Now this is just too cool!

A long time ago I was enthralled with the idea of radio controlled planes.  I even bought a used one at a yard sale.  I think my one flight lasted about three and a half seconds and ended with the prop spinner firmly planted in the runway.

Oops…

The plane wasn’t that badly damaged and I did try again that same day, but I couldn’t get the engine to start.  After my one ‘less than successful’ attempt to fly my plane I pretty much gave up. 

The original idea was to put a camera on the plane and shoot in flight movies.  Back then video gear was much too big and heavy and everything about RC was expensive.  So I shelved the idea.  I had also thought of using a kite or a balloon or even a blimp to hoist a camera aloft.  So far It’s all just been the stuff of daydreams.

I did build a series of remotely operated submersibles that were remarkably successful.  The big one even had has a video camera and is operated with what they are calling these days First Person Video, or FPV.  That project was set aside around twenty years ago now when I bought a larger boat to run the ROV from.  I fixated on the boat and lost interest in the reason I bought it in the first place.

Who me?  Nah!  (cough…)

So a few weeks ago I stumbled upon this series of YouTube videos.  Flight Test to be specific.

OMG!  They are doing things with RC planes I would have thought defy the laws of physics and aerodynamics!

And the planes and equipment, while not cheap, are very affordable!  Some of the planes are positively cheap.  They are using foam board from the dollar store the way I used to use the Styrofoam cafeteria trays from the lunchroom at work to make gliders back when I was still working on the ROV.  I could very easily get roped back into the whole RC plane thing all over again.  And putting a camera on the plane is now almost commonplace!

Meanwhile there’s been a new hobby springing up of people from MIT students to sixth graders launching ‘space probes’ to the edge of space on weather balloons.

So with all this background in place I can tell you about the story I spotted in the news at lunch today.  It featured a name I recognized from the Flight Test videos.

Better yet, why don’t you just watch the video…




You will want to watch this full screen fer sure!

Because I can...

So Mum and I went out to Friendly's for lunch.  We both had the seafood platter.  Not unusual for Mum, but unprecedented for me.  You see, I know a little too much about some of my meal's place in the food chain.  I may have to revise my position regarding what things I won't eat.  Just maybe I might be a little more inclusive in the future.  It was good!

Anywho, the service was also good.  So naturally I left a nice tip...

Because I can...

Sorry the picture is so fuzzy.  I'm still getting the hang of the camera in my new cell phone.

It seems like only yesterday…

So a bit over two years ago I got into make’n shit out of leather.  I made a bunch of stuff in a brief spurt that lasted nearly a year.  Most of my projects were belt gear for personal use.  My favorite project so far is the custom holster for my cell phone.  That double belt loop goes around the single belt loop on the back of my matching tactical flashlight holster.  Makes a nice neat package that looks like its all one case on my belt.  And they stay put.

Well, time passes and technology gets old.  This elderly Tracfone is on its last legs.  The hinge is cracked and missing a chunk.  The backlight doesn’t work any more which makes the screen nearly impossible to read in all but the brightest of light.  It’s what LawDawg might call a right proper phone.  It’s just a phone.  That’s it.  No camera, no web, no features.  It has a rather pathetic calculator and a couple of games that were old back when I still used my Atari 2600.  It served me well for much longer than the two years that I carried it in the custom case I made for it.

But it’s time to move on.  The service date for this phone was coming up this Saturday and I finally decided to stop throwing good money* after bad.  Time for a new phone.  Naturally the new phone doesn’t come close to fitting in the old case.  So it looks like I’ll be back at the leather table – as soon as I decide what sort of case to make for it.

You know, the funny thing about this case is that I never did actually finish the thing!  All those grooves around the outside were supposed to have stitching to hold the case together.  The contact cement held for two years and seventeen days so far and looks like it would outlast the leather.  Who’d have thunk?

Of course now I have to figure out how to use this newfangled contraption of a phone, and camera, and sort-of PDA and…

Wish me luck!


Oh buy the way…  One of the main reasons I kept the old phone as long as I did was that I had been told years ago that you couldn’t transfer the minutes in your old phone to a new one.  Apparently Tracfone has solved that problem (or possible been legislated or litigated to…  Iduno.  As long as the old phone worked there was no need to pay much attention to what they were up to.) because after finally deciding to abandon the remaining minutes in the old phone because it badly needed replacing I discovered that you now can port over your minutes if you activate on-line.  You have to set up an account and tell them who you are to do it though.  So you loose any hope of anonymity with Tracfone to do it.  That may be an issue for some people.


