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.

Tag: Gardening

Growing and sometimes fixing

Onion Maggot Fly Sticky Trap Repair
One of the sticky traps absorbed a mighty blow during the season and its ski-pole mount snapped off. Rather then rebuild the whole thing, I decided to just epoxy the pieces together and stick a reinforcing plate on the bottom.

I added a pair of screw holes to the OpenSCAD model and produced a projection of the bottom layer:
```
if (Layout == "Projection") {
    projection(cut=true) {
        Attachment();
        Cap();
    }
}
```
Which looked like this:

Sticky Sheet Cage – projection

Cutting that shape from an adhesive sheet looks the same:

Onion Maggot Fly Trap – adhesive sheet

The somewhat raggedy large hole seems to come from OpenSCAD’s somewhat low-res SVG outline conversion.

Fill the broken part with epoxy:

Onion Maggot Fly Trap – epoxy ready

Clamp it together on a plate to keep the bottom aligned:

Onion Maggot Fly Trap – clamping

Cut an acrylic baseplate:

Onion Maggot Fly Trap – acrylic cut

Apply adhesive sheet to acrylic, stick it on the bottom of the cage, add a pair of stainless steel screws, and declare victory:

Onion Maggot Fly Trap – bottom view

We’ll see how long that lasts out in the garden next year …
2023-08-30
If the Shoe Fits

Backstory: Mary leaves her gardening shoes on a low shelf outside the back door to reduce indoor chaff.

Yesterday I heard an utterly uncharacteristic shriek from the patio, followed by hysterical laughter:

Toad in the Shoe

The Garden Toad (or one of its relatives) decided her shoe was a perfect place to spend the day.

It seems there is nothing quite like sticking your foot in your shoe and having a toad underfoot.

I deposited the toad in the garden and encouraged it to find some bugs for lunch.

All parties emerged unscathed from the experience and seemed much happier with more interpersonal space.

Perhaps it is one of the cellular toad‘s descendants?

Update: It’s actually a tree frog and this is not the end of the story.

2023-08-11
Craft Stick Plant Markers: Harvest Time

More craft stick markers followed the harvest home from Mary’s garden:

Craft stick markers – deterioration 2023-08

As before, all-caps names survive longer:

Craft stick marker – all caps 2023-08

Although the name looks intact, the last few letters have cracks and would have fallen apart in a while.

Pretty much as expected, thin wood markers are not forever.

2023-08-08
Dandelion Weeder Repair

This dandelion weeder was no match for the rugged weeds among the decorative grasses Mary planted along the road out front:

Dandelion Weeder – bent

You might expect the tang to extend well into the handle, but that’s not what you get in a cheap tool:

Dandelion Weeder – ferrule detail

The Bucket o’ Rod-like Materials had a rake handle about the right diameter, so I sawed off a suitable length, set up the steady rest with a bushing, and turned the end to match the ferrule:

Dandelion Weeder – end turning

Pound the ferrule into place and drill the new handle to fit the tang:

Dandelion Weeder – drilling setup

The handle seemed a bit raw and, as it was already chucked in the lathe, got a synthetic string wrap with clear epoxy coating:

Dandelion Weeder – string epoxy

The pourable epoxy is reaching the end of its shelf life, but seemed entirely suitable for the purpose. I wrapped two layers of string around the dry handle, laid paper over the lathe bed, slathered epoxy over the whole affair, and let the lathe turn dead-slow for most of the day to even out the coat.

The next day: hammer the blade mostly straight again, smear JB QuikWeld on the tang and into the hole, gently hammer them together, chuck the blade, apply more epoxy to the ends, and let it turn:

Dandelion Weeder – end epoxy

A careful inspection reveals my casual disregard of the finer points of tool handle craftsmanship, but it came out surprisingly pretty:

Dandelion Weeder – repaired

The blade remains the finest butter-soft cheap steel and still doesn’t extend the length of the handle, but Quality Shop Time™ is not to be sniffed at.

And, hey, nary a trace of 3D printing or laser cutting!

2023-08-07
Onion Maggot Fly vs. Sticky Traps: Season 3 Round 1
Six sticky traps have been out in Mary’s Vassar Farm onion bed from mid-April through mid-July, collecting onion maggot flies, other flying insects, and a bunch of shredded leaf mulch. Having just replaced all the sticky sheets, these are the results so far:
PXL_20230711_215255180 – VCCG Onion Maggot Trap F
PXL_20230711_215229538 – VCCG Onion Maggot Trap E
PXL_20230711_215159950 – VCCG Onion Maggot Trap D
PXL_20230711_215129817 – VCCG Onion Maggot Trap C
PXL_20230711_215041012 – VCCG Onion Maggot Trap B
PXL_20230711_215002214 – VCCG Onion Maggot Trap A
Each image is the front and back of a single sticky sheet flipped over left-to-right; I did not keep track of the original trap locations.

If you need the original camera images to get enough pixels for itemizing the smaller dots, let me know.
2023-07-21
Craft Stick Plant Markers: First Failure

Mary brought this back from the garden after it fell over while she was working in that plot:

Craft stick marker – rotted 2023-07

Another one returned a few days later in somewhat better shape:

Craft stick marker – deterioration 2023-07

We already knew lower-case letters were a bad idea and now we know a thin slab of untreated wood might survive two months when jammed into the ground.

Nothing unexpected, of course.

At least the lasering technique should come in handy for something else used in more salubrious conditions.

2023-07-11
Raccoons In the Night

The only reason we haven’t seen a standing raccoon is because we’re not awake when it happens:

Raccoons vs wheelbarrow – 2023-06-09

The glowing dot over on the far right is a third raccoon!

They are athletic critters:

Raccoons in wheelbarrow – 2023-06-09

Mary puts garden clippings in the wheelbarrow before hauling them over the hill to our organic dumping ground. Something must smell pretty good in there:

Raccoons around wheelbarrow – 2023-06-09

The wire mesh over the new plantings in the garden seems to be holding them at bay, but it must come off before it snares the growing plants. We hope whatever is in the fertilizer will have worn off by then!

2023-06-15