Final presentation largely complete, reflection paper done, I now step boldly towards what may be my last blog post ever. Hows that for dramatic? It is also, possibly, very inaccurate.
Since I was half the country away last week and missed Erik's talk, I am going to go on the alternate blog topic this week - something from the class that surprised me. The biggest surprise that I got this semester was that I don't hate blogging.
Oh, I did at first. Oh yes I did. I never liked reading blogs - and still largely don't - so I could not see the point of writing them. But tonight, as I listen to a huge possum eat out of the cat dish we leave outside - it really is big I should go take a picture - I am thinking that once I am done with this chapter in my academic life in August, I might pick up blogging again.
There are some bits that I will have to work out through, before I do. The first is a topic. Lets face it, the more interesting posts that I have put up have not been on emerging technology. While I have plenty of opinions, I don't have enough stored up crazy to enter the political arena. I have doubts that anyone would be interested to know about what stocks I am trading or why and given the low volume that I play with, I could hardly be called an expert in the field - and I'd rather write about something that I know about rather then making it up along the way. Which leaves old cars and family. I could write about either, and be content with my content.
The next is my audience. For this class, we had a built in audience, and that was kinda nice. I always knew that at least Amy was reading what I wrote, and maybe some of the other folks too. But if I start up my blog anew, I will not have the built in audience, and if no one is reading how long will I stay motivated to write it? If I am writing about friends and family, I am pretty sure I would have a few readers curious enough about what we are up to to read. If I write about the restoration business, I have the possibility of a rather large readership - but would have to accept that most of the readers would be argumentative jerks. Also, being that my focus for old vehicles is pretty myopic, I might not be able to compete with the folks who are blogging on the larger readership boards. Would knowing that I might be helpful to the next guy that wants to resto-mod an old army truck or unloved Porsche or Corvair, without reinventing the wheel, be enough to keep me going? I don't know.
And, I won't find out until September at the earliest. Summer class schedules are tight. I won't have any delusions about starting any new blogs until after graduation.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Life on a swing
A few weeks ago, I went online and bought my son a swing set. My wife and I had done a lot of research, and we decided that we did not want to get the uber expensive wooden sets that are all the rage these days, but rather the metal kind that was more similar to what we had growing up, and would hopefully save our son some splinters.
So, after lots of looking around, we settled on a Flexible Flyer (yes, the sled people) swing set. American made, and only a few hundred dollars, as opposed to the $1000+ for the wood sets from the Home Despot. We waited, and the swing set was delivered while I was out in Missouri early last week.
This weekend, having gotten a good leg up on my homework, I decided that I wanted to bolt together a little love, and headed outside to construct the swings. Please keep in mind that I have a well stocked workshop and build cars for fun - I did not expect this to be a challenge.
My initial impression was a good one. The set was well packaged. The hardware was very well organized in blister molded packs. The instructions, though, were a bit dubious - as they were clearly just photo copies stapled together and not the booklet that I would expect.
As I began to assemble the swings, things started going wrong. The metal poles had the mounting holes punched instead of drilled. The "hanging chads" were all simply bent into the structure. Also, the holes were much larger then the supplied hardware. The bolts and keepers wallowed in the assigned mounting holes. One very important tool not listed in the "required tools" section of the instructions was a 6 foot step ladder. Many of the connections can only be made if the opposite side of the upright is properly supported, and the only way I could find to get that support is by resting it just so on the step of the ladder, so that I could get the mounting holes to align and bolted in.
The other little bit of joy this swing set brought us today was the concrete issue. All over the Flexible Flyer website they have notes saying things like " we do not provide anchors for our swings. We suggest mounting the legs of the swing in concrete to keep it from moving." However, when we opened the box, we found a set of anchors. Interesting. Reading the instruction booklet, we found this: "If you choose to place the swing set in concrete, make sure to set the anchors in the concrete and not the legs of the swing, as doing so will cause the chains to be too short." This led to a, shall we say, debate between my wife and I. She taking the side of the Website, and myself taking the side of the instruction booklet. This debate has not been able to be brought to a close, so we are going to have to call Flexible Flyer on Monday for a ruling.