* OK – fiat currency.  And it ain’t really so good any more.

It's Miller Time!

What a mess!

Well, I was just messing around...

This was merely and experiment not an actual project.  The pocket facing the camera is almost twice the width of the cutter.  The pocket on top is a single cutter width.  They intersect about half way into each other.  Both were made with a flat end slot or edging router bit.  The top was chamfered (badly) with a V-cutting router bit.  The square U shaped slot on the near face was cut with a round end router bit similar to a ball end mill.

The shop looks and works much better rearranged as I described last night.  I can actually get at most everything!  I still have quite a bit of tidying up to do.  But these changes really are a major improvement.

Just thought I'd add these:

Much better!

I did it again!

So as we were heading out to the Pepperell town-wide yard sales I told Mum that I was going to be looking for end mills and crank handles.  Both would be used with the new vice on my drill press.  I didn't find any end mills today.  But...

Last year, I think it was closing day at the flea, I bought a much nicer scroll saw than I had been using in my little shop up to that point.  It was used and the deck had a light coating of rust, but it wasn't anything that a little elbow grease couldn't remedy.  So it came home with me and I played around with it for the next week getting it all cleaned up and trying a few test cuts with it.

Then the very next week at a yard sale I found another one.  Absolutely identical except for one little difference.  This one was brand new in the box!

I bought that one too.

The first (and it's predecessor if I remember to grab it from the shop in the morning) will be available for purchase tomorrow bright and early at Hollis.

Back to the crank handles I was looking for for my new machinists vice.

I found a set that fit perfectly at a yard sale today.  They were attached to an identical vice that's in slightly better shape than the one I bought last week.  The vice was (still is as a matter of fact) attached to a floor model drill press that is likewise in slightly better shape than the bench top model pictured in the post about my finally finding the vice.

Guess what I did...  :-D

You should have seen the fun I had getting that bench top drill press off of the old table saw body that had been its base!  I can't lift the thing.  With my bad back it's much too heavy.  So, employing the work smarter not harder philosophy I put together a two step rigging plan that got the job done.

Phase 1: I tied the table of the drill press to a structural frame that's holding up the roof over the shop with several wraps of paracord 550.  Using the table height adjusting crank I lowered the table until the rope lifted the drill press off of the saw making sure to carefully balance the machine so it wouldn't tip out of its cradle and crash to (possibly through!) the floor.  Once lifted I tied the head to the beam with more rope to stabilize the machine.  Then I wrestled the old saw body out from under it.  With that out of the way I removed the stabilizing rope and lowered the drill press with the table height adjuster onto the stool I keep in the shop.  On that I could walk it over to a point where the ceiling was a few inches higher and move on to...

Phase 2: With a tad more room above the drill press I rigged it this time with the same small block and tackle I had tried unsuccessfully to move Thunder with.  This time it worked like a charm!  Easily and under full control the drill press was lowered to the floor where I could move it out of the shop on my 2-wheeler.

The new drill press looks nice in the shop standing where the old one was.  And it takes up quite a bit less space.  With a shop as small as mine space is really at a premium!  Another benefit of this drill press over the old one: I can open the belt cover to adjust its speed!  The old drill press was right up against the ceiling beam and the belt cover couldn't be opened.  So it stayed set to the speed it was at when the guy I bought it from delivered it two years ago. If I'm going to try to use this for milling it is imperative that I be able to adjust the RPM of the cutter.  I'm actually going to get a chance to learn about speeds and feeds through first hand experience.

Progress!

I'll update this with a picture of the new rig later in the day tomorrow.  Right now I should have been in bed a couple of hours ago.  The flea starts awfully early!

The promised updates:

The crank handle:

 Attached to the vice:

Attached to the drill press:

Oh, and I sold last weeks vice at the flea market today.

I think I'm going to move the new drill press to where the red tool chest is sitting with my brown machinist's tool box on top and put the chest and tool box where the drill press is now.  With some very monor tweaking I think that layout will give me the best access possible to my stuff and will minimize the floor space taken up by the drill press.

I didn't have much time to wander around today at the flea.  Car show weekend is always busy.  So I couldn't track down any actual end mills.  For short money I picked up a set of carbide router bits at Harbor Freight this afternoon.  That was about the closest thing they had to what I was looking for.  We'll see how that goes working some soft stock.  I'll have to see what kind of wood I have in stock to play with.  :-)

A new toy in the shop

I have been looking for one of these for quite a while.  I finally got my hands on one this very morning!  It's a machinists vice.  One with an X-Y translation stage as an integral part of the vice.  Basically, it can turn my drill-press into a limited capacity milling machine!  Sort of a mini Bridgeport!

