Mecworks

Well, there’s been a few of my hoards of readers :) who have pinged me about my Bosch 4000-09 Table saw from www.toolking.com arrives, missing parts story.

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Just finished up one bookbinding project and part way through another. My first project was a Coptic binding. It’s an ornate, exposed spine binding that has detailed chain stitching on displayed on the spine of the book. A very flexible and utilitarian binding which lies flat allowing for easy reading of the material, the Coptic binding was developed in the 4th century A.D. in Egypt. The chain stitch used to attach signatures to each other had it’s roots in carpet weaving.

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I have long searched for a table saw to compliment my shop. I’ve searched high and low to find one that is high quality and will last years. I decided to get the 10″ Worksite Table Saw with Gravity-Rise™ Wheeled Stand Model 4000-09.

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Every now and then I get anxious to build a project. It may be a home theater, an ambient air filter for the shop, maybe a portable solar charging system to power my electronics when camping or maybe a speaker or two or even built-in bookcases (both works in progress).

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I have a favorite wall clock I bought at Target a few years ago. It’s kind of eclectic with a stainless steel rim and a black leather ring inside that. The clock takes 1 AA battery but it seems to eat them like crazy. In the last year or so, I have had to replace the battery about every two or three monts. I’m tired of it - all I want is a clock that works and doesn’t need to have it’s battery replaced so often so I modded mine last night. A simple but very effective mod IMO…

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Hey, anyone know of cutlist software for Linux? What is cutlist software you ask? It’s software that helps optimize your use of linear board feet when cutting stock for woodworking projects. It does best-fit rectangular nesting with some optimizations for cut paths. Cutlist software allows you to take all the rectangular panels in a project, optimize them on say, one or more 4′ x 8′ sheets of plywood so that you get the most use out of your wood stock with the least amount of waste. Useful in my case for designing and building speaker cabinets and of course, some other projects in the future. If you know of anything, please let me know. I’ve found two packages for windows (CutMaster2D and CutList Plus) and will try to get them to run on Wine but I’d rather have a native Linux app.

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I ordered 4 Sonic Impact T-Amps which arrived a week ago. I will be reboxing them. One for the office…one for home. Maybe some Christmas presents too.

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Here’s a picture of my “server room”. I couldn’t afford a rack at the moment but had an unused storage shelf in the basement. So, here you see the extremely expensive (ha!) Mecworks setup:

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Unfortunately the ProView PL576Ws LCD monitor, as nice as it is, had to go back. There was no way that it would do 1280×720 (720p) and the purpose of buying it was to be a second monitor in my home theater. So, I took it back to Staples this afternoon.

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Well, I picked up a ProView PL576Ws 15.4″ widescreen LCD display from Staples tonight. It is probably the cheapest HDTV monitors avaialable at the sub $300 USD level. I brought it home, plagged it in and noticed that while it supports 1280×800 and a few “standard” resolutions, it does not support native 720p (1280×720) HD resolution. I am somewhat dissapointed in this. For a monitor that can certainly display resolution-wise 1280×720, it has no native support for this resolution dispite it being billed as a “widescreen” monitor (it’s “Ws” in the model name denotes it’s widescreen capabilities).

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I just subscribed to make:, the new ultra-geek-coolness magazine from O’Reilly.

From the FAQ:

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A j-pole antenna for GMRS/FRS frequencies (462.550MHz - 467.725MHz)

This article will outline how to build a j-pole antenna for the GMRS/FRS radios. These radios are the type you can buy at sporting goods stores such as REI, Cabelas, etc. There are several radio manufacturers who make GMRS/FRS radios with removable antennas. This antenna can increase the range of these radios by miles!

NOTE: 1) You can only use this antenna with GMRS or GMRS/FRS combo radios which are built with removable antenna (you cannot use this antenna on or modify an FRS-only radio or as I understand it, GMRS/FRS radios which do not have a removable antenna). 2) You need an FCC license to use GMRS radios in the US (read the packaging on the radios you get for more info). Know your local laws to make sure it’s legal to use this antenna before building it!

WARNING: Torches, soldering irons and solder (especially, silver solder) are very HOT. Be very careful while building this antenna! Always wear safety goggles and other appropriate safety equipment.

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To handle the ever increasing ammount of projects that are not related directly to computers but are related to mechanical, electrical or similar enginerring dicipline, I have added a new catagory: “Mecworks R&D” which is filed under “Creative Expression” and currently has one sub catagory - “Shop Work”. The intent is to make a catagory underwhich several projects that I’ve done in the past as well as thoes to be completed or done in the future can be cataloged, diagramed, explaied, etc. Most of the photos for such articles will be found in the gallery. More detail than can be had in the gallery will be here, in the blog.