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.

Category: Home Ec

Things around the home & hearth

  • Nutmeg Season

    Nutmeg Season

    Well, it’s really zucchini bread season, with grated nutmeg among the spices (*):

    Zucchini bread - minus QC sample
    Zucchini bread – minus QC sample

    Having recently bought a very sharp grater, I hauled out a small vise to save my fingertips:

    Nutmeg grating - mini-vise
    Nutmeg grating – mini-vise

    The dark lunette comes from a previous clamping attempt; it takes a while to find the most secure pin arrangement.

    Grate a flat:

    Nutmeg grating - first flat
    Nutmeg grating – first flat

    I’ve always enjoyed the surprisingly intricate patterns inside what looks like a bland nut.

    Flip it over, flatten the other side, and grab it in an even smaller vise:

    Nutmeg grating - flat clamping
    Nutmeg grating – flat clamping

    In truth, that vise is intended for small cylinders, not flattened nuts, but I figured it’d suffice for light-duty use. Grate parallel to the vise screw, reclamp as needed, and it worked out reasonably well.

    Eventually, you have a pile of powder and one cubic nutmeg:

    Nutmeg grating - results
    Nutmeg grating – results

    I’m sure there’s a way to grate the remaining cube, but I’m unwilling to shred my fingertips.

    Tip the powder into a small jar and repeat as needed. Each nutmeg produces about 5 grams and I did three of the things this time.

    Yummy!

    (*) We omit the cloves and knock the sugar down by half. Your tastes will surely differ.

    Update: Mary’s recipe!

  • Step2 Garden Seat: Replacement Seat2

    Step2 Garden Seat: Replacement Seat2

    As expected, the plywood seat I put on the Step2 Garden Seat for Mary’s Vassar Farms plot lasted about a year before the wood rotted away around the screws. In the meantime, we’d acquired a stack of SiLite cafeteria trays, so we applied one to the cause of better seating:

    Step2 Seat - tray variant
    Step2 Seat – tray variant

    Various eBay listings value that slab of Bakelite Melamine up to $20, which is far more than Mary paid for the entire stack at a local tag sale. They also call that color “rich brown”, which is certainly better than what immediately came to mind when I saw them.

    The stylin’ asymmetric design happened when I realized the squared-off handle end of the cart didn’t demand a rounded-off end of the seat. I cut off the raised tray rim before sketching the rounded outline using the rotted seat as a template; some of the sketch remains over on the right-front corner. A session with Mr Belt Sander put the remaining rim edges flush with the surface, no matter what the picture suggests.

    The tray being 2 mm thinner than the plywood, I tried printing the hinges in a different orientation with different built-in support:

    Rolling Cart Hinges - solid model - build
    Rolling Cart Hinges – solid model – build

    The perimeter threads pulled up far too much and, although fiddling with cooling would likely help, I think the original orientation was better:

    Rolling Cart Hinges - solid model - bottom
    Rolling Cart Hinges – solid model – bottom

    Given that the post-apocalypse breakfast will be served on similar trays, the seat should survive for quite a while in the garden. We think the sun will convert the brown surface into a bun warmer; a coat of white paint may be in its future.

    The original OpenSCAD code is still out there as a GitHub Gist.

  • Monthly Science: Inchworms

    Monthly Science: Inchworms

    A Rudbeckia Black-eyed-susan coneflower from the garden carried a passenger to our patio table:

    Inchworm - linear
    Inchworm – linear

    Even linearized, the inchworm was barely 20 mm long; it’s the thought that counts.

    The stamens mature in concentric rings, each stamen topped by a pollen grain. Apparently, those grains are just about the most wonderful food ever, as the inchworm made its way around the ring eating each grain in succession:

    Inchworm - feeding
    Inchworm – feeding

    Of course, what goes in must come out:

    Inchworm - excreting
    Inchworm – excreting

    I had to brush off the table before washing it; the pellets are dry, but smear when you get them wet.

