Tag Archives: gear

Electric Lunchbox – M18 Jobsite Lunch Warmer

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I know very little about power tools but I have a surprising number of Milwaukee tools sitting here. The reason I have so many of the Milwaukee tools is that they make some stuff that dovetails nicely into my needs, and I get a discount at work on them. Because I have so many of their tools, I have a pretty big stack of batteries for them…and, of course, this tends to keep me in the Milwaukee ecosystem because I don’t want to add a new battery into my logistics.

The guy at work who orders Milwaukee tools for us brought this new product to my attention:

Yes, its a self-warming lunchbox. Apparently these things have been around for a while and there’s no shortage of them on Amazon. However, this one runs on the Milwaukee batteries I already have, and it mates with the Packout locking system of the Milwaukee cases/boxes/containers.

Seemed like something that might be worth dropping some coin on. The biggest use I see for this, other than jobsite stuff, is for hunting and ice fishing. No need to haul around a propane stove, or limit yourself to whatever a Jetboil can reconstitute. Take yesterdays pot roast, drop it in, set it and forget it.

I have a propane cookstove up at the Beta Site but, honestly, its just more convenient to break out lunch from something like this…for now.

It arrived the other day and, of course, I had to try it. I have quite the assortment of Milwaukee batts and they recommended the 6.0 battery. I loaded the food container with some leftovers right out of the cold fridge, popped them in the warmer, set the termp for highest of its three settings and let it go for two hours. The way this thing works is that you tell it what time you want to eat and it starts warming the food two hours before that. A countdown timer and progress bar show how close you are to lunchtime. So, if youre a lunch-at-noon kinda guy (as Iam) this things automatically turns on at 10a and starts warming.

At highest setting the food was very thoroughly heated through and hot. More importantly, it didnt generate heat high enough to scorch the contents to the container. When i cracked open the containment vessel the food was hot, not dried out, and otherwise exactly I wanted.

I will be the first to say that this is, for most people, an unnecessary luxury. And a lot of people will say they’d rather save the moeny and just eat some instant oatmeal made with water heated over an Esbit stove. No argument from me. However, for me, this thing is an ideal tool for giving me a hot meal aftert a long day of banging around the Beta Site hauling rocks, climbing hills, and cutting logs.

Jacking around

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Previously, when using the Starlink up at the Beta Site I have either used a small battery backup brick, or I’ve used an adaptor that lets me use my Milwaukee M18 batteries that power my tools. But, both of those did not really have an option for recharging up there. Once the batteries were drained, it was switch to another battery and take the depleted one back to the house to recharge. What to do?

CostCo was selling this for $200 off, bring my price to $599. (No longer on sale at CostCo, but on sale at Amazon for $100 off but comes with 200w panel instead of 100w). I did a bit of research online and saw that this was the cheapest price out there for this particular device. It came with a 100watt panel to recharge, so there was the option of recharging it up at the Beta Site rather than having to return to town to recharge. Ok, I’ll take chance with it.

The system comes with a 100w panel, but I decided to go ahead and pick up the 200w panel as well. Not cheap, but I wanted every advantage possible. The system has two inputs for panels, or you can buy an additional cable (which I did) that allows you to add panels in serial (daisy chaining) if they are panels of the same wattage. So, putting a 200w and 100w on the same cable is a no-no. I plugged the 200w panel into one input jack, and the 100w into the other input jack…no prob.

Like most electronics these days, the Jackery has an app for your phone. I found this to be an immensely interesting feature. Using the app, I linked the system to my house wireless network. Having done this, I could now, from anywhere with internet, see battery usage, charging rate, hours to charge, hours remaining, turn off the charging outputs to any devices I was charging, etc. This opens up some tremendous possibilities, which I’ll cover shortly.

The battery came completely charged, so I needed to discharge the battery so I could start documenting how well the panels worked to recharge it. Unfortunately, all I had around that needed charging were some flashlights and tool batteries. I got the battery down to about 89% before it was time to head to the Beta Site.

Got up to the Beta Site and the weather was mostly clear with a few clouds here and there. The sun went behind the clouds every so often, but most of the time it was direct late morning sunlight. I Laid out both panels and hooked them up.

