12 volt battery rehab

[Al_Smith]

It was 1966 for me and believe it or  not I did graduate from HS .Had I been able to predict the future a typing course would have proved better than wasting my time in Vo-Ag .If I could type using two fingers instead of just one I could double my speed to maybe 60 words a minute .My first wife could do 120 a minute BTW .

[Hotrod RLC]

 i read an article one time a man had imprinted on his toomstone // i have done the best i can with the branes the good lord gave me . pretty good man in my book  :

[fluidpowerpro]

It's amazing the guy engraving the headstone didn't correct the spelling. :D

[Don P]

Miss DeBerry was our typing teacher and keeper of the Remingtons. We were not entirely sure about the scope of her collection. This was in the days before "unhinged" was considered a limiting condition for a teaching career. It was good exposure to the full spectrum of human behavior and we knew the teacher was always going to be right in the grown ups eyes  :D.

The people with promise were up front on the new electrics with the whirly ball inside. I was back row on the manual, most hammered machines. From her perch at the front of the room she could hear my fat fingers jam 2 keys together. You had to know the drill. While leaning forward to unjam the keys, quickly duck left to let the eraser breeze by, flick the keys apart, look up and smile while saying "sorry Miss DeBerry". She graduated me at negative words per minute to save her machines  :D.

[samandothers]

I was a year ahead of Doc.  Took typing because my girlfriend, now wife, was in the class.  It is one of many things she's lead me to do that I have benefitted from!  It really paid off with the advent of my use of email, IBM product called  'Profs', and computers at the job some 8 years later. 

[beenthere]

Miss DeBerry was our typing teacher and keeper of the Remingtons. We were not entirely sure about the scope of her collection. This was in the days before "unhinged" was considered a limiting condition. It was good exposure to the full spectrum of human behavior and we knew the teacher was always going to be right in the grown ups eyes  :D.

The people with promise were up front on the new electrics with the whirly ball inside. I was back row on the manual, most hammered machines. From her perch at the front of the room she could hear my fat fingers jam 2 keys together. You had to know the drill. While leaning forward to unjam the keys, quickly duck left to let the eraser breeze by, flick the keys apart, look up and smile while saying "sorry Miss DeBerry". She graduated me at negative words per minute to save her machines  :D.

:D :D :D
You must have had a clone to the Mrs Grinnell typing-teacher that I had. Was the principal's wife, and so predictable. Always kept the lesson for the day in her top desk drawer. Started class with the same procedure everyday. 
Couldn't resist placing a recently-found live garter snake in that drawer before class. But she didn't blink an eye when she opened it, removed the lesson-for-the-day and started the class. 
But mid-class, she let out a blood curdling scream. 
Apparently that snake slithered down into the bottom drawer where here handkerchief box was, and when she went for one, it slithered out and across the floor. She leaped out of her chair, left the classroom and up to the principals office. Could see her (through the transom) hysterical and flipped out. 
Principal with a stern look, sauntered down and came in the room and closed the door behind him.  Then broke out into uncontrolled laughter. 

[doc henderson]

that is prob. why the English teacher stuffed her Kleenex up her shirt sleeve       .  Our typing class was taught by a Miss as well.  it was a double classroom, and rows of old manual typewriters with an electric on the far-right side of each row.  lots of guys not taking the class too seriously, but got through it knowing to uses both sets of fingers.

[kantuckid]

that is prob. why the English teacher stuffed her Kleenex up her shirt sleeve       .  Our typing class was taught by a Miss as well.  it was a double classroom, and rows of old manual typewriter with an electric on the far-right side of each row.  lots of guys not taking the class too seriously, but got through it knowing to uses both sets of fingers.

One evening when me and our boys were walking over to the local school to play some baseball stuff, I looked into the business class window gawking. I saw manual typewriters in use. Our 3 sons were born in 1975 and twins in 1978 so it was maybe ~ 8 years later? My Vo-tech school had switched from selectric IBM's (DonP's typewriter) to the very first Apple computers and we were about to ship our not so old IBM Selectrics to KY Surplus Property as it were. I told my boss and we contacted my local county system to get our selectrics as it's a freebie in KY to salvage into public schools who need items.
Back to batteries, I guess... ;D 
IMO, (trying to)rehabbing a acid battery is mostly a waste of time.  

