Madagascar: Ring Tailed Lemur in Tree
Ring Tailed Lemur in Tree
HDR from three exposures. Taken on 7/29/09 12:00pm. ISO 100, f/6.3, 100mm.
Louise and I were treated to seeing a TON of lemurs in Isalo Park, Madagascar. This guy was sitting up in a tree and holding still enough for me to capture three shots and create a subtle HDR. The non-HDR version doesn’t look as vibrant as this one.
Madgascar Natural Pool
This was a great little oasis at Isalo Park in Madagascar. The area was called “Piscine Natural”.
HDR from three exposures. f/22, ISO 100
Custom machined cranks
I machined out one ounce out of each of my KH Moment 125/150mm cranks. I went with a big pocket, just like what I did for Joseph’s cranks. Hopefully they won’t break!
I also tried my geared KH 36 coker out with the 125 mm crank holes. It feels like it takes a lot of power to keep the thing moving at a basic pace (like 15 mph). But, they really scream for slight downhills and probably add 1 mph to my speed (or more on steeper downhills — I was pushing 24 mph without any effort on one downhill). I’ll probably switch back to 150s, since climbing is a lot harder with 125s and there are a lot of hills around where I live.
Aerial Cube
I just finished another project: the Aerial Cube.
Louise and I saw the cube at a circus show last week, and I thought “Hey, I could make one of those!”, and Louise asked “Can you make me one of those?”. So, here it is!
The cube is made out of 1″ tubing that is 1/8″ thick. I bought it at a local metal place – “Sims Metals”.
I cut 45’s with my little Grizzly horizontal bandsaw:
And drilled+tapped some holes into a piece of steel to create a jig to hold the tubes at 90 degrees:
And then welded two separate squares together:
I then notched the four connecting pieces with a 1″ end mill so they would fit “fairly well”. I then MIG welded all the corners together, holding it together with a ratcheting wrap to keep it square. I then sanded it a bit…which got my hands a little dirty.
Massai Girl
Massai Girl in an East African Village
6/25/09, f/2.8, 1/1000, ISO 100, 200mm
Blue Tree Software is now closed
Blue Tree Software, my shareware “company” that I have had for many many years is now closed. If you visited http://www.bluetreesoft.com you will be redirected to corbinstreehouse.com.
I plan on releasing my flagship product, WallChanger, as open source. The applications all run on Windows, and I only use MacOS, so it might take a while for me to post the source somewhere and rebuild a “freeware” version. If someone wants to build it for me and remove the reg code stuff, let me know…I’ll send it to you.
Screen shots of my old website in QuickLook (boy, I designed that a *long* time ago):
Before “Blue Tree Software” I called “Blue Software” (even older! Cool main font):
Playing around with designs:
And while I’m at it, old screenshots of corbinstreehouse.com, designed when I was in high school back in 1995/1996:
The fruity rainbow design when I was learning Adobe Illustrator and playing with dynamic javascript stuff. Back in 1997/1998ish (and around for quite a few years):
“Imaginary Internet Websites” when I made web pages for people in college:
Blog moved..
I recently moved my blog and website from one server to another (hopefully better, where I have less downtime, and no data loss!). My Pictures gallery is down, but let me know of anything that doesn’t work (comments work again!)
corbin
First Machining Project: Vise Stop
Every machinist needs a good vise stop. Here is mine, 100% completely made from raw steel, except for the bolts bolting it to the vise (which are too long — I need to buy new ones):
The knurled wheels use split collars to tighten the bolts down. The larger knurled ones work much better than the smaller ones (require less force to tighten the things down), and I may make some more larger ones.
So, how did this project come to finally being finished? I searched the net and found some great links on things people had done. I initially found A Vise Stop for the Kurt Vise on “CNC Cookbook” (excellent website!), which is based off of a post from CNC Zone. I decided to use the basic designs, but modify it slightly to avoid turning too many different sized rods, using the stock I had at hand, and also making it work for my Bridgeport vise. The Bridgeport vise has no tapped holes on the back, so I had to use some tapped holes on the top instead. I started up Sketchup and did some “quick” drawings. Feel free to download the file: Vise Stop and modify it, but here is a short picture of one of the two stops (they are different sizes):
I made split collars similar to how the guy on CNC Zone makes them, except I didn’t see a need to machine a small lip on them. Instead, I machined them to exact diameter and length, and then tapped it all the way through with 1/4-20 threads. I used a 1/4-20 brass thread that has nuts (and washers) on both sides. This held the split collar tight while I machined the half moon circle on it:
After I machined the circle in the collar, I split it by using the parting tool on the lathe and then drilled out one side’s threads (otherwise, it wouldn’t clamp tight!).
Overall, most the operations were simple, but it all taught me a lot: squaring up stock, machining it to size, drilling accurate holes, tapping, threading (with a die), knurling and turning between centers with a lathe dog.
Overall a great first “real” project (I have made other stuff, but mostly small things that I needed for other projects).
Milling machine tune up
My 1990 Enco Milling machine was starting to get quite a bit of shake at certain speeds. It has a variable speed head, and one of my friends, Bevan, recommended against getting the vari-speed, since they are sometimes prone to having trouble. But, I really do love being able to dial in the speed with the turn of a small wheel, and even though it was a pain to do, I tuned up the head and now it runs smooth again.
I took the head apart, carefully labeling stuff on my bench:
The main problem was a bad v-belt. The old one somehow managed to twist backwards, and was getting all chewed up and tossed a bunch of dust into the head cover:
Yikers, look at that mess of a belt:
Some more details of what a milling machine head looks like:
I also had to take the quill and quill housing off to fix a broken bolt that rotates the head left/right (we broke it when we moved the thing into my shop). It wasn’t too hard to replace, but it was a pain getting the quill back on (the thing is heavy!). Ultimately, I set the quill on a board and raised the knee up to get it into place, while Louise pushed the bolts in (no pictures of the process, sorry!). Getting the motor back on top of the head was a pain! The motor is very heavy, and I couldn’t get the variable speed disc off the motor, so I had to work the variable speed belt around it, which took some muscling and luck.
I also cleaned up some loose wires I noticed, and once the thing was back together it started purring like a happy kitten.
Baobab Trees in Madagascar with Water
7/26/09 4:42:01 PM. f/13. 1/200. ISO 200. 34.00mm with the 17.0-40mm Canon lens. Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT