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.

Author: Ed

Jar Lid Measuring Spoon Holders

We have accumulated enough measuring spoons (typically from garage sales) to dedicate them for specific purposes, which means keeping them from wandering away:

Jar lid measuring spoon holders

The design is simple enough:

Jar lid measuring spoon holder – LB layout

The slot is a rounded rectangle about 2 mm larger than the spoon handle in both directions, inside a rounded rectangle large enough to put the handle just clear of the jar. The curved side comes from outsetting the jar lid OD by a millimeter (for the double-sided foam tape), then subtracting that circle from the holder.

So, yeah, they’re custom-made for the spoon and jar in hand.

They come from a sheet of 1/4 inch = 6.3 mm Vintage Acrylic. The holder on the smaller jar is two stuck together with super-whoopie low-surface-energy tape before being stuck to the lid. I’m trying the tape on some non-critical projects to see how it behaves: so far, so good.

2022-10-21
Hand Shower Mounting Bracket

For reasons not relevant here, a hand shower will come in mmm handy for a while in a month or two. The threads on its plastic diverter valve pretty nearly match those on the 70 year old iron pipe in the front bathroom, although the original brass shower head may have been installed by John Henry the Steel-Drivin’ Man.

In any event, you’re supposed to drill two screw holes in the wall for the holder, which is just not happening. Instead, scan the bottom of the holder and blow out the contrast for the next step:

Hand Shower bracket – scan

Yes, those holes are off-center in their molded bosses. They’re centered in their front recesses and I cannot imagine how, in this day and age of CAD everything, a designer could misalign the front and the back, but there it is.

A little cleanup produces a reasonable mask:

Hand Shower bracket – mask

The holes are centered in the outline, as you’d expect.

Import it into LightBurn, trace the perimeters, put those vectors on a tooling layer, and hand-draw a much simpler / smoother outline on the cutting layer. One of the vintage acrylic sheets is 1/4 inch thick, just enough for the shortest M4 brass inserts, so wrap the holes around the inserts:

Hand Shower bracket – LB layout

Some acrylic adhesive goops the inserts in place, although I’m not convinced it has enough pull strength in those slick holes:

Hand Shower bracket – mounting plate

~~When~~ if it fails, I’ll rebuild the plate with an engraved ring around the back of each hole, along the lines of the earrings, and epoxy the inserts in place.

Double-sided foam tape will eventually stick the holder to the tile above the tub, but finding the proper location requires UX research.

2022-10-20
First Year Diary

Another layer of the memorabilia box produced my mother’s 1953 diary, with the first entry in my father’s hand:

Diary – March 18 1953

With the benefit of hindsight, some entries stand out:

Diary – May 2 1953

These were certainly not fresh from the garden:

Diary – May 8 1953

Perhaps reaching this stage required some persuasion:

Diary – June 30 1953

This required me to be outdoors:

Diary – July 2 1953

Mom’s case of “strep throat” required three penicillin injections to knock it down:

Diary – July 22 1953

I get up a little earlier and go to bed a little later nowadays, but I see absolutely nothing wrong with any of this:

Diary – August 27 1953

My eyesight was much better back then:

Diary – September 29 1953

Definitely an omen:

Diary – December 8 1953

My parents ran a restaurant out of the house:

Nisleys Restaurant sign

As you might expect, the diary tapers off after the first year.

2022-10-19
Rattlecan Coasters

Rattlecan spray paint, unlike scribbled markers, produces vivid colors on white chipboard:

Coaster Assortment

Cut the painted sheets cut face-down atop magnetic spikes on the honeycomb platform, with tabs to keep the petals in place and 0.15 mm kerf compensation. A light touch with an Xacto knife severs the tabs, after which the petals press firmly into the frames. Spread yellow PVA wood glue across the bottom disk, align the perimeters and press together, lay parchment paper between the coasters, clamp the stack between plywood sheets, and they emerge perfectly flat the next day.

They’re too labor-intensive for any economic activity, but I like ’em:

Coaster assortment

The pale gray petals in a white frame looks remarkably like the washed-out color scheme on whatever device you’re reading this, doesn’t it?

2022-10-18
Dell Sound Bar Under-Shelf Mount

A bedroom rearrangement displaced the Dell Sound Bar attached to the streaming music player from its accustomed perch, so I conjured a mount from the parts bin to hang it from a shelf:

Dell sound bar mount – installed

The sound bar originally fit below any Dell monitor with the appropriate lugs under the bezel, but a bit of bandsaw work and hand filing produced a reasonable facsimile from an aluminum sheet:

Dell sound bar mount – plate installed

The bar’s plastic bits require a few millimeters of clearance above the sheet, now provided by a matching plywood shape:

Dell sound bar mount – parts

A trial fit showed all the parts would fly in formation:

Dell sound bar mount – trial fit

A laser-cut cardboard template maintained alignment and spacing while I stood on my head screwing the mount in place.

All’s well that ends well!

2022-10-17
Vintage Wakamoto Digestive Tablets

Sorting out a box of memorabilia produced a dusty bottle full of crumbled brown pills:

Vintage Wakamoto Digestive Tablets

The English part of the label:

Indication: Adequate and optimal treatment for gastrointestinal disorders, malnutrition, neurasthenia, tuberculosis, bere-beri, etc. It improves the appetite and promotes health

Dose: 4-8 tablets[,] 3 times a day
WAKAMOTO-HOMPO
EIYOTO-IKUJINO-KAI, CO., LTD.
SHIBA-PARK, TOKYO

My father spent several years on an all-expenses-paid trip to the South Pacific between 1943 and 1945. I have no idea what relation that bottle might have to his adventures, but the English text suggests it’s not a souvenir of those times.

Somewhat surprisingly, Wakamoto is still in business:

Strong Wakamoto Tablets – Amazon

I’m sure it’s good for what ails you …

2022-10-14
Outdoor Sign Wiring

A dentist’s office has been a-building for what seems entirely too long, but the outdoor sign finally went up. Being that type of guy, I had to take a closer look at how they wired up the LEDs:

Outdoor sign LED wiring

That’s exactly as half-assed as it looks: unprotected PVC wires emerging from raw holes drilled into the backplate and burrowing into unsealed laser-cut acrylic loosely seated behind the white character boxes.

Everything you see is gonna be full of bugs in no time!

I’ve done similar botch jobs, but generally for my own use …

2022-10-13