Colt V-spring Adventures

quick workaround for: "Not a com32r image" when booting from USB stick on ubuntu.

2011-12-01T21:28:00.000-08:00

[Note: The best solution is to just boot into windows and use unetbootin to make the USB.]

I've been trying to install a bunch of PC's to drive a bunch of CNC machines. Linux, as expected, manages to mess things up. When booting from a USB stick I get "Not a com32r image". The hack below seems to work:

After some fiddling around with the syslinux config files and still not getting it to boot properly, I found a deceptively simple workaround for this: Just type "help" on the BOOT prompt, and when you get the help menu, just hit enter. The system will now boot!

Confirmed that this also works for me when booting a USB stick created by 10.10's USB creator.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-mint-84/trying-to-boot-linux-mint-9-from-usb-flash-drive-vesamenu-c32-not-a-com32r-image-829397/

Not the only greek problem, but it can't help

2011-11-30T03:27:00.001-08:00

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n23/james-meek/diary

Politis once looked into opening a restaurant with music. He found that the regulations insisted on one permit if he had a band with three stringed instruments, and another, completely different, for a band with four.

"You do not make the poor rich by making the rich poor."

2011-11-28T20:04:00.001-08:00

Watch Does U.S. Economic Inequality Have a Good Side? on PBS. See more from PBS NEWSHOUR.

go team.

2011-11-16T14:02:00.000-08:00

While there are many reasons for these troubling trends, the state cannot ignore the role its policies have played in the economic decline. For seven consecutive years, executives polled by Chief Executive magazine have ranked California as having the worst business environment in the country. In a 2011 survey of its members by CalRecovery, a California coalition of businesses and industries based in the state, 84% of about 400 executives and owners who responded said that if they weren't already here, they wouldn't consider starting up in the state, while 64% said that the main reason they stayed in California was that it was tough to relocate their particular kind of business. In a recent op-ed, Andrew Puzder, chief executive of Carpinteria-based CKE Restaurants, which manages 3,000 eateries around the country, called California "the most business-unfriendly state we operate in."

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-cox-malanga-california-business-20111114,0,1011551.story

How to boot thinkpad X1 from USB.

2011-11-11T17:21:00.000-08:00

Format USB stick so it has a bootable ISO image (linux has various ways to do this; I used usb-creator-gtk for no particular reason other than it was already on my machine).
Power cycle.
Hold down F12. The initial screen says to hold down the "blue botton" which doesn't exist.
Select the USB stick from the bootable options.
Press return.

Of course, like many things to do w/ linux and installation these days, this just doesn't work (at least for me). I keep hitting "(initramfs) Unable to find a medium containing a live file system" which is a known bug.

So, now the google searching begins.

Looks like it's a USB 3.0 issue. The most expedient fix is to check for other USB connections on the laptop. The one on the left side of the x1 seems to do the trick.

"Examples are the underrated IQ booster of the universe."

2011-11-04T13:39:00.000-07:00

Each technical paper I have to read lately serves as another inductive step proving this bromide. Ugh.

Navy death ray

2011-02-18T15:44:00.001-08:00

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/02/unexpectedly-navys-superlaser-blasts-away-a-record/

The free-electron laser is one of the Navy’s highest-priority weapons programs, and it’s not hard to see why. “We’re fast approaching the limits of our ability to hit maneuvering pieces of metal in the sky with other maneuvering pieces of metal,” says Rear Adm. Nevin Carr, the Navy’s chief of research. The next level: “fighting at the speed of light and hypersonics” — that is, the free-electron laser and the Navy’s Mach-8 electromagnetic rail gun.

Best thing in Zurich so far: Bowmore 18.

2011-01-06T04:23:00.001-08:00

Unusual for an Islay: not much iodine, fruity, long finish.

Going to get a bottle when I get back in the states.

In other news: walked around for 20 minutes and saw 5 starbucks. Weird.

For christmas: a glass as big as a bottle! And Macallan 18 is good.

2011-01-06T04:21:00.001-08:00

I'm not going to spend $130 on a real bottle of it, but it had a nice, clean, dry taste. More will be procured at some point.

Teacher's Highland Cream: Good blended whisky for less than $20

2010-12-24T00:23:00.000-08:00

I used to hate scotch, whisky, whiskey, bourbon (well, still do) and anything else that tasted of alcohol from many years of being a bouncer and ejecting free booze on a weekly basis.

Then I had Lagavulin 16. Just fantastic. Of course, even on a crazy sale it's $50. And more typically is $62 (plus tax).

So I've been on the lookout for good, cheap liquid that is vaguely like a great single malt.

Perhaps one of the smoothest, easiest to drink blended whisky is Teachers "Highland Cream." It really is very easy to drink. I bought this bottle earlier today and already got through about 1/5th of it while watching Top Gear w/o noticing. (Notice the empty glass, which was a constant source of irritation.)

I'm going to put it down a floor so I don't interact with it further (the high cost to society of alcoholism, the unlikelihood of me hitting PRs as a boozehound, etc) but I really could easily drink the entire bottle. And then probably do something stupid that costs much more than $20.

The good: it has a vanilla/honey/something scent and taste that I really like. There seems to be a set of blended whiskys --- Johnnie Walker Gold, Chivas 18 and Teacher's --- that have this smell and taste and I'm really a sucker for them. (To be honest, it might just be the nose of well-tempered grain alcohol.) This is below Chivas 18 and both are below JW Gold (one of my favorites, neat and at room temperature) but it's very drinkable.

The bad: there is a slight odor of grain alcohol. Perhaps a slight taste too, if I pay attention. A bit of water (or ice) seems to kill that. I'm going to pour 1/2 Highland 10 single malt from Trader Joe's (also $20) into the next glass to see if that mellows it better.

I only bought it b/c so many different whisky blogs recommended it as a good value / cheap / best buy bottle. They were right. I much prefer it over Famous Grouse, Finlaggan, and the usual budget booze recs.

Actionable advice in case of nuclear explosion

2010-12-17T00:59:00.000-08:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/science/16terror.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Suppose the unthinkable happened, and terrorists struck New York or another big city with an atom bomb. What should people there do? The government has a surprising new message: Do not flee. Get inside any stable building and don’t come out till officials say it’s safe.

The advice is based on recent scientific analyses showing that a nuclear attack is much more survivable if you immediately shield yourself from the lethal radiation that follows a blast, a simple tactic seen as saving hundreds of thousands of lives. Even staying in a car, the studies show, would reduce casualties by more than 50 percent; hunkering down in a basement would be better by far.

Whiskey party.

2010-12-14T22:08:00.000-08:00

One way to spend a few hours on a saturday: sampling from several thousands dollars worth of scotch (mostly not mine).

Various conclusions:

Laphroaig 30 is great but not worth $300.
Oban distiller's edition is one of my favorites. About $70 from the cheapest online store.
I like Caol Ila 12 and 18 alot, but don't care much for the other 4 samples I had
The Macallan 12 from 10 years ago is crazy good compared to what they release now.
Glenfarcias 10 is pretty smooth and not that expensive.
Master of Malt has a really nice selection of samples (http://www.masterofmalt.com/drinks-by-the-dram/). They charge in british pounds, however, so not the greatest exchange rate.
Google's droid phone has a cool feature where you can take a picture of a bar code and it will look up that item on the net, finding the cheapest price (I paid $100 for the oban above, it found it for $67).

Here's my friend, looking a bit worse for wear, but well neigh invincible behind a fortress of scotch bottles.

$20 trader joes highland 10 single malt is actually...

2010-12-14T21:58:00.000-08:00

Pretty damn good, at least for the price. Smooth. I've drank a quarter bottle in two days without meaning to. Short finish, not super complex, but cheap.

Their $9.99 blended scotch on the other hand is undrinkable. The main smell you get upon opening in rubbing alcohol.

XM2010

2010-12-13T23:44:00.000-08:00

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/12/snipers-will-soon-shoot-taliban-from-a-quarter-mile-away/

Starting next year, the snipers will be outfitted with the XM2010 rifle, capable of hitting a target from a 3,937-foot distance — about three quarters of a mile. The current sniper rifle, the M-24, has a range of 2,625 feet, by contrast. “You want to give guys the capability to do those things they need to do at those ranges,” Colonel Douglas Tamilio, the Army’s weapons program manager, told USA Today.

The craziest rifle ever: XM25

2010-12-02T02:56:00.000-08:00

Range find w/ laser. Pull trigger. Mini grenades explode by target (which means shrapnel goes around corners, behind walls, etc). Grenade figures how how far it's gone by counting rotations. You can manually adjust the range.

Being used in Afganistan

Info from wikipedia:

The XM25 is an airburst grenade launcher derived from the XM29 OICW.

It fires 25 mm grenades that are set to explode in mid-air at or near the target. A laser rangefinder in the gun is used to determine the distance to the target. The user can manually adjust the detonating distance by up to ten feet (3 m) shorter or longer. The gun automatically transmits the detonating distance to the grenade in the firing chamber. The grenade tracks the distance it has traveled by the number of spiral rotations after it is fired.^[1] These features make the XM25 more effective than traditional grenade launchers at the task of hitting targets that are behind cover or dug into the ground.

The system has been developed by Heckler & Koch and Alliant Techsystems, while the target acquisition/fire control is developed by L-3 IOS Brashear. The most recent deployment plans call for a purchase of 12,500 XM25s at a projected cost per weapon system of $25,000.^[2]

In the summer of 2010, the U.S. Army began field testing the XM25 in Afghanistan. The initial per unit cost of the early models range from $30,000 to $35,000. The army plans to purchase 12,500 XM25s in 2011 and have them fielded by 2012, enough for one XM25 system in each infantry squad and Special Forces team. ^[3]^[4]

According to U.S. Army project manager for new weapons, Colonel Douglas Tamilio, the rounds for the XM25 will cost about $24 apiece. ^[5]

Debt doubling.

2010-11-28T22:29:00.000-08:00

From USA Today (yeah, I know).

So you think you can bench?

2010-11-28T22:25:00.000-08:00

Excellent set of videos from an ex-powerlifter. Fairly technical, so if this isn't your thing, not worth it. Otherwise, many interesting tips.

One of many good articles on the Elitefts website.

