New 625

[alfsauve]

Foolishly 10 years back I sold my S&W 625 (4” .45ACP) Regretted it more and more to the point that I finally decided to get another.  I really wanted. 325 Thunder Ranch, but they rarely come up for sale and atypically go for ~$1,500.  Been following Gun Broker for several months and checking Cabela’s Used Guns regularly.  Finally pulled the trigger on one this week. 

Most go for $900++ and I believe a lot depends on the marketing of the seller.  I started getting picky and only going for ones taht are chamfered.  This one had a tapered under lug and the chamfer looked clean. In some I’ve  noted they they damage the extractor a bit doing the bevel.  It has the multicolored laminated grips which I’ll replace with Hogue rubber ones. 

6 days on the market and I was the only bidder. I placed my bid an hour before closing.  $850. Fully expected to be out bid, but nada.  I think the reason for lack of bids was the rather plain description, lack of pictures AND the seller A+(505) did not take credit cards.

Bank check off Monday.

Amazingly I still have all the moon clips and holsters.  Will evaluate this gun to see if action job is needed, new grips and FO sights are on order already.

[Rastus]

I'm glad you got a "deal" on this one.  Only one bidder...c'mon...it was meant to be.

Let us know all about it and the fun you have with it.

[TAB]

I have wanted one for years, should have bought it 20 years ago new, but you live and learn.


selling guns is bad, never do that.

[alfsauve]

A nice looking 4" model with full underlug just closed for $991.  I think what sold it was the very attractive dark walnut grips and the very clean looking pictures.

DRATS:  Banks and USPS are closed today.  They're celebrating some European dude, who had great PR and a good biographer.  The Vikings are pissed, I hear.

[Rastus]

Yeah the banks have me on hold today too.  I'm trying to buy a couple of 48V 280 Ah LiFePo4 batteries.

[Sponsor]

[alfsauve]

I'm trying to buy a couple of 48V 280 Ah LiFePo4 batteries.

They've come way down in price in the last 12 months.  Been thinking about upgrading my 12V 200AH gel cells.  I can't go to 24/36/48V because I opted for 12V solar cells.  That's okay, not trying to run the whole house, just keep the frozen food so.  Not sure what I'd do with the gel cells anyway.  Can't mix on one charger.

[Rastus]

Check on your solar panels.  I would really be surprised if you cannot wire them in series to get 48 volts without damage.  They may not be as efficient as panels designed for higher voltage but they should work.  A thing to look for is the open voltage rating on them to sum up for sizing your charger/inverters.  Wiring mine in series produced a rather high failure voltage...I'm going to say around 180...so I had to opt for 250 V inverter designs in case I had a general panel failure which should be design overkill. 

I have 12 volt panels I will wire in series.  Higher voltages and lower amperages to achieve a given wattage will help with smaller wire size requirements lowering a portion of overall costs.  And the higher the DC voltage the cheaper inverters and such cost.  Victron seems to be a solid choice for long term performance. 

I am somewhat pleased to see the price for the 280 Ah batteries.  I had been looking longingly at 48V 100 Ah batteries for some time now planning for 4 and wishing for 5.  When they came down to $832 per 100 Ah when you buy 6 of them I justified getting 6.  I was going to go with 4 but the price kept on coming down, down, down until it made sense to get 600 Ah of storage.

I just saw the 280 Ah batteries this week and I really like the (taking a little chance, they are new) pricing.  With the price per 100 Ah on the 280's being $768 that is nearly an 8% drop from $832 per 100 AH on the 100 Ah batteries and that new pricing did it for me.  I suspect the pricing will not last and I am figuring, this time, on an impact from tariffs and a general trend toward price increase in solar energy products.  I've already seen the 100 watt solar panels I've purchased go from $59 plus tax delivered to $69.  So I jumped out and got these batteries. 

[alfsauve]

So here's the deal.  Putting cells in series certainly lowers wire cost with higher voltage lower current.  However, it comes with problems.  Mainly if one cell in the series has an issue then the whole string may become unusable.  This can include any harsh shadows or coverings (leaves) over one cell.  So there's a trade off.

I opted, with 4 cells to  have two pairs in series then parallel each pair.  Giving me ~24V coming down to the charger.  If one cell has a problem I only loose half capacity.  My wire size is bigger than if I had put all 4 in series but not that significant for my setup.

And here's another sticky wicket, the National Electrical Code.  To protect first responders there must be away, during an emergency, to shut off the solar cells so that there's no voltage beyond one foot of the cells.  Only applies to roof  mounted systems on permitted structures, so simple storage sheds and pergola's, as well as free standing cells aren't covered.  There's two cheats. One is that "no voltage" is defined as less than 30V.  Ah-ha.  Since my cells only put out, nominally, 24V, I don't have to worried about cutoff.

The other cheat has to do with non-storage, direct feed solar cell systems, where the inverters are mounted underneath the cells.  This systems are connected directly to the commercial mains and sense the commercial voltage, mainly to synchronize their frequencies.  When the commercial mains loose power, as when the fire department pulls a meter to shut power off to a building on fire, the micro-inverters shut down by themselves.  Neat, huh.  No shutoff switch required.

Just looked on Amazon.  One brand 12V 300AH is $320.  That less than I paid for my two 200AH Gel Cells.  I may change out this winter.  For $700 I can run my freezer and frig for over week easily.

[Rastus]

Yes if you have a bad cell it's like the old Christmas light dilemma of finding which bulb is out.  The unit I'm getting will be hooked to wifi so I will see when I have a dropout...but I hadn't thought a lot about that otherwise.  I was focused on the low cost of the panels themselves. 

I'm putting the cells on the ground along a fence line and will be bringing DC into the barn for charging.  I'll have a couple of shutdown switches available...one at the panels and another in the house where the feed comes in.  I'm also going to have some lightning protection installed. 

It's all pricey but when I look at the differential cost between conventional and a solar installation (700' of power to run underground vs. solar) and the monthly minimum bill the payout on this system is looking to be under 5 years.  I am somewhat certain I could drop one of the batteries and save some $$$'s but who knows....with future electrical consumption and current expansion plans we might need that extra.

Yep...the price has really fallen on storage.  But I might not wait too long because of the proposed tariffs.  So far they have not been a problem...but dealing with the Chicoms to prevent WWIII may change the tariff equation to where it bites.