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Business side of the cutting board. Figure it will have a long life serving charcuterie to Marin’s finest.

Steve and I got the miter station cabinets mostly built today. Essentially the entire back wall will be work space and storage in addition to the miter station. We still have to add a ¾ plywood top, two shelves on the right hand side for wood storage, and I am still deciding about the cabinet space to the left side of the saw. And the Kapex is actually on a temporary shelf because I didn't have enough ¾ ply and we wanted a photo op. When complete, we are going to do a face frame and drawer fronts in maple, I think. We have decided that the only miter fence needed is the Kapex fence, which maximizes the work surfaces on either side of the saw. I have ordered a Woodpeckers Stealth track system that will be inset flush into the top on both sides of the saw with flip up stops and track to mount clamps and such. It should make for happy chop sawing.

Not nearly as exciting as some of the other entries here but I got the east coast ping pong table back up and running today, with integral dust extraction, for another retirement plaque. The plaque itself probably doesn't look all that impressive, but the multiple layers/depths, and clean up to have it look decent represent about 2-1/2 hours of programming - and that's after finishing the design. Upside is that I taught myself some stuff, downside is that I've got two more projects to complete this weekend due to the number of people retiring at work. I'll post some details on those soon enough as they use some truly incredible materials. Intermediate phase of cutting Raw (unfinished, but sanded) product

Nothing as fine as the other stuff I’m seeing here, but I finished the shiplap pine in my new office. Once I finish screwing it off and filling the holes, it’ll get a pickled white finish. Then, once I trim everything out, I’ll build a desk out of walnut butcher block. It’ll end up with my Quads, my home headphone rig and a 43” 4k TV I picked up on a Black Friday, plus my home office setup. I’m pretty excited to have the space.

The watch I truly want is never going to show up. In the interim… HS

Truth be told we pieced off about half of each plate for Alden to have a full meal of leftovers. The chile bourbon syrup kicks chicken and waffles onto another level. So frickin tasty

I also made a cutting board.

After yesterday’s post I thought the project was completed. But no, not completely… how about the EML direct heated triodes? Tubes with their filament injector adapters and “portable” filament transformer. I had to decrease cathode resistors to approach a good offset. For the moment output current is set to approximately 19 mA, only 2 of 3 2SC4686 in each CCS are in work.

Small, Sunday morning breakfast, with an Earl Beige.

Outfrickenstanding work, Naaman.

Steve was a fantastic and giving guy. The world would be a much better place if we had more Steve's around. You are truly missed my friend.

Sustenance for two hard working cabinet makers.

A Scottish story in four parts:

RIP Anne Rice....read some of her earlier books and enjoyed. Couldn't get into as much later, but she basically kicked off a major genre of Romance-Horror. She was also a fan of one of my favorite musicians, Mary Fahl, and chose a song of Mary's to use in one of her Audiobooks. Also RIP to Al Unser....used to watch racing more in the 70's and he (and his whole family) were among the best!

Looks great Ian! Enjoy your new space. I got a peak at the other side of your "cutting block" today and it is awesome!

The 45 of “The Last Train to Clarksville” was a 10-year-old me’s first physical recording. 😪

That is so fucking cool.

I saw this recommended on one of the coffee forums: it’s a powder pesticide sprayer. The bellows on it fits the Niche perfectly. Makes cleaning out the grinder easier and much faster than a brush. Also allows you to get that last bit of grounds without tapping and what not.

I understand better than you know Stretch. I think you secretly want to wear that outfit. It's gotta cool Bowie meets Bryan Ferry vibe. I quite like it.

That makes sense, and that’s a nice work flow. I’m walking while listening to a virology podcast, and only medium caffeinated: don’t want the jitters!

Thanks, Jacob! The timer on the Lelit starts when I pull the lever. I have the Pearl set so it kicks off when it senses liquid. So I can time the pre-infusion via delta. I can lengthen it with the paddle. I took your advice and am leaving the paddle static for now. Once I'm a bit more confident I'll start swinging it again....before the pre-infusion was 9 sec's or so using the recommended approach on Clive Coffee's vid. I'll play around soon enough. Too many variables and I won't have a clue what's going on which I believe was your point. Highly caffeinated listening to good music out back...first world problems. HS

That sounds great to me, Sam! You are going to have a little variation on timing even using the same beans and same settings. Does that machine have an auto preinfusion? Also, make sure you are timing from when the pump starts (the Acaia should be sensitive enough to do that, but just wanted to make sure). I steam the milk first, then set it on a warmer, and then pull my shot. I find it to work better for me that way, but YMMV.

I think I'm beginning to find a groove that I can build on. I tried the 20 gr in and more out...stopped at 36. It takes approximately 7 seconds to see liquid out of the portafilter (machine shoots up to just over 10 bar). Flow begins with multiple small streams and then centers out into a single stream which is a nice improvement (good recommendation in the Crema distributor / tamper Jacob). The time it takes to get to 36 grams of liquid varies...once it was a total of 33 seconds and once 27 seconds including pre-infusion... I have no clue but that's OK. By the time I had my steamed milk/froth done the crema was down 0.5 oz and I had about 1.5 oz into my cappuccino. It was delicious. Steaming the milk now that I have a proper stainless pitcher is not difficult. I have no clue about latte art but I have all the milk and froth I want which is nice. I'll want to try a latte soon. Thanks to ER and grawk and others I may have left off for your generous pro tips! Sam

Made a latte today. First shot pulled using the Niche. 15. Worked great. 18.7 in, 41 out in 30 seconds (not including pre infusion). Not the best milk steaming I’ve ever done (used oat), but it was delicious.

