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?

  • 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?

  • Houses Are Trouble: Terwilliger House Windows

    Imagine “updating” these windows with modern high-efficiency glass:

    Terwilliger House - parallelogram windows
    Terwilliger House – parallelogram windows

    That’s the end wall of the 1738 Terwilliger House on the Locust Lawn site. I’m sure the woodwork doesn’t date back that far, but the glazier demonstrated genius-level mastery.

    We were on a fascinating behind-the-scenes tour, marred by a visitor who knew the rules about not touching the exhibits didn’t apply to her. My parents ran a restaurant / gift shop and, to this day, my hands automatically find their way into my pockets when I enter a store, let alone a museum.

  • Making the Asterisk Visible

    Spotted a new sign at the Van Wyck Road entrance to the Dutchess Rail Trail:

    DCRT at Van Wyck Rd - ATV Patrol sign
    DCRT at Van Wyck Rd – ATV Patrol sign

    The tiny print on the top sign still reads No Motorized Vehicles, but the bottom sign makes it explicit that that particular prohibition applies only to ordinary citizens.

    Which matches up with the Sheriff’s ATVs I spotted a weeks earlier:

    DCRT - Sheriff ATV Patrol - Page Park
    DCRT – Sheriff ATV Patrol – Page Park

    As of late May, the No All Terrain Vehicles signs were still up. Maybe they still are.

    According to the New York Times style guide and other reasonably erudite sources, the plural of ATV should be ATVS (or, if you have the luxury of mixed case, ATVs), not ATV’S.

  • Monthly Science: Mystery Chip

    Dragorn of Kismet gave me a handful of identical mystery chips that might date back to the 1980s. They’re surprisingly large and covered with contacts:

    Mystery IC - overview
    Mystery IC – overview

    There are no logos or identification anywhere on the chip. The back side is blank silicon.

    The visible patterns don’t suggest anything obvious:

    Mystery IC - detail 1
    Mystery IC – detail 1

    The metallization layers aren’t particularly intricate:

    Mystery IC - detail 2
    Mystery IC – detail 2

    Surely there’s something tucked under the top metallization; I have neither the materials nor inclination to dissolve the thing one layer at a time.

    I gave a sampling to our Larval Engineer, who says she may turn them into fancy jewelry. I’m sure the solder bumps contain lead, but …

  • Bring Enough Gun: M110 Self-Propelled Howitzer

    Spotted this in Salamanca NY:

    M110 Self-Propelled Howitzer - Salmanca
    M110 Self-Propelled Howitzer – Salmanca

    According to Wikipedia, the M110A2 8 inch / 203 mm Self-Propelled Howitzer became obsolete when improvements in smaller guns matched its range and firepower. The double-vent muzzle brake is diagnostic for the A2 model.

    It seemed an odd decoration for a town inside an Indian reservation; we didn’t stop to read the plaque.