Engineering Solutions to Problems that shouldn't exist

My dad and I installed a new dryer exhaust vent in my house a little while ago. When we did we also installed a inline lint catcher that we purchased from ECCO in Calgary. It is a simple device, all sheet metal box with a hole in the top and a hole in the bottom. The lid comes out the side and has attached to it a diagonal screen. We thought it would be great. It turns out, it wasn't.

The flaw of this simple design was that the pressure of the exhaust air is enough to actually blow the door open with the result being a lot of warm air in the room, and more importantly... LINT!!!! Lint on the walls, lint on the floor jousts, lint on the pipes, and a fine layer of lint bloody everywhere. This is a pretty big design flaw. There is no mechanism to hold the door to the lint catcher in place whatsoever. Later after use, the hot air of the exhaust wrapped the little non functional plastic window and lint would blow out of there. That is where the duct tape is on the center of mass.

The temporary fix for the longest while was to have a series of rubber bands tied together wrapped around the door and the pipe to hold it tight-ish. It leaked air and LINT but it was meant to be temporary. So recently a year and a half later I have finally fixed it!

I tried to find a new one to replace it and either couldn't find anything, or only found the same one. In a fit of rage at my ineffectual search I went to the hardware store with a small sembelence of plan in mind. I bought four M4 bolts, with matching washers and nylock nuts. A double magnet door latch for cabinets, and lastly some weather striping. All this material came out to about $8.00.

As per the above picture I bolted the magnets on either side of the box so when the lid is on it is held in place by science!!!! tested it with the dryer on and wouldn't you know it, it didn't move.

As per this picture I put the weather stripping all around the outer edge of the inside of the lid. It should be noted that the lid is oversized relative to the box, so the stripping sits a few mils from the box. This is a redundancy really but now there is only a slight feeling of a small amount of warm air coming from a few of the corners of the lid, but no LINT.

The part that bugs me is that the materials are cheap and easy to get. The build process isn't that much harder, a few holes, tighten some bolts, cut some stripping. It annoys me that the company I bought the product from couldn't take the time to make the product work, instead of making one that is really good at dispersing LINT!!!!!

Airforces in Sci Fi

I just started playing Mass Effect 3. It is a game that has the tag line "Take Earth Back" so I am not spoiling anything by saying that yes Earth gets invaded by aliens. Of course the forces of Earth fight back but as human forces tried to subdue the onslaught of invading forces I noticed something that you see a lot in scifi properties. A genuine lack of airforces. I know what your thinking but entertain me for a moment. Sure they had ships in the air fighting, but these were spaceships in atmosphere, not aircraft. And this makes a huge difference.

Now we have to get into some ideas about propulsion before we can explore this any further so to start I want to focus on scifi that uses conventional thrust for flight/space travel. So no matter how advanced the tech is in the story, I am talking about craft that travel using thrust. No weird anti gravity drives where the craft can travel like a flying carpet, in any direction at any moment.

So now that we have that established, my big concern is in regards to airplane design versus space ship design. Most space ships in scifi that can enter and travel in the atmosphere are not the most aerodynamic vehicles and they don't have to be. Flight in space without the presence of air allows vehicles to travel without resistance. Space craft, properly designed can 180 on a dime travel backwards on the same vector, because the physics of space allows it.

Now a lot of scifi vehicles that can go into the atmosphere would be the equivalent of falling bricks because they aren't designed aerodynamically. For space they don't need to and with differences in atmospheres between planets, an aerodynamic design that works on one world could be torn apart on another so the idea of explaining the flight into a planet's atmosphere and reentry using advanced tech is reasonable. But would these ships be the best option for defense? I think not. Most spaceships in an atmosphere would have to travel slowish compared to jet fighter planes, else wise the lack of aerodynamics would make flying fast an incredible danger. This is why I think an advanced airforce that can travel at tremendous speeds, would be a really effective defense and something that should be in more scifi. Sure they probably couldn't reasonably travel in space, but a scifi jet, accelerating forward at impossible Gs, crossing whole continents to deliver a payload of bombs to a target that can't react fast enough to even see it coming. Just a thought.

Surviving Fort Mac - Paid Prison

With the position that I am in up here, I hear a lot of complaints. One of my tasks is to attend camp committee meetings which are several hour bitch sessions. A lot of complaints from craft also work their ways up through their foreman to their supers, to me. I am in a project controls position, particularly interface coordination. This means that any problem people have that relates to camp, busing, other contractors, I get to hear about it.

For the most part a lot of these complaints are due to an over-inflated sense of entitlement people have. Seriously some of the things that people complain about are without any thought for the greater good, or reason or perspective. An example of this is people swap shower heads to get better showers. This is a 5000 person camp that requires all it's water to be trucked in, so the reason for the low flow heads is simple resource management. More to the point I hear about everything. The bus was a minute late, the steak is crappy. Now this isn't to say that all the items that are raised aren't genuine concerns, some are.