Then there is always Westside Barbell, led by L Simmons who squatted 1000+ lbs at 50+ years of age. I love how their articles start:

Westside has 30 members who bench more than 700 pounds and four who bench more than 800 pounds. We also have Laura Phelps, with a 505 at 165 body weight, who has the greatest female bench coefficient ever. Five members have held all-time world records in the bench....

Let’s start with Tony Bolognone, who has a 2700-pound total at 325 bodyweight and an 860-pound bench. He explains some of his workouts:

In praise of the Chicago 16th manual of style

2010-11-28T22:22:00.000-08:00

I think I'll have to buy a copy

Chicago's examples could be recondite or mischievously witty or of a weirdly resonant blandness. You could be boning up on the proper use of brackets (section 5.129) and be hit with quotes like this:

During a prolonged visit to Australia, Glueck and an assistant (James Green, who was later to make his own study of a flightless bird [the kiwi] in New Zealand) spent several difficult months observing the survival behavior of cassowaries and emus.

You'd feel an urge to procrastinate, to follow these intrepid antipodean emu watchers, but alas: The sadistic authors of the fourteenth knew that less is more.

Where did these fragments come from? What did they mean? Sometimes there would be a message just for me. On late nights while I waited for proofs to materialize, I would think of the poem disguised as 5.136, which asks the reader to "consider the range of expressiveness achieved by the following changes in punctuation":

Go home.
Go home!
Go home?
Go home?!

Detroit's last gunshop

2010-11-28T22:18:00.000-08:00

Short, but interesting.

http://www2.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=13488

Cool real life Noir.

2010-11-28T22:16:00.000-08:00

From Vanity Fair where I've actually seen a large number of interesting stories.

After a woman living in a hotel in Florida was raped, viciously beaten, and left for dead near the Everglades in 2005, the police investigation quickly went cold. But when the victim sued the Airport Regency, the hotel’s private detective, Ken Brennan, became obsessed with the case: how had the 21-year-old blonde disappeared from her room, unseen by security cameras? The author follows Brennan’s trail as the P.I. worked a chilling hunch that would lead him to other states, other crimes, and a man nobody else suspected.

leaked diplomatic communications

2010-11-28T22:09:00.000-08:00

I'm a bit surprised at how low key the initial coverage seems to be (perhaps b/c it's a weekend). It seems like this has the potential to be the story of the decade.

Some initial thoughts: WSJ and Chris Good with some snippets. Interesting: Saudi Arabia and Bahrain both urged taking out Iran.

It would be amusing if the state dept had allowed this to happen as a way to very convincingly disseminate misinformation. But since we're not a in spy novel, the probability is epsilon, where "epsilon" is a mispelling of "zero."

If they are right that this is (again) the work for 23 y/o Pfc Manning, it's a resounding demonstration that any secure system is as weak as it's weakest link. Why the hell were these available, unencrypted, to one guy who clearly didn't need them? Given his openly gay persona, perhaps not the best marketing move given the current dismantling of DADT.

Business and Obama.

2010-11-23T16:17:00.000-08:00

From Politico:

“These weren’t issues that got the president any votes or political leverage,” said one insider to the conversations. “These were issues that demonstrated that this administration doesn’t get it. It’s like talking to your dog.”

UN might be cause of cholera in Haiti

2010-11-23T00:31:00.000-08:00

Good intentions perhaps, but not too insightful about the effects of effluent in drinking water.

Chinese thought bubble: "We are the masters now"

2010-11-23T00:27:00.000-08:00

Interesting article by Niall Ferguson, perhaps best summed up by a simple picture:

Hat tip: The Browser.

Taliban leader involved in months of secret talks = fake

2010-11-23T00:25:00.000-08:00

NY times:

KABUL, Afghanistan — For months, the secret talks unfolding between Taliban and Afghan leaders to end the war appeared to be showing promise, if only because of the appearance of a certain insurgent leader at one end of the table: Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, one of the most senior commanders in the Taliban movement.

But now, it turns out, Mr. Mansour was apparently not Mr. Mansour at all. In an episode that could have been lifted from a spy novel, United States and Afghan officials now say the Afghan man was an impostor, and high-level discussions conducted with the assistance of NATO appear to have achieved little.

“It’s not him,” said a Western diplomat in Kabul intimately involved in the discussions. “And we gave him a lot of money.”

Kazushi Sakuraba.

2010-11-22T02:54:00.001-08:00

In his prime, Saku was amazing. His movements in the seconds before a win were moments of WTF violent poetry, written on guys almost always 20-50lbs heavier than him.

His decimation of the entire Gracie family was typical. They beat everyone. He beat all of them.

Often a favorite fighter of fighters:

Bas Rutten

2010-11-22T02:38:00.000-08:00

Having some medical problems so watching old PRIDE FC mixed martial arts fights to make the time go by quicker. Bas Rutten and The Professor have to be one of the best announcing teams for any sport ever. Warm, knowledgeable, funny, and badass (well, Bas was in his day).

Bas talking about his early fighting:

Bas doing some fighting. Note the use of open hand hits when not using gloves to avoid breaking hand (and the affect on the recipient if you doubt the efficacy):

Bas' very heavily watched street fighting video:

Under: just don't get it. Vapid Iran twitter diplomacy

2010-11-21T14:25:00.000-08:00

From Claire Berlinski:

http://ricochet.com/main-feed/RT-Happy-Birthday-Raisuli-It-Would-be-Great-if-You-Released-Perdicaris

I've been working on an article all week about Turkey's bafflingly supine diplomatic position toward Iran. Now I read this.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's spokesman sent a birthday greeting to the president of Iran, who turned 54 this week.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley urged Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to send American hikers Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer home.
In a tweet sent Thursday on Ahmadinejad's birthday, Crowley said, "What a gift that would be."
Let me get this straight. Our Secretary of State has wished the president of a regime that kidnapped American citizens a happy birthday, asked him nicely to give them back, and thinks Twitter is the appropriate medium for this communication? Could this all be true?
I can't believe I've been working all week on a piece arguing that Turkey doesn't seem to grasp what it's dealing with.

CA + business = FAIL

2010-11-19T11:21:00.000-08:00

CA is the absolute worst state for business, as rated by 600 CEOs. Texas comes out as the best.
http://www.chiefexecutive.net/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications::Article&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=59FD13C5177B40B0B2D3EBA9E4384572&AudID=F242408EE36A4B18AABCEB1289960A07

Yet more evidence for what a shithole NJ is.

2010-11-19T11:17:00.001-08:00

http://reason.com/archives/2010/11/15/brian-aitkens-mistake

Moving, has legally-owned handguns locked in trunk, sentenced to 7 years.

Cool hack: stuxnet virus destroys nuke centrifuges by jacking motors up and down

2010-11-19T10:20:00.001-08:00

http://volokh.com/2010/11/19/is-israel-behind-the-stuxnet-cyberattack-on-iran/

The new forensic work narrows the range of targets and deciphers the worm’s plan of attack. Computer analysts say Stuxnet does its damage by making quick changes in the rotational speed of motors, shifting them rapidly up and down.

How Detroit does strip clubs

2010-11-18T21:07:00.001-08:00

Writer is a bit of an effete prig, but color is interesting: http://nplusonemag.com/postcard-from-detroit

A larger collection of Detroit writings: http://thebrowser.com/topics/front-line-detroit

How much taxation is too much?

2010-10-26T01:39:00.003-07:00

A good metric from Bainbridge:

Michael Kinsley tells us that "although I favor Obama’s tax increase, I could not defend [a top marginal tax rate of] 90 cents on the dollar." Why not? Once you accept the liberal view of taxes, why not go all the way to a top rate of 100%? It's the Alice Trillin tax. She argued that, over a certain level, the government gets everything.

This got me to thinking, what's the total tax burden? Everything combined: income, FICA, state and local, property, sales, excise, etc.... The Tax Foundation reports:

The shift toward a lower tax burden since 2007 has been driven by three factors: (1) The recession has reduced tax collections even faster than it has reduced income; (2) President Obama and the Congress have enacted large but temporary income tax cuts for 2009 and 2010, just as President Bush did in 2008; and (3) Two significant taxes were repealed for 2010 as part of previous legislation, the estate tax and the so-called PEP and Pease provisions of the income tax.

The kicker, however, is that:

Despite all these tax reductions, Americans will pay more taxes in 2010 than they will spend on food, clothing and shelter combined.

I'd say that that's more than enough. If the government can't get by with what the rest of us spend on "food, clothing and shelter combined," the government's just going to have to learn to do with less.

Of course, if Kinsley wants to voluntarily make a contribution to the government, that's fine by me too.

Graffiti animation

2010-10-26T00:56:00.001-07:00

File under OMFG: graffiti animation. Spray can + walls + objects + camera = crazy animation. Hard to describe. Just watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMoKcsN8wM8&feature=player_embedded

Mini-cannon gone wrong

2010-10-25T22:08:00.001-07:00

Cannon - size = lolz.

http://kottke.org/10/10/mini-cannon-will-explode-your-tiny-mind

Good J Brown Vs Whitman Article at Reason

2010-10-25T22:07:00.001-07:00

http://reason.com/archives/2010/10/20/sacramento-ber-alles

neat: DNA day = $99 to get DNA mapped at 23andme.com

2010-04-23T13:28:00.000-07:00

They look for disease and racial markers and other things.

They are reputable. Sergey Brin (google co-founder) used to find that he was predisposed for parkinsons; also married their co-founder.

https://www.23andme.com/

cool edge finding trick

2010-04-11T00:28:00.000-07:00

from: http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/general-archive/best-cheapest-edge-finder-76080/

Here is what I do when I have to pick up an edge dead "**uts" :

Take a ring gage of known size - any size works that you can get the tip of your indicator inside of. I always grab my .5000.

Stick it down on top of your part or your vise with double sided tape, location does not matter, all you want to do is set your indicator center to that gage. When the indicator is set on zero (rotated the spindle to do this) .. you now know that the center of the spindle is exactly 1/2 of what the size of the ring gage hole is. (.500 ring gage, .2500 off center)

Now without touching the indicator to knock it out of this position, bring the indicator and spindle over to the edge you are trying to find and sweep the edge. When you see zero on the indicator again you are within (if using the .500 ring gage) .2500 exactly from the edge.

With a tenth indicator you should be able to pick up this edge within a tenth. This is very reliable, takes all the variables out.

