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It was time to replace my home firewall. This website is hosted on a server at home. Proper procedures dictate that it sits on a network segment apart from the other computers in the house. This (as most people reading this know) would be a DMZ or DeMilitarized Zone.
Coming up with the idea for a part is 5% of the battle…actually making the part is another 10%…getting it to work as expected is the other 75%. Use of the handlebar risers in this article, we discovered they were a 1/4″ too short, interfering with the gas tank. So we decided to iterate, this time in aluminum:
(more…)
It’s together, but not running yet, and I needed a place to drop the pics to talk to people about what I screwed up.
I’m in the Men’s room, answering the call of nature. I’m reading the news on my phone. (more…)
Don’t mistake a lack of updates for inaction. This summer has been chock-a-block with geeky stuff:
DEFCON:
(Both servers were operating!)
Determining the value and condition of an Oxy-acetylene rig…verdict: In good shape, much more expensive to REPLACE than you’d get if you sold it…I suspect I have a winter project here.
The Tesla Coil project continues…I needed a signal generator to perform the tuning, so I made this CanaKit kit:
Belfry, the 1966 Cadillac S&S Vicoria Hearse needed some brakework:
I had an oddball cut or two on the bandsaw:
I’m working on a bit o’ dynamics for a halloween prop. (This is a cam follower, more information will be forthcoming)
And even took a night shot of the herd:
Steinberger is a maker of musical instruments. Staring in the 70′s, Ned Steinberger made some pretty funky stuff, possibly the niftiest being the ability to tune the instrument once, then use a ‘TransTrem” bar (like a wammy bar) to pitch-bend all of the strings at the same time. (see here for more details) Over the years, the company was purchased by Gibson, and parts for some of the older guitars became scarce. The TransTrem is a necessarily complex mechanism that operates under tension, balanced by a good sized spring and the strings of the guitar. There’s a particular piece that holds it all together. It’s cast aluminum. It’s been known to fail. Replacement pieces are getting harder and harder to find. (more…)
We got a new Fake (pre-lit, three piece, quick assembling!) X-mas tree this year. When the time came to place the star on top, I discovered there was no mathematical way possible to make it stay put up top.
So I grabbed the calipers and a sheet of paper:
toystore for guys.
We’re working on Halloween props. (less than 80 days remaining!) And it occurs to me that an odd fiddly site should talk about the things that make odd fiddly things. (more…)
(Just so you know I’m not shirking my Odd Fiddly Duties)
I have a blindspot. I see things and for one reason or another, I have to have it and I don’t know why. Over time, I’m seeing a pattern, in that it’s nifty things, or old things, or well preserved things, or things you don’t see anymore, or something that adds a capability to my toolbelt. (Everybody needs rouge to polish aluminum, don’t they?) (more…)