Bag weights insert

Dave and I went up the Thousand Steps in FTG as a "cardio" day the other week. We took a few kilos of weights in our backpacks for added challenge.

I wasn't particularly happy with the 4x2.5kg weights flopping around in my backpack, so decided to whip up an insert to go in my backpack

It has 2 layers of that cheap camping-bed-roll foam, then a vinyl cover.

Tested it last week with 2x5kg weights, worked really nicely. The weights were close to my back, and held up high. The longer stem allows me to put a 10kg plate on top of the lower plates, totaling 20kg if I go full-tank-mode up the mountain (unlikely!!)

Cool dining table

Found another cool thing to add to my "I'll build one of those one day" pile.

Website here: http://www.tracktiletables.co.uk/pacific.html

But you got cookiee, so share it maybe...

An absurd amount of editing



...You cookiee showing, and me hunger growing...

More roadside table stuff

I found a small table on the side of the road, and performed some basic refurb work here.

I've since applied 2 coats of Tung Oil and a coat of wax to the top. No thinners were used with the oil, and I'm too lazy to pre-burnish/polish the timber with steel wool. If this was an elaborate, expensive piece of furniture I might consider such lengths, but not for a knock-around kitchen table. The base hasn't been disassembled or stripped down yet.

Yeah not particularly exciting. The teak-stained base is shown for color comparison.

The lighting is poor (overcast), but the top has a nice sheen with a burnished look.

Buffing out wax on timber is HARD work. A buffing disc on the drill might have been a good idea.

Tung oil and wax. This is plain old normal Tung oil, not heat treated (polymerised).
I'll get the base sorted soon enough. Even boring tables provide a sense of accomplishment. Go fix something.

Measure the effects of gaming.

Jane McGonigal has participated in another presentation regarding real world impacts as a result of gaming, and goes further to show its innate positive effects are actually measurable in terms of scientific measure. (Including plenty of tongue in cheek stuff!!

I've linked Jane's previous TED talk here. Well worth your time.

I hear some really ugly opinions from people about gaming which Jane outlines at ~12:30, and then she continues with an example of some of the most commonly stated life-regrets from terminal-near-death, or elderly patients. The latter being the ones who are in a position of knowledge to be able to make observations of a much broader measure. In either case, both make the same observations which do not match the comments of the afore mentioned ugly-opinions.

Put some science in your brain, and mix it with a pep-talk and an amusing mental exercise.



Some really interesting stuff at ~38:00 of mental activity measurements while actually playing games, vs an observer (ie: watching TV). The disparity is so immense that you'd have to be watching Farmer-wants-a-wife not to notice that you're missing out on something awesome.

Join me in a game.

D3 "Cow Level" staff

I farmed up the D3 "Cow Level" equivalent components.

League of Legends, for fun and profit...

More roadside pickup furniture

I found a nice little table on the side of the road. (again) It had sustained some serious damage in the leg assembly and the top had a very deep gouge extending about 60% of the length, like a marble had been rolled underneath a heavy girder along the table or something.

I re-glued the shattered foot assembly, and slammed in some 19mm dowel perpendicular to the break. Little hard to see in this photo, but it was a serious break. The dowels were cut down after everything dried.

Doesn't show well in the photo, but the gouge is quite deep.

3M Stripping disc starts the long job of removing the surface varnish. The belt sander just clogs up otherwise.

Then the belt sander gets some action

Ta-da!! Just under 2hrs of work. Man I love the look of raw timber. (yeah I know the base isn't stripped down yet...I'll get to it) I'll hit Bunnings tomorrow and see if I can find a nice light colored oil finish. I'm a little over the dark mahogany stain and gloss varnish I've been doing for years. If the top comes out OK, I'm going to disassemble the stand assembly and use the four uprights as regular legs, turning it into a more traditional table. I'm not excited about the current leg configuration, and by just using the uprights I can shed a heap of weight also.

Just a reminder to be awesome at everything.

And as always, "go hard n fast to stayin' alive".

Board games table top

Not particularly exciting nor complicated, but I whipped up a fresh boardgames table top this weekend. Pictures below, pretty basic stuff.

A combination of a crazy 2-week sale at Military Simulations, and the Geek and Sundry: Table Top Youtube channel prompted the build. I've backordered a pile of fun lookin' games.


A quick scaled sketchUp plan to get started. I've bought materials to make padded 90mm x 40mm borders, with cup holders in the corners. :-)



Laminated board, both sides...it's about "this" big.



Cut-laminated edges are pretty sharp. A router fixes that problem quite neatly. An impossible sanding job otherwise.



**Jumped ahead** I put green felt on one side. It's actually glued on.



The other side is getting a faux leather vinyl covering. I've used this stuff on a few other builds in the past.



