My “Summer Reading List” has been getting a bit long, with Post-Its everywhere. So, I decided to pull out an old Palm V that my friend mailed to me a while back. As my brother Dave would say: Perfect for what it does. It’s small, it’s light, and it still works after 10 years. Take that, smart phones.

Anyhow, I did have a problem with the Palm Desktop 4.1 software and the Palm 5. The digitizer kept getting out of whack after every sync. I tried stuff like Digifix, but it didn’t do anything. Finally, I ran across this post. It worked for me, so I thought I’d repost:

The bad digitizer function most likely is result of the desktop version you are utilizing.

Starting with version 4.1 and newer the problem began to appear, for users with the original bundled version that upgraded and those that utilizied the download for new desktop installs.

The UPDATE folder created during the install provides OS updates to th eunits automatically, and unfortunately the updates inclduded are not friendly or compatible with the V and Vx models, (only)?

To correct, with My Computer, locate the \Palm\Updates folder and rename to WrongUpdates.

Then since you already have hotsynced, locate the \Palm\[truncated user name]\Backup folder and rename to OLDbackup.

Then HARD Reset the Vx to clear all contents and confirm digitizer function restored.

Now perform a Hotsync, selecting same user name as the backup folder was renamed. This will establish the correct folder structure and new backup folder with the correct system files and preferences. And post HS the digitizer should be yet functional.

Digifix is an utility employed by many handheld users, V and Vx especialy, it will be beneficial if another compatibility isssue arises with a third party app that can occur.

Forgive the slow posting. Our summer vacation turned into an exercise in illness, and we’ve both been sick since late June. With any luck, health will return, and with it innovation.

While scanning through the blogs today I saw the results of a survey. The survey asked what people would like robots to do for them. People wanted robots which:

• Clean the floors
• Clean the windows
• Clean blah blah blah

In other words, people wanted a maid.

What didn’t they want from a robot?

• Driving
• Helping children
• Keeping one company

If you were designing robots you’d take this and say “well, I guess I better make a robot maid” to which I would say “you’re out of your fucking mind”.

In other words: Ignore the results.

Why? Because a survey tells you what people are thinking about now, and the “now” is just about as useless as you can get. Honestly, how many people do you know — yourself included — who are visionary? Almost nobody.

Ask someone 10 years ago if they needed / wanted a web based video streaming service. Ask them about storing thousands of songs and applications on a phone. Ask then about a way to connect with old friends and play inane games hours on end. Would they want / need this stuff? Probably not.

That’s the point with innovation. If you follow the survey, you’ll develop a bunch of fucking robot vacuums. Instead, you should be developing for markets that don’t yet exist.

It’s not rocket science. Just look around you. What is more important to people — having a clean floor, or having someone to talk to? I’ll wager that most people would like a companion, human or robot, before they want a maid.

I’ve written about my Dahon Folding Bike before. It’s the one that I configured as a city apartment bike (read more here). The Dahon is a fun bike to ride. With its tiny tires you feel like you’re on a kids bike. It has a three speed hub gear system, so it’s easy to use. And it has fenders and chain guards, so you don’t have to be outfitted in bicycling gear to ride it.

While I had previously outfitted it with a lighting system, etc, it was lacking a good way to carry stuff. It has a really nice rear rack — but the wheels are so small that you can’t use regular pannier bags. It needed something like a milk crate.

Trouble with milk crates is that they look like milk crates. And any attempt to make it look nicer simply resulting in a nicer looking milk crate. I’d have to build my own.

So, out come some 1×12 scrap boards, and some knowledge recently gained from a new Super Secret Project. Here is the core:

The front, angled parts, and sides are all 1×12 pine boards. The front is 6″, angled 4″, and sides 8″. These dimensions were chosen because (a) my scrap of wood was only 30″ long and (b) it just happens to be exactly the right size for my rack.

In this shot you can see the angle cuts:

This is where having a gigantic miter saw really paid off. I was able to make those 22.5 degree bevel cuts right on the Makita. You can also use a portable circular saw, a good straight edge, and a steady hand.

Why 22.5 degrees? Because if you cut your lumber equally you’ll make a hexagon. I wanted a hexagon-like shape for my box, since I didn’t want it to look like a cube. The other huge added benefit it that the angled parts allow my feet to clear — if I made a cube my my pedals/feet would have whacked into the box. Luckily, my aesthetic choice was also a good usability choice.

The sides were glued up and allowed to dry using a strap clamp to hold it in place (this was a big pain and the hardest part of the project).

