Promote My EV

PromoteMyEv.com Geet assembly test

If you want the first post in the series goto “Geet Technology: Is It Real Or Not”

This is the next installment of building a demonstrator model of the Geet Fuel Reactor, made from free plans given out by Paul Pantone, the inventor. It starts with a 4 horsepower lawn mower and a pile of plumbing part. We are suppose to end up with a fuel efficient, low emission, running gas motor. And my answer to the question, “Can this fishy thing really work?”

I am lucky for not tightining down any of the joints of the pipes yet. I found some new information not in the plans. Watching and reading as much as I can, on what others have reported on their projects, it is very important to have a smooth surface on the insides of the Reactor pipes. My Lowes black iron pipes, made in the manufacturing proccess, have a hidden weld on there insides.

That weld causes a bump,negating the swirling effect of the movement of gases inside the pipes. Which reduces the overall effect of the design. That makes since, because there is very little room in between the two tubes, so I called around to a machine shop to see if the weld bump could be cut out, but they logically suggested for me to use smooth bore pipe instead. I did not know that it is made that way.

I learned something already

and that is what this project is all about.

Lesson 1: Be open that there may be a very large unknown world of information that I do not understand, and to learn that small segment, it make take a lifetime. So be willing to accept information from others that have good experance, you might just save yourself disappointment.

Lesson 2: Jumping to quickly is ambitious and bold, but without vision can lead to waste. I accept the fact that the plans, that I am going off of, are free and have been generalized for simplicity. I am trying to give it the best chance for success and try to adapting them to my condition.

Lesson 3: The counter to lesson 2 is if you never jump, or wait too late, you may never know. Book smart can never do without practical experience. Get your hands dirty and figure something new out.

What other deep mysteries of the universe can I get out of plumbing parts? Press on my boy, Press on…

I ask my neighbor if he had an old motor that he was not using and I was amazed when he gave me an old 22″ Murry lawn mower. There was some parts missing, like it’s wheels, but I thought it was perfect. The plans show all of the part on the motor you are not going to need, but do not throw anything way, It might get re-utilized later.

Photograph as you go, I found it to be a great trick for understanding how thing come apart. Where the muffler was, is the exhaust port and treads are already cut for 1/2″ plumbing pipe, it is standard for some mufflers to be screw in. This port is where the heat for the Reactor come from. It is the first break for our projects connection, a simple 1/2″ nipple will tighten up just fine there.

The intake port is a different story. The plans show fabricating a plate and taping a hole with the exhaust port, but this motor is not made that way. The goal is simply get a connection made to the Reactor, so I decided to use a set of elbows and 1/2″ hard copper pipe, and snake it around to the other side of the motor and connect to the existing intake pipe. The copper and the original plastic perfectly slid into one another. This is a point of improvisation to fix the problem, you might come up with something else, that is OK, it’s your experiment. I spent a little extra and bought a union for the exhaust and intake pipes, I might want to take it apart, and this will help me do that.

Next Steps – Buy my new reactor tubes, and get them treaded. Tightening up some of my sub assemblies, do some cleaning and painting. Stay tuned.

Posted by Ron G.

Have you seen or heard of something and said, that is to good to be true, but as time goes by and you keep thinking about it. Well this is my story about one of the attempts in my life to prove something, not to the world, just me.

The mythbusters have made a good living on disproving a lot of the hoaxes on YouTube Quacks. It just disappoints me, and I do not consider it entertaining to waste my time watching someone building a $20 hover board out of duck tape and magnets.

First if you have not heard about Paul Pantone’s invention, let me give some info on what “Geet” is. In short it is a way to reduce or eliminate pollution of the burning of fuel in a internal combustion engine and improve overall efficiency by heating the fuel to a plasma state in a simple tube reactor by using a bar magnet.

