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?

  • Not Quite Weatherproof Any More

    Fatigue-fractured weatherproof switch boot
    Fatigue-fractured weatherproof switch boot

    Building equipment to withstand outdoor conditions is really, really difficult. Anything metallic corrodes, anything organic deteriorates, and anything flexible fractures.

    The weatherproof boot on this outdoor sign switch has a tiny crack where the toggle enters the body. Not very big, but it’s the beginning of the end…

    If the rest of the box had an air-tight seal, then things would get really ugly. Diurnal pumping can suck enough water vapor in through that little hole to eventually fill the entire box with water. Long before then, though, the electrical gadgetry will corrode.

    Even though this sign seems to have plenty of openings around the lighted panels, the switch will eventually fail all by itself. Then they’ll likely throw the whole thing out; nobody fixes anything these days, right?

    Here’s a detail view.

    Switch boot - detail
    Switch boot – detail

  • They’re Not Redundant When One’s Broken

    Vassar College Chapel sump pumps
    Vassar College Chapel sump pumps

    The basement of the Vassar College Chapel has a mighty drainage sump, a pair of pumps, and a mass of old-school cast-iron plumbing. I’m not certain, but I think the greenish pipe coming in from the rear is storm drainage from one side of the building.

    Looks like they’ve got backup: two separate pumps and motors, with doubled plumbing on the ejection side.

    Vassar College Chapel sump pumps - broken float switch rod
    Vassar College Chapel sump pumps – broken float switch rod

    On closer inspection, however, you’ll see that the near-side float switch rod coming up through the cover is broken and bent; that motor will never turn on.

    One hopes this is deliberate, but the failed-off motor seems to be the newer / larger / less corroded of the two. We’ve had a lot of rain this summer, so I suppose if this was a problem, it would have already occurred.

    It’s always a good idea to have all your sump pumps ready to run, should you be in a position to need sump pumps in the first place. Believe me, it’s much easier to fix things when you’re not hip-deep in rising water!

  • Camouflaged Katydid

    Katydid on matching umbrella
    Katydid on matching umbrella

    This gadget appeared on an umbrella we’d left outdoors to dry.

    We wonder if the green surface seemed like a leaf…

  • The Decline of Literacy: Part Two

    Saw this in a somewhat downscale grocery store while chaperoning a Marching Band event.

    Hand Dryer Graffiti
    Hand Dryer Graffiti

    I’d give him (it’s a mens’ restroom) some bonus points, as I think he caught and corrected the error, but then there’s that “to”. Ouch.

    I ask you, though, what grade were you in when you learned how to spell “much”? I doubt you’ve had any trouble spelling it since then.

  • The Decline of Literacy: Part One

    Enunciator Panel Placard
    Enunciator Panel Placard

    Saw this one on the outside of an old-style school building while working as an Election Inspector in the recent primary.

    I’m guessing: the person who typed this up heard the word, but never encountered it in actual use.

    The correct word, of course, is annunciator, as defined there. Not exactly a homonym, but a pretty close match.

    Wrong word, used properly, and spelled correctly. It’s not like I’ve never made that sort of mistake, fer shure!

  • Forgotten Alkaline D-cell: Corrosion!

    Alkaline D-cell corrosion
    Alkaline D-cell corrosion

    Found this toxic spill while I was looking for a gadget on another shelf: it seems I left an alkaline D cell standing on my electronics parts & tools carousel for much too long.

    Amazingly, although the cell’s leakage blistered the paint pretty badly, it didn’t affect the steel carousel!

    I wiped most of the crud and dead paint off, then applied white vinegar (which is essentially dilute acetic acid) to neutralize the cell’s potassium hydroxide. The grabber tool sticking  out from between the boxes had a pretty good dose of corrosion up the side, but soaking it in vinegar (wow, the bubbles!) removed that and a shot of penetrating oil expelled the rinse water.

    It’s definitely not Duracell’s fault: the cell had a best-used-by date in 1997.

    Memo to Self: throw ’em out!

  • Verizon FiOS: Wheeling and Dealing

    So Verizon seem determined to spend as much money as it takes to bury us in FiOS Triple Play mailings. For the last few months, we’ve been getting at least one mailing a week with exactly the same offer. Perhaps they think we’ll eventually get fed up and buy the damned thing, although rumor has it that the offers keep coming even after you do that.

    Anyhow, I called the number (877-896-3354 this week) to ask:

    • How about selling us FiOS 15/5 Internet and Freedom Essentials (unlimited US residential VOIP) for $60/month for two years with no installation fee?
    • Failing that, put us on the Do Not Solicit list to shut off the junk mail

    Come to find out that:

    • Nope, the nice voice can’t dicker on the monthly price, but…
    • They’re willing to waive the installation fee ($50) without blinking
    • The fact that we don’t have a TV and aren’t interested in the Triple Play is a dealbreaker for them
    • The DNS list is just a checkbox on their display of my account: done!

    At this point we’re spending $50 for Optimum Online cable 13/2 (more or less) internet and nigh onto $30 for a Verizon landline phone without “long distance” calling (which we do by VOIP these days). They can do a bundle for something like $80/month with a brief teaser discount, but no better than that. So we’d wind up paying more for basically the same thing.

    After a pleasant conversation he asked if I would recommend Verizon to my friends & relations. I said “Absolutely not” and he asked if I wanted to talk to a Quality Assurance representative. Figuring it’d be good for a laugh, I said yes… and then went directly to the usual interminable wait-on-hold.

    The QA guy asked why I wouldn’t recommend Verizon, so I gave him a few reasons:

    • Their phone menu system is impenetrable
    • I often get mysteriously disconnected during intra-Verizon handoffs, particularly if I’m asking difficult questions
    • Nobody in their “customer support” phone tree can explain how much the “Other charges, taxes & terms” might add up to on a bundle deal: they can’t tell me what their service will cost!
    • Nobody at Verizon can explain the random charges / credits / debits / adjustments on my buddy Aitch’s wireless + Triple Play bill. He’s a smart guy; if he can’t figure it out, I certainly can’t.
    • Their pricing is not competitive; it’s more than we’re paying now for basically the same thing. Why switch?

    He actually tried to claim that I can’t get FiOS speeds from cable. I pointed out that the difference between 15/5 and 13/2 isn’t “This is FiOS. This is BIG!”, it’s just barely discernible and not guaranteed anyway. Oddly, in the last few months, Verizon has quietly bumped the base FiOS speed from 12/2 to 15/5, which I infer means they found that trying to sell a slower speed to cable customers wasn’t working out that well.

    I also infer this whole FiOS thing still isn’t going as well as they’d like. If it was, the incessant offers would stop.

    The QA guy said he’d call me back if they could do anything about the price; there’s evidently a New & Better Deal coming out in a few weeks. Of course, since we’re on the DNS list, we’ll never know…

    I told him here’s what it would take to get me to switch: paying less than $80/month for internet + phone. I figure $60 (plus the mystery charges) would save me maybe $10/month. I’ll geek for that if they don’t screw me over for installation and suchlike.

    Failing that, we may just shoot the landline in the head and go with the cheap prepaid cellphone deal. Google Voice seems to be a reasonable solution; I got a local number that’s very close to our current landline, so maybe it’s time to print up a stack o’ cards and send out some notices.