Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.
I’m grinding uphill at about 5 mph on Jackson Drive, in the middle of the surprisingly good shoulder, with the bright-red Planet Bike taillight blinking away to the rear. I am not inconspicuous, but …
You’ll never see the one that kills you:
Near Miss – Jackson Drive – 2014-05-03 – 1
The speed limit is 40 mph = 60 ft/s. The door-to-shoulder clearance might have been the better part of a foot; the mirror didn’t quite clip my arm.
The license plate is legible in the original image, although I’ve blurred it here:
Near Miss – Jackson Drive – 2014-05-03 – 2
Adrenaline is wonderful stuff; I caught up with him at the next light … uphill and 1/3 mile later:
Near Miss – Jackson Drive – 2014-05-03 – 3
I said “Hey!” When he looked over, I explained I needed a face to go with the plate and pointed to the camera. He said he was really, really, really sorry.
I’ll not ascribe to malice what can be explained by distraction; if he wanted to hassle me, I’d be dead now. Most likely, it’s one of those distracted driving things that happens to all of us … to some, alas, far more frequently than to others.
Took a while for the shakes to stop.
Put down that damn phone / tablet / burger and pay attention!
[Update: Still images captured from the Sony HDR-AS30V helmet camera, recorded at 1920×1080 60 fps.]
The whole reason I got a 3D printer in the first place was to make things that would otherwise be too difficult or tedious by hand or on a CNC mill. Most of the things I make look like brackets and I don’t do sculptures … this stuff solves problems!
Being able to go from “I need a part shaped like that” to holding the thing in my hand a few hours (or, for complex designs, days) later is empowering. Being able to adjust a dimension by changing the source code and “recompiling” to get a new part is wonderful.
These five slides from the presentation show my answers to the question “Why would anyone want a 3D printer?” Clicky for more dots.
Things I Designed – 1Things I Designed – 2Things I Designed – 3Things I Designed – 4Things I Designed – 5
My original dimensions for the helmet mirror mount used three sections of the inspection mirror shaft, with a short length of the fattest tube screwed into the azimuth turret:
Mirror shaft – 2-56 stud
Each section has a pair of brass leaf springs applying just enough friction to hold the next-smallest tube in place, with a rolled crimp securing the springs and preventing the smaller section from pulling out. My first version used that short length of the largest section and the next (for Mary’s helmet) used only the two smallest tubes; it’s rapid prototyping at its finest, except that I rarely discard a prototype that actually works.
Late last year I managed to pull the shaft out of the base while adjusting the length and watched those two springs flutter to the ground beside me.
After finding both of them amid the usual roadside clutter, I swore a mighty oath that I’d epoxy the base of the middle tube into the larger one, eliminating one non-functional adjustment point:
Bike helmet mirror mount – epoxied stalk base
The heatstink tubing covers most of the evidence, but you can see a fillet of epoxy around the end.
After replacing the front wheel bearings, I replaced both pairs of brake pads. The rear brakes use holders with slide-in pads, but I’ve never been happy with the dinky little pins that retain the pads, so this time I’m using ordinary cotter pins:
V-brake pads – cotter pin retainer
The rear brake pads on a diamond-frame bike sit nearly horizontally on the seat stays, with the pin head pointed upward. On Tour Easy recumbents, the pads stand almost vertically on the chain stays, with the pins sideways:
Tour Easy rear brakes
That photo dates to 2010, when those brakes were new. Nary a pin has worked loose yet and I don’t expect they ever will, but …
If the pins rust before the pads wear out, I’ll go back to those little bitty OEM stainless pins.
Back in 2001, I specified Phil Wood hubs for our then-new Tour Easy recumbents, as I had absolutely no interest in fiddling with wheel bearings; been there, done that, it’s no fun at all.
Fast forward thirteen years, during which time I’ve done zero hub maintenance.
A few weeks ago, while backing my ‘bent out of the garage, the front wheel stopped rolling and skidded on the asphalt. Usually, that means a brake problem or something wedged between the wheel and the fender, but in this case, the axle itself jammed: the front bearings seized. I eased a bit of penetrating oil under the seals, the bearings began turning, and we continued the ride as planned.
A close look at the hub shows that, back in the day, Phil Wood used personalized bearings, made in Switzerland by WIB:
Phil Wood Front Bearing – view 2
Phil Wood is still in business and a brief email exchange produced the proper bearing number: PWX92, at $17 each. I bought a pair to show my support. It turns out that the new bearings are from NSK and aren’t personalized.
The listing shows that the generic part number is 6902 and gives the dimensions:
OD = 28 mm
ID = 15 mm
Width = 7 mm
I bought a lot of 10 6902RS2deep-groove bearings from VXB for $35.90 delivered, so that I can compare their performance with The Real Thing.
