The table saw is out of the box...

The table saw is out of the box ... but its assembly is far from finished.  The main box weighed about 250 pounds, a bit more than I could muscle around by myself.  The box was on a pallet, and I'd plopped it down in the garage section of the barn after unloading it from the delivery truck.  However, we conveniently built the door from the garage section to the woodshop section just barely large enough to drive my tractor into the woodshop.  So I loaded the box back onto the tractor's fork lift yesterday, and carefully drove it right to it's designated location in the woodshop.  It took about 50 “K” turns to get it in the right place, and about 50 more to get the tractor back out of the woodshop – but I did it, and without bashing down any walls or posts in the process :)

Unboxing the table saw was a much more interesting process than I expected.  The overall experience reminded me a bit of unboxing an Apple product – one pleasant surprise after another.  First I cut the straps and pulled off the lid, revealing a piece of molded foam about 30" x 50" in size.  I pulled off the foam, and discovered its bottom side was elaborately molded with bosses (for strength) and cavities to fit various things packed underneath it.  The main part of the saw was packed on its side, with its cast iron top swaddled in heavy wax paper to cover the protective grease underneath it, and the entire saw covered in shrink wrap.  Other components were boxed or wrapped in bubble wrap, with everything very carefully separated by some kind of shock absorbing material (several kinds were employed).

On the very top, prominently showing, was a single sheet of paper with detailed diagrams and explanation showing exactly how to remove the saw without damaging it.  This was particularly nicely done.  The first step was to remove the remaining box and other components.  One of the things I pulled out was a large, colorfully printed piece of stiff cardboard, covered with plastic that had bubbles in it to hold various bits of hardware needed to put the saw together, along with some special tools (like metric Allen keys).  This piece of cardboard was a delight to examine – someone went to a great deal of trouble to make my life easier!  The colors are a form of coding to help identify each piece of hardware.  Text in each colored section explained what the hardware was.  Behind each bubble the cardboard was scored to make it easy to remove the hardware.  I've assembled lots of kits like this one, but never one in which the hardware was so easy to locate and identify.  Very nice job, SawStop.  Very nice indeed.

After I removed everything except the base saw, I had about 150 pounds to muscle around – not so bad, especially since all I had to do was roll it and tilt it up.  I followed the (excellent) directions, and in very short order I had stood up the table saw in its new home.  It was getting toward the end of my day, so I didn't do much more work on it – just cleaned the grease off the cast iron tabletop, installed the two hand wheels (also cast iron, and beautifully made) and the motor cover.  Today I'll tackle the rest of it...

State of the dust collector...

State of the dust collector...  The left photo below shows the partly assembled dust collector, lying on its side like a crippled minnow.  The large cylinder in the left foreground is the HEPA filter for the beast, and the smaller cylinder in the background is the sawdust/chip collector.  Both of these will be attached once the beast is raised upright.  The right photo shows the variety of small parts that remain to be attached...

Spent the morning picking old caulking...

Spent the morning picking old caulking ... out of the seam between our kitchen sink and the granite above it.  This was the old fashioned translucent silicone caulking, which is a bit of a pain to remove.  The previous caulking job was pretty bad – the caulking wasn't all under the granite; a sheet of it crept over the stainless steel sink.  Over the years since it was installed, the thin parts had worked loose from the stainless steel, and colonies of alien bacteria lived on the trash and dirty water that had infiltrated. 

I picked all that out with a dental pick, then used steel wool and a lot of elbow grease to get the film of translucent silicone off.  That was surprisingly difficult!  I also used steel wool on the sink itself, followed by a course of Barkeeper's Friend (the best stuff I've ever used for cleaning metal); this cleaned and shined up the sink nicely. 

Then I re-caulked with modern, water-clear silicone – and kept the bead completely under the granite.  I finished it using a trick I learned from the guys who installed our bathroom granite: I spritzed the bead with half water/half isopropyl alcohol, then just ran my finger down the bead.  Perfect finish!  The face of the caulk bead is basically vertical.  When it's cured (tomorrow), I'll get rid of any films of silicone remaining on the stainless steel – and then the kitchen sink will be completely finished!

