Mini-Foundry to Melt Aluminum, Construction and First Attempted Use

My friend Phil pointed me towards this YouTube video in which Grant Thompson (GT) demonstrates how to build a mini-foundry that you can use to melt Aluminum at home and out of common materials, so I decided to try it for myself.  This post will describe how I built it, largely following what GT did in his video demonstration, and a first attempt at using it to melt aluminum.

Welding a bottom bracket to my bike

The bottom bracket on a bike is essentially what connects the pedals to the frame and allows them to rotate.  I had replaced the bottom bracket on my bike awhile back, and then a few months ago it came loose.  I initially tried just tightening it down, then tried locktite (red); neither worked to hold it in place.  I took it to a bike shop and asked them about cleaning up the threads, they looked at it and said, "What threads?  There's nothing left."  At that point I decided to try to weld it (TIG welding), but it was ultimately not successful - the welds were very messy, the arc was behaving erratically, and although initially I was able to ride the bike, after~ 4 rides to and from work the welds broke and I was back to where I started.  This post describes my second attempt at welding, which I think will ultimately be more successful.

Edit:  I forgot to mention - I did this work at Artisan's Asylum in Somerville.  They are fantastic!

Attempted repair of a FitBit Flex

I had an old Fitbit Flex that had stopped working so I decided to try to fix it. (Important note:  Fitbit had given me a free replacement - that's pretty great of them.  I tried this fix after losing the replacement).

The problem I had with this Flex was that the battery got low and then it would not recharge.  My idea was to charge it "manually" by somehow creating a better connection to the Flex from my DC power supply.  Using my multimeter I wasn't able to measure any voltage across any combination of the 3 pins, so my next step was to try to determine which pins should have power or be used to try to charge the Flex.

Electric Imp Thermostat

I decided to build a thermostat out of an electric imp, which will then be easily controlled remotely and with arbitrary complex programming based on any conceivable input / data.

Starting components, from upper left: electric imp, TMP36 temperature sensor, solid state relay, electric imp breakout board, perf board.  Not pictured:  op-amp

Shortest path - around the circumference or rectilinear path through

I was out running and I was faced with this approximate situation:

Thoughts about traffic

These are thoughts I've had about traffic, basically since I first started thinking about it when I first really experienced it in Philadelphia in the mid-90's.  One thing that has really surprised me is that during the TD 5 Boro bike ride in New York City (Spring 2015), the bicycle density was so high that conditions were comparable to car traffic - and I saw the same patterns of behavior!

Why I bike to work and around in general

This started as an email to my friend Kevin, but then I realized I'd like to share it more broadly and keep it somewhere I could find it more readily.  It's the rationale and data I've accumulated about biking.  The vast majority of my commute is by bike - I live in Boston, MA and I bike year round, mostly regardless of the weather (snow, rain etc.).  I also bike for fun occasionally on the weekends, but this post deals with commuting.