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

  • 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.]

  • Oven Tube Burnout

    Burned Oven Tube Overview
    Burned Oven Tube Overview
    Burned Oven Tube
    Burned Oven Tube

    So the oven made a weird whooshing noise every now & again, but nothing we could pin down or duplicate to debug. Then it sort of stopped heating, even though the ignitor was glowing, and the kitchen smelled of unburned propane and hot plastic.

    Emergency stop, shut off the gas valve, finish the chili and cornbread in the ‘waver and toaster oven, let ‘er cool down, dig out the repair parts manual from the file cabinet.

    Dismantled the oven and found a weird encrustation on the burner tube. I wasn’t sure if the tube was supposed to have a dingus that meters the ignition gas at some known rate, but scratching at the lump made it look as though the tube simply burned through and corroded. The size of that hole would certainly make the gas whoosh a bit.

    Note the soot lines. The heat shield over the tube had a soot smudge, too, which I think caused the “plastic” smell.

    The replacement part from Sears is $80. It’s $50 from RepairClinic.com and they throw in the ignitor module that’s $70 from Sears. Judging from their picture the burner tube has three little holes that blow gas over the ignitor, no metal dingus. You can see the holes in the second picture.

    So a new burner tube (and ignitor, which I’ll zip-tie to the back of the oven) is on order.

    Update: of course the new ignitor doesn’t fit on the old tube, nor does the old ignitor fit on the new tube. And the connectors are completely different. Had to dig some ceramic wire nuts out of the parts stash; I knew I’d been saving them for some good reason.

    Grrrr & similar remarks…

  • Just Guessing: They’ve Never Owned a Fiat

    One of Italy's Greatest Products
    Fiat: One of Italy's Greatest Products

    This from the halls of Arlington Middle School, presumably from Social Studies or Italian Club or some such.

    Somebody needs a course in auto wrenching, methinks.

  • Patroon Parking Only

    Patroon Parking
    Patroon Parking

    Haven’t seen any patroons around here lately, so they must be keeping a low profile. Used to be a bunch of ’em in these parts.

    There were a bunch o’ cars in the lot, come to think of it… maybe they were all in the liquor store.

    Who knew?