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

  • Spoke Wrenching

    I recently rebuilt the back wheel on my bike, which had been breaking the odd spoke and getting more & more out of true.

    Spoke wrenches are so tedious when one’s fingers don’t fit in between the spokes like they should. I figured, hey, if the pros can use power drivers, so can I…

    Dug a goobered #2 Philips bit out of the ziplock baggie labeled “NFG Bits” and applied it to the bench grinder. The strip of tape on one flat makes turn-counting easy enough that I can actually get it right. It’s not hardened, so it probably won’t last for more than a few wheels, but this is the first scratch-built wheel I’ve done in decades and that baggie is nowhere near empty.

    Homebrew Spoke Wrench Bit
    Homebrew Spoke Wrench Bit

    I read through Jobst Brandt’s The Bicycle Wheel to get prepped for the job, removed the old spokes, laced up the new ones, lubed the threads & rim washers, and the wheel trued up almost perfectly just by counting turns.

    Did the spoke aligning & stress-relieving tricks, applied some final tweaking, and it’s perfect!

  • Database Troubles

    So I bought a batch of small carbide bits at Lowe’s: some Dremel burrs and a neat pointed RotoZip engraving bit. Got to the checkout and everything went swimmingly except the RotoZip, which triggered a management override.

    This caused the dreaded price check on Register 6, the only register open at the time. People are four deep behind me and the line is growing.

    Manager shows up, scans his magic power card, types in a small bit of life history, scans the package again. It calls for another management override.

    He re-scans his card, types in a (presumably different) slice of life history, re-scans the package, and the price pops up in bright green for all to see:

    89991 Point Cutting $10,000.00

    “This just isn’t going to happen” sez I. In round numbers, I think it costs 15 bux. Maybe 10, maybe 20.

    The line now extends to the paint counter. I turn to the woman behind me and observe that I don’t think I’ve ever charged a $10,000 item before and that I sure hope it comes with a free yacht.

    The manager laughs, re-scans his card, types in still more life history, re-scans the package, types in yet more life history, and a new price pops up:

    89991 Point Cutting $1.00

    I say “Thank you very much!” He sez “Have a nice day!” The cashier sez “Wow, great deal!” I say “I’m outta here!”

    Hopped on my bike and rode off into the haze.

    I strongly support the “If it doesn’t scan, it’s free” method of price determination, but this is just the second time it’s happened. The first was a clerk who made an on-the-spot decision. This one had management approval!

    I think the price in their database is $10k because of a data entry error, which triggered the first management override.

    Fairly obviously, the database didn’t get fixed today.

    But a good time was had by all!

  • Bicycle Performance

    Back in 2006 I biked to the Main Event Criterium in Po-town to watch real bicycle crazies in action. Despite the name, the course was literally around the blocks near the Poughkeepsie High & Middle Schools on Forbus St & College Ave: about 0.75 miles per lap.

    Now, most places, folks give ‘bent riders a smile and maybe chat ’em up. Not here. Talk about a cold shoulder: the local-resident bystanders were friendly, but the real riders and their main squeezes obviously regarded my pimped-out recumbent as a Hostile Gesture. Barely even a sideways look; it’s as if I didn’t exist.

    I timed a few laps of the Masters 40/50+ race: Olde Fartes like me, but still players. They did 15 laps (maybe a dozen miles) at 16-17 mph. Two guys duked it out for the lead all the way to the finish, with the rest of the pack half a lap behind and fading.

    In my ordinary rides I can cover a dozen or so miles at 15-16 mph, riding with vigor but not an all-out, my-eyeballs-will-explode effort. That’s on open roads with actual hills, traffic signals, and no pace car to clear the way.

    Obviously, I’m nowhere near their well-chiseled physical condition.

    There’s no comparing the bikes, either.

    They’re riding the latest carbon-fiber weight-weenie frames on exotic aero wheels with pitifully few spokes. One guy blew a tire with a bang that sounded like a gunshot.

    I’m riding a steel-frame Tour Easy recumbent bicycle with a fairing, fat Kevlar-belted tires, tire liners, steel spokes (and lots of ’em), a rack, two baggage packs, a water bladder, ham radio, blinky lights, spare batteries, a tool kit, and fenders. Not to mention an aerobelly. Heck, my tool kit probably weighs more than their frame.

    Imagine what they could do on real bikes…

    Somebody mentioned that the TdF guys hit 70+ mph on downhills. I forebore to mention that the human-powered speed record is nearly 80 mph on the flats… I figured that would definitely be regarded as a Hostile Gesture.

    [Update: a friend accused me of riding while carrying more smug than legally permitted, even for Prius drivers. Guilty as charged.