So, the swing set sits in the back yard, half built and unanchored. No reason to install the slide and swings until we have the frame fully anchored.
There is simply no reason for this to have been so complicated. What should have been a fun exercise in backyard engineering has left both parents frustrated with each other and with our recent purchase. I am still of the opinion that the wood swings are not what I wanted, but I did expect a better built unit then what we received. More consistency between the website and the packaging of the swings would have averted an argument that I am sure is enacted just about every time these sets are put up. As it is, I am considering welding an extra foot of pipe to the bottom of each leg so that it can be concreted in w/o putting the swings on the ground.
So, after lots of looking around, we settled on a Flexible Flyer (yes, the sled people) swing set. American made, and only a few hundred dollars, as opposed to the $1000+ for the wood sets from the Home Despot. We waited, and the swing set was delivered while I was out in Missouri early last week.
This weekend, having gotten a good leg up on my homework, I decided that I wanted to bolt together a little love, and headed outside to construct the swings. Please keep in mind that I have a well stocked workshop and build cars for fun - I did not expect this to be a challenge.
My initial impression was a good one. The set was well packaged. The hardware was very well organized in blister molded packs. The instructions, though, were a bit dubious - as they were clearly just photo copies stapled together and not the booklet that I would expect.
As I began to assemble the swings, things started going wrong. The metal poles had the mounting holes punched instead of drilled. The "hanging chads" were all simply bent into the structure. Also, the holes were much larger then the supplied hardware. The bolts and keepers wallowed in the assigned mounting holes. One very important tool not listed in the "required tools" section of the instructions was a 6 foot step ladder. Many of the connections can only be made if the opposite side of the upright is properly supported, and the only way I could find to get that support is by resting it just so on the step of the ladder, so that I could get the mounting holes to align and bolted in.
The other little bit of joy this swing set brought us today was the concrete issue. All over the Flexible Flyer website they have notes saying things like " we do not provide anchors for our swings. We suggest mounting the legs of the swing in concrete to keep it from moving." However, when we opened the box, we found a set of anchors. Interesting. Reading the instruction booklet, we found this: "If you choose to place the swing set in concrete, make sure to set the anchors in the concrete and not the legs of the swing, as doing so will cause the chains to be too short." This led to a, shall we say, debate between my wife and I. She taking the side of the Website, and myself taking the side of the instruction booklet. This debate has not been able to be brought to a close, so we are going to have to call Flexible Flyer on Monday for a ruling.
So, the swing set sits in the back yard, half built and unanchored. No reason to install the slide and swings until we have the frame fully anchored.
There is simply no reason for this to have been so complicated. What should have been a fun exercise in backyard engineering has left both parents frustrated with each other and with our recent purchase. I am still of the opinion that the wood swings are not what I wanted, but I did expect a better built unit then what we received. More consistency between the website and the packaging of the swings would have averted an argument that I am sure is enacted just about every time these sets are put up. As it is, I am considering welding an extra foot of pipe to the bottom of each leg so that it can be concreted in w/o putting the swings on the ground.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
My son turned 2 this week!
This past Tuesday, my son turned two. I thought it would be fun, given that our blog post this week is open, to jot down some thoughts on parenthood. And, yes, this is another avenue to show off some picture of my kid.
In the beginning, infants are very small. Yes, yes, you say. We know that. But you don't *really* know that until you see yours for the first time. Chances are, you are in a hospital. You have been there for a few hours, and you are exhausted. And suddenly you have this little purple cone headed... thing. And you panic, just for a second. "Is it supposed to be purple? Yes, they taught us that in the birthing classes. Is it always going to have a funky pointy hillbilly head? No, no, that rounds up in a few weeks. Come on, you know this stuff. Relax. Oh yeah, but WTF do I do now? Beats me, me. Relax and smile like everyone else is, and we will figure it out along the way."
Turns out, what you do next is sleep for a few hours while everyone else come in to see what you have made. And when you wake up, the kid is no longer an "it." He's pink, and healthy if still cone headed. At the hospital they teach you all manners of blanket origami, run lots of tests, and boot you out the door just as fast as they can. But home really is where the heart is.
Theo and Dad, three days old - first day at home.
As time passes, you figure out that somewhere deep down you kinda know what is required to keep an infant alive. Diapers (and the various fluids and semi-fluids that fill them) cease to be a disgusting mystery. Swaddling, feeding, cuddling and all the other things that need to happen on a regular basis become routine. You learn that infants are equipped with raptor claws - and I am SO not kidding about that. Somehow the liquid poo fountain that your child just shot several feet across the room (that you now need to clean up and will make you late for work) will be found to be amusing, and not the cause for summary execution that a similar act would have been before parenthood.
Buy the time they are 2 months old, kids have about doubled in size from when they were born. Cone heads are mostly gone, and they fit into their skin much better. As a parent, you find yourself excited over really basic steps. I was totally stoked that Theo was able to hold up his head "early." At this point they are looking at you, and maybe smiling at you, and melting your heart.
Theo, ~2 months old.
They keep growing more everyday, and the parents learn what the kids need at the same pace. By about 6 months old, they are learning and using new skills everyday. They are not infants any more. They still need lots of sleep, but not as much as before. And, oh my do they ever want to move. Theo was slow to figure out crawling but he started trying to crawl at about 6 months. He would be almost 9 months old before he finally got it.
6 months old
They are also very expressive.
Halloween - just starting to get his first teeth in.
1 Year. Nice!
Kids are learning so much at this point that it can be hard to keep up. They are transitioning from crawling to walking to running. My experience so far has been that once kids figure out how to run, they forget everything else. By 1 year, they also look more like little people and less like babies.
As they move through the 18 month period, words start to form. Not anything that can be discerned, mostly, but they are pointing and vocalizing and trying to communicate. They have definite personalities. By 18 months, Theo was captivated by Thomas the Tank Engine - though he ignored all the other TV bits. He had favorite foods, and was starting to demand that we not help him eat. I must admit, I was quite pleased when the little man began showing a large interest in Daddies old cars - primarily the old truck, which he has claimed as his personal jungle gym...
18 months old
He always runs here as soon as he gets out the front door.
As we got nearer to the big 24 months, his eagerness to speak and sing showed up more and more. He understands many more words then he can say, but is learning daily how to better communicate with us. He sings all the time - and more often then not we can recognize the tune. He is even starting to add in some of the words to his favorite songs.
A few days before his second birthday.
Two has been great so far, if only because we don't need to keep counting in months. I never understood the need to count age in months before I was a parent, but it makes sense - especially when they are under a year old. But ~ 18 months it starts being a challenge to remember off hand how many months old he is, and it takes a second to do the math when someone asks: "awwwww, how old is he?" And then I look like a dummy for not knowing right off the top of my head that he is 20 months old - but I know that I am not alone, as I have seen many other toddler parents frantically adding up months. Some parents keep up the age in months thing for a bit longer - but I am happy to be past it.
Parenthood has been a constant challenge. Sickness happens. They take headers into all manner of things that you are not supposed to smack your head into. You have to give yourself an extra hour to go anywhere, and packing for an overnighter can just about fill the car. All of that is balanced out when you see them learning new things on a daily basis. Fatherhood, though at times bewildering and frustrating, has been the most fulfilling challenge that I have met.
In the beginning, infants are very small. Yes, yes, you say. We know that. But you don't *really* know that until you see yours for the first time. Chances are, you are in a hospital. You have been there for a few hours, and you are exhausted. And suddenly you have this little purple cone headed... thing. And you panic, just for a second. "Is it supposed to be purple? Yes, they taught us that in the birthing classes. Is it always going to have a funky pointy hillbilly head? No, no, that rounds up in a few weeks. Come on, you know this stuff. Relax. Oh yeah, but WTF do I do now? Beats me, me. Relax and smile like everyone else is, and we will figure it out along the way."