If you look carefully in the above photo you can see that I also used small pieces (cut at 45 degree angles) as braces. Why 45 degrees? Because 45 + 22.5 + 22.5 = 90. Geometry in action. The braces are glued in and then bradded (using 2″ brads — thank goodness for my DeWalt nail gun).

Again, by lucky happenstance, my scrap lumber and it’s dimensions lead me to one very important conclusion: It’s ideally sized to hold a 6 pack of bottled beer. If you are going to build your own, make sure it can accommodate 6″ x 8″ x 10″ tall. Unless you drink from cans, then you can reduce the height.

For the back, I used a piece of scrap 5mm plywood held in place with brads. You can use 1x if you have it (I was out). The bottom is another piece of high-quality 1×12 that I’ve had around. It’s held in place with about eight 1 5/8″ deck screws. Make sure the bottom is fastened well — it’s the primary mounting point to the bike.

Now that I knew this would hold beer, or a picnic lunch, or both, it was important to add some insulation. Two reasons for this: (a) to keep stuff cool in the hot Texas summer and (b) to keep things from rattling around while I’m riding.

I had some spare garage door insulator lying around (it’s like silvered bubble swap) which would work perfectly:

The insulation on the sides is one piece, held in place with construction adhesive. The bottom is more insulation, but is NOT adhered to the bottom. It has to be removable so that you can bolt the box to the bike rack.

This being Austin, I knew that I couldn’t leave the box plain black. That would be too boring. So we finally put to use some of the many, many bottle caps we have collected:

The caps are hot glued to a piece of Kommerling Komacel. Komacel is a plastic material that is weatherproof, cuts like wood, and can be purchased in a variety of colors. It’s a great material to work with. We had a scrap of white, so I spray painted it matte black. The resulting panel is then mounted to the rear 5mm back using 4 machine screws and nuts.

You can see that the top is cut to mirror the shape of the box, has the edges rounded over, and then mounted with a single hinge. Since I was out of larger boards, I biscuited and glued up two 1×6 boards and then cut to shape. Insulation was also glued into place so that the entire box is insulated.

Next up, some designs for the side:

A nighttime test ride:

I’ll try and get some photos of how the box gets mounted to the rack, and some more of the top.

For the final touches, we’ll decorate the sides some more, and probably put a latch (perhaps magnetic) on the lid so it doesn’t bounce around. (I noticed a little movement in the top — mainly because I used a cheap leftover hinge. If you have one, use a piano hinge.)

Our prototype panel is above. We decided that the black background looked better than white.

I’ve been doing a good deal of IT work, so nothing exciting to report there. It has kept me out of the shop, but is necessary to get food on the table and rent checks paid.

The coop stuff has tapered off a bit since the pre and post tour rush. This is a good thing, as we have two big projects in the works (non coop related). One is an art-type product which we will be selling through one of the crafty stores (ex. Esty). The other isn’t a product, but a fun thing that might lead to other stuff. It’s all very hush-hush because it’s Halloween related. I’ll leave you with that as a teaser.

Things around the house are pretty everyday. We’re growing a small garden this year (all it pots). Tomatoes (we’ve already harvested 6), bell peppers, Serranos, jalapeños, Anaheim, along with a few flowers. All the peppers have been grown from seed, with two plants surviving from last year, so that’s been fun for Evelyn. This is the first time we’ve raised vegetables. It’s nice having a back yard.

With some prodding from Evelyn, I finally pulled out our two bikes (the nice ones we got in PR — which have been in storage for 4 years). Surprisingly they survived pretty well, only needing air in their very flat tires. I might need to clean up my chain a bit, but otherwise it’s running fine.

We managed to take short rides over the Memorial Day weekend, but the last day or so has been rainy, so no riding. To motivate me I’ve put the bikes inside the house, in the front room. This makes it easier to get them out of the house (we have no service door on our garage) and I have to look at them — meaning I’m more likely to get out and ride. (The guilt factor.) They say that after 21 days you get into a habit, and riding a bike is a habit I need to get back to after all these years.

Boring, but useful for anyone writing Reports in MS Access 2K7.

I found that the Report Builder was VERY slow. Every time you moved a field around, resized, etc it would lock up for a few seconds. Extremely annoying when you are trying to organize a new report.

I found that if I turned off error checking it dramatically improved the situation. Go under Office button, Access Options. Go to Object Designers and scroll down to the bottom. Under Error Checking, uncheck “check for common report errors”.

You may also want to turn off other Error checking if you find them unnecessary. Shutting that stuff off speeds up the designers.

It’s been busy. About a coop a week through most of March and April. And the IT work. So I’ve unfortunately not had a lot of time to blog. Ah well.

One think I’d like to mention: If you want to save your hearing, buy better tools.

