I vist the 1970's and George's Derailleur

Last Sunday we visited Issac, Hannah and Kiko for Hannah's baby shower (she had us all bring compost). They live in a cob house (mud hut) way off in the hills. The oven on the right was busy baking pizzas.


To my jaded eyes it was just like a page out of the Whole Earth Catalog

Henry and Max, cute.

Henry and Max, serious.

I brought the camera over to Kent's open shop night. George brought his latest project, an aluminum and titanium hand crafted derailleur. The only parts he didn't make were the sprockets. All the screws and pins are titanium. He roughed it out with a mill and lathe and did the rest with files and a jewelers sawframe.

George is a retired machinist who works on all sorts of fun projects: an electric trike, a stirling engine that runs on ice, and a rifle are his latest. I should really go to his house and take some more pics...He knows how to make anything as far as I can tell. I basically channeled him when doing my dishwasher handle.

Notice the style...

The hex holes were broached with a sharpened allen wrench and the bench vise.
I should bring my camera every night.

Fun and Food

I pump 60 psi into a 2 litre bottle filled halfway with water

I pull the trigger, you can just make out a column of water streaming down from the bottle as it flies into the sky.
Yes, water rockets! They went at least 60 feet up, and flew all over the property due to lack of fins and a strong wind. One is in the middle of a patch of poison oak, where I left it....Henry loved it, Max was a bit frightened.

Henry amused, Max confused.

Two in jammies, but I'm the most tired.

Our friend Yodit delivered several days worth of Injera and assorted dishes thereon, she is currently my favorite person in the world. She just called up and said "I'm bringing you some food"! The spicy hard boiled egg is my favorite!

This is a book you can buy me. His illustrations in The Circus of Dr. Lao were mindblowing when I read it in my childhood.

Shapeaholic's Workshop, all things shaper-ey.

Dishwasher Fun

The handle on our Maytag dishwasher broke for the 2nd time the other day...

The above is the first handle, note how all the hinge pins sheared off...

The above is the 2nd handle. Notice the redesign with a dowel pin molded into the handle for the broken hinge pin. Unfortunately they used some tiny supports for the pin in the mold that left small holes in the plastic - which were akin to perforations and led to the handle breaking again, and the pin on the right actually pulling out (and probably getting sucked into the pump, but I haven't heard any bad noises as yet)

I laid out the bits of a piece of aluminum that weren't the handle and milled them away

This was more like machine assisted sculpting than precision machining...

I then laboriously filed away all the bits that were not a handle.

And believe it or not I made a handle that snapped into place and works great!

Felice just got back with a replacement handle from our local and wonderful appliance store. I won't install it unless the aluminum one fails. Notice this is a third design, with only one large hole for pin support (one assumes the pin was supported also in the mold at the end where it sticks out) on each side. I'll have to make a real drawing of this in case I ever have to make another one. I wish Maytag had worked out the bugs in the design before selling me the washer...

Henry has some Matzoh ball soup.

Henry hunts eggs indoors as it was hailing all day. Notice the seasonal Easter basket.

Here's a good DIY CNC site.

Who knew so many Japanese soldiers ended up in Russia? You could make a good movie out of this story.

Nerdy stuff

A customer emailed needing a way to make a custom thread for some optics, so after some thought I recommended thread milling. But I can't recommend something without trying it out, can I?


A 4 flute hand tap with 3 of the cutting edges ground off to make a one flute thread mill.


A hole produced by thread milling.

So my customer will save the $200 for a custom tap, after he does some headscratching of his own....

In other nerdy news, I installed SuSE linux earlier this week. I had no real reason, except that my old PC was being neglected. I need to reinstall though as it was a dual boot and windows isn't working well after the installation...also I can't log onto the linux box from XP...Linux may be free and cool, but it's more of a pain to setup networking, as you can see here than it was in Windows...at least for me, who knows nothing of the underlying mechanisms of either.
(not to be taken as an attack in Linux, which is neat and has lots of free software...)

