I like fire! And, I got to play with fire last night. Propane torch fire, to be more specific. I’m taking a class at Washtenaw Community College, called The Evolution of the Automobile. What do cars have to do with eCommerce? Not much. We’ll get into why I’m there later, don’t worry.
Back to the class last night. The format is 1.5 hours of lecture and discussion, then 1.5 hours of hands-on work in the shop. I missed the second and third week because I had a business trip, so I’m behind on my shop project. That’s where the torch came in. But first, the lecture part.
We watched a video about the value of cars. The video was shot in 1940. It proposed to estimate the value of a car built in 1920, then placed under glass. The car in 1920 cost $1500. In 1940, the video claims that same car, perfectly preserved, would be worth only $100, due to advancements in suspension, safety glass, engine power, and the frequency of repairs.
The video ended with a story about two auto dealerships in Texas that had a sales contest. The loser had to ride a donkey seventy some odd miles to the winner’s shop. Great fun, Texas!
Next we talked about batteries. Dissimilar metals, acid, and a case to make electricity. As a demo, our instructor stuck two electrodes into a regular old orange, and made it power a digital clock.
Then he pulled some 40-weight and 10 w-40 motor oil out of the freezer, poured each into a track, and demonstrated how each one flowed. The 10 w-40 flowed about twice as fast. If you live in the north, and drive a car, multi-viscosity oil is the thing to use.
Ok, now onto the torch! In the shop we’re building projects to learn hands-on practical skills. I missed a couple of weeks, so I’m behind already. My project is a wire holder. It’s a 2.5″x3″ piece of metal with two coat-hanger wires bolted to it. The other end of the coat hanger wires have alligator clips on them. You use this contraption to hold other wires that you’re trying to solder.
Last week I cut the base steel, drilled it and tapped the bolt holes. This week I bent the coat hangers and assembeld the whole contraption. I didn’t get first pick of materials, since I missed a couple of weeks, so I had to take what I could get. My alligator clips had both seen better days-they were rejects from other projects.
One of my alligator clips kept falling off of my coat hanger, so I soldered both of them on. Here’s where the torch comes in. It’s a regualr propane torch, with this E-Z lighter and valve on top of it. No more separate striker, but you do have to be careful that you don’t light it while a fellow student is walking past!!
There’s a test next week. Key point to remember: hydrogen is a flammable gas given off by the chemical reaction inside the car’s battery.
John.
