And Here I Thought I Had Rip Van Winkled Out Of Memory

I have a great hideout. About 15' of U-shape bench with 22 receptacles, a deeply cushioned high back executive's chair. All the electronic goodies. 5KV Hi-pot, tektronix 4-channel scope, 5-1/2 digit four wire milli-ohm meter, 2kw Variac, half a ton of wire, maybe 20, 000 electrical terminals and lugs and a quarter mile of heatshrink tubing. 6" vise, 2-ton arbor press, grinders, wire wheels, polishers, many hundreds of pounds of small fasteners. You name it. When I return it's going to be supplemented with buckers, boosters, solid state relays and crates of LED chips and fixtures. Musn't forget to mention a transformer foot switch carbon rod soldering unit I made myself. And hundreds of 78 series regs, some 7.5 amp regs, a few thousand rectifiers and resistors and capacitors a Samlex imverter, lifeline 31 6-feet worth of magnetic tool holding bars some neodybium magnets - and a lot lot more. Thank goodness for gigantic roof racks! When it's a steambath outside in the summer I do not intend to become bored.

I have a 1st aid station project to do and convert the 1st palm frond beach restaurant in Mexico to 100% LED lighting (3K kelvin with dimmers for the dining area.

Idle hands are the devil's workshop...

Mex, I think you should build a nice central utility office (not that you don't already do that, lol) and start electrifying more of your area down there. I can see you spending your later years teaching a few young guys how to maintain a pequena oficina of telecom batteries.

There was a battery recycling place up here in Minneapolis near the Mississippi river. Some City worker noticed that a drain entering the river didn't look right. Further inspection led back to the recycler that had been pouring acid down the drains for 15 years.

No Niner, negligence happens and often they know exactly what's going on.

JiminDenver wrote:
Niner

You might feel differently if you or your family lived in the polluted areas. It sounds like Exide was doing some pretty nasty stuff and the community paid while they pocketed the profits. I would want something done if I lived there, we have many areas here in the same condition from companies that just couldn't afford to do it right.

Gee, you think I went unscathed growing up in the shadows of the first nuclear power plant in the USA, and being downwind of it in the far west end of Canoga Park (now West Hills) California when Atomic International had a melt down, and leaked nuclear waste maybe 5 or 6 miles from my house as the crow flies? I lived there from June 1963 to October of 1983.

Please, don't tell me about feeling differently.

Do you think Atomic International, or Rocketdyne, or Boeing, or General Dynamics, of whoever owns it now will compensate me if I die of cancer and tumors?

Sh*t happens. My first job was working for a plater that did a ton of aerospace parts for Fortune 50 space program companies, and subcontractors for aerospace, at 14. The owner of the plating company lived down the street, and paid piece work, far less than minimum wage, to us teenagers. I am certain the 140F heated degreaser has done wonders for my lungs doing anodized finishes also.

Lead is nothing compared to radioactive waste. Worst melt down in US history

Lead is NASTY stuff. When Jesús is melting old battery plates to make fishing weight sinkers I raise hell if the granddaughters are anywhere on the property. He freaked when I forced him to use a painter's mask and he found black shadows where he was breathing through his mouth and nose. Time for showering off with strong dishwashing liquid.

Deka seems to be operating a successful lead smelter in Pennsylvania.

But it is "impossible" finance-wise to reclaim and process virgin grade lead from recycled battery lead. You ought to see the price difference. SLOPPY SLOPPY SLOPPY quality control of alloy lead. This pressures the BCI to issue leverage to STANDARDIZE the amount of contaminants in base grid and paste composition. Part of the reason AGM batteries (good ones) cost more, is they demand virgin 100% Pb. At four times the price per pound over recycled lead.

Mexico is a prime virgin Pb producer. We shall see what Tijuana reveals.

Hi Mex,

I'll be interested to hear of the price.

Niner

You might feel differently if you or your family lived in the polluted areas. It sounds like Exide was doing some pretty nasty stuff and the community paid while they pocketed the profits. I would want something done if I lived there, we have many areas here in the same condition from companies that just couldn't afford to do it right.

NinerBikes wrote:


Obama has shut down lead smelting plants also, via the EPA.

Yeah, hey what would you expect from Obama after he started the Spanish-American War?

Grow up, dude, Obama had nothing whatever to do with the shutting down of those plants.

If they relocate them far enough away from habitable areas, there will not be a worker base to operate the plants. Things like pollution control improvements and green technology should be absolutely and positively tax-free, with 100% industry tax credits. Includes renewable energy batteries, equipment including solar panels. Zero manufacturing taxes, zero sales tax. By constitutional amendment.

The USA has one hell of a hypocritical government. Government for the governors, not for the people or the planet.

To government, GREEN MEANS MONEY not the environment.

A 200 mph series of bullet-trains linking Bellingham Washington to San Diego, with associated ancillary regional hub distribution would cut down fuel consumption 50%. Can you image a 200 mph cargo train hauling 2,000 tons of packages?

RAMCAR spent over a million dollars on pollution control in the eighties.

But it is not nice to know that most of our largest recyclers and hazardous waste disposal system is heavily infiltrated by organized crime. To charge fifty dollars for a pickup bed of crushed cardboard boxes is criminal.

I am SO GLAD to be out of the reach of micro-managing government agencies I can get down on my knees and say thank you.

Like MediCare. The doctors are pricing constrained. So they schedule a series of three or four appointments to make adjustments. And the US public has no got a clue.

But I am henceforth free of the Johnson Controls / Exide / US Battery quagmire. Trojan prices have never been "low" and a hundred and ninety dollars for a group 27 cyclable battery raises my eyebrowns all the way to my bald spot.

I get to tour the Tijuana battery plant and spy out grids, plate thickness specs, greening, paste composition, assembly techniques, and other very private secrets. Same with RAMCAR in Commerce. I'd better plan on an extended stay.

My Rolls bank is getting l-o-n-g in the tooth. It would be nice to have a backup plan. With a 240 ampere charger, and a 110 amp charger, plus a 385 amp motor driven (Lombordini), I can make do with most everything. It is nice to have enough battery to operate a 600-watt AC for four days, plus lights, fan, PC computer, etc. Then hammer the batteries for eight-hours with 500+ amperes.

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
I'd like to think of myself as being tough enough to accept I have faded into obscurity. Pateco, the business, all that works and good 17 hour work days. Yet this reply to my email has put a smile on my face. Remember, all this stuff goes back more than a quarter-century!

RAMCAR BATTERIES

11:30 AM (0 minutes ago)

to me
David,
I remember you, :-). We do not make AGM batteries, but I can out source them, The L16's are either Mexican built in Tijuana, or US Battery. The cycled batteries are made here in LA. Do you still want pricing?


Carol Sullivan-Miller
Customer Service Manager
2700 Carrier Ave
Commerce, CA 90040
323-726-1212 Ext 254

They recently closed a huge lead recycling plant here in Los Angeles recently, due to pollution code violations.

Exide recycling plant shut down

Obama has shut down lead smelting plants also, via the EPA.