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

Magnifying Desk Lamp Pivot Clamp: One More

For reasons not relevant here, I made another clamp for a magnifying desk lamp and mailed it off in a small box. A few measurements suggested all such lamps share a common design and similar parts, so I duplicated my previous attempt, with some improvements.

On the upside, the same scrap of aluminum plate I used for the previous clamp emerged from the stockpile and, after a session with Mr Disk Sander, sported two square & reasonably perpendicular sides:

Magnifying Lamp Clamp – squaring stock

Rather than rely on my original dimension scribble, I transfer-punched the hole location from my as-built clamp to the stock:

Magnifying Lamp Clamp – locating stem hole

That’s a reenactment based on a true story: the actual punching happened on the bench vise’s anvil surface, with too many moving pieces supported & aligned by an insufficient number of hands.

Drilling the 5/16 inch hole required mounting the Greater Chuck on an MT1 taper adapter for the Sherline:

Magnifying Lamp Clamp – drilling stem clamp

It’s normally on an MT2 adapter for the mini-lathe tailstock, where it handles drills up to 3/8 inch. For the record, the Sherline’s Lesser Check tops out at 1/4 inch and the Least Chuck at 5/32 inch.

Punch & drill the 4 mm cross hole for the clamping screw:

Magnifying Lamp Clamp – drill cross hole

Grab the plate in a toolmaker’s vise, set up some casual guidance, and bandsaw right down the middle:

Magnifying Lamp Clamp – sawing clamp halves

Bandsaw the outline to free the two halves from the stock, then clean up their perimeter:

Magnifying Lamp Clamp – rounded

Saw the clamp clearance almost all the way through to leave a protrusion, then file the scarred kerf more-or-less flat:

Magnifying Lamp Clamp – filing interior

Do a trial fit in my lamp, which lacks the fancy brushed-metal finish of the remote one:

Magnifying Lamp Clamp – trial fit

It holds tight and rotates well, so break the edges and shine up the outside to a used-car finish (“high polish over deep scratches”):

Magnifying Lamp Clamp – surface finish

The inside remains gritty to improve traction on the lamp stem:

Magnifying Lamp Clamp – interior

Declare victory, box it up, and away it goes!

2020-04-28
Groundhog Activity

The groundhog responsible for trimming the lawn greenery in our area has discovered the long-disused driveway salt barrel:

Groundhog – in salt barrel

There’s always another appointment on the calendar, though:

Groundhog – trotting on driveway

A busy critter with no time to waste!

2020-04-26
Cheapnified Brother TZ Label Cartridge

After four years, I finally had occasion to use the blue label cartridge, only to have the tape refuse to feed. The mess on the tongue sticking out shows the result after I forcibly pulled the tape from the cartridge:

Cheapnified Brother Label Cartridge – exterior

The proximate cause was a fold in the imaging tape takeup path causing the driven spool to stop turning:

Cheapnified Brother Label Cartridge – folded dye tape

Some delicate unspooling, unfolding, and respooling put things back in order.

However, with the cartridge opened on the desk, it became obvious this was the cheapnified version:

Cheapnified Brother Label Cartridge – overview

Compare with a genuine Brother cartridge:

Brother P-Touch TZ tape cartridge – detail

In the genuine cartridge, the base tape (with the sticky side and the colored side) feeds from the lower right directly into the assembly pressure roller. The transparent cover tape feeds from the spool in the lower left, up around the imaging tape supply spool, has the image fused to it, and is then pressed against the base tape on the assembly roller.

Update: Per david’s comment, the cartridges are even more complex than I thought! The printer has sense pins matching a group of cartridge holes to determine (at least) the tape size & orientation. See the pix added below.

Despite using the same cartridge body, the cheapnified tape path is entirely different. The base tape now feeds from the spool in the lower right through what should be the cover tape supply reel, around the imaging film supply spool, has the image fused directly to it, then passes out through the assembly pressure roller.

The cover tape is completely missing!

It turns out the cheapnified cartridges don’t bother with lamination. Instead, the printhead presses the imaging film against the top of the base tape, leaving the black image exposed to the elements. The assembly roller does nothing, apart from pulling the base tape through the cartridge.

