One year ago today: March 12, 2014, porn and computer sales.
Five years ago today: March 12, 2010, did you feed MagicJack?
Ten years ago today: March 12, 2005, I found $60!
MORNING
Yep, summer’s early and so was my morning coffee. I received enough good news to relax for a few days with my hobbies. I hope one day you get to do the same. Did you know about a quarter (25%) of my readers are here to enjoy the same learning curve vicariously? That’s why I will never cease telling you about my mistakes. If you listen to the pros who never make mistakes, then you have make them yourself. Savvy?
Wait, there is another thing I can do with this, You put your pencil on a ruler mark and slide down the board to make a line equidistant from the edge. I’ve seen it done. And I’ll practice up with that later.
It was a 30 mile round trip because I had to find the nut that fit the Ryobi band saw adjustment knob that I, duh, loosened too much. I learned that a few metric nuts do have a coarse and fine thread type. And guess which one I needed? Yep. I have it, if you return to read this afternoon, I’ll show you a photo of how it fits and what I’m attempting to do. But here’s something to consider.
When I go to buy something, and only that particular article on the display rack is sold out, I have to ponder that. That’s what’s transpired three times this week alone. I’ll explain. You see, I’m a complete rookie at this, so it stands to reason I pick what are pretty well generic tools and parts. I don’t know enough to get anything fancy. So the odds of finding a stockout should not be any greater for me. Much less three times in one week.
First, the bandsaw blade. There were twenty different styles on the rack. Only the one I needed was sold out. Since this is Office Depot, they don’t need to lose business by understocking, so you tell me those blades didn’t disappear off the display within the last week. See what I mean? Then, I go to find the halogen bulb for my saw lamp. Same thing over a Evergreen. They got lots of 50W and 35W but the only style lacking is the 20W I require. Then, this metric nut.
It is a number 8-1.25 which also comes in 8-1.0, fine and coarse. There was a complete fixed display of all the sizes, and sure enough, which one was missing. Having seen this before, I piled on the scooter and drove to Miami. Got what I needed, but only because I happen to know a hardware store that is even older than Barnet’s.
So that's the question for the day. How can it be that time and again these stores are sold out of the random parts that I need? It's a conspiracy, I tell you. They are all in it against me.
NOON
“A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.” (Farm wisdom)
No, I’m not going to say what else has occurred since the blonde lady tried to put the squeeze on me last day. I’m categorically saying I turned her down because she had been drinking and I do not take advantage, nor do I need to. So while you’re here, let’s get to the exciting repair on the band saw. Shown here is the 8-1.25mm nut beginning to compress the spring below.
But I have a plan. Dudes like me always have a plan. Why don’t I use some cheap plastic, like PVC pipe as a collar, and then cut the plastic? While all this is going on, I’m watching a strange DVD movie, called “Godsend”. About a couple who clone their 8 year old after a car crash.
The unlikely plot is that when the new child reaches the 8 year mark, he begins to have flashbacks. It’s Hollywood preying on how little the viewing audience knows about cloning. I’ve been reading further on that topic lately.
Why? Because I’ve noticed a parallel to evolution and the occurrence of new ideas. Evolution occurs all the time by way of mutations. A mutation that is beneficial to the environment, not necessarily to the organism, is the one most likely to get passed on. So, how is that the same as ideas?
Easy. When there is no progress, people’s thoughts will be an endless repetition of what went on before. For that matter, it could hardly be any different. These boring patterns get passed on the offspring. We all know rich people whose sons and daughters turned out to be woeful deadbeats. Well, my theory says the same happens with ideas.
Suppose at some point, an individual has an original thought. From that instant onward, his new thoughts will be permanently altered. The egg cannot be unscrambled. His future thoughts cannot go back in time past the inspirational moment. So they are not repetitions of the distant past. And that is how evolution works. This implies progress is a blind, unorganized reaction to the environment, but I’ll bet there is a body of evidence that said that long before I came along.
Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go sharpen all the tools. Scissors, too. Analog, you know, manually. On my whetstone, expertly honing each blade slowly to perfection. This is a great skill, you learn to use your body weight to carefully push down and away. And you can tell by the slight change in scraping sound when the job is done. Then flip over the stone and repeat on the fine side.
AFTERNOON
Not to fall behind, I tackled the band saw. And I can tell you that a viable robot just got a whole lot closer. Those who stuck with me through the initial hard times will remember how building the robot chassis without spending a fortune on factory parts became one hell of a barrier. Long passages endured where I had actually considered financing a 3D printer. Now I know, don’t use those contraptions unless you totally have no other choice. And happen to be a design engineer.
Due to thinking it through for a couple days first, I breezed right though the repair job. Surprisingly, it took less than fifteen minutes. First the tension knob, then the ¼” (all-purpose blade), then the fine tuning of the top and bottom rollers. One of these [rollers] was jammed by the previous owner (it looks like he did so in frustration). That’s because he didn’t read the instructions. I did. I first set up the jammed roller and adjusted everything to that.
Not only does the saw zoom right through wood, it is also a considerable degree quieter. Did you know there is an art to folding the saw blades? They are a five foot hoop of springy metal that fights back. I’ll let you look up the video on your own, but to the onlooker, it appears almost magic. I’ve done it so often it looks instant. It is a three step process. It’s one of those things that I think I might have seen somebody do it when I was a kid, but can’t say for sure.
Anyway, I have three blades. A fine, a general, and a metal cutting. The saw instructions say not for metal, but the on-line users say that means ferrous (iron). They show successful cuts of up to 1/8” aluminum and ¼” copper. At this time I have no intention of cutting metal. Because I have so far to go learning wood.
EVENING
It’s like a new toy, a working bandsaw. Beginners, you should consider this saw instead of a table saw. It isn’t as straightforward to use, but I personally wish I had known about them. I proceeded to cut everything I wasn’t using in half, just to see what’s in there. Tennis balls left here by Agt. M, cardboard paper towel tubes, and lots of PVC piping.
There are several videos on-line showing methods of cutting perfect circles, one step closer to cutting a wheel sprocket for a tank tread. This is out of my league but it was not that long ago it was considered impossible. Without engineer training, I had not a clue how to begin. Now, I do it the way I felt it always should be—empirical first. If you are not sure what that means, good luck. I could not find a good definition to link to.
Empirical means practical, not influenced by theory, particularly scientific theory. If I build a tank tread, it would be empirical, made out of what it at hand without regard to whether it is too strong or too weak, that kind of thing. But I favor it because I am more likely to overbuild and it gets the project into existence faster. Once you have proof of concept, then let some mechanical engineer worry about how to trim on materials. Are you with me on that count?
Also, I could see that the previous owner must have had an aversion to changing the blades for different jobs. He kept retensioning the old blade pushing it to one side. So I tested to see if changing the blade was difficult. Nope. I can do it in around 40 seconds. Unless I’m missing something, that makes it look like changing blades is susceptible to the laziness factor.
You know something else? I support missing people. That’s correct. If a person wants to go missing, to just drop out of the picture for a while, or forever, that is fine with me. I’m not talking crime victims, but people who simply want to get off the world for a while. They should not be subject to searches or missing person’s reports or those complete assholes, the Census Bureau. If they want to go live in the middle of nowhere, I say they have a right to be left alone. As long as their obligations are met, dropping out should be a Constitutional right.
Did you know you have a right to call yourself anything you want? Yep, as long as it is not for a fraudulent purpose, you can call yourself Donald Duck. Well, the government is trying to take away that right by making it illegal. What if you don’t like your name, but don’t want to change it? What if you have a nickname? You could find yourself on the docket.
Last, did you hear about the two helicopters that crashed filming a reality show? Both helicopters were full of athletes. Now how are they going to get footage of teams of useless jocks performing useless stunts for the entertainment of useless fools and . . . and . . . say, I just got an idea.
national debt
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