That the good news now for the bad. The red flags are… the inverter claims conspiracy around him being put in a mental hospital that keeps the invention from being produced and used in the commercial market. The unit has strange magnetic properties when in use the plans say. Inside the metal tubes a unique plasma effect is created and if you do not build it just right and orient the tube to magnetic north correctly it will not work. All of the parts can be bought from the local hardware store. Hummm.

Why waste the time and money?

People with no financial gain are building units and getting them to work. Universities, with real testing equipment, are reporting that they are getting similar results as stated in the plans. The inventor, now let out of the hospital in 2009, has announced that anyone is free to build their own unit for testing, one per household, and it be no copyright violation. And a new set of proof of concept plan from him on the auto engine size version was also available free to download.

So I made my commitment and started buying the parts to make the small version of the Geet Fuel Processor. The plans are laid out in segments and I found most of all the parts at ether Home Depot, Lowes or Ace Hardware. I did have to modify the layout to work on the particular lawn mower, I got for free, as my test motor. I substituted parts as I thought would work better or I found available.

Just as a warning, as the plans states, it is dangerous to work with gasoline in a vaporous form, being there is a risk of explosion or fire.

I kept a total of parts costs and so far I am up to $120.00

A good scientist would have calculated a benchmark of data but the mower was not running at the time I got it. And I do not have access to testing to read pollutants, I just want to see if it runs. If you read my older post on the subject of Gas fumes and lawn mowers they are out of control when it comes to pollution, so anything would be an improvement.

So I might not be able to say “BUSTED”, “PLAUSIBLE” or “CONFIRMED” across this project but hope to understand a little better about building, reading plans, discovery of new ideals and research of inventions. Have I been gullible and wasted all of this or answered my own questions? We’ll see.

This is just the beginning of this project for me and I have more work ahead. I will be posting my journey, and that is the most important thing. The Road not The Destination.

Posted By: Ron G.

2011 Chevrolet Volt training photo

I found a a web site that has a Initial Ordering Workbook you can download at allnewchevyvolt.com

There is a countdown clock on the site, and at the time of this posting, it shows just over 100 day to go before their expected to get the first of the deliveries. The time is now if you want to be an early adopter to place your order.

And the site has the best chart to understand the potential of the Volt MPG, and this different thinking of MPG’s is not complex. Just drive the Volt the way you need to, not constrained by battery range limitation and trip planing.

Singh Chevrolet , is a dealership in California, that is at the top of there game on promotion of the Volt!

They also has posted on GM-Volt.com the first of the modules for training and are nice enough to share them as they come down the pipeline from GM. So have fun quizzing your salesperson in your test drive. Thanks CorvetteGuy

The Volt is here for the long haul, but this entrance ramp is going to be a fast one, with the increase in car production just recently announced.

New facts I didn’t know about the Volt:

• Under the hood there is a High Voltage Battery and Power Electronics Coolant Reservoirs, which make sense to maintain the core of the components temperature and increase their life.
• Pushing the ‘leaf’ button access the “Vehicle Performance Feedback” on the center display. 2 years ago it was a topic of wonder of what that button would do.
• I thought the government rebate came off the price at the time you buy, but it is just like when I got my Honda Civic Hybrid rebate, you get it when you file your tax return. So it will be your responsibility to send the rebate in and knock your car loan down $7,500 or keep it. The virtual lower price is still true but people who buy in January will have a long wait for the money because it would be on 2011′s tax year. I got $2,000 in 2006 for the Civic’s rebate.
• And it is going to cost more for me to get my red paint color.

The Volt is real and will be setting in show rooms soon, but it just might get crazy to find one before December.

Posted by: Ron G.

It doesn't take long for things to add up.

At the end what did you leave behind?

As a middle class America, I want to tell you, you don’t have to keep a highly detailed account of my life, but in just in one week, I can make the trash. Trying to recycle is my first step. Let us look at what makes up most trash.

Aluminium

I must say it was a pain to manage the bins at first, but it is getting better. All aluminum is a no brainier they give you a little for it.

