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?

  • 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
    Smoldering Cigarette Dump

    A closer look:

    Smoldering Cigarette Dump - Detail
    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.

  • Relics of the Empire: Electrometer Resistors

    From Russia, probably without love, routed through Bulgaria via eBay:

    Electrometer resistors - wrapped
    Electrometer resistors – wrapped

    They’re glass electrometer resistors from late in the Cold War:

    Russian 100 G electrometer resistor
    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…

  • Green Grass Location: Goat Edition

    Just because it’s a cliché doesn’t make it wrong:

    Goats vs. fence - green grass
    Goats vs. fence – green grass

    Spotted at the U-Pick Blueberry Field Formerly Known As Secor’s.

  • LED Sign Display Driver Glitch

    Spotted this while walking out for supper after a day at the CNC Workshop:

    Motel LED sign glitch - 1
    Motel LED sign glitch – 1

    Then it got worse:

    Motel LED sign glitch - 2
    Motel LED sign glitch – 2

    The lower left block remained fixed throughout the glitzy scrolling / rolling / blinking updates in the sign’s repertoire:

    Motel LED sign glitch - 3
    Motel LED sign glitch – 3

    The affected block is 64 pixels tall and, at a guess, 128 pixels wide. Looks like a module enable failure…

  • On the Cutting Edge of Metal Recycling

    A semitrailer load of scrap metal pulled into an I-90 rest stop just after we arrived:

    Metal scrap trailer - Cutting edge
    Metal scrap trailer – Cutting edge

    Apparently, they dump the scrap into the trailer from a great height and, sometimes, a bar can gash the aluminum side wall. That slice obviously predates the current load, but you can see how it happened: dump a load atop a bar leaning against the side and you get a giant metal shear.

    The trailer also had several puncture wounds:

    Metal scrap trailer - Puncture wounds
    Metal scrap trailer – Puncture wounds

    I didn’t notice the circular feature at the bottom center until I looked at the picture, but it certainly reminded me of a bullet hole in glass plate. Close inspection of the original image suggests it’s a welded stress relief border around a drilled hole, perhaps with a boss on the inside of the trailer:

    Metal scrap trailer - Welded hole
    Metal scrap trailer – Welded hole

    Ya never know what you’ll find out on the road…

  • Monthly Image: Sunset Over Lake Erie

    We spent a pleasant evening hour walking & sitting on the town beach in North East PA on our way back from Detroit:

    Sunset over Lake Erie - North East PA
    Sunset over Lake Erie – North East PA

    The entire area smells strongly of the grapes that grow well in the hilly terrain south of Lake Erie. A local expert said that Welch’s (a major local employer) moved its CHQ to Concord MA to put a better hometown name on the company’s letterhead; being based in North East evidently didn’t have the same ring.

  • These Are Not the Book Drops You Are Looking For

    The Vassar Library could be a model for J.K. Rowling’s work:

    Vassar Library - front
    Vassar Library – front

    A closer look at the jarringly contemporary containers along the mid-left edge of that picture:

    Vassar Library - Trash and recycling containers
    Vassar Library – Trash and recycling containers

    Pop quiz: How many books did they find in the trash before they added the placards?

    Bonus: How much did that reduce the burn rate? It’s surely still nonzero, because nobody reads instructions. Right?

    Double bonus: Does the real book drop sport a “This is NOT a trash can” placard?