He's a former petroleum engineer, now working in marketing at the company i'm at.
We sat down today for over 3 hours and he explained to me the intricacies of different fuel types for diesel engines...
the guy makes his own bio-diesel fuel on his kitchen stove using local restaurant's old french fry and other vegetable oil (he tells me you can't use soy bean oil because it requires more treatment).
He actually runs an old Mercedes on this stuff.
The conversation came about when I asked him how he burned his face..... he explained to me that he didn't get all the water out of the mixture before heating it up and the water "plumed" to the top and caught him.
Now that is GEEK. Fortunately, most geeks end up inventing stuff.
I hear you on that one, tardfarmer! I enjoy people like that, too - it's sort of fascinating in a quirky way and like you said, they do invent things! Look at Einstein!
Yea, but you gotta respect him. He drives a Mercedes.
He bought it for $1600.
I would respect him anyway, I love geeks like that.. it shows initiative and he's inquisitive about chemistry etc.
I want his mental drive.
Sounds more like you want his hard drive ...
Seriously , I've seen an interview with a guy who runs his car the same way , could it be the same guy ? He says it runs well , but it smells like a french fry going down the street .
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Kevin Haendiges
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http://hunting-indiana.com
the guy makes his own bio-diesel fuel on his kitchen stove using local restaurant's old french fry and other vegetable oil (he tells me you can't use soy bean oil because it requires more treatment).
He actually runs an old Mercedes on this stuff.
I thought about doing this. Making biodeisel is labor intesnsive, takes a lot of know how, and apparently, has some safety issues. You can, however, buy a kit to run a diesel engine on straight vegetable oil -- no conversion to bio-diesel. All you have to do is filter it first. I thought it would be cool to get an old Ford Ranger with the 4 cyl diesel motor for this.
You buy a second fuel tank, pump, plumbing, and a switch -- maybe a fuel tank heater to keep the veg. oil from getting too thick on cold days. After that, you start up the vehicle on regular diesel, get it running for about 5 minutes, then switch to the veg. oil. You can run on super cheap fuel if you can get a couple of resteraunts to cooperate. About 5 minutes before you know you will turn off the vehicle, switch back to diesel. That keeps the injectors clean.
My ex-father in law is cheap as the day is long, he had a 64 chevy wagon with a 230 CI 6 banger that when he went on a long trip he would start of with a tank of gas, when he needed more gas he would leave the motor running and put in diesel, once he was about one tank ful from where he was going he would run the tank almost dry and then fill it up with gas! The only thing he did at the end of a trip was pull the plugs and clean them. Mind you this was years ago when diesel was dirt cheap in comparison to gas.
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The Tazman aka Martin Price
Proud father of a Devil Dog
A friend of my grandpa's had a decrepit old Model T that he ran with kerosene. Thing looked, sounded, smelled, and drove like dung on wheels.
Making stuff in the kitchen can be a lot of fun. Until you realize that you're not going to have much luck making any nitric acid with that old Kenmore electric oven.
I met the biggest geek today...