    You’ll find more ‘bent posts by clicking on the “Recumbent Bicycling” category.]

  • STP: The Miracle Lubricant

    Every PC I’ve ever owned with a fan-cooled video card has had a fan failure. It used to take years, now it takes months. The obvious conclusion: cheapnified fans.

    The “business class” Dell I’d been using as a file server started groaning a year ago. I swapped out the video card fan for a similar (used) one from my heap, which failed after half a year. I just replaced the whole box with a newer one that has on-board graphics with no fan…

    A while ago I stuck a pair of nVidia cards in my always-on desktop box so I could get a portrait-mode page display. One of the cards had a bizarre cooler with a fan stuck inside a fingered aluminum cup clamped atop the video chip: definitely not a FRU, at least from my parts heap.

    Months later: groaning & whining. So I used the same trick as I did for the fan in the refrigerator: a drop of STP soaked into the sintered bronze sleeve bearing. Worked like a champ (the freezer fan is still silent) and the PC is now nearly silent once more.

    While I have the STP out, I’m going to blob some on the bathroom fan that’s starting to groan. Certainly cheaper than replacing the fan and, as I found out with the refrigerator, even a new fan can have crappy bearings.

    I now officially loathe fans…

    Yes, I’m perfectly aware that STP is not a real lubricant, but it’s close enough for these bearings. Mostly, it’s slippery and gooey and works perfectly to damp out shaft vibrations and wobbulations.

  • Getting Smarter All The Time

    From the College Board folks who do the SAT:

    http://www.collegeboard.com/press/releases/150054.html:

    Forty-three percent of 2006 college-bound seniors reported grade averages of A+, A, or A-. Ten years ago, the figure was 36 percent, and in 1987, the first year these data were collected in the same manner, the figure was 27 percent. This year’s average grade point average was 3.33, compared with an average GPA of 3.21 in 1996 and 3.07 in 1987.

    Were we-uns really all that dumb back in the day or is something else going on here?

    I think I know the answer to that…

  • OK, I’m a Yokel

    So a while back we were in Providence, walking up the hill in search of breakfast protein (ended up at McD, but that’s another story) and saw in the three windows across the second floor of a tidy brick building:

    Adult Sex Education
    Call [number]

    I sez to my wife, I sez “Hey, we could…” and she sez “No way!” and that’s the end of that.

    Then I find this editorial in their local paper (affectionately known as the ProJo, honest):

    http://www.projo.com/opinion/editorials/content/projo_20060826_26broth.2e12f1d.html

    Providence Mayor David Cicilline is having difficulty cracking down on what some call the world’s oldest profession because state law, incredibly, makes prostitution legal in Rhode Island, as long as it takes place indoors. Only streetwalkers, their pimps, and their customers who flag them down outdoors may be charged.

    Gosh, I guess it’s a good thing we didn’t call that number for some pointers…

    Who knew?

  • Camera Microscope Adapter

    Microscope Eyepiece Adapter Parts
    Microscope Eyepiece Adapter Parts
    Mount and Camera
    Mount and Camera
    Camera on Microscope Eyepiece
    Camera on Microscope Eyepiece

    This worked out surprisingly well…

    The project was to mount my pocket camera on the stereo zoom microscope, so I can take decent pix of small stuff.

    The entrance pupil of the camera is about the same size as that of a human eyeball: focus at infinity, tune for best picture, and you’re set. Best of all, no microscope mods other than a wrap of tape around the eyepiece to prevent scratching.

    My heap disgorged two tubes that were exactly the right diameter and length with finished ends (evidently stubs left over from a previous lathe project), so all I had to do was turn the adapter ring between them. The heap even had a slightly-too-long 1/4-20 thumbscrew with a boss below the thread. Ya gotta have stuff!

    I set the ‘scope up with the eyepiece exactly vertical, put the tubes on the eyepiece, screwed the T-bracket to the camera,  squooshed a J-B Weld epoxy putty turd between the T and the tube, then boresighted the camera to the ‘scope axis by centering the light on the LCD. Shazam: nearly perfect alignment with no fussy machining. I added two machine screws through the blob: I don’t trust the camera to an epoxy-PVC joint.

    The smallest field looks like 2 mm, so the resolution is about 2 mm/2400 = 800 nm, which I don’t believe for an instant. Maybe a micron or three, at best, limited far more by the camera than the ‘scope. Widest is >15 mm, a more reasonable and still unbelievable 6 microns. The lens just ain’t that good.

    The eggs are from our stick insect, with a millimeter scale.

    cimg0139-stick-insect-eggs
    Stick Insect Eggs – 1 mm scale

    [Update: This post seems to pop up in response to searches for stick insect eggs. One of my rather more interesting pictures is there.]