The Never Ending Quest For Perfection

Took the hex out to the shop to center punch the marks and drill the 3/32" hole.  I need more magnification.  I missed both of those marks.  I should have marked that thing all around!!!

Note: a drill press is not a precision machine.  I need to get the old high speed drill on the bench and sorted.

So one hole worked out okay, but was a bit high, over the line.  So I faced off the extra on the lathe, and tested the micrometer spindle, a few times until it worked.

#44 drill bit, lathe in back gears, and it spun off like silk.  Now they need a cleaning and a good soak in the de-rust-it.  Then over to the  super penetrating oil.

Where we are now

Trying to get to this point

Wonder how much I have in these 14 dollar mics now? 

The way back...

I wandered out to the shop today.  Enforced boredom is not for me.  It's too tough to take.  

I looked for a box that I thought I'd gotten some time in the past.  I am WELL past checking my tools every six months to keep on top of what is where....

These wrenches are about 1/16" thick.  Not a good fit.  As I figure, if the pin was on the inside of the wrench's curve, not the outside of the hook, it would work better for my needs.  So, it's homemade tool time.

Found the piece of hex, into the 3 jaw of the Logan.  Center drill, 1/4 inch pilot, 5/16" final, and it's a fit.  Countersink one end, cause I don't make mistakes....  well.... right.  Time to mark it out.  Into the house, where the QC and layout departments are, piece of glass for a flat spot, sand off the major yuk with 220 grit.  Clean and dry the glass, then time to mark it out.

Looking a bit dry there, cap'n!  Fingerprints?!?!?!?

and a bit dirty / dusty

I really lucked out when I grabbed this height gage off the internet's tool thief warehouse.  It wasn't that expensive.  It has a cal sticker on it.  Due 1995.  So, it's been calibrated once.  Home shop QC department approved!!!

0.125" is easy-peasy.  Set and marked.  Layout die is a blue sharpie.  They seem to build color on color for a good dark blue.  The black sharpie seems to strip off the old color as you go over and over it.  No build up, don't like that.

Okay, I need to draw a center line, on the face of a hex, exactly in the middle of the face.  Hmmmm....

Define the problem: for me that means draw the problem, follow the steps of Dr. Geometry, and then over to Mister Trig's office, then back through Arnold Rubin's* legacy Algebra and the answer is ...........

0.65"  Set to that and scribe the line.  Did it work?  Better check it twice to make sure.  The 1D-10T check.  And double check.  Looks good.

Tomorrow, back out the shop for center punching, cross hole drilling, deburring, chamfering the hole's other end, and then, trying it out.....



Medical update:  I got tired today, but no real pressure on my head.  No weirdness, other than being a bit unsteady as the day wore on.  So glad I have the next 2 weeks vacation.  Old head is not coming back to plumb as fast as I'd like.  But the math was not a burden, actually, it was quite fun to go back through some old roads.

*My high school was in a hick, podunk, farm community.  My graduation had 52 people.  Arnold Rubin was my algebra teacher.  He wore a tie, and dressed well.  He was a top rated chess player in the panhandle of Texas, and was a no-nonsense kind of guy.  I would NOT be where I am today, without his influence.  Mr. Rubin, I have looked for you for years, and never found you to thank you for your influence.  You made a real difference in my life. THANK YOU! 

Thinking about it...

That little tool I need had me thinking.  So I put pen to paper....

I remembered a little bit of hex stock I have in the shop, so major redesign.

Hopefully, sometime in the next few days, I'll wobble ease out to the shop and try to do this.

Medical update: doc said my progress sounds good.  Gonna see about another CT exposure maybe, change one med, vampire visit next week, and another doc visit next Friday. 

I may be selling these little tools to support my health habit.  I shudder to think...

Tumico Glue Clamps...

I guess it's time to revisit the glue clamps.  I could not for the life of me figure out how they come apart.  I've put on the cheaters, and the Mr. Pete visor.  No dice.  I hate hammering and twisting and pipe wrenches on precision machinery, so it was time for study.

I really don't like search engines very much.  They seem to draw the wrong conclusions.  They all seem to work like that lady interviewer talking to a college professor, "So what you are saying is, people should act like lobsters."  Only in cloud cuckoo land, lady.  Right next door to YOU!

Finally, I find something that may, just may help me out....

Scherr-Tumico Construction

 

Now, really, who would think to ask for that particular verbage?  Okay, maybe I'm more lobster than I realize.  Heaven forfend I'm blond!!!!

Anyways, it gave me enough information to make some ideas flow around in this dizzy head of mine.

If I can't find a little spanner in the junk boxes I have, I'm planning on making a small ring to place around the end of the mic.  Bore diameter is about 0.0395"  (about and a 4 digit decimal in the same sentence, egads) I need to find out what diameter the cross hole is.  I think I have something that will fit.  Like a wire size, letter size or fractional, I should have something to fit it.  Then, hopefully, twist it off and start the recal on these wonderful glue clamps. 

okay, 0.039"?

add 0.0005"

Artist misconception of the disassembly tool.

Health update if interested.  Still not right.  Doctor visit tomorrow.  Found a spare day that I was due so tomorrow off as well.  Mornings are a bit tough, been sleeping 10 plus hours a night.  They said to expect that.  Afternoons are nearly normal, just weak, and no stamina.  It may take a week to make this tiny tool.  Time will tell.  It may take a while to come back from this noggin knock, too.  A while longer than I anticipated, at first blush.  Prayers are appreciated and needed.

