The Think Tank

17 November 2013

Grampians 2013 Cup Day long weekend getaway.

Our beautiful hut.

Cheeky Cockatoo keeping it's eye on Jana.

Roos in our front yard every morning. An entire mob could be found on the local footy oval each evening munching on all the fresh baby grasses.

Day 1: no cicadas. Day 2: millions of cicadas. They literally came out of the ground en-masse on day 2. Squished all over the roads and footpaths. Birds were having a field day.

Jana before she jumps for it at Chataqua Peak.

She didn't jump, and stuck around to take this shot. :)

We saw perhaps six Blue Tongue Lizards over the weekend. This guy was baking on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere while we were exploring. He didn't move away till I got out to take close up shots. :)

A fun Geocache in town.

Accidental shot. Hiking from Zumsteins to MacKenzies falls. We'd left the bikes at MacKenzies, so enjoyed a long 6km downhill ride down the mountain at the end of our hike. Lots of fun.

11 November 2013

Dave's Firefighter Test

Dave is doing some Firefighter proficiency test thing for work. Part of it is completing one of the actual Firefighter fitness tests. The test is in a week or so, and we got in a practice run to be sure he'd smash it. Turns out he's too fit, and crushed the test no worries. :)

Did I mention we were carrying 20kg packs?? We had to stay within a minimum of 38mins, and a max of 45mins, so locking in a solid pace was crucial. The pace required to meet the 4.83km (3 miles) distance within time was a fast walk, just shy of breaking into a shuffle or a slow jog. About 9mins per kilometer, or ~6.5km/hr.

Sports-Tracker link here: http://www.sports-tracker.com/#/workout/mashee/fsvt2ok3dktqvk2s

20 October 2013

Drum Brake troubles

After replacing this set of pads, I couldn't get the wheel hub back over the brakes. Turns out this piston was bound up, and probably had been for some time.

Fortunately the other side was completely free. I took the right piston head out, allowing access to the backside of the jammed one on the left.

I inserted an aluminium rod in behind the jammed piston, and gave it an almighty smashing with a mallet. Still wouldn't budge...I was at this point quite stuck...

But my incredibly large brain whipped up an awesome press from bits at hand.

An offcut of aluminium tube allowed me to press over the top of the jammed piston, and allow space for it to fall inside the cavity of the tube. Here you can see the piston has been pressed almost completely out.

Large C-Clamps are sometimes better than quick grip bar clamps.

There was evidence of prior damage to the piston. Some workshop clown had clearly dropped this one at some point in the past. It had large burrs in two locations. (not possible for me to have caused these from my previous mallet attempts, the impacts don't match the locations, nor tools I was using. Couldn't even see these burrs 'till I'd partially cleaned the pistons. Honestly I think someone had to use a mallet to get them back in previously.)

Really obvious, ugly prior damage. Remarkably sloppy.

So I cleaned everything up with a sanding disc, deburring the messed up edges, and got it all back together...and then found this spring on the ground that I'd forgotten to reinsert.../sigh. Re-do everything...

Job complete.

19 October 2013

Broken mower handle framework

Like every mower, the handles on mine are made of tube-steel. The ends are pressed flat, and bolted-through where they attach to the mower. These always crack and break off over time.

So I cut the offending (and broken) ends off the handles, and added some serious reinforcement

1/2 pipe aluminium sheathes form large extended washers to prevent the tube-steel from collapsing where the bolts are drawn down tightly. I think they'll work fine.

19 September 2013

Electric Foot warmer

Arthritis in my big toes has become extremely painfull on a daily basis this year. I'm very close to getting them fused, and have been thinking about it for a few years. I tend to have a (very) hot water bottle on my feet 100% of the time at my desk. I need to reheat the bottle so many times per day that I re-use the water otherwise I'd surely use an equivalent bathtub of water. The reused water is less than drinkable...and rubber particles destroy the kettle hygiene so I have a dedicated water-bottle kettle also.

