Matt's Garage

Jeff, Tom and I had a great call with a customer. Tom was driving us back to our cars and I noticed something unusual- the driver's side door was open and there was someone in it! I jumped out of Tom's car and ran towards my truck. The gentleman in my car was busy searching for additional things to remove. He jumped back into his truck and tried to drive away. His window was open, so I reached inside his truck and tried to turn it off and grab his keys- but I didn't have much luck- so I grabbed his gear selector and tried to rip it off. He was busy fighting me- trying to put it into gear and drive off- for a while, my hand was caught between the gear selector and ignition switch. In the meantime, Tom and Jeff we're calling 911 and reading off the license plate. The miscreant started to beg me to let him go- I politely told him no, though I did ask him to give me my stuff back (OK, I didn't say stuff, but I did say a word that begins with "S"). I may have asked him a couple times- and finally he threw my briefcase out the window. He punched me in the head a few times, and even got his foot up to kick me. He finally was able to crush my hand further and get the truck into gear. Not wanting to hang off his truck as he drove down the highway- I let go, and this bottom-feeder made his escape. Unfortunately, I think my lab-notebook may have been left in the miscreant's truck. As he left- he managed to drive over my briefcase- There's a nice tire-track across it- some of my development tools got a little crushed- the jury is out. I think the laptop is still working (I'm writing this on it)- though my battery caught some damage... a bit crushed on the corner.

The police came after about 15 minutes, took our report... and I left for the emergency clinic to get my hand bandaged, X-rayed, and a tetanus shot. I'm now sitting in my recliner, emotionally and physically drained, with a throbbing hand and a truck with a popped drivers door lock. What a fucking day.

P.S. Not to try an cast a racial stereotype, but like lots of the crime around here, the guy was Hispanic (probably Mexican- dark skinned)

Posted by Matt Bennett at 06:25 AM | Permalink

Got some X-rays done of my recent spinal fusion- I figure the doctor could have installed the plate a bit straighter, but I'm not going to go back in for warranty work.

Thankfully, now I'm clear to drive again, and I get to do some self-PT (as in, I can turn my head for normal day to day looking around).

Posted by Matt Bennett at 04:19 PM | Permalink

In a bit of Ebay driven Nostalgia, I decided to purchase a Questech Microbot Teachmover. It came yesterday- and after some tweaking, like properly rerouting the gripper cable, I decided I needed to replace a number of the cables that drive it. In searching around, I found a kick-ass resource- Small Parts. Their prices don't seem exorbitant, and their catalog is chock-full of cool parts that everyone really needs, like spools of nitinol wire, stainless metric socket head screws... and they have a downloadable catalog. But their catalog would be a good thing just to thumb through on on the odd hacking urge.

UPDATE: Watch your shopping cart- their return policy is pretty bad- a 25% restocking fee, and they wouldn't waive any of it if I used the credit to buy something else from them. It was my fault, I know, so I'm paying the price for not being attentive.

Posted by Matt Bennett at 08:11 AM | Permalink

In my case, I've added the Titanium to my spine.

Posted by Matt Bennett at 09:28 AM | Permalink

UPDATE: 1.5 hours later- no Niacin flash, a little tightness in my throat, still not 100%

Posted by Matt Bennett at 07:42 AM | Permalink

Dear smart Enthusiast, Thank you for your interest in smart USA. At this time, there are no plans to offer a diesel version of the fortwo here in the US. If you have any other questions or concerns, please contact us via email or by phone at 1.800.smartusa. Thank you for your interest in smart USA. You will be hearing from us soon! James McMurray Customer

Posted by Matt Bennett at 07:11 AM | Permalink

CLINICAL HISTORY: Neck pain radiating to right arm with numbness in the right hand.

TECHNIQUE: Multiplanar multisequence MRI of the cervical spine was performed without contrast on a 1.5 Tesla magnet.

COMPARISON: Previous plain radiographs of April 27,2007.

At C4-5, there is mild loss of disc height and a posterior disc/osteophyte complex which is slightly asymmetric towards the right. It indents the thecal sac but does not result in significant canal stenosis. The foramina are patent.

