Chunking Projects

Just a few random thoughts on the tail end of a turkey weekend. Do you design & engineer solutions whilst drafting? Consider planning out your projects more before you sit down at the computer or drafting table. It seems that most people just dive right in. Oh sure, there’s budgeting and scheduling (and hopefully element lists) that will help define the project and help you to focus on the various bits and pieces....

Paste & Punch Templates

While in grad school I became a fan of what I like to call Past & Punch Templates. When you need to fabricate a part that is particularly funky or needs to be exceedingly precise, you print a full sized drawing from CAD and past it onto the material that needs to be machined. Fairly simple right? For years I’ve used spray 77 to adhere the template to the part, but then you have to deal with removing the adhesive from the part when it is going to be painted or moves against another part....
Solutions

Dirt on Stage

Dirt on stage. Poo poo. Dusty, dirty, a real pain in the ass. Jen tells me that she’s got a way to tame the dust. The secret is glycerol (aka glycerine or glycerin). Don’t worry, glycerol may sound threatening, but rest assured, it is not. It is a sugar alcohol that is found in everything from food to pharmaceuticals. Obligatory wiki link to glycerol. You can buy glycerol in 5 gallon buckets, which should last most folks for an entire run....
Solutions

Flicker Candle Movies

Good news everybody! I’ve finally posted movies of the flicker candles in action. Jeez, that took long enough. Build info here. flicker_light flicker_dark...
Solutions

Acad - Saving Keystrokes!

(Or: How I Stopped Worring and Learned to Love the Command Alias) If you are an avid AutoCAD user, you know that setting up your command aliases is key. For those interested, I’ve put my customized portion of the acad.pgp file here. For those of you who are not familiar with AutoCAD’s command aliases, you’re in for a treat. Every time you enter “rec” instead of “rectangle,” or “l” instead of “line” you are using a command alias....
AutoCAD

Pivoting Success!

Update for “Pivot Puck” post. – We installed the pivoting masking wall today, and it was a smashing success. Pivot pucks are definitely going into our stock inventory....
Solutions