...but I got sick of the endless reheat/refill routine, and the bottle rubber decays quite rapidly with this level of use. So I bought a heat mat for my old man toes. This thing draws ~75watts, as compared to a regular floor heater which typically has 2 settings of 1100 and 2200+ watts. I've seen some that draw significantly less, but they're still in the range of hundreds of watts.

The matt takes a solid 15 mins to get really warm. I was worried that it couldn't possibly compete with the hot-bottle, but once it's warmed up I'd say it's comparable if your feet are planted flat down to it,.

~$35 on ebay. Get one.

11 August 2013

Leaky Toilet

Could hear the faintest sound of both toilets perpetually refilling. So faint that it was only audible during the quietest times of night, or if specifically listening for it. Finally realised what it was, and replaced the plunger seals on both toilets. Took maybe ~10mins each at a cost of ~$2.50. Problem solved. A staggering amount of water wasted...and future money saved.

26 April 2013

~5v USB Battery Pack

My mobile phone can't go geocaching with the display-on and locating for more than about an hour before running the battery low. The phone battery is an impressive 3.6V with 1600mAh capacity, though clearly not enough for extended use. I needed a geo-battery-pack.

So I made this. It's a 4.8V, 2600mAH cell made from old cordless drill batteries.

Construction images below:

An old cordless drill battery pack disassembled with the dud "sub-C" cells removed.

Each cell is 1.2V, 1300mAh. I wired up x2 banks of 4 cells, creating a 4.8 volt, 2600 mAH battery bank.

Sizing up a block to mount them in. I carelessly oriented the grain 90 degrees in the wrong direction. Notice the end-caps have grain across their width, not their length. These are ULTRA flimsy, hence the bazillion screws holding them on in the final-block.

Trial fit. Space not yet hogged out for the plugs.

Trial fit with the USB plugs in place.

Filing out the USB plug gaps in the caps.

15 April 2013

Moar meat, less fat...

I got rather fat in 2010 and again in 2011 in order to undo some excessive weight loss during 2009. The extreme swings were pretty sloppy, I've managed to yoyo back and forth between 67kg and 94kg. Most literature is designed for "college" age kids, not skinny 40yr olds. I don't have any of my ultra-skinny pics, but I do have some FATTY-FAT-FAT pics. Here look.

Yuck.

But I think I've got it mostly under control now. Lots of hard work. Here's a couple shots from today.

Still got a long way to go...but getting there. :)

- Jas.

ps: fatty shots are from 2011, at about 86kg's. I got fatter in 2012, reaching ~94kg by October. No I don't have photos of that. The effort to reach the current photos from ~94kg is about 6months of moderate effort and eating like a horse on lean food...

11 February 2013

Cook once, eat all week.

Can't talk, eating. Aaaahhmmm nom nom nom nom nom.

09 February 2013

Moon Buggy

It's James Moore's birthday!! (boss's 1st child) I decided to make him a little toy using parts and components from work. There's always a bit of a running gag that James is already running the show, and will be an engineer when he grows up etc...(possibly of the mad/evil variety)

So here's the finished product.
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Moon Buggy!! The two astronauts are removable, and have "action movements" in the neck.

The tray tips on some plastic hinges.

I whipped up a gift box from an empty stock box, and used one of the business promotional images with some custom labeling. "Lil Engineer, Moon Buggy, Kit 001.01 Preassembled "
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Construction pictures below:
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I cut some wheel hubs and little men to length.

The hubs needed some rims to make them look more lunar-buggy-ish

Hubs being drilled out to accomodate some axles.

Press fit the rims/tyres.

Lunar Buggy Wheels!! Oops I pressed this one in backwards...it's not commin' out...

Super wide buggy wheels

Approximating the buggy size based on the wheels.

Chasis.

Driver seats!!

Attaching the floor and installing the seats.

Cargo hold under construction.

Mostly done, I just want to improve the look of the pilots before I gift this.

Some hinges were attached. Space dump-truck-buggy almost complete.

The little men had some heads attached, and their faces skillfully grafted.
So hopefully little James enjoys this toy!! His birthday is tomorrow so I'll upload some pic of his mum n dad playing with the moon buggy afterwards. ;P