Never Machine What You Can Buy

Unless it is very simple, it is always cheaper to buy than make.

Sometimes,  that is not an option.   Big Bertha had an odd looking assembly on which DobStuff who rebuilt it for me had mounted my finderscope.  It clamped onto a 1.25" OD aluminum shaft.   Here you can see the replacement part I machined on thst shaft.

This is the original part:

Hw started with an oddly rounded piece of Baltic Birch, cut a 1 25" hole through it then sliced through one side to allow a 1/3"-20 carriage bolt and thumb knob to clamp down on the aluminum shaft .

I no longer remember what problem causes me to build a replacement.   As you can see, I cut a piece of acetal into a L shape into which I then milled a 1 25' diameter hole.  Then I used a .125" carbide mill to slice a slot across the circle border and drilled a 5/16 through hole to reuse the original carriage bolt and thumb knob.

What gobbled up lots of time.   Writing a C program to create the gCode for cutting a perfect circle.  (A Forstner bit might have worked but I have other applications for the circle cutting program.  Besides, I wanted a very tight fit.  Getting the difference between the post and the hotel to .01'm" seemed desirable.)

Figuring out how to cut a hole for that carriage bolt.  The width of the acetal part was long enough that my drill press would not have enough travel to make that hole.  So I did the first two inches on the mill.  Then I used my 1/4' drill on the drill press to continue the hole.  Still not enough travel.  If only I had a 3" long 1/4" drill!

 Solution: I have several .2010" drill bits of absurd length originally to speed up tapping 1/4-20 holes in ScooeRoller sleeves.  There were long enough to create an accurate pilot hole through the acetal for the 1/4" drill bit; half way through top and then bottom   Because the carriage bolt was still a tight fit, I used a  5/16" drill bit.  Because I still did not have enough travel in the drill press, I did as much as I could, then raised the table a few inches so the drill bit was submerged into the part when I started drilling.  Turn upside down, repeat.

In retrospect,  I should have contacted DobStuff to buy a replacement part.  As with most things, machining the part is not cost-effective until you count what you learned along the way.

Who I Want on My Team in the Rebuild Civilization Competition

CODY'S lab is full of amazing demonstrations of doing stuff starting with very little.  This video he makes thermite using magnetite extracted with a msgnet from sand with aluminum powder and aluminum foil and soda cans to create molten iron to cast a pan.

Independence Day

I wish thst I could tell you that I am not blogging today because the day is filled with family events including a barbecue but really Rhonda is still down with COVID and I need to be symptom-free five days before I can go out in public again without shouting "UNCLEAN" at the top of my lungs.  I am feeling pretty good right now.

In any case, I am hoping an 67-32 % actual win in November (reduced to 60-39 after vote "adjustment") will make next Independence Day a bit cherrier.

The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made

It is a YouTube video.  Some are truly amazing concepts that suggest a lot od hallucinogens were involved in script writing and fundraising 

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.  Yes, the Martians decide they need Santa Claus.

Hillbillies in a Hsuned House starring three real C&W singers in a music-filled horror film 

Of course a lot of Ed Wood films including a 1950s about a transvestite, reflecting Woods' personal confusion.

Bloodsucking Freaks is an powerful an argument for film censorship as I have ever seen. Lots of naked women being tortured often with a sexual component, eyes gouged out.

Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster.

I have seen the title but the trailer tells me that the audience in 1957 must have been incredibly small: The Incredibly Strange Crestures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies.

Was I Thr Only Person Who Did Not See Saving Private Ryan?

Since I am still feeling do awful thst I am fit mostly to watch TV and blog from my phone, I have been working way through Amazon Prime free movies.

What a magnificent film about courage, and human weakness under fire.   The first 15 minutes of Omaha Beach are just overwhelmingly intense.

Marriage Means Sharing

Including virii.

I Think the Market Had Priced in a Trump Victory

Every day a bit more up with an occasional consolidating down day.  Some of my funds even manage to rise on down days.

Watching Bidenroll off into sunset should do wonders for the economy.  7/1/24 Reuters:

"WASHINGTON, July 1 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday dealt President Joe Biden's climate agenda a setback by blocking the Democrat's administration from continuing to pause the approval of applications to export liquefied natural gas (LNG).

