u/13thmurder

This was accidental, but could definitely be dialed in if you wanted to make these on purpose. Just make a vertical stem and print it with a custom extra extra large brim, maybe heat the plate up above printing temp and pull straight up.

Figured id share this discovery in case it's useful to anyone. These are easy to add pleats to with a lighter too.

The green bin (yard waste, food scraps, and other compostables) is always full of maggots this time of year. That's just a fact of summer.

They're so ravenous and active that I haven't actually had to put it out on bin day for several months becuase despite dumping kitchen scraps in daily, the level of stuff in the bottom never seems to increase because they eat it all, turn into flies, and leave.

Anyway I decided to harness the power of the disco rice and see what they could really do. Processed several rabbits yesterday and wanted to clean the skulls.

I took an old plastic container, drilled a bunch of holes in the bottom, attached a wire cage around it so it would hold more and have more entry points for flies, and hung it from a rope inside the green bin.

They were just whole heads with zero pre-processing at all, fur still on and everything.

This is 24 hours later. You can see a pretty much clean jawbone already at the top there.

Maybe dermested beetles are more effective, but these just show up in the summer for free and did all this in a day. This is incredibly exciting.

Although that paracord it's hanging by was white when I put it in...

de-moulded this I think Thursday and it's sat out since.

It doesn't seem to want to fully cure and I'm not sure why. The type of resin I am using is a two part so it should sure just fine.

I digitally designed and 3d printed the original item I wanted to cast in resin, made a silicone mold of it, used mold release spray that says its for resin, and mixed the two parts at a 1:1 measured ratio as it said.

My resin isn't setting up fully. It's like a semi-soft rubber, very malleable at this point after sitting out for 4 days. It was poured Wednesday morning, de-moulded Thursday afternoon and was still the exact same softness it is today.

What am I missing here? I want it as tough and hard as possible, is there anything I need to do in order to get it to set up? I'm not upset if this batch isn't salvageable it was just a test, but how do I avoid this in the future?

Included pictures of everything I used in case that's the issue.

My dogs probably wouldn't eat a mushroom on purpose, but they do enjoy ripping out tufts of grass with their teeth and having these in the area they often do that in makes me a bit concerned they might accidentally eat one.

Is this anything toxic?

Nova Scotia, Canada growing in grass. No trees or bark mulch nearby.

My house has a sunporch that gets extremely hot from the greenhouse effect, and heats up the whole house from there. The door that closes it off doesn't really seal well.

There are only two small windows in the room that open, and one door that leads outside. I just fixed the screen door for the outside so I can leave the door open in this room to air it out.

I am trying to figure out what the best place to put a fan would be in this room to air it out and reduce the temperature.

The room is approximately 6' wide, 28' long.

The two windows that open (marked X) are about 9' away from each other and only open by 1x2' and 2x2' from left to right. Door is a full size screen door and is in the opposite corner marked Y here, the airflow from it should be comparable to just a fully open doorway.

Where should the fan go?

2011 Toyota Sienna, 440k or so km, automatic.

I've posted here about this before and taken the excellent advice I've been given.

Backstory here: bought this van about 4 years ago and it came with a new OEM battery from the dealer, found it dead around last April and it wouldn't take a boost. Replaced the battery. About 2 weeks ago I came out to find it dead and not taking a boost again, battery at 3.4v. It was just out of the 1 year warranty.

I got a new battery again thinking since it died just out of warranty maybe the first one was a fluke and the second was just low quality since it lasted pretty much the exact warranty period. Got one with a 3 year warranty, different store, different brand.

It was dead in a week, around 3.5v. It was driven once after replacement and seemed okay, then sat for 5-6 days before I discovered it. It's driven about once a week usually.

To me this at least kind of seems like a problem that's increasing in severity over time and killing batteries at an accelerating rate, but from what I've learned it seems like I've ruled out alternator issues and probably ruled out parasitic draw?

It did however take a boost and start up, and has held since, but the voltage when checked seems a bit on the low side. It has only been charged by the alternator at idle, if it matters.

It seems to charge up to 12.2V after a few minutes at idle, but drain down to about 11.85v overnight. Oddly enough it's held there for several days.

I've included pictures of all tests I've done with a timeline.

Today I left the negative lead and terminal connected through the multimeter for a good long time with the van locked, and the reading did eventually go down once the system was fully "asleep". However it was only reading 0.08mA which actually seems too low? I had to change the multimeter sensitivity way down to get a reading at all.

Is this really just 3 bad batteries in a row, or do I need to test something else.

