infryq

Yesterday I worked on the White! It’s been a while. Progress on the speed control mechanism. I replaced the janky countersunk screws with proper sheet metal screws, drilled a hole in the spur shaft for a cotter pin, and trimmed the shaft lengths to size. I used one of the basswood prototype panels as a spacer, then marked, drilled, and self-tapped holes for the screws that attach the speed control assembly to the lever assembly. Unfortunately the screw ends just barely block part of the travel of the spur gear, so I’ll need to cut and install an extra spacer to keep it out of the way.

Dinner solo, Universe, crossword when P got out of class, then snack and sleep. Weird post-apocalyptic wilderness survival dreams that included a lot of corn, livestreams, and a huge lobster creature the size and form factor of a deer.

Yesterday I finished cutting the hole for the speed controller knob, used a file to round it out, and put the two bends in the plate. A dry fit... mostly works? There is some slippage depending on how you hold it, which is very bad, but I’m hoping when everything is bolted together properly that will go away. Tolerances are difficult. Stabbed my thumb a touch with the point of the file. Small adventures.

Received a package from auntie S containing some items from grandma’s apartment and a lovely letter explaining some of the discussions they had about what she wanted done with her things. Got a little weepy, which is probably healthy at this point.

Crossword after lunch, scrabble after dinner. Late game was a struggle for vowels but we did manage to put QUIZ on a triple, which is always fun. SG-1, snack, sleep. Dreamt of helping someone capture their small excitable dog, same with a miniature parrot, rode a paternoster, had a piano lesson, sang along with a small orchestral rehearsal of a medley of Ode to Joy and Pachelbel’s Cannon.

Finished Shield of Dragons, which may have the most abrupt ending yet. Switching to podcasts for a bit.

Yesterday I washed my hair and finished submitting recommendation letters for M. I realized I’d submitted one with the wrong university name in it, but they don’t permit resubmits, so welp. Hopefully they’ll just double check with me and it’ll be fine, and I won’t have jeopardized M’s admission to that university 🙃.

I finished cutting out the brass blank for the gearbox (for the knee lever on the White), and filed all the edges smooth so I don’t cut myself during future steps. Next is doing practice bends with the scraps.

P made a lamb stew with Indian spices, and it smells extremely correct.

After dinner I watched the rest of Repair Shop, then snack and sleep. It’s probably time to order another set of carbs for snacks, since otherwise I’m going to motor through the apple chips much too fast.

Yesterday I discovered I’d assembled the prototype gearbox backwards/inside out. I cut out another set of pieces, fixed a misalignment in the plans, drilled holes, and glued it up.

I took out the rags and am both delighted and amused by the results. I don’t think I’ll do it again any time soon, but it was fun to try something different. Photo on Instagram.

I spent the afternoon watching Avatar and hemming. Finished the hem after dinner and crossword, then snack and sleep. Dreamt of getting lost in a maze of freeway interchanges, then of a massive ice cream food court. Best flavor: flax caramel ripple

Yesterday P went to the market and got Bulgarian pastries, apples, zucchini, mushrooms, bok choy, leeks, butternut squash, peppers, and carrots. I did the laundry and hung it out on the line. The epoxy from Saturday had cured, so I widened the hole in the gearbox to accept it, cut the second axle, a second spacer, and dry-fit everything including the gears. It seems to work, though the axle on the speed control is not as concentric as it appeared on Saturday. We did the crossword, I roasted the butternuts, I finished The Gift while knitting dishcloths, and started the 2020 bake-off season. Dinner, P brought in the laundry, then I darned some holes in socks over more bake-off. Snack, sleep, dreamt of quarantine dorms and car-less grocery shopping and piano recitals.

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Yesterday I bagged up the last of the frozen pepper paste dollops, so one bushel of red Carmen peppers plus two pounds of jimmy nardellos plus two pints of damson plums plus assorted chiles makes four and a half quarts of densely reduced pepper paste.

I did another round of prototyping on the White speed control mechanism, actually laying out and measuring how big each part should be. I’m nearly ready to order supplies for the final version; just need to figure out fasteners and make sure manufacturing and installation are both physically possible.

I finished sewing the second edge of the waistband, and started the line of stitching that will define the two elastic channels. My wrist is starting to crap out, so it may be time to take a break from hand sewing for a bit.

Dinner, submitted the vegetable order, crossword, Originals, snack, sleep. Bizarre dreams of a combination antique shop, elderly dog care center, ballet studio, and tropical fish aquarium, all subpar.

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Yesterday we went to the farmers market and got Bulgarian pastries, zestar apples, nectarines, pears, pluots, plums, mushrooms, beans, tomatoes, jalapeños, and basil. I did the laundry and hung it out on the line.

I did some prototyping of mechanisms for the knee lever; a cable drive will work but needs the half-flatted shaft to be filled first, and mounting it in the available space will be tricky. Still thinking on alternative linkages. The problem is essentially to transform 45 degrees of rotation in yaw to 270 degrees of rotation in either pitch or roll, ideally in a rigid configuration that makes use of the spring return on the 45 degree end. Manufacturing is limited to what I can do with brass, hand tools, and a dremel.

Lunch, then P mowed the lawn and I made another batch of nut and seed bars. I cut out the welt pockets for the sleep shorts, then basted the stitching lines, re-basted them with an additional layer of fabric on the wrong side, then attached them to the shorts, pulled out the basting stitches, and cut open the hole. Dinner, crossword, more sewing and Originals, snack, sleep.

