Saturday, July 21, 2012

CNC Machining and Mold Making

Through my volunteer worker job with the City of Los Angeles I attended a class this week. It covered how to use a Haas CNC machine.

A computer numerical control (CNC) machine works by following user written code to machine a part. You put a block of metal into the machine and it will drill a pattern of holes, hollow out areas, engrave text or a design, and even smooth the piece's edges. Once you write the code and press start, the machine does everything and all you have to do is come back when it is finished. Then you can put another piece of material in, press start, and make another identical part. It is a great machine.

The class detailed the operation of a Haas brand CNC machine. It covered how the control interface worked, a few practical tips on some buttons, and how to program in G-code. The G-code tells the machine which tool to use, where to make cuts, and how fast to go. They had a control unit at my seat so I could practice inputting everything on the machine as I learned it.

I was able to attend this factory training for free because the city department where I volunteer bought a CNC machine. It is a big piece of equipment. It is the size of a small car and costs tens of thousands of dollars. A few months ago I tried to learn how the machine worked without the benefit of this training. I managed to crash the machine, which is very bad. A crash happens when the tool collides with something it is not supposed to like a vice that is holding a work piece in place. However, I am blessed to be working for understanding people who were not mad at me when I crashed the machine, broke a drill bit, and damaged the vice.

I enjoyed the class a lot. If I was not academically inclined, I would strongly consider making a career out of working with machines like that. If you want to know why I am doing electrical engineering instead, consider a more comfortable work environment, less physical exertion, safer working conditions, and a higher salary.

After my last CNC class on Thursday, I took and passed my third radio test. I now have an Extra class amateur radio license. Next week I will apply for a special vanity call sign to use when I talk on the radio.

Casting and Mold Making
While I am on the topic of training I got into because of my volunteer job, I have a few pictures from December. I took a class from Smooth-On (part of Reynolds Advanced Materials) on casting and mold making. It was a hands on class so I got to practice the process.

Here are a couple of terms from the process. Molding is the first step when a negative impression is taken of an original. Casting is the second step, when the material for the copy is poured into the mold.

First, an original item is placed in a container. Since the mold material is good at getting into things, the original has to be glued to the bottom of the container. Next, the mold material is prepared. Smooth-On makes user friendly products, so all you have to do is mix equal parts of what is in the blue container and the yellow container. The user then has around ten minutes to pour it into the container around the item before it hardens. For our training, they had small statues about three inches high for us to make molds for. They must have planned ahead for me; they had a statue of a pig for me to make a mold of.

After the mold had a few hours to sit, we removed the original and prepared the casting material. It had a similar two part mixture. I added some blue color and poured it into my mold. A couple of hours later, it was time to demold and I saw my pig.



The process even picked up the signature of the original artist on the pig. I was able to take home both the cast pig and the mold I made it from.



It was fun to learn how everything works. If I had any great ideas on how to make money with this knowledge I would give them a try.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Posts from the Past

I was looking through my draft posts and realized I have some great things that need to be shared. Today I have fragments of two posts I wrote in May and June of last year.

In the post from May, there was a recipe for a margarita. It is nothing revolutionary, but you can try it.

Margarita

1 1/2 oz tequila
1/2 oz triple sec
dash lime juice
3 oz sour mix

If you want to make a margarita presidente, just add a dash of brandy to the above.

One advantage of posting this recipe a year later is that I have since shared my recipe for sour mix.

Now a draft from 6/28/11:

Last week I went on a trip to Berkeley and the Bay Area. Over the trip I saw many of my regular and semi-regular readers. Every idea, comment, story, and future plan of mine I would blog about was heard by at least one person. In fact, I told some of the same stories multiple times.

While I was in San Francisco, I went bar hopping with Linda and my Associate. One of the places we ended up at was The Buena Vista. They are known for creating the first Irish Coffee in the United States. Making it is simple, pour coffee, stir in two sugar cubes, add a jigger (1.5 oz) of Irish whiskey, and top with whipping cream. It is something like this.

Irish Coffee

1.5 oz Irish Whiskey (rumor online is The Buena Vista uses Tullamore Dew)
4 oz Hot Coffee, or a little more or less depending on size of your glass
2 Sugar Cubes
Lightly Whipped Whipping Cream

Take a glass and preheat it. Do this by pouring hot water into the glass and letting it sit. After 20-30 seconds, dump out the water. Add the hot coffee and stir in two sugar cubes. After they are dissolved, add the Irish whiskey and top with the whipped cream. The idea is to layer the cream on top, so be gentle and consider pouring the cream onto the back of a spoon just over the coffee.

My favorite part of the Irish coffee story is how the creators were having a problem getting the cream to layer. They asked the mayor of San Francisco, who was a dairy farmer, for help. He suggested using cream that was aged for 48 hours and frothed up to the right consistency. This worked perfectly and the drink became a success. Those were the good old days, when elected officials knew useful things. Now too many people holding public office are career politicians.

The most striking feature of the day was the heat. When I was getting on BART at 11 that night it was still warm enough out I did not need a jacket. My conclusion is I bring the heat when I travel. When I visited Washington D.C. four months earlier it was over 70 degrees in February.

Since my last trip there, the Bear's Lair closed. However, I spent some time at Jupiter's, which is becoming my official post-graduation Berkeley hang out. While there I enjoyed beers such as a Red Spot, Quasar, Frances Drake, Prohibition, and another Francis Drake.

