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: Oddities

Who’d’a thunk it?

  • Mechanical Railroad Switch Actuator: Relic of the Empire

    Once upon a time, the current Dutchess Rail Trail was an active railroad line, complete with all the usual switchgear and signals. This relic, abandoned in place near the east entrance to the Walkway Over the Hudson, looks like it changed the direction of motion at a right angle:

    DCRT Abandoned Switchgear - rod in tree trunk
    DCRT Abandoned Switchgear – rod in tree trunk

    I think the rod near the top of the picture came from a control lever, with the clevis to the right attached to a rod that moved the switch points.

    And, yes, the rod passes right through that tree trunk. The metal gadgetry just in front of the trunk once captured the rod between rollers:

    DCRT Abandoned Switchgear - rod in tree trunk - detail
    DCRT Abandoned Switchgear – rod in tree trunk – detail

    The body casting speaks of a bygone age of industrial might:

    DCRT Abandoned Switchgear - General Railway Signal Co casting
    DCRT Abandoned Switchgear – General Railway Signal Co casting

    It’s been a long time since the General Railway Signal Company cast that iron in Rochester NY…

  • Driveway Drain Debris Clog

    Alas, the nice slotted cap I put on the driveway drain can’t handle the amount of debris released by the trees next to the house and above the gutters. I’d removed the thumbscrew to simplify clearing the cap whenever I go for the mail, but that just accentuated the problem:

    Driveway drain - fountain
    Driveway drain – fountain

    The backup must be over a foot of water at the end of the pipe; that fountain emerges from the 1/4 inch hole for the thumbscrew. Fortunately, the slope is large enough that the water (probably) isn’t backing up into the retaining wall footing drain.

    When the pine trees toss their dead needles overboard, the cap plugs solid and, minus the screw, blows across the driveway:

    Driveway drain - clogged
    Driveway drain – clogged

    It usually doesn’t roll very far, although I’ve retrieved it halfway to the street.

    I still think the chipmunks will move in without a grate blocking the pipe, but I’m unsure how to proceed…

  • Survey Registration Number: Faceplant

    A giant envelope containing one of those “political surveys” that’s actually a thinly disguised fundraiser arrived, with this confidence-inspiring ID in the upper-right corner:

    Survey Registration Number
    Survey Registration Number

    The questions were all examples of false dichotomies.

    A pox on their backsides, sez I.

  • Public Facilities Maintenance: Progress

    A day or so after kvetching about that informal DCRT vehicle entrance to the head planner developing the Dutchess County Master Plan for bicycle & pedestrian facilities, this appeared:

    DCRT Overocker Crossing - block on informal entrance
    DCRT Overocker Crossing – block on informal entrance

    Notice the blue electrical junction box on the right? That can’t possibly be a Good Thing… but, so far, it doesn’t seem to bother anybody enough to repair it.

    Those missing ADA strips at Grand have been swept out, converting them into rough-bottomed trenches across the trail. At least they’re not quite so slip-prone, even if they’re still a tripping hazard.

  • Semiconductors From eBay: A Tinge Of Doubt Crosses My Mind

    So I picked up a lot of 20 p-channel MOSFETs from the usual eBay supplier in China, which arrived in good order. As is often the case, the SOIC chips are in snippets of tape-and-reel carrier, but this tape looked decidedly odd:

    eBay FDS6675 Tape Cover Contamination
    eBay FDS6675 Tape Cover Contamination

    Peeling back the tape shows that the crud is just on (or perhaps inside) the tape, not on the ICs or inside the carrier pockets:

    img_3456 - eBay FDS6675 Tape Cover Contamination - interior
    img_3456 – eBay FDS6675 Tape Cover Contamination – interior

    Some of those specks are dirt, some seem to be bubbles, other are just, well, I don’t know what they might be. Maybe they were having a bad day in the tape factory?

    One might reasonably conclude the chips aren’t in their original carrier…

    I must gimmick up a quick test to verify that the chips behave like p-channel MOSFETs, instead of, oh, solid plastic; that Fairchild logo looks a bit grotty, doesn’t it?

  • Decorative Slug

    This critter trundled across the driveway after a shower wetted the area:

    Orange slug on asphalt
    Orange slug on asphalt

    They do some damage in the garden, but we let them alone elsewhere…

  • Jerusalem Cricket vs. Dust Bunny

    Sometimes crickets make their way into the basement. This one, a model that I’ve always known as a Jerusalem Cricket(*) evidently lost a pitched battle with one of the Dust Bunnies guarding the Basement Laboratory:

    Jerusalem Cricket vs Dust Bunny - top view
    Jerusalem Cricket vs Dust Bunny – top view

    A rear view:

    Jerusalem Cricket vs Dust Bunny - rear view
    Jerusalem Cricket vs Dust Bunny – rear view

    From the front:

    Jerusalem Cricket vs Dust Bunny - front view
    Jerusalem Cricket vs Dust Bunny – front view

    I deported it to the flower garden outside the basement door, where I hope it can brush off the Bunny’s entrapments…

    It may not be a Jerusalem Cricket, because they’re more common out west, but that’s the best match in our bug books and that’s what we’ve always called them.

    [Update: (*) It’s most likely a Cave Cricket. See the comments for details.]