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Yesterday I buffed most of the rust and gunk off of the knee lever assembly, but it’s not clear how I’ll go about attaching the new controller nor how I’ll transfer the mechanism over from the old multi-position switch. Linkages are not my strong suit.

P went to the farmers market and got peaches, nectarines, apricots, pluots, prune plums, blueberries, mushrooms, amaranth, green beans, tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, parsley, and basil.

I finished sewing the vertical welt pocket on the right side of P’s shorts, and he tried them on and declared it good, so I started the one on the left. Welt pockets are not harder than regular ones if you’re sewing by hand, I guess?

I did the laundry and dried it on the line, and had a good lunch and snack and dinner on time. We did the crossword and struggled with the northwest corner to the point of getting a hint from Rex. I started watching Legacies, which has some interesting dynamics but as a teen drama struggles with dimensionality so far. I finished A Pale Light in the Black, which ended unobjectionably but is indeed turning the ace representation into “we should support ace people 100% but really they just haven’t met the right person,” which, gross. The rest of it is an excellent ride though so I recommend it on the whole. Switching to podcasts for a bit before I reread Gideon the Ninth in prep for the sequel.

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Yesterday I slept in. The day was evenly split between sewing in the AC and working on the White. I took the cordomatic to the basement, clamped it in the bench vise, and got the cover off with just a couple of judicious hammer taps to a hunk of wood held against the lip of the lid. Everything inside was coated either in dried-out grease or a powdery yellow substance. The mainspring was involved, so I took a break to watch some videos on how to safely remove, clean, and reinstall barrel mainsprings in clocks, with and without special equipment. Lunch, felled one of the side seams over a new book I’m reading called The Bastard Prince by Patty Jensen. P hung out with me and wound up taking a much-needed nap. Back at the White, I got the mainspring out without any trouble and got to cleaning. I used Fast Orange since I’m not super into kerosene, and just made sure to follow up with a clean dry rag to get off any residue. The coils near the center were difficult; I tried rigging up a rod to give myself something to pull against to make room for my fingers but it didn’t really work. I ended up sacrificing a couple of toothpicks with oily cotton wrapped around them to the cause. Cleaned the spring case, removed the cable spool, got rid of most of the yellow powder, then took a look at the contacts. The spool holds two ring tracks, and the cover holds two copper prongs, one pressed against each ring. As the spool turns, the prongs maintain contact, completing the circuit. The insulation on the old wire was completely shot, so I unsoldered it in prep for new. Getting the panel with the rings on it off was tricky since it’s held on with bent-down tabs that were pretty tight; the best way I found was to stick the spool on edge, wedge a smallish flat screwdriver butted up against the end of the tab, and tap with a hammer. Eventually the tab bends backwards enough that the screwdriver head can get underneath, and it’s much easier from there. Unsoldered the similarly-shot wires from the back of the ring panel, and cleaned and polished the prongs and the rings.

Retreated to the cold place, P and I did the crossword, then dinner, more sewing over Lucifer, then snack and sleep. Dreamt of packing for air travel and rubbing off patterns from rtw clothes.

I’ve been sleeping later and skipping my morning internet routine (which includes journaling) to make up for it. Mostly this is caused by going to bed later than I should, so it’s less cause for alarm and more failing willpower saves. Working on it.

Yesterday I rotated the mattress, changed the sheets, and helped P mix up some lye solution to clean the reusable coffee filter. Then I got to work on the White.

My DigiKey order came in, including a new toggle switch, pliers and side cutters that actually fit my hands, and red/black/white wire in 18AWG and 20AWG. I removed the 16AWG leads from the lamp receptacle and replaced them with 18, which works much better. Installed the toggle switch and soldered on the leads. Added new 18 gauge leads to the motor, and connected them to the screw terminals in the plug assembly. Temporarily installed the motor, plug assembly, and lamp assembly, and measured the lamp leads for length. Wrapped up the lamp leads in some expandable tubing so they stay together and look nice, and installed the ends into the plug assembly. Attempted final installation, but ran into a problem: with the lamp receptacle strap where it logically goes, it gets in the way and the screws don’t line up. Rotating the strap so it clears the screw holes, the screws holding the strap in place aren’t long enough to reach it. I suspect this particular strap was not original; when I originally took this assembly apart it was in the wrong side of the plate and thus not actually holding anything in place. I can either switch to just one screw holding the strap, and retain the other one with a nut just for looks, or take a dremel to the strap and carve off the bit that’s in the way.

Snack, then I did a turn through the garden and picked beans and gooseberries, and tied up a wayward squash plant. At some point I suspect I got tagged by a nettle; it was rill angry last night but has chilled out since.

Dinner, crossword, finished She-Ra (why is there not a 🥺😊 emoji), then paged through selections of heat-shrink tubing, which I forgot to include in the order last time. Depending on the state of the rheostat I may be making another order for quadrac parts, so they can go in then.

I finished Wicked As You Wish and started it over again, and while it was certainly enjoyable the first time it’s even better the second. More stuff makes sense, and the frenzied name-dropping works as setup instead of “here let me just paste my worldbuilding notebook for you to read directly”.

Snack, sleep. Dreamt of a Pittsburgh/Wville mashup with a tiny adorable fiber festival and catching a late bus ostensibly to the Strip but actually on a tour of the woods, a carnival ride set up for someone’s wedding the next day, a very small T learning to do somersaults at the beach but insisting on doing them too close to the water and getting upset when he ended up wet, nilla wafers, setting up alcohol-free events for young professionals.