Of all the electronic center finders and even the "u" shaped finders, I find this to be the most accurate center finder of all. It never lies.

famous filmmakers direct super bowl

2010-02-08T16:19:00.000-08:00

Pretty damn funny:http://slatev.com/player.html?id=64790979001

hat tip: MR

evil eye

2010-02-08T14:59:00.000-08:00

Mistaken IDs are far and away the leading cause of wrongful convictions in the United States. Nearly three out of every four prisoners who have been released after being exonerated by DNA evidence had an eyewitness identifying them.

Guy on hunting trip falsely ID'd by highschool alumni as at a nightclub 100s of miles away beating another guy to death. Since exonerated, but got lucky:

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/witnesses-to-beating-dead-wrong-about-man-charged-219392.html

More Haiti

2010-02-05T01:41:00.000-08:00

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/02/haiti_three_weeks_later.html

More Richard Epstein

2010-02-01T06:07:00.000-08:00

On what is jacked about the health care bill. I'm not a lawyer, but this guy is a badass:

http://fora.tv/2009/09/17/Richard_Epstein_Breaking_Down_Healthcare_Reform#fullprogram

Various quotes, but here's one: "I want decentralized engineering: that's the only thing I want because I am convinced that no one is super smart and you want a number of runs at this thing so you are much more likely to come up with one that's going to work"

More wide ranging:
http://fora.tv/2009/03/23/Uncommon_Knowledge_Richard_Epstein

"Would you give him tenure?"
"NO! NO! Nono."

On the presidency:

"The fundamental mistake of his entire world view is that he treats contracts as devices for exploitation; he doesn't treat them as devices for mutual gain and he assumes that redistribution can take place without any negative impact on production. And if you live in that kind of fairy land..."

John Yoo on his new book on youtube

2010-01-31T02:55:00.000-08:00

Sharp guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Deh05-KtKqw

"We certainly haven't gotten a lot of intelligence from operatives we have arrested and put on trial in our federal courts."

Interesting cross-exam before the above: Yoo vs Richard Epstein: http://fora.tv/2006/10/29/Uncommon_Knowledge_Richard_Epstein_John_Yoo

Kasparov on computer chess

2010-01-22T18:08:00.000-08:00

Interesting article. On the surprising results of ubiquitous grandmaster level programs:

There have been many unintended consequences, both positive and negative, of the rapid proliferation of powerful chess software. Kids love computers and take to them naturally, so it's no surprise that the same is true of the combination of chess and computers. With the introduction of super-powerful software it became possible for a youngster to have a top- level opponent at home instead of need ing a professional trainer from an early age. Countries with little by way of chess tradition and few available coaches can now produce prodigies. I am in fact coaching one of them this year, nineteen-year-old Magnus Carlsen, from Norway, where relatively little chess is played.
The heavy use of computer analysis has pushed the game itself in new directions. The machine doesn't care about style or patterns or hundreds of years of established theory. It counts up the values of the chess pieces, analyzes a few billion moves, and counts them up again. (A computer translates each piece and each positional factor into a value in order to reduce the game to numbers it can crunch.) It is entirely free of prejudice and doctrine and this has contributed to the development of players who are almost as free of dogma as the machines with which they train. Increasingly, a move isn't good or bad because it looks that way or because it hasn't been done that way before. It's simply good if it works and bad if it doesn't. Although we still require a strong measure of intuition and logic to play well, humans today are starting to play more like computers.

More at: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23592

Hat tip, Marginal Revolution.

man bites dog: suing debt collection agencies.

2010-01-22T15:53:00.001-08:00

High bit: if they say they can garnish wages or take your house, then you can get an easy $3500 settlement, at least in TX.

http://www.dallasobserver.com/2010-01-21/news/better-off-deadbeat-craig-cunningham-has-a-simple-solution-for-getting-bill-collectors-off-his-back-he-sues-them/1

A bright red line: Mass graves in Haiti.

2010-01-18T15:16:00.000-08:00

As one quantitative metric for how bad things are:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703959804575007782151239548.html?mod=WSJ_World_MIDDLENews

good eDit interview

2010-01-07T17:02:00.000-08:00

One of the best glitch dj's alive: http://www.koldcast.tv/video/edit

Articulate & gets it done.

emco v13 schematics

2010-01-05T18:54:00.000-08:00

At sears(!?!) parts direct of all places: http://www.searspartsdirect.com/partsdirect/getModel!retrieve.pd?modelNumber=MAXIMAT%20V13&productCategoryId=0728000&brandId=0351&brandName=EMCO&modelName=LATHE

completely bizarre.

Now, if the motor on my v13 would just turn I'd be in good shape.

Well, that's a good attitude

2010-01-05T00:31:00.000-08:00

I don't follow football (and not just b/c I don't have a TV), but this seems like a good, low-drama view of the world:

For the first time, Brady confirmed he has been playing with a broken bone this season.

A league source told the Globe Brady has a broken finger on his right hand. The injury is believed to have happened in early December.

“I’m feeling really good now. I’m feeling really good,’’ Brady told WEEI. “Everyone breaks bones over the course of the year. I’m feeling pretty good. This is the best I’ve felt in a while.’’

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/articles/2010/01/05/brady_fully_aware_of_backup_plan/

A managerie of ported revolvers (and others)

2010-01-02T21:29:00.000-08:00

I've been experimenting with porting using a mill rather than an EDM machine. The biggest challenge is cutting a hole so that there are no burrs inside the barrel. There are ways to do this, but to reduce risk I've been looking for porting that allows enough clearance to deburr after if need be (possibly using a custom ground deburring tool).

So this is a collection of different porting methods for inspiration.

There's a good writeup on a ported S&W 500 at: http://www.gunblast.com/SW-500.htm

One way to deal with burrs is to bore out the barrel after cutting the ports, removing any burrs in the process. I don't think this is what they did here, but S&W has done it on other revolvers I've seen:

Some nice big ports (or is this a compensator?):

Gemini custom porting on a GP100. I'm wondering how much velocity you lose with the ports essentially all the way down the short barrel.

Seems to be a standard configuration at Gemini: http://www.geminicustoms.com/Revolvers%20&%20Services.htm

The holes look a bit chamfered at the top:

And a final one from gemini (nice fiberoptic!)

Here's taurus' version. They take a slice out of the barrel first:

Standard magna-port with the parallelogram slots. They use an EDM machine, so we're out of luck on stealing ideas:

Nice clean revolver (sandblasted finish?). Again has the ports all the way down the barrel.

Interesting: row down both sides of front sight. Usually seem to be more at an angle:

This pattern seems to be standard to taurus:

From speedshooters international. Looks like the ports were integral to the manufacture:

Interesting article on ported shotgun: http://www.shootingtimes.com/gunsmoke/0712/index.html

Looks like magna-port, so I assume is EDM:

Interesting rifle porting from J White: http://www.jwhitegunsmithing.com/jimsrecentwork.html

This is pretty cool looking, but I have no idea if it's a good idea:

Looks like a shotgun:

Compensator with ports: http://www.dtechsuperstore.com/mili%20Guns.htm

Interestingly, seems like he's cutting with an endmill:

Another interesting set of shotgun ports http://www.shooterssolutionsllc.com/gpage4.html

TJ custom gunworks: http://www.tjscustomgunworks.com/Photos4/5-ports.htm
He recommended using a 4 flute endmill, but thought that nothing was going to beat EDM for cleanliness.

More shotgun porting: http://www.paladinarmory.com/Services.htm

Some big fat 1911 ports. Should be easy to deburr even if you mess up:

And here's S&W's solution. Port, then bore out the internals:

Vang comp shotgun porting:

Nice looking ar-15:

Interesting muzzle brake: http://www.oneholegunworks.com/rifles/indexCompRifles.htm

Ireland is insane: new blasphemy laws

2010-01-02T17:49:00.000-08:00

Just when I think california is beyond retarded, the EU guys step up to the plate and knock it out of the park. Quote'd in Volokh:

Secular campaigners in the Irish Republic defied a strict new blasphemy law which came into force today by publishing a series of anti-religious quotations online and promising to fight the legislation in court.

The new law, which was passed in July, means that blasphemy in Ireland is now a crime punishable with a fine of up to €25,000 (£22,000).

It defines blasphemy as “publishing or uttering matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters sacred by any religion, thereby intentionally causing outrage among a substantial number of adherents of that religion, with some defences permitted”....

But Atheist Ireland, a group that claims to represent the rights of atheists, responded to the new law by publishing 25 anti-religious quotations on its website, from figures including Richard Dawkins, Björk, Frank Zappa and the former Observer editor and Irish ex-minister Conor Cruise O’Brien.

Michael Nugent, the group’s chair, said that it would challenge the law through the courts if it were charged with blasphemy.

Nugent said: “This new law is both silly and dangerous. It is silly because medieval religious laws have no place in a modern secular republic, where the criminal law should protect people and not ideas. And it is dangerous because it incentives religious outrage, and because Islamic states led by Pakistan are already using the wording of this Irish law to promote new blasphemy laws at UN level.

Titanium just isn't that expensive.

2010-01-02T02:13:00.000-08:00

I bought 22" of .25" round stock titanium on ebay for around $10 (including shipping).

I'm going to see if making a Ti firing pin actually helps a colt. "Probably not" is the expected verdict, but on the other hand "my python has a titanium firing pin" sounds cool.

So what can you do.

Just arrived: Emco V13

2010-01-02T01:46:00.001-08:00

My "new" emco v13 got dropped off yesterday. It's the long bed version, so has a bigger footprint than the one it is replacing. It seems to be the last model they made: there's a boatload of different speeds (topping at 2,500) and has a couple switches my other one did not. As a bonus it came with a Royal 5c collet assembly.

In the spirit of the holidays,the freight company this time only bent the sheet metal on the back and break the cheap shelf underneath as opposed to ripping a bunch of rods and knobs off with a forklift. I have insurance so we'll see what happens.

There's a couple of negatives. One is that the bed seems more worn than my old one at least judging by the increased torque necessary when you move the carriage from the headstock towards the tail. On the flip side, it has much much less backlash.