[Al_Smith]

My first wife could type faster than an IBM "selectric " which had a memory .She would be done and the type writer might type a half dozen words afterwards .
The very first computer I was ever around was on the submarine and it was the size of a large refrigerator .It used an IBM selectric as both a keyboard and a printer .That was over 50 years ago and since then my typing skills have not improved .It's still one finger at a time .

[kantuckid]

The US Army once used 20 WPM as the guideline for clerk typist vs. clerk. Below that they sent some to Combat Engineers across post where they got a shovel & a rifle to play with. I did 20wpm with two fingers, then was switched to helo mech anyway. 

[Hotrod RLC]

REMARK ABOUT THE MAN AND THE TOOMSTONE WAS COPIED FROM A OLD FOXFIRE EDITION  back at that time a man with only book learning and no common sence would have starved to death  same story today educated idiots are a dime a dozen i know a town full of them 

[Jdock]

Educated beyond their intelligence, a remarkably accurate description of some of our interns by one of my coworkers. 

[dougtrr2]

Reminds me of the anecdote I read regarding the Army and selecting company clerks.  The candidates were taken to a room with a typewriter and adding machine on a table.  They were given a piece of paper and an item to copy.  This candidate put in the paper, typed extremely slow, and made many mistakes so he wouldn't be selected.  When he handed the sergeant the finished paper, the sergeant tossed it in the trash and told him he passed.  He asked the sergeant how that could be. 

The sergeant replied, "You passed when you sat down at the typewriter instead of the adding machine"

Doug in SW IA

[OntarioAl]

I rely on Mr. Hunt and Mr. Peck  ;D
Cheers 
Al 

[kantuckid]

Reminds me of the anecdote I read regarding the Army and selecting company clerks.  The candidates were taken to a room with a typewriter and adding machine on a table.  They were given a piece of paper and an item to copy.  This candidate put in the paper, typed extremely slow, and made many mistakes so he wouldn't be selected.  When he handed the sergeant the finished paper, the sergeant tossed it in the trash and told him he passed.  He asked the sergeant how that could be.

The sergeant replied, "You passed when you sat down at the typewriter instead of the adding machine"

Doug in SW IA

My experience was: The US Army clerk typist, 8 week "school" used the same typewriting books as did most every HS in the entire USA back then. I'm talking about the one that folds & stands up. They did the first semester book one week, the 2nd semester book the next week, then an actual typing test. My Army instructor was a Staff Sgt. and former HS English teacher- 1964 Ft Leonard Wood, MO That school was a joke.
Our barracks sgt Henderson was a case. We were fresh out of boot camp and boots well worn, etc.. He got us into a formation on pavement then measured our heel wear at the back-regs said 1/8" as I recall and if you had worn heels ya got no base pass under his kind care. He called cadence like a rooster crowing. Bachelor E-7 with nothing else to care about cepting stupid stuff.  

[kantuckid]

Educated beyond their intelligence, a remarkably accurate description of some of our interns by one of my coworkers.

My life's experience is different. Over time and experience I've become certain that ignorance is amply distributed regardless of educational levels. My 5th grade grandad was capable of many, many skilled activities and was my mentor in life superbly. You name it, he could do it, period. Every one of my very highly educated sons is a shining e.g. of education vs. common sense. Some e.g.'s: The PHd son just got done completely redoing a long staircase in his McMansion. He borrowed my mitre saw, and small air comp and bought a small table saw and did well too. His twin brother upon the day of his graduation from US Navy Nuclear engineering School- I asked him just how many of these guys would you be comfy grabbing a beer with them-his answer, after a big laugh was maybe 35% of them. FWIW, that school is a calculus based curriculum for people who are also college graduates with high GPA's in engineering school. The enlisted aspect of Nuke school is algebraic based, neither one is for the uneducated among us. 
Lets play nice when we allocate common sense to only the less educated. 
That said, I too, (well educated in skilled trades and education) made fun of engineers as a mechanic/builder all the time, but I was "nice" about it too. :D 
Interns vary as do skilled trades and unskilled people is my story line. My own Mother was a stay at home most of her life and far smarter and common sensical than most folks including myself. She was a self-taught violin player who earned first chair in several large orchestras- try that one out. 
Pointing fingers is easy... :

[doc henderson]

our goal is well rounded kids growing into adults.  part of the trouble now is kids are either academic or athletes ect.  most sports take up the whole year.  to be on the team, you need wight training and travel teams.  Having chores, helping around the house, farm even better, and going to school and going out for sports.  Having little time for fun, so making the best of it, not having so much time you are bored.