Here is how to grind a drillbit for drilling plastic.

Here is my friendly local gun shop.

Max is One

Happy Birthday Max! 04/03/06 One Year Old.

Mmmmm, cake!

Old age and youth.

Henry has been painting his cars, I can hardly wait to start building and painting models with him!

Two happy, suspciously so, boys.

So we had a successful birthday party for Max, although all the children that attended now have various ailments which I'm assuming they contracted somewhere else. That's my story.
The house is full of mylar (the balloon that never dies) ballons, some sent by my mother, others purchased at the dollar store for, um, a dollar. The effect is somewhat like being 3 feet below the surface of a multicoloured sargasso sea, or jellyfish convention.

At the dollar store the guy ahead of me had a total purchase of $2.50. That confused me until Felice revealed that things at the dollar store can cost less than a dollar, just not more. (she now confesses that in a Cliff Claven moment she just made that up, it may not be true...)

I finally put something up on Ebay a few days ago. Why I even bought it in the first place is a mystery, but that someone has bid is a miracle. I think my description is accurate.

If you watch "Lost", this will help.

I was reminded of the Maparium a week ago, it is a wonder.

I am trying to figure out which "mini DV" camcorder to buy - if anyone has any hints about what is a good or bad brand/model, I'd love to hear about it, I'm trying to spend less than $400.

Felice stayed home from the market yesterday, although the promised rain never arrived I think we all needed a day off. This morning I fixed the door to Max and Henry's bedroom, it didn't engage the striker, so I filed the opening slightly larger using a square bastard file.

Then I started the DR mower up, and after much cursing and my determination that I did have spark, gas and air it finally roared to life. I also killed a sleepy yellowjacket, who was sitting in the shed toolbox, with a ball peen hammer. I used to feel guilty killing yellowjackets when slow moving but now I kill without compunction. We have too many in our neighborhood.

The other day while driving to the post office, I glimpsed a stray dog wandering alongside the road, as I came closer I realized that it was a stray goat! I love rural living.

March Non-madness.

March Sanity doesn't sound as good. Max has been sleeping in his crib for the past few days, with very little waking. Not that I'm not still exhausted, but at least I don't feel as close to collapse.

Henry sick, Max demented, Daddy tired.

Henry is one cool dude.


I finally finished my 3D milling article It was picked up by the Make blog which doubled my daily bandwidth useage for a few days. They love little projects like this, those crazy Make people.

Market starts the 1st of April and going by Henry's tantrum today when Felice slipped out for a checkup, I'm pretty much in for trouble.

Watched the first two episodes of the new Dr. Who, pretty well done with a bit of Hitchhiker/Brazil added to the classic style. I also watched "Chan is Missing", Wayne Wang's first(?) film, which was a great little detective/identity film.

I cleaned out a Thomas Train yesterday (see the Brio train cleaning also)

Housing opened up (make a triangular screwdriver to remove the two screws)

Disgusting hair wrapped up in gear train.

Motor removed, take care not to break the wires.

Notice the gear units can just be popped out for cleaning...I used a dental pick and tweezers to clean out all the hair and dirt. It now works fine.

Other than that, just work and children...

Links:
elonka.com (cryptology...)
Sandbaggers fan site.
Siris, my latest favorite blog...
Milling machine maintenance.
The John Street Roundhouse (Toronto)
Internet Acronym Server

Adrenaline Rush

I narrowly avoided an annoying fender bender today in the post office parking lot. I started to pull out and the woman in the space oppposite started to pull out. I was looking behind me, she was not. She kept coming towards our car which was just out of the space, so I slammed the car into drive and actually burned rubber (not just metaphorically, I was burning rubber!) back into my space. The woman didn't even notice and just pulled out of the parking lot.


Henry recreates the woman's abandon in pulling out.

Henry and Max, a calm microsecond...
We had Max's adoption papers notarized today at the bank. Only a few more hoops to jump through and unless we win the lottery we are done with this whole adoption michegas.

