I will, however, be posting a great deal more, starting around the end of November, if everything goes according to plan (or even close to plan).

Not Quite the Post I Wanted to Make

I had planned to do a fairly big post this time, however, I seem to have royally screwed up my right shoulder. So much so, that my entire right arm hurts pretty bad. I've got a heating pad on it, and I get to go for X-rays next week. I really hope I don't need surgery on my shoulder as I can't afford it in any way shape or form (not to mention being out of work for however long, I'll get disability pay, but it won't be enough to take care of my bills).

I do have a bit of news that I'll post. I have managed to yank the engine off the old push mower that I have so that when I get scale model engine built, I can hook it up to the mower and use that as a test bed to try and work out as many of the kinks I can before converting a car. Here's a pic of the mower sans engine.



And here's a shot of the engine:


The mower and engine are currently sitting in my storage shed. I'm not going to hazard any guesses as to when I'll get the engine and boiler built for it at the moment. That'll have to wait until after I get my shoulder looked at and figure what I have to do with that.

Just a Quick Note

I'm going to try and do a big (relatively speaking, anyways) update this weekend, depending upon my work schedule. I actually managed to get a little bit of overtime, so that helps. When I haven't been working, I've been dealing with a PC problem, so I haven't gotten as much done on anything as I would like, but I'm inching forward, ever slowly, however.

If I have time (and if I've got my computer problems sorted out) then I'll have some photos and information this weekend. It looks like I might be working Friday (I have a 4 day work week, normally), in which case, it'll be Saturday, at the earliest, that I'll be able to post the pics, etc. that I have. If I don't have to work, then I'll definitely be able to do it on Saturday, if not Friday. Now, if I have to work on Saturday as well (which would be nice), then it'll be late Sunday before I can post anything.

Quick Update

I think I'm going to skip transcribing most of the Doble notes about the boiler, as many of them just seem to be little more than insignificant details about the unit, and only a few of them discuss things like modifications to the boilers, performance, or other information that one would really need to build one.

Brief Update

I did win the eBay auction on the Stanley book (Yay me!). Of course, shortly after I won the auction, I discovered that I could find it cheaper somewhere else. Not a [i]lot[/i] cheaper, but still a few bucks. Ah well, live and learn, I suppose. Now, I'm going to get back to transcribing more of the Doble notes. With luck, I'll have them all done and posted by the end of next month.

Stanley Steamer Manual on eBay

Given that I'm planning on cribbing from their automotive engine design, I figure that this is worth bidding on. (No, I'm not going to link to the auction. I don't want anyone who reads this to outbid me. ;)