Well, it took all day...

Well, it took all day...  And also four trips to Ace Hardware and Home Depot, and the deployment of an extensive vocabulary of words not often heard in areas so dominated by the LDS church.  I removed all the old kitchen sink plumbing, including the garbage disposal, an under-sink “instant” hot water heater that we never used, all three faucets, and the broken hand soap dispenser.  I then installed a new garbage disposal, new sink drain, and all new plumbing.  Along the way I discovered that virtually nothing under the sink was done in a standard way (the norm for this house, it seems), so several of my trips were to obtain various adapters to make non-standard plumbing play nice with the bog standard new stuff that I bought.

The end result, though, we're very happy with.  The new faucet (and matching hand soap dispenser) are beautifully made Kohler models.  They feel rock solid, and operate just as you'd expect.  The pull-down spray head works great; goes in and out easily, and the hose is quite limp and flexible.  The new garbage disposal is so quiet compared with the old one that when I first tested it, I thought it was broken!  That's despite being twice as powerful.

One sink-related task remains for today: I'm going to strip out all the old caulking (it's an under-counter sink, caulked to the bottom of the surrounding granite) and put new in.  That means a fifth trip, this time to Home Depot to get some decent grout, hopefully in a color that will blend nicely.  I'm also going to use steel wool to thoroughly clean the sink itself, as now it's old grungy appearance contrasts badly with the nice new faucet :)

Hillary's email...

Hillary's email...  The latest revelation is that the State Department didn't actually archive the emails that Hillary sent to other State Department employees.  Nor did they archive anybody else's.

Everyone I know with any sort of IT background shares my reaction to the news reporting on this issue: it's all complete nonsense, credulously reporting the State Department's assertions that this is a difficult problem only recently addressed.  That's the sheerest poppycock and twaddle.  Specialized email backup programs have been readily available commercially, and routinely used by private organizations, since at least the late 1980s – almost thirty years ago.  I personally selected and acquired such a system for my then-employer in the mid-1990s.  These backup systems save every email (no selection is required) and then provide tools for recovery of particular (or all) emails.

For the State Department (or any branch of government) to assert that this is difficult, time-consuming, or expensive is one of two things: an outright lie, or a confirmation of an almost unimaginable level of incompetence.

Occam's Razor says: it's a lie.

But why would the State Department lie about this, making themselves look stupid and ignorant?  The most likely reason I can imagine is that if they actually produced copies of their internal emails, it would expose them as the utterly incompetent fools and nefarious knaves the electorate suspects they are...

Dinner out...

Dinner out...  We went to Cafe Sabor last night for a nice outing.  The salsa and chips were just as good as on our previous visits.  Debbie had their tortilla soup (ok, not great – she says the coconut soup she had last time was much better), and the blackened shrimp tostada (also ok, not great).  Debbie's meal is in the photo at right – as you can see, the food was quite attractive, especially the tostada at left.  I had a chile relleno (outstanding!) and a sweet pork enchilada (very good, though odd).  By the time I thought to take a photo of it, I'd already eaten half of it :)  We ordered flan for dessert, and it was more like an eggy bread pudding (with one piece of bread) than a traditional flan (which should be a slightly overcooked custard).

The drive home in the late evening light was especially pretty.  The mountains around the valley were glowing in the reddish light of near-sunset, while the valley was mainly in shadow.  There were quite a few dramatically-lit scenes along the way.  Just south of Hyrum, on the east side of Highway 165, there's a small farm that's recently acquired a bunch of baby goats.  They were out playing “king of the hill” on a pile of giant wooden telephone wire spools.  I could watch baby goats for hours.  It's too bad they're only babies for about ten minutes – and then grow up to be extremely uncute goats...

Barn progress...