Turns out, what you do next is sleep for a few hours while everyone else come in to see what you have made. And when you wake up, the kid is no longer an "it." He's pink, and healthy if still cone headed. At the hospital they teach you all manners of blanket origami, run lots of tests, and boot you out the door just as fast as they can. But home really is where the heart is.
Theo and Dad, three days old - first day at home.
As time passes, you figure out that somewhere deep down you kinda know what is required to keep an infant alive. Diapers (and the various fluids and semi-fluids that fill them) cease to be a disgusting mystery. Swaddling, feeding, cuddling and all the other things that need to happen on a regular basis become routine. You learn that infants are equipped with raptor claws - and I am SO not kidding about that. Somehow the liquid poo fountain that your child just shot several feet across the room (that you now need to clean up and will make you late for work) will be found to be amusing, and not the cause for summary execution that a similar act would have been before parenthood.
Buy the time they are 2 months old, kids have about doubled in size from when they were born. Cone heads are mostly gone, and they fit into their skin much better. As a parent, you find yourself excited over really basic steps. I was totally stoked that Theo was able to hold up his head "early." At this point they are looking at you, and maybe smiling at you, and melting your heart.
Theo, ~2 months old.
They keep growing more everyday, and the parents learn what the kids need at the same pace. By about 6 months old, they are learning and using new skills everyday. They are not infants any more. They still need lots of sleep, but not as much as before. And, oh my do they ever want to move. Theo was slow to figure out crawling but he started trying to crawl at about 6 months. He would be almost 9 months old before he finally got it.
6 months old
They are also very expressive.
Halloween - just starting to get his first teeth in.
1 Year. Nice!
Kids are learning so much at this point that it can be hard to keep up. They are transitioning from crawling to walking to running. My experience so far has been that once kids figure out how to run, they forget everything else. By 1 year, they also look more like little people and less like babies.
As they move through the 18 month period, words start to form. Not anything that can be discerned, mostly, but they are pointing and vocalizing and trying to communicate. They have definite personalities. By 18 months, Theo was captivated by Thomas the Tank Engine - though he ignored all the other TV bits. He had favorite foods, and was starting to demand that we not help him eat. I must admit, I was quite pleased when the little man began showing a large interest in Daddies old cars - primarily the old truck, which he has claimed as his personal jungle gym...
18 months old
He always runs here as soon as he gets out the front door.
As we got nearer to the big 24 months, his eagerness to speak and sing showed up more and more. He understands many more words then he can say, but is learning daily how to better communicate with us. He sings all the time - and more often then not we can recognize the tune. He is even starting to add in some of the words to his favorite songs.
A few days before his second birthday.
Two has been great so far, if only because we don't need to keep counting in months. I never understood the need to count age in months before I was a parent, but it makes sense - especially when they are under a year old. But ~ 18 months it starts being a challenge to remember off hand how many months old he is, and it takes a second to do the math when someone asks: "awwwww, how old is he?" And then I look like a dummy for not knowing right off the top of my head that he is 20 months old - but I know that I am not alone, as I have seen many other toddler parents frantically adding up months. Some parents keep up the age in months thing for a bit longer - but I am happy to be past it.
Parenthood has been a constant challenge. Sickness happens. They take headers into all manner of things that you are not supposed to smack your head into. You have to give yourself an extra hour to go anywhere, and packing for an overnighter can just about fill the car. All of that is balanced out when you see them learning new things on a daily basis. Fatherhood, though at times bewildering and frustrating, has been the most fulfilling challenge that I have met.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Online classes
I have taken online classes, in two formats.
GB704 was taken as the "online" session - meaning that we met in class 1/2 as often as regular, but had to make several posts each week on assigned topics via the Blackboard forums. I would not have taken the class had I known it was the "online" session. Well, maybe I would have. The alternate session was being taught by the prior CIO for my University. I did not want to take him as a professor as that could have caused tensions with the current CIO with whom I work with closely on my current project. So, I signed up for the "online" 704, discovering the nature of the course on the first day of classes.