Festive Pizza, Along with homemade shortbread and mince pies (and not shown all kinds of goodies including "hand couriered" Sainsbury's mince pies "that taste of home") at a seasonal festive gathering of the Brits.

The extra dust extraction port will be for vacuuming and for smaller tools like the sanding station that will sit on top of the cabinet as needed.

Oh, I’ve done all kinds. Oat milk works great, and while it doesn’t taste like milk it works similarly taste wise to me, almond is harder, but I like the taste better, soy is… well, it’s possible to do. Soy just doesn’t seem to have enough of whatever it is that does it. Also it’s awful. Where it really is is macadamia nut milk! It basically works the same way as whole milk, and tastes delicious (“my latte is a snickerdoodle!”).

Try Sown Oat Creamer. It’s a bit creamier than the “barista” from Oatley.

that's a nice watch

the only non-cow milk I've found to be successful for microfilm is "barista" oat milk

How is the project going? Have you listened to it yet?

Started gluing up some basic cabinet doors that I hope to be able to spray when it hits 60 degrees here next week.

Reverse seared

What knife? These ribeyes from the Fatted Calf actually spell out how much they cost!

What do you put on your cast iron tops?

This is quite normal. As the heatsink temperature rises, the Vbe of Q14 goes down (by about 2 mV/°C), the voltage between the bases of NPN and PNP output transistors decreases, the quiescent current of the output transistors goes down, which reduces the dissipation, causing the temperature to go down. In other words, the Vbe multiplier adds a negative temperature feedback loop, which maintains not the quiescent current (which it has no way of measuring) but the temperature of Q14. Eventually the system finds an equilibrium somewhere, and the temperature at equilibrium depends, among other things, on the thermal resistance of the heatsink. In practical terms, you adjust the bias to your liking (e.g. by the lowest distortion, or by the desired heatsink temperature, or by the power dissipated by the output transistors) and be happy.

Frank was life president of our running club - Abingdon AAC - and used to run with us back in the day. He was a real nutcase runner, and used to take his drivers for a run around a F1 circuit so they could "understand" the circuit better. He was fast! Then, aged 44 and on his way to the Airport in the South of France, focusing on a half marathon he was going to run he next day in London, lost control of the car, broke his neck and became tetraplegic, living the last 35 years wheelchair-bound. He was always very accepting of what happened to him, with a ready smile. Born in South Shields, and a Geordie like me. RIP Frank, you were a real character on all sorts of levels.

Perhaps the range of the Vbe multiplier (resistors and/or pot) needs to be adjusted if you want to use the larger heatsink and lower temperature? Not sure what is best in this case but sometimes a certain temperature is targeted (such as 50C in another design).

It really made my life a lot easier when I started to use integrated schematic. But if schematic is wrong, this might happen… Interesting project you have, AlexS.

if you use a circuit board system with integrated schematic, if the schematic is right, the layout has to be right. Believe me i have found out the hard way.

I was at my partner’s great-uncle’s funeral this past weekend. He was the patriarch of the clan. Heather’s family is Scottish: he came over after Korea, with his wife from Jersey (a story in and of itself). He was bigger than life in some ways, and kind and decent, and everything I’ve heard says to me that I’m sad I didn’t get to meet him. It was sorrowful, and happy in remembrance, and I got to see her family again (they have absolutely welcomed me, and I appreciate them so much). I wore my Drive Extra Flat. I wore it because I thought “boy, this watch is beautiful on my dresser, but leaves me cold on the wrist, but selling a watch is such a pain in the ass so I never have done so, so I should probably wear it.” At the wake, after, the youngest adult grand-daughter of the decedent, whom I adore (vibrant, smart, fun as hell, striking out on her own at the end of her college career in secondary education and the first openly gay member of the family) kept looking at my wrist (jacket off and sleeves rolled up). I of course noticed. She finally got around to asking what the watch was, because she just was fascinated and loved it. I took it off and handed it to her and told her what it was and said “try it on.” There have been a few times where I have seen somebody’s life just shift a little by an object. I of course immediately said it was hers. Sending the box and papers off to her tomorrow. I’m sure she’ll wear it for the rest of her life, and she’ll remember me every time she puts it on, when I’m long gone. I have a form of “seller’s remorse” now, of course: it was so damned pretty on my dresser! Thought the ‘case watch people would like the little story. Watches aren’t worth anything if they aren’t worn. [Edits because I got some of the family details wrong as I thought about it.]

It’s a troublesome, difficult time – all shortages of components. KSC5026 might be replaced by STN0214 in a KGSSHV style PSU. Solder it in standing, bend outer “pins” slightly outwards if necessary.

I'm very sad to report that our very own Carl Stephen "ironbut" Koto passed away on July 2, presumably from the lung cancer he informed us about in late May. Several of us have been concerned about his absence and both Ric and I (and maybe others) tried calling him to no avail, eventually receiving notice that the line was no longer in service. I tried searching for information but did not find anything until this morning I finally found a death notice for Carl Koto in Eugene, Oregon at age 66, and that must be him. 😢 Steve was a great and gentle guy and a fantastic Head-caser. His reel to reel rig will be remembered as one of the all-time best headphone experiences for many, many people. I'm happy that he had a few years of retirement in Eugene when he could make music and take it easy, but it truly sucks that he didn't have longer. Just to prove how humble and unassuming Steve was, I couldn't find a decent picture of him so I hope others can find more to post here. RIP Steve, you will be missed.

RIP Michael Nesmith 🥲 https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/monkees-michael-nesmith-dead-1270079/amp/