Uncategorized

So Long, Twitter

Today I deactivated my Twitter account. In a month, my data there should be deleted.

I’ve left because it looks very likely that Elon Musk will buy it soon, take it private, and proceed to  “unlock” Twitter’s “extraordinary potential”, by which I think he means to pull as much money as possible out of the platform, my wallet, and my data. My leaving now may deprive him of just a little of that money-making data.

I’ve enjoyed Twitter for the 12 years I’ve used it, and I’ll miss the people I’ve connected with. Good luck to you all.

Featured Image: Detail, Easy Chair by Caleb Gardner, 1758. Public Domain, courtesy of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

3D Printing, Making, Metalworking

Adding an Air Filter to a Box Fan

During the wildfires of 2020 I saw many instructions for how to quickly duct-tape air filters to a box fan, to remove smoke from household air. Years before that I was interested in buying a woodworking shop air filter that would remove fine sawdust that otherwise floats in the air for days or weeks.

This post describes my experience making a air-filter-box-fan design, using 3D printed clips instead of duct tape to hold the filter to the fan.

CAUTION: I have no idea how safe it is to clamp an air filter to a box fan. Such a filter may reduce the air flow to the fan’s motor, which might result in overheating and fire. Always supervise the running fan. You’re responsible for your own safety.

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Metalworking, Projects

Removing Rust and Paint from the Vise

I wasn’t happy with how much rust remained after the vinegar treatment, so I decided to give the vise a treatment with Evapo-Rust – my favorite rust remover.

I also decided that so little paint was left, I’d strip the remaining paint off, either with paint stripper or a wire wheel, depending on whether the paint had lead in it.

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Metalworking, Projects

Restoring a Rusty Vise – it Begins

WARNING: I don’t know what I’m doing!

On a whim I bought a rusty, Ace brand 3 1/2″ (say 90 mm) vise at a garage sale. I’ve watched a few vise restoration videos, so I think I have a chance at restoring it…

How it started: I’ve been watching a lot of Matthew Read’s excellent clock repair videos (Open Clock Club Archive, How to repair pendulum clocks, and How to Repair Pendulum Clocks – LIVESTREAM). Lately he’s been repairing an early 19th century clock, doing a lot of metalworking in the process. Inspired by that work – and needing a vise for my clockmaker’s bench – I decided to buy a rusty vise and attempt to restore it. This post covers the first step in that restoration.

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Clock Repair

Adjusting the Count Lever on an Ansonia Clock Movement

While waiting for its case to be repaired, my craft-altered Ansonia Derby clock has been running on a test stand – off and on for quite a while. I noticed that every great once in a while the count lever failed to drop into the 8 o’clock slot, causing the number of hours struck to be incorrect from then on.

The problem was that the count lever needed adjusting so the lever wouldn’t hang up on the walls of the slot it was dropping into. In this post I describe my adventure of adjusting (bending) the count lever.

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Maintenance

Needhamia Emmigrates to a new Needhamia.com

Due to an attack on the old, out-of-date Needhamia.com web site, I’ve rebuilt the site on a modern host, rebuilding from LibreOffice files of the old posts to avoid transferring any infection from the old site.

The longer story

I created the old needhamia.com in 2014. The web provider has considered that site “legacy” for several years. Unfortunately, that status meant the site became vulnerable to attack due to obsolete versions of software: 3 times in the past few years the old needhamia.com was compromised, usually by modifications to its .htaccess file, among other things. I finally got fed up with the attacks and decided to create a new, modern site. To avoid reinfection, I’m not doing a simple backup of the old site and restore to the new one.

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