Just think on the Washington Monument the the tip of the capstone,  set on December 6, 1884, is a small pyramid of refined aluminum, weighing 100 ounces, The metal was so hard to purify, that it was sold by the ounce and was as high as silver at $1.00 per ounce. It was the largest single piece of aluminum cast at the time to function as the tip of the lightening rod of the structure. The price of aluminum dropped because of the invention of the Hall-Héroult process in 1886 so we can make it into every conceivable thing today from foil to wrap our food in to engine parts.

Aluminium is 100% recyclable  you just melt the scrap, here is the amazing news it only requires five percent of the energy used, to produce it from ore. That it a huge savings in electricity and natural resources.

Plastics

Plastics are made of oil them must be recycled. You just need to wash them to get the food out of them. Some where around 24% of all plastics were recycled in 2005 far behind newspaper running at about 80% and cardboard at about 70%.

You used oil and didn’t even worry about the MPG’s. Chucking it away into the land fill, basicly putting it back in the ground for some fool in the future to turn back to oil. Such a waste.

The recycle code numbers on the products help to put them with there same kinds. Different plastics don’t mix when in the remelting process. It is easy to make tons of it for every thing we use it for, but not easy to remake. Technology is helping but the problems are complex.

Thermal depolymerization

Big word, what is it? In short, Plastic back to light crude oil. Learn more by clicking the link

Snip-it from article:

“The first full-scale commercial plant was constructed in Carthage, Missouri, about 100 yards (91m) from ConAgra Foods’ massive Butterball turkey plant, where it is expected to process about 200 tons of turkey waste into 500 barrels (21,000 US gallons or 80 m³) of oil per day.”

Paper / Cardboard

I can’t seam to get over, after collecting for a while, how much cardboard was food packaging. Every thing is in a box, just to advertise on the outside of the product. It is not that this stuff will not quickly rot in the landfill, but it help start the process. It is cheaper to make the next batch of paper from old paper.

The extreme recyclers takes food scrapes and paper, puts it in a bin ( Now don’t gross out on me. ) and lets earth worms eat it. What is there waste product? Beautiful potting soil and fish bait, Thank you very much. Just remember to help them a little and rip the edges so they have a place to chew.

Forget all of this I will just go out and eat.

Good luck with that, if you think that most restaurant are more earth concise than you. They may have given you a bag with your hamburger in it made from recycled paper, but most are not going to wash out your plastics to recycle them. Every item is in packaging with they logo on it.

Some let their grease be pick up to make easy and free diesel fuel alternatives. Just filter and put in the additive and your diesel engine runs just fine.

Closing…

The most important thing to me is that. – Do not be unaware of the chooses that we make in the living of our life.

Something did not come from nothing. If it required heat to make it, something was burnt. And if something was burnt it got converted in to waste gases, and normally tons of it, to make a pound of what we used and through away.

Posted by: Ron G.

I have to admit that I have romanticized the Volt a bit. The honeymoon stage is so great, nothing she does is wrong. All of her quirkiness is just so cute. And then the rose colored glasses come off, and you see her for who she really all ways has been.

I have only driven the Volt for a very short test drive and my emotions where out the roof for the opportunity, but I thought it would be good to not get our hopes up so high when we need to look at the Volt has it really only ever has been, just a car.

Here are my thoughts of what could become an inconvenience owning a Volt and what a salesman will say to the statement.

1: To take full advantage of the car, being a electric car, I will have to plug the car in and unplug it before I drive away.
The reward for that is spending less time standing smelling gas fumes at a pump and burning less of it.

2: It cost more than a regular car.
Yes it is, but it cost to make a difference in our environment and to reduce the dependence on foreign oil.

3: It still produces emissions from it gas generator.
Yes, but I can use this car to take long trips and not worry how far I am from a plug to recharge. Then on my daily commute never use any gas.