EDITOR'S NOTE: With my vantage point a year later, I am glad to say the Bear's Lair reopened. However, I also know Raleigh's burned down.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Reading all of the Bible

In January I started systematically reading through the Bible and Catechism of the Catholic Church. For this I have to thank Amanda. In January she made a blog post saying it would be great if she did this and then asking "Who's with me?!" I said, "I should do this as well." A couple of months later, we talked and discovered both of us were weeks behind schedule and had effectively stopped. So we decided to talk on a weekly basis to make sure both of us were staying on track.

The program we are following goes through the entire Bible (even those books our Protestant friends do not acknowledge) and Catechism in a year. However, since we are overachievers, we are on track to finish two months ahead of time.

There are a few parts of the Old Testament I do not recommend reading. The first eight chapters of First Chronicles are genealogy tables. A lot of Leviticus and Deuteronomy repeat the same procedures when relating laws.

The biggest thing that struck me about the Old Testament is that it could have used several good editors. Things are repeated, identical stories are told about different people, and the details of stories are contradicted in later retellings. There are also a few points where verses or chapters of one book would fit very nicely a few chapters earlier or later or even in a different book. The notes in my version even say sections are best read in a different order. However, there are some great names like Shamgar.

From my reading I am also disappointed. My parents paid good money to send me to 12 years of Catholic school and it never covered some good things in the Bible. Have you read the book of Tobit? It is a great story with a wonderful message. It has a demonic possession, an angel masquerading as a person, and some magical uses for a fish. Then at the end it rewards a person for his almsgiving and risking his life to selflessly help people. Joshua walking around Jericho with people blowing horns has nothing on the book of Tobit.

There is a second reason I am bringing this up. To talk to Amanda, I have been using Skype. If you have never used it, you should give it a try. You can video call people for free.

I would suggest any of you who would like to talk (especially my friend who hits the ignore button when I call) email me some times that you are available and we can plan a video call. I only sign in to Skype when I plan to talk to someone, so if I am signed in I am busy.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Fun activities and summer so far

Since I made going out, doing different things, and seeing people I want to see more one of my priorities for the summer, I should chronicle some of what I did. It feels like time is flying by, but there is so much I still want to do. This covers the last month and a half.

  • Went to an end of year bonfire with the Long Beach Newman group. I was a little worried because I only knew some people vaguely from a retreat a couple of months earlier. However, it all worked out and was fun. At the end all of the extra items ended up in my cooler, including vegan hot dogs. I do not know what to do with them.
  • Attended a graduation party. While I did not know Justin very well in Berkeley (my senior year was his freshman year), it was fun and everyone was glad to meet everyone. I also saw such exciting people as Juliette and Sidney. I ended up with some candy from a pinata and some avocados.
  • Went to happy hour at the Lazy Dog with two of my friends from Long Beach. This was exciting because it was the first time I did something with friends I made at Long Beach. Well, it was the first time socializing with people from Long Beach did not turn out to be an unmitigated disaster.
  • Saw Larry after he returned from graduate school in Arizona, only to find out he was leaving for Vietnam four days later. That night some of my friends tried to fly kites, which was amusing.
  • Volunteered at a speaking even put on by the Orange County Cal Alumni. Executive vice chancellor and provost George Breslauer gave a great talk covering Russian politics and campus developments.
  • Saw Terrance and played the zombie game Last Night on Earth. After I equipped one of my heroes with a chainsaw, I ripped through 8 zombies. Then I saw Prometheus with Eric and Peter. I expected something better than a remake of Alien.
  • Donated platelets four times and went to an appreciation event that celebrated regular donors like me.
  • Went to a BBQ at Brandon's house, which is still being built. Then we had a bonfire at the beach. It was the first full day of summer and one of Eric's processed pictures I stole from online is below.

  • Watched Battleship with Eric and Peter. We waited until it was in the cheap theater, which was a good choice. A couple of the choices the main characters (who were supposed to be navy officers) made were incredibly stupid. How does a ship fire all of its ordnance on an enemy except for its most destructive weapons (cruise missiles)? Or, if firing missiles at an enemy will give away your location, why do you wait until you are being fired upon to change course instead of immediately changing after you fire missiles? Either the characters are stupid or I am a genius at naval warfare against aliens.
  • Went to the Queen Mary with Aden and Ashley. The engine room and the propeller were fun to look at. We also went on the Ghosts and Legends tour that took us to the haunted parts of the ship such as the boiler room and main pool. The ship was nice to see once, but I do not envision myself going back there.
  • Tried several different flavors of wings at Buffalo Wild Wings. My favorites were mango habanero and jalapeno. Afterwards I discovered people will just hop into my car when I am in the drive through at Sonic.
  • Saw the fine motion picture Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter.
  • Went a few places around town with my aunt and uncle who were visiting from Indiana.
  • Saw Frank who is back from England and ate at Lucille's BBQ. We then saw Ted, which was like a long episode of Family Guy.

While many of these points could be expanded to full posts, that would be too long, detailed, and boring. Instead I will drop in extra random points here, such as my friend's uncle who kept offering everyone shots of tequila, or how Peter was instructed to get margarita mix at the store only to return with sour mix. There was the time I parked on a street with this ominous sign.



Now for one of the oddest things. I walked into an office and I saw a video playing in the next room. The video had me in it and was something I did in high school. Then I realized the video was redone with Spanish voiceovers. I do not know what this says about my life, but a video I was in has been dubbed into another language.

I still need to figure out what is next. Tomorrow I am going to Terrance's Mom's house for a BBQ and after that my mom, dad, and brother are leaving for San Diego. I will be home alone for three days and need to think of some exciting things to do.