As I mentioned, the app for the Jackery needs internet to send the info to your phone. So…I brought out the StarLink and fired it up. What was the draw of the StarLink versus the input from the panels? Lets go to the app:

So thats the data Im being shown when the StarLink is running. Now, at that moment Im not really doing anything internet-heavy except some texting. But even when it was a little more intensive, it was in the 24-34w range in terms of usage. Meanwhile, the panels are throwing 242w into the battery. In short, I’m using the battery up slower than the panels are refilling it. So, as long as the sun is shining, I can internet as much as I want and the battery will get more charged rather than less. But man does not live on internet alone. Lets see what happens when I throw a 12v DC Milwaukee battery charger on there and throw on a battery that needs charging and run the internet at the same time.

Note the times. While using the internet and charging the Milwaukee M18 battery, the system still charged itself up to 100~%. Even when the sun went behind a cloud there was enough input to offset the internet usage.

My anticipated usage for this sort of package is very simple: run the internet and recharge the things that need recharging (camera batts, tool batts, flashlightg batts, etc.) And for that usage, this seems to be a good way to go.

Here’s the really interesting part, though…With no recharging, this thing will run the internet for 30-37 hours. We saw that the internet was using 1/10th of the power that was coming into the system, so, as I see it, that means one hour of charging gives you ten hours internet. So, its entirely possible that with this set up I might be able to leave things runnig 24/7…which means internet live feed may be possible. This interest me greatly. That would open the possibility for a remote rover.


Now that would be something cool!

But back to the job at hand… So I’ve had one weekend of playing with the Jackery. I’ve left it up at the Beta Site in the cargo container. When Im back up there in two weeks I’ll see if there was any measurable self-discharge. Even if there was, I’m convince that a half hour with both panels in place will top that tank right off.

SO, my overall impression so far is good. But, a new broom sweeps clean. Be interesting to see how this holds up over the next year or so. As I said, my very minimalist meeds seem to be met by this setup but those needs won’t be minimal forever. But until such time as I need a more comprehensive, expensive, purpose-built, battery-and-panel-heavy setup I think this might carry me through until then. So, overall: recommend.

Milwaukee Transfer Pump

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I’ve mentioned it a time or two but never really expounded on my opinion on the Milwaukee Transfer Pump that I’ve been using lately to move water around the Beta Site. The TL;DR version: buy it.

My primary uses of it to date  have been to a) move water from the creek, uphill, to a larger water tank and b) transferring water from a smaller tank to a larger one. In both cases, this thing did an outstanding job. It’s pretty quick at 8 gpm, and creates enough pressure that when I feed the output to a garden hose with a spray nozzle on the end I get a good 20-30′ of range.

The pump runs off the Milwaukee batteries and accepts all of the M18 series of batteries. I usually use the 6.0 battery although if you remove the spacer in the battery compartment it will accommodate the larger 12.0 batt. I ran the 6.0 battery today and moved 200 gallons of water before the battery called it quits..that was a 50-gallon fillup, transfer to the main tank, another 50-gallon fillup, transfer that to the main tank. Thats a total of 200 gallons of throughput.

The pump is fairly quiet…from about 30′ away all  you hear is a quiet whine. I has two hose faucet male threaded ports..one for input and one for output. I just cut some how, got an assortment of connectors, and make my own specific connections as needed. Sometimes I need female threaded end of the hose, sometimes I need male threaded end…having an assortment of fittings and hose clamps really opens up a bunch of possibilities.

There are, of course, larger pumps out there that will pump higher and further, but for my needs thus far this thing has performed quite well. It ran water uphill to the tank in the back of my truck with no problems, and it’s light weight makes it easy to haul around the fairly primitive (for now) environs of the Beta Site. You dont have to be a genius to see how something like this can have quite a few applications for we of the survival mindset. Pumping water from your bathtub to your toilet tank, filling jerry cans from a creek or other water source, impromptu showering, keeping handy for firefighting when doing a slash or barrel burn, watering a garden from a water storage tank, etc, etc. It has been the key to having high water pressure for my portable tankless water heater…it makes a strong hot stream of shower water possible. Don’t undersell that.