4: The gas generator requires the same service any other gas car does, oil & filter change and maintenance.
GM has tried to minimized the number of time required to have to change the oil, with an oil life calculator to service time. As the engine runs and under what conditions time is figured and will let you know.

5: At the end of battery life 10 to 14 years from now, to continue to drive it, you will need a new set.
As technology changes for battery construction it is not known what will happen in that length of time. Remember what advantages you have received from the pack and recognized the great advantages being an electric car.

6: You are basically driving a computer, with a mile and half of wire and hundreds of connectors and sensors. Forget working on that yourself.
For many years now, that has been the case on all new cars. Yes the Volt is complex but it is based on connectors that are standard in the automotive industry and have a proven reliable history long before the Volt program.

7: As of now an unknown amount of insurance premium payment.
Let us hope that it is classed as a 4 door sedan and not as a sports model.

8: Extras you will want too, like… a home 240 charger unit and a new smart phone to use the on-Star remote features.
You can save your money and not have to buy this as standard equipment or you may all ready have a compatible phone that can run the app.

9: At least or the first couple of model years an untested, in the public’s hands that is, brand new designed production car.
The Volt may be a brand new design but that is not to say that it is not based on some proven car building history. The last high profile new design car was the 2010 Camaro built with the same refinement to detail as the Volt. GM has given the public unprecedented access to behind the seines development and testing of the Volt and as you drive it the Volt sends back data to continually monitor and improve the car.

10: Can only carry four people.
This model of Volt is not an SUV it is a commuter car with a comfortable sedan size for the weight it is designed to carry. as I drive every morning 90% of the people commuting do not carry any passengers and the good news is the Volt is not a two passenger vehicle.

11: It can, only at best, go 40 miles on all electric mode.
And as the statistic show, that is the right mark to hit for the high average drive on the daily commute.

12: And worst of all the attention, people will stair at you driving and point.
It feels good too!

I still would love to live with her and all of the craziness and insanity. I see her for all she can be and her great potential.

Posted by Ron G.

And I missed it!

Volt at Dr Pepper in Waco, Texas Photo by ChevroletVoltDrives at EveryTrail

I blame me being sick with phenomena on most of it, I am just not at my “A” game when I feel like this.

The first word I had was from my Austin EV Club email that 5 more seats to test drive a Volt was going to be available in Austin. One day notice, but I had my chance and wanted someone else to have theirs. GM CEO Ed Whitacre. was coming down to speak at the Austin Chamber of Commerce. I guessed he would announce Texas as a Volt State. The news is, New York, New Jersey, Texas, and Connecticut are added to California, D.C. and Michigan as Volt roll out states and 10,000 copies will be available for 2011. Sounds like a election countdown. The States are turning Green!

I called my local Chevrolet dealership Volt contact to let him know that the car would be in Austin. He has been as excited about the Volt as I am and said that if they roll out the car like the Camaro that he may not get a selection of Volts but that every dealer should get at least one to begin with, then requested inventory will fill in as time goes by.

Then later that day on Thursday… A co-worker friend said, “Ron do you know the Volt is down at the Waco, Dr. Pepper Museum?”. I said, “That is Awesome. I know that it is headed out of Austin this afternoon on it way to New York.” It pays to be a fanatic about the Volt, everyone in my office know what my screen saver is a photo of. Get the word out in your little piece of the world, and who know what an impact you can have. We called to the Museum and they said it had all ready left.

How did my friend get the new about it being here, you may ask? Twitter. News is traveling so fast these days, but just not as fast as the Volt is.

It gets worse…

I when to old fateful GM-Volt.com and Lyle all ready put up 3 posts on the event by the time my Internet came back up at home on Saturday night. Go Lyle and thanks for the latest info on the Volt. I no way have the time he must put into this blogging to have news that fast. My post are my personal experience with my excitement about the Volt and environmental issues that I am passionate about and send out into the blog world.

