Workshop demo, Kitchenette framing, fence

"Yeah, those aren't necessary", says Bruce as he cuts them out. (He's the one who put them there in the first place. :-)



After duct and electrical rearrangements, leaving only the pipe to be re-routed.



Having two excellent professional carpenters around sure boosts the productivity. We began the morning by demolishing part of the chase that is adjacent to the workshop wall where we are opening space for a new set of tool drawers and storage. This required moving around a few supports, ducts, and eletrical boxes (my job). There's a big sewage pipe in the middle of this which will be re-routed when the plumber comes on Thursday. Then Bruce and Kurt framed out the wall where the kitchette will go and we went over to a discount appliance store and purchased the microwave/vent hood, half-size dishwasher, and gas cook top which look pretty nice for a pretty reasonable price of about $1100. Then I worked for a few hours on revisions to Andy's paper and then after a 1 hour gym, I managed to get 4 of the 6 stringers up on the back fence.

Fence line, Bed spreads, Screening, Sophia Collier, and a paper for the Royal Society

Today was an oddly productive day. In the morning I dug post holes for a last bit of fence line that will separate my utility yard from my back yard. Then Bruce came over for measurement on the screening that for the upstairs porch. Then Amberlee came over and we had a little Christmas where we opened all the packages that she had ordered for me -- a new bed headboard, douvet, sheets, and pillows! For lunch I had a marvelous time meeting with Sophia Collier who was introduced to me by my attorney. Sophia and I were apparently born with the same mutant genes; we both left school (I in 11th and she in 12th) and we went off to various other endeavors (although hers have been generally more profitable than mine!) After a career in such things as soda and mutual fund management, she's now into CNC artwork. She has a CNC mill, 3D software, and a lot of fun ideas. We geeked out for hours on art and science projects of all kinds and she gave me much valuable feedback with regards to my various forthcoming enterprises. After lunch I set the fence posts and poured the footer concrete and then started on the rewrite of the paper I've been writing with Andy Ellington for the Royal Society journal Interface which came back with deservedly so-so reviews and which as a result (as seems to often be the case with peer-reviewed journals) is forcing a rewrite that will no doubt result in a better paper.

Keyless Entry

Aaron and I finished the keyless entry to the house. There's a micro-controller in the basement (programmable from my computer) that monitors these three switches mounted discretely into the door frame that unlocks the door when the correct sequence is pressed. If the wrong sequence is pressed, the door locks for a long time so that randomly guessing accomplishes nothing and also can tell my computer to take your picture. When I have my outdoor speakers, I think I'll also add the sound of a cocking shotgun on error. :-)

Zack

Keyless Entry

I hate keys. I'm striving for a zero-key life. To that end, I've started on this little electronics project to automate the lock of my front door. There will be a discrete set of switches that look for a magical unlock sequence. I have an odd relationship with electronics. On the one hand I feel like I know the theory fairly well and I'm at home once the circuit is digital and connects to the computer. But in between those two is reality. The circuit seemed simple enough to just solder straight to the board. Bad idea. Meanwhile, I made totally rookie mistakes with the ground and managed to literally cross some wires. Also, I purchased a touch sensor IC (QT1103) because the data sheet said that it had an RS-232 out which is a protocol I know well from BBS modem dayz. Turns out there's a newer protcols (Dallas semiconductor's 1W) which is 100% incompatible with RS 232 yet mysteriously still uses the RS 232 moniker. So that caused me no end of confusion until I finally worked it out with the always helpful Wikipedia. Thanks to John sorting out my stupid mistakes and lending me a scope and protoboard, I've since started to make progress.

Finished door panel prototype

Actually I spent most of the day working on a paper with Andy but there's no cool picture for that. Afterwards I finished the door panel prototype. I think they look pretty good but they were a real pain in the ass. I'd like to do it all over the house but I think I'll wait until I have access to a large mill.

Door panels 2nd panel and stain

It's taking more than an hour per panel but it feels like I could get it under an hour once I get good at it. There's nearly 100 panels in the house, this is obviously not going to be something I do all myself. I think I'll finish up this door as a prototype and then wait until I buy a big mill or have a mill shop do the rest. Either that, or hire some hourly labor for about 100 hours.