The following are from notes taken at the Intervale session-
Intro: What are the basic tools for the basic rural farm shop (future work should cover the urban shop, and more advanced fabrication)
This is an initial list which should be organized and prioritized with upgrades or downgrade options...
Could some of you hackers come up with a SMALL machine that can be made and used fo threshing a very small grain crop .that is affordable to to make or purchase
Hey there, everyone. We are new to farming and have been given access to some land this season through the Seattle Tilth Farm Works program. The downside is that the land is rock-ridden. We've had the soil tilled up and have removed all the larger rocks on the surface now by hand. We are working 1/2 acre and there are 14 other 1/4 acre plots worked by other beginning farmers with this program.
I am interested if anyone on this forum has experience with the GEK gassifier units or with gas co-generation in general. It is a well documented open source design and looks like it would be an excellent addition to our farm hack tool wikis. I think one of my next projects will be building a gas co-generation unit to create heat and power, and transform our abundant woodchips in this area to woodash for spreading on our fields.
I know there are lots of folks out there who have done the Allis G electric tractor and it is really well documented elsewhere. If there are farm hack members with experience with this conversion, or interested in building an open source "G like" tractor I would be really interested to jump in. Ben, you have the allis G sketchup files right? I think that together we could probably put together enough information for the start of a good tool wiki on the topic. We could then do some sub-tool wikis for G-type implements like the various tine weeding approaches etc.
Most of our FarmHack events have been at engineering schools (mechanical, environmental, etc.). But I see a great opportunity to to team up with architects to develop designs that will benefit young and beginning farmers.
My vegetable farm started out really small and grew quickly over the course of 6 years or so. We were on rented land and challenged with making all of our infrastructure non-permanent.
There's a real need for designs for farm infrastructure that is:
I've obviously a little biased but would be remiss not to suggest adding Foodtree to the list of tools for farmers and food business owners; we've got a free web and mobile app for sharing your food with food lovers. It's a simple way to share "where to buy" and "where we source from" information with food consumers directly, on any mobile phone. We also built a free iPhone app specifically for sharing photos of food and tagging those photos with Where Found and Where From information.
Within the tools/apps wiki I think it'd make sense to make sure the group's aware of the Open Food Data movement. It was launched at South by Southwest in a collaboration lead by Foodtree, Food+Tech Connect, CleanPlates, WindowFarms, and the support of many others...it's a collective effort to open source food data standards so that app and tool builders don't have to reinvent the wheel.
I've seen a few designs for pedal operated generators but what I'm wondering about is a pedal operated PTO. I have the desire for a reasonably portable unit that could be used to "motorize" our grain mill, possibly power a homestead sized threshing machine, root washer, maybe even a lathe or other shop tools? The design I like best is the Rodale Energy Cycle, but I'd like for some method for making it belt-drive and adding a flywheel? Other designs out there that come close to this idea?