Project Viril Update Report for 2023-08-29

See project proposal:

• Project Viril - Exploring tools for low-cost at-home open source male fertility testing.

Report for 2023-08-29

See all reports:

• Report for 2023-08-29 (this report)
• Report for 2023-04-17
• Report for 2022-12-15

Progress Made

    Acquired two Harbor Freight carport tents and erected one around the trailer as temporary shelter from rain to enable working outside. This also provided covered space to work when welding.

    Salvaged and prepared materials from various metal scrap (and the trailer ramp) for welding by removing rust and painting. Prepared floor and acquired materials to build it.

Current Status

    We are not sure we will be able to complete the project and do not have good options for moving forward

    The trailer build for the labspace is approximately 20% complete, with the trailer acquisition and initial framing mostly ready to go, but is currently stalled due to lack of funds and complications with the weather causing health effects.

    Budget constraints have made the current living and working arrangements unaffordable. Unsure of next steps at the moment.

Obstacles Encountered & Adaptations

Obstacles:

• We found the local metal supplier, Mac Equipment and Steel, closed down on March 31st, discovering it shortly after finalizing purchase of the trailer. This vendor was depended on for cheap accessible materials.
  • Our original trailer build plans using aluminum were too costly to meet budget after considering snow load requirements. This led to significant time spent searching for cheap building materials.
  • Sourcing affordable steel took more time and ultimately required a business address for delivery, which we didn’t have a way to meet..
  • Building supply stores were massively overpriced and did not have enough in stock anyway.
• Measurement error on trailer flooring required design changes and acquiring a welder and some extensive welding work to move forward due to the weight of all the lab materials.
• Smoke from Canada wildfires and extreme weather prevented extended outdoor work, compounding our already limited indoor workspace situation.
  • The smoke was particularly debilitating for Nick if he was outside for more than a few minutes. On the worst days of smoke it was nearly impossible to think for either Nick or Norman, much less do anything physical outside.
  • The days of extreme heat and rain/humidity lead to heat illness that was made worse by the smoke inhalation.
  • The heat + smoke has been driving mood issues and anxiety.
• Limited power access combined with the smoke meant the air conditioner had to be run for medical reasons (Nick’s GF can’t breath otherwise, and the power source we have is from her bedroom).
  • This prevented use of the welder on many of the days that would have been viable to work otherwise. Leading to poor progress on welding practice.
  • This also limited progress on 3D printing and other indoor project work.
• The car we were using to transport goods from the local home repair store needed to be in the shop for 3 months and only became available again recently. This cost us the last of our budget as we weren’t able to get stuff out of storage and into the garage in a timely manner.

Adaptations:

• Figured out we could modify two Harbor Freight carport tents to provide temporary shelter and covered workspace. Combining them together eventually would provide enough structure to support a snow load, being the cheapest way to get steel.
• Mitigated other material limitations by salvaging metal scrap and cannibalizing parts of the trailer that were unneeded.
• We did extensive research to learn how to weld. Acquired a welder and started practicing.
• Managed to deal with smoke inhalation issues somewhat by leveraging research into teas that promote mucus and anti-inflammatory action. (still not great)
• Survived nearby tornados, record rain / flooding and extreme heat waves by panicking a lot and not dying.

Significant Changes

We are not sure we will be able to complete the project and do not have good options for moving forward. We were already in an uneasy spot after being kicked out of Burlington, and now we have overstayed our welcome and we can’t afford paying for the garage anymore.

At the moment we do not foresee us being able to complete the trailer, we can’t afford insulation or other final building materials and at the current time we can’t even be inside the thing. The original trailer build plans needed to be revised multiple times due to access to materials being limited. This caused major delays and then completely ruined our plans for the trailer build so we had to rethink it from the ground up. While we were able to mitigate this somewhat, the inclement weather has made it nearly impossible to work effectively on the trailer.

We are not sure what to do. Our budget has been used up and we’ve been not able to feed ourselves well for the past month and a half. Both Nick and Norman are demoralized, we’re feeling the effects of the weather combining with the constant series of setbacks. The poor food has made having energy to move forward harder than it should be. We plan on trying to get food stamps this coming month that might help, but it’s a long shot.

We’re sorry.