The other downside is that there was a non-trivial amount of surface rust on the ways and industrial gunk in all sorts of other places. I've spent the last few hours cleaning all of this off with 0000 steel wool, wd40, and brake cleaner. I had to dump a few pieces in the ultrasonic cleaner.

This one came from a real shop rather than a tech school, so the above problems are not unexpected. Still.

The main challenge was that it was over 12" in the air when the freight guy left, so tonight I spent a bunch of time lowering it and putting it where it's supposed to be.

Here's the start, around 1,500lbs way up high:

First thing is to remove the lowest pallet using a couple of handy little car jacks I got from Kragen:

Then cut away a lot of the 4x4s and then put a way-too-enthusiastic amount of wood to hold up both ends:

Eventually lower an inch at a time all the way around (using a level so it didn't get too far out of wack):

Finally lower it onto a few bars:

And then push it into the right place:

Zing

2009-12-29T21:29:00.000-08:00

Are you saying the citizens of Berkeley are Communists, reminiscent of those on the dark side of the Iron Curtain?
There are probably more Communists in Berkeley than any other town in America, but I think of them more as lovers of Birkenstocks than Marx.

--- John Yoo on the constant protests by the vapid at Berkeley. Actually is a pretty funny guy: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/magazine/03fob-q4-t.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

#1 ranked chess player is 19

2009-12-29T12:56:00.000-08:00

I've not followed chess in a long time, other than Fischer's japes and Kasparov's opera, so totally missed this the fact that the #1 ranked player is 19. Interesting (albeit old) interview here when he was 13: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=1614

Some (colt) porn

2009-12-29T12:54:00.000-08:00

Recently had to sell a couple of colts, which is a good way to finally get some photos taken. Seems like filtered overcast light highlights blueing well.

photobucket must die

2009-12-29T00:06:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe these slimy scumbags.

Their brilliant moneymaking scheme: if you upload more than some threshold of byte then --- rather than block further uploads for some amount of time --- they turn off *all* your photos unless you pay extortion money ("go pro!") to get them to release them.

Further, while paying, each time you click some option they will silently tick a "please set up recurrent billing!" box to try to parasite away more funds.

I cannot wait until this collection of inbred suits gets wiped off the planet.

Yet more evidence that JFK knew how to party

2009-12-28T11:17:00.000-08:00

Gives new meaning to "never get off the boat" (from TMZ):

The french and boundary issues

2009-12-28T11:04:00.000-08:00

Innocently reading an economics blog ("marginal revolution" http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/12/assorted-links-23.html) one clicks on the second link down and gets: http://www.hotdollfordog.com/

If you have a tough constitution and vile humor, watch the video. They use "audacious" and "stability" in ways that one would never imagine. Only $400EU!

Good writeup: CA vs TX

2009-12-24T10:10:00.001-08:00

Simple strategy: spend less, get more. http://www.city-journal.org/2009/19_4_california.html

Hat tip: MR.

emco v13 cutting 1/2" toolsteel to nothing in one pass

2009-12-22T21:36:00.000-08:00

Could go faster, easily. I really love this model, the thing eats SS like aluminum:

The best takedown of any movie, ever.

2009-12-22T10:53:00.000-08:00

This can't possibly work, but does: Some amateur guy put together a 70 minutes long(!) destruction on "phantom menace" a movie I've never seen (and hope you never do either). It's really really good. Very concrete and self-contained so you need not ever (ever) get close to that which it hates on.

http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/12/17/watch-this-70-minute-video-review-of-star-wars-the-phantom-menace/

rhetoric over reality: brit scientist fired over looking into the relative lethality of different drugs

2009-12-16T03:00:00.000-08:00

Article here: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/12/13/you_cant_handle_the_truth/

The adviser, Dr. David Nutt, said in a lecture that alcohol is more hazardous than many outlawed substances, and that the United Kingdom might be making a mistake in throwing marijuana smokers in jail. His comments were published in a press release in October, and the next day he was dismissed. The buzz over his sacking has yet to subside: Nutt has become the talk of pubs and Parliament, as well as the subject of tabloid headlines like: “Drug advisor on wacky baccy?”
But behind Nutt’s words lay something perhaps more surprising, and harder to grapple with. His comments weren’t the idle musings of a reality-insulated professor in a policy job. They were based on a list - a scientifically compiled ranking of drugs, assembled by specialists in chemistry, health, and enforcement, published in a prestigious medical journal two years earlier.
The list, printed as a chart with the unassuming title “Mean Harm Scores for 20 Substances,” ranked a set of common drugs, both legal and illegal, in order of their harmfulness - how addictive they were, how physically damaging, and how much they threatened society. Many drug specialists now consider it one of the most objective sources available on the actual harmfulness of different substances.
That ranking showed, with numbers, what Nutt was fired for saying out loud: Overall, alcohol is far worse than many illegal drugs. So is tobacco. Smoking pot is less harmful than drinking, and LSD is less damaging yet.

He was swiftly booted from his government position. Home Secretary Alan Johnson said Nutt had crossed a line. He “cannot be both a government adviser and a campaigner against government policy,” Johnson told The Guardian newspaper.

"It was a funny, kind of petulant reaction,” Nutt told the Globe, “all about machismo and politics. We’re harder on drugs than you, we’re tougher.”

Fly cutters rock!

2009-12-06T18:13:00.000-08:00

OK, I know I am about 100 years late to this particular party, but I have to say that fly cutters are freaking awesome! I'd always heard about them but just throught "WTF do I need another tool for?" Turns out that was pretty stupid.

The phrase you need to remember is "poor man's surface grinder."

Once you figure out how to grind the tool correctly you'll have fun. I've been squaring up aluminum for hours for no particular reason.

Pixels beat letters, so let's get to it.

I recently picked up an emcomat 8.4 mill/lathe combination. Generally I have a low opinion of combination machines (fish nor fowl) but Emco has a wonderful reputation for high Austrian quality and this machine lived up to it. It's a pretty sturdy machine (400lb?) for its size, and like the other emco's I've used cuts way above its weight. As a nice touch, the previous owner hand cut 10 quick change tool holders:

We have a rough piece of aluminum that we start making a cut on:

And that works out so well we continue:

More!

More!

Just a little more!

And done. As you can see, fly cutter is just a lathe bit (with enough rake) in a tool holder. Only difference is that you spin the bit rather than the piece:

Fixing a 3-jaw emco chuck

2009-12-06T18:08:00.000-08:00

So, among the many things wrong w/ an Emco V13 engine lathe I picked up (not it's fault), the chuck had been sorely abused and required serious cranking to turn the key towards the end. This is a short post on fixing it.

I'd not seen something written up (though I'm sure there has been, many times). And it's definitely not rocket science. However, sometimes it's useful to realize something is not rocket science so you actually do it. In this case fixing the problem made a big difference, though it still remains to a slight degree.

Here's the chuck. V13's have a D1-4 mount:

While it's not rocket science you DEFINITELY want to do witness marks to keep track of the orientation of the backplate to chuck when you take it off. I used marker, but that's stupid, given how easy it is for solvent to take it off. I'd scratch something instead.

After removing the backplate and its mark we get:

And you can see how turning the chuck key will make the internals turn as well.

Removing the interior plate we see the problem: the part that the jaws ride in looks like it was viciously stabbed with a hardened pin. Additionally, someone has generally added various dents. The spiraling avenues have to be clear, or the chuck jaws are going to get bound up, as they have been:

After filing flat w/ a medium mill file:

I then ruined the end of an India stone a bit trying to get into the channels:

We then put things back after putting moly grease on everything:

Now, here's the mildly tricky part: how to put the jaws back? Well, of course, they are marked (or you marked them) as to which groove they should go into. But which to put in first? Turns out that you start with 1 (everyone knows this but I didn't). You do so by turning the chuck key until you can see the beginning of the spiral in the 1 slot:

You slide in 1. Then turn the key some more til you see the beginning of the spiral in slot 2, and put that jaw in:

And finally, you guessed it: 3:

End result is way better than when we started, though there is some slight binding remaining. The file work is way easier than what we'd need for a colt (though the narrow grooves in the spiral are a pain in the ass to get into). And we got to clean and lube everything as well.

One open question is whether I should have skimmed the backplate to try to true it up carefully. I figured I'd leave things no worse than when I started, but given that it was disassembled might have been worth doing?

Adding a modern toolpost to a V13 Emco lathe

2009-12-06T18:05:00.000-08:00

My Emco V13 lathe came with a four way toolpost. I'd rather do dishes than use shims, so that had to go. I have a 200 series KDK post with around 8 holders, so that'd be the obvious way to go. Unfortunately the press fit screw used to hold the post in the emco didn't fit the KDK --- too small at top, too large at bottom. I couldn't modify the KDK either --- it's hard enough that it ate some carbide endmills I tried to use to cut it and probably woke the neighborhood. And there's no dovetail on the emco.

So we need to make a new bushing to press fit into the compound rest. It was thanksgiving eve, so it was a perfect project. (I don't have a TV.)

Here's the emco's compound rest w/ the tool post screw sticking out:

To get at it we have to remove the rest and the handle. I'd done them in that order previously, so did it in the opposite this time. It's easy enough: allen screws out:

Then the whole end comes off (after you've moved the rest back):

The gib and also a narrow sheet of metal (added later?):

You can't see it but there is a notch that has to lock into the gib adjusting screw at the left side.

Here's the press fit we have to knock out. There's also a pin in there for alignment: I think to ensure you orientate the screw in such a way that you can't run the handle into the chuck at the tightest position:

We're going to screw the KDK down w/ a 3/4" bolt. So will replace the screw with a bushing tapped to the right threads. Unfortunately the only stock I had large enough was some SS, so figured it was going to be a fairly tedious adventure.

First problem is that I didn't have a tap wrench big enough to hold the 3/4" tap needed to cut threads into the bushing. So, since it was late and the stores would be closed the next day in any case, went ahead and jury rigged a ghetto stap setup using a live center to hold the tap in the right location, holding the to-be bushing in a 3-jaw, and rotating the chuck by hand to cut the tap into it.

This worked surprisingly well and we wind up with a SS cylinder that we can screw our bolt into:

We then cut the busing down so that it fits in the compound rest:

I really like this lathe. It is a beast. Yet is amazingly smooth. This is the near mirror finish I got using just a random ratty carbide tool and an indifferent speed selection:

I used to hate cutting SS, but this damn machine eats it like aluminum. I think it cuts better than the best lathes I've ever used, including a hardinge HLV-H.

