November 27, 2025

Yesteryear
One year ago today: November 27, 2024, flush the roach.
Five years ago today: November 27, 2020, an un-camera person.
Nine years ago today: November 27, 2016, east, like it or not.
Random years ago today: November 27, 2002, 750,000 by tomorrow.

           Up late with the microscope idea, it was easy to print a grid. What is not so easy is printing the grid to an exact scale, or numbering that grid. It was fun and I have a pattern that will work, but failed to find a suitable vector file for free. Because I won’t pay for lines. Since I only need one for now, I set the laser to the 1 hour task of burning the jpeg file. This laser does not excel at cutting such patterns and I see now why the overscan setting is important. I further learned except for extreme cases, the actual grid size isn’t that important. You mostly need a reference.

           Here’s a graphic from the future, that is, this afternoon. Those of you who stuck around, we did it. This is the working prototype of our “flatbed” microscope. It’s not finished and it is not fancy, but it works exactly as intended. Congrats, our first such endeavor. The concept was significantly more complicated (and finicky) than designing a box, but all our experience here was brought into play. As we know from robotics, the hardest phase is deciding what to do next when you hit a snag that stops the whole event—and there were plenty.

           Now here is a Thanksgiving post worth reading, the adventures of Chester. Two guardsmen have been shot in DC and FoxNews is already on about possible CIA and Afghan connections, it’s almost formulaic. I’m not hungry today of all days. Except for apple pie. It’s okay, I remembered to set my scale back ten pounds. Pie with nutmeg instead of cinnamon, I’m easy to please, pie-wise.
           Later, it’s pie that takes the cake as it were, this morning was another dense fog, this one unusually cold. No mention of rain in the forecast, but all that humidity has to go somewhere and it isn’t up. I double-checked everything was under cover and it wasn’t long. Flood conditions. The directions said to let the pie cool for 20 minutes. I wonder which Boomer came up with that one. There is also a good wind so let it freeze up there, I have the coffee to survive whatever they throw this way. I’m not the only one who takes cold weather personal.

           Agt. R never did come pick up his railroad jack, so I’m throwing it out. All seized up anyway, though if I can I’ll make a yard decoration out of it. He would be impressed by the setup here these day. He has more sheds than I do, but they are full of yard maintenance gear that cannot much be used for anything else. And you know what has become hard to find? Those multi-meter leads (probe wires) that had that neat little spring-loaded hook on the end to say in place. No, not those stupid alligator clips with the stupid covering that slips off your fingers. These had a little plunger grip that hung on to the wire when you let go.
           They were once called probe hooks, but not the mini-grabbers which are meant for connecting wires. Those are too flimsy. There are probe hooks, but only with useless banana plugs on the other end plus they want $12 a pair for them. I need a trip to SkyCraft.

           What’s this, 525 extra views last day? Must have been my tale about the semaphore message. There is one more canned message left, let me get it for you. Ready? CHANGE COURSE THIRTY DEGREES NORTH. That wasn’t worth the effort. The chosen exercise allows the message to be sent backwards, maybe that is the correct next challenge.

Picture of the day.
The chainsaw massacre station,
Today, Bastrop, TX
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           This is the most something Thanksgiving in a while, because I build my first real scientific instrument. It was a incredible, and I mean that, departure from the box skills I was just started to get proud of. Other than the bulk cuts of the wooden frame pieces, here was a project that got me hauling out some of the most specialized tools in my shed, some of which have been used once. I must say this was an unexpected adventure; I’ll record the short version. Shown here is the first photo taken by the assembly, some #8 copper wire.

           The primary purpose of this handheld scope was to determine if a specimen was worth examining further, and it badly failed that one. The scope had a dial 50x to 1,000x, but the dial was so stiff, it had to be taken off the sample and guess-worked by hand. I set it at a kind of okay size and left it there. Then I cut a series of wooden blocks that approximated the distances I has used by hand. I did not know that was the easy part.

           The design needed a flat table cut to fit where the lens was positioned, which in turn meant measuring the diameter of the instrument in several places. None were consistent, so three concentric holes had to be exactly spaced for the curving diameter of the microscope barrel. This was accomplished by a complicated series of tacking together wood blocks, using the tiny 1/8th inch brads I just knew I kept in that old tray for the past five years. By carefully drilling matching pilot holes and some back and forth, I got the barrel to fit, then pried away the sacrificial blocks.

           Yep, I see the people who do this for a living in a much better light. Like anyone who’s done this, and I get it, most people don’t, each step triggers inventiveness. You can visualize several improvements you could have made, but have already butchered your pieces and must forge ahead. I was soon using drill bit sizes I’d never touched, like 1-3/8ths and digging out my set of nut drivers to get at screws now buried in tunnels recessed by Forstner bits.

           Bottom line, this work required a lot of specialized tools and skills. The adjusting assembly, the t-nut screw, does not stay level, plainly wood is not the ideal material. These metal parts are what I have the least experience with, so we are not giving up. It doesn’t work well, but it does work, shown here by this instant photo of a penny. It’s tricky to adjust but the precision is astonishing compared to before.
           I’m turning a screw to get this focus, meaning with a proper knob, super fine clarity of most surfaces should become routine. Like myself, you may have noticed the sparkle in the metal today and y’day is not gold, but am effect of the LEDs built into the camera. Best of all, these photos were taken in a few seconds on the first try. My guess is this [microscope] is finally useful and a good demo of prototyping skill.

ADDENDUM
           My secondary plan today was to plant some avocado seeds. Over the years I’ve tried the seed in water until it sprouts, but none have succeeded. That is, they get a foot tall, the size recommended for transplanting to soil. Then they slowly expire. I didn’t get to this due to a drop in temperature into the 50s. The back room has the overhead to keep toasty and the bath room is on a timer, that’s how predictable my patterns are. It was again so dead silent I could hear the kitchen clock ticking. Not even the distant rumble of family arguments. Later, the radio says she’s dropping to 42°F, time for research. Since I don't do the Black Friday thing, I've never missed it. They shop, I play bass. They spend, I cook. They're broke, I'm not. There's a pattern here but I just can't quite connect the dots. How was your Thanksgiving?

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