"U.S. District Judge James Cain in Lake Charles, Louisiana, sided with 16 Republican-led states in holding that the U.S. Department of Energy's freeze on approvals of LNG exports was "completely without reason or logic."

Certainly.   LNG exports are a way to destroy Russia's income stream, build closer ties to Europe and create American jobs.

It Smells Like...Victory

The Belton repeating rifle had a swappable magazine, in 1785.

It Sounds Mean...

The Benefits of World Hunger.  Essentially hunger makes people look for jobs, otherwise no one would make stuff for sale, grow food for others, repair bad plumbing. 

Think back to the Star Trek universe. 

 I can recall two episodes where someone has a physically demanding job.  Both involve mining.

This contains the full article and a discussion of the criticism 

Lots of People Want Machihe Guns

But when you use your position as a,police chief, thst is not okay.  7/1/24 Des Moines Register:

"A former small-town Iowa police chief will go to prison for five years after he was convicted of lying to federal officials in an attempt to stockpile machine guns.

"Bradley Wendt, who led the three-man Adair Police Department, also owned a gun store and was licensed to buy and sell machine guns. He was indicted in 2022 on charges that he had lied to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on forms needed to obtain approval for such transactions, falsely claiming that guns would be sold for use by, or demonstration to, the police department."

He tried to buy a mini gun.  Somehow, I am having trouble imaginingfor what a small town Iowa police department needs that.  He watched Children of the Corn too many times?

Alexandra Octavio-Cortez Needs to Work On Her Arithmetic Skills

7/1/24 Newsweek:

" Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced plans to introduce articles of impeachment against the U.S. Supreme Court justices on Monday after the court ruled that presidents have immunity for official actions."

Or maybe her knowledge of the Constitution.   Articles of impeachment will never pass a Republican majority House and 2/3 of the Senate would require every Democrat and most of the Republicans in the Senate.  Why does NYC send such fools to Congress?

It reminds me of Newsom's stillborn attempt to amend the Second Amendment.   Most states now are constitutional carry.  What are the chances that those legislatures are going to ignore their progun constituents?  Amending the Constitution would need 3/4 of the States to ratify.   Do any of these Democrats read the Constitution?

Maybe North Korea Is Not the Nuclear Threat To Us They Pretend

7/1/24 Newsweek:

"An abortive North Korean missile fired on Monday may have endangered the nation's capital after the South's military said one of the rockets fell short of its intended target."

Their artillery shells sent to Russia have been QC failures.   Perhaps we can hope their ICBMs are equally produced.

On the Beach (2000)

This remake of the 1959 film from the book by Nevil Shute is an astonishing piece of work.  It has decades since I watched the 1959 version and even more decades since I read the book.  This follows the book and the 1959 movie  very closely although the Winner, Australian Grand Prix plaque on the Jaguar E-type in the 1959 movie is a more gentle fate for the cynical scientist.

A few important changes.  Instead of an attack submarine it is an Ohio-class SSBN with some moral questions raised and adroitly handled.

In the book, humankind is destroyed by nuclear weapons salted with Cobalt-60, which no nation would ever  build.   I think someone with one of the antinuclear groups had projected that such weapons could exterminate us and Shute turned that into a sobering commentary on the hazards of the nuclear arms build-up.

The book and both films are profoundly sobering reminders of where a few senile idiots could take us even if not to thus extermination level. Still, even a limited nuclear war would likely destroy a few centuries of economic progress and capital formation along with several hundred million lives.  (Perhaps billions once you include the destruction of First World markets for the Second and Third Worlds.)

Armand Assante as Commander Towers is a spectacular actor.

Solar Power Question

I was a,software engineer not an electrical engineer.   My impression is thst some inverters will allow to plug the output into an outlet in your current house.  This power gets distributed to every wire on the same circuit breaker.  Is thst correct?

The Bad News: I Think I Have COVID Also the Good News

Short of breath and starting last night, coughing, muscle pain, fatigue. I suspect tho shortwindedness problem has been me refusing to admit that I was sick.  My annual physical is today but I suspect they will send me to urgent care for testing. 

Indeed  I have COVID.  Whatever happened to that enormous class action suit against the CCP?