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?

  • Ampeg B-12-XY: Tin Whiskers!

    After Eks set me straight on cleaning the contacts involved with the Ampeg’s Echo circuitry, we emerged from his shop into brilliant sunshine. He looked into the thing and shouted “Tin whiskers!”

    It turns out the Hammond folks made the outer frame from tin- (or, shudder, cadmium-) plated steel that has grown a dense crop of whiskers on its interior surface. They glittered in the sunlight like a carpet of crushed glass, with the longest ones maybe 3 mm tall!

    This view looks nearly parallel to the side of the channel (upward as it mounts on the speaker box), with the steel wall to the bottom of the image. I applied gruesome contrast stretching to make the whiskers more visible:

    Ampeg Spring Echo Unit - Tin Whiskers
    Ampeg Spring Echo Unit – Tin Whiskers

    This is the first time I’d ever seen a tin whisker in person and there’s a bazillion of ’em in there!

    If that Ampeg had transistorized components, it’d be dead as a doornail! Fortunately, a tin whisker doesn’t stand a chance in an analog vacuum-tube circuit. The power supply puts 400-ish V into 40 μF caps, providing plenty of energy to vaporize the errant whisker; all you’d hear is a pop.

  • Dockers Sock Sizing

    We picked up two packs of Dockers socks a while ago and after running them through the washer, I found this interesting situation:

    Dockers sock size variation
    Dockers sock size variation

    The gray sock in the middle shows that I should buy socks somewhat more often,  but the socks on either side came from two packs with identical labels. Well, identical except for one tiny detail (clicky for more dots):

    Dockers sock labels - front
    Dockers sock labels – front

    I don’t know which sock came from which pack, but I admit to a suspicion. They’re stretchy and both “sizes” fit about the same, so maybe it doesn’t matter.

    [Update: It does matter. Those small socks became really snug after a few months.]

    Oh, in case you were wondering, the pre-printed package reads “3 Pair $12” under that “3 Pair” sticker, with the price obliterated by hand with a marker. The current price is $14, conveyed by another sticker on the back atop the pre-printed price on the UPC barcode sticker. I don’t know if the store raised the price just in time for the sale, but I admit to a suspicion about that, too.

  • Cellular Slug

    Perhaps taking a cue from the Cellular Toad, a slug took up residence in one of Mary’s transplant trays:

    Cellular slug
    Cellular slug

    Unlike the toad, this one didn’t live to tell the tale…

  • Parking Advice: Avoid Drive-Through Spaces

    After driving for five hours I’m never at my best, so I parked with atypical abandon at the motel: on the downhill side of a pull-though parking space. Usually I park off to one side of the lot, directly under a lamp that lights the car and shadows the interior, with the hatch backed against the pole. I claim the stupid excuse.

    The next morning we hiked out for breakfast and returned to find emergency vehicles scattered all over the motel’s lot. Even from a distance, we knew this might not have a good outcome for us: that’s our van going nose-to-nose with the EMS Medic’s SUV:

    EMS Medic parking - overview
    EMS Medic parking – overview

    Up close, the situation turned out to be much much much better than I expected:

    EMS Medic parking - bumper detail
    EMS Medic parking – bumper detail

    The siren was just kissing the front bumper of our van. I think the SUV rolled forward an inch when they released the brakes after slapping the tranny into Park and bailing out.

    For what it’s worth, those fancy pusher bars on the front must be strictly for looks, because the siren & its control box really do stick out far beyond the bars. At the first serious contact they’ll crush back into the grille and do about a kilobuck worth of damage to the front end.

    I think the driver wasn’t fully aware of how much snout that SUV has. It looks to be shiny-new, so perhaps this was the first close quarters parking experience:

    EMS Medic parking - position detail
    EMS Medic parking – position detail

    I left a polite note on the driver’s side window pointing out that another two inches would mean we’d be filling out paperwork until noon.

    They were gone by the time we left. The siren snagged the corner of the license plate and bent it out as they departed, but that’s not the first bend in that particular bit of sheet metal.

    If any of you have a friend on the York PA Medic / EMS staff, give ’em a friendly heads-up for me, OK?

    Memo to Self: Always park off to the side, dammit!

  • Mind the Overhang!

    Crane treads overhanging flatbed
    Crane treads overhanging flatbed

    Spotted this one in a rest stop along I-84. I suppose it’s perfectly safe, but those anchoring hooks really don’t inspire much confidence, even if the only way you could jounce that crane sideways would involve flipping the flatbed. Right?

    Yes, it was hanging over the other side just as far.

    Come to think of it, the tractor that towed this assembly wasn’t present. Perhaps someone discovered / was informed it really isn’t a Good Idea / legal to haul an excavator at 65 mph in this configuration?

    At least the driver didn’t do that…

  • Peacock in Deployed Mode

    I tagged along on a Master Gardener trip to Weathersfield and found this fellow confined to a cage:

    Peacock - stowed view
    Peacock – stowed view

    His companion was a pure white (leucistic, not albino) female:

    Leucistic Peahen
    Leucistic Peahen

    Shortly thereafter, he deployed for action. Part of the dance involves rattling all those quills:

    Peacock - side view
    Peacock – side view

    I had no idea peacocks have wooly white underwear!

    Peacock - stern view
    Peacock – stern view

    The female remained utterly uninterested throughout the entire show; evidently, one can get used to anything if it happens often enough.

    Raj, our correspondent from India, surely has these things like we have turkeys: enough to be a nuisance.

  • Alarm Status Panel Clock: How Long Has This Been Going On?

    Saw this at breakfast early one morning in DC on our April vacation:

    Panera Bread alarm panel - bad clock
    Panera Bread alarm panel – bad clock

    Here’s the key part, amped up for readability:

    Panera Bread alarm panel - clock detail
    Panera Bread alarm panel – clock detail

    I’m sure the manager’s three-ring binder has a whole section about the alarm system, its care & feeding, and the importance thereof. I’d guess there’s a dead battery in there somewhere and a power failure in the recent past.

    This ooops obviously doesn’t matter, right up to the point where they have a break-in and the alarm system timestamps the event incorrectly.

    The camera peered through a pair of window panes across the entranceway, as I didn’t want to get too conspicuous… we were, after all, in DC.