Canceled Electrical Build Day

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nfolken

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May 14, 2016, 8:07:33 PM5/14/16
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At the last business meeting I had mentioned trying to do an electrical build day today, and I put a placeholder in the calendar. But work came up so I moved it to Sunday, and now I've removed it all together, as I won't be free till late in the evening. I'm just putting this announcement here in case anybody was watching the calendar and wondering what the plan was.

But if anyone would still like to work on a project to improve the space, I've created a new document/page to list some that have been discussed. Everyone is encouraged to take up any project that sparks their interest!
https://archreactor.org/space-improvement-projects

Brad Tissi

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May 16, 2016, 8:55:15 AM5/16/16
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We've been needing a simple page like this for a while. Thank you.

Derek Sigler

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May 16, 2016, 10:26:58 AM5/16/16
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Finally!  A document on our website that's editable.  Love it!
I have some brick sealer.  I'm taking over "Seal bricks & paint concrete walls in the Bathroom".  We start Tuesday night after most people leave.
-derek

Chris Weiss

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May 16, 2016, 10:37:20 AM5/16/16
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can I vote to have that done on a day when no one at all is going to be there?  the sealers I've used are super stinky, no one will want to be there until it dries.

of course, if you have some low/no VOC non-stinkout kind, then that's fine.

Diane Sudduth

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May 16, 2016, 12:18:41 PM5/16/16
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I will happily turn my sewing skills (and fabric collection) to the task of south-wall-blinds but I do not want to design them.    Who would like to partner with me on this?  

Niels, at one point you and I had talked about the possibility of having signs where our name/logo spanned multiple 4' x 8' sheets of plywood.     Are you still wanting that?   (the name/logo across a set of 6 sheets, for example?) or do you want multiple 4'x8' sheets that are all essentially identical with name/logo?     (And are we talking "archreactor", or "archreactor.org"?)

I'm EAGER to work on the painted-sign project.    Do we have plywood on hand to use for this, does anyone know?

Diane  <*>

Chris Weiss

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May 16, 2016, 12:38:14 PM5/16/16
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maybe blinds like http://cf.maisondepax.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Roman-Shades-up-close.jpg ?  I've seen some guides on making these out of old beat up mini blinds which greatly simplifies the design, and also represents a "hack".  

Myles Farrell

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May 17, 2016, 9:58:57 PM5/17/16
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I think something is screwy with my forum email settings because I only seem to be getting half the conversation of this thread, But one thing I did see was painting the bathroom. DON'T PAINT THE BATHROOM WALLS. We have a plan for them and some of us spent a lot of time and money to sandblast them. Also I don't think Kathy wants anything that has had the paint removed from repainted.

On Mon, May 16, 2016 at 11:38 AM, Chris Weiss <cwe...@gmail.com> wrote:
maybe blinds like http://cf.maisondepax.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Roman-Shades-up-close.jpg ?  I've seen some guides on making these out of old beat up mini blinds which greatly simplifies the design, and also represents a "hack".  

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Gene J. (GeekTinker)

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May 19, 2016, 5:35:21 AM5/19/16
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I can take on the toilet paper holder task. I have a decent idea for a good hack, courtesy of a Google image search.

Gene

Derek Sigler

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May 23, 2016, 12:48:42 AM5/23/16
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Myles,
I did  not paint the bathroom wall.  I did put up a test patch of the sealer.  I think it looks good.  Let me know if you want me to comtinue.
-derek



nfolken

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May 24, 2016, 5:57:56 PM5/24/16
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Something needs to be done in the bathroom, or the bricks are going to stain and soak up whatever gets splashed on them. What is the plan, and can we pass it on to other people to work on?


nfolken

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May 24, 2016, 6:07:21 PM5/24/16
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Here is a quick sketch of an idea I had. We have a bunch of extra 1" conduit, so use eye-hooks to hang the pipe and slip a curtain over it (like at the old space). I then thought a string attached to each panel in a big loop could make it easy to open and close all the blinds at once. Just an idea if anybody wants to run with it.

nfolken

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May 24, 2016, 7:05:34 PM5/24/16
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 I think we have plywood to paint, but whatever we do, we first have to clear it with Cathy. I think we could start a thread to generate ideas and then put them past Cathy.

