The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

Month: December 2011

  • Belt Sander Disk Tightening

    As part of making that PCB, the sanding disk on the side of Mr Belt Sander made a lot more noise than usual; it’s hard to tell, because I wear 30+ dB ear muffs. Turns out that the setscrew had worked loose enough to let the disk walk outward, chewing up the plastic dust collector cover and the aluminum table:

    Belt sander disk dust catcher
    Belt sander disk dust catcher

    The setscrew gouged the shaft enough to prevent the disk from sliding off the shaft, which was probably a Good Thing, but that also meant I had to jam a big flat-blade screwdriver inside the guts of the dust guard and twist to pry the disk off:

    Belt sander disk shaft
    Belt sander disk shaft

    A touch of the file on the shaft, a bit of cleanup inside the disk hole, a dab of Loctite, and it’s all good again.

  • GPS+Voice Interface for Wouxun KG-UV3D: PCB in a Box!

    It always feels good when the parts fit together, even if they don’t actually do anything yet…

    Bare PCB in Wouxun HT battery case
    Bare PCB in Wouxun HT battery case

    That’s the bare PCB in the first-pass 3D-printed battery case adapter, both of which need quite a bit more work. In particular, the case desperately needs some sort of latch to hold the yet-to-be-built contacts against the HT’s battery terminals.

    Amazingly, all the holes lined up spot on, although I think the lower battery contact could move half a millimeter closer to the base of the radio. The battery case contacts are large enough to work as-is and, for what it’s worth, the Wouxun battery cases seem to differ slightly among themselves, too.

    The PCB itself came out about as well as any homebrew PCB I’ve ever made, after getting the Logitech Joggy Thing working again to line the Sherline up for hole drilling:

    Wouxun HT GPS-Audio PCB - copper
    Wouxun HT GPS-Audio PCB – copper

    The circuit has provision for pairs of SMD caps on all the inputs, with which I hope to squash RFI from both the VHF and UHF amateur bands by choosing their self-resonant frequencies appropriately.

  • Garden Sprayer Valve Spring Replacement

    A garden sprayer awaiting repair emerged from the benchtop clutter. It’s an old one, with a metal shell and actual screws, so I could dismantle it to reveal the problem:

    Garden sprayer valve - rusted spring
    Garden sprayer valve – rusted spring

    It’s evidently impossible to make a good, cheap, corrosion-resistant spring (pick any two, I suppose):

    Garden sprayer valve - wreckage
    Garden sprayer valve – wreckage

    Some rummaging in the Big Box o’ Medium Springs produced a slightly smaller spring that should last for a while; it’s good, free, and rust-able, if a bit too short.

    Much to my astonishment, I found a length of 3/8 inch Marine Bronze rod in the stockpile and made a bushing to take up the remainder of the space:

    Garden sprayer valve - new spring and bushing
    Garden sprayer valve – new spring and bushing

    It won’t get a good test until gardening season opens next year, but it seems to seal well enough.