Time Travelin'

Garrick and I watched the Back to the future series. Some papercraft DeLoreans were in order. :)

Bike camera mount

I'm doing a 7, and 14km downhill ride out at the Grampians shortly, and wanted to take some video of the ride. Microsoft's Hyperlapse video smoothinator is an incredibly impressive piece of software, and I want to run the ride video through it. Not to be confused with normal anti-vibration or stabilisation software, Hyperlapse actually tries to build a virtual 3d model of your path, and reforms the images to construct a moderated flight-path. I can only speculate much of the research for Photosynth went into this one.

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/hyperlapse/

I needed a handlebar mount for my phone. Instead of burning cash, I made one from scraps in the shed. :)

It's mounted to the handlebars with a combination of parts from an old bell, and reflector mount. The rest is just some hardwood and polycarb.

I can even tilt it forward for "maps" mode. ;-)

The hole in the polycarb is for the camera so I don't get any refractory glare or other optical effects, something you're probably familiar with if you've tried to take shots through windows etc...
Should work out great. Can't wait to try it. Will upload the smooth-inated videos after the trip.

Small boys' toys with MOAR POWAR!!

Garrick turned 11. I got him a big-boy's sized RC car, though it's important to note that it's a kids toy, not a hobby RC (big boy's) car. There's a BIG difference.

It looks like a big boy's car

And Garrick absolutely loves it.

It even manages tiny jumps.

But dad had a big-boy's RC car when he was growing up, and just plain felt bad about the toy-sized power...so while the boy was in bed, Dad got to work.

The supplied battery is a 7.2V, 600 maH NiCad cell. Absolute RUBBISH. There's space for x8 standard AA's in the car, so I mocked up a battery pack from some 3mm plywood, and made sure everything would fit cleanly inside the car. I even had the correct battery terminal from an old RC car of my own from ~20+yrs ago.

I was going to wire up my plywood battery holder, but ultimately bought a x10 cell battery holder from JayCar for a couple bucks, cut it down to hold x8 cells, and soldered on some heavy wire to the terminals. The car now has an awesome ~10.5V, 2400maH battery pack!!! The difference is outstanding. This car went from a fairly ordinary toy, right into big-boy's RC car territory with a really basic upgrade. MOAR POWAR!!! :D It's super fun to play with now, even for Dad. Burnouts, slides, spinning wheels, crashes... Can't wait for Garrick to see what I've done to it. :D

Building and installing a new trailer gate

My old trailer. I installed gate-hinges into the top a few years ago so that I can remove it easily when required.

But now it's time to make a rear gate. The solid box is great, but not always practical.

...finesse the back away...

Grinder cuts are pretty sloppy...smooth 'em out with the grinding head.

Sometimes we end up with stock returns at work that land into this junk pile. Too good to recycle...machined or damaged beyond sale quality.

So I chopped 'em up to make a rear gate.

Then had lunch. :D

And got back to work a tappin'

And drillin'

And cuttin' a panel

And trimmin' the corners

Cartin' ma' bits off to the work bench

No welding. All tap/bolt joinery.

Like magic, a gate appears fully assembled with a 5mm smoked polycarbonate inset panel. (protective coating still in place)

It fits great.

But needs a gate hinge installed about here...

Shazam. It's done and looks awesome. The entire thing can be lifted off of the hinges easily when required.

This clown came in to work on a Saturday asking about pizza. I sent him on his way....

I installed a gate latch to keep the door closed.

And then discovered that my trailer wasn't built square!!!! The top is ~17mm narrower than the base. Nothing I can do but turn the gate into a trapezoid. Reworking is my worst enemy.

So 2hrs later, I'd cut several 1.5 degree miter cuts to pull the shape in the way I needed and maintained a good edge all around. Nightmarish eyeballing work.

Came up great in the end. :)

Spoons

Feb 27th, 1884. Thomas W Hemmings and Jessie Beard are married. They receive several teaspoon sets as gifts.

And thanks to my grandma Edith Hemmings, who married their son Archie's son Willard, I now have a few of them hanging on my wall!! Even better, they're initialed "J H" in magnificent lettering on the handles. (The pin on Ottumwa is not related to the spoons.)

It's fantastic to have some family heirlooms hanging on the wall next to some Batman stamps and a disassembled hard drive. :)

Jana cleaned these up for me. Unfortunately their age (and probable use) has left them very scratched. We could re-polish them to a mirror finish, but it's highly unlikely I'll ever get around to it. Eventually we'll have three of them tarnished with an accelerant to make them black. Blackened silver just looks incredible.

Some random build photos below.