Tag: boy scouts

The Pinewood Derby and The Golden Mousetrap

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My youngest son and I are in the process of making our last “official” Pinewood Derby Car. I say “official” because it’s the last one he’ll be racing as a Cub Scout…he’s crossing over into Boy Scouts in March. Between the four cars he’s made thus far, the five his older brother made, and the three that I’ve made (we incorporated a “Big Kids” race in addition to the formal Scout’s race a few years ago), the Bowman Garage has yet to generate a win. Or a place, for that matter. They have all finished, and not everyone can say that.

Regardless, we’ve kept trying, and I’m hoping for a winner this year. Maybe more so than my son – he’s having a ball just cutting, sanding, and painting, as usual. I’d love to see him win, but watching the joy he gets just from participating makes me about as proud as I think I could get anyway.

Here at EXAIR, we just got the exciting news that some new products are in competition for Design News’ “Golden Mousetrap” Award. Another is in the running for a Plant Engineering “Product of the Year.” We’ve had several that made it into Plant Service’s “Battle Royal,” a not-as-prestigious but still-very-fun online voting competition. And, going into the company’s 30th year in business, we’re proud to announce that we’ve achieved 99.9% on-time shipments for the 17th (SEVENTEENTH) consecutive year.

Now, the kinds of pride I take in being part of a winning Pinewood Derby Car “team” and being part of a successful manufacturing team are different, for sure, but I’m trying to enjoy them both to their fullest.

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

Trash Can Turkey

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

I spent the past two Saturday afternoons with some really great guys. See, the boys in my Cub Scout Webelos Den will be “crossing over” into Boy Scouts in a few months, and we had the opportunity to visit three Boy Scout Troop campouts over the course of the last two weekends. They all included a family dinner on Saturday evening, and, since it was November, the obligatory main course was turkey.

While most Thanksgiving turkeys are still oven-roasted, the deep-fried method is gaining quickly in popularity for those who don’t mind spending some time outside this time of year. I say this because basic safety rules dictate that it is NOT to be done indoors. In fact, even outside, there are safety precautions you’ll want to take:

Two of the Troops we visited successfully deep fried their turkeys, and I heard they were awesome (I, regrettably, wasn’t able to stay for dinner.) The third Troop (and the one my oldest son belongs to) prepared their bird, as they have for years, in a trash can. The leaders of this Troop are all seasoned (pun intended) Dutch oven enthusiasts, so the Trash Can Turkey is right up their alley.

There are, of course, safety precautions that apply to making a Trash Can Turkey as well, most of which concern the handling of the charcoal. An important one, though, involves the trash can itself: most steel trash cans are galvanized, which means they’ve been coated in zinc. If you get this coating hot enough, it’ll release toxic fumes that, when inhaled (or ingested by eating turkey that’s been directly exposed to them), can cause what welders call “zinc fever,” which exhibits flu-like symptoms for a day or two. While there’s still debate about long-term effects, the short-term effects – I assume I’m not the only one with an aversion to “flu-like symptoms” – make a strong case to avoid this at all costs. Good news is, you can easily prep your Trash Can Turkey trash can by building a fire in it first. Do it outside (of course) and don’t hover around it. This “burns off” the zinc oxide, and, assuming you handle the raw bird properly, and cook it to an internal temperature of 180F (best measured in the thick part of the thigh), you should avoid any ill effects, except for a tryptophan-induced drowsiness, which is arguably NOT an ill effect, if you have access to a comfy sofa on Thanksgiving Day afternoon.

At EXAIR, we’re committed to safety as it relates to the use of compressed air in general, and our products in particular:

*Always wear eye protection when using compressed air for blowing off materials. Even if you’re using a Safety Air Gun fitted with a Chip Shield…it’s a protection enhancement, not a safety replacement.

*Don’t use a Reversible Drum Vac for flammable liquids, or those with low flash points.

*OSHA prohibits the use of compressed air for cleaning unless the pressure is reduced below 30psig, or (and this is where EXAIR products come in) a relief is provided for, to prevent dead-ending, which can cause a dangerous air embolism. All EXAIR products are impossible to dead end, making them safe for operation at those higher pressures that are sometimes necessary to do the job.

If you ever have any questions about the safe use of compressed air, give us a call…we’re here to help.