I actually saw this vice last week at the little flea down the hill from Wal*Mart in Lunenburg.  Unfortunately I didn't have the cash on me at the time to buy it.  I would have right then and there if I had.  Mum and I made a special trip out there again today in hopes that the vice would still be available.  As I said last week to the guy selling it "If it's meant to be it will still be here.  If not, well, ..." such is life. (or some such.  I don't remember my exact words.)  Anywho, it was still there today so I snapped it up.

It seems to be in pretty good shape.  I have no idea how old it may be or how much use it may have had over it's life so far.  I also haven't found any builder's plate or other identification as to who made it.  It does need a good cleaning, lubrication and adjustment.  That is to be expected with this type of machine tool.  I will also have to replace both cranks.

Even after it's all cleaned up I don't expect to be doing any real precision machining.  I'm not sure mild steel is really a possibility using this with my drill-press.  Aluminum and other soft metals, plastics and maybe some wood should be workable using this rig.

First I need to clean it up and get it ready for action.  Then I need to dream up some things to make with it.

This is going to be fun!

So I’ve had a hankering for a pair of Moccasins

Truth be told, I’ve been lusting after a pair of mocs I saw at Hayward’s Trading Post in Milford New Hampshire.  The pair I have the hots for are something like eighty bucks!  That’s a bit more than I really want to spend. 

So I got to thinking.  (And we know how dangerous that can be!)

I’m into leather crafts.  Moccasins are made of leather.  Tandy sells a pre-cut and punched moccasin kit.  Since I don’t know how to make moccasins I can get one of their kits and make a pair myself and learn how in the process!

Now it has always been my assumption that shoes come from the store.  You buy them already made.  And you have to settle for the styles and sizes they have.  Whether you really like how they’re made or not.  And the best you can do is find a size that’s the closest compromise to what your feet really need to work well enough.  The idea of actually making my own footwear had never occurred to me.  Until just last week when I decided to get the Tandy kit and give it a shot.

Not too shabby, if I do say so m’self…

These are a totally stock made by the instructions from the kit pair of moccasins.  I was surprised by how fast they went together.  Of course the leather was all pre cut and punched.  They’re comfortable enough to wear around the house as slippers.  A pair of socks helps enormously with that.  Personally I think the size of the kit I bought is a bit long for my feet.  I usually have trouble with that.  My feet are 9 ½ EE.  That’s extra extra wide.  The vast majority of shoes sold in America (at least that I’ve encountered) are sold in medium width only.  If you need a wide you have to ‘size up’ and then they are too long.  Being a stock kit these are sized up for width and too long as a result.

I will eventually solve that by making a custom pair that actually fit my feet.  When I do I think I’m going to redesign the heal construction while I’m at it.  Now I realize moccasins have been made the same way for literally thousands of years and the design works.  But I have sensitive feet.  My heals are particularly sensitive.  Traditional construction puts a lot of overlapping material and lacing right at my heals.  My design (when I finally get around to actually designing them) will fix that.

So how ‘bout that!  Me – making my own shoes!  Who’d have thunk?

E. Jonsson Mora Knife

Same Knife with another New Frog

While it is a very plane Jane utility knife, it's become one of my favorites.  The blade has a double bevel grind where the bit that looks like it should be the cutting grind really is.  Almost all of my other knives are of the double bevel variety with a very short steep grind at the cutting edge.  What looks like it should be the cutting edge grind on those knives is really more like a relief that gets you closer to the final cutting edge. 

For all of it's simplicity, this is one of the sharpest knives you are likely to encounter outside of surgery!

After making the combination frog and flashlight holster I decided to make another more traditional style frog for this knife as well.  We'll see which method of carry gets used more often.


UPDATE: Text heavily revised to correct nomenclature I had originally used incorrectly.  It's all fixed now.  (I hope...)

My latest Leather Project

Knife Frog and Mini-Maglight Holster

The knife is an E. Jonsson Mora utility knife with it's original plastic sheath from which I removed the rather cheesy button strap.

The flashlight is a standard 2-AA Mini-Maglight that I've upgraded with the Nite-Eyes focus-able LED lamp and IQ Switch multifunction tail-cap switch.  I'm toying with the idea of getting a red Mini-Maglight and swapping out parts so the light will be red over black like the knife.  What do you think?

Oh, the other strap is my keyring holder that I posted about here.  On third thought that may have been over at FaceBook and that's set up so only friends can get at it.  I shall have to remedy that.  (Eventually...)