My impression of the course was this: while it was nice to have the extra sessions off, which allowed me to spend a lot more time with my family that semester, I never formed any sort of bond with the other people in the class. In fact, I had a difficult time getting into the class at all as there seemed to be little time to develop a continuity from session to session. The class struck me as being perfect for the student that was just grinding through and did not much care about the subject (as I have done through say - oh - finance...) but was not good for someone interested in the subject.
The other type of online classes I have done have been the webinar type classes. They have usually run from 3 to 6 sessions, and have been usually for training at work or some other work related function. They are good for what they are. I think that they will only be beneficial for the person taking the class if the student is interested and cares about what is going on during the webinar. Otherwise, it is simply too easy to be checking email, eating dinner, playing with your kids, whatever else may be more interesting and right at hand then the webinar. None of the webinar based classes that I have taken have been graded, though fo some I have had to fill out a web based form at the end.
On the whole, I think that online classes have their place. But I think that unless you have the kind of personality that is not easily distracted, you are going to get a lot more from a traditional class setting then you would an online class. For the webinar type classes, they are great for learning software, as they can often show you real time where the different functions are. But for other types of study - like the GMATS or the PMP exam, I do not think that kind of class would be very helpful for most people.
GB704 was taken as the "online" session - meaning that we met in class 1/2 as often as regular, but had to make several posts each week on assigned topics via the Blackboard forums. I would not have taken the class had I known it was the "online" session. Well, maybe I would have. The alternate session was being taught by the prior CIO for my University. I did not want to take him as a professor as that could have caused tensions with the current CIO with whom I work with closely on my current project. So, I signed up for the "online" 704, discovering the nature of the course on the first day of classes.
My impression of the course was this: while it was nice to have the extra sessions off, which allowed me to spend a lot more time with my family that semester, I never formed any sort of bond with the other people in the class. In fact, I had a difficult time getting into the class at all as there seemed to be little time to develop a continuity from session to session. The class struck me as being perfect for the student that was just grinding through and did not much care about the subject (as I have done through say - oh - finance...) but was not good for someone interested in the subject.
The other type of online classes I have done have been the webinar type classes. They have usually run from 3 to 6 sessions, and have been usually for training at work or some other work related function. They are good for what they are. I think that they will only be beneficial for the person taking the class if the student is interested and cares about what is going on during the webinar. Otherwise, it is simply too easy to be checking email, eating dinner, playing with your kids, whatever else may be more interesting and right at hand then the webinar. None of the webinar based classes that I have taken have been graded, though fo some I have had to fill out a web based form at the end.
On the whole, I think that online classes have their place. But I think that unless you have the kind of personality that is not easily distracted, you are going to get a lot more from a traditional class setting then you would an online class. For the webinar type classes, they are great for learning software, as they can often show you real time where the different functions are. But for other types of study - like the GMATS or the PMP exam, I do not think that kind of class would be very helpful for most people.
Travelling for work
This post will be less of a blog post and more of an open ended question. I have worked for the University for nearly 13 years, and during those years I have had to travel all of 6 times for work. 4 of those time have been this semester, and Monday I will be booking airfare to Kansas City for a conference that I have been instructed to attend (by the way, I won't be in class Monday the 26th.)
I have to say, I am not really a fan. I am a person who likes a routine. To be honest, right now my schedule would probably crush me if I did not rigidly stick to a set routine, at least looking at it in broad scope. Parenthood, work, my graduate school, my wife's graduate school, and now an increasing amount of kid activities pretty much dictates planning each week out well in advance, and giving lots of notice if my wife or I have to deviate from the set schedule. I go so far as to budget myself time for failure and corrective action if I am trying something new or testing something that might not work as expected. I don't mean to say that I plan my day down to the minute, but if I am testing a new engine or looking at a trip through TSA at BWI, I make sure that I have lots of room for error in case things go awry.
I am curious as to how people work travel into their job/home/class lives. Do you travel a lot for your jobs, if at all? How do you manage to finagle your travel schedule around classes or important family activities? Or do you just head out for the wild blue yonder, and pick up the pieces when you get home?