At C5-6, there is loss of disc height. There is a right-sided disc hemiation with inferior extrusion but without fragmentation. This indents the thecal sac and cervical cord without cord edema or myelomalacia. This most likely impinges on the right C6 nerve root and would explain a right C6 radiculopathy.

At C6-7, there is minimal loss of disc height without canal stenosis or foraminal stenosis. The remainder of the cervical levels are unremarkable. There perivertebral soft tissues are unremarkable. There is no edema signal within the marrow of the cervical vertebral bodies. The craniocervical junction is normal.

IMPRESSION:

1. Right-sided disc hemiation at C5-6 with slight inferior extrusion, probably impinging on the right C6 nerve root. Does this patient have a right C6 radiculopathy?

2. Mild degenerative changes at C4-5 and C6-7 disc spaces without canal stenosis or mechanical nerve root impingement.

Posted by Matt Bennett at 06:21 PM | Permalink

I saw a link to a HOWTO about soldering on BoingBoing. I just had to put in my own comment- which I've reproduced here:

While I understand the requirement for thrift, spending a little extra for a good temperature controlled iron is really worth it in the long run. While you can get a decent Metcal off of Ebay for less than a couple hundred, you can pick up a Weller temp. controlled iron for about $100. This doesn't mean a variable temp iron- it has to be a temperature controlled iron. The big advantage is that they don't get too hot, which is great for not cooking PCBs, but absolutely vital for doing surface mount without great frustration.

A normal non temp controlled iron, even tiny 25W iron can get way too hot if you leave it on too long (you will see it glowing in a dark room if you accidentally leave it on for a few hours). Getting too hot oxidizes the coating, making it that much harder to solder. A temperature controlled iron heats up more quickly, but will just sit there at the right temperature without getting too hot or too cold. In reality, unless you are using some really unusual solder, you just need to get the standard medium temperature tip. For lightweight jobs, it acts as a tiny iron (like a 15W iron), but if you're heating up a ground plane, it will pump up to the maximum power.

I was in the Bah, I don't need that fancy expen$ive iron camp, until I actually used a good (but not extravagant) iron. I never want to go back. It isn't a magic pill to cure all your soldering woes, but it is an aid that can really help.

Posted by Matt Bennett at 02:59 PM | Permalink

Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota suffered a hemorrhage in the brain

... strikes me as way too close to the book Interface by Stephen Bury (AKA Neal Stephenson and J. Frederick George). This is awfully convenient for the GOP eh? With the recent poisonings tied to Russia/former Soviet republics (Viktor Yushchenko, Alexander Litvinenko) it makes me wonder if this is fiction becoming reality, at least partially- with conveniently placed illnesses taking people out. Is a brain hemorrhage something that can be brought on by some externally applied action?

Posted by Matt Bennett at 08:43 AM | Permalink

Dunno where the original came from, but on Friday night, Angie and I went to see some music (Edge City, who moved to Austin 12 years ago from Baltimore), and the Freddie Steady 5 . Freddie did the most kick-ass version of "Santa Claus is coming to town"- but sung to the music of 'Sunshine of your Love' - the fit was perfect! None of the difficult rhyming you normally hear with this type of adaptation. I can't find any recordings of this band or anyone else doing it- but man, it was GREAT!

Posted by Matt Bennett at 12:39 PM | Permalink

So, I've been having problems with playing MP3s on my computer- I've been working at it for at least a week- when I tried to open MusicMatch Jukebox or even Windows Media Player, that application just hangs- never executes. I briefly get a hourglass/pointer, but it quickly goes back to the normal pointer. Windows Media Player opens, but I never get a normal cursor when I mouseover, just an hourglass. I have had to go into windows task manager to kill the process. I was uninstalling all sorts of things, and the one thing that solved it- uninstalling Internet Explorer 7 (which had been pushed to my box by windows update). Kinda wish I could bill Microsoft for lost time. Usually the things they push are pretty well tested, but they really dropped the ball on this.

Posted by Matt Bennett at 05:44 PM | Permalink

After (the first port):

I'm just trying to match the openings in the head to the gasket, and smooth the insides of the port a bit.