1776 FREEDOM DRIVE

The Miles from Austin back to New York…

What a wonderful statement for GM to make with the car. Brovo’ on the confidence on the Volt NOT having any technical issues in charge sustaining mode. It must tested and ready for the public because I want to make trips just like that in my Volt. and not worry about running out of charge because the Volt can do it.

We have a lot to look forward to in 2010 and celebrate this 4th of July Independence Day from an addiction of so much oil.

Posted by: Ron G.

ManMade - Ultimate Factories: Chevy Volt

In March the National Geographic Channel Aired an episode of ManMade -Ultimate Factories: Chevy Volt. I found out about it but did not have the channel on my satellite. So I ordered it online at National Geographic Store, It was in the making till now, so it has finally arrived.

It comes in a dvd/English format only and does not have any menu. It is a 1 disc, 50 min., Widescreen film, and does not have closed-captioning and they do not ship overseas. It just plays the episode that was aired with no commercials. It is of high broadcast quality and very detailed and easy to follow the construction of the pre-production  Chevy Volts built by hand.

We start in a large section of the Pre-production Operation Facility at the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, MI called the Machining, Tooling & Stamping. This is just a part of the 200,000 sq. ft. set of buildings that is set up to fabricate the cars destined for production. It is a custom shop and a Volt could be made just as a Aveo or Cruse in the same line. They look for the problems with the engineers on the floor for design changes that they do not want after the commitment is made to construct the cars at high speed in a full production line factory. The factory in Warren is flexible and most all of the parts are hand assembled, it is slow and tedious work.

MACHINING, TOOLING & STAMPING

From ART to PART

A computer controlled router mills out Styrofoam, and out of that a cast is made, then a die is created. The dies are massive, and one that is use to make the Volt fender weigh 15 tons. It sets in the press that exerts up to 1000 tons of force to stamp out the steel to make the shape. Then a 1700 watt computer controlled laser cuts around the edges and all of the holes in each of the stamped parts. 100′s of parts are constructed this way to make up all that is needed to build the Volt. From there parts like the fenders, hood, doors and the back hatch require “Heaming” – A hand crafted skill of bending over the edges or mating two flanges that need a tight flush connection. It is done by hammering a tool made of aluminum, slowly rounding the edges of the metal, rolling it up and over the adjoining face. The heaming of the Volt’s back hatch takes Craig R. Jueckstock, 30 minutes to connect the inter frame to the outer skin. In full production, only seconds for a robot.

But it will not be the same, truly the value of these hand built cars bring new meaning to me a, Volt that I got to drive earlier this year, was one of these cars from this build. I will not forget Mr. Jueckstock hand crafting that part made for showing, crashing, driving, pushing to the limits and re-testing. To make sure GM builds a great car.

UNDERBODY

The stamped parts for the lower bottom of the car are first put together in three sub-assembles. The Motor Compartment, The Mid Floor Assemble and the Rear Compartment. The Volt is made like most modern cars as a Uni-body, the only thing that is unique is the extra large center hump in the mid -floor to accommodate the size of the battery that goes down the middle and back. But it is not to say that it does not have frame like members that run along the sides and floor of the car. Some parts are regular and others high strength steel, all spot welded together. Special paper templates are use to mark out the places, designs by the engineers, to tell the worker were to put the welds. 150 welds just go in the Mid Floor alone to provide the crash worthiness and integrity to the whole car. The pieces are jigged together with clamps and pins that are used to insure alinement and then hand spot welded. These assembles in full production will all be done by robotics. The finished Mid-Floor weighs 75 pounds, now still light enough to carry by hand to the jig that mates it up with the other two sub assembles, 400 more spot welds later, and the new underbody is 1500 pounds and ready for the next step.