When I originally bought this I only had a vague idea of how useful it would be. Now that I’ve had it for a while and used if for several different tasks ‘out in the field’ I cannot say enough good things about  it.

 

Built to last II

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Well, you guys seemed to like the 2-ton Beebe winch I posted about, so you’re gonna love this: It’s the 5-ton big brother to the 2-ton. I was cruising eBay looking for a beater one to use for parts and maybe get the correct handle. Naturally, I got sidetracked and started looking at all the winches that were up for sale. I came across this monster which was, at $550, the cheapest one in good condition that was for sale. I had discovered that while you may find these things online at reasonable prices (although often they are wildly unreasonable) the shipping absolutely queers the deal. Shipping? $372. I mentally shrugged and was about to move on when I noticed that the listing said this thing was sitting in Corvallis….well, thats about 40 miles down the road. I’ll drive 40 miles to save $372…especially if I can get a better deal. So I contacted the buyer and asked if they’d take $300 and could I come pick it up. Yes to both, it turned out. And, in fact, they were passing through Missoula on their way somewhere for the weekend, so they actually dropped it off here in town for me. Sweet!

How does it compare to the 2-ton? Well, for one thing, its more than twice as heavy. As for size, here you go:

I’m thinking of how best to use this thing. It weighs about 150# so portability is a bit of a challenge. What Im thinking of doing is mounting it on a flatbed cart and using that to haul it around. Chain the winch to a tree as an anchor and all the stresses and weight goes into the chains around the anchor and the platform takes no strain at all. Need to give it some more thought. 

But, its a really neat piece of machinery from ‘back in the day’. I’m looking forward to spooling some cable on it and seeing what kind of mayhem I can create with it.

 

Built to last

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One of the interesting things I’ve noticed since I acquired the Beta Site is that many people, people I know in real life and internet strangers, suddenly become invested in the adventure. I get a goodly amount of messages of people saying they are living vicariously through my experiences and that I’m doing something they’ve always wanted and haven’t gotten to do yet.

People who know me in ‘real life’, as it were, are also very happy for me. I get quite a few offers of people wanting to come up there and help, or to loan me equipment, etc, etc. One thing that a friend dropped off on ‘indefinite loan’ is this cast metal monster:

Its a Beebe Bros. 2-ton hand winch. You anchor this monster to a solid object (hence, the chains), play out the line to the object you want pulled, and start cranking. These things turn up sometimes at ranch and farm auctions. I like the idea of a hand-powered winch that I can use up at the Beta Site for moving heavy objects. Here’s some more detail on it.

This thing has some weight to it but there isn’t a part on it that isnt made of metal. This is one of those utilitarian objects built back when you built something like a tank and expected it last for generations.

My use for it is in moving a rock sled and some fallen timber around. Given my druthers, a lightweight portable ATV-style electric winch would be my first choice. But we don’t always get what we want and the apocalypse is certain to have a distinct lack of electricity. So…why not have something like this in the toolchest?

I’d like to thank the local person who dropped this thing in the back of my truck and said “theres no hurry in getting it back”. Much thanks.

Epic loot drop

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A few posts back I mentioned that I was going to be looking at picking up an estate from a deceased survivalist. How’d that go, you ask? Well, you tell me……..the haul includes, but is not limited to, things like gas masks, filters, water purification, water filters, water barrels, water tanks, propane tanks, kerosene, propane heater, kerosene heater, knives, holsters, bear spray, speedloaders, gun rugs, tools, and a bunch of other stuff. Lets go to the pics…

Also picked up a Makita power drill as well…

There were several Buck and KaBar knives. The SOG Seal knife is a bit of a collectible.

Mostly Glock and K-frame holsters. The brand new DeSantis gun belts are only an inch lager than my normal belt size, so those should work nicely. The brown holster is for an L-frame Smith which is the same size as my GP-100 pistols. Same for the speedloaders.

Several of these with filters. All appear new and unopened.

These are one-gallon containers but there were some 5-gallon drums of kero as well.

A little bit of everything. The two tanks are 100-gallon.

I really only took pictures of the interesting stuff. There were also a dozen full barbecue bombs, which, of course, I snapped up.

