CatastrophicFailure Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 (edited) So, there’s this annoying little rock about the size of a cantaloupe in the middle of the driveway up to my cabin. Decided to dig it up today... Spoiler This is what came up: left a bona fide crater behind. Literally knee deep. Yay for tractor. Also, leverage. This thing is dang close to the limit of what my B2301 can lift at all. Tried putting it on a pallet for easier moving, I now have one less pallet. Cleaned it up and it looks like mostly solid (highly fractured) granite, a great big chunk of the Cascades in the middle of my yard. Also some weird concretion of half-mud-half-pebbles on one side. Will have to figure out how to make it a nice landscape feature, always wanted a great big random rock. Maybe next to the oak seedling from my wife’s tree back home, looks like a good sittin’ rock. Y’know when you start picking at a little bitty hangnail... Edited June 9, 2020 by CatastrophicFailure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted June 11, 2020 Share Posted June 11, 2020 Ate lunch. In a restaurant. Like a human. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cubinator Posted June 11, 2020 Share Posted June 11, 2020 1 minute ago, tater said: Ate lunch. In a restaurant. Like a human. Wow! Unfathomable... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted June 11, 2020 Share Posted June 11, 2020 (edited) The Compound, Santa Fe. (their image, not mine—that said, looked pretty much exactly like that today. Super nice weather.) 12 minutes ago, cubinator said: Wow! Unfathomable... IKR? Edited June 11, 2020 by tater Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
razark Posted June 11, 2020 Share Posted June 11, 2020 (edited) On 3/8/2018 at 11:39 PM, TheSaint said: It's funny for me, because that was the way I grew up. "This is your childhood, compare it to all of the other childhoods you have had." But looking back on it now, I'm all, "Yeah, that was a bit much." Now I have one in the nightstand and I carry. It's been a couple of interesting years since this discussion. I suppose I could say I kind of get it now. On 3/8/2018 at 11:39 PM, TheSaint said: That's plenty. Is it really? I mean, just add one of these, and that would be nice, and this might be fun... (But that Steyr AUG is still uuuuuugly!)* *With a capital "UGH". Edited June 11, 2020 by razark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrandedonEarth Posted June 12, 2020 Share Posted June 12, 2020 So last week my Yaris was due for an oil change. Actually, it was overdue, as usual. Since my commute is 100km round trip on the highway, it's easy mileage, so I see no harm in stretching it (especially with the dreadful price of oil and oil changes these days). Looking at the maintenance schedule I noticed it was also well overdue for a transmission fluid/filter change. I bought the car three years ago with just shy of 160Mm on the odo, and it's now over 210Mm. The transmission service should have been 50Mm ago. I also had them check the brakes; naturally the front brakes needed to be done. Usually I can do that myself, but for the extra $90 I saved myself the hassle and let them do it. If I had done it myself I don't think I would have flushed the brake lines, so that was a bonus. I was really more concerned with the rear drum brakes, because I don't have the proper tools for that. But at least those were fine. In the end, that little maintenance stop cost over $800. But the shop/garage is affiliated with my work, so the bill could have been over $1200. So why am I posting this tale here instead of the negative things thread? Because before this maintenance I was pulling around 7L/100km for mileage, depending on how much city driving I did. Now (granted, based on only one tank of gas) I'm less than 6.4L/100km, and it does feel peppier. Given that a previous car nearly died of transmission issues (head or intake gasket finally did it in), I feel that it was money well spent. But then, preventative maintenance usually is. Minor annoyance: it had a tranny fluid leak afterwards. New washer on the drain plug fixed it, n/c of course, In other news, my daughter's new BF (both mid-20's) rather resembles the older version of Wil Wheaton Spoiler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSaint Posted June 12, 2020 Share Posted June 12, 2020 3 hours ago, StrandedonEarth said: In other news, my daughter's new BF (both mid-20's) rather resembles the older version of Wil Wheaton Hide contents Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RealKerbal3x Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 (edited) So YouTube now has these tabs at the top of the page which allow you to filter your video recommendations. Since I'm an avid KSP player and interested in spaceflight in general, a lot of these are space-related. However, recently one of my tabs has been 'Silos' I clicked on this tab and was presented with a bunch of SpaceX Starship update videos, some of which I have already watched. I don't know if YouTube uses some sort of image recognition software on the thumbnails or what, but it thinks Starship is a grain silo. To