more breakage, less give-a-damn

  I have a cheapo (Harbor Freight, from before I declared a moratorium on them) mechanics creeper.
It has only been used a few times since I'm not a mechanic, just someone who can't afford mechanics.
I figured the fabric cover would fail first and when it did, I would think about reuipholstering the pads or not.

 I got it out the other day to get under the shop bathroom sink to attack a fitting with a torch, the alternative being the cold tile/cement floor.  Fine.

 But the cheap PVC tires on the casters are starting to crack: 

 

More copies of the exact same wheel are readily available, but a set of six new real creeper casters with PU tires, with the right mounting stud, is north of $40.  I had a Craftsman creeper before this one.  I ran over it with a car because I'm a genius.  >_<

Apologies I haven't anything more interesting to show lately, I've been kinda stalled in the shop, just puttering around.  And the sink still needs fixing, blast it.  Feeling kinda old lately, sorry.

not "wear and tear", this one was abuse

 To keep busy while broke and unable to push projects, I've been polishing the handles and their cranks, and parts of their dials, on the knee mill.

 In the process, I found this: 

well, shit.

 This is the clutch for the knee elevating crank handle.  I can get a new clutch with a new handle for $16 shipped off ebay or Aliexpress, although the metal on those cranks looks as thin as a prayer. 

 My handle is a little sloppy, but not in need of replacement and a new clutch will help tighten it up anyway.  So, not the end of the world. But when I first looked at it, I couldn't figure out how it got cracked. It goes inside a close-fitting part and over a close-fitting pin, it's very well supported, there's no way for a side-load to appear on it.

 Then I looked in the end with a bright light...

 Some ham-handed buffoon didn't line it up with the key and when it wouldn't go in, he forced it.  Probably used a hammer.

😭 O_O I don't... I, I, I can't even.  WHY?? 😱

 This is abuse of a very fine and expensive tool.  The crack made it a bit of a spring fit inside the bearing housing it goes into, but I was able to get it out with skinny 60 year old brute strength and no tools, wooden wedges, etc so I've got that going for me, which is nice.

 Obviously I can't let this go.  Hopefully I can find a replacement that is cheap and also machined from billet, not some HIP / powdered metal BS.  Mostly what I'm finding so far is handles with the clutch are cheaper than buying a clutch alone.  WTH.  Of course.

New plan: buy the package, sell the handle, now the part is "free" minus my time.  *sigh*

the secret of steel

 Is no longer at my neighborhood Ace Hardware.  The store is a train-wreck, always, and they haven't restocked the steel rack in a couple of years, real talk.  I could go to other stores, but I was getting a good discount at the old one.  I can't afford full retail prices.  All good things must come to an end. 

 I need just a couple of piece 3ft - 4ft long before I can get started on the outriggers for the hoist cart, but I will probably end up with 8 ft or so, from McMaster, we'll see.  For the weight, McMaster's prices are not terrible, last I checked.  The scrap yard is cheaper, but I am still having a lot of pain and I don't feel up to the trip out there.  Heck, I've bought small pieces of steel off of eBay when I found the right price and free shipping.

 We'll see, but I'm done shopping at my old store. The manager seems to think it's okay to treat me like shit compared to stranger customers, just because he knows who I am.

welding nuts inside long tubing

Jer Schmidt has a good dodge for this problem:

"my struggle" by the not-so-great dictator, Charlie Foxtrot

 Body issues improving slowly.  Still not up to full strength or speed.  I have tasks waiting for me to be less hurty, less stony, less shaky.  The work is even laid out.  In the shop bathroom, my mechanic's creeper waits for me to get down on my back and hold a plumber's torch above my (shielded) face.  Like that.

-={O}=-

 There's a trip to a friend's house I need to make, both to see my old and dear friend of course, but also to take advantage of him yet again, in that he has lead shot which is surplus to his needs, and I have a need for lead shot. (the hoist cart main counterweight)  Unfortunately, one car needs to go to a shop (or I need to buy Yet Another Code Reader for it - heyrockythistimeforsure), while the other car has failing front CV joints and half-axles so we're reluctant to take long trips in it, where "long trip" = anything longer than a trip to the doctor's office across town.  My friend is an hour's drive away by freeway.

-={O}=-

 There is steel I need to buy, from the hardware store, for the hoisting cart's outriggers, but that might have to wait until February because cash flow is a thing.

-={O}=-

 Three things dramatically affect my cognitive ability as an Old Fart, including things like my ability to design things in my head:

• hydration
• exercise
• level of depression

 To the extent I can manage those three things, I get to have a life.

 I like to say my head is like an Italian sportscar; capable of high performance when everything is just right, but is a very high maintenance machine. ;/

-={O}=-

 I've been having to trap mice in the garage which is bugging me because I don't like vermin unless it is Vermin Supreme.  I guess their population is up this year.  Can I borrow someone's chickens?  Or rat terrier?

 -={O}=-

 For a lark, designing a suppressor for a cannon chambered in 38mm L&L*.  So far the basic likely dimensions are on the order of 6in x 24in.  Probably longer because the initial expansion space is not big enough.  It's a big damned can, and yet probably not big enough.

