Month: August 2011

Another Alligator Blog

Published on by Russ Bowman1 Comment

Joe Panfalone, you inspire me, man. I loved your Alligator blog the other day…it made me think of another alligator analogy, straight from the desk of Senior Chief George Cooper, the saltiest old sailor I ever knew:

“When you’re up to your neck in alligators, it’s easy to forget that the initial objective was to drain the swamp.”

I want to clean my garage so bad. I have, in fact, started on this gargantuan project several times this summer. But I’m easily distracted. I start clearing off my corner workbench, and I find my long-lost can of Nevr-Dull. Then I remembered I had an old brass lamp in the basement, and I got in touch with my inner old sailor. The lamp is still in the basement “awaiting assignment,” but it sure is shiny.

Then, I found a part I needed to replace on my van’s rear window washer. Try as I might, I couldn’t manipulate the little part back into the hole from ground level, so I got a small stepladder from the basement (there’s a nice, shiny brass lamp on a shelf down there), but that didn’t help. I think there’s a broken tab on the part, which is preventing it from staying in place, so I’ll have to go get another one. Probably from the dealer. And when I see the price, I’ll probably convince myself to continue doing without a rear window washer.

A couple of diversions later, I’ve got a stepladder, my shop vac (hey, I had to clean the sawdust up…long story), and a few boxes bound for Goodwill in my garage. My wife STILL can’t park her car in there, but I swear there’s a little more room than when I started.

This weekend, we celebrate Labor Day with an extra day off work (which I always find funny, but fully appreciate it nonetheless), and, barring a perfect storm of diversions, or an impromptu Cub Scout project (hence the abovementioned sawdust-related long story), Regina WILL be able to park her nice shiny new car in the garage. At least until spring.

So…what is your initial objective? And what are your alligators?

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
(513)671-3322 local
(800)923-9247 toll free
(513)671-3363 fax
Web: www.exair.com
Blog: http://blog.exair.com/
Twitter: twitter.com/exair_rb
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/exair

Attainable Efficiency Gains in Your Compressed Air System

Published on by Kirk EdwardsLeave a comment

Our friends at Compressed Air Best Practices have published an article we wrote for their magazine. The article focuses upon the simple and low-cost ways to improve the efficiency of your compressed air system. The results are measurable and the low investment comes with a fast ROI, as you will see in the article. Please give it a read here – Concentrating on Attainable Efficiency Gains.

Comments and questions are welcome.

Thank you,
Kirk Edwards
Application Engineer
kirkedwards@exair.com

Are You an Alligator…All Mouth and no Ears?

Published on by Leave a comment

Having been given the assignment of twittering and blogging, I do a lot of research for topics on the internet. The best that I can describe the experience is noise, noise, noise! The discussions on current events are raucous, loud, and slanted with a political agenda. The results are unproductive noise.

Barker’s for their causes are talking past one another. I call them alligators, as they are all mouth and no ears. It is amazing how simple problems can become so unmanageable. The current most popular topic is JOBS. The government is asking companies to start hiring, companies are asking for less regulations so they can do their job. Is either side listening to the other or are they alligators?

California environmentalists are wanting to mandate electric vehicles. Have they considered how the electricity use to power them with is being generated?  According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration 21.7% is generated by natural gas and 43.6% by coal, two industries that are being assaulted by these same  environmentalists. Is anybody listening or are we all alligators?

Then there is the circus going on in Washington D.C. No further discussion needed, it’s infested with alligators!

In all my years I have not experience such a feverish pitch of unrest. Maybe it was always present but muted by the lack of a venue to express themselves. The internet certainly has presented a platform for anyone with a message with instant distribution and without any vetting . As with any emerging technology, there are caveats.

I don’t have any solutions, just talking, but I am not an alligator so I will be listening for your comments.

Joe Panfalone
Application Engineer

Phone (513) 671-3322
Fax   (513) 671-3363
Web: www.exair.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/exair_jp
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/exai

Another School Year Means Hard Work Ahead

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

This post may be a little late for some as most schools have already started back for the new year.  My wife’s school starts back on Monday and she is in a new classroom and teaching a new grade this year.  So this meant a good amount of work for me as she had a big idea of what she wanted her new room to look like.

Now when I was in school all the rooms looked the same except the posters on the walls changed.  We never had any rooms that were painted anything other than off-white (maybe it was just dirty white).  Now there are rooms that are painted like a jungle or an ocean to help immerse the students into the learning experience.  Luckily for me my wife is not artistic and she knows I hate painting so she went a little less extreme.

Her deciding factors on the room theme were driven by these bold bulletin boards at one end of the room.  She said all she could think about when she saw them was the circus.  So this year the students in her class will be immersed into the “Greatest Room On Earth” .  The biggest project she had, was to make the wall of windows appear as the entrance to the circus, this meant curtains.  My mother helped her make the curtains and a valance, (I didn’t know what this was until I put it up).  Then my dad and I had the lovely task of figuring out how to hang 30′ worth of curtains.  After a full day of work and only one run to the hardware store we got the final results.   So far some of the kids have seen it and it’s a huge hit.

The only part that didn’t get done was the tight rope.  Now I know what your thinking there’s no way they could pull that off.  The tight rope wasn’t going to be big enough to hold weight but it was going to have a toy on it that would go from one end of the room to the other and also to hold papers.  Maybe we can add that before the end of the year.

The ingenuity that I put into hanging 30 feet of curtains on a wall and ceiling that has no mounting area is the kind of ingenuity all of the Application Engineers here at EXAIR give to your applications every day.  All we need is your big picture and some information and we’ll give you our best idea to make it happen.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF