Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.
Moving the pivot point of the rebuilt desk lamp arm back about 75 mm put it at the proper spot:
Rebalanced desk lamp boom
That required snaking new wiring from the transformer in the base through the upright and out through the boom to the LED floodlamp. I used a random length of speaker cable from the Big Box o’ Heavy Wires, although it doesn’t take much to carry 300 mA at 12 V.
The lamp head now reaches the work area and the base stays out of the way:
Rebuild desk lamp over sewing machine
It is, we both agree, hideously ugly, but it puts plenty of light at the right spot.
It seems the coiled hose on “water flossers” or “water jet” oral hygene appliances (I can’t even type that with a straight face) lasts about three years, then fails in a spectacular water spray. Mary’s Interplak cleaner just blew a hose, whereupon I discovered that 3/32 inch ID Tygon tubing is a very snug press fit over the 3.8 mm OD white plastic hose:
Patched Interplak tubing
The hose blew out during the early part of a protracted snow storm / cold snap, when driving out for a replacement wasn’t going to happen. This fix, ugly though it may be, has been working well enough that we’ll wait for something else to go wrong.
It’s not clear replacing the entire length of hose with Tygon tubing would work as well, because the rigid hose transmits water pressure pulses from the pump to the tip without much damping. We’re not sure how much that matters and, if the Tygon hack outlasts the OEM hose, maybe we’ll try that.
As you might expect, the hose isn’t a replaceable part. In fact, Interplak doesn’t list any replaceable parts, other than the jet tips, which never seem to wear out…
A closeup shows that the characteristic 3D printed striations came through perfectly on the silicone:
SqWr chocolate molds – silicone interior detail
In this application, the 3D printer’s hand-knitted look is desirable, but most molds would benefit from manual smoothing / sanding / filling; perhaps slathering release agent over the molds would help. In any event, the silicone didn’t lock to the striations and parted easily, so it’s all good.
The first layer of silicone worked its way between the positive molds and the slab; Tesa says the positives were so well attached to the pegs that she forgot to apply double-sided tape between them. No harm done: the flashing peeled / trimmed off easily enough.
She thinks a shallow block mold would work just as well for a slab like this: you’d (well, she’d) save hours of tedious layering. The block mold wouldn’t use any more silicone, as the mixing cup had plenty of residue after each layer, even after scraping: doing just one mixing, one pouring, and one curing stage would be a major win.
Solder pretty cable with silver plating on the braid (it’s probably mil-spec Teflon dielectric RG-174 coaxial cable) to the LEDs
Conjure a coax power connector and wall wart
Apply foam squares to mounts
Affix to sewing machine
The front LEDs have a jaunty angle along the bottom of the plastic panel:
Kenmore Model 158 Sewing Machine – LED Lights – front
You can see why I want cool-white LEDs, rather than these warm-white ones, to match the daylight from the window to the right. The wash of orange light from the incandescent bulb inside the end bell has got to go, too.
The rear LEDs over the arm may be slightly too close to the opening:
Kenmore Model 158 Sewing Machine – LED Lights – rear
The single-segment strip on the side provides a bit more light for the needle across the opening:
Kenmore Model 158 Sewing Machine – LED Lights – rear detail
Now, I’ll grant you that the strips of of black Gorilla Tape aren’t particularly attractive, but the intent here is to find out whether the LEDs produce enough light, don’t snag the quilt, and generally meet requirements.
After getting two feet of snow over the course of a few days, the snowbank at the end of the driveway absorbed the mailbox:
End of Driveway Snowbank
I try to gnaw a path closer to the mailbox for the USPS delivery truck, but it was pretty much a losing battle against the DOT snowplows.
Later that day, we carved the top off the banks on both sides to improve the sightlines along the road. After a week, we were once again comfortable making a left turn…
For perspective, after the 2011 Snowtober event, the DOT crew parked the shredder in front of the same bushes you can see in the top picture:
What with all the snow this winter, I noticed that the muffler on the snowblower was rattling around something awful; eventually, the blue fire jetting directly from the engine block got to be distracting. Come to find out the bracket attached to the top of the block had ripped free from the muffler:
The two long bolts on the right explain why this particular anomaly didn’t get an immediate repair: they were firmly jammed, deep in the block, and resisted my gentle attempts to free them. For obvious reasons, you (well, I) don’t want to break off the end of a bolt in its tapped hole…
Snowblower muffler – failed bracket
So, over the course of a few weeks, I applied a dose of PB B’laster to the bolts, down deep behind the muffler where they entered the block, and gingerly wiggled the bolts back-and-forth to their ever-increasing limits of travel. Doing that every time I went into the garage guaranteed plenty of excess oil to smoke off the engine during the first few minutes, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Two days before the next big storm, the block finally released the bolts. Whew!
Evidently, having the bracket tear loose wasn’t a rare failure and, perhaps, the situation attracted the attention of someone in accounting who pointed out the warranty repair costs (no, our blower wasn’t in warranty), because the new muffler has a different bracket:
Snowblower muffler – new bracket design
Look at all those spot welds across that huge contact patch!
Yes, I used new bolts with a generous dollop of Never-Seez on each one…
A reversible belt lets me look perfectly natty, regardless of whether I’m wearing my brown pants or my khaki pants. The post joining the buckle and the base worked loose, so the spring wasn’t holding the two parts together; obviously, something must be done.
Loosen the four screws that hold the leather belt in place to reveal what’s inside:
Reversible belt buckle – spring post
Then push the two parts together and give the post a few shots with a sharp punch:
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 