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?

End of the Sienna

Although I knew the Sienna showed signs of a leaky head gasket, the exhaust system needed some attention, and a sporty used car recently put it in the shade, this still came as a surprise:

I’m trying to get a crew … together and live the demolition derby dream

By the time I arrived, the dashboard trim had vanished and the air bags were safely out:

Demolition Derby – Sienna dashboad prep

Diligent application of a Harbor Freight “Professional Windshield Removal Kit” cut through the side window seals, but the rear window rested on four impossible-to-cut locating studs:

Sienna – rear window locating stud

I managed to pry the glass off using a Gasket Scraper and considerable muttering.

With all the exterior trim, lights, and mirrors gone, the Sienna was in fine race trim:

Sienna – Demo derby race trim

But, being no longer street-legal, it required trailering. For the record, not all huge pickup trucks have bulky guys with pot bellies behind the wheel:

Demolition Derby – Tow Vehicle Rental

A few hours later, it was in the Short Track Full Size pack at the Upperco Volunteer Fire Company’s Demolition Derby:

Sienna at Upperco VFC Demolition Derby – start

The driver required a few laps to shake off years of safe-driving indoctrination:

Sienna – Demolition Derby – running alone – 2018-04-28

But eventually the spirit of the thing took over:

Sienna – Demolition Derby – right crunch – 2018-04-28

We now know the transmission oil cooler sat just ahead of the left front wheel, where it was exposed to damage by a glancing collision:

Sienna – Demolition Derby – left crunch – 2018-04-28

The Sienna finished the race and made it almost all the way to the trailer before bleeding out through the ATF cooler.

The driver emerged in fine shape, although the door didn’t work nearly as well as it had fifteen minutes earlier:

Sienna – Driver exiting Van – 2018-04-28

A race staffer in a Bobcat aimed the carcass in the right general direction and shoved it onto the trailer for the return to base:

Sienna – Final Trailer Tiedown – 2018-04-28

You can find shaky low-res camera action documenting the event, because video-or-it-didn’t-happen.

We piled the windows / parts / detritus into the back, a scrapper hauled it away the next morning, and that’s the end of our Sienna’s story.

Toyota sold a lot of Siennas, which means the Hot Topics list over on the right will show a need for Sienna ABS trouble codes long into the future.

In fact, the adjacent motel slot had a disconcerting sight:

Yet Another Sienna

I think it was a 2001 model, but …

2018-05-08
Zeiss Ikon Ikoflash 4

A flash gun is hard to beat for straight-up nostalgia:

Zeiss Ikon Ikoblitz 4 – box

This Zeiss Ikon Ikoblitz 4 is in fine shape:

Zeiss Ikon Ikoblitz 4 – front

And no more grubby than one might expect after all those decades:

Zeiss Ikon Ikoblitz 4 – back

I distinctly remember Flash Guide Numbers:

Zeiss Ikon Ikoblitz 4 – guide-number calculator

The red dial scale has the Guide Numbers (aperture × feet) and the lower black dial scale gives the lens apertures. The manual doesn’t mention the black figures above the red Guide Numbers; they’re metric Guide Number (aperture × meters), which would have been obvious back in the day.

The tidy shell slides off when you release a latch in the back:

Zeiss Ikon Ikoblitz 4 – front – stowed

Then the reflector unfurls:

Zeiss Ikon Ikoblitz 4 – front unfurled

Mirabile dictu, the previous owner removed the 15 V “hearing aid” battery (Eveready 504, 60 mA·h in the 504A alkaline version) before storing the flash, leaving the contacts in pristine condition:

Zeiss Ikon Ikoblitz 4 – CR123A test fit

A 3 V CR123A primary lithium cell snaps perfectly into the battery holder, which I define as a Good Omen: a dab of circuitry could turn this into self-powered and highly attractive Art. This would be one of the very few applications well-suited for the coldest blue-white LEDs.

One could adapt an A23 12 V alkaline battery (33 mA·h) to the holder, at the cost of half the capacity.