We then flip it around and cut the wider cirle that will hold it into the compund rest:

And we wind up wit:

It's a bit small. I probably should have gone w/ a 1/2" bolt so that we'd have more material on the bushing. The plan is to try this out and see how it goes. Another mistake you can't see is that the base is a few .001s too big, so I really had to bang it in there. Once it comes back out I don't think it's going to be usable.

In any case, we now have a KDK where we need it!

The post came with a hardinge lathe I have --- the initials on it are from the previous owner. It was sold after he died (like much of the equipment I own). Leaving them as a minor reminder to machinists that have passed seemed fitting.

Awesome: TX style depositions rock

2009-12-03T22:35:00.000-08:00

Accents, beat down threats, and tomfoolery. Must watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIxmrvbMeKc&feature=player_embedded

More fun at: http://www.businessinsider.com/deposition-videos-you-have-to-see-to-believe-2009-12

Memoria

2009-12-02T06:49:00.000-08:00

I've been getting a bunch of old machines and revolvers. Since they are generally older than 50 years, all the original owners are dead. It's a strange feeling to be working late at night, where almost everything you touch belongs to a ghost.

Initials on tools seem more appropriate markers than text carved on stone:

Part II: retrofit of an Emco Compact 5 CNC lathe

2009-12-01T22:19:00.000-08:00

This is a delayed follow up to the post on disassembling an Emco Compact 5 CNC (http://coltpython.blogspot.com/2009/10/part-i-retrofit-of-emco-compact-5-cnc.html) on putting the machine back together with new bearings, motors, etc. I did this a month or so ago; hopefully this doesn't leave out anything important.

Note: this writing is *way* too detailed for a real machinist. It includes a bunch of very basic steps since that's the level I'm at.

It's currently at around 80%: motors in, everything turns, but still have:

hook up limit switches, the motor, the shutoff switch, and the RPM encoder to the gecko g540.
do something about the cosmetics: I ripped out a bunch of the stock electronics, leaving empty holes. These will suck up dust and junk, so need to decide what to do.

It's largely straightforward to put things back together. The two tricky things are:

getting the optical encoder to not drag as the spindle turns. It turns out you have to bolt the lathe in and push/pull it back and forth so that the sheet metal of the housing torques until the drag stops. I kept disassembling the spindle head (and trying to seat the flywheel assembly deeper) in a misguided belief that these were the problems.
You probably 't just bolt the motors right on and go --- you need to make sure the tension is sufficient. So push the motors away from the timing belt wheel until the belt is tight and then tighten the bolts.

Finally, I still cant' get mach 3 to run reliably on windows XP on a Thinkpad T61 laptop, but this seems to be a known problem.

OK: first things first, getting the new 6006-ZZ class 3 bearings into the headstock. This likely made little difference, but I put them in the freezer to hopefully make it a bit easier --- it was suggested I use dry ice, but I was too lazy.

One thing I'm disappointed about is that the headstock is aluminum, which seems kind of cheap given the general quality of emco stuff. Maybe worth redoing in steel at some point? In any case, here's the headstock and bearings (in a few freezer bags to eliminate moisture):

One slightly confusing asymmetry is that the number of pieces is different in the front and the back. Front has just a bearing and a ring:

Back has bearing, wave washer and ring:

This can lead to a bit of panic when you disassemble (at least for me) where you disassemble and think you lost something in all the excitement.

Putting in one of the bearings: we use a flat piece of wood to give contact and minimize chance of dents:

Next is putting in the spindle. Here's the spindle from a real lathe (a Hardinge/Cataract) for comparision. As you can see, not much of one:

The spindle is a tight fit, but if it requires a lot of force, the bearing is probably not seated:

We put the pulley, etc on and then lock it in with the ring:

Now time to bolt on the motor:

Note that you can't tighten the bolts here down until you adjust the belt tension. The small hole in the pulley is provided so you can tighten the bolt behind it:

Time to put the felts back on the cross slide:

And then bolt it back to the bed using the plastic (yeah, I know) supports. Note: you don't want these too tight or the bed won't be able to move!

Now we bolt the top to it:

And, in the interests of full disclosure, at this point I discovered I left a bushing off of the spindle. ARGH!!!!

So we use the pulley puller to pull off the pulley and on it goes.

The new nema23 motors I have don't have holes in them for the pulleys that came with the emco. So we use a small proxxon drill press to drill a hole in from the flat part of the motor spindle to the back. Starting (note: during the actual drilling there was support on the spindle to avoid bending anything):

After:

And banging the pin in using a bench block:

In good news, they bolted right on:

At this point we get to the most annoying issue: when you turn the spindle, the optical encoder on the machine (the part with the cable in the photo) would rub no matter what we did. It seemed that the spindle was off center (which it wasn't):

First problem is that you need to bolt the housing to the lathe body:

Second thing is you need to push/pull the lathe bed back and forth, spinning the spindle til it stops rubbing. Then bolt everything down to keep it in this configuration. I am not a big fan of this design methodology. I much prefer things that when in their right configuration are, in fact, in their correct configuration. Having to bend things about is too ghetto.

In any case, success, so we move on.

A bit of adjusting of the cross slide since it was too loose and wobbled back and forth:

Now just have to bolt on the top part:

Clearly something has to be done about all the holes from missing electronics:

And here's everything bolted up. One step you didn't see was adjusting the belt tension on the motors: loosen bolts, push the motor away from the belt pulley and tighten.

replacing timing belt on wells index CNC

2009-12-01T21:30:00.000-08:00

Not exactly a universal problem, but: I have a wells index 700 series CNC mill that when you put into traverse mode gets stuck frequently. It seems to be a timing belt issue, esp since the belt broke when trying to adjust the motor. This is a short post on replacing the belt since I couldn't find any documentation.

As a bit of background, if the documentation is correct, it weighs more than 3,500lbs. Unfortunately, when it was moved, the servos got whacked and it's been a problem getting it running when controlled by computer (manual is fine).

The Y axis drive was giving a lot of problems for a while, until a real machinist came over, moved the motor around and then it worked. Turns out it had been hit and moved slightly out of alignmnet --- this was making it slightly more difficult to turn the handle, which was causing the torque sensor to stop movement.
I started getting the same problem on the X axis so started fooling around, and making it tighter. 20+ year old belts don't like to be made tighter and this one promptly broke.

I paniced.

I then called the company and the owner hadn't had to deal w/ that before (?!) so wasn't sure what to do. He said he'd get back to me. He then said I could maybe get the table to seperate and go from there. These instructions were fairly vague to someone that don't know much about machines.

In any case, it sucks having a broken machine so sans documentation I started taking bolts off. Turns out it was actually not that hard to replace the belt, despite some initial false starts.

Here's more photos than anyone other than the one wells index owner out there would want to see :)

The handwheel for turning the milling table in the X axis, you can see the motor used by the computer as the cylinder below it: the belt in there running from the motor to the handle (to turn it) is broken:

After removing the handle, we stare at a bunch of bolts and then start removing four that seem like they might help:

Turning the X axis handle, the unit comes seperated from the table! This is great since somehow we need to get these apart to get the continuous belt in there:

We crank some more and it really seperates

Unfortunately the large screw (which controls the table movement) isn't about to come out, neither is the end unit. After staring for a while I realize (duh) that you can slip the belt over the two pulleys from the bottom if you take the servo motor off.

We remove it:

Slip the belt up:

Put the motor back and the belt into both pulleys:

And then reassemble:

I then run a few programs to move the X back and forth and everything works. No torque sensor problems. Nothing breaks. AWESOME.

Now why would we need people who know how to make stuff for money?

2009-11-30T23:13:00.001-08:00

Good example of quantitative data making a tendency obvious in a way that concatenating a bunch of nouns and verbs together can't.

From: Nick Shultz, pointer from Bainbridge.

porn causes tsunamis & earthquakes

2009-11-30T10:15:00.000-08:00

well, at least in Indonesia, depending on the govt' official:

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/11/porn_causes_tsunamis_and_earth.php

Hat tip: BT

Very thorough writeup on building a CNC mini-mill from high dollar components

2009-11-28T21:51:00.000-08:00

http://www.5bears.com/cnc.htm

Nice set of machining articles.

2009-11-28T06:04:00.001-08:00

http://rick.sparber.org/ma.htm

The one on softjaws is as good a place to start as any.

If you thought cars might have a bad effect on reality

2009-11-28T05:45:00.001-08:00

just wait til an errant spaceship can destroy the solar system: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427361.000-dark-power-grand-designs-for-interstellar-travel.html?full=true&print=true

Interesting discussion of how to harness artificial black holes to go really very fast.

Hat tip: Marginal Revolution

Amusing analysis of the climategate code

2009-11-26T00:39:00.000-08:00

So, let us stipulate that it would be a big surprise if burning tons of oil and its progeny had no significant effect on reality. However, the basis of these warmist predictions are the numbers spit out by large programs written by climate guys. And, generally, scientists can't code worth a shit.

To make this specific, there is an interesting, truncated, walkthrough of a couple of files in the main simulation program at:
http://www.di2.nu/200911/23a.htm

More analysis here: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/25/climategate-hide-the-decline-codified/

If you like such things, there's inf similar things (in different domains) at: http://thedailywtf.com/

cool science tattoos

2009-11-25T01:12:00.000-08:00

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/science-tattoo-emporium/

For example, everyone's favorite: Darwin Kong

Relatively inexpensive reamers for rechambering

2009-11-22T01:37:00.001-08:00

http://www.pacifictoolandgauge.com/products.htm

And a how-to on rechambering a 50cal: http://www.riflebarrels.com/articles/50calibre/chambering_50cal_rifle_barrels.htm

AVOID "Road Runner Transportation Services" they will destroy your shipment and not reimburse

2009-11-20T05:40:00.000-08:00

Short version: I bought an Emco V13 lathe in august, it was transported by "Road Runner Transportation Services" who as part of the delivery ran a forklift into it, basically totaling it. They've dragged things out for months. Their latest offer is that they will pay me $140. Given that the lathe cost $2600 and shipping was around $700 this is disgusting.