A  bunch of this stuff will wind up going to the Beta Site at some point soon. A lot of this stuff is actually redundant to things I have here in town…as it should be. Never know if youre gonna be stuck at home for the apocalypse or if youre gonna have time to beat feet to your alternate location.

Its always interesting to go through someone elses preps and see how they decided they wanted to prepare for the uncertain future. Im sure that a lot of cool stuff was picked over by relatives and friends before I got to it, but I am nonetheless pleased with what I got. There were a few good values in there and I have nothing to complain about.

90% of this stuff will wind up going into containers and set aside for when I get the conex up and secured. But, it crosses a lot of things off of my list of Things To Get For The Beta Site.

Hardigg/Pelican sarcophagus

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The Missoula gun show was this weekend. Its always a fun time, and I often get to see people whom I almost never see the rest of the year.

Johnny Trochmann wasn’t there this year. Not sure why. Nonetheless, there was someone there selling the parachute flares I normally get from John. Picked up two dozen as well as some sealed up lifeboat first aid kits.

I also scored what I believe is the largest Hardigg/Pelican case you can fit in t pickup truck. I was walking through the parking lot and there was a pickup truck with three Hardigg/Pelican cases on it and an ote with a price and phone number. I texted the number, met with the guy, did the dance, and wound up with this monster to take to the Beta Site:

Easily holds two, maybe three call girls hookers.

Its four feet by five feet and about 32 inches tall. I could pull the foam and use it as a hot tub. It is, I think, the last word for storing a secreted stash of gear to be hidden in the woods somewhere, You could easily fit clothes, food, water, sleeping bag, tent, pack, radio, batteries, utensils, and everything else you’d need to hide out for a week or so.

Anything else acquired at the show? Guns? Well….one, yeah. Found a 5″ 1946 vintage Smith & Wesson M&P (pre Model 10) revolver in very good condition. I have a weakness for 5″ barrel pistols and the old timey Smiths are always well made guns.

A buddy of mine will be heading up to the Beta Site this week to level the area where I’ve decided to drop the 20′ conex. Tomorrow I need to go see the conex people, show them the maps and Google Earth views of the area and access, and then ask them if they think they can deliver that 20′ conex to where I want it. If so, we have a deal. Fingers crossed.

Spendy weekend inbound

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The gear survivalists leave lives on after them, and the tinfoil is often  interred with their bones……

Got a text message from a buddy the other day.  A person he knew passed, the wife wants to sell the house and move to be near the grandbabies, and the guy was a survivalist with a buncha gear…and everything must go. Would I be interested?

Well….yeah. I mean, I have a secondary location that needs to be stockpiled, right?

So whats on offer? Water storage tanks, smaller water containers, hand tools, holsters, water purifiers, kerosene heaters, camp stoves, coleman lanterns, kerosene, propane, radios, etc, etc. And, naturally, this potential money sink is taking place the same weekend as the big Missoula gun show. I foresee a lot of money leaving my hands this weekend. However, if theyre good deals then the short-term suffering may be worth it. I’ll be heading out there this evening after work, so we shall see what winds up coming back with me in the truck.

It’s always an interesting experience when a survivalist dies and you get the opportunity to go through their stuff. How much of a true believer were they? What was their particular flavor of apocalypse? Were they well-rounded or gun-heavy? You wind up trying to reconstruct a life by the things they left behind.

I like to think that if I die there won’t be a huge garage sale or anything like that simply because I’ve already made plans with the people in my life to make sure they get what I’ve accumulated. If I have to shuffle off this mortal coil, the last thing I want is all my gear winding up in a bargain bin somewhere. I want it going to the people I care about who can use it and, in some way, have a safer and more secure future as a sort of legacy from me.

 

 

 

Shower

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One of the things that drove me absolutely nuts about The Walking Dead was how these people are running around in the summer, in Georgia, wearing the same clothes day after day, getting covered in sweat, dirt, and entrails…..and no one seems to develop an infection or skin ailment. And the notion that somehow, after the zombie apocalypse, soap would be unavailable seems terribly unlikely. After any disaster, of any size, I would bet folding money that if you went into ten abandoned houses at random, you’d find the remains of a bar of soap in at least half…in the bathtub , by the sink, under the sink, in the basement by the laundry sink, etc., etc.