I have to say, I am not really a fan. I am a person who likes a routine. To be honest, right now my schedule would probably crush me if I did not rigidly stick to a set routine, at least looking at it in broad scope. Parenthood, work, my graduate school, my wife's graduate school, and now an increasing amount of kid activities pretty much dictates planning each week out well in advance, and giving lots of notice if my wife or I have to deviate from the set schedule. I go so far as to budget myself time for failure and corrective action if I am trying something new or testing something that might not work as expected. I don't mean to say that I plan my day down to the minute, but if I am testing a new engine or looking at a trip through TSA at BWI, I make sure that I have lots of room for error in case things go awry.
I am curious as to how people work travel into their job/home/class lives. Do you travel a lot for your jobs, if at all? How do you manage to finagle your travel schedule around classes or important family activities? Or do you just head out for the wild blue yonder, and pick up the pieces when you get home?
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Speakers, Part 2
Several weeks ago one of my blog posts was about building a set of speakers for my workshop. I had been using an ancient pair of powered PC speakers hooked up to my iPod, but I wanted something better. A friend of mine sent me a picture of someone who made a set of speakers out of an old NATO 50cal ammo can, and I knew what I had to do. During the Part 1 post, I wrote about buying parts. Well, the speakers are built and tested, so this blog post will include what I did, and what I might do differently the next time.
The completed unit
The ammo can that I decided to use was an East German, or possibly WWII Nazi issued 8mm box. I chose it as it was the same width as the standard NATO 30cal box, but just a little longer, which would give me room to mount everything in a narrower case then what I had seen pictured. Everything came in on time except for the 30 watt amplifier kit, which ended up being backordered for two weeks. All of the hardware not ordered from Parts Express came from the local True Value hardware store, except for a tube of electronic soldering flux which I picked up at Radio Shack.
The first thing that I did was sketch out what I wanted to make on graph paper. This let me determine before I started cutting where the best place to mount everything would be. Once I knew where I wanted it to go on the model, I marked off the center points on the ammo can, and cut them out with a 4 inch hole saw, a drill press, and lots of cutting oil. Holes cut; I dressed them with a pneumatic die grinder to remove and leftover flashing.
I thoroughly cleaned the face of the can from years grime and grease, and masked off the top and sides of the can, which I wanted to remain OD green, with 50 years of patina. I then primed the face, and then painted it John Deere yellow (which also happens to be a perfect match for all of the 1950 and 1960s era fallout and radiation bunker signs.) I let the paint dry for 24 hours before moving to the next step.
I covered the face with 2 inch blue painters tape, and drew on my stencil with a pencil and compass. The stencil was then cut out with a fresh razor, and the areas to be painted were peeled off, leaving a perfect mask. Two coats of satin black later, I was done painting. Once the paint had set, I pulled off the rest of the mask before the paint had time to completely dry and stick to the tape mask.
At this point I was ready to put in my insulation. I was using RaaMatt automotive deadener – and I will not be using it on future boxes I build. The black tar that sticks the stuff to anything made a mess once the speakers were mocked in for test fitting.
To help solve the problem, I sprayed rubberized undercoating on all the insulated surfaces. This has helped, but not eliminated, the problem.
When the amp got in, I spent an evening soldering in the bits the needed soldering – which was not as much as I had expected. The amp, unlike many of the kit amps that I had found, came largely built. All I needed to solder on were the four speaker wires, aux power leads, and two output capacitors in line with the speaker wires. The amp was mounted onto the internal iPod pocket I had made out of some scrap sheet metal in my shop. It was attached with industrial strength mounting tape.
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The final touch was to add rubber feet to the bottom and back face. This was to keep the metal can from rattling against whatever I had it set on when it was playing – or rattling against the wall if I had it hung up. The speakers can be used two ways. For outdoor usage, everything can be kept internally. The speakers will run off batteries, and the iPod has an internal pocket to keep it out of harm’s way. However, this makes it hard to change what you want to hear, and the batteries will eventually die. For regular usage, the iPod can attach to an input on the back of the speakers via a three foot cable. There is also a 12 volt AC adapter that plugs into the back of the set for constant use near a standard power outlet.