There's no abiguity: they fucked up, destroyed a good quality piece of equipment and are too dishonest to do the right thing. I'm going to have to sue them to straighten this out, which is a big waste of time.

I'd recommend avoiding them at all cost.

Here's some photos of the damage when it was delivered.

In the shrink wrap, speed knob, crosslide knob, plexiglass and lateral wheel broken:

Cross slide knob and the broken lateral wheel in the shrink wrap, indicating it occured after packing:

Fresh break: no oil:

You can see where it was rammed: the skirt is bent in, and the two parallel lines give the fingerprint of the object (forklift or was it in a van perhaps and hit the corner of something multiple times?):

Another view:

You can see the pallet is cracked too, giving a rough idea of the scope of the impact:

Broken plexiglass, bent rod holding it:

Unwrapped view:

Closer of the cross slide --- a very disturbing thing is that the knob was impacted so heavily that it dented the covering. This could be very bad: this controlls movement of the cross slide to the .001" of an inch --- hitting it very hard could easily ruin the mechanism:

This is the known most serious damage: the rod that drives threading has been severely bent. It's harder to see in photo than in real life, but I drew a line of the top and then turned it by hand, the gap gives a feel for the bend:

Top:

Rotated to low point:

I don't know if this can be replaced. As far as I know they don't make this lathe anymore, and the last known US distributor for emco parts does not have this model listed (I've sent email).

Here's the rod used to turn power on and off. It's been helpfully ripped from
the housing and the special switch used to control it destroyed:

Other things not pictured: the collet chuck and assembly were lost as was the
key to the lathe's storage compartment.

Fixing my dad's 357 trooper

2009-11-13T17:22:00.000-08:00

My dad bought out a Colt 357 trooper with some problems: these are I frames, identical to pythons on the inside. This is a short writeup on fixing the problems (for the most part). Note there's no sexy action work here, just a few fairly typical problems and one weird one. I write this stuff up so I don't forget, but no guarantees about riveting narratives.

The first problem: the cylinder does not spring back when you push it:

Removing the ejector and assembly the issue is obvious: the ejector spring actually slips underneath the ratchet bushing. The rectangle shows where the bushing is (screwed into the crane), its goal in life is to hold the spring back, and it's not meeting much success:

If you look at the head of the spring, it's messed up compared to these stock springs, one old style, one new:

As A1A notes (and the Kuhnhausen manual discusses) the end has to bent correctly or it will escape the bushing. I messed with the end but could not improve the result. I went tried numerous NOS ejector springs (new and old style) and none worked any better than what was in there.

Looking closer though, the ejector rod seemed thinner than normal. After measuring with calipers there was a non-trivial difference between various python ejector rods and what was in there. (I can't recall the number now unfortunately and dad took the gun with him so I can't check again.) If the rod is too thin the spring will just slip by. Fortunately I have a bunch of spare rods. Swapping a new one in fixes the problem. Nice. One of the few colt replacements where you don't have to fit anything. Much. Rejoicing.

Weird situation though. It's not like the ejector rod is a high wear part.

The next problem is that the bolt falls off the side of the rebound lever. This isn't a good photo, but you can kind of barely make out the tail of the bolt falling off the side of the rebound:

This makes the bolt drop funny, and often leads to a more pronounced "click" when the bolt pops back up.

The cause of the problem is what it usually is: The cam (in rectangle) slopes (red rectangle) rather than coming out at a right angle. Easy way to see the problem: compare the rebound in the gun (red rectangle) to a stock one (black):

We fix this by using a file to put it back the way it should. Removing metal from the rebound cam has to be done extremely carefully --- remove too much material and the bolt won't be able to touch this cam, so you won't be able to get instant bolt pickup and the cylinder will catch.

There were some other problems, but I'll only note one since "fixing" it can easily lead to frame damage if you do it incorrectly.

If you push the bolt up and down on this colt it moves back and forth too easily. It should move with slight resistance. The recommended fix is to counter-bore the frame (i.e., cut a circular chunk from it) so that the bolt screw can screw in farther, thereby pressing the bolt against the frame harder.

Of course, what isn't usually mentioned when discussing this counter-boring fix is that there is another possibility --- that the bolt is too thin. (An easy thing to happen if someone filed it too far --- they either leave it or replace the bolt, which is time consuming and expensive. Guess what they usually do...)

If the bolt is too thin and you counter-bore you've just done essentially irreparable damage to the frame (can't put that metal back). The bolt screw will stick out too far, people will laugh. In this case, what I've been told you can do is to cut the bolt screw down with a lathe, making sure to not damage the threads. A different, neat alternative if you have the right tap: drill and tap a hole into some thin metal, screw in the screw, grind it down to the length you want and then unscrew it. Unscrewing will "fix" the end of the threads. Not my trick, but I think it's pretty damn cute.

So, what do you do if the bolt is too thin? Replace it! But, I didn't have time (dad leaving), so cheated. The only symptom I was seeing with the bolt was that it was dropping too soon. Other than that it wasn't behaving erratically. So, since we were going to replace the bolt spring with a lighter one as part of an action job(*) we do so now to see if that fixes the timing issue. It does. So we declare victory after doing a boatload of dry firing to make sure the bolt behaves right.

Now, of course, replacing springs with weaker ones to "fix" problems is generally pretty stupid. I only do so in this specific case since (again): (1) the only symptom was a delayed bolt drop and (2) we were going to swap springs anyway. But, in general, have your dad stay longer and replace the bolt! Fixing problems by swapping springs is almost always a sure sign of a hack that will fuck up your pistol.

(*) Colt will actually file the spring thinner, but replacing is easier.

And there you have it. Next post will be on tuning the action.

work holding on a mill

2009-11-12T21:58:00.000-08:00

Some writeups:

interesting article on lack of gov't allowing urban renewal

2009-11-10T12:28:00.000-08:00

http://www.newgeography.com/content/001171-detroit-urban-laboratory-and-new-american-frontier

hat tip http://www.marginalrevolution.com/

forensic photos: 2.5 ported armoralloy python

2009-11-10T12:13:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I opened a python side plate, which at my age means I'm just about to forget everything. So, to counter that my dad and I went through a 2.5 ported python has that someone went through some trouble for to make into a very (very) nice carry gun with a great trigger and excellent porting.

Here's what we have to work with:

As you can see, it has an interesting matte silver finish which I am guessing is "armalloy". It's very tough, easy to clean.

He has a pair of Harret grips on it that he likes. (The roughness of them tears up my hands after a few hundred rounds.) Removing the grips, you can see the INS (inspection) stamp which they did in the early days.

Here's the porting; as you can see, I didn't clean it after the range, and a bunch of lead got shot out of it:

This porting is great: the barrel barely moves and recoil is tamed, even with hot 357 loads. I've been told that such elongated ports were done w/ an EDM machine. They have them on ebay for a few thousand or less...

For anyone thinking about porting theory, here's the approximate angle they used:

Finally, here's the internals. A bit hard to tell, but they plated just about *everything* (pop quiz to be answered in a couple of screens: if you want to protect against lawsuits, what wouldn't you plate?)

Now, why is the action so good? I kept claiming it was likely the standard reason and, fortunately for my street cred with dad, this was indeed the case. You can just make out the Tedford-style curved sear on the trigger:

As we all know now that is the standard way to remove stacking in a colt by making the pressure more uniform as you pull the trigger.

So, cool, we're now in a rush to get to the trigger. As part of this, we take off the mainspring and notice that they thinned out the bottom leg --- this is one way to weaken the mainspring. The modified mainspring has a rectangle, a stock one does not:

Often people just use a grinder freehand, but this is uniform enough that I'm thinking they either used a diamond wheel /carbide grinding setup with plate supports or possibly a milling machine.

I need to measure width, but here's a qualitative view of how much they took off, modified on left, stock on right:

Ok, so the trigger. The 2.5 trigger is on the left, a trigger done by Frank Glenn on the right, and stock is above them both. It looks like the 2.5 trigger is slightly thinner, perhaps they beat it more after heating it with a torch. Frank pointed out that some people thin the sear with a file and then bend with pliers, so this might be the cause of thinness:

Closer view, 2.5 on left, Glenn trigger on right:

The downside of curving a trigger is that it makes the single action suck. So a common thing is to file out the cocking notch in the hammer

Before we go further, let's reaffirm basic survival precepts: DO NOT MESS WITH THE COCKING NOTCH ON A STOCK TRIGGERS! It's unnecessary and BAD. Curving the sear changes the angle enough that we don't have much choice, unless we want to keep a heavy, creeping SA after doing a DA action job.

So, w/o further drama, here's the modified hammer (left) compared to stock (right). You can see from the rectangles that they've filed away a small amount of material in absolute terms, but a fairly enthusiastic amount in terms of what's in the cocking notch:

As we've come to expect, they replaced the bolt spring, so that the bolt presses less hard against the cylinder. I don't recognize the spring they used --- it's not the one I was shown to swap :):

Here's the parts they plated. Almost everything:

Now, if you were worried about a lawsuit, what do you never plate? Yeah, indeed the safety mechanisms:

For what it's worth, Harrett's uses a bushing in the grip (presumably so it
doesn't oval out under recoil making the grips loose):

The gun is nice to shoot. One reason is that it looks like someone cut the front sight thinner. The one on the 2.5 is .098", the ones on stock pythons I had laying around is .124". I have to really recommend using thinner front sights. Glenn made me a custom fiber optic front that makes a big difference, in part b/c of how thin it is:

And there you have it.

To summarize:

Classic, simple action job. The obvious tricks they played: a Tedford style curved sear trigger, reform the hammer notch, cut material off the lower mainspring leg and polish its end, and replace the bolt spring.
Great porting.
Thin the front sight.
Not much else (that I noticed).

Really nice, functional carry gun. Time to buy the porting tooling I've been
putting off getting!

One of my favorite python sight combinations

2009-11-07T11:48:00.000-08:00

This is a great setup. A Kensight "Elliason" rear (you can buy these at Brownells) with a front sight that was thinned a couple hundredths of an inch using a milling machine.

Front:

Rear:

The packaging:

Measurements of the front compared to a stock 6" python sight:

nice article on machining your own quick change tool posts

2009-11-06T23:45:00.000-08:00

http://www.rt66.com/~hypoxic/tool_post/toolpost.html

interesting article on the coming crisis in city bonds

2009-11-05T11:46:00.000-08:00

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2009/11/03/the-coming-collapse-of-the-municipal-bond-market/

High bit: no fucking way you should buy city bonds.

