Archive for April, 2007

Stealing Used Coffee Grounds

With Earth Day approaching I figured I would share something I have been doing recently. A few times a day I goto all the coffee machines near my work cube and steal the used coffee grounds. I’m not really stealing them since they are heading for the trash. I’m rescuing them! They make good fertilizer and compost. I take about 1 lb of grounds home each day for composting and fertilizing. I use the Tupperware I brought my lunch to work in. You don’t want to put them in anything that may spill in your car.

Recently we all received some Goody cans at work with various stuff in them. I think people have been throwing them out. :-( I’ve been snagging unwanted cans, filling them with coffee grounds and planting stuff in them. Every little bit helps. I need to take a picture of one of my creations and put it here. :-)

Add comment April 17th, 2007

Small 2 Stroke/Cycle Bio-Diesel Engines?

Wouldn’t it be great if someone would build small 2 stroke diesel engines for chainsaws, leaf blowers and other yard tools? Sure vegetable oil is more expensive than gas but most people use these tools rarely and being spared the the pain and pollution caused by mixing oil and gas is well worth the extra cost.

I’m not sure if the high compression needed by diesel is impractical for engines of this size or if using bio-diesel as the crankcase lubricant no longer works for diesel but I would love to see someone try this out. Examples of 2 stroke diesels I have seen all have crankcase oil but would vegetable oil be a good enough lubricant to allow the standard approach where the oil/air mixture is drawn through the crankcase?
Just think of the pollution this will help eliminate. And there is no reason this couldn’t be applied to larger engines. I love the power of 2 strokes but I always hated the blue smoke. :-(

2 comments April 7th, 2007

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