The set has surprisingly good bass given that it is only two 4 inch speakers. Sound quality is excellent, until the volume is turned up – at which point the amp picks up a interference and distortion. I have read that better output caps would help with that, as well as bridging the channels – which I did not do. That said it is considerably louder than the 3 watt per channel PC speakers that I had been using.
If I make more of these – either for sale or as gifts – the primary change I need to make is in insulation. I need to find something better then the automotive tar/asphalt based stuff that I used. A tall order, given the slender form factor I have to make use of In order to continue to use the 30cal ammo cans. Future units would also not use the internal iPod pocket, at least as I made mine. Fabric, instead of sheet steel, would be a simpler option.
The completed unit
The ammo can that I decided to use was an East German, or possibly WWII Nazi issued 8mm box. I chose it as it was the same width as the standard NATO 30cal box, but just a little longer, which would give me room to mount everything in a narrower case then what I had seen pictured. Everything came in on time except for the 30 watt amplifier kit, which ended up being backordered for two weeks. All of the hardware not ordered from Parts Express came from the local True Value hardware store, except for a tube of electronic soldering flux which I picked up at Radio Shack.
The first thing that I did was sketch out what I wanted to make on graph paper. This let me determine before I started cutting where the best place to mount everything would be. Once I knew where I wanted it to go on the model, I marked off the center points on the ammo can, and cut them out with a 4 inch hole saw, a drill press, and lots of cutting oil. Holes cut; I dressed them with a pneumatic die grinder to remove and leftover flashing.
I thoroughly cleaned the face of the can from years grime and grease, and masked off the top and sides of the can, which I wanted to remain OD green, with 50 years of patina. I then primed the face, and then painted it John Deere yellow (which also happens to be a perfect match for all of the 1950 and 1960s era fallout and radiation bunker signs.) I let the paint dry for 24 hours before moving to the next step.
I covered the face with 2 inch blue painters tape, and drew on my stencil with a pencil and compass. The stencil was then cut out with a fresh razor, and the areas to be painted were peeled off, leaving a perfect mask. Two coats of satin black later, I was done painting. Once the paint had set, I pulled off the rest of the mask before the paint had time to completely dry and stick to the tape mask.
At this point I was ready to put in my insulation. I was using RaaMatt automotive deadener – and I will not be using it on future boxes I build. The black tar that sticks the stuff to anything made a mess once the speakers were mocked in for test fitting.
To help solve the problem, I sprayed rubberized undercoating on all the insulated surfaces. This has helped, but not eliminated, the problem.When the amp got in, I spent an evening soldering in the bits the needed soldering – which was not as much as I had expected. The amp, unlike many of the kit amps that I had found, came largely built. All I needed to solder on were the four speaker wires, aux power leads, and two output capacitors in line with the speaker wires. The amp was mounted onto the internal iPod pocket I had made out of some scrap sheet metal in my shop. It was attached with industrial strength mounting tape.
The final touch was to add rubber feet to the bottom and back face. This was to keep the metal can from rattling against whatever I had it set on when it was playing – or rattling against the wall if I had it hung up. The speakers can be used two ways. For outdoor usage, everything can be kept internally. The speakers will run off batteries, and the iPod has an internal pocket to keep it out of harm’s way. However, this makes it hard to change what you want to hear, and the batteries will eventually die. For regular usage, the iPod can attach to an input on the back of the speakers via a three foot cable. There is also a 12 volt AC adapter that plugs into the back of the set for constant use near a standard power outlet.
The set has surprisingly good bass given that it is only two 4 inch speakers. Sound quality is excellent, until the volume is turned up – at which point the amp picks up a interference and distortion. I have read that better output caps would help with that, as well as bridging the channels – which I did not do. That said it is considerably louder than the 3 watt per channel PC speakers that I had been using.