Nathan Schrenk

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May 25, 2016, 12:06:11 PM5/25/16
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Niels,

When I view your message I can't see the image. Google's web server returns a 403 and the error text reports a permission error.

Nathan

On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 5:07 PM, nfolken <niels...@gmail.com> wrote:

Here is a quick sketch of an idea I had. We have a bunch of extra 1" conduit, so use eye-hooks to hang the pipe and slip a curtain over it (like at the old space). I then thought a string attached to each panel in a big loop could make it easy to open and close all the blinds at once. Just an idea if anybody wants to run with it.

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Travis Megee

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May 25, 2016, 1:13:07 PM5/25/16
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Di

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May 25, 2016, 1:29:37 PM5/25/16
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Thanks for the drawing, Niels, and thanks for making it available, Travis.

Show of hands, please...   When we start talking about curtains on the south windows are we looking for something heavy/dark that will block the light, or something light-colored and lightweight which would allow light into the space and just block folks from seeing our awesome stuff?

Diane   <*>

On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 5:07 PM, nfolken <niels...@gmail.com> wrote:

Here is a quick sketch of an idea I had. We have a bunch of extra 1" conduit, so use eye-hooks to hang the pipe and slip a curtain over it (like at the old space). I then thought a string attached to each panel in a big loop could make it easy to open and close all the blinds at once. Just an idea if anybody wants to run with it.

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Diane  <*>

Nathan Schrenk

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May 25, 2016, 2:33:12 PM5/25/16
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Regarding south-window curtains: my preference is for lightweight curtains that allow light through.

EschewObfuscation

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May 25, 2016, 5:50:23 PM5/25/16
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On Wednesday, May 25, 2016 at 12:29:37 PM UTC-5, Diane Sudduth wrote:
...
Show of hands, please...   When we start talking about curtains on the south windows are we looking for something heavy/dark that will block the light, or something light-colored and lightweight which would allow light into the space and just block folks from seeing our awesome stuff?

Diane   <*>

We made enormous compromises in site choice, in large part to obtain a few windows. Having paid so much for them, it seems a little silly to black them out entirely.

nfolken

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May 26, 2016, 11:20:02 AM5/26/16
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My primary drive for putting up curtains is to cut down on our cooling bill in the summer. I think if we can make them easy to open and close, they can be fairly opaque, so we can choose to make it very dark inside if needed for a presentation or let in as much light as we want.


On Wednesday, May 25, 2016 at 12:29:37 PM UTC-5, Diane Sudduth wrote:

Frank Kallal

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May 26, 2016, 11:28:57 AM5/26/16
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I'm on the side of Darker Curtians. 

Frank

Frank Kallal

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May 26, 2016, 11:29:40 AM5/26/16
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perhaps this should become a SurveyMoney or Google Survey with x period of time

EschewObfuscation

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May 26, 2016, 7:33:58 PM5/26/16
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On Thursday, May 26, 2016 at 10:20:02 AM UTC-5, nfolken wrote:
My primary drive for putting up curtains is to cut down on our cooling bill in the summer. I think if we can make them easy to open and close, they can be fairly opaque, so we can choose to make it very dark inside if needed for a presentation or let in as much light as we want.

If the goal is cooling, it doesn't matter whether light falls on the floor and converts to heat, or if it hits the curtain and converts to heat. As long as it converts inside the window, it's warmed the building. Which is nice in winter, not so much in summer. 

To reduce summer heating, what's required is some way to reflect the light before it devolves to heat. Fitted bits of silver-backed foam insulation? Low-e glass isn't cheap. There may be plastic films that do the low-e trick at lower cost, though. 