Barn progress...  I spent most of the day yesterday assembling the stand and about half of the Grizzly dust collection system.  By the end of the day, I had roughly 400 pounds of steel and copper assembled and lying sideways on my barn floor.  Next step: raising it to a vertical position.  That's going to have to wait for a few days, though, as I discovered during assembly that the stand doesn't actually come with feet.  That's because the usual method of mounting it to a concrete floor is to use fasteners in holes drilled in the floor.  That won't work for me, as I have heating tubes embedded in the concrete floor – and I'd really, really hate to hit one of those!  So I had to order some rubber-and-steel “machine mounts” (essentially, industrial-strength, 5" diameter rubber feet) designed for sitting this monster on a wood floor.  They'll be here early next week.  Meanwhile, the monster shall recline in a resting position :)

The two shipments due to arrive yesterday did arrive.  We now have two pallets full of foam flooring for Debbie's agility court.  My SawStop table saw also arrived, in a collection of sturdy boxes strapped to another pallet.  The garage area of our barn is starting to look like a warehouse!

Today is “sink day” – I'm replacing the faucet, garbage disposal, drains, strainer, and under-sink plumbing on our kitchen sink.  The immediate provocation was an annoying, persistent, and unrepairable leak in the existing faucet.  The secondary provocation was a desire to get a more powerful garbage disposal (1 HP model replacing an aging 1/2 HP model) and to remove an “instant on” hot water heater that we never use.  I bought all the parts I thought I needed earlier this week, but as I start the actual work I fully expect to discover 12 more things I need, necessitating at least 8 more trips to Home Depot and/or Lowe's...

Original Moog schematics online...

Original Moog schematics online...  This is a treasure for anyone interested in some classic analog engineering work...

The hazards of open source programming, part 692...

The hazards of open source programming, part 692...  This is from the SQLite project.  Click to embiggen...

Barn progress...

Barn progress...  So I did finish wiring all the lights in the garage section of the barn yesterday ...  and boy howdy is it nice and bright in there now when I flip the switch on!  There are 12 “100 watt” LED bulbs in there.  The LED bulb manufacturers have taken to specifying the light output of their devices in terms of incandescent bulb equivalents.  I guess the American public just isn't sufficiently acquainted with actual units of light brightness (usually lumens).  The specified power consumption of these LED bulbs is 17.5 watts each, or 210 watts total.  I measured it at 196 watts, or just under one sixth of the power it would have taken to achieve the same brightness with old fashioned incandescent bulbs.  Actually, if I couldn't have obtained LED bulbs, I would have used halogen bulbs, and they'd have used about 1,000 watts to get the same brightness.  I detest the CFL bulbs and would never have considered using them.

Next up on the wiring front: 30 more LED lamp fixtures for the two other “rooms” on the first floor of the barn.  Parts are on order for them.

I had a few hours left yesterday after finishing the wiring, so I started assembling my new Grizzly dust collection system.  First step was to unpack the entire unit and inventory the (hundreds of) parts, and that took me nearly an hour.  The packaging of all these odd shaped parts was done in a very clever manner to reduce the total volume.  Some of the tricks took me a while to reverse-engineer so I could figure out how to get the parts separated.  My hat is off to the ingenious packaging engineer who came up with the dozen or so key elements of the packaging.  Not only did it reduce the volume tremendously, it also securely protected anything that was even slightly vulnerable.  The pallet weighed 494 pounds, and there isn't a ding, scratch, or even a little mark anywhere on anything.  Very impressive!

I haven't got very far on the assembly yet, but what I've done so far shows this thing to be a real beast.  I'm putting the stand together, and it's made out of very heavy gauge steel, beautifully powder coated.  It looks like something you'd see in an industrial setting.  Once I get this monster assembled and wired up, then I have to install 8 inch diameter ducting to the major pieces of equipment (most especially the table saw).  For smaller tools I can run 6 inch or even 4 inch ducting.  It will be interesting to see how all this works out!

A couple more paintings...

A couple more paintings...  These are by friend, reader, and former colleague Larry E...

Shoelaces...

Shoelaces...  Friend, reader, and former colleague Simon M. passes along this site he stumbled across that's all about shoelaces.  Tagline:

Ian's Shoelace Site - Bringing you the fun, fashion & science of shoelaces

Some of the stuff there looks genuinely useful.  Most of it is far more about shoelaces than I ever wanted to know :)

The site was created by Ian Fieggen, the self-styled “Professor Shoelace”.  He has written a book (“Laces”, now out of print), and has apps about lacing for iPhones and Droids.  He apparently now supports himself through the web site and apps.  Oh, and did I mention that he's Australian (as is Simon)?