Normally I'd just stretch-tack the vinyl down, but I needed neat (visible) edging, so decided to use a spray adhesive on both sides to make the tacking phase a bazillion times easier.



Spray, roll, burnish. Spray, roll, burnish. Easy peasy.



Fold, tuck, measure, tack. Fold, tuck, measure, tack. Easy peasy.



25 tacks later, one of the short ends is complete.



And before I could finish all four sides, a test game was required!! It may take a while before I get around to the edging, I'm feeling lazy, and the board surfaces are great. :)

Pushbike engine connection rod rebuild

I had a pushbike engine explosion that did some damage when the connection rod broke as a result of my oil dipper being attached with less than "specification" tension.

I consulted "the boys", who weren't mechanics, nor guys at my experience level in gizmology for their opinions on fixing the problem. I don't know why I did, because I ignored all of them. LOL high fives!! :-)

So, despite one end of the piston housing being damaged, and not having access to cheap parts, I decided to make a new connection rod myself and ignore the damaged housing.

I made a simple plan in sketch-up for the part which included all my dimensions, and selected a piece of aluminium to suit.



I actually made the part at work because all the machines there are somewhat more solid than my hobby tools at home.


The beginning of a piece of engineering takes shape.



Some additional clearance was required which I didn't foresee in my plan. This was odd because I'd actually built a 2D scale model out of paper before I started!! My paper-tolerances weren't quite up to par it seems. A millimeter of orbital movement can make a large change in lateral displacement!!



Looks pretty good.


I don't have any photos or video, but this has all been re-assembled and works fine. I'm pretty pleased. :-)

Critical Thinking

Because there's every chance you need a refresher course, particularly in this age of complete tools still telling me in 2012 that volcanoes are to blame...

These short critical-thinking videos were designed by the Australian Gov't as teaching aids for teachers with year 8-10 students (13-15yr olds). The videos could be viewed as part of virtually any curriculum.

Video 1,2,3 are very basic with singular examples. The remainder (of 6 videos) elaborate and conclude in very clean summaries.

All six linked here.

Or start with number 1 here. (very simple, I promise it gets better from three onward)

Stayin' Alive

"I'm gonna teach you a lesson you'll never forget..."

Pushbike Motor failure

The engine on my pushbike started to make some strange metallic noises, began to retard, then seized up. An autopsy was required. :-(


After the less than desirable job of removing the engine from the bike, I popped the side open and found this little guy sitting in the oil at the bottom. Though I can't find any matching break point here.



The oil pickup gear, and cam-gear seem fine. The pushrods seem fine too...hmmm...



The entire block splits diagonally right through and I really don't want to crack it open if I can avoid it.



Alas everything looks fine under the itty-bitty rocker cover.



I'm going to have to split this thing open. Though I can't get a socket or wrech on this little guy. I've already damaged it with a screwdriver :(



...so I carve away the serves-no-purpose-hopefully housing around the bolt with the dremmel...



...and I can get in there no problems.



It just won't pry apart though. I'm gonna have to get the flywheel off. I've already tried once with a really nasty claw style gear puller and ever so slightly bent the flywheel at the rims already. Blargh!!!



So I made my own gear puller by removing the claws from the cheap puller, and simply drawing up against a piece of scrap metal with some bolts nested in the flywheel. Worked first try, just like a gear puller should !!!



Turned out there were 4 bolts under the flywheel anyhow. So once they were out the sucker split open and found the break point almost immediately. Right at the end of the screwdriver. Turns out the part is an oil dipper-thrower thingamabob and I have no clue how it broke. However it clearly lubricated the big end bearing and piston as both were bone dry, and the engine was seizing up after ~60seconds of running every time.



I found a replacement part online from the States for ~$4, but shipping was ~$18. The local mower place isn't open till early January. So I decided to make my own dipper. Here is the broken one taped together to show its original state. Behind it is an unlucky latch which probably won't be a latch for much longer. I can't vouch for the quality of the steel...but I figure it's worth a try.



So uh...that just happened...



I'd like to order one of those.



Hammer time.



Rough as guts.



Filed down.



A coat of 650C paint. Done. All hail year 7 metal shop and a handful of Kmart tools.



And like a bought one, bolted back onto the engine.



It took me a while to find the alignment marker on the plastic cam gear as I was looking at the other side (from an earlier picture). You can see here I've got it wrong...but that got sorted.

So some silicone gasket sealant on all the seams, and bolt it all back together. Hopefully it should last for at least 10 minutes!!


edit: Everything worked great for ~90 seconds after reassembling the entire job. Then the engine stopped and any ignition attempt resulted in a complete freewheel. I assumed the clamp on the big-end-bearing had come off, and that's exactly what had happened :( Blargh I hope nothing is seriously damaged...


MEDIC !!



Jimmy!! Jimmy!! Speak to me Jimmy !!!

Merry Christmas 2011 !!