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Eric sent me!
Kludge:
Honest, he did! He was very explicit about my coming here and spreading the insanity, not that I don't have plenty to spread.
I could duplicate my intro at HMEM or create a new one of equally epic proportions. Let's try the latter.
Let's see ... 63; 100% disabled vet living on a VA pension; father of the sweetest, most precious, most wonderful, most beautiful, most loved [and so on - trust me, I can go on for hours!] daughter in the universe; retired nondenominational minister; ex- too many things to count (some of which NO one will ever get me drunk enough to admit to) but at least I tried them all; all around generally insane person with the paperwork to prove it.
Working on really small things is fun. I mean, yeah, being able to see what I'm doing would be nice but where's the challenge in that? Anyway, my shop (when I wrestle it back from Murphy) has in it three watchmaker's lathes (one each 6, 8 and 10mm), a Unimat SL-1000 and a Taig with the extra kit to make it into a horizontal mill. There's also a watchmaker's drill press and hand tools that are size appropriate to all this. And there's a micro-welder that's pretty cool ... except when it's not supposed to be, of course.
On the electronics side, I can go from vacuum tubes down to SMDs with equal clumsiness which I think is pretty nifty. Well, not the clumsy part but the rest is. (In one of my future planned projects I hope to combine the two by finding a really truly dead 211 [VT-4C] or something of similar size and very carefully removing the envelope so I can install a SMD low power transmitter inside.)
What got me overhauling my shop was Noelle. She has MS and a host of other autoimmune disorders, and needs something to distract her from the ever increasing pain & weakness. She loves Daddy-made things and, true to daughters worldwide, has me well and truly twisted around her little finger. I love making things for her which is part of my retaliatory merciless spoilage. Anyway, the idea is to make Noelle-machines that accomplish no useful task except to help redirect her thoughts and, hopefully, let her smile even if for only a little while. For reasons I don't want to get into here, we can't be together (She's in Iowa, 3500 miles away) so this is one way she can have Daddy close even though we're physically apart.
Oh, and I have a particular fondness for Steampunk, though my take is slightly different ... not that it makes much difference since there are very few hard & fast rules as to precisely what Steampunk is anyway. (I took my "world" a bit further than usual by going ever so slightly into the geopolitics et al and one of these days I'll post it on my blog. Or one of them.
So there it is. The short version of me. More or less. Subject to change without prior notification.
Best regards,
Kludge
Brass_Machine:
Hey Kludge!
Glad you came over. We are a sister board to HMEM and try to cover all the other hobbies many of us have that don't fit in over there.
I think it is wonderful that you make things for your daughter. I have a suggestion for a project for her:
Jar of Fireflys
I have made a few of them for gifts and they are pretty neat. It does require the ability to load code onto an amtel chip... I can help with that for anyone here.
Eric
Powder Keg:
Hey, Thats neat:o) How hard is it to program one of those whatsits?
Wes
Brass_Machine:
--- Quote from: Powder Keg on July 23, 2008, 04:10:33 PM ---Hey, Thats neat:o) How hard is it to program one of those whatsits?
Wes
--- End quote ---
Not too difficult if you have a programmer. I can program one and send it to you.
They are really neat. Gave them as presents one year. Everyone loves them. I have some cool 'containers' instead of the mason jars that I got from Ikea for cheap... They look really cool.
Eric
Kludge:
Hi, Eric,
--- Quote from: Brass_Machine on July 23, 2008, 11:07:17 AM ---Glad you came over. We are a sister board to HMEM and try to cover all the other hobbies many of us have that don't fit in over there.
I think it is wonderful that you make things for your daughter. I have a suggestion for a project for her:
Jar of Fireflys
I have made a few of them for gifts and they are pretty neat. It does require the ability to load code onto an amtel chip... I can help with that for anyone here.
--- End quote ---
How did that Instructable get past me? I cruise there and Hack-a-Day on a semi-irregular basis. It's perfect for her, country girl she is. Thank you!
I may need some help with the Amtel chip though. I haven't done any bit bashing for ... well, Noah was a cabin boy when we fat fingered machine code into front panels or keypads ... and we did a bit of on the fly assembly in the process. The doctors assure me the *twitch* from those days will pass, though I'm not sure how we'll separate that *twitch* from all the rest brought on by a checkered and what some have called a "colorful" past. I'm not entirely sure what that means.
Noelle is my life. We are father/daughter, and we are best friends and confidantes. No father could ever be anywhere near as fortunate as I am and I thank God every day for bringing her into my life. I will do anything within my realm to make her life as comfortable as possible. And, yes, I do Doting Daddy quite well. :)
I used to make microbots - BEAM bots with my own twist - but her vision has deteriorated to the point she can't enjoy them as much anymore. Besides, she got a dog in the meantime and he tried to eat one. So now the rule is that new toys and the needed padding can fit a Priority flat rate "shoebox" but not be any bigger. Yogi, who's fully grown at 6.5 pounds, will probably find the boxes entertaining since they're easily Yogi-sized and provide somewhere for him to play hide and seek. That way everyone's happy.
By the way, I'm also a ham radio operator so you might see some highly unusual telegraph keys here as well. As well as a few other things. :)
Best regards,
Kludge
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