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

American Manufacturing, STEM, and The Boy Scouts

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

If you’re a regular reader of EXAIR blogs, you no doubt know that the International Manufacturing Technology Show is in full swing. Between exhibitors and visitors, the cumulative population of Chicago’s McCormick Place is expected to approach 90,000 people this week. That sounds like an impressive number of folks are taking a keen interest in manufacturing, but we’re being led to believe that there’s room – and need – for improvement here in the American manufacturing community. Consider:

*There are an estimated 600,000 unfilled manufacturing positions across the country right now. That’s a sobering number, especially in light of the current unemployment figures.

*It’s predicted that much of the core workforce in American manufacturing will be reaching retirement age during the next 10 years, and the recent historical data hints at a looming manpower crisis. Keep in mind, that’s on top of the current deficit of 600,000 workers.

I know that statistics can be made to say whatever you want them to say, but the right ones (you’ll have to trust me on this) show that American manufacturing created much of the wealth, and much of the size of the middle class, in the 20th Century. Whether you blame NAFTA, China, Wall Street, or any/all of the above (or something else entirely) for the recent decline, there are no shortage of proponents for a resurgence in American manufacturing in the 21st Century.

It’s curious that an organization that stresses the importance of doing things outdoors would be one of those proponents, but the Boy Scouts of America (maybe you’ve heard I like Scouting) is involved. The relatively new STEM/NOVA Program is geared towards advancing, and rewarding, participation in skill-building exercises to prepare today’s youth for tomorrow’s careers.

It’s just another reason I feel privileged to be a part of such a fine organization as the Boy Scouts.

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

Bigger May Be Better…Sometimes, It’s Just Bigger

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

It’s been a while since I wrote about any Boy Scout activities. Truth is, for an organization that promotes outdoor activities, we slow down a little during the summer months, especially Cub Scouts. This past weekend, though, our Webelos (4th/5th Graders) planned an outing to our neighborhood park for a little stargazing, in order to earn our Astronomy Belt Loops, which are part of our Scientist Activity Pins, which are part of the coveted Arrow Of Light…the only Cub Scout patch that’s carried over to the Boy Scout uniform. In addition to learning how to focus a telescope, and discussing of some of the cool stuff that’s strewn throughout our universe, we also needed to:

“Draw a diagram of our solar system – identify the planets and other objects.”

Now, we could have drawn this out on poster board, fairly easily. But I thought it might be cool to give the boys a sense of the enormity of space, by laying out different sized spheres across a big open field. I found a large exercise ball (about 20” diameter) in my basement…I knew it would be either the Sun, or Jupiter. The math revealed that if I used it as the Sun, though, most of the planets would be smaller than golf balls, and I didn’t want to lose them in the field. So, I used it for Jupiter, and found another large play ball to represent Saturn, a soccer ball became Uranus, a volleyball served as Neptune, tennis balls stood in for Earth and Venus, and a few smaller rubber balls became Mercury, Mars, and the recently downgraded Pluto…which, as a child of the 1970’s, will always be a planet to me.

I didn’t have a ball big enough for the Sun in this scale, so I sat some camp chairs out in a circle, to scale…it was twenty feet in diameter. The whole model stretched over 400 feet across the field. I got lucky, in that this was just about the distance from the parking lot to the treeline.

It was a fun exercise for an unapologetic math and science fan. This morning, I got another opportunity to indulge my inner math geek, as I assisted a caller in selecting the appropriate Line Vac for an application. Turns out, he wanted to convey material that is very similar to the plastic bead tumbling media that we performed controlled testing with in order to obtain some “baseline” conveyance data.

The caller wanted to weigh the compressed air required for different sized Line Vacs against the conveyance rates achieved. That’s where it got interesting: we started with the 2” Models…turns out, the 2” Heavy Duty Line Vac consumes 66% more air than the 2” Standard Line Vac, but only conveyed the material 50% faster. Now, this was the fastest we could convey, but since he didn’t need the speed, he wanted to explore efficiency, to minimize the load on his compressed air system. The 1-1/2” Standard Line Vac turned out to meet his needs the best, using 27% more air than the 1-1/4” size, but producing a conveyance rate increase of almost 60% over the smaller unit.

So, I got to find out twice this week how effective it can be to apply a little math to gauge the scale of a project. If you have an application to discuss, even if it doesn’t involve scaling out the relative sizes and orbits of celestial bodies, or even air operated conveyor efficiency, give me a call. I may try to find a way to quantify the solution anyway…just so you know.

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