Looks like it is going to take a while- while I was at it, I found that the coolant passages around the spark plugs were all crudded up, (guess I should have had the heads acid-dipped?) so I worked a bit on that crud. One (mostly) down, 15 more to go. Also did some work on the exhaust port, but I don't have pictures of that (yet).

Posted by Matt Bennett at 09:15 PM | Permalink

An ongoing page on my construction of a booth for powdercoating- I'm tired of the dust getting everywhere, and I want something to conveniently do my powdercoating in. Maybe a bit overkill, and possibly dangerous, but what the heck.

Posted by Matt Bennett at 10:16 AM | Permalink

I may have found the proper book to help me out on the SM465- I asked about it on the Stovebolt Forum and got some good replies. Ultimately, someone told me about the Chilton manual that I need - Chilton's Truck Repair Manual, 1961-1971, #6198. Went by 5 bookstores and an auto-parts store (2 Barnes and Nobles, 2 Half Price Books, Borders, and a Pep Boys). Nobody had it. Amazon's search engine had a hard time finding it- finally went to ISBN.nu with 080196198X and found a copy at half.com, for a little over $10.00, shipped. I'll find out what expedited really means...

Posted by Matt Bennett at 09:46 PM | Permalink

Geez- I didn't realize it would be this easy- to remove the shift lever on both the SM420 and SM465- you just need to push the round part down and rotate it- and it pulls right out! Way too easy. I was trying to pull out the roll pins. I wish I had some reference on rebuilding this SM465.

Posted by Matt Bennett at 09:42 PM | Permalink

I'm working on the transmission for my '54 Chevy 3/4 ton- a SM465 that has an unknown history- so I'm going to clean it up and replace the bearings and such. This is my first go at opening up a transmission, and on the shift forks there appears to be some sort of plastic like coating- is this normal? It is kinda worn away/chipped, but is this something that should be removed or redone?

Also on this transmission, there are a number of roll pins that I want to remove, but the roll pins are going into blind holes, so I can't just drive them through- anyone have any tips on removing these? An ez-out looks like a possibility on the 1/4" roll pins, but on the 1/8" roll pins, I'm just not sure how to pull them.

These pages: [1] and [2] are the best source of SM465 information I've found on the net in the few months I've been looking for the transmission for my truck.

To the best of my knowledge, my particular transmission came out of a '79 GMC 3/4 ton truck. In addition to changing the bearings in the transmission, I'm trying to swap out the shift lever from the SM420 that came in the truck (from Chevrolet in '54). The '54 shift lever is straight with only a bend to the rear, the '79's has a bend to the rear in addition to a bend to the driver's side.

I'm really trying to avoid drilling the roll pins out- for fear I'll get into the metal of the transmission and for fear I'll drop shavings into the transmission, but at this point, it looks like I have little choice.

Posted by Matt Bennett at 05:25 PM | Permalink

No, not the David Essex tune, but who to listen to while you watch Rush Limbaugh on the radio.

Posted by Matt Bennett at 02:16 PM | Permalink

Not a great picture, but the black blob is a crunched brand new Ford GT- looks like it hit another car- the front end was all crumpled up- it was at the intersection of Loop 360 and Stonelake Blvd, here in Austin.

Posted by Matt Bennett at 03:38 PM | Permalink

Well, I had a cool idea- We are tempo-permanently fostering a Bloodhound (Ransom)- a cool dog, really sweet, but a little dumb- it is hard to catch his attention, and he is very likely to run off at some scent. Took a look at invisible fences, but heck, I wouldn't be suprised if he just took the shock and ambled over the boundary.

Well, back to the idea- use differential GPS with a locally mounted base station transmitting the differential corrections, just walk around to define the boundary. But oh well, a patent for this was issued this year in April. Considering how expensive the invisible fences are, I'm sure that this product will be way too expensive. I had an idea that I don't believe was in that patent, but would be very useful- only apply the correction to the dog when he is going out of bounds- don't correct him if he is headed in the right direction.

Posted by Matt Bennett at 09:11 PM | Permalink

Man, I'm frustrated by how many times I've had to re-initialize this. I guess this is what happens when you run your own server, huh?

Posted by Matt Bennett at 09:27 PM | Permalink