It's an (almost?) unbelievable story of ingenuity, of a man, Emile Leray, stranded in the Moroccan desert when his Citroen 2CV became disabled after hitting a rock and breaking an axle. With limited food and water, he decided his best option was to disassemble the car and create a two wheel vehicle, a motorcycle, he could ride to safety. It took him twelve days, but he managed … [Read more...]
Projects Not Credentials, Do It to Prove It
You don't need permission to learn You can learn anything you want, starting today. If you want to learn how to do advanced mathematics, TIG weld aluminum, create complicated CAD drawings, do computer programming, 3D print a complex piece of your own design, or anything else you don't yet know how to do, you can start immediately, no permission necessary, no application … [Read more...]
Electric Motorcycles – a Non-Serviceable Appliance?
How many appliances do you own? Let's see, refrigerator, washer, dryer, TV and maybe a few things like a blender and a toaster. These are things you buy to use, but when not in use, they're turned off until needed. Do you ever spend an evening working on your refrigerator to modify it, customize it or tune it for more performance? How about your TV? Put a turbo on your washer … [Read more...]
Makerspace Is Just Newspeak for Workshop
The other day I saw this article about building makerspaces in schools and the photo showed what seemed to me to be a nice workshop, similar to what schools had when I grew up. Of course, now these spaces have things like 3D printers, not a tool we had years back, but the saws and drill presses are pretty standard fare. It made me wonder if there was any real purpose for using … [Read more...]
A New Direction for The Kneeslider
It's been a while since I posted and I thought it was time to say a few words about what's going on. Briefly, it's a change of direction. I've spent so much time on my computer over the last 14 years with The Kneeslider and so little time in the garage that the need to make a change became overpowering. The last post I wrote, about fixing things, was a tiny hint of where I'm … [Read more...]
The Existential Pleasures of Fixing Things
Recently, our power went out. About ten seconds later the lights came back on when our standby generator fired up, so I went about my business working on The Kneeslider. Then a couple of minutes later, the lights went out again, but this time, they stayed out. That got my attention, because it meant the generator wasn’t running. Hoping mice hadn't gotten inside and chewed … [Read more...]