Finally some proper pictures of the laptop.

The laptop is still in a "temporary unless it works" stage of completion.  But its done enough to put some better pictures up online.  I think it needs some detail work around the screen and a space bar and some arrow keys.  But the big work of replacing a dodgy motherboard is complete, and as a bonus I DIDNT break the speaker connector this time and the wooden laptop has functional speakers again!

I think i need some sort of plaque or brass apple logo for the lid.

Euro-style Repair stand

You know those fancy euro stands that are so HOT these days?  Ive been thinking for years, "thats basicly a roof rack, I could make that."

Well then i did.  It took a trip to home depot for about $45 worth of parts, and the bits left over from a early generation Yakima rack (the two piece kind).

Here is the before.  The main thing was the runout table meant for ripping long boards on a table saw.

And TA-DA!  It took a couple tries to get the balance right, but it is surprisingly stable considering the width of the legs.

The fork holder is the front half of a roof rack, I had to file it a bit to fit over the square tubing, but its quite solid.  the BB rests on a short wheel tray, with padding.  This gives some range for different size bikes and should let cable move freely to work on shifting.  So far i havnt needed to secure the BB.  It all folds pretty flat, smaller than a traditional tripod stand.

a "win a cargo bike" contest got me to post on this.

Look!  Fancy Cargo bikes!  Perfect for carrying around small humans, or possibly medium humans.  And look how much fun that fancy fellow is having wearing a foppish hat!

Id like to win one for free, so I posted this HTML.  wish me luck!

Old Boats (of the Ye Olde)

We went to the Adirondaks for the 4th and on the last day hit the Adirondak museum.  There is a whole building FULL of old boats.  Its a pretty amazing collection of canoes and fancy old speed boats.

This is a older style rowing shell, built for cargo as much as speed.

This is power boat called a "sled" which is the first flatbottom hull, which led to modern race boats and eventually to hydroplanes.  I love how this is still from the time when craft was important and wood was cheap.  Check out the huge Evenrude outboard, one of the first.

Once White folk stole Canoes from Natives Americans, they started "improving" them.

This is a Sailing canoe, known as a "poor mans Yacht" though they cost $170 at the time, and the people making them would have to work for almost a year to afford one.

These were the coolest, Adirondack GuideBoats.  A cargo canoe that could be rowed by a single person.  They were used by Guides who were hired by vacationers, called "sports".  The sport sat at the stern with a paddle, but often did no work.  The boats were built to carry gear but also to be light enough for the guide to portage solo between lakes.  They are Badass!

The museum has a sort of "living history" program where a boat builder-in-residence builds an authentic guide boat that is auctioned off each year.  This one was start last june.  The previous boat sold for $24k.  they are so Pretty!

This is another broken bicycle

This is what happens when bikes fall down and then other bikes fall on top of them.  It is sad.  The crack in this seatstay actually goes half way around the stay and all the way through the laminate.  When I flexed the stay, i could look inside it. (there was not much to see)

FUJI has a pretty decent crash replacement policy but it still means paying roughly cost on a new frame (just south of a thousand bones)  so it ended up being more cost effective for me to repair the damage.

After sanding all the paint off around the repair I did a structural repair with 4 layers of Uni.  This is compression wrapping to make sure all the new layers bind properly to each other and the remaining carbon on either side of the break.

it looked like this once it was cured, each layer got longer than the one below it, to transfer the load past the break.  Thats why a crack ends up being a 4 inch patch.  It will also help in the finish work so that the repair is smoother and easier to blend.

Here is the final, "cosmetic" layer.  it also adds strength and has better impact resistance than the uni.  I had planned to paint clear over the repair and wanted the cloth look, but ended up going for red since i couldnt get a clean paint break on the complex profile of the stay.  You can see the fairing compound i used to smooth the stay before priming it.

And hear is the final repair.  Its the middle of racing season so I did not spend the extra time to mix and spray high end paint.  So there it is obvious that something was done to the bike.  But beyond the paint break the repair blended into the stay really nicely.  I was even able to clean up around the dropouts where the impact cracked some paint and bondo off the AL parts.

HOORAY FOR FIXING BIKES!

Another un-dressed Mac

This one isnt mine, and should end the computer themed things for a bit.

A co-worker had some fall related hinge issues on her macbook pro.  It turned out the frame and hinge mounts for the screen were bent, and also made of aluminum.  So there was not much to be done.  But it was fun to take it apart anyway!

Now that ive had a few different mac laptops apart its weird to see a square battery like this one has.  

Ive actually taken apart the battery (sadly no pics) and they are surprisingly made up of AA sized Cells!  Who knew?

macbook BRAINS!

If you are a nerd, or a computer zombie, you will enjoy this.

Coffee was spilled (to use the passive voice) on a black macbook.  The macbook was taken to the apple store and deemed a loss, the hard drive remove and enclosed.  The macbook came into my possession as a project, or at least some fast money on ebay.  I was able to find a replacement logic board on ebay and an amazing step-by-step teardown on ifixit.com (check it out if you like looking inside of your electronics).

This entry is being typed on the resurrected macbook.  The picture is of the coffee damaged logic board which was removed.  Im thinking of cutting it down, bedding it in epoxy or acrylic, and making an ironic coffee holder for the original owner of the laptop.

If you are trying to get your bearings, all of the plugs on the left side are the ports (USB, firewire, headphones, display....).  The lower edge are the RAM sockets.  The two green squares are possibly the cores, the gray paste is where they bed against the heatsink and fan, which are not in the picture.

Now that I know that the inside of a computer is just filled with parts, and not magic or elves, i'm hooked on this kind of thing.  Coming soon I will have to replace the logic board in the steampunk laptop (it kernel panics when i move it).  I also keep getting very close to figuring out how to make a fake ipad by changing the hinges on a laptop to let the screen fold all the way around to the back side of the case.

stay tuned..!