Long Overdue

Apologies for such light posting, we've been busy with everything.After Christmas we thought we'd take time off but work continued, as well as various projects. Now work has slowed slightly which makes us worry and work harder, so we basically just work all the time. Could be worse and we're not complaining!

One project was to get a bunk bed for the kids. We ordered one off of Amazon.

They key to success in flat pack construction is to separate every component including hardware so it's easy to find.

Max tests the ladder.

The kids room is too small to take a picture of the whole bed. The boys love it and get to sleep slightly faster.

George is almost done with his 5 cylinder model aircraft engine. He brought it over to shop night.

He's a master machinist.

Tiny details like bronze bushes for the rocker pivots.

I bought this box of misc wrenches for $1.00 at an estate sale, mostly for the ignition wrenches as I have a strange compulsion about them.

The hex keys in masking tape are actually Bristol wrenches. I didn't have any until now, not that I needed them.

In any case I'll try and take more pics of the kids and I'm working on some interesting projects.

I'm waiting for the software CD to come for a QX5 microscope I picked up at the thrift store the other day. Why they don't just have the software downloadable is beyond me. $5.00 for the disk and $5.00 shipping...They did have the drivers so I could test that it worked, at least.

One of my projects was loading Puppy Linux on my old Thinkpad. It's now out in the barn so I can listen to Pandora, podcasts and BBC radio. Emboldened I loaded Ubuntu on an old desktop, it works but won't recognize the wireless card. So that project has stalled. I am not an expert or even enthusiast of Linux but it can be handy. I came upon a neat site about PC power connectors while I was breathing life into the desktop.

Merry Christmas

Recovering from our insane schedule the past month...

Our tree, festooned.

The Saturday previous, Josh and Colin came to visit. Josh had never seen Snap Circuits
before.

Children tend to listen to adults who are not their parents more patiently.

Brotherly love on Christmas.

The tiniest Clone Warriors.

Henry looked up the instructions for building this on the Lego website.

The proud Lego maniac.

My mother gave the boys gift certificates to the local toy emporium. Max picked out two science kits involving slime and slime-like substances.

Felice measuring out chemicals.

Max is holding colorless slime in his blue gloved hands.

Merry, Happy, Christmas...

Sorry posting has been light,work has been killing us...

Max built a brain for Chaunukkah.

Felice's mom gave her these tight fitting pyjamas.

Some links:
Cannon Fuse
Sniping in France
How to Wear a Ruana

Hope to have some spare time soon! Maybe even take a half a day off on Xmas.

This and that...

Felice bought Max a toy drum set:

Here's a picture of the entrance to my shop. It looks chaotic.


A few links:

• The Finished Part blog
• Shrinky Dink Microfluidics
• Glacern Machine Tools, Machine Shop Videos
• Model Engines, 1937 (Pathe is online! Massive timewaster.)

Sunday Drive

We decided to drive up north to Rickreal for the flea market.

An Oregon fall day on Hwy. 99W. There are two highway 99's...99W and 99E...both run N-S.
Felice and the kids took some pictures while I drove.

A lot of fence...$$$

Happy boys.

Fertile farmland.

Give me the camera, Max!

I bought this pocket thickness gage at the flea market.

A small pinion gear meshes with the dial face to set the zero.

On Display

I made a jewelry display for the Co-op...

I had to mark the hole locations for the hooks that hold the earring cards. I decided to use this assembly...

A nice old Lufkin tool...holds two rules at right angles to t'other.

The display is done.

See, it rotates...

Felice looking really enthusiastic in her new (to her) drafting chair.

Earliest Uses of Various Mathematical Symbols

Gurley manual of surveying instruments , I picked up a copy the other day. The plates are great.

Tinysaur, tiny dinosaur kits...

Henry's Workstation

I finally downloaded LDraw onto Henry's computer...The install is painless and free. Oh yeah, it's a 3D Lego CAD program.

Notice that he is using a trackball.

"Dude, this deadline is killing me."

Quick Super Soaker Repair

We picked up a Super Soaker D5000 at a yard sale yesterday. Unfortunately it wouldn't pump up.

I removed all of the screws holding the two halves together.

Then I used screwdrivers to pry that orange cap off (to the right). It has a small lip that retains it.

The plunger o-ring was a bit worn/dried out so I replaced it with one from my handy O-Ring Assortment Kit
. It's a pain to press the orange cap back on, pressing it against the edge of my bench worked best.

Now it works.

Telescoping Magnetic Pickup

I threw an old set of TV rabbit ears in the trash.

Then I took it out of the trash.

I peeled off the felt on the bottom and removed the steel plate.

A screw holds each antenna on.

I drilled out the rivet head.

Then punched out the rivet.

Leaving me with one telescoping antenna.

I counterbored a piece of steel to accept a magnet.

And drilled the other end to be a slip fit over the antenna end.

The parts...

Epoxied together. Now I have a slightly cumbersome telescoping magnetic pickup just like one that you could buy at the dollar store.