Amusing bit: with no way to default, West Palm Beach, Florida had to raise property taxes to 42.5% in order to meet obligations.

Possibly useful: in terms of debt vs GDB and citizens: "Massachusetts comes in at #1, with more than $10,000 of debt for each citizen and 20 percent of GDP. Each Texan owes about $1,000, by contrast, or 2 percent of GDP.

CA sucks more in various ways: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-voegli1-2009nov01,0,825554.story

Success! Fixed Hardinge QC lathe

2009-11-04T02:09:00.000-08:00

I bought a Hardinge Cataract Quick Change lathe awhile back that purported to be in excellent condition but, in fact, was completely inoperable.

It's now been resurrected with some help from a Practical Machinist member and a lot of time over the weekend. I'll be posting photos of how to take apart and reassemble soon, but here's some quick evidence: she cuts!

One weird thing about the QC is that the even on "low" the powerfeed is really fast, but even so, the finish on this is a very nice matte gloss:

Interesting china photos

2009-10-31T16:57:00.000-07:00

http://www.chinahush.com/2009/10/21/amazing-pictures-pollution-in-china/

The chinese are serious about their pollution:

Part I: retrofit of an Emco Compact 5 CNC lathe

2009-10-28T15:15:00.000-07:00

I recently got a somewhat beat up Emco Compact 5 CNC lathe. I spent a bit of time retrofitting it. (Note: "Emco" is Austrian lathe as opposed to "Enco," cheap Chinese) While the manual has a schematic, I didn't see much on taking it apart, which is a bit nerve wracking since Emco doesn't seem to make replacement parts. This is the first chunk of photos from what I did. No guarantees it will help, but perhaps you can at least see things to avoid.

So here's what we have to work with:

Pretty dirty, some rust spots.

The spindle moves if you manually program it, but there's no way to save programs other than a tape player(!) and no way to upload other than typing.

I bought a plug&play CNC setup from dmauch@seanet.com, which includes a set of Nema 23 500oz motors and a GeckoG540 controller. You can drive it using Mach3 or (hopefully EMC2).

In any case: first thing is to strip the lathe down.

Here's the back, with all the old electronics's. The backplate screws right off. Most of the electronics are attached with small hex screws.

The main board comes off pretty easily:

As does the tape drive:

I especially like removing these since we don't have to remember how to put them back!

The bare space left:

Since we're replacing motors we skip ahead and remove them just to see if it's going to be a pain to bolt on the new ones:

A few hex nuts off and we're good to go. The new motor on the left, old motor on the right. The lathe is belt driven.

The top of the topslide comes right off, exposing a bunch of gunk:

There are two bolts on the bottom of the lathe bed. Remove them, and off comes the bed:

To remove the entire cross slide you undo a fair number of hex bolts on underneath it:

Winding up with this when you're done:

The plastic seems like a cheap touch, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea to replace it with aluminum.

The plastic that holds the ballscrew connector is definitely cheap, and broken. You can also see where some jackass ran into the headstock, bending the metal that holds the oiled felt against the ballscrew:

Remove a couple of bolts and off comes the short cross slide ballscrew:

Unscrewing the protector:

The bed is held onto the headstock with four metric screws.

But not for long!

The condition of the bed is criminal. As expected since the machine came from a school.

Two bolts on each side and the electronics enclosure comes off as well:

Now we need to get the pulley off of the old motor. First knock out the
pin:

Then pry it off with a knife (should have used something else, obviously):

Leaves:

The wrong thing to do is to remove the spring washer at the end of the pulley, since that accomplishes nothing, other than losing the washer. Ask me how I know. This is one of the many cases where The Right Way to do something feels wrong --- if you pull on the pulley, it won't budge, so you figure there must be a different way. But no: in this case using brute force is actually the right way. Who knew.

For example, to get the spindle out, you have to remove the pulley at the rear of the lathe. But if you pull on them, even with some effort, they won't budge. Which of course means we just have to pull harder! The main trick is to not break the not-that-sturdy plastic on the pulley. So we use a "pulley puller" (I kid you not: that is the name). Three prongs with a central screw that you screw down that slowly exerts significant force and pulls a pulley off.

Here it is on the spindle, along with a metal plate since the center of the spindle is hollow:

Bingo, comes right off. And then the spindle does, and then the headstock. It's disassembly jackpot:

The only thing left is the bearings. If you push on these they don't want to come out the front. The wrong thing to do is to try to get the snap ring on the inside out (not shown since this is wrong). What we should obviously do is do more of what wasn't working! If the bearings don't come out with a small bit of force, hit the suckers! You want to be careful here and (1) use a wood dowel with a fairly large diameter and (2) tap them out evenly rather than just hitting one point. I didn't do (1) (used a brass rod like an idiot) so bent one of the bearings as you can see --- I was going to replace it anyway, but still it's pretty stupid. Note that there is only one wavey washer (for the back). It's easy to think that when you hit the bearings out that you lost one. An odd asymetry:

Next we scrub with industrial degreaser. This stuff is great, but it will remove many different types of paint, so only use it when that is ok:

Degreased before painting:

Putting things back together: http://coltpython.blogspot.com/2009/12/part-ii-retrofit-of-emco-compact-5-cnc.html

Recent trip: beijing, Oct 2009

2009-10-27T00:57:00.000-07:00

Some things right off the bat: it doesn't look like your dad's china anymore. If you just looked at the buildings, you'd think it was some new place in EU or a new version of new york. If you looked at the people, you might think HK. Definitely not what I expected for china. At least from what I saw, it's much less crowded than NY (where you constantly feel as if you are drowning in meat) or even downtown SF. And the air was clean, which seems impossible, but there you have it.

And the people had their pluses and minuses. I'm still not used to nicely dressed females clearing their throats like truck drivers and casually spitting on the floor inside a building. And the matter of fact way that Beijing people lie is startling. If you ask a question that they are too lazy to find the answer too will cost them money it seems fairly standard to lie right to your face. One example: a guide was trying to get us to go see some tourist thing, but we told him we were going to the forbidden city --- "Oh, you can't do that, they close at 3pm!" Which, of course, was complete bullshit. And thing was, it was trivially easy to falsify this claim since the gate was just 10 yards away. Stupid. Another favorite: if you ask a question they don't want to answer they just look away. Example again: taxi drivers parked by the side of the road "Are you working now?" which triggers no response and a studious look to the side.

Right off the plane, you can see a trend:

The airport is huge, with lots of space, and clean:

And no matter what people say, Chinese food is not spicy. They use the wrong peppers. Here's a good example: peppercorn, red peppers and a bit of meat, but 10x less hot than a good Thai chili (and nothing compared to habenero!).

You go to china for Cantonese --- hunan and Sichuan just isn't worth it:

Overall the food was not particularly good. All places eaten at were highly recommended by locals, but CA Chinese asian food is noticeably superior. The food in Beijing often tasted old, and the oil was extreme (and old). Some things were reasonable, but even Beijing duck wasn't what was expected. On the other hand the food is crazy cheap. The best meal was a chain(!) Cantonese place where 8 dishes and 3 500ML beers was less than $20. The quality was not over the top, but it was honest food and a great price. The thing I was looking forward most when getting home was finally eating good fresh fruit --- while there were lots on the streets, it was typically fairly mushy.

For all this whining, I did get fatter visiting, so shouldn't complain. And the absence of stunning meals might just be an ignorance tax rather than an indictment of Beijing.

Some things are the same everywhere. Different spelling, same location and purpose:

Though some things are not the same. An example of "faux amis" --- in this case, the "hospital" is actually a beauty parlor. It's a bit disconcerting til you realize this.

China struck me most as what would happen if you took a brand new EU city and interlaced a Mexican border town through it. Here's an example of the former: huge esplanades, much commerce:

And here's the border town aspect, not two blocks from a 4 star hotel and business district:

Unlike most countries that have a fairly standard division between bright shiny and old, decaying, Beijing at least has them tightly interlaced. You can walk a single block and see a new, open, modern edifice and street, only to then run right into a 3rd world hovel collection.

And just for contrast, here's some old china:

Tienanmen square is freaking huge. The streets had 15 lanes at least, I'm guessing to support massive tank movement.

And here's Mao, still alive despite the dollar:

And co-existing within eyesight of enormous TV screens and lots of commerce:

Rush hour in one of the shopping districts. You get the feeling that work places and living places are not distributed uniformly at random:

One nice thing about this traffic jam it that it was the safest I ever saw a Beijing street. Everyone was stopped. In general the driving in Beijing is crazy. Distances between cars are measured in micrometers. Cutting through solid masses of meat and metal is done by just not fucking caring what happens to your car. This is *not* a place where you can rent a car and not die. If you try to drive like the locals you will fail. If you try to drive safe and slow you will get demolished since trucks will simply run over you. In fact, you really need to pay attention when merely crossing the street --- they might honk, but they will not slow down. And while I saw many cross walks and many people using them, it wasn't clear what the point was, other than to concentrate the number of people next to you in the hope that they would get hit rather than you.

A tourist night market:

With lots of fried scorpions, crickets and other insects:

Funny enough, scorpions taste more of less like french fries:

Though I wimped out and didn't eat this sucker:

One way to tell you are not quite in the tourist area anymore (note the lack of paper --- this was a perennial issue, they even charge for napkins):

Beijing is a great place to not have a car. Taxis to anywhere are incredibly cheap, and the subway is modern, clean, and on time and a bit of $.25 to ride. Especially nice is that the Chinese have exterminated all the ghetto trash that inhabited the subways in Boston and NY, often causing trouble. Here's the escalator down --- the pictures on the side are advertisements for a watch (all of them), as usual the contrast of capital and commie is amusing:

A different shopping district, less touristy:

As you can see immediately:

In general, everything in China happens by bargaining. If they ask for $120 YUAN, you start at 40 or less. It doesn't matter if you speak their language, a calculator will appear and numbers will change. I don't know anything about how to bargain so my algorithm was to just halve the price and go up slightly, then whip out the amount of YUAN I wanted to stop at and offer it with the implication of walking away. Cash in hand seemed to hurry things along. In any case, since things are crazy cheap there, so even not bargaining would have been a bargain. I do love countries that when you visit you actually save money compared to staying home. Beijing was one of the rare places where that was true, but things did not suck in terms of crime.

