You can’t make this stuff up:
Surely, somebody already uses them for Halloween cosplay, but stuff like that is just crazy talk…
Category: Oddities
Who’d’a thunk it?
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3D Printer Platform Alignment: Details Matter
Being that type of guy, I measure the single-layer skirt threads to keep track of the platform alignment. Most of the time, nothing happens, because the M2 has a remarkably stable platform, but some of the objects I’d done in early August showed more than the usual variation and, worryingly, no discernible trend.
Successive sets of thinwall hollow boxes showed the instability:
M2 Alignment measurements – 2015-08-09 – 1 Adjusting the platform alignment between each of those sets produced no consistent effect, which is most unusual. The X in the bottom set shows where that thinwall box came unstuck from the platform, indicating that the clearance was considerably more than the nominal 0.25 mm layer height.
Peering under platform revealed something else that was quite unusual:
M3 washer – bad seating That washer should be flat against the spider mounting plate. My first thought was a burr on the plate, but that didn’t make any sense, as the plate was clean & smooth when I installed the platform; I’d enlarged those holes with a fine file and would have checked for burrs as part of that operation.
Removing the
screwnut and extracting the washer revealed the true problem:
M3 washer with burrs It’s a bad washer!
Tossing that one in the trash and installing a good washer put everything in order:
M3 washer – proper seating Well, that’s after re-doing the alignment to un-do the previous flailing around, of course.
As nearly as I can tell, that washer sat there without causing any trouble since I installed the hotrod platform. or, more likely, when I repaired a failed screw. In late July I poked the platform to measure how much it moved under pressure, which apparently dislodged the washer and put the burr in play.
That’s how sensitive a 3D printer is to mechanical problems…
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Craftsman 1231.3817 Power Hammer: Fire in the Hole!
For reasons that aren’t relevant here, I had to reinforce some old basement stairs. Rather than drilling holes, sinking anchors, and installing screws, I just nailed painted 2×4 strips to the foundation using this Craftsman 1231.3817 Power Hammer, which is not available in a Sears / Kmart near you:
Sears Craftsman Power Hammer It’s a handheld gun that drives two inches of hardened steel nail into solid concrete by firing what looks like an overstuffed 0.22 Short blank cartridge: load a nail, fit a cartridge, press the muzzle firmly against the target, and whack the butt end with a hammer.
Worked like a champ. Scary as you’d imagine.
If the nail stands proud of the surface, you can hit it again with a low(er) power load to drive it the rest of the way. Sometimes that sinks it below the surface, leaving a cylindrical pit. In the situations where I use this thing, nobody will ever notice.
It’s similar to the Remington Model 476 Powder Actuated Fastening Tool (manual), which you can get from Amazon and surely other vendors; fancier versions also exist. Equally surely, they’re illegal in some jurisdictions.
I have reason to use it every few decades, which is entirely enough for me…
Wear goggles, earplugs, gloves, and don’t get stupid.
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Invisible Asterisk: Motorized Sidewalk Traffic
From the NYS DMV:
You cannot register or operate any of the motorized devices from the list below on any street, highway, parking lot, sidewalk or other area in New York State that allows public motor vehicle traffic. You may be arrested if you do.
[List of things]
Golf Cart (also referred to as Golf Car or Neighborhood Electric Vehicle) – a small motorized device with four wheels designed to carry people. You can’t register a golf cart as an ATV. Many low speed vehicles are similar in appearance to a golf cart, and can be registered and driven on New York State highways. 1
[More things]
1. For a low speed vehicle to be registered in New York
- it must meet federal motor vehicle safety standard 500 (49 CFR 571.500)
- its maximum performance speed must be certified by the manufacturer
- it must appear on the list of approved limited use vehicles
With that in mind, here’s a fairly common sight along Raymond Avenue…
Raymond Avenue 2015-07-14 – Vassar Golf Cart – approach 
Raymond Avenue 2015-07-14 – Vassar Golf Cart – front 
Raymond Avenue 2015-07-14 – Vassar Golf Cart – crossing Vassar College regards as Raymond as its private driveway, with its fleet of golf-cart-class and tiny-pickup vehicles traveling the web of sidewalks and pedestrian crossings on and off campus. In point of fact, Vassar does own all of the property on both sides of Raymond from Hooker to Collegeview, but Raymond itself unquestionably has “public motor vehicle traffic”.
Vassar’s Annual Sidewalk Sodding Week occurs shortly before their graduation / alumnae homecoming ceremonies. The sidewalks and paths obviously weren’t designed for shared vehicular & pedestrian use, so the cart tires gouge unsightly ruts along the pavement edges; the sod prevents those muddy strips from marring the festivities.
The concrete sidewalks along Raymond take a beating from the vehicles, too, but the overall concrete quality (or lack thereof) may have something to do with that.
This spiffy tiny-pickup golf cart used by the NYS OPRHP sports a Limited Use Auto plate:
Limited Use Auto 2015-08-21 It’s sucking a socket at the west end of the Walkway Over the Hudson.
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Monthly Image: Hudson Valley Balloon Festival Over Red Oaks Mill
I walked out for milk just after 6 am one morning and confronted an aerial assault force:
Hot Air Balloons over Red Oaks Mill The Balloon Festival had a mass launch from the Dutchess County Airport just before I reached the end of the driveway on Sunday, 12 July 2015 …
Hot Air Balloons over Red Oaks Mill – view from ROM Surely, a good time was had by all!
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Butt Fire!
As I rolled into the Stewart’s Shop on a milk-and-eggs run, a plume of smoke spiraled out of the cigarette butt station near the door, way off on the left side:
Smoldering Cigarette Dump A closer look:
Smoldering Cigarette Dump – Detail By the time I unhitched myself from the bike and reached the door, two smoke jets squirted from the top and a pall of breathtakingly foul smoke filled the parking lot. I mooched a big cup of water from the folks behind the counter and pulled off the container’s lid, which let in enough oxygen to ignite a full-up fire in the heap of cigarette packs, plastic wrappers, butts, lottery tickets, receipts, and other combustible junk atop the sand bucket in the base of the butt dump. Sprinkling the water over the blaze knocked it back; I replaced the lid and declared victory.
I always take a shower after returning home from a ride, but, this time, we also ran all my bike clothing through the washer right away.
Phew…
Verily, it is written: Kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray.
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Relics of the Empire: Electrometer Resistors
From Russia, probably without love, routed through Bulgaria via eBay:
Electrometer resistors – wrapped They’re glass electrometer resistors from late in the Cold War:
Russian 100 G electrometer resistor That one presents 100 GΩ between its lead wires, which would count as open in any other circuit I’ve ever built.
The assortment arrived much richer than advertised, although I’d be even happier with a few more 10 GΩ and a few less 100 MΩ resistors. The 1000 GΩ = 1 TΩ resistor in the upper right seems absurd on the face of it, but there it sits.
I have no way to measure these, other than to build an electrometer amp and see what happens…
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 