CONTAINTERS, CHRISTMAS, AND A CENTRIFUGAL FAN

I had a quick look back through my posts to see whether I've got a
tradition of Christmas posts here, and I guess I sort-of do. Last
year I was just grumpy with myself, and expressed my Christmas-eve
self-loathing in 2021-12-24Stupid_Mistakes.txt, where the holidays
just confounded my frustations by repelling me from the shops in
town when I needed to buy something I'd left off my weekly shopping
list.

The previous year I got you all a present (oh how nice I am), in
2020-12-26Christmas_Conversions.txt. So I hope you liked your
currency converter because I ain't getting you anything this year,
I've been spending too much time at the computer as it is.

Oh and back in 2019 I told you all the meaning of life
(2019-12-25.1The_Meaning_of_Life.txt)! Plus that of art as well,
for that matter (2019-12-25.2A_Definition_of_Art.txt). Boy, the
weight of my content here has really lightened over the years.
Anyway this wasn't even online yet then, I was still establishing
whether it was worth the trouble, so it only left the spinning
platters of the ~25+ year old HDD inside this old PC and flew out
into the gophernet a week later on new year's eve
(2019-12-31Finally_on_the_Net.txt).

I don't know whether I mentioned it before (it's not like I'm going
to wade through all that crap again just to find out), but I guess
you can figure from all that, I'm not much of a traditional
Christmas person. Besides not being religious, the whole idea of
people travelling across the country on the one day to be together
strikes me a extremely impractical and dangerous on a logistical
level. I'm sure it made sense back when people lived close to
family because they didn't really travel, but if you have to go
great distances, surely the day when everyone else is doing that is
the worst time possible.

But then again the whole emotional side of Christmas is something
I've pretty well lost touch with anyway. It's a good excuse to make
themed electronics gizmos to give to my mother (who scarcely
understands them) as presents, but at best I see it all as a
cringe-worthy game that everyone, once a year, has been coerced
into playing, first by religion and then by retailers. Still, my
own sales figures show that I benefit from it a lot myself, so why
should I complain? Except that the flood of late international
parcel complaint emails is now imminent, oh what a joyful time of
year [rolls eyes].

But then I have at least given myself some joy this Chrismas,
because I bought myself a present! A big one too, and in a way it
was a bit of a surprise. Behold, a 1983-vintage refridgerated
(minus the refrigerator) shipping container, complete with some
free, umm, artwork:
gopher://aussies.space/I/%7efreet/photos/malthouse/container_received.jpg

You see I set out looking for some supports to rest an old truck
tray on, so that I could cut a hole in the middle, build a ramp,
then drive my car up onto it and use it like an inspection pit,
except wihout the hassles of digging a hole in the rocky soil and
having it fill with water (plus I eventually want to build a shed
above and store the car there, out of reach from all the mice that
keep eating it). So last week I want back to that old brewery place
which last got me pondering about epoxy-sealed timber in the ideas
section (2022-11-22Epoxy_Sealing_Timber.txt), and looked at a
particularly solidly-built work platform thing that people ride in
while getting lifted up by a crane, such as for window cleaning. It
turned out to be built at exactly the dimensions of the Jag's
wheelbase, so that was perfect.

Then I spent a few hours wandering around collecting other bits and
bobs to buy (first time I've bought VHS tapes from inside a
rusting/rotting 1950s bus), and taking some photos (although I was
a bit too distracted, so they're not very good):
gopher://aussies.space/1/%7efreet/photos/malthouse/

Then I decided to buy this shipping container:
gopher://aussies.space/I/%7efreet/photos/malthouse/container_there.jpg

You see I've long wanted somewhere to set up a darkroom, and the
old greenhouse that I was going to patch up is pretty beyond it
now. I'd thought of a shipping container before, but they get very
hot in the sun so I'd end up only being able to work in there when
the weather was right. Plus they tend to be too expensive for me,
and arranging pick-up/delivery is a further complication. So this
one is insulated (the refrigeration unit has even been replaced by
an air-conditioner, which might work), priced at $2000 (better than
most regular uninsulated containers (although they're usually
newer)), and it turned out the bloke who owns the place had
something they wanted a tilt-tray truck to pick up from out in my
direction, so he'd have the truck drop the container off on its way
for $200. Plus the work platform fit inside it, so I didn't have to
get my father to pick that up later on his (smaller) truck.

I paid a deposit and agreed to have it dropped of in a couple of
days, but I was a little sceptical given the looming Christmas
holidays at the end of the week. Still, the next morning I cleared
a space, and at lunch time he called to ask if it was OK to drop it
off that afternoon! So almost within 24 hours it was here, complete
with a work platform within its stainless-steel interior - that's
pretty good! I can't even get a 500g parcel delivered from that
city to me by the next day (even when it's not before Christmas).
The truck driver turned out to be deaf, so that made things a
little interesting, but with aid of some hand waving it ended up
where I wanted it fine.

Now of course the real work starts, firstly water-proofing. In
contrast to the stainless steel inside, the outside walls are
fiberglass-coated plywood, and unfortunately that coating has
suffered some punctures over the last fourty years. The side in the
first pic is its good one, the other has a number of gashes where
water has been getting in and causing the side to swell out a
little. Worse, the bathtub that was on the roof turned out to be
covering a tear in the fiberglass up there. So now I need to seal
up the holes, and eventually build a slanted roof over the top of
it to deflect the water away entirely.

Annoyingly it rained the night after it was delivered, so I've been
waiting for it to dry out before sealing up the holes. I cut out
pieces of galvanised sheet steel to cover them, and, as it was hot
and sunny on Christmas day, this morning I was going to screw them
down with a ton of silicone sealant between, but there was a dew so
got it all got wet again. Too hot during the day today (the weather
has gone from barely getting past 20degC, to a looming 39degC peak
tomorrow, within just a couple of weeks), so I'll do that this
evening.

Christmas day, while the container was drying (only to get wet
again), was alright. The arrival of some warm weather means I can
embrace my nudist tendencies which have been so far restrained by
the cold, so after doing some gardening (which for me just means
clearing areas around the house to make a fire break) I got to be
naked all day, which is one more plus of spending Christmas alone
(although I suppose naked with a pretty woman would be better :) ).
Normally I have some project or other that I work on, but it took a
while for me to settle on one this time.

I ended up with this 3D-printed centrifugal fan design that I
printed many years ago but could never quite get to fit together
properly (I scaled it down and some tollerances became too tight,
plus the ABS warped a bit). It's one of those things that I've gone
back to over and over, tinkered with a little, decided it's almost
workable, but never quite figured out the plan for assembling it
(mounting the motor was another complication).

So yesterday I messed about with it for a few hours, cutting bits
away, trying different adjustments of screws, fixing the motor when
one of the electrical connections inside annoyingly broke, adding
spacers to counter the warp of the housing base. In the end I had a
terrible-looking, but more or less functional, little 3D printed
air blower. Do I need an air blower? Well I did a few years ago,
but actually not anymore. Still I was rather excessively pleased
with myself for finally assembling something that had been kicking
around in the "too hard" basket for so long, and actually I still
am. If nothing else it's a nice demonstration of something
(particularly the slanted vanes of the fan itself) that would be
really difficult to make without 3D printing. Well, ignoring the
fact that I also found it really difficult to make _with_ 3D
printing.

Now I guess I'll go and 3D-print something else that I can't
assemble. Actually I want to try printing lithophanes in
glow-in-the-dark plastic to see whether they work in their own glow
instead of with light shining from behind.

- The Free Thinker

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