An interesting thing about Beijing is just how many bodies of water there are.

Next to the ones I saw, there's a very strong feeling of an EU lake town

or a less watery Venice, with boats taking passengers, many outside cafes and bars and nightlife:

District 798 is an interesting art district (art ghetto?) --- it was originally a factory donated by eastern GM, but has been since used as a place to stick all the artists and try to make some money. It has some really nice rusty, decayed, industrial buildings.

A typical exterior:

And another:

A typical interior:

Some art, with a predictable focus:

A bit more gruesome:

Less so:

"I wish I could have known you longer":

The graffiti was often a high point:

And here's the chinese take on current events:

Grafitti in Beijing

2009-10-24T09:38:00.000-07:00

Just a small bit of paint, but a very savage feeling in person.

Kick ass sculpture: Michael Christian

2009-10-06T20:54:00.000-07:00

A lot of neat pieces at: http://www.michaelchristian.com

Like this one:

recent trip

2009-10-06T20:40:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting much about colts lately --- trying to learn electronics and build a couple computer controlled lathes.

But did have a chance to go on a trip. It was interesting. A lot of fire and the official ethos is: "don't f*cking complain and do something interesting."

I thought this was brilliantly simple --- a line of ballons hundreds of yards long tied with a cord. Someone would be holding it and walking around. Could have been done anytime in the last few decades but this is the first I know of.

Morning:

Fire.

There were around fifteen 15' high flame throwers that could go off in sequence or allatonce. The compression and heat were memorable. Unforunately I apparently don't know how to set my camera for night shots:

A cloning device:

Wonderful textures and colors:

Dust:

One of the most moving statues I've ever seen.
The body made from locks.
It's dragging a key. Wrong size for keyhole.
The chain string attached to the large key is made from keys.
But none fit the face, either.
Or anywhere else
So all the keys
All the locks
None fit
And it has no hand
So can't let go of the keys.

Useful hardinge repair links.

2009-10-04T01:53:00.001-07:00

This is a nice writeup on how to replace hardinge spindle bearings: http://aafradio.org/garajmahal/Hardinge_spindle_bearing_replacement.htm

Disassembly/fix/reassembly: http://www.cspark s.com/hardinge/

Fixing malignantly stupid ubuntu linux and windows XP on a thinkpad

2009-10-01T19:32:00.000-07:00

I've wasted two days trying to get any of my thinkpad laptops to drive some stepper motors. Both windows and linux have behaved like inbred meth heads when it comes to doing simple things they should handle.

Windows

I was having issues making the parallel port work. One suggestion was to change the "ACPI" option to "Standard PC" from it's current setting.

Easy enough. Seemed completely harmless since "Standard PC" seems less tricky than whatever was in there to begin with.

I did it.

Reboot.

Windows crashes.

Reboot

Crashes

Reboot in "Safe mode"

Crashes

Reboot in "last stable configuration"

Crashes.

Reboot in with recovery CD.

Can't recognize harddrive.

Mount the windows file system in linux. Copy a bunch of DLLs over to try to revert thing. Crashes.

Finally, the sysadmin here changed the "Serial ATA" setting in the BIOS to be "Compatability" rather than ATA.

Now the recovery CD could recognize the drive.

Reinstall. Freezes since I need a product key and the one on my laptop doesn't work.

Track down what it wants (what an insult given that it fucked up!)

Continue.

Things now work.

Linux

Linux is not necessarily any better.

Since windows blew up I installed the ubuntu linux distribution to try out EMC2 (a CNC program). The installation went fine.

Reboot.

Boot loader cannot recognize the harddriver! WTF! (Grub: error 18)

I spent around 4 hours trying to get something to work. Even trying to do a complete reinstall of windows using a rescue CD failed w/ errors that it couldn't find the harddrive.

Fixing ubuntu's complete stupidity turns out to not take many key strokes in the end:

You need to get into the "BIOS" to change a setting: reboot your laptop
Hold down one of the function keys (F1 works for me)
It will take you to a configuration screen
Select "security"
Set the "hide disk area" option to "disabled"
Reboot.
Should work.

neat machining videos

2009-09-23T16:40:00.000-07:00

Start of ongoing list.

CNC porn:

Hard core mass production CNC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwgobIVj4fU
Another fun one by the same people: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcGHtI9Lql4&NR=1
And another for a mill: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SUQKGu7F5w&feature=channel
Fast CNC cutting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYqN90gHOZM
Now this is a production setup: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J4RlAmBuEo&feature=PlayList&p=199985F23F191210&index=1
nakamura CNC lathe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3Gtr4WbtNw

Machining tricks:

Indicating workpiece in seconds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn7A9PqNftY
Steady rest facing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThVprkb2w6g
Using CNC mill as lathe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ezx_hCSJDLQ&feature=PlayList&p=C228FBAE81E4F35A&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=4

Building CNC links:

Neat home brew CNC lathe w/ a crazy tool changer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1IDHIcyHLY&feature=related

Cheap to build CNC dremel mill (from instructables). Not powerful or accurate, but seems like a good starter project before building something serious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6drMZqmyXQc
Same guy: building cheap CNC driver board: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUyqscxLJ4k&feature=related

For those poor suckers living in CA: call Schwarzenegger NOW

2009-09-22T00:11:00.001-07:00

AB962 is sitting on his desk. It will ban mail order ammunition, along with other problems. If he does not actively veto it by Oct 11 it becomes law.

What to do:

Step 1: call 916-445-2841
Step 2: Press 1 for English.
Step 3: Press 2 for commenting on a bill on the Governor’s desk
Step 4: Press 2 for AB962
Step 5: Press 2 for Oppose
Step 6: Repeat as necessary (preferably once or twice a day).

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=223525&highlight=prompt+ammo+ban+phone

This is a malignantly spiteful bill that is useless for reducing crime. It will likely increase death/accident/injury given that it makes ammunition more expensive: the majority (in my opinion) of gun owners are already undertrained, and this will make it worse.

Stepper links

2009-09-21T04:26:00.001-07:00

Since the main point of all this electronic stuff is to build some custom CNC machines, time to start a collection of links:

Nice H-bridge tutorial: http://www.mcmanis.com/chuck/robotics/tutorial/h-bridge/bjt-circuit.html
Some notes on doing motors on arduinos: http://www.ladyada.net/make/mshield/use.html
Arduino on steppers: http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/StepperBipolar
Good stepper tutorials: http://www.societyofrobots.com/member_tutorials/node/168 and http://www.societyofrobots.com/member_tutorials/node/120
Reverse engineering which stepper wires to use: http://wwwhomes.doc.ic.ac.uk/~ih/doc/stepper/others/
Even more stepper motors w/ lots of data:http://www.st.com/stonline/products/literature/an/1679.pdf
Related: how to use an oscilloscope: http://www.doctronics.co.uk/scope.htm

Fixing arduino upload problem on linux

2009-09-20T21:04:00.000-07:00

Symptom: the arduino IDE will upload your sketch no problem, but using avrdude raw only works the first time. Pulling the USB cable out and plugging back allows it to upload again (once).

Solution: (from http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1201441300): it seems to be a problem w/ the linux driver. Just insert "stty -F $(PORT) hupcl" right before the avrdude command (where PORT = the usb device such as "/dev/ttyUSB0"). E.g. in the Makefil:

stty -F $(PORT) hupcl
$(AVRDUDE) $(AVRDUDE_FLAGS) $(AVRDUDE_WRITE_FLASH)

You may also have to set your baud rate to 57600 (at least for the 328p).

It's such a relief to not have to use their IDE! Point+click to edit was driving me nuts.

Arduino. Or: How to hack electronics w/o knowing a damn thing

2009-09-17T18:36:00.000-07:00

I've paused on the colt stuff to learn some electronics + micro-controllers (the little chips that get stuck in your car, fridge, cell phone, etc) so that I can build my own computer controlled machines. The "Arduino" boards are a great way to go about it. You can download code onto them from your computer across the USB port and then use this code to control electronic things you wire together and plug into the board. (E.g., by reading whether pins have power or not, and setting power out on other pins.)

The "hello world" program is to hook up a LED light + a resister to the chip and make it blink by turning a pin off and on. I've only ever used computers to toss around 0s and 1s, so it's neat to make them control atoms (sort of). Hopefully by the end of the weekend I can use it to drive some stepper motors that I can then attach to a lathe to make it computer controlled.

Here's a set of great class notes aimed at artists from "todbot" (http://todbot.com/blog/spookyarduino/)

http://todbot.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/arduino_spooky_projects_class1.pdf

http://todbot.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/arduino_spooky_projects_class2.pdf

http://todbot.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/arduino_spooky_projects_class3.pdf

http://todbot.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/arduino_spooky_projects_class4.pdf

If microcontrollers and electronics has always been mysterious, I'd really recommend checking the notes out --- the audience is non-technical artists, so it requires minimal knowledge. On the other hand, it's not pablum. He shows how to build cool stuff quick.

If you are going to go this route, just buy the $89 kit at: http://oomlout.com/ards.html Everything included to go from nothing to cool things. A bunch of different projects, many variations. I've spent all friday night tweaking on it!

Useful links:

A bunch of neat arduino links: http://www.tigoe.net/pcomp/code/
Useful blog tutorial on how to use a voltmeter: http://www.ladyada.net/learn/multimeter/voltage.html
And more generally an arduino tutorial at the same blog: http://www.ladyada.net/learn/arduino/index.html (Which turns out to be the person I bought my arduino chips from! She has a post on how to build a cell phone jammer: http://www.ladyada.net/make/wavebubble/)
Soldering guide: http://www.epemag.wimborne.co.uk/solderfaq.htm
The comments of this thread are very useful: http://todbot.com/blog/2006/12/06/arduino-serial-c-code-to-talk-to-arduino/
Nice set of tutorials on arduino and many other related things: http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/Tutorials/Tutorials
And, of course, the "official" arduino forums: http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl
Heat sink discussion: http://www.thebox.myzen.co.uk/Tutorial/Power.html
Awesome electronics lessons: http://mysite.du.edu/~etuttle/electron/elecindx.htm