Now that I know what to look for, the visible difference is the orientation of the base tape. A cartridge with the correct innards feeds the base tape with the colored side + image facing away from the long side of the cartridge. A cheapnified cartridge has the color + image facing the long side, with the major benefit of making the advertising look more appealing:

Fake Brother TZ cartridge – Amazon image

A genuine Brother cartridge would print the image on the bottom of the tape in that picture, so you’d see the blank side of the tape in that picture.

The “Amazon Marketplace” being what it is, I assume any pictures will not, in general, have much in common with what you actually receive, but at least I now know which ones to reject out of hand.

Update: The PT-1090 label printer has cartridge sensing pins:

Brother PT-1090 Labelmaker – sense pins

And the cartridges have corresponding holes, although the printer doesn’t sense all of them:

Brother PT-1090 Labelmaker – cartridge ID holes

Despite that, cheapnified cartridges are still cheapnified.

I learn something new every day around here! Thanks!

2020-04-19
Backyard Utility Pole: Anchor Clamp Hardware

This also appeared while clearing the forsythia:

Pole anchor – abandoned in place

It’s the guy line anchor for the fallen utility pole, abandoned in place when the crew installed the new pole.

The rod turned freely in its underground anchor, but the nut is apparently frozen to the rod. I deployed the bolt cutter on the cable and hauled the carcass into the Basement Shop:

Pole anchor – nut loosening

Steeping the nuts with Kroil for a few hours relaxed them enough to submit to gentle suasion, whereupon the cable sproinged as the last nut released the clamping force:

Pole anchor – hardware

As far as I can tell, the clamp hardware dates back to the pole’s original installation in 1940 and is in fine, if not pristine, shape.

The bolt shanks have an oval section matching the holes in the plate, so the bolts don’t turn and the crew needs only one wrench. They don’t make ’em like they used to!

I have no idea what I’ll do with these things, but they’re entirely too nice for the steel recycling bucket.

2020-04-18
Clearing the Overgrowth

Our morning task on clear days has been clearing a forsythia overgrowth along the north lot line; the branches tip-root as our neighbor’s bushes creep southward toward the sunlight. The process involves ramming a six-foot octagonal high-carbon / tempered / tougher than nails / rings like a bell steel bar (measuring a generous 1-1/8 across the flats) deep into the dirt under the plant, kicking a 4×4 inch block against the bar, pushing downward with all my weight to pry the plant upward until something deep underground rips, then repeating from all directions until enough big roots break and the mass tears out:

Forsythia root removal

Then it’s on to the next plant.

The turmoil exposed a run of black PVC pipe along the lot line, although one end seemed firmly anchored. More excavation revealed a giant grape vine root growing around the pipe:

Grape root around PVC pipe – top

I had to sever the pipe with an axe on both sides to free the root:

Grape root around PVC pipe – side

The pipe originally carried water from the Mighty Wappinger Creek along the east lot line, 500 feet away and 70-ish feet down, presumably to water the previous owner’s plants. As far as I’m concerned, the remains of that pump will remain on the bottomlands forevermore, but at least we’ve cleared the remains of the plumbing.

Mornings like that make writing CNC code look downright attractive, but I’m developing the cutest little biceps …

2020-04-11
Cheese Slicer Re-wiring

This happens occasionally:

Cheese slicer – snapped wire

Repairing it with a length of 20 mil = 0.5 mm music wire didn’t take long:

Cheese slicer – new wire

What did take a while was removing one of the screws, turning off another millimeter of thread, and sticking it back in again. The new wire is slightly thinner, stacks up just slightly less under the screw head (maybe I used two turns instead of three?), and let the thread stick into the Delrin bushing I put inside the aluminum roller.

Imagine the middle screw with a slightly longer smooth end and you’ve got the idea:

Cheese slicer – screw shafts

That was easy …

It’s worth noting the JB Weld epoxy coating remains in as-applied condition after well over a year.

2020-04-06
Hose Fitting vs. Lawn Mower

This appeared while we uprooted a row of forsythia along the north border:

Brass hose fitting vs lawnmower

Although FOD has killed a good share of my lawn mowers and blades over the decades, this happened long before my administration and I can’t take credit for the precision targeting.

2020-04-04