Recall we are discussing applying this to windows of an uninsulated building. The windows may or may not be the most cost-effective point to address first in controlling temperature. In fact, opening them for air flow may be the best option when it's muggy-hot outside, until we're ready to contemplate fully-insulated-and-air-conditioned as an option.

Gene J. (GeekTinker)

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May 27, 2016, 1:09:35 AM5/27/16
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We could also consider making some sort of shades for the outside of the building over the windows instead. That would still allow light into the room, but not direct sunlight. They could be made to manually fold up on the outside when we wanted that direct light and/or removed and stored during winter.

A DIY solution would cost less, but even paying for them may cost us less in cooling over time. That's if our landlord would allow for them.

They would likely make the building look more appealing and could double as signage.

EschewObfuscation

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May 27, 2016, 3:03:06 AM5/27/16
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That approach works. This is why awnings were so commonly used prior to wide availability of air conditioning.

nfolken

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Jun 3, 2016, 6:25:34 PM6/3/16
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Awnings would be great, but lets start with curtains. According to energy.gov, white curtains will reduce heat through windows by 33%

EschewObfuscation

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Jun 3, 2016, 10:07:12 PM6/3/16
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White curtains can help reduce the load if there's a reasonable expectation of AC operational by max hot season. If not, we should expect to open the windows for whatever breeze can be collected... or generated by window fan, maybe. And assuming they open; do they? Sealed up in high steambath is the worst option, curtains or not. Do we think AC will be operational soon?

Diane

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Jun 4, 2016, 1:30:46 AM6/4/16
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Apollo helped me with measurements yesterday.   Thank you for mentioning white.  I have a few white sheets picked up from goodwill and can typically get more cheaply.   A top hem and some grommets should work.  

Would someone like to volunteer to hang the conduit/curtain-rod?  And the lines for open/close?   

Diane  <*>

On Jun 3, 2016, at 5:25 PM, nfolken <niels...@gmail.com> wrote:

Awnings would be great, but lets start with curtains. According to energy.gov, white curtains will reduce heat through windows by 33%

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EschewObfuscation

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Jun 4, 2016, 12:39:19 PM6/4/16
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If we have AC, white curtains will reduce the load.

Whether we have AC or not, when the space is all closed up, any curtains will improve the security profile a bit.

If we don't have AC and therefore want to open windows for ventilation, as long as the curtains can be pushed to the side or tied back, they don't hurt anything.

So any way we slice it, whites wouldn't be a bad idea.

Jim S

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Jun 5, 2016, 11:07:53 AM6/5/16
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On days like today when the dew point is low ventilation is a low cost way to cool especially early in the day.  We do this a lot at home in the spring and fall with a whole house fan.  The thermal mass of the building can help too but to really work you need to ventilate at night to give time to cool it before the heat outside.  Best case would be automatic but that's more complex and may weaken security. 

Diane

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Jun 11, 2016, 11:14:29 PM6/11/16
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Niels, do you happen to know the diameter of the pipe we're planning to use for the curtains?  I know you showed me but I'm not certain.   I'm thinking of getting shower curtain hangers like these:: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00KCGONIW/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?qid=1465700810&sr=8-3&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=rolling+shower+curtain+hooks&dpPl=1&dpID=31%2B19J4xV-L&ref=plSrch  and am wondering if the pipe diameter is too large.   Thoughts?   

Diane  <*>

On Jun 3, 2016, at 5:25 PM, nfolken <niels...@gmail.com> wrote:

Awnings would be great, but lets start with curtains. According to energy.gov, white curtains will reduce heat through windows by 33%

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nfolken

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Jun 12, 2016, 12:48:58 PM6/12/16
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I was going to use 1" EMT conduit, which has an Outside Diameter of 1.163".
The rings you found just say they 'fit any show curtain and rod types", and I think most curtain rods are 1", but some are 1-1/4", so they might work

Gene J. (GeekTinker)

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Jun 13, 2016, 3:40:49 AM6/13/16
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I don't know where they ended up during the move, but shouldn't we have had plenty of curtain rings from the curtains that were in use at our previous location?
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