I was thinking about this though and the things that appear to bug a lot of people, are things that I never even think about. It just never registers to me. I was thinking about why this is and the conclusion that I have come to is that I have no sense of entitlement when I am up here. I essentially think of this place as a paid prison. Don't get me wrong, I like my job, I do but my mentality is this...
If the food is shitty, happy to be eating and that I didn't have to cook it, or clean it.
If the bus is late, I am happy there is another one that comes later that gets us to camp
The bed sucks, I at least have a bed to sleep in
The shower sucks, the water was hot enough and I am clean
The laundry machines are full often, at least I can do my laundry
The gym is busy, at least there is a gym
The flight is sitting in Edmonton for a few hours, at least I am going home.

Hell I am allowed to be in a supervisor's room, but I request a craft room because I don't care if my prison room has a slightly larger bed and better walls. Some people care immensely so let them have it instead.

Anyway back to work, but that is my thought on the manner.

Peeling Pomegranates

There are few things that I enjoy as much as when it is pomegranate season. This last crop I must have enjoyed over 25 of them and like my pumpkin carving with that much practice I have become really good at peeling pomegranates. I have then decided to do a blog on how I treat each one. Every pomegranate I peel is with the goal of tapping out every single seed without slicing into any of them. My technique is to peel as much of it as possible without cutting a seed, breaking it into chunks and then stripping those chunks of the glorious fruit.

1.
Start by cutting into the top. My weapon of choice is a small curved parring knife. When you cut in, start high, go about half to three quarters and then pull up. This is the important part of the technique, you slice in some, and then pull the knife up to rip the rest.

2.
After you slice the top off, work all around the edges. Don't worry about going all the way down the sides, but try to pull it back as much to the seeds as possible.

3.
The next step is to hollow out the top. Take the point of the knife and cut a small cone out of the center to get that hard bud out.

4.
Proceed onward to stick the knife in the edges of the middle, shallowly and peel back until the top middle is all clear.

5.
The next step is to attack the bottom. Slice in and pull up. Start shallow and go deeper until you pull back to the seeds. Work the sides a but remember it doesn't have to go the whole way up the sides

6.
Next you want to make shallow cut lines, just deep enough to almost break the skin along the seperation points of each of the chunks. The chunks will have a small skin inbetween each one that run up and down the fruit. Make cut lines in there

7.
Now you can take it and delicately split it apart. Seeds will shake loose when you do this and you should have a dish or container to catch them when they fall.

8.
After it is separated you can pull smaller pieces off in the same fashion.

9.
Use your hands to peel back skin and peel to make klumps of seeds.

10.
Now you can easily use your hands to apply gentle pressure to the seeds to loosen them from the rind and roll them off and into a container

11.
Or you may notice that the chunks are in triangular clumps, making it easy to peel the seeds off with your mouth in a few bits lie eatting little pieces of corn.

Where I am from pomegranate season is over, but when they are back I hope these techniques help you enjoy pomegranates more.

Modeling - The Tool Kit

Originally when I started this blog, one of the intents was to follow progress on modeling. I got some kits, and the intention to start working on them, but then I got busy. Not anymore however. During the break I found some time to get a new tool kit together with the help of my buddy Big Mike. We went to several shops for the kit, here is where we went and what we got...


PM Hobbycraft
This is an all around amazing store for the hobby enthusiast or just for even just crafty people. It is in Calgary on 32nd ave NE just east of deerfoot. It has everything from model trains, remote controlled aircraft, kits, paints and all the tools. It was here that I got...

Various paintbrushes – for the level of detail, picked up some flat brushed of three sizes for making even textures across flat panel surfaces. Also required brushes for the small detail.

Small files – with the level of customization that I will be doing, filing back bits to rebuild them will be necessary but also for the simple fact of cleaning up excess material from the injection molding process.

Glue – regular modeling glue that I have always used but this time with finer point application ends

Primer – Got some weird Japanese spec (no English on the label other then a wee little sticker) primer in white to start the Corvette.

Matte Clear spray – This was one of Big Mike’s suggestions. Typically after you are done modeling you want to spray it will a clear spray to seal and protect the paint. Gloss works great on car bodies and surfaces that should shin, but not all surfaces should shin, and for this the expensive matte clear spray exists.

Various Paints- I went with the expensive paints that come in the little jars. You get great coverage out of them and some awesome colors and metallic effects. I did get the acrylic though to make it easier to clean up afterward

Princess Auto
Princess Auto has all sorts of cheap cool tools and surplus. Whenever I go there I buy more then I intend to.

Tweezer set – for holding small pieces when you paint them or apply them it helps to have something that can grab a small edge. For holding a finished surface dip them in hot wax before hand and let cool, it will scratch less then

Cutter – just a small snip tool for getting pieces off the mold.

