Ruttan Experience

Halloweenie 2017

2017-09-04T19:04:00.000-04:00

Well it's the start of September, and you know what the means. Actually you probably don't, since I've hardly posted anything here. It's time to get ready for Halloween!

Here's a pic of last year's set up. The picture doesn't do it much justice, especially in the daylight, but the night time pictures just didn't work out.

The goal this year is not to completely redo everything from last year, but to do some improvements and enhancements. I have a few specific wanted improvements for this year, but I won't get into specifics yet.

Work bench accessories

2016-06-05T20:30:00.002-04:00

Work bench with accessories

Finally got a chance to add some required accessories to the bench. No, the bench has not just been sitting idle, I have been using it for various small repairs. I also use it for a desk occasionally...like right now.

As you can see, I've added a few accessories. Mounted my power bar, attached the tool holder/rack that my dad made me from some of the scraps left over from building the bench, added a desk lamp for more directed lighting, and my home made racking on the left. Shop vac is in a nice convenient location (and not stuck in the shed), and boxes underneath for storage of bit and pieces.

New work bench

2016-02-16T20:09:00.000-05:00

Clean up for the bench area was completed. Relocated the shelves to a a temporary location, not sure where those will go yet. Once I had the shelves moved I realized I needed a temporary work space for a few days, nothing fancy, just a rolling TV stand to place some peripherals to test a computer. I needed to rebuild my media PC, various applications were crashing a lot and just generally not working right.

Temporary computer testing, no bench.

I then met up with my dad to finalize the design for my new work bench, and head to the lumber yard for some materials.

1 4"x4"x8'
2 2"x8"x10'
4 2"x6"x10'
8 3/8"x6" carriage bolts, washers, and nuts
1.25 lbs of 3.5" deck screws

Total material cost was just under $90. We had the yard rough cut most of the lumber to length. We needed to do some trimming to even everything out, but we wouldn't have to wrestle with 10' lengths of lumber. Took the materials to his shop, measured and cut some of the bigger pieces, and packed it in for the day.

Instead of posting last weekend, I was sidetracked with ripping a burnt out CFL apart to see what was inside it. As it turns out, lots of useful little components. I'll be holding on to that.

CFL guts

During the week I took to upgrading my media PC from a 160GB drive to a 500GB drive. I kept running out of space. I also took the opportunity to do a fresh installation of Xubuntu and Kodi. I had been installing and fiddling with the system so much it had become unstable. Kodi itself wouldn't stay running for longer than a few minutes.

55" computer monitor, Xubuntu installation

The weekend comes and back into the shop. After a few hours in the shop with my dad and daughter we have most of the bench done and assembled.

Work bench nearly finished in my dad's shop

Second day, finished cutting the plywood for the top and the back, and dismantled everything for the move to my house. We had a little incident when half of the bench was dismantled. The 2x8s for the top were leaning against another machine and toppled over, narrowly missing my dad's leg. Unfortunately one of the boards clipped one of the machine bases and had some bits ripped off. Even more unfortunate was the fact that it was the front board that we had trimmed up nice for the front, and it was the trimmed section that took the hit. Fortunately we were able to glue up the damaged areas and you can hardly tell where it was knocked.

Completed work bench in position

So here we are, bench all reassembled and ready for me to work on. Vault Boy has already made an appearance. My toolbox fits perfectly under the end of the bench. Still a few things to add, like some power and other useful bits. If you're wondering about the flowered stool, I'm sure it's at least 10 years older than I am, it was always in my Grandmother's house when I was growing up, and I kind of inherited it. Perfect size for sitting and working though, and it's also a step stool.

Now, what should I build next?

The cleanup continues

2016-01-31T21:36:00.000-05:00

Cleanup continues this week. Most of the shelves where the bench will go have been emptied. There's only a few items left, mostly in small boxes. I've done a lot of organizing while I've been clearing off the shelves, re-boxing, donating, recycling, the usual.

I did take a small break to completely tear down the kids keyboard, which had a large swath of keys that weren't functioning. It looks like some of the rubber buttons were missing, although I don't see how they would go missing. Everything went out of place when I opened the keyboard anyway, had to realign every key again before I buttoned it back up. Appears to work correctly now though, and the children are happy once again.

One question I am left with, is what I should do with any old software CDs and DVDs I have kicking around. I don't like to throw them out, but I don't really have anything else I can do with them that I can think of off the top of my head. I'll probably end up throwing them out though. Too bad they can't be recycled....that I'm aware of. Thoughts? Suggestions?

Prepare the workroom

2016-01-24T22:23:00.000-05:00

First thing's first. I need a space to work. This is my workroom/shop. Obviously not the best shop type room, having carpet and all. I don't have much choice for rooms, the whole basement is finished. I need to get this room tidied up before I can get on with any serious projects. Currently strewn about the room are a few half finished smaller projects. So I got to work this weekend, completed a few small tasks and started with the cleanup.

I rebuilt an old computer to replace our aging Dell Vostro 230. Our Dell was spec'ed with a dual core 2.7 GHz, 4 GB RAM (maxed out), 180 GB HD, and 512 MB video card. I've replaced it with a quad core 2.7 GHz, 8 GB RAM (maxed out), 120 GB SSD (OS drive), 750 GB HD (data drive), and 1GB video card. Not the latest and greatest of upgrades, but more than twice the speed of our old PC, and except for the SSD it's built from all found/free parts.

Also replaced my daughters monitor. Her old 17" monitor blew a couple power transistors, blew a hole right out the side of them. I wasn't surprised when it blew out, I first encountered this specific monitor six years ago, it's been through at least four owners that I'm aware of. I've replaced it with a 19" monitor that didn't work when I received it. Quick reflow of a couple solder points and it works like a charm.

As for cleanup, started organizing the room, sorting everything, getting rid of some things, stripping others for parts. Starting to take down those wooden shelves to make room for a proper workbench. Those are just Ikea shelves that I've had for over a decade. They've served their purpose up to this point. You can see the lower shelf is currently my small work space for small items. The stack of boxes on the right of the picture is my temporary make shift work area for larger items.

Let's start building something

2016-01-18T22:55:00.002-05:00

First post!

2016-01-15T16:45:00.001-05:00

Always need a first post.