Henry was cleaning the bathroom mirror (which made more of a mess...), I went in to check on him and he was cleaning the electrical outlet with a wet rag. We do have GFCI, so it probably wasn't that dangerous, but I gave him a stern lecture on electricity...

I have been working on a little article for my webpage about 3D milling, here is a sneek preview:

3D model in Rhino, 1.125"x1.125"x.25"

Roughing pass on the CNC mill, coarse stepover.

Finishing pass, .002" stepover.

Finished wax.

Not much of a preview, that is pretty much the whole thing, but I'll flesh it out...

Links:
I need a Minisort. Ok, I probably don't need one, given what is probably an astronomical cost, but it would be handy...

Wooden Ship Modelling for Dummies (Mom, it's a Canadian site!)

This is the lake where I went to summer camp.

I like Potato Chips

I'm eating Kettle brand Salt and Pepper chips. I couldn't be more satisfied.
First, some pictures of the boys:

Hi Max!

Henry can fit into very small spaces. I should have him start training with David Blaine, or a ring of jewel thieves. I think I could mail him anywhere in a Priority Mail flat rate box.

Notice how white teeth are when you are young, and how dingy they are when you are old and decrepit.

Henry deploys his hair.


So, as I said I am eating Kettle brand Salt and Pepper chips. While I would have more black pepper taste, they are possibly the best chip flavour ever.

I almost had to serve jury on what promised to be a three day medical malpractice trial last tuesday but I was again cut from the team. I am beginning to think I am not the ideal juror in either the state's or the public's eye. I met a machinist (who is a friend of my friend Kent) who also was not selected and I went back to his shop to look at the work he is engaged in. He is lapping 2mm ruby spheres, after grinding 75% of them away, into little lenses. Fascinating, and taking place only a few miles from my house.

The previous saturday (Felice's birthday!) we went to a housewarming party, and that sunday we had an unbelieveably perfect and gut busting meal of Injera at our friend Yodit's house. The boys played with her boys and we ate, if I recall, at least 6 different dishes.

Last weekend was the annual used book sale given by the "Friends of the Library". I didn't buy that many books, probably only about 30 or so. I did buy a 2 volume mechanical engineering text, in swedish, that looks interesting. I say "looks" because I don't understand swedish. Other picks were a book on Piano tuning and repair, a Lao-english dictionary, and a book on electric furnaces.
Henry also bought a lot of books, guaranteeing that he will catch the dread disease of book acquisition.

Some links for you...
Some excellent mechanical crackpottery
How to forge (blacksmith) locks
Quality Gaging Tips articles from Modern Machine Shop

Delayed by cuteness

Yes, the kids are too cute, so I haven't been posting as I'm dazzled by them continously.

Well, I did photoshop out the coxsackie blisters on his hand and the nasal sheen...

This shows the great cooperation between Henry and Max as they work together to control us.

Yes, Max had some virus, probably coxsackie, which resulted in disgusting blisters on his hands. It must be fun to live in a town that has a virus named after it. I am getting skilled at removing disfigurements and mucus using a combination of clone stamp and blur tools in photoshop.

I showed up for Jury duty and was selected to serve on a jury, but they only needed 6 out of the 12 selected so I was sent home. I have to call in every friday night for the next two months in case they need me. We got to watch a film called "The Jury, Cornerstone of Democracy" or some combination of those words - it was so boring that I was unable to avert my eyes from the potential juror next to me, and her Sudoku puzzle.

Our neighbor sold our old van, which is kind of sad. He traded it in on a pickup, and then went to the auction to see if he could buy it back for less than the trade in value, but it went for a whopping $750.00. I had told him I'd buy it back for $200. I'll have to scan an old picture of the econoline sometime. Felice and I lived in it for 2-1/2 years...

My cousin Allan, who I often refer to as my genetic half-brother (by virtue of our mothers being twins), has started a blog. I hope it is lamer than mine.