You see, we’ve been gradually upgrading our shop from our first-time tools (like the Skil miter saw, Rockler HVLP sprayer, Arrow stapler) to something more production worthy (Makita miter, Earlex sprayer, DeWalt electric nailer). It’s been a gradual swap-out, as the cheaper tools have either failed, have started to fail, or could not longer support the strain we put on them.

What I’ve found is this: With each (big) upgrade we’ve had a big decrease in sound levels. The Makita saw, while far larger and more powerful than the Skil, is at least 1/2 the loudness. When our $120 Chinese special HVLP sprayer started dying, I went to an English made Earlex — and it’s about 1/3rd as loud as the cheapie. And so on.

The loudness is important for a couple of reasons. First, we have a home shop, and want to be respectful of our neighbors. We realize that hearing banging or cutting all day long is no fun. Second, the quieter it is, the less stressful it is. I find I can cut longer, with less aggravation, with the quieter saw. (Even though I’d use earplugs.) Sure, the saw is of higher quality and makes better cuts, but the decrease in noise seems to make cutting more enjoyable.

In general, I’m finding that a quieter tool is a better made tool. Better fit and finish. Higher quality parts. More attention to detail. My loudest tools are also my cheapest.

I removed my “old” scrap wood boxes from the sides of my cart, replacing them with some new “wings” for my Makita miter saw. Actually, more like re-purposing. I took the boxes apart and used them for the wings. They were 1×12 material, so gave me the size I wanted.

Here is the left-hand (feed) side:

A 24″ long 1×12 is bolted to the cart (just like the scrap boxes were) using a couple of 1/4″ bolts. To keep things strong and level, I added two 2×4s cut at 45 degree miters. They act as braces for the top. The work surface is another 1×12 standing on a couple of short 2×4s. The 2×4s, with some washers, bring the deck to exactly the same level as the saw.

If I had put the saw on a new deck, I wouldn’t have needed this more complicated setup. However, I was trying to avoid buying more lumber and wanted to re-use what I had on-hand.

Everything is pine, which isn’t exactly the most stable material, but it will do for now. I “finished” the top with a couple of layers of the ever-stinky Johnson’s Paste Wax.

I used the wing for all of my cuts — what a difference it makes! The extra support on the left side is amazingly helpful. And I really don’t lose any space — my scrap can fits right under the wing. This is great, as I can just toss odds and ends right in.

After finishing my cuts, I noticed that I could use some support on the right (out-feed) side. I’ve been playing around with this design:

On this side, I need it to drop / stow out of the way, because I have very little room in the shop (see band saw in right background). So, I attached the wing to the existing handle on the cart. Now I need a way to keep it in place while cutting (right now I’m using a little clamp, visible). Since this is just the out-feed, and I usually use 1×4s, this is a 1×6 piece of pine cut to 24″.

Update: Ye old saw is shifting around on my baker’s cart, throwing off the alignment (and height) of the side wings. Looks like I’m gonna have to build a new platform after all. Ah, well. I’ll make it out of MDF, which is a lot more stable (less likely to warp).

There is a line in a Doctor Who story which goes something like: Immortality is a curse, not a blessing. I feel that way about multitasking.

You’d think that computers and smart phones and whatnot would make people better at multitasking, but then you’d be looking at it the wrong way. Those devices don’t make it easier to multitask, they force you to multitask — and the human brain is notoriously bad at switching between goals. While recent studies have shown that we can manage two (yes, only two) tasks at once pretty well, the brain takes a huge hit when switching between tasks. Some people have better built brains and can switch faster, but the switching happens nonetheless.

This, of course, is why drivers have become even more incompetent than ever. Most of them are staring down at glowing screens instead of focusing on moving a multi-ton wheeled piece of steel along pavement. Take a look at your fellow drivers at the next stop light — that is, if you aren’t yourself looking at your phone.

But we’re supposed to be doing twenty things at once! I can get more done than other people! I’m efficient!

Hogwash.

My time in the shop has taught me many things. One of which is that multitasking slows you down and puts you in danger.

If I focus on just one task — and put my other responsibilities out of my mind temporarily — I can get the task in front of me done faster and better than if I was worrying about something else at the same time. I think that this is the Zen-like mindset that woodworkers often talk about — you are solely focused on the one task, so that big brain of yours can dedicate its resources to get the job done right.

The danger part? Well, every single time I almost (or actually) hurt myself in the shop was because I was distracted or otherwise multitasking. Worrying about the next cut instead of the one in front of me, trying to solve another problem while working on something else, and so on.