Big rocket test fired...

Big rocket test fired ... not far from here, just yesterday.  This test occurred at the Orbital ATK test facility in Promontory, Utah – about 40 miles west of our house.  The rocket being tested is intended for the SRS manned missions, so a great deal of money is being spent on it – all wasted so far as I'm concerned.  I'd much rather see that money spent on robotic missions launched by competitive commercial systems.  Still, it's one hell of a spectacle...

Comet 67P...

Comet 67P ... in a recent photo taken by Rosetta.  It's outgassing like crazy now...

Pi is a metaphor for the unexplained...

Pi is a metaphor for the unexplained...  An interesting piece on why we're all fascinated by the constant π.  One thing is very evident from that article: some of us are way more fascinated than others :)

Consumer Reports is anti-science...

Consumer Reports is anti-science...  On GMOs, at least.  I cancelled my subscription to Consumer Reports over 25 years ago, when I discovered that they use undisclosed non-objective factors in their rankings (things like “greenness” and political correctness).  I've disregarded their ratings ever since...

Glowing vegetables...

Glowing vegetables...  A collection of photos of ordinary vegetables lit from the inside...

Training with an Osprey...

Training with an Osprey...

Utah House defeats “Tesla” bill...

Utah House defeats “Tesla” bill...  HB 394 would have cleared the way for Tesla to sell cars directly to Utah residents, but it was defeated on Tuesday.  There were two major drivers for its defeat, one openly discussed, the other not so much.

The in-the-open reason was the fear that sales taxes from new car sales would decline.  This is at least a real issue, but it illustrates nicely the inertia of an established tax.  Once something is taxed and there's a dependency on the “revenue” from that tax, then it becomes very, very hard to do anything that would disturb that tax. 

The not-so-open reason for the bill's defeat is the fact that the auto dealership lobby (which is vehemently opposed to direct sales of new cars) contributes a great deal of money to politician's campaign funds.  There's nothing illegal or surprising about this; they're doing the same thing any business would do to protect their own interests.  Politicians are perennially searching for campaign funds, so naturally they're going to think twice about pissing off a major contributor.

If we want a Tesla, it looks like we'll have to travel to Nevada or Idaho to buy it, or else arrange for delivery here.  I've already informed my state legislators that their vote on this issue will be remembered come election time.  Apparently I have no pull :)

Barn progress...

Barn progress...  I installed about half the lights in the garage section of the barn yesterday (6 of 11); I should be able to finish the rest of those today.  While I was doing that wiring, a building supply delivery truck showed up, bringing the wallboard and “mud” for my future office on the second floor of the barn.  The builder will be here early next week to actually do the work.

The truck had a particularly long boom crane on it, designed to allow the delivery of heavy construction products up to five stories high, or 45' away from the truck horizontally.  The photo at right (click to embiggen) shows the crane partially extended to deliver our wallboard.  The crane operator used a belt-mounted remote control.  This let him stand right where he wanted it to go, and then guide it in very precisely.  The two guys on the truck humped all that wallboard up my stairs to the second floor.  They were wishing I had bigger windows so that they could have used the crane :)

Later in the day, a Fedex freight truck showed up with a 494 pound pallet full of my new Grizzly dust collection system.  Naturally it's a giant kit, with hundreds of parts.  I unpacked it all (see photo at left) to make sure nothing was damaged in shipping.  That thing is built like the proverbial tank – if any damage occurred, I'm certain it was on whatever the box hit, not on the dust collection system itself!  The system is far larger than I was imagining.  Assembling is going to pose some interesting challenges for this one-man operation.  The motor/impeller assembly weighs about 180 pounds, and it needs to be hoisted to the top of a six or seven foot high device – I'm going to have to get some local muscle to help, or come up with some sort of hoist.  One possibility: I can drive my tractor into the workshop, so I may be able to lift the assembly with the loader.  Or I could mount a block to the roof, then pull it up with the tractor.  What fun!