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.

The New Hotness

  • Roof Rake

    If they think you’re crude, go technical; if they think you’re technical, go crude. I’m a very technical boy. So I decided to get as crude as possible. These days, thought, you have to be pretty technical before you can even aspire to crudeness.

    William Gibson — Johnny Mnemonic

    Now that the trees have shed most of their leaves / needles, it’s time to get the accumulation off the roof edges. Fortunately, the upstairs windows overlook the biggest piles and, after I considered and rapidly rejected the notion of using the wind stick, Mary convinced me a roof rake would suffice by deploying a too-short broom.

    After considering and rejecting several decreasingly elaborate variations of 3D-printed pole-to-pusher-plate adapter nonsense that almost involved our pole saw, this happened:

    Roof Rake - in use
    Roof Rake – in use

    The wood pole comes from a left-behind assortment atop the garage’s open ceiling joists and the pusher plate comes from the cardboard box treasure trove.

    A laser cutter makes close-fitting rings and hot-melt glue sticks those plates together with gleeful abandon:

    Roof Rake - detail
    Roof Rake – detail

    The blue-and-white cardboard plate consists of two box flaps glued together, the glued-up stack of half a dozen rings transfers the torque from the plate to the pole, and the whole affair took the better part of fifteen minutes from idea to cool-enough glue.

    It’s back on the garage joists for next year, unless we decide that pole has a higher purpose in life. Worst case, it loses two inches of length.

    Bonus: Chore accomplished before the predicted weekend snowfall!