*EDIT!*  Falling asleep last night I nearly facepalmed.  0.0395"?  No, Try 0.3095"   The brain still works! yay!

UltraViolet

If you like Mila Jovanovich, you should watch that movie.  It's a comic book, and I like comic books.  They talk about hemophages, or vampires if you want.  When they 'convert', they can be very light sensitive or not so much.

After the brain spank®, I have / had a hard time with sounds.  Certain sounds really irritate me.  Some voices do, others don't.  Clinking plates drive me up the wall now.  Kinda like comic book, over-the-top, drive me up the wall. 

I had to stay in the dark for a while, and listen to white noise off and on.  I would have  been hard pressed to believe it, but white noise helped the pressure drain away.  Pink noise makes an antler grow out of my forehead.  Yeah, like that Conan the Barbarian movie.

I've had a couple really foggy days, but mostly, just weak, head pressure off and on, with no stamina.  I can wash a few dishes or wash clothes, and then I'm done.  Doctor's orders are to take sick leave.  All of it.  So I'm in the middle of using it up.  So, when did we quit rolling over unused sick leave?  Why didn't I hear about it when it happened?  hmmmm......  Maybe I did and don't remember....

I watch the Tool and Die guy on Youtube.  He sold some neat things during Christmas. One of them was a Lufkin micrometer patent drawing.  He cleaned it up and made a poster of it.  I looked at that a few times in the last weeks....

Here's his page.

Wait, J - Compression Nut????

Oh, could it be that easy?  Really?

And to test my theory....

 Neat.  All that goofing around just to find out my ignorance was keeping me from proceeding.  Situation Normal.  And no facepalm, I'm not up for another headache.

I did order a gizmo to help me.  I thought about how to do this without making a mess.  I could have used some leather and a pair of normal pliers, but that wasn't enough fun.

They don't feel as cheap as they cost.  And they gripped that compression nut like it needed.  So, now the mics are able to move without coercion.  Next up is calibrating them to be accurate.  Well, as accurate as I can make them.

This little post, made me a bit light headed.  I'm on the loooooong road.  No doubt.

Just great...

Post concussion syndrome.  That's what they said at the big hospital.

Dark room, no brain food (like reading or mrpete222) is the RX.

My brain doesn't like diets.  I found that out quick.

I feel pressure, like sinus pressure, where there are no sinuses.  That is weird.

Thinking is something I have to work at now.  And there will be pressure as a result.... At least it feels like pressure.  Closest sensation I can relate it to.

If you are working outside or under or where you can bump your head, wear a hat.  It'll give you a feeler to warn you if you hit it.  And make sure it's an honest hat with a brim.  A ball cap might have kept the scalp from bleeding, but it wouldn't have turned the plywood away.  They do make hard shells that fit under a ball cap.  I'm looking to get a couple of those ASAP.

Take my advice and spare yourself some unnecessary life lessons. 

My kin used to wear a hat every time they left the house.  I understand now it was more than a sunshade.

Ball cap insert.

Might as well make a statement.

My normal outdoor hat, that is in the truck, not by the door.  Doh!

Perfect timing

In the midst of the tremendous PPE event over "Chairman Mao's Little Red Shop of Horrors", I slipped through the cracks.  No one was able to accompany me into the ER, and I really needed someone with me on that trip, come to find out.

I wrote about busting my noodle last Saturday.  The ER doc mashed around to see if there was a soft spot, glued the gash shut, and the staff gave me a wound care handout.  I followed that scrupulously.

RESULT:

Small, weird headaches that came and went (allergies?), a little occasional nausea, some tiredness, lack of stamina to work at home after a day at work.  A touch of brain fog.  Woke up during the night a few times, every day since.  No deal breakers, just a little off.

Until yesterday. 

Ever get irritated when you lay down to sleep?  I did.  Brain fog was worse.  Strange to have to work to think.  Being on the inside of that was not easy.  I never have to work at thinking.

Quick curbside doctor visit this am.  I could get used to the nurses coming out to the truck to take my vitals and visit.  Although it can't be comfortable being dressed in a Hefty bag. Quick field sobriety test, and I passed.  Doc said "go home, no work today or next week."  "REST, you should have been advised to take this week off to rest up after taking a shot to the head." 

What a charlie foxtrot. 

John was right, as we get older, minor injuries are a thing of the past.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cat like reflexes

I've had fairly good reflexes my whole life. 

I remember once in vocational ag (FFA), we were explaining how to thread pipe.  I had one of the three speaking parts.  As I turned the pipe threading die and ratchet over, the die fell out.  I swept it up and placed it back in the ratchet.  I don't think I even bent over, I just caught it about belt level and slipped it back in.  Our grade wasn't bad at all.

I caught a phone as it fell off a desk at work, and my coworker said I had "cat like reflexes". 

Saturday evening, I had parked a trailer on the side yard, where it's really steep.  We had some plywood in it.  The back of the suburban was in the dirt, the trailer back end was pretty high.  As I walked around behind the trailer to chock the wheels, a little tree branch tickled my right ear.  I snapped away, cat like, right into the corner of the plywood.

Almost a 2 inch split in the scalp.  But the sound it made was worrying.  Like stepping on a boiled egg.  ER doc said I didn't crush my skull, just needed a bit of glue to stick the scalp together.  I guess it was the scalp ripping open that made the sound.  The random little headaches aren't hard to bear, but just a tad off-putting.  No concussion, it was a side-swipe I guess.

After I heal up, I should be back to blogging.

I wish that was all I'm working through.  I could use a prayer if you are so inclined.

Thank you in advance.