Matthew Dockrey

Several pieces of 1/4" x 1" stainless bar that has been rolled into 26" arcs. (Except the straight bits at either end, which the roller can't reach.) They are sitting on a small welding table, with a large cast iron wagon wheel roller clamped behind them.

Finally finished all the rolling for the grippable rim of the drive wheel. I probably won't actually need this much, but the time for subtlety on this project is long past.

everyone in seattle, this morning

#seattle #snow #wawx

A parking lot courtyard in a light industrial complex. There are vehicles and dumpsters placed somewhat haphazardly around the edges. Directly ahead are several containers stacked 2 high, all looking like they are permanently installed. Snow is falling, and the ground is wet and slushy.

Industrial Landscape in Snow, 2026

Roller chain is so delightfully extra, it can't even sway back and forth in a boring way. I've never had moves that cool in my life!

@moira I'm really, really hoping the functional governments around the world are taking a good, hard look at this situation and realizing that they cannot decarbonize fast enough. This really is an existential issue for everyone.

@hannah Steeking is absolutely terrifying, well done!

RE: https://im-in.space/@Chip_Unicorn/116218042614702335

I'm beginning to think the military hasn't forgotten the Millennium Challenge 2002 wargames, even though it seems like everyone else has.

@Chip_Unicorn I'm beginning to find it very weird that no one is talking about the Millennium Challenge 2002 wargames, where the very-Iran-like opponent was able to sink a dozen capital ships, including a carrier, within days before they reset the scenario. But it sure seems like the military […]

@moira I should really visit Brasilia at some point, to give it a fair shot. But, yeah, same.

Fish with a goofy grin, hair looking a bit frazzled, in a dirty shop coat, with a worn knee pad strapped over his right shoulder. The plastic pad on it really does look like armor, which of course it is.

Pro tip: knee pads can make perfectly serviceable spaulders/pauldrons! (Useful if you need to carry something narrow and heavy.)

The cheap gantry crane in the unfinished shop, with a very long run of #40 roller chain running between sprockets mounted at the top and bottom.

Success! Now I can mount the axles on the column with a lot more confidence in the exact spacing.

A cast iron metal roller sitting on a small welding table in an unfinished shop space. There is a crank arm on the left side, which drives a small gear which turns a much larger wheel attached to the central wheel in the roller. Diameter is controllable by moving the rightmost roller back and forth on a sawtooth rack.

Close up on the handle of the crank arm, which is modern 1" aluminum hex stock held on with a 1/2" bolt.

Since I'm going to need it for making the grip rim of the drive wheel, I'm finally playing with the big old wagon wheel roller I picked up 2 years ago. First up was knocking out a simple handle for the crank. Aluminum hex stock isn't quite the vibe for something […]

[Original post on clacks.link]

@glyph Oof, I hear that. Markets are actually kind of cool! But they're just a tool, not a god, and their equilibria don't have deep ontological significance. And they *really* shouldn't be allowed near anything important. But it is pretty neat that there is a decentralized system which will […]

Looking up the leg of a cheap Harbor Freight gantry crane in an unfinished shop space. At the top of it a large C-clamp is holding a block of plywood against the leg, and out of that projects a short length of 3/4" rod with a 14 tooth sprocket on it.

Looking down at the bottom of the leg, with another block of plywood clamped on, this one with a 42 tooth sprocket on it.

So it's almost time to put together the drivetrain for Goose2, including the ~3 meter roller chain running from the drive wheel at the bottom up to the intermediate axle at the very top. And one thing I learned from Goose1 is that chain length calculators can't […]

[Original post on clacks.link]

The broken off back plate of a wall wort inserted in a horizontal outlet. The two power plugs are very exposed and touchable.

The broken off back plate next to the rest of the wall wort, showing how it broke through the walls.

...how cheap? Well, a roommate just noticed this in the outlet I was using, 120VAC waving free in the breeze. It broke off so cleanly when I was unplugging it last night, nothing felt out of the ordinary. Straight through the plastic, too, not even following a glue joint. Yikes!

A 60mm x 60mm purple PCB, with 8 header/socket connectors on all sides. Jumpers have been connected to 11 of those pins. The board isn't particularly dense, with a tactile switch surrounded by 3 red LEDs in the center, 5 SMD ICs and a couple dozen passives.

It took some doing (have I mentioned I'm not particularly great at electronics?), but I think I've worked out all the problems with the v2 prototype. Biggest mistake: a completely wrong pin out on the buffer IC. Subtlest mistake: a very slightly different wiring […]

[Original post on clacks.link]

@JoshuaACNewman Let me convince myself it works at all before completely committing to it. :)

@JoshuaACNewman I guess it could be used as one, but that isn't the goal, no.

A cardboard box sitting on a granite kitchen counter, with a clunky, partially 3D printed turntable hanging from the side of it. (With Ada Palmer's new Inventing the Renaissance serving as a counterweight.) A worn old LP is mounted and playing decently well, though you'll have to take my word for it.

Why do I have the absolutely cheapest vertical turntable I could find? As you might have guessed, it's not for playing music. Not exactly, anyway. More to follow as things ramp up, but I think this project status just flipped from "exploratory" to "active".

@futurebird It's so weird to see a YouTuber I've followed for years -- and whose Arduino code I've refactored! -- going to Eurovision. Shame it had to be on a year I'd already decided to skip, though.

@corbden I've made them work... but never in a way that felt even remotely competent.

@moira Not a LOT of good, no.

@moira At least some good will come out of this?

...wait, was "film at 11" originally a thing because they had to *chemically develop* the actual, literal film, and only later became proto-clickbait with the advent of video?

In other news, it sure would be nice to sleep at some point.

Eternity and a Day (1998)

A dreamy little mess (non-derogatory) of a movie. I liked how it ramped up the surreal, mythopoetic elements, but wish it had taken it farther.

["Iran is a very old nation"]

@futurebird I don't think confounding a region (a very real thing) with a people (a questionably real thing) with a nation (a mostly real but also made up fairly recently thing) can ever lead to reasonable conclusions.

The steel goose now with a 26" wheel mounted on the lowermost shaft, driving the roller chain which runs up to the crankshafts.

Today I got the drive wheel disk mounted to its hub, cleaned it up a bit so it can be handled without immediately shredding my hands, and extended the keyway on the lower shaft so it could all be mounted. And it works! ...except the chain is skipping under load […]

[Original post on clacks.link]

@spacecat @moira I just broke two end mills in a row on the same cut. Happy to help!

1/2" plate roughly cut into a 26" disk, sitting on a small welding table in an unfinished shop space. A hammer and chisel, welding gloves, clamps, angle grinder with cut off disk, crude compass, PAPR mask and other random bits and bobs accompany it.

Got the disk for the drive wheel cut out, which was a far lengthier and more annoying process than it should have been, as just about every consumable part of the plasma cutter has been well and truly consumed. I basically need to order a replacement for every […]

[Original post on clacks.link]

The Child (2005)

Big Trainspotting vibes, but Belgian. Only 96 minutes long, but it felt like it could have been 45. I think it handled the ending well, having the dirtbag father do something passably noble and acknowledging how much he had fucked up, without asking us to forgive him -- or even […]