Use a pair of 5 mm hex wrenches to remove one of the end caps, then gently tap the aluminum axle out of the hub:
Phil Wood front axle and bearing
The grease inside looks as good as the day they installed it: no water leaked through the seals or past the races.
Having a lathe ready to hand, I grabbed the axle in the chuck and unscrewed the other cap:
Phil Wood front axle – in lathe chuck
Everything came apart easily!
I applied grease everywhere, slid a new bearing and its wave washer into place on the axle, aligned it with the hub bore, and pushed it halfway into place.
Rather than beat on the bearings, I conjured a simple adapter that let me use the quick-release skewer as a press to persuade the outer race into the hub recess:
Phil Wood front axle – improvised press
I stacked an old bearing between the skewer nut and the new bearing on the other side, with a fender washer to distribute the pressure on the old bearing. In general, you don’t want to press the bearings into place by applying pressure to the inner race, but in this case the pressure was so low that it probably didn’t matter.
With one bearing in place, remove the press, slide the second wave washer & bearing on the other end of the axle, install the press, push the bearing into place, tighten the end caps, and … it’s done!
Flushed with success, I repeated the operation on the front wheel of Mary’s bike. Those bearings felt better, but they turned with essentially no friction at all. That’s a sign the internal grease was pretty much gone and failure loomed over the horizon.
Cutting the seals out of the worst bearing from my bike showed water had gotten into the assembly:
Phil Wood axle bearing – interior
This is not how a bearing should look:
Phil Wood axle bearing – disassembled
The other bearing looked (and felt!) much better, but you always replace ’em in pairs.
Mary’s bike now has the new Phil Wood / NSK bearings, mine has the VXB bearings, and we’ll see what transpires. Both bikes sound much quieter, mine in particular, and I’m sure they roll better…
The rear tire on my bike needs replacing early this season, at which point I’ll dismantle the sprocket and install another two VXB bearings.
The Sony HDR-AS30V camera lens has a view angle of 120° or 170°, achieved by internal image processing rather than mechanical lens adjustments. For most action-camera purposes you don’t care about fisheye distortion, but sometimes a more rectilinear picture will look better, in which case the GIMP’s Lens Distortion filter comes in handy.
A still image at 120°, which doesn’t look all that bad, really:
Sony HDR-AS30V 120 angle – as captured
Applying Main=-25 gives this:
Sony HDR-AS30V 120 angle – corrected
A frame captured from video at 170°, with the overhead wires hanging upward:
Sony HDR-AS30V 170 angle – as captured
Applying Main=-25, Edge=-12.5, Zoom=+8 flattens them enough to be acceptable:
Sony HDR-AS30V 170 angle – corrected
The main effect of the Zoom parameter seems to be discarding the severely distorted remnants around the edges of the corrected 170° view. Sometimes, those pixels around the edges can be very, very important, so I’d rather make that decision after the fact.
For the purposes of this discussion, let’s assume you wanted to report a defective traffic signal near Poughkeepsie, NY. You know, from previous experience, that it’s on a New York State Road, so you should contact the New York State Department of Transportation; you also know that you’re in DOT Region 8 and that you’re in the Poughkeepsie Residency, so you can find the right DOT branch.
In this day and age, you might think the NYSDOT website would have a conspicuous link to a form that would let you report a problem. But, no.
Failing that, you might think the website would have a link to the number you should call. But, no.
Failing that, you might think that the search box would turn up useful results when fed the obvious keywords. But, no.
Failing that, you might think calling various likely numbers in the Region 8 offices would produce the proper number. I won’t list the half-dozen numbers I’ve uncovered using that method, as none of them actually go to the right place.
It is common for such numbers within NYSDOT to ring forever, regardless of the time of day or day of week. I am told that one number isn’t actually within DOT any more, so some poor schlub gets all their repair calls; it’s probably worse than having Rachael call you every day or two.
My favorite dead end: an answering machine message telling you it’s not monitored and calls will not be returned, then giving an incomprehensible number-to-call and the usual “Leave your name and number after the beep” message, then beeping.
To make a very long story very short, the Galactic Number that you call to report traffic signal problems on NYS DOT roads is:
914-742-6100
It’s not toll-free (not a big deal in this day and age, but, still) and, of course, you’ll get a contractor, so be polite & patient. Your call should generate a work order that will, in due time, dispatch a crew to repair the offending signal.
It will be exceedingly helpful if you can report the number on the side of the signal control box, for which Google Streetview may reveal what you can’t see from any legal or safe position:
Signal Control Box ID by Google Streetview
If you want to report a pothole, on the other hand, they’ve got a hotline for that:
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 