What Are You Building Today

[naamanf]

6 minutes ago, Dusty Chalk said:

Lol

also, I believe it’s spelled, “Leppard”.

It’s spelled however Steve Jobs says it’s spelled. RIP. 

[jose]

My first prototype of collective control for helicopters is working.

I need to do something with "L-shaped stringers" (I don´t know if it´s the name of this thing) and the wheel that controls the hardness of the knob (I need a 3D print).

On the other hand, I have managed to do the assistance (spring and shock absorber) travel very smoothly and Arduino works correctly with all functions that I have added, even with the accelerator (taken from an electric bike).

In DCS it's going really well. With the Huey, the MI24, the Gazelle ... for just a few bucks and a few hours of work it is a joy to be able to control these helicopters as a "real" pilot would.

 

Don't be bad 😁

 

 

[naamanf]

That’s pretty cool. Part of a kit or make it all from scratch?

[jose]

From scratch, with pieces from here and there. I used a handbrake for racing car simulators, an accelerator for electric bike, spings, shock, switches....   

The most interesting thing has been working with Arduino and the Hall effect sensors. I had never worked with them and it has been quite interesting. Thinking about this, I have to get stronger magnets since I have some noise in the signal from one of them and although it is hardly noticeable on windows, I want to reduce it to the minimum. 

 

 

[chinsettawong]

Finish a new pair of electrostatic headphones today.  

 

[spritzer]

Those look great and reminded me to post this, a possible cable for DIY electrostatics:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002121174291.html?spm=a2g0s.12269583.0.0.67082dbcJ5CL0I

I just got some but have as of yet not done HV tests on it or anything but it's nice and supple, if a bit thin.  Well worth a punt and reminds me of the Koss wire but not double insulated. 

[swt61]

Pretty sweet looking stats!

[chinsettawong]

15 hours ago, spritzer said:

Those look great and reminded me to post this, a possible cable for DIY electrostatics:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002121174291.html?spm=a2g0s.12269583.0.0.67082dbcJ5CL0I

I just got some but have as of yet not done HV tests on it or anything but it's nice and supple, if a bit thin.  Well worth a punt and reminds me of the Koss wire but not double insulated. 

I’ve used something similar with one of my headphones for a while now.  It’s been OK.  Yes, it’s not double insulated and it’s not as soft as the Koss cable.

[luvdunhill]

Some super cool engineering going on here

https://youtu.be/HR5oCVDta-w?t=462

[HemiSam]

I would appreciate any thoughts from the wood workers on how to as intelligently as possible "fix" this hot sticky mess that is my wood floor.  In short, my beloved old pooch has a penchant for chewing on wood and, as odds would have it, wood floors...  We thought she was over this in her later years but apparently not.  The wifey then informed me that the spare boxes of slats were used to repair errors by the installers...and they left us with none.  Extensive search for replacement slats and nothing...  Called the seller, the manufacturer, yada yada....zero.

We brought in some "experts" a friend recommended and they made it worse...pooch scratched it up and then they go to sanding it only to realize that the stain they used was absorbed far too easily to match the finish on the Brazilian hard wood.  Other "experts" wouldn't touch it.  Clearly there's some more complex stain and finish than they wanted to mess with or the size of the job so we were left with this....

The photos are a bit crap as the iPhone camera wanted to turn it grayish vs the reddish tones but these are indicative.  I don't need perfection but I'd prefer not to FUBAR it completely.  You can see where I've tried to correct a small section with not a ton of joy.  

Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

HS

[Craig Sawyers]

If this is solid wood, and not laminate (ie like QuickStep), I can't think of an alternative to using an industrial belt sander and taking it down to remove the stain entirely. And start all over.

Steve - any alternative you can think of?

[HemiSam]

It is solid wood, CS.  As I hope you can see fairly light under what I’m assuming is a stain and then a urethane finish that’s not glossy…perhaps a cherry like hardwood but I am no expert.

Once down to the wood it quickly absorbs a stain / oil and pulls in a good bit of darkness into the grain.

HS

[dsavitsk]

You are probably going to have to remove the poly. That probably means sanding the whole floor.

For the black stains, oxalic acid

[HemiSam]

I was hoping perhaps a few slats at most but thanks, Gents. 
 

HS

[swt61]

Unless you know for certain, I'm almost sure that's an engineered flooring. Which means you have about 1/4" of solid wood, with intergrainular plys beneath that. The problem is matching up that stain. I would recommend you call in a good flooring installer to repair and stain match. It won't be very expensive, and will get you the best results.

You do not want to take a sander to that floor!

The hand hewn texture will be completely fucked up if you do. Call in a professional. That's not always my advice, but in this circumstance it is.

Edited August 21, 2021 by swt61

[swt61]

[HemiSam]

1 hour ago, swt61 said:

I believe this is exactly what we have.  Hard wood up top and then whatever below.

I tried to do as suggested, swt...but that failed.  I'll try again.  Thank you!

