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

  • Painting By Numbers, Redux

    Painting By Numbers, Redux

    Five years later, the digits I painted with Rust-Oleum Rusty Metal Primer have weathered pretty well, while the original ink has fallen off the retroreflective sticker:

    Mailbox numbers - original vs primer
    Mailbox numbers – original vs primer

    As before, I wiped off the crud with denatured alcohol and painted neatly inside the lines. The other digits on both sides still look as good as the day I painted them, with only a few bubbles and nicks.

    Memo to self: Next time, buy a big sheet of 3M retroreflective film, make a stencil by vinyl cutting, paint the entire number in one shot, and be done with it.

  • Drill Press Vise Table Refresh

    Drill Press Vise Table Refresh

    I built a small plywood work table for the drill press:

    Drill press - scarred vise table
    Drill press – scarred vise table

    Obviously, that was a long time ago. It’s a plywood scrap with a small cleat screwed to its bottom, upon which one can position / clamp / hold / finagle smallish workpieces without worrying about drilling into the surface.

    The most recent batch of aluminum backing plates prompted me to finally replace that relic:

    Drill press - new vise table
    Drill press – new vise table

    The mill vise under the plywood grips the cleat and the whole affair rides on a Sears “Drill Press Milling Attachment Stock No 27585” which is basically a simple XY table with hand dials. It’s not rigid enough for actual milling (which you should never do on a drill press, anyway, because the end mill will pull itself out of the Jacobs chuck), but it’s good for tweaking the position before you drill something.

    One should never hand-hold workpieces while drilling.

    Don’t do as I do, do as I say. OK?

  • Soaker Hose Clamps

    Soaker Hose Clamps

    Having figured out the geometry for two- and three-channel soaker hoses, I cranked out more clamps:

    Soaker Hose Clamps - production
    Soaker Hose Clamps – production

    Actually, those are the remainder of two production runs devoted to reducing the amount of water sprinkling the garden paths. A 50 foot hose runs along both sides of one 14 foot bed, crosses the path, then continues along the adjacent bed. The hoses have (deliberate!) sprinkler holes along their porous rubber body and sometimes the layout puts a hole where it waters the path.

    The blue silicone rubber strips provide a bit of sealing to prevent the absurdly high pressure water from streaming through the orange PETG clamps. It’s OK if the clamp leaks, but less flow is better!

    I’m getting really good at making those aluminum backing plates and, in fact, I think it’s faster to run the blanks past the disk sander, then drill the holes, than to CNC-machine them. Could be wrong, but Quality Shop Time is not to be sniffed at.

  • USB Wire Color Code: Grand Prize Blooper

    USB Wire Color Code: Grand Prize Blooper

    Despite knowing the wire colors inside USB cables need not follow any particular convention, this still came as a surprise:

    USB Cable - reversed red-black wires
    USB Cable – reversed red-black wires

    Yes, that’s a negative indicator on the meter: it reads -5.020 V.

    No, I didn’t swap the test probe banana plugs on the other end.

    A bit of continuity testing shows the green and white data wires are also reversed, so whoever assembled the cable simply soldered the proper wire color sequence backwards onto both connectors. As long as you don’t cut the cable to reuse the connectors, it’s all good.

    Memo to Self: Stop trusting, always verify!

  • USB Current Probe Extender

    USB Current Probe Extender

    Having gotten two answers from two USB meters, I figured it was time to get primal:

    USB Current-Probe Extender - wiring
    USB Current-Probe Extender – wiring

    That’s a pair of USB breakout connectors and lengths of nice silicone wire (24 AWG power & 28 AWG data), with just enough slack for a Tek A6302 current probe:

    USB Current-Probe Extender - in action
    USB Current-Probe Extender – in action

    So I can see the actual current waveform of a Glass Tile box running from a bench power supply:

    Tiles 2x2 - bench supply - 50 mA-div
    Tiles 2×2 – bench supply – 50 mA-div

    The top trace is the firmware heartbeat from the Arduino Nano, the middle trace is the SK6812 LED data stream, and the bottom trace is the USB current at 50 mA/div. The current steps downward by about 10 mA (just after the data burst) when one of the tiles changes color and and LED shuts off.

    The current probe reveals some mysteries, such as this waveform from a dirt-cheap USB charger:

    Tiles 2x2 - anon white charger - 50 mA-div
    Tiles 2×2 – anon white charger – 50 mA-div

    I wonder why it’s ramming 100 mA current spikes into the circuit, too. At least now I can see what’s going on.

  • Monthly Image: Rt 376 Overgrowth Clearing

    Monthly Image: Rt 376 Overgrowth Clearing

    NYS DOT cleared the Japanese Knotweed from the shoulder along Rt 376 north of Maloney last year:

    The last image in that gallery is from the end of April; you can see the weeds just starting to grow under the guide rail.

    Japanese Knotweed, being basically a weed on crystal meth, becomes a lush hedge from a standing start in five weeks:

    Knowing how NYS DOT’s Region 8 Dutchess South Residency’s brush trimming has(n’t) worked in previous years, this took us by surprise:

    Rt 376 Marker 1095 - 2020-06-10
    Rt 376 Marker 1095 – 2020-06-10

    Because chopping Japanese Knotweed to the ground doesn’t actually discourage it, we hope they’re scheduled to return every couple of months …

  • Robin Nest: Hatching An Egg A Day

    Robin Nest: Hatching An Egg A Day

    The robin nesting atop the garage door spotlights keeps a careful watch over her surroundings:

    Garage Robin - standing guard
    Garage Robin – standing guard

    Based on past experience, we though a blue jay had discovered the nest when we found this in front of the garage door:

    Garage Robin - plundered eggshell
    Garage Robin – plundered eggshell

    A day later, a quick peek when she was off the nest told a different story:

    Garage Robin - 2 hatchlings
    Garage Robin – 2 hatchlings

    As with humans, only parents can love things like that …

    Another pair of robins built a more conventional nest in a small front-yard tree, although they seemed content to start brooding atop only two eggs.

    We wish both families well, along with the wrens nesting in the front bird box.

    Go, birds, go!