    Another flower in the vase held a 10 mm inchworm with plenty of upside potential:

    Inchworm - junior edition
    Inchworm – junior edition

    After nearly a week, the flowers were done and the inchworms had moved on. We wish them well, although we likely won’t recognize them in the future.

  • Outdoor Junction Box: Stretch to Fit

    Outdoor Junction Box: Stretch to Fit

    For whatever reason, a two-outlet junction box stands outside the Credit Union:

    Outdoor Junction Box - angled conduit
    Outdoor Junction Box – angled conduit

    The slanted conduit certainly looks in need of an elbow to line it up, doesn’t it?

    It seems whoever installed it, many years ago, simply forced the conduit to line up, no matter the consequences:

    Outdoor Junction Box - open wiring
    Outdoor Junction Box – open wiring

    The threaded entries on the die-cast outlet box were never intended to cope with that much misalignment; half the bottom has vanished. I think the round box on the top originally held a floodlight to wash the (uninspired) building facade at night, but those days are long gone.

    If the conduit has horizontal underground runs, both are certainly full of water by now. The white(-ish) “Romex” cable insulation looks like ordinary indoor wiring, not the grayish direct-burial sheath, but it may be sun-bleached after years of exposure.

    Surely there’s a tripped GFI on that circuit …

  • Power Outage

    Power Outage

    Just before Tropical Storm Isaias rolled through, my hygrometer reached a new high:

    Pre-Isaias humidity
    Pre-Isaias humidity

    The National Weather Service reported 99% at the airport a few miles away, so the meter’s calibration seems about right.

    Shortly thereafter, the humidity dropped to the mid-70s as the wind picked up and, over the next few hours, falling branches took out vast swaths of Central Hudson’s electrical infrastructure. My little generator saved our refrigerator & freezer during 15 hours of outage; three days later, thousands of folks around us still have no power.

    A confluence of other events, none nearly so dramatic, will throttle my posting over the next two weeks.

    We’re OK and hope you’re OK, too …

  • EonSmoke Vape Debris

    EonSmoke Vape Debris

    Being the type of guy who uses metal bits & pieces, I thought this might be a useful aluminum rod:

    EonSmoke vape stick
    EonSmoke vape stick

    It turns out to be an aluminum tube holding a lithium cell and a reservoir of oily brown juice:

    EonSmoke - peeled open
    EonSmoke – peeled open

    The black plastic cap read “EonSmoke”, which led to a defunct website at the obvious URL. Apparently, EonSmoke went toes-up earlier this year after ten years of poisoning their customers, most likely due to “competitor litigation”.

    The black cap held what looks like a pressure switch:

    EonSmoke - switch
    EonSmoke – switch

    Suck on the icky end of the tube to activate the switch, pull air past the battery (?), pick up some toxic vapor around the heater, and carry it into your lungs:

    EonSmoke - reservoir heater
    EonSmoke – reservoir heater

    Maybe there’s a missing mouthpiece letting you suck on the icky end, activate the switch, pull vapor through the heater, and plate your lungs with toxic compounds. I admit certain aspects of my education have been sadly neglected.

    The lithium cell was down to 1.0 V, with no overdischarge protection and no provision for charging, so it’s a single-use item. I’m sure the instructions tell you to recycle the lithium cell according to local and state regulations, not toss it out the window of your car.

    I had to wash my hands so hard …

  • Shuttles Game: Tapered Pegs

    Shuttles Game: Tapered Pegs

    As is all too common with 3D printed replacement parts done remotely, the first Shuttles game pegs didn’t quite fit into the game board’s holes. Fortunately, living in the future means rapid prototyping and quick turnaround:

    Shuttles Game pegs - tapered - solid model
    Shuttles Game pegs – tapered – solid model

    They’re slightly smaller, tapered toward the bottom, and take slightly less time to print.

    The OpenSCAD code in the GitHub Gist now has has the tweaks.