[swt61]

If that doesn't work. I'd hand sand the bleached area with 220 grit paper, then use some sanding sealer with a foam brush to cover the sanded area. The sanding sealer will stop the stain from soaking in too much. You may have to buy two or three stains to mix to get the right tone. It's not an easy task. I'd mix stain and practice on a scrap piece of Mahogany. That's going to be close enough to what you have. When it looks right on the Mahogany scrap, then you should be safe in staining the actual blemished spot.

[dsavitsk]

If you want to match the surface texture, you might have luck with a card scraper.

https://www.amazon.com/Crown-Hand-Tools-Rectangular-375/dp/B012M9H8UG/

[HemiSam]

Thank you, Gents!  Very kind. 
 

HS

[Craig Sawyers]

15 hours ago, swt61 said:

Unless you know for certain, I'm almost sure that's an engineered flooring. Which means you have about 1/4" of solid wood, with intergrainular plys beneath that. The problem is matching up that stain.

Yup - that is why I asked the question if it was solid wood or like Quick-Step. I must admit I hadn't realised that was a UK brand name. But they have deep pockets because they sponsor a world class pro cycling team ( https://www.deceuninck-quickstep.com/en )

I'll digress into cycling for a moment. One of that team's riders, Fabio Jakobsen, has won two of the sprint finish stages in this year's Vuelta Espana. What is even more impressive is that in Spring last year he was forced into the barriers by another cyclist in a sprint finish in the Tour of Poland. The barriers collapsed (they are not supposed to do that), and he hit his face on the barrier metalwork at nearly 50mph. The only reason he did not hit the finish gantry, which would have been certain death, is that an official was in the way, who had quite bad injuries having been hit at speed by Jakobsen. They had to reconstruct his face, with bone grafts to repair his upper and lower jaw and palate, and replace ten teeth. Cracked skull. In an induced coma for a long time. But in spite of all that he has come back to sprinting at world class level 18 months later. His face is a bit lop sided is all you can see.

[swt61]

12 hours ago, dsavitsk said:

If you want to match the surface texture, you might have luck with a card scraper.

https://www.amazon.com/Crown-Hand-Tools-Rectangular-375/dp/B012M9H8UG/

 

Agreed on the card scraper, but maybe these in this situation. 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07S2DT3K5/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_GH12CB2PGVY6RE4TDZPP?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

[HemiSam]

2 hours ago, Craig Sawyers said:

Yup - that is why I asked the question if it was solid wood or like Quick-Step. I must admit I hadn't realised that was a UK brand name. But they have deep pockets because they sponsor a world class pro cycling team ( https://www.deceuninck-quickstep.com/en )

I'll digress into cycling for a moment. One of that team's riders, Fabio Jakobsen, has won two of the sprint finish stages in this year's Vuelta Espana. What is even more impressive is that in Spring last year he was forced into the barriers by another cyclist in a sprint finish in the Tour of Poland. The barriers collapsed (they are not supposed to do that), and he hit his face on the barrier metalwork at nearly 50mph. The only reason he did not hit the finish gantry, which would have been certain death, is that an official was in the way, who had quite bad injuries having been hit at speed by Jakobsen. They had to reconstruct his face, with bone grafts to repair his upper and lower jaw and palate, and replace ten teeth. Cracked skull. In an induced coma for a long time. But in spite of all that he has come back to sprinting at world class level 18 months later. His face is a bit lop sided is all you can see.

That was on me, CS.  My apologies.  I am quite lacking on the wood working front to say the least...

And a sincere thanks for the responses.

HS

[naamanf]

I installed very similar floors in my Texas house. I kept a decent amount of extra boards in case there was ever an accident. Can’t really refinish that type of flooring, and will probably never get a perfect match. Even finding the same flooring probably won’t get an exact match due to wear and batch variances.  Hopefully I’m wrong. 
 

if you have an extra board a good paint store can try and stain match if you are going to try to repair it  

Only wood I’ll do now is something that can be sanded and refinished. 
 

 

Edited August 22, 2021 by naamanf

[HemiSam]

3 minutes ago, naamanf said:

I installed very similar floors in my Texas house. I kept a decent amount of extra boards in case there was ever an accident. Can’t really refinish that type of flooring, and will probably never get a perfect match. Even finding the same flooring probably won’t get an exact match due to wear and batch variances.  Hopefully I’m wrong. 
 

if you have an extra board a good paint store can try and stain match if you are going to try to repair it  

Only wood I’ll do now is something that can be sanded and refinished. 
 

 

and with good reason, naamanf.  We had extra boxes left over but the installers had to repair some areas and instead of leaving us add'l boards they used the spares.  I did not know as I work too much...excuses.  Wifey probably didn't think about it focused on the floor being correct.

We don't need perfection but certainly less of a standout ugly mess.  I would have the floor redone as its been a few years but I fear our pooch will go at it again...  We won't have the joy of her forever so once she leaves us we'll have it replaced.

HS