Ignoring the health benefits of keeping a certain level of hygiene active, there’s a morale component as well. And let’s not even think about what your sleeping bag must be like after several days of sweating and getting dirty without a shower. But more than anything else, taking a freaking bath or shower once in a while, with a bar of soap, goes a long way towards keeping you from having all sorts of Middle Ages-era issues.

I mention this because when I had the hole-digging weekend a few weeks ago, it was dang hot out there and the sweat and grime were freely flowing. Now, I could have, I suppose, stood down there by the creek, lathered up, and scooped up water from the creek to rinse off. But…I’m a First Worlder with a job, a CostCo card, and an aversion to cold water bathing. So...I did this.

Having learned my lesson about not testing gear before the actual need, I set it up yesterday in my yard to see how it all came together. The propane hookup is pretty straightforward – screw it onto your barbecue bomb, open the valve, an you’re off to the races. The water output was even more straightforward – connect the hose with the showerhead on the end using the quick connector. The water input, on the other hand, was a different story.

The heater comes with a variety of fittings to accommodate a variety of inputs. The primary two inputs are either a garden hose, which is assuming a pressurized delivery of water, or the included 12v pump which has a draw hose suitable for jerry cans, buckets, etc. This does, however, mean you’ll need to have access to a 12v battery.

I hooked everything up and while it all worked, the water flow from the included 12v pump was, in my opinion, rather anemic. It would work, but it was akin to a kitchen sink sprayer on ‘medium’ setting. So the solution, in my opinion, was to either develop a pressurized water system or get a better pump.

As usual, when presented with a problem, I gave it some thought for a while and then moved on to other tasks. But I’ve learned that when I do that, theres a part of my brain that, unconsciously, keeps working on the problem even while I’m unaware of it. And, hours, or days later, even though I dont think I was thinking about the problem at all, a ‘eureka’ moment will pop out of nowhere and give me an answer.

I need a more powerful water delivery system, right? What if there was a powered water pumping system that was more powerful than the supplied pump, didn’t require hauling around a heavy battery, and was already within my logistics network? And then it popped into my head…use my Milwaukee transfer pump. It operates off the M18 batteries that I’m already using to power my StarLink, chainsaw, Sawzall, drills, lights, and other goodies. And, best of all, I already had a couple six-foot lengths of hose with garden hose fittings on either end so I pretty much had everything I needed on hand.

Slapped a battery in the transfer pump, hooked one side to the heater, hooked a draw hose to the other side, dropped the hose into a jerry can, and srted the pump. Sure enough, the heater fired up and a much more powerful flow of steaming hot water came out of the shower head. Success!.

I’m rather pleased with myself with this discovery. The streamlined logistics of using the M18 transfer pump is not an inconsequential thing. I already take it up there to fill containers from the creek, and everything I have runs off the M18 batteries, so I’m not bringing anything up there in this regard that I was not already bringing.

And, of course, I get to clean myself up at the end of the day and be daisy fresh for when I crawl into my sleeping bag.

Snow camo

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Its gonna be another bloody day of near-100-degree temps here in Montana. Not exactly the sort of thing that puts you in the mind of thinking about winter, but it should. In summer, we prepare for winter. In winter, we prepare for summer. Thats how it works.

Someone in email mentioned something about snow camo and that brought me back to the Danish snow camo that I have been wanting for several years. I was reminded that Varusteleka sells such things.In addition to selling European milsurp, which is quite interesting, they also remanufacture things from old milsurp…things like anoraks from old wool blankets, that sort of thing. They also have more than a few articles about the things they sell. The one that is germane to this post is this – ‘The basics of snow camouflage’.

It’s pretty easy to think that just cutting up a white bedsheet will do the trick…and it certainly is better than nothing…but its surprising how a pure-white object shows up in snowy areas…especially since snow is actually less white and more shades of light grey and white.

Personally, given a choice, I’d rather spend my winters indoors in the warmth near a big window where I can watch the cold nights rather than be tromping through the snow in a situation where I need to wear snow camo. But, sometimes we don’t get a choice. And its very rarely a bad idea to be low-profile in pretty much any environment.