[snobdds]

I bought a NOCO smart charger that has a recover cycle for FLA batteries.  

Works amazingly. 

[beenthere]

FLA = flooded lead acid

The NOCO Company is an American, privately held, multinational corporation 

[nativewolf]

Sorry I just saw this, we did have issues with the very odd size battery in our Ponsse Elephant, one of the two batteries actually.  They form a 24 volt system. 

Anyhow, 1 cell was just completely dead.  Tried tricks to get it back to life, not go.  So did the Epson Salt thing and it finally held a charge long enough to get the pre heater through a heat cycle and then the engine would start.  Around the first week of January it got very cold here and so we dumped the epson salts and re filled with battery acid (still very cheap in a 5 gallon container).  Then charged that and it did just fine over January and February and March (to date).  It runs through a pre heater cycle and when it was 10 degrees in january we'd let it run quite a while before starting.  

I  like the idea of a recovery setting for FLA.  I suspect in the future we'll move to all glass mat  or even Li chemistry 12volt and this will be less an issue.  

[kantuckid]

Generally speaking, de-sulphating a well used batteries lead plates then adding fresh acid isn't effective toward getting to a battery that holds a usable charge. Thats my story and I'm sticking to it... :D 
You were lucky to get what you did. 

[nativewolf]

Generally speaking, de-sulphating a well used batteries lead plates then adding fresh acid isn't effective toward getting to a battery that holds a usable charge. Thats my story and I'm sticking to it... :D
You were lucky to get what you did.

I think we are fortunate it is just the 1 cell and that the epson salts and running through many cycles worked well enough to provide enough power in a 24v system.  The other cells are all doing well.  It is still weak but it got us through the winter.  We have new ones on the way but they arrive with the new harvester and tires and tracks.  I was really hoping to find a new fancy battery of the right size to fit in the space but it is an odd shape.
The new Bear has gee whezz battery drawers and power everything.  Quite a difference.  

[Hotrod RLC]

battery rehab // their are people like me in ky hills that were brought up to save a dime if possible . supe beans and gravy some winterd was a luxery . never learned to spell as you all can tell   now cleaning batterys with epson salt is working for me dont know why but i am saving dimes and they make dollers   everyone to each his own  setting here running my mouth the best to all of you  :D 8)

[mike_belben]

Generally speaking, de-sulphating a well used batteries lead plates then adding fresh acid isn't effective toward getting to a battery that holds a usable charge. Thats my story and I'm sticking to it... :D
You were lucky to get what you did.

I disagree.  If not for rescued batteries i wouldnt have many.

My best recovery ever happened last week.  I put a 12v winch onto a 24v dozer using a cheap PWM step down transformer.  The winch motor is using 24volts and running 2x as fast.  The remote control and contactor switch is on 12v from the step down.  Trying to use just one of the two series batteries was ruining the one because it interupted the alternators charge circuit when needed most.


Anyways the little transformer draws all the time so i put it on a toggle and forgot which direction was off. it ran for a week.  This is a group 31 cheap fleet truck battery i bought new about 2 years ago, and it had .04vdc.  DOA.. Ive never brought one back from that low.  10volts no problem, almost always success.


When opened it was naturally low on fluid. maybe a half inch but not exposing the plates.  I read the epsom salt diys and said 'screw all that. Ill put a little in the deionized water im gonna top up with and see what happens, this one is a goner anyways'


So in keeping with my cooking by intuition style, i put an unmeasured pinch of coarse epsom salt in an equally unmeasured amount of room temp deionized water and swished around until most dissolved.  There were some granules still in the bottom. Ehh. Dont care.

Poured it in and boiled it on 220amp jumpstart mode for quite a while. Then half the day on 40amp then maybe 1.5 days on 2amp trickle.  

 2 days later it was holding just over 13vdc, my only one that high, and the pair have run the dozer and winch just great so far.


Hot charge your batteries and keep them topped up.  There is no such thing as maintenance free lead acid battery.  Thats a sales myth akin to lumber "shortages" and fictitious real estate bidders.

[Hotrod RLC]

rehabing battery using epson salt was posted feb 20 ,2022  i checked yesterday 3[28 battery up and starting tractor no problem temp yesterday 35 degrees  diesel tractor had ben setting since 2-20  to be clear i am not smart enough to come up with this idea but u- tube was  :P 8)