What Preps are you doing this week? Part 10

[Yorkshire Andy]

Had an annoying day. Phone carrier swap had a few glitches. Had to do a Network Reset in the end.

Then I got some 18650s and they were longer than my old ones and got jammed in my radio. Had to poke a screwdriver in and risk damaging them. Bent one of the springs. They go in but a very tight fit. Was hard enough getting the old ones out. I guess they'll do as spares. Two batteries cost half as much as the radio!

I've tied a quadruple lenth of strong thread in a loop around each of the original batteries before pushing them in the radio, makes getting them out a lot easier. One loop per battery. I let the excess thread dangle out under the battery cover so it doesn't fall down the small gap at the side of the battery.

So - when buying 18650s, bear in mind protected can be several mm longer. Mine are 69.8. 65 is the 65 in 18650. 18 is the diameter. Mine are 18.5.

Also there are flat top, button top, and another kind I think!

Bar the flat top and the button top issue

Protected cells have a little PCB at one end hence a little longer the none protected ones don't therefore shorter length

[Frnc]

So - when buying 18650s, bear in mind protected can be several mm longer. Mine are 69.8. 65 is the 65 in 18650. 18 is the diameter. Mine are 18.5.

Well I never. If only other batteries could have sensible part numbers....
Maybe CR2032 and CR2016 use the same format.???
Wooooo.

Well it's not sensible if 65 is actually 69.8 is is? Flipping ridiculous. They fit in but the springs are crushed completely flat. It's far from ideal. I can't send them back because I charged them. Also the plastic case is very slightly damaged on one at the end, probably from me sticking a screwdriver in to prise it out. The case is an important safety feature.

Another thing....you are supposed to store them at 40% charge, but how do you know what that is? These arrived at about 3.2-3.5 V storage charge, but in my radio that showed as 1/4, and the mhA I put into them was something like 2/3 of capacity or more. In other words they were about 25-30% charged. Not much use from a prepping point of view. Even 40% means wasting 60% of potential preparedness, or even more as you're not supposed to run them right down. You're supposed to charge them up after storing at 40%, but we prep for situations where you can't charge!

I've decided to just charge everything up fully and hope for the best.

[Frnc]

Had an annoying day. Phone carrier swap had a few glitches. Had to do a Network Reset in the end.

Then I got some 18650s and they were longer than my old ones and got jammed in my radio. Had to poke a screwdriver in and risk damaging them. Bent one of the springs. They go in but a very tight fit. Was hard enough getting the old ones out. I guess they'll do as spares. Two batteries cost half as much as the radio!

I've tied a quadruple lenth of strong thread in a loop around each of the original batteries before pushing them in the radio, makes getting them out a lot easier. One loop per battery. I let the excess thread dangle out under the battery cover so it doesn't fall down the small gap at the side of the battery.

So - when buying 18650s, bear in mind protected can be several mm longer. Mine are 69.8. 65 is the 65 in 18650. 18 is the diameter. Mine are 18.5.

Also there are flat top, button top, and another kind I think!

Bar the flat top and the button top issue

Protected cells have a little PCB at one end hence a little longer the none protected ones don't therefore shorter length

Yeah, I know now. I wish I'd known when I bought them. They just fit in, tight squeeze. Springs are squashed flat. Also I bent one spring getting them out, and I think I might have damaged the plastic coat very slightly at one end of one. I'm not hugely concerned, as they are just spares, but I am a bit.

[Yorkshire Andy]

Oh forgot you've also got double pole tips on some with pos middle and neg outer often used in charge in device products such as torches

[DustyDog]

Starting to buy bulk dried and tinned food, preparing soul and planters for veg seeds.

It’s been a long time since I homemade bread, here’s my cob (if that’s what it’s called). Oh and slaying zombies in VR

[DustyDog]

Sorry can’t upload photo of cob, keep getting error.

[Frnc]

Sorry can’t upload photo of cob, keep getting error.

Upload to imgur and use the link from that with the image icon here.

[steptoe]

Well as i was hig on pain meds and been fighting with capita and dwp all day yesterday and being in a terrible mood today well i got out in the garden high as a kite lol don't laugh i was singing and giggling like richard wilson (victor meldrew) in the one where he puts cocaine in the sprays and so on in the one he gets a job as a gardener lol .

I managed to do 3 wheelbarrows full of compost out the composter in to the new strawberry bed i was well over the moon with that and had a sit down by the canal and watch the ducks and swans lol yup i sat down shhhh don't tell the boss .

We are still working on ways of heating this year we are going to be putting a new boiler in no choice on it and may be a woodburner in the living room , we are also looking at battery power lights more and or 12v system to run lights that we can charge from the solar .

So glad i found this site because well people share info and their knowledge free

keep prepping people

[jennyjj01]

I was singing and giggling like richard wilson (victor meldrew) in the one where he puts cocaine in the sprays and so on in the one he gets a job as a gardener lol .

I managed to do 3 wheelbarrows full of compost out the composter in to the new strawberry bed

Not the radioactive compost I hope

We are still working on ways of heating this year we are going to be putting a new boiler in no choice on it and may be a woodburner in the living room , we are also looking at battery power lights more and or 12v system to run lights that we can charge from the solar .

So glad i found this site because well people share info and their knowledge free

keep prepping people

Just remember that even if you power it off the mains, LED lighting costs next to nothing to run!
Anything that heats anything, is the biggy on cost. And a kilowatt of Electricity costs three times a kilowatt of Gas. Depending on how you look at government rebates.

Woodburners etc are only as cheap to run as the wood you can blag.

A kilowatt NOT leaked out through a draught is a kilowatt you don't have to pay for.


Meanwhile. More on what prepping I've done this week.....
..... Got a phone interview for a job. It's a start.
Emptied and turned off TWO of the freezers. One had failed dramatically. The other is struggling to stay cold, on the colder nights.
Gas and electricity frugality has hit a fair balance and the home has been 'warm enough'. Towel roughness is still an issue. With the money (£16) I saved on tumble drying, I invested in His ' n' Hers bath sheets as the old ones were like sandpaper.
Ordered 10m of door insulation brush. Having the big sausage draught excluder was worse than useless. Those things are rubbish and just deflect the draughts.

[Yorkshire Andy]

..... Got a phone interview for a job. It's a start.
Emptied and turned off TWO of the freezers. One had failed dramatically. The other is struggling to stay cold, on the colder nights.

Good luck with the interview


Oh and have you tried putting a small heater in the cold room / shed / outbuilding to keep the freezer warm it'll work much better

it's like fishing I await a bite