 As for the guts, Hiram Maxim knew what he was about, honest tests prove it.  And I tell you this for free, I will never design or purchase a can with a monocore.  And oh mama this is a lot of gas to deal with, and you've got to give it somewhere to go, and if it fills up and then pressurizes that 'somewhere', it won't be a quiet can. 

 The next problem is the ginormous hole (call it 40mm) down the middle of a 38mm can.  It seems to me that doing the various tasks of suppression† will all have to be done before the bullet leaves the can, because once it is no longer obstructing gas flow, it will be very hard to divert gases from the center of the bore into our radial or other chambers.  The first solution suggested for this is always asymmetrical baffles, which try to use some of the gases to redirect other parts, and baffles which allow gas flow to go around the bullet in order to "push back at" the remainder of the existing gases. 

 Both of these schemes cause bullet deflection and are thus no bueno.  I don't even like wipes for the same reason, despite that they are perfect problem-solvers for managing gas flow and preventing precursor noise.  They Fing touch the bullet.  Nope, nope, nope.

 Hiram Maxim called it: The best you can hope for is to peel off the outer layer of the gas flow a bit at a time until there is hardly anything left, but this takes time and distance.  An example is the deathly quiet MAC / Sionics design fielded in Vietnam for the M-16.  Very long and narrow, with some variation in the baffle design inside (the semi-useless spirals were Mitch Werbell's misunderstanding of how British spiral baffles worked)  I don't think I want to build a can as long as the barrel, LOL.

-={O}=-

 I am still seeking distractions and diversions in all directions with only a little luck, not dealing with my bro's death.

_______________________________________________
* I just made up that chamber, but the initials are of the two designers / perpetrators' last names
† 1. make leading edge of impulse much less sharp, 2. reduce peak impulse amplitude, 3. release stored gases slowly

"I found (or worse: published) an excellent paper concerning this on ResearchGate"

 

everything is fine here, no problems at all, how about you?

 Back better, heart* much worse.  Desperately seeking distractions / diversions.

Trying to find a filament dryer that meets my needs but doesn't require taking out a second mortgage.
Drowning in analysis paralysis.

requirements
• usable while printing, so no nonsense about cardboard boxes sitting on the printer's bed
• MUST reach a minimum of 80ºC so I can dry high temp, hygroscopic materials like PA6
• front filament exit because the dryer will sit on a shelf above my printer bench†
• "affordable" meaning $50/spool capacity, or less
• spaces for desiccant packs, hopefully I can use my existing DIY
• prefer higher wattage (ie; north of 200w) so it doesn't take half a day to reach temperature
• no food dehydrators; too much work to give those the usability features I want
• an accurate hygrometer would be cool, but nobody seems to be offering that
• I probably need two spools capacity, minimum

This is just idle chit-chat.  I'm not ready to buy one right now, and I don't mean to use my readers as a search engine.

Heh; in theory, I could put the above into some AI tool or other and see what it spits out, but I dislike and distrust AI tools.  What few experiences I've had, have not been useful/helpful, just aggravating, so I mostly refuse to touch AI.  I try to find YT videos that are not obvious shills / Amazon affiliates, but those are few and far between. 

Hmm, there's a thought: I should dump my YT bookmarks here, seriously. 
No AI slop, all quality, many topics.  Curated too; recently removed a semi-popular "former physicist" after realizing she just isn't a very good scientist. ;) Just need to figure out how to dump the list 'cuz IIRC, YT doesn't provide one.  I'll poke around.  There's far too many to transcribe manually. O_O

And that's enough onion-belting†† for now. ;)

______________________________________________
* figurative, not literal; my cardiac health is just fine

† I'd really prefer that exit to be a push-in fitting for a bourdon tube; most are now anyway

†† telling long-winded, rambling stories, like the time I caught the ferry to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for m'shoe. So I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. "Gimme five bees for a quarter," you'd say. Now where were we... oh yeah. The important thing was that I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. I didn't have any white onions, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones. (Simpsons)

Well, a real brother has died

 ...and I'm gutted and not processing my grief well at all.

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,

dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,

angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night
-- from Allen Ginsberg's "Howl"

pee dee thrinting quote (random)

 "By comparison, the world's largest 3D printer can make a whole house in under 80 hours, but that's obviously not something you'd do at home."

Now listen here, you little...

random, idling...

 

 I just stumbled across this.  I knew the brand, but not this product.  In 1975, the Audio Research D-150 was one of the world's finest amplifiers from 1975, and looks like a lab instrument, not a piece of HiFi kit. 

 150 watts per channel of pure Class A power.  (I believe, as I couldn't find circuit topology, but power consumption supports the theory)  It weighs 115 lbs, 30 of which is the massive power transformer, and if you can find one for sale (usually because someone died) it will set you back in the neighborhood of $25,000. O_O But unless someone dropped it, it's guaranteed to be working fine without a tech even looking at it.  These things were built without compromise, as was everything from Audio Research.

 I only posted the thing for that astonishing front panel.  I think only one person I know might be in that market, and this isn't to his tastes.