be fair, it does look quite similar Edited June 15, 2020 by RealKerbal3x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSaint Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 1 hour ago, RealKerbal3x said: So YouTube now has these tabs at the top of the page which allow you to filter your video recommendations. Since I'm an avid KSP player and interested in spaceflight in general, a lot of these are space-related. However, recently one of my tabs has been 'Silos' I clicked on this tab and was presented with a bunch of SpaceX Starship update videos, some of which I have already watched. I don't know if YouTube uses some sort of image recognition software on the thumbnails or what, but it thinks Starship is a grain silo. To be fair, it does look quite similar Alternate revenue stream for SpaceX? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RealKerbal3x Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 1 minute ago, TheSaint said: Alternate revenue stream for SpaceX? Grain silos rated for cryogenic liquids are pretty niche, but I'm sure they could make money off of it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cubinator Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 1 hour ago, RealKerbal3x said: , but it thinks Starship is a grain silo. To be fair, it does look quite similar It's been the running joke for quite a while now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrandedonEarth Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 Came across this... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HansonKerman Posted June 17, 2020 Share Posted June 17, 2020 Minmus helped me (again) set up my Discord, the Break Room (link in sig go check it out <3 I love it like a child). I made a lot of progress and its alpha stage is basically complete. Why not check it out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HansonKerman Posted June 17, 2020 Share Posted June 17, 2020 On 6/9/2020 at 2:06 AM, CatastrophicFailure said: So, there’s this annoying little rock about the size of a cantaloupe in the middle of the driveway up to my cabin. Decided to dig it up today... Reveal hidden contents This is what came up: left a bona fide crater behind. Literally knee deep. Yay for tractor. Also, leverage. This thing is dang close to the limit of what my B2301 can lift at all. Tried putting it on a pallet for easier moving, I now have one less pallet. Cleaned it up and it looks like mostly solid (highly fractured) granite, a great big chunk of the Cascades in the middle of my yard. Also some weird concretion of half-mud-half-pebbles on one side. Will have to figure out how to make it a nice landscape feature, always wanted a great big random rock. Maybe next to the oak seedling from my wife’s tree back home, looks like a good sittin’ rock. Y’know when you start picking at a little bitty hangnail... holy frick! Show someone the crater and convince them it’s a meteor, have them goggle at you, lmao. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrandedonEarth Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 I was working out on our elliptical machine. Nothing quite like watching a chase scene from a Terminator movie to get ya moving! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delay Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 I tried to desolder one of many, many game boy batteries (tired of me talking about that yet?). Now, having only soldered and never desoldered, and the last time I touched a soldering iron was around three years ago, it didn't quite go according to plan and the battery wasn't removed. At least the circuits (and by extension - the game) have survived my "attempts" - still getting 0.08 volts at the SRAM chip as before! And, well, I was able to get rid of some of the solder... by scraping it off from the board. I don't think that's how you do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrandedonEarth Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 3 hours ago, Delay said: I tried to desolder one of many, many game boy batteries (tired of me talking about that yet?). Now, having only soldered and never desoldered, and the last time I touched a soldering iron was around three years ago, it didn't quite go according to plan and the battery wasn't removed. At least the circuits (and by extension - the game) have survived my "attempts" - still getting 0.08 volts at the SRAM chip as before! And, well, I was able to get rid of some of the solder... by scraping it off from the board. I don't think that's how you do it. I've never de-soldered anything either, but I think you're supposed to use a desoldering bulb to suck the molten solder away... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RealKerbal3x Posted June 19, 2020 Share Posted June 19, 2020 I started reading a book about quantum mechanics... Wish me luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qzgy Posted June 19, 2020 Share Posted June 19, 2020 11 hours ago, StrandedonEarth said: I've never de-soldered anything either, but I think you're supposed to use a desoldering bulb to suck the molten solder away... That or a solderwick. I think thats also a thing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerbiloid Posted June 19, 2020 Share Posted June 19, 2020 4 hours ago, RealKerbal3x said: I started reading a book about quantum mechanics... Wish me luck Good luck! Just don't repair or adjust something while it works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shpaget Posted June 19, 2020 Share Posted June 19, 2020 I finally got around to fixing the issue I had with the vise on my milling machine. When I bought the machine, it came with the vise, and since I wanted to start making chips as soon as I could, I neglected a few things. The previous owner had the vise mounted with two different bolts to the bed and the rotating base had one screw missing and the remaining two were of wrong type so they would spin in the base and I had trouble tightening them. I've been avoiding rotating the base since it was a pain to get the bolts to grab onto something and not turn idly, but yesterday I had to rotate the vise and, of course was unable to tighten it, so today I finally decide to fix the issue. I got rid of the assorted screws and installed nice looking hex M10 bolts and T nuts, with custom thick washers to replace the dinky thin ones that got warped out of shape. Now it not only works great, but looks much better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrandedonEarth Posted June 20, 2020 Share Posted June 20, 2020 4 hours ago, Shpaget said: I finally got around to fixing the issue I had with the vise on my milling machine. When I bought the machine, it came with the vise, and since I wanted to start making chips as soon as I could, I neglected a few things. The previous owner had the vise mounted with two different bolts to the bed and the rotating base had one screw missing and the remaining two were of wrong type so they would spin in the base and I had trouble tightening them. I've been avoiding rotating the base since it was a pain to get the bolts to grab onto something and not turn idly, but yesterday I had to rotate the vise and, of course was unable to tighten it, so today I finally decide to fix the issue. I got rid of the assorted screws and installed nice looking hex M10 bolts and T nuts, with custom thick washers to replace the dinky thin ones that got warped out of shape. Now it not only works great, but looks much better. Any chance of getting a pic of this machine? I missed my calling; in hindsight I'm annoyed that nobody ever suggested getting into the machinist trade. Now I'm just a middle-aged grunt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shpaget Posted June 20, 2020 Share Posted June 20, 2020 (edited) 7 hours ago, StrandedonEarth said: Any chance of getting a pic of this machine? I missed my calling; in hindsight I'm annoyed that nobody ever suggested getting into the machinist trade. Now I'm just a middle-aged grunt. Sure. You get the picture of my lathe and the surrounding mess included for free. The mill is a no name, but if you look at Grizzly G0619 you'll find something that looks like it came from the same castings. The lathe is actually a nice little EMCO Compact 8, of Austrian pedigree, from before the manufacturing was moved to the East. I'm not in the flower of my youth either, but consider the purchase of these two machines some of my best decisions. As for hindsight, when I was getting into high school and making my mind about what to do, I wanted to become a wood turner, but my parents, both veterinarians with college (and PhD in case of my Mom), managed to convince me that trade school was a poor choice and that with college I could do whatever I wanted (which is not exactly entirely true) and that 8 years of me learning French in elementary school would go to waste if I decided to go that way. High school turned to be a waste of time for me, and I think I'd be much happier in a trade school. 20 years later, I got around to doing what I want and like. It's not late for you. Get yourself a nice little second hand machine and start making stuff. I started with a lathe and got the milling machine about a year and a half later. Edited June 20, 2020 by Shpaget Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrandedonEarth Posted June 20, 2020 Share Posted June 20, 2020 4 hours ago, Shpaget said: Sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shpaget Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 Today, in a serendipitous turn of events, after days of working on a thing where a timing belt is a core element and the precise length of it is crucial, I decided that before I commit and drill some holes in the only aluminium plate I have at hand, I should probably double check the measurements, so I drill the holes in a piece of scrap plywood and arrange the elements as they would be in the final product, only to realize that the belt is shorter than specified. It's not a problem in itself, the actual length is not crucial, but I need to know what it is so I can design the rest of the mechanism around it. I don't have a habit of doing that, so yeah, Me 1; Murphy 0. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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