Machined Aluminium Is the New Injection Molded Plastic

After 2 days of spending almost every waking hour with my new mistress, Esmerelda, I've learned a few things:
-Always choose the softest material that will do the job. I'm using some harder 6061 Al when a softer alloy would have saved time, tool life and actually work better in its application.
-Watch the direction of feed. The cutting head should make contact with the material opposite the direction of the feed, otherwise you are asking for trouble.
-One can't have enough different clamping options. It's like Ben says, the difference between a pleasant machining experience and a lousy day is the proper clamp.
I need to order a few end mills, clamps and machinists squares from Shars, but CK didn't need those new shoes anyway.

View From the top of Clevland Dam

BC is so photogenic. 

Declan MacManus is My Guardian Limey

Mom is in town, so we made a road trip from PDX to Vancouver BC by way of Seattle. We rented a car Wednesday morning and headed north. We stopped for lunch at Elliot's on The Sound, and then continued up I-5. Around Everrett we stopped for gas. I was going to have ma pump while I went to the restroom, but then Alison came on the radio. Since that's about a once in a decade occurence I decided to pump instead of ma so I could listen. I did a quick walk around and noticed the right rear tire in the rental car was looking a little low. Sure enough, when I checked the pressure it was at 0 pounds and a nail was sticking out of the tread. I didn't get the flat tire idiot light, and the 'run-flat' didn't sound or feel like a flat normally would. If I hadn't of caught it then I'm afraid we'd have been in the middle of no where Canuckistan trying to change a flat.
After getting it fixed it was later than I thought it was going to be getting to Vancouver, so I had Ben rustle me up the number to a hotel. When our hotel didn't have WiFi I began to worry my brother had led me wrong, but if he'd have sent me to any other hotel I'd have never found the greatest Indian restaurant EVER. Yankee Indian pales in comparison to the feast we were able to procure for fake Canadian money. The Naan, Tandoori Chicken and Mulligatawny were outstanding, service good (we where one of only 2 parties there) and the waiter told us about Stanley Park and Grouse Mountain.
The recent wind storm had closed the ring road in Stanley park and Grouse mountain was too overcast, but we did find the dam and reservoir that stores Vancouver's drinking water and had a beautiful hike complete with really tall tree and fish hatchery in Lynn Canyon Park.
It was great, and Ma's good to travel with because everythings exciting for her and she is full of enthusiasm, but next time she should visit in the summer when the weather and views are better and the rain is gone!

It's bigger than MA!

 

Lining it up on its stand.

 

Clearing the Tailgate

That's Jim helping. 

SCORE!

650 pound of steel goodness. It was a bear to move, but luckily my neighbor Jim, CK and Ma where there to help. I need to wire up a 220 outlet to power it up, and then get some material to start making shavings!
I'm heating up a ham for Christmas dinner and some yams, potatoes and green beans. It better be done soon cause it's time to eat!

Fabrique NoPo

I talked the old lady into signing off on the purchase of the machine tools of my choice the other day (at least that's how I remember the conversation going). In no particular order I plan to procure the following:
-table saw
-router
-bench grinder
-milling machine.
I saw an ad on CL for a Jet JMD 18, which should do the trick. I've already have my first three fabs planned out. CK's drum set has these crappy injection molded clamps to attach the drums to the stand, those should really be aluminium. I've never found an acceptable rack for my tourer, and an external frame daypack should be part of my new rack as one of the panniers.
Although she's prolly never seen a milling machine I'll have CK machining away in no time.

You're on the Short List for Excommunication, so Watch Your Ass.

I spent all day yesterday baking three delicious loaves of honey wheat bread. This morning I have half a loaf with doggie teeth marks in it. That dog is gonna get excommunicated from the family, and I don't think he can survive long on the streets. In order to prevent further kitchen incursions I placed a baby gate at the entrance to the kitchen, but if that doesn't deter him I'm going to give him the boot. If his owner complains she can join him. I'll be lonely, but my kitchen counters will be unmolested.
Final grades were recorded and I scored a 4.0. Woohoo!

That's That

I just finished my last final, and boy is my brain fried. Hopefully I'm looking at a 4.0, but the grades won't be recorded until the 18th. I registered for next semester, and will have a sucky Monday schedule, as well as well as one class way down south at Sylvania campus. That means no riding to class. I'll have to change the serpentine belt and the oil in Nancy so she won't leave me stranded on the interstate, but that needed done anyway.
I have tons of stuff to do around the house such as cleaning, furniture re-arranging and computer backup data creating. Now that finals are done I need to hop-to and get on that stuff.

Sabala's

CK took me out to see Mudhoney Friday night. Mudhoney rocked as always, but the club had insufficient ventilation and the smoke killed me. From now on Sabala's is off the list of accceptible venues. Mudhoney didn't come on 'til 12:40, so technically it was my birthday, YEAH!
I wanted to throw cards for my birthday, so CK and I headed north. We drove to the 'Couv and had a great Italian dinner. We then drove to La Center, where the wait was like 2 hours for a spot at a table, which I was unwilling to do. Cards was a bust, so we tried to find a movie theater. We had no luck there so we came home and watched Transamerica. I had a hard time not imagining the pain of sexual reassignment surgery, so it was tough for me to watch.
In Review: Italian= Good, Indian Casinos= Suck, MudHoney = Rock, Sabala's =Suck, Outty into Inny= ouch.

Oncologist Needed

Take a minute to take a look at the new Eyesore of the Month (December 2006). After taking my Oncology terminology test yesterday it is quite fortuitous to come across this abomination. It is definately a metastasizing neoplasm. I want to know what this architect was thinking. He has managed to ruin a perfectly respectable structure. The board of directors for this museum deserve jail time, but Daniel Libeskind is going to have to report in person for his beats.