Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.
A postcard arrived last week telling me to call a special number for special deals on Medicare Advantage plans. Being that type of guy, I managed to read the microscopic Fine Print and found this amusing blooper amid the disclaimers weasel wording:
Medicare Advantage mail spam
Inserting insurance carrier names should have happened before printing the card, so [CarrierA] and [CarrierB] are either placeholders or mail-merge variables.
Also, you’re seeing the contrast-blown and magnified version of the postcard. The original Fine Print had faint orange ink on light green cardstock: colors having different hues with the same saturation and value to minimize legibility. In general, folks eligible for Medicare Advantage plans have trouble reading Fine Print, so the choice was not accidental.
Every few days this month, a Korean company has sent identical spam email messages to a series of plausible, albeit unused, addresses at softsolder dot com:
As a forward-thinking hotel, we know you prioritize cleanliness and guest satisfaction. That’s why we’re excited to introduce Harington, an advanced sterilization device designed to provide 99.99% bacteria and germ elimination for toilets, ensuring the highest standards of hygiene for your guests.
The dotted rectangle in the lower left corner is the (turned off) front light in my low-budget light box and the glare in the upper left comes from the overhead basement LED strip lights.
AFAICT, “metallic paper” consists of shiny aluminum film bonded to heavy paper / cardstock, with transparent colored film bonded atop the aluminum. The sheet is, of course, highly reflective, which looks dark unless it’s reflecting a bright surface, like the well-lit Sewing Room ceiling:
Metallic layered paper – vs art paper
I made the bright Pyrotechnics block in the upper left with art paper that looks bright & cheerful in any lighting:
Metallic layered paper – art paper Pyrotechnics block
The previous layout of Rt 376 had two lanes approaching the Raymond Avenue intersection from the south (from the right in this rotated & ruthlessly contrast-blown Google Maps screenshot):
Rt 376 at Raymond – prior two-lane striping
The right lane is marked Only ↱ for the Raymond intersection, starting just past the Vassar Security Office entrance in the top middle of the screenshot.
Given this preliminary striping with faded Only ↱ markings, one might assume a similar lane layout is in effect for the new traffic circle at the intersection:
Vassar Security Office Lane – A
The lighting poles may seem snugly placed, but not too much out of the ordinary:
Some drivers seem concerned at this point:
Vassar Security Office Lane – C
With any luck, they can swerve back into what is the only lane going all the way to the circle, because the right lane is dedicated to Vassar Security Office traffic:
Vassar Security Office Lane – D
If you happen to be walking southbound, toward the traffic, in the middle of the shoulder beyond the turn lane, you will look that driver directly in the eye, as happened to me while walking back from Mary’s garden.
As I mentioned last week, my money says that first lamp post, the one with the barrel guarding it, won’t survive the year.
Given the utter lack of pedestrian facilities (f.k.a. “sidewalks”) south of the circle, I can only hope the road furniture will absorb all the damage / fatalities.
Our Young Engineer recently rebuilt the cover of a “vintage” drawing kit, with fabric pockets for protractors & scales and real leather hinges, thereby raising a long-procrastinated project to the top of my to-do list:
TEC Drawing Set – top old
I know my father used it when he took drafting after high school in 1929. His penmanship and drawing ability were up to par well before that.
The inside sports a TEC logo:
TEC Drawing Set – open old
Some searching revealed it’s a No. 718 Drafting Set from the Technical Supply Company of Scranton and appeared in their 1913 catalog:
TEC Brand Catalog p68
The printing on the inside of the flap differs, but the logo has TEC in the middle.
My father did not attend college and, in the teeth of The Great Depression, $26.50 was certainly too spendy for his family:
CPI Calculator – 1929 to 2025
When the catalog was printed in 1913, No. 718 cost the equivalent of $862.82. Nowadays, similar sets once again cost about twenty bucks on eBay, which tells you something about economics.
In retrospect, I should have used two leather snaps, but three would be excessive.
I folded the Kraft-Tex flat across a steel scale to make the first folds around the base, then finger-crimped folds at the top of the base with subsequent crisping around the scale:
TEC Drawing Set – open new
The underside of the original case seemed stable:
TEC Drawing Set – case bottom
This may be sacrilege, but I saw no point in peeling the bottom just to cover it up,so I stuck the Kraft-Tex in place with a rectangle of adhesive sheet.
It doesn’t look the same, but it still gives me a warm feeling.
It still has the tiny wrench needed to adjust all its screws:
TEC Drawing Set – wrench
It’s on 0.1 inch graph paper and is 40 mil = 1 mm thick, should you want to make your own. The blades taper down to essentially a knife edge, which is why it’s made from hard blue steel.
I remember being fascinated by that little pig when I was a pup.
Putting some scraps to good use, I stuck a cushion in the anvil for the next time I punch down a leather snap:
Apparently they excavated around the smashed bases and sawed off the conduits:
Street Lamp Base – sawed conduit
Then they yoinked the concrete cylinders, installed new bases, re-connected the conduits, cast more concrete, and installed the posts:
Street Lamp Base – Rombout House Ln – detail
I think the two “Signal” box covers flush with the surface on either side of Rombout House Lane lie just beyond the edges of what will eventually be the repaved road at the intersection.
Street Lamp Base – Rombout House Ln – overview
Given how much damage the base at that intersection encountered, my visualization of the Cosmic All says that pole will not survive the year unless they install a few well-spaced bollards.
There’s another pole on the other side of the road I expect will have a full-on collision, too.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