Edit: I forgot, I put the meter back to the 10A setting before disconnecting the probes from the negative terminal/lead and tried unlocking/locking the van to see what that would tell me. It seemed to spike quite high, as it read OL (overload?) briefly. That seems odd to me, but is it normal? I'll drop a video in the comments if I can, since I can't attach it along with the pics here.

Added a picture to show what I'm talking about.

I am trying to determine if parasitic draw is what is killing my van battery or not.

I connected the multimeter probes serprstely to the negative battery terminal and the negative cable lead (they're not touching, the plastic clamp seperated them) so the current would run through the multimeter.

Upon first connection it reads much higher (0.2A) and drops down to 0.07A after a few minutes and holds. I had thought this confirmed parasitic draw but people who know more about this stuff has suggested it may be normal for this vehicle and the best way to confirm is to check the draw after an hour or two of the vehicle being off and locked.

The problem is this multimeter shuts off automatically within a few minutes and as far as I know there isn't a way to override that. Will the connection stay open and still read correctly if I have to turn it off and on again, or will it be like disconnecting and reconnecting the battery which would reset the ECU and give me an incorrect reading?

2011 Toyota Sienna, something like 450k km, automatic. Driven about once a week on average.

About a year and some change ago the battery was completely dead one day and wouldn't take a boost. New battery made it just over a year before it died and wouldn't take a charge at all. It was literally 2 weeks out of warranty. That sucks.

Anyway a week ago I got another new battery for it, a better quality one with a 3 year warranty for twice the price. It was driven once a could days after the new battery was put in, no problems, and a few days after that it was dead, nothing electronic worked. It sat for 4 maybe 5 days at that point and the weather has been warm but not extremely hot. Low to mid 20s celcius.

New battery was showing 3.4v. It did take a boost and I got it running.

I did some tests and posted here yesterday, got some good feedback and realized I may not have done them correctly, so I retested today. It sat for a little over 24 hours without being started before I did these tests, and I took pictures so hopefully someone who knows more than me can confirm if this was correctly done or not. I'm doing my best to learn.

I put a clamp on the door switch so it would think the door was closed while doing this as to not have that throw off any results.

So here's a breakdown of the numbers:

Battery after sitting 24h: 11.85v

Immediately after starting engine: 14.10v (was highest reading recorded as it fluctuated)

Under load from AC and headlights: 13.43v

Engine off, connected multimeter in sequence with negative terminal and cable lead immediately upon connection: 0.21A

A few minutes later, still connected as above: 0.07A

After pulling the DOME fuse for interior lights: 0.01A

(did not vary over time, went back to 0.07 immediately after reinserting the fuse)

Battery after running the engine 5 minutes, sitting with the engine off another 5-10 minutes: 12.19V

Did I do these tests correctly? And if so, what kind of problem am I most likely facing here? Failing alternator, defective battery (3 in about a year?) or parasitic draw? Maybe something else?

While I don't know if the 0.07A draw is significant at all, I did thoroughly check for any interior lights staying on and could not find any. I even double checked for dead bulbs (can those even draw current if the switch is on?) and they all work.

A little over a year ago the van just wouldn't start and was fully dead and wouldn't take a boost, I figured it was the battery and replaced it. A year and a bit later it was dead again and same thing, wouldn't take a boost. I got a multimeter so I could test the battery and it was reading about 3.4v and wouldn't go up from there when connected to another car running.

So I got a new battery in it last week, paid too much for it but its a high quality one with a 3 year warranty.

It's been driven maybe twice right after no problem and has been sitting parked since. It's fully dead again. I haven't tried to boost it yet but it's sitting at 3.49v.

How would I go about figuring out what's going on with this thing? Whatever issue killed the last battery has clearly gotten a lot worse.

The only obvious thing that might be noteworthy is there's an aftermarket dashcam plugged into the cigarette lighter port, but it turns off and doesn't appear to have power when the engine is off and my understanding is those ports aren't able to draw power without at least rhe key in the accessory position.

The lights were not left on, I am certain of this.

Added some pictures in case there's anything relevant I'm not seeing.

It is on the high mileage end, bought it at around 430k km.

EDIT: I got it to take a boost and it's now running. Battery was reading 13.9v and dropping down to about 13.75 range after a few minutes. Under load with lights and AC on its cycling up and down between 13.40 and 13.44. After idling for about 10-15 minutes and turning off the engine the battery is now reading steady at 12.45v Alternator problem, or battery? It seems to drain after sitting parked for several days

Second Edit: checked the battery again after 10 minutes, no electronics are on. It's down to 12.3v