Exacto knife – it was two dollars and useful before using files for material removal.
Alligator clip stand – with magnifying glass. You can place pieces here to glue them together or to hold them while painting fine details.


Myth Games
This is my buddy’s game shop of choice. His buddy owns and operates and it is where he goes to play. We went looking for a hand dremel but they didn’t have one. He did have

Pin set – When making models, especially custom models, glue isn’t always enough. What you do instead is drill small holes in places glue won’t hold and stick it with a pin or several to limit a degree of freedom. Usually you use the hand dremel to make the holes. I will have to get one at a later date.

Roll out Tool Box
For Christmas Gran gave me this box which rolls up and actually works great to section tools. I do have to keep an overstock box for extra material I am not using but I can keep all current materials for the model I am working on in here.

Manitowc box
This is a funny story, at work an engineer was needed to build a model crane for my boss Alex. Fred Yousif and I were tasked with the job and it was easy but all the lines took so much precision and we had to redo them several times. It was the most stressful day that I had ever had at work. At one point and much frustration later we had it all done, but realized one of the lines was off. We debated on redoing it, not wanting to open up that can of worms but in the end we decided if we were going to do it, we would do it right. Two hours after that we finished again. After the endeavor I asked to keep the box because I knew it would be great for modeling. This is where I will keep all the parts of the model I am currently working on, and work out of this box. The top of the box will also work as a work surface for spraying, gluing, and painting.

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

I have decided to do my part and try to give feed back to the game makers for the games I love. I signed on to Metacritic and have started to review games.

This is a game that plays like a movie. Think of Uncharted as a love child between Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider. The graphics are amazing to the point of just showing off. They dynamics of the environments is very detailed. The characters are among some of the best developed and realistic in gaming. They aren't over the top and you become invested in them as it plays out. Greg Edmonson, the man behind the internationally flavored music of Firefly does another amazing score here. The multiplayer has a lot of varied gameplay with the powerplay and load out system really making it a more engaging experience.

I highly recommend this game to everyone. It is platform gaming at it's best with each iteration being a winner.

Now for the bad. The story is I hate to say it the only weak link in this chain. And that is not to say that it is bad but at times it feels at times that the progression of the story is to move from one amazing set piece to the next. The overall motivations for the antagonists and who they are is fairly unknown, and with the heroes not a lot of risk is taken with their story. It does give a few really solid shock moments and heartfelt ones. A few reveals are made that aren't explored in any detail or consequence. It was a fun game, but in truth, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves had a story that was more engaging and satisfying overall when you finished it. Drake's Deception didn't seem to climax as hard. I kept waiting for the narrative to give me that really intense feeling of danger or need to fight and move onward but it never truly came. Again I blame Among Thieves, it set the bar too high.

Get this game, play it, love it, and then try the multiplayer. With so many varying game modes you will find some that will hook you, if at least until you can compete with the higher level characters.

Winter Driving Tips

I live in Canada, more specifically Calgary Alberta. Living in the north requires certain skill sets. For example how to write your name in the snow, or to own a wardrobe for -40 as well as plus 40. The topic of conversation though is driving in the winter, which happens often. The problem is that when it happens, people forget how it dynamically changes the whole driving experience.

I wanted to write some tips on how you can more successfully navigate the winter roads based on experience and instruction.

Engine Braking
This is a simple technique where you gear down causing the natural resistance in the engine in a higher rpm range to slow the vehicle at the source. In a manual this is easy to do and done often. In cars that are manumatic, this is also easy, put it into manual mode and when you want to decelerate, drop a gear. In automatic cars you usually put it in D for drive, however in a winter driving scenerio when you want to slow down you can shift to 3, 2, or 1 (but don't use 1). This doesn't actually downshift the transmission, but instead it remaps the engine to run at higher rpms. This is typically for if you get stuck and such, but it works great to engine brake the car as well. Just remember to click it back in D or 3 before you start to accelerate again.

Smooth Driving
"If you drive with a twitch you will end up in the ditch." This is the mentality you need to keep when driving on slippery surfaces. Some of the best advice I ever read was from Motortrend, and it described how the best drivers even when they driver fast, drive smooth. The reason that they can do both, speed and smoothness, is they know how to approach corners, how to take them wide and cut the apex. When you can drive smooth you can control your vehicle better at higher speeds.

Accelerating on Ice
Now when you are accelerating on ice and your wheels are slipping and spinning the trick is to not lean on the pedal a bit more. When you spin your wheels and they finally get traction it can really shock the drivetrain which can cause damage. You should try to avoid this.

Winter Tires
Winter tires can help you with winter driving. A winter tire's composition is softer at lower temperatures, giving you better traction. Now I live in Calgary and in truth the roads are only really bad two maybe three weeks out of the year. The rest of the year even during winter the roads aren't that bad and with these tips you should be able to drive in the winter weather without.