Single-tasking has become so important to my work process that I come across as brusque or angry. Not so. I’m forcing myself to focus on the one task at hand, to the exclusion of all others. I’d love to answer your chat, but I’m working on something else. I can’t talk about my to-do list, because I’m busy focused on scratching things off that list.

A couple of months ago I realized that our miter saw was on the way out. While the “old” (10 months) Skil saw did a good job, it just isn’t able to handle production work. It was getting sloppy on 45 degree miters — which was deadly to us, since our coops use those cuts extensively. Something like 64 miters and 48 bevels and dozens and dozens of straight cuts. In other words, our miter saw is really important.

I knew my upgrade would require a couple of things:

• Greater depth of cut. My little 10″ Skil could barely handle a 1×6.
• Greater height of cut. The Skil had trouble with 1×4s on edge.
• More accuracy. I need a tool that’s less likely to be sloppy.
• Something pro level which could handle production work.

After looking around, I decided to go with the brand new Makita LS1216L 12-Inch Dual Slide Compound Miter Saw.

Now, in typical fashion, I’m going from a $100 entry level saw to a $650 high-end beast. It’s kinda like moving from a Hyundai Accent to a BMW 6 Series. This side by side gives you an example:

The photo doesn’t give really great scale — the Makita is far bigger than the Skil. Mainly in depth, because it has a much bigger depth of cut. How much? Well, here is the Skil:

Realistically, the Skil can cut about 5 1/2″ — almost — at zero degrees. It’s a fixed 10″, so that’s pretty fair. (It’s not a fault of the saw — that’s just the limitation.)  Now look at the Makita:

That’s right — it will handle a 15″ cut — almost 3 times what my Skil could. This is approaching Radial Arm Saw territory (saws which, unfortunately, are rarely sold anymore). Why in the heck get such a reach when most of your stuff is 1×4 and 1×6?

Well, because we also make owl boxes and Leopold benches. And that’s 1×10, 2×10, and 2×12 material. Currently, I have to cut all of those free-hand with a circular saw. Which means cutting the angles with a Speed Square, which takes time. By having such an enormous depth, I can make a majority of my cuts on the miter saw — which is far faster and more accurate.

The table swings 52 degrees left and 60 right, which beats the 45 limits on the old saw. And it bevels in both directions (left and right), 45 degrees each way.  And notice the gigantic fences on this saw — it can cut up to 8″ crown molding. Now, I’m not planning on doing trim work, but it’s nice having the capacity.

Lucky for me, my little portable stand I made is just big enough to place the saw on:

With me in the photo you can get a better sense of scale. The saw is sitting on a 24″ x 18″ deck and it takes up that entire space.

Above, you can also see that the motor is set at a 45 degree angle — this keeps it away from your work and allows it to cut that tall molding. This is a godsend for me, as the motor assembly on my old Skil used to knock into the work all the time.

The motor has smooth start and a good electronic brake. It’s remarkably quiet — I’d say about half as loud at the old one! This was a VERY pleasant surprise for me, as the Skil is noisy (I had to wear earplugs and use only during the day). I can use this one in the evening (if need be) and feel less like a bad neighbor. The blade stops in probably 1/4 the time of the old saw. Just a few seconds.

My initial impressions are positive. The saw has a huge reach, is well built, quiet (for a power tool), and looks to be a fine addition to my shop. The true test will be tomorrow — when I make about 500 cuts.

Update #1

• My first runner up for this saw was a sliding Hitachi. I liked the feel of the Hitachi better than other brands in the store. This is a brand-new saw, so I couldn’t test it in-store first. However, the older / smaller models had good reviews, and I’ve been very happy with my Makita drills.
• It’s assembled in the USA. Being a US based manufacturer myself, I appreciate this.
• I’m going to re-rig my rolling cart so that my scrap storage bins act as “wings”. The saw comes with no external tables/supports.

Update #2

• Spent the morning making a new lead-in “wing” for the saw. My advice to miter saw owners? Make at least a lead-in wing — better yet, one on each side. I never realized how useful these are until I had them in place. Makes cutting a LOT easier — and you have a work surface right at saw height.
• Make lots of 45 miter and bevel cuts today. The tall fence makes bevel cuts a lot easier.
• With my new “wing” on the left, I was able to set up a temporary jig-like setup for cutting some of my door parts. This sped up the process a lot.
• An accurate laser is a wonderful thing. I could line up the laser to my tape, avoiding marking. Must faster cutting. The Makita laser is extremely accurate.
• The quick electric brake means I cut properly with this saw — I wait for the blade to stop, like I should.
• The lower noise is a godsend. So much more comfortable to work with the saw for longer periods of time.
• I’m going to install a Kreg measuring system on my left side, to make repeat production work easier.