The silver shield just to the left of the battery conceals a 250 μF (!) nonpolarized capacitor.

One could build a bayonet-base (GE #5 / Press 25) adapter or poke a doodad with a 9 mm cylindrical base into the M2 bulb adapter (unrelated to my M2 printer):

Zeiss Ikon Ikoblitz 4 – bulb adapter

Herewith, the Zeiss Ikon Ikoblitz 4 – Instruction Manual, should you need more details.

This hardware may be a progenitor of Gibson’s vat-grown Zeiss Ikon eyes.

2018-05-07
RF Controlled Area Warning

Spotted this at the top of a motel stairwell:

RF Controlled Area – roof access warning

More detail:

RF Controlled Area – detail

The antennas face away from the hatch, so it’s not as if the RF would shear you off as you climbed through:

Hampton Inn – RF Controlled Area – cell sector antennas

I wonder if the hatch atop Vassar Main sports a similar warning …

2018-05-06
Digital Chicken

Because you get white eggs from white chickens and brown eggs from brown chickens (*), this one came from a brown chicken with the digital option:

Date-coded brown egg

The egg matched the carton date stamp, so this must be an additional part of the process.

Some casual searching shows egg shell printing is a production-line thing.

I suppose RFID-per-egg will eventually be the Next New Thing.

(*) Yes, and chocolate milk from brown cows. Work with me on this, OK?

2018-05-05
Heavy Hauling

A recent road trip presented this spectacle in the first Pennsylvania rest step on northbound I-83 (clicky for many more dots, then scroll to see it all):

Heavy Hauling – panorama mid

It’s a 150 Ton Flat and Depressed Well 19 Axle Trailer, including four axles on the front truck:

Heavy Hauling – front

Another truck on the rear pushes uphill and provides lateral control downhill:

Heavy Hauling – panorama rear

The weight block on the rear truck provides more traction, because friction depends on normal force.

The PA transportation folks were verifying the overall weight and per-axle distribution by weighing three axles at a time:

Heavy Hauling – weight check

Each scale has a 20 k pound range:

Heavy Hauling – weight check – detail

The ones I saw reported 10-14 k pounds, so figure 24 k pounds per axle, then multiply by 19 to get 456 k pounds overall.

The driver of the lead escort vehicle said the tarp covers a machined steel assembly weighing around 200 k pounds, with a total “vehicle” weight a bit under 500 k pounds. This is the second of four similar loads going from the Port of Baltimore to somewhere in Ohio where they’re assembling a huge press. It seems American manufacturing is still a thing.

They’ll be driving for four or five days from Port o’ Baltimore to Ohio, following a route described in excruciating detail on four pages of notes, plus another 16 pages of permits for the series of bridges rated to carry however many axles will be on them simultaneously.

Some searching produced a video of a similar load in transit, perhaps on the same trailer. Another video shows a different trailer jockeying into position beside a ferry (!).

For the folks involved, it was just another day at the office.

2018-05-03
Monthly Science: As Seen On Radio

This showed up when I looked at our APRS tracks after a recent ride:

Balloon chase – KJ5HY-9

Poking around a bit showed the target:

Balloon chase – W2KGY-12

Contrary to what I thought, it didn’t come up the Hudson River from West Point:

Balloon chase – W2KGY-12 track – 2018-04-21 to 2018-04-24

Knowledge of the Universal Law of the Conservation of Perversity informs you a balloon will never land in the middle of a putting green:

Balloon chase – W2KGY-12 landing site

Apparently the launch is part of a regular class project at West Point. Good clean fun!

2018-05-01
Roadside Debris: Cannabis Energy Drink

Spotted this on Rt 376 during a ride around the block:

Cannabis Energy Drink – roadside debris

A “Cannabis Energy Drink” without the obvious active ingredient seems like deceptive marketing to me, but, apparently, there was no law against that, even here in New York State.

It’s becoming obvious I don’t get out nearly enough.

2018-04-30