Watched "The Aristocrats" last night (after the kids were asleep). Felice and I were unable to think of anyone we could recommend it to. I loved it, but I love the anthropology of comedy and I am hard to offend. It was a profoundly offensive movie if you have any sort of moral compass.

Yup, still alive...

So I have Jury duty for the next two months (or rather I am available for jury duty for the next 2 months). I checked the website for my orientation date and time and have to report next monday at 7:30AM.... 7:30AM! The only upside is that I'll drag myself in, haggard and ashen, gasping like a lungfish and they'll get the actual jury assignment out of the way. Why 7:30? I know that justice never sleeps, but given that the only people who can do jury duty are those with flexible schedules, why not a more civilized hour?
Do lungfish gasp?

We haven't been taking a lot of pictures lately. Henry was being creative and stuck an alkaline battery in our charger, which is a bad thing, so the camera was uncharged for a while.
I would have taken a picture of the charger, but...

I bought an abacus last week. It is a Tomoe brand soroban (japanese abacus), i figured for $3.00 I couldn't go wrong and now I have a backup for my slide rule, which itself is a backup for my calculator.

Our friend Lori's son was featured in the local paper in a story about his podcasting. I find it humourous because they are somewhat luddite orientated, yet their son is on the bleeding edge of electronic self-publishing.

One of my milling machine customers, sent us a personalized piece of his jewelry, which was thoughtful. I wish more customers would shower gifts upon us.

These clock kits look fun, although I wish they sold the plans in electronic form so I could just mill my own parts on the CNC...I guess I should email them and ask.

Finally, here is a bibliography of Korean History, in case you need some reading material...

Still Alive!

Why is a lazy guy like me so busy? It's a curse I tell you. But really not much has been going on besides the work and the joy of parenting.

Here's the latest mundane project I did.

How to tell if Felice and Nick can drive to town

How to make polar panoramas
I just bought his book, Digital Lighting & Rendering, an excellent text on the subject.

Ancient history.

Less ancient history.

New Year

Max loves his balloon.


When life gives you lemons, make phone calls.


2 Dudes. With impeccable manners. Who never chew with their mouths full.


This a big saltine!

So it's a new year. Why didn't I blog about the last month of 2005? Because I was busy. Being busy is good. Too busy to talk about what is making me busy. So now I am slightly less busy, but still busy. But I'll try and be less busy so I can write more. Or something.

Henry is 3

Birthday!

Cranky!

Henry Turned 3 today. Yes i haven't posted in a while but apparently parenting two kids takes up a lot of your time. Go figure.

I have been saving up some thoughts:

Photoshop has a "red-eye" filter, but for us at least a "snot-nose" filter would be more useful.

I have, for the first time in my life, used up a whole box of paperclips. I also realized that if you have a big bottle of asprin (or tylenol, or whatever) and it is empty, you have a pretty good sense of how many headaches you have.

Here are a bunch of links:

World Atlatl Association

Microsoft has released all their "Express" programming languages for free this year. I'm trying again, when I have free time, to get Visual Basic under my belt.

We received a pamphlet from them with our new stove. I wasn't aware that it was a deadly enough problem to warrant an acronym.

Freda Utley.

Metalsmithing tutorials.

Look for more rapid posting after the new year, for now we're so busy I barely get time to breathe.

Jed Clampett

I had a bunch of funny stuff to write, I typically can't remember any of it...














Every time I deposit checks at the bank they take time, those dear souls, to remind me of the vast array of financial services the bank, my bank, is ready to fulfill for my benefit. I feel like Jed Clampett, with Mr. Drysdale breathing down his neck, yet ready to lay down his life, to keep his bank's hands on Jed's money.

I love America.

The picture above shows typical working conditions in my self imposed cubicle.

Sorry I haven't posted lately, the small human that is resting upon my hulk has not been sleeping well, and we have been working like dogs. Tired little dogs.



Henry has Teletubbie slippers.

Here are some tools I ought to have, ironically (iconically?)

Interesting stuff on micro-mechanical-machining...

Another Lego milling machine...