FRAMING DEPARTMENT

Now a hoist is used to lift the underbody up into the next jig, the framing fixture. The sides that frame the car make up the inter posts where the doors hang and all of the skin of the body will attach. The frame in not under the car it is in it’s sides, like webs of a suspension bridge over a river. After the fixture closes around the frame and underbody, 100 spot welds are used to tack this stage together. The fixture is removed and a robot finishes the welding job, the only part of this whole build that is automated.. Now all of the skins can go on, fenders, and top and temporarily all the swing metal is bolted on. Swing Metal is the term use to describe the parts of the car that swing off the car like the hood, doors and back hatch. It is starting to really look like the Volt, but we still have a long way to go.

THE PAINT SHOP

After the body is put on a rolling carrier a sealer is applied to the interior, underbody and frame. It is baked on then pushed into the spray booth for a coat of color, put on by two painters, by hand. No robots used here. Then into a oven to bake for 40 minutes at 325 degrees and back for a clear coat and re-baked.

THE TRIM AREA

The first thing here is to remove the side doors and get busy, we will see them later. It is time to install all of the interior parts and the one and one half mile of wire. All in bundles with it’s connector plugs on, made up and ready to go. Next the “IP” or Instrument Panel & Dash Assemble mounted on a long armed adjustable fixture for the reach into and over the high battery hump. Only installable from the driverside door opening and with a tight 5 mm of clearance on each side of the opening, it is one of the most trickiest installs for the Volt build.. A little up on the back, a little in and over and little shove and it is setting on it’s pins and ready to bolt in. This is what this build is all about, finding the snags and interferences that would really cost on the line.

Now the wind shield can be set in with a squeeze of rubber. And here comes the doors back. They have their glass, hardware and the beautiful inter panels installed. But before we go any farther it’s time to take a test… The Water Test to check for leaks before carpet can go down. A punishing 950 gallons of water per minute, that simulates a lifetime of road spray, car washes and rain storms. With a push a button, sprayers hit the Volt from every angle inside the test booth. Did it survive? After 8 minutes they inspect, no water was found this time, but a modifications to the door gasket helped make this test be a success. It is easy to fix now to make a “leak free” Volt.

THE CHASSIS AREA

We have a nice looking car hanging above, but it needs propulsion and wheels.

A robot cart is called into service to help, called an AGV or Automated Guided Vehicle, that I think it was following a line on the floor. It has mounting alinement pins that extend up and match holes in the body to help worker place the parts correctly and quickly.

This AGV is carrying a 6 foot long, all important battery. Remember at the beginning of this story we talked about the jig holding the parts of the Mid Floor Assemble, here is their payoff for there hard work. The battery fit perfectly, but they say the first one did not, but now it does.

Many sub-assemblies are going on here from the electric motor / generator mounted to gas engine and struts and springs bolting to sub-frames. They are all set on another AGV to hold those parts in alinement. The AGV takes them off to show up and match with it’s car body in the main assembles line. The body is lowered a little and the AGV raises the chassis to the body. Connections made, Tires put on, front nose bumper put on an we have a Volt!

THE TEST DRIVE

Chevy Volt Engineer – Andrew Farah takes you on the first public on camera drive to show the car automatically making the transition into range-extended mode and seamlessly the car does what it claims

a electric car continues to drive after the battery runs out.

A lot for detail goes into a build that was not belabored on but enough was show to see the joy and care of the workers in this film. Is it about a car or a team of people that are trying to make a difference in the car industry? For me the first time to see this kind of build was a real treat.

It was for the techy and Volt fan like me but there is an under story that this car make people feel. From the designers, engineers, fabricators and assemblers it an aw inspiring car.

Reviewed and Posted By: Ron G.

SHOW CREDITS:

Series Producers: JOHN SCHEERROB ENGLEHARDT
Producer/Writer/Director: AARON KASS
Segment Producer: DANIELLE SAVAGE
Editors: TOM MESHELSKI
Narrator: CHRIS COOK
Produced by KAOS ENTERTAINMENT, LLC for NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL