Austin Antics

Dinner Rolls / Buns

Ron — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:39:27 +0000

I’ve made these a couple of times and they have always come out well. Very soft — perfect of dipping into soup (reminds me of that a French Dip, in a way). I just wish baking didn’t take so darn long. Two to three hours of work, and you devour the results in a couple of [...]

Easy Stencil Screening

Ron — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:33:20 +0000

In preparation for the upcoming Austin Funky Chicken Coop Tour, Evelyn has been working on Stencil Screening some T-Shirts. Here is one of the prototypes: Stencil Screening is similar to Silk Screening, but easier. You cut out a stencil from a thick piece of flexible plastic, then use a roller to roll on the paint. It’s [...]

Cleaning Cast Iron Tool Tables

Ron — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:15:12 +0000

There are a number of tool surfaces in our shop made of cast iron. Our Scroll Saw, the Band Saw, and the Drill Press tables are all made of iron. While it makes for very strong and stable tables, the downside is rusting. In particular, our Dremel Scroll Saw table was turning into a mess. It [...]

Which Panavise Is Best For Beginners?

Ron — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:54:02 +0000

Recently I’ve seen a number of sites discuss the Panavise. Specifically, which is best for the beginner? Here is my executive summary: If you are starting out with electronics you only need one, and it’s this one: The Panavise Jr. PanaVise Model 201 It’s cheap (< $20), it opens pretty wide (2.8 inches), it rotates all over [...]

Ubuntu Uninstall

Ron — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:19:39 +0000

I tried getting Ubuntu on the Netbook, but it wasn’t working out. So here’s what I did to back things out: * Use BootIt to create a bootable ISO, which you can burn onto a CD. You can either get the full software here or download the tiny ISO here. * Boot off that CD, click “Cancel” [...]

Been A Busy Bee

Ron — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 01:03:23 +0000

Not too much shop or project work recently. I’ve been at the PC most of the time working on a couple of projects. Speaking of PCs, I finally got us a Netbook computer. Since I’m late to the Netbook party, I decided to go with a vendor that was also late to arrive: Toshiba. The nice [...]

Some New Coop Ads

Ron — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:38:09 +0000

Here are a couple of the image ads we’re now using. These get served by Google AdWords for folks in the Austin area.

Wordle Tag Clouds

Ron — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:03:34 +0000

A pretty neat site. This is what it thought of my recent posts: Check them out here: Wordle – Word Clouds

Using Google Buzz For Daily Stream

Ron — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:59:16 +0000

I don’t like Twitter because you can’t have a proper conversation. Facebook is fine, but you need to have a login and be a friend. So I’ve started posting my stream of consciousness posts to Google Buzz. You don’t need a login and everything is public (just like this blog). If you have a G-Mail account, you can follow [...]

Crispy & Tender Pork Chunks

Ron — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 17:34:12 +0000

If you are around a Puerto Rican for any length of time you realize something pretty quickly: they love pork. Which is good, because I love pork. You’ll often find Mofongo (mashed and formed and cooked plantains) served with chunks of crispy pork. Sometimes the pork is mixed with the plantains. Sometimes the pork is served [...]

Incra Ruler Holder

Ron — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 02:42:19 +0000

I recently picked up a set of Incra rulers along with one of their protractors. These are very accurate measuring devices for woodworking. The protractor is in 1/2 degrees! The problem is that they are thin and flexible, and need to be safely stowed away. My solution? A scrap wood Incra Ruler Holder: I used a scrap [...]

You Can Never Have Enough Clamps

Ron — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:40:46 +0000

I’m working on V2 of a “magic box”. Its a little box that you open by pivoting and sliding different parts. I think I have about seven 6″ clamps and three mini clamps on there. Plus another three for the top part. Thirteen clamps for a 5″ x 3.5″ box.

Panoramic Photo Stiching With Microsoft ICE

Ron — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:05:25 +0000

I just ran across a cool program called Microsoft Image Composite Editor (ICE). It’s available for free from Microsoft Research. The purpose of the program is to take a series of photographs and “stitch” them together into a final panoramic shot. This has been possible in the past, often manually in image editors, but this program [...]

The iPad — I Get It

Ron — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 18:15:40 +0000

I’m not often impressed with new gadgets, but I find the iPad to be the most interesting thing I’ve seen in a long time. This may seem odd, given the amazing amount of negativity that seemed to surround the product release. Such as: “It’s just a big iPod Touch.” “I’d never get it, I have an iPhone.” “I have [...]

Adult Go Kart / Soapbox Cart : Part 2

Ron — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:48:30 +0000

Today we went out and got the parts needed to fasten the wheels to the axles. The setup is pretty straightforward: Evelyn drilled holes into the end of each axle. This hole is where the cotter pin will go (the pin prevents the wheel from coming off the axle). A number of large (5/8″) washers [...]

IT Cheat Sheets

Ron — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:18:56 +0000

I’m not usually one to post links, but this one is worth it for the IT people out there: AddedBytes Cheat Sheets He has single page cheat sheets for a ton of useful stuff. HTML, Subversion, Python, Regular Expressions, CSS, HTML, ASP, even WoW! Worth a look if you are an IT person who needs a handy one-page [...]

Spray Booth / Backdrop

Ron — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 02:19:05 +0000

I’m a sloppy painter, usually ending up with more paint on me than the piece I’m working on. Add to that a new sprayer system and we’re looking at paint everywhere. So I decided to make a portable spray booth (actually more of a backdrop) to prevent spray from hitting the walls, the sides [...]

Adult Go Kart / Soapbox Cart : Part 1

Ron — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:53:00 +0000

Since Evelyn never knew about Go Karts as a kid, we decided to make her one as an adult. This is our initial version. It’s also a great way for Evelyn to get to know all of the shop power tools. Everything you see in this series will be cut by her. I’m just the [...]

WorkMate Cutoff Stand / Spray Booth Table

Ron — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:36:15 +0000

There is a rule in kitchen gadgets: “one hit wonders” are bad. If all the thing does is slice onions for rings then you probably shouldn’t have it cluttering your kitchen. That is, unless it does that one thing very well and very often (ex. a garlic press). The same thing holds true in the shop. [...]

Leopold Bench As Bookshelf

Ron — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 17:19:21 +0000

A friend of ours wanted a Leopold Bench, but does not currently have the space to put it outside. She’s @ UT so has a lot of books to deal with and requested that we make the bench into a temporary shelf. Here are the results: You can see that I used a piece of 1×10, [...]