If I make more of these – either for sale or as gifts – the primary change I need to make is in insulation. I need to find something better then the automotive tar/asphalt based stuff that I used. A tall order, given the slender form factor I have to make use of In order to continue to use the 30cal ammo cans. Future units would also not use the internal iPod pocket, at least as I made mine. Fabric, instead of sheet steel, would be a simpler option.
Site Visits
Last week I was travelling to different Universities to do site evaluations for the different vendors bidding for the Paperless University project that we are running. We hit two different schools in two different states in two days. I have now seen six different vendor demos and site visits for this project, and I have learned a lot of what to do – and not to do – when suggesting a site visit. The following will be a simple list of things NOT to do as a technology vendor during a site visit. Sadly, I got to experience all of these “not to do” points.
1) Do your homework! When you arrange the site visit with the hosting company, make sure that the company is actually using your product the way that you have told your prospective customer. And if you are not sure what the hosting site is doing, err on the side of caution. Nothing irks a prospective customer more than feeling like the time and money spent in going to the site visit has been a waste.
2) Listen to the prospective customer. If the customer tells you what they want to be able to see during a site visit, make sure that they see it, or make sure that they know why they are not going to see it at the site that you have set up for them to tour. If the customer says that they want to see they best that you have to offer, make sure that they see it. This is closely related to Item 1.
3) Don’t Hover. Part of the reason a customer goes on a site visit is to be sure that they get to talk candidly with the staff and administration of the host group. This can’t happen if the vendor has someone minding the conversation at all times. A vendor that will not give its potential clients time to speak freely with the hosting company could lead to the assumption that the vendor does not want candid conversation.
4) Show up! The other side of the coin is sending the potential vendor to the site with no vendor control. It is helpful to have time with the vendor to talk about the product and explain other ways that it can be implemented. One of the biggest disappointments that my travel team had to deal with last week was the vendor paying for lunch, but not sending a rep to mind the time. The result was that the host treated the site visit as an excuse to take a long, fancy lunch – and we got very little value out of the site visit before needing to catch our plane back home. This leads us to the next and final point.
5) Cater food on site. The site visit, for the customer, is about content, not lunch. The potential customer has a limited amount of time in which to get the best idea possible about how the system they are reviewing works. While a catered lunch may not be as sexy as a fancy seafood place, having to take the time to drive to the restaurant and then wait for service is not a good use of time for the prospective customer. Have food catered on site, and plan a lightweight meeting around lunch.
1) Do your homework! When you arrange the site visit with the hosting company, make sure that the company is actually using your product the way that you have told your prospective customer. And if you are not sure what the hosting site is doing, err on the side of caution. Nothing irks a prospective customer more than feeling like the time and money spent in going to the site visit has been a waste.
2) Listen to the prospective customer. If the customer tells you what they want to be able to see during a site visit, make sure that they see it, or make sure that they know why they are not going to see it at the site that you have set up for them to tour. If the customer says that they want to see they best that you have to offer, make sure that they see it. This is closely related to Item 1.
3) Don’t Hover. Part of the reason a customer goes on a site visit is to be sure that they get to talk candidly with the staff and administration of the host group. This can’t happen if the vendor has someone minding the conversation at all times. A vendor that will not give its potential clients time to speak freely with the hosting company could lead to the assumption that the vendor does not want candid conversation.
4) Show up! The other side of the coin is sending the potential vendor to the site with no vendor control. It is helpful to have time with the vendor to talk about the product and explain other ways that it can be implemented. One of the biggest disappointments that my travel team had to deal with last week was the vendor paying for lunch, but not sending a rep to mind the time. The result was that the host treated the site visit as an excuse to take a long, fancy lunch – and we got very little value out of the site visit before needing to catch our plane back home. This leads us to the next and final point.
5) Cater food on site. The site visit, for the customer, is about content, not lunch. The potential customer has a limited amount of time in which to get the best idea possible about how the system they are reviewing works. While a catered lunch may not be as sexy as a fancy seafood place, having to take the time to drive to the restaurant and then wait for service is not a good use of time for the prospective customer. Have food catered on site, and plan a lightweight meeting around lunch.
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