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?

Craptastic Kitchen Scale: Shattered

So it turns out the surface of the craptastic kitchen scale really was tempered glass:

Kitchen scale – shattered glass

That’s after an inadvertent drop edgewise onto the concrete patio.

Stipulated: given what I’ve already done to / for the thing, the usual warranties do not apply.

The frame around the NP-BX1 lithium batteries held the glass fragments together surprisingly well:

Kitchen scale – shattered glass – detail

Of course, harvesting the good stuff resulted in a pile of fragments, but the carcass cleaned up nicely and, after grafting a temporary top made from scrap acrylic it still worked:

Kitchen scale – temporary surface

I expected to just cut a slab of 6 mm acrylic to match the original 5 mm glass, but for reasons probably related to dielectric constants, the touch controls do not work through that much acrylic. In fact, they don’t work through anything other than the 1.5 mm acrylic shown above, which seems a bit too flimsy for normal use.

The original glass had a design screened on the back surface and covered with paint, which I can certainly mimic, but right now I’m unsure how much effort to put into the thing.

2023-09-14
Gray Tree Frog: Urban Camo

If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it:

Gray Tree Frog on concrete

In point of fact, I almost didn’t see it.

This was the fourth time Mary deported the critter from her gardening shoe, whereupon it hopped out of her hands onto the concrete patio. She hauled it to the far end of our lot and wished it well; so far it has not returned.

We are reliably informed it’s a gray tree frog, not a toad as we originally thought.

2023-09-07
Tour Easy Running Lights: Anodizing Sun Fade

After six years, the anodizing on the Anker LC40 flashlights I repurposed as daytime running lights shows some radiation damage:

Tour Easy Running Lights fading – mount top view

The bottom side looks pristine:

Tour Easy Running Lights fading – mount bottom view

It turns out they were clamped in slightly different positions on our two bikes:

Tour Easy Running Lights fading – top view

The side view shows a gentle color transition:

Tour Easy Running Lights fading – bottom view

Apparently I had swapped the caps from the two lights when I noticed the fading after only the first year.

2023-09-04
Garter Snake: Garbage Can Guardian

A garter snake has taken up residence under our garbage can and is startled when I wheel it away:

Garter snake on the alert

This week it was curled into a compact bundle:

Garter snake in compact mode

The blue eyes indicate it’s in the process of shedding its skin, so next week we’ll have an even bigger and shinier guardian.

Shedding one’s skin apparently requires a great deal of thought, as it remained in that pose while I fetched Mary, then moved deliberately off into the leaf litter behind the can.

The small rodent population around here has definitely declined: garter snakes are murder on field mice and the hawks are taking out the chipmunks.

Go, snake, go!

2023-09-01
If the Shoe Fits

Backstory: Mary leaves her gardening shoes on a low shelf outside the back door to reduce indoor chaff.

Yesterday I heard an utterly uncharacteristic shriek from the patio, followed by hysterical laughter:

Toad in the Shoe

The Garden Toad (or one of its relatives) decided her shoe was a perfect place to spend the day.

It seems there is nothing quite like sticking your foot in your shoe and having a toad underfoot.

I deposited the toad in the garden and encouraged it to find some bugs for lunch.

All parties emerged unscathed from the experience and seemed much happier with more interpersonal space.

Perhaps it is one of the cellular toad‘s descendants?

Update: It’s actually a tree frog and this is not the end of the story.

2023-08-11
SJCAM M50 Condensation: Redux

The SJCAM M50 camera gasket seems unable to cope with The New Normal weather conditions around here:

SJCAM M50 – screen condensation

I think this was probably another case of diurnal pumping, given the exceedingly hot days and cool nights in late July.

Plenty of water condensed on the bottom of the battery compartment cover:

SJCAM M50 – battery lid condensation

And inside the compartment around the AA cells:

SJCAM M50 – battery compartment condensation

Unlike the previous leak, the camera lens wasn’t involved, so I did not disassemble the case. I let the opened camera (without batteries) dry out in the hot hot sun for the rest of the day and it seemed fine by evening.

Keeping it out of full sunlight during the day definitely limits the locations I can use.

2023-08-10
Foraging Skunk, Cautious Mouse

Early one morning, a skunk dashed toward the garden:

Skunk and Mouse – fast skunk – 2023-07-15 01-49-38

If you look very closely, you’ll see a mouse watching from the end of a 4 inch drainpipe stashed along the garden fence:

Skunk and Mouse – fast skunk – mouse detail – 2023-07-15 01-49-38

The skunk went exploring near the garden gate (off to the right) while the mouse continued watching the proceedings:

Skunk and Mouse – mouse keeping watch – 2023-07-15 01-49-53

When the skunk returned, the mouse decided discretion was the better part of valor and vanished into the pipe:

Skunk and Mouse – skunk – hidden mouse – 2023-07-15 01-50-01

With the skunk gone about its business, the mouse returned to its duty:

Skunk and Mouse – mouse watching – 2023-07-15 01-50-24

Just another night at the office, out in the back yard …

2023-08-04