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?

Credit Card Services: A Tinge Of Doubt Crosses His Mind

This call from Credit Card Services lasted about a minute, but was highly informative. I pressed 1 to lower my interest rates, then …

CCS: This call is regarding an issue with your Visa and Mastercard credit card accounts. Based on changes in your credit score and repayment history over the last twelve months, you may be eligible for a lower interest rate. In order to qualify, you must have a balance on at least one card of at least $4000. Is that the case?

Me: Sure.

CCS: The interest rate on that account must average more than 12 percent. Is that the case?

Me: Sure.

CCS: I must verify your phone number. Our records show that it is [reads off number].

Me: Sure.

CCS: And your name is [reads off my formal name, which shows he doesn’t know me from Adam Smith].

Me: Sure.

CCS: What is the total balance on all your credit cards?

Me: Well, that’s hard to say.

CCS: All we need is an estimate.

Me: Let’s call it ten grand. [This is a lie. Next time, I’ll say twenty grand.]

CCS: And how many credit cards do you have?

Me: Four. [Also a lie. Next time, I’ll say eight.]

CCS: [background chatter, loud crash, call disconnects.]

Previous Credit Card Services contestants have sworn that they do not know what number they dialed. After you pass a minimum qualification, well, suddenly they do know your number and your name. Huh. Who’d’a thunk it?

This contestant did not pass me to the CCS Level 2 Closer, the guy who attempts to tongue-wrestle victims into divulging a credit card number that he will instantly siphon money out of. We recently burned the balance in a gift card obtained for test-driving a Toyota (hey, I won’t pass up free money), so maybe I’ll feed those digits into the next call.

If I sounded more enthusiastic, I’m sure I could reach the Closer!

I used to think that a sensible person running a scam like CCS would make it a point to not re-call smartasses who jerk my reps around. Now, I’m sure the reps run on pure commission and the marginal cost of making a phone call sits right around zero, so the sensible person running CCS has nothing to lose.

Search herein for Credit Card Services (or just CCS) to find previous installments of this continuing adventure.

The title is a tip o’ the cycling helmet to Zappa:

Motorcycle Man: Well, let’s make a deal if you think that’s true
I mean, you’re the devil, so whatcha gonna do?

Devil: Wait a minute. A tinge of doubt crosses my mind
When you say that you want to make a deal with me.

You find the rest on your own, OK?

2012-05-22
Blog Hits: Dirac Delta

The admin pages for this blog have a “sparkle bar” along the top that shows the hourly hit rate, which is usually a simple diurnal cycle: most activity happens during the Western Hemisphere daylight hours.

Yesterday was different:

Blog Hourly Hits – 2012-05-19

In the space of about 10 minutes, my sleepy post about a bicycle saddle advertisement received 207 hits from “bike riding” at Yahoo! image search. For the last two and a half years, it’s been ticking along at about 1 hit/day, so I think that spike represents a nice example of a Dirac Delta Function in action.

I no longer even pretend to know what’s going on…

2012-05-20
Ladybugs!

These freshly hatched alligator-oid critters:

Ladybug larvae

…. quickly become something even more fearsome, at least to aphids smaller than they are:

Ladybug Larva Eating Aphid (by Cheryl Hearty – CCE/DC)

Eventually they turn into Ladybugs who relentlessly stalk larger aphids on garden plants:

Ladybug with aphids

And then they do this and the wheel goes around:

Ladybugs mating

Gardeners love them ever so much…

2012-05-19
Outdated First Aid Instructions

The Plumbing Treasure Chest started life as a first-aid box designed to hang on a wall. Inside the drop-down lid appears this list of Instructions For First Aid:

Instructions For First Aid

You can’t even buy some of that stuff these days…

2012-05-12
Whirlpool Refrigerator Fan Noise: Final Fix Redux

Well, using a PC case fan as a freezer blower seemed like a good idea at the time: it worked, moved an adequate amount of air, and was pretty nearly silent. Until, that is, frost built up on the blades, water froze inside the frame, and the thing began sounding like a stick running along a picket fence:

Frosted PC case fan in freezer

I replaced the first fan with another having slightly more clearance between the blade tips and the frame, but to no avail.

So I dug the OEM fan (a.k.a., the Freezer Dog) from the heap, dismantled it, and discovered why it was howling. Turns out that the shaft nearest the fan blades was scored inside that bearing:

Freezer motor – scored shaft

A closer look:

Freezer motor – scored shaft detail

The rest of the shaft looked fine to me, so I put some green Loctite on rotor at the shaft and shoved the long end of the shaft (using the drill press as an arbor press) to put the scored section inside the rotor:

Freezer motor – relocated rotor

Yes, that’s the same Loctite ridge you saw there…

The shaft has several small grooves that probably held lubricant or acted as alignment guides or something useful, but I’m hoping none of that matters. The rotor is turning backwards now, too, which shouldn’t make much difference: it’s pretty much symmetrical.

While I had the motor apart, I whacked the bearings with a rod to shrink them a bit:

Freezer fan bearings

Slobbered more STP on the bronze bearings, reassembled everything again, and it’s been quiet for nearly a week.

Perhaps the combination of new shaft surfaces and tweaked bearings will run for a few more years. I still have the “new” replacement fan in a box…

2012-04-28
Ouch!

Got one of those painful, bloodless slices:

Split thumbprint

From, believe it or not, the razor-sharp edge of a fillet of cured green Loctite:

Freezer motor shaft – Loctite fillet

Of course, it didn’t stay bloodless for long: every time I put pressure on the ball of my thumb, the split gets longer.

I hate it when there’s blood all over the workpiece…

2012-04-26
The Perils of Ubiquitous WiFi

The main aisle at the Trinity contest is a busy place, but that didn’t seem to matter. This guy came ambling along, tapping on the keyboard, walking slower and slower, until he just dropped to a dead stop(*) in the middle of the lane:

Distracted Walking

Everyone gave him plenty of clearance until he eventually rejoined consensus reality and moved on…

(*) There’s a song about that, but you’re gonna have to find it yourself.

2012-04-19