Year: 2018

CRT2018: Oregon Coast Aquarium

We visited the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, Oregon on day three of our road trip. This is basically the only photo we got. I never bother to take any in aquariums - it's usually pretty dark, and the reflections off of the glass make sure that nothing ever comes out. But this one was pretty neat - some of the tanks had spots where kids could crawl underneath, then pop up in a bubble 'inside' the tank. This aquarium also had a really good tunnel through their big tanks - it had glass not only overhead, but part of the floor was glass as well. Carter really dug the touch-tank here - she learned that if you carefully slide a finger between the spines of a sea urchin, they will squeeze you finger and give you a little 'hug' (to figure out if you are food!).

CRT2018: Sea Lions

One thing we saw in Astoria was wild seals and sea lions. They appear to have taken over this dock in the harbor. They were pig-piled on top of each and covered every square inch - in some places they were three deep. It was pretty loud (and smelly) right down at the pier - our hotel was fairly close to this spot, and we could hear them barking all night long. But between closing the window and the heavy curtains it blocked out enough of the noise for it be distant and fun, rather than keeping us up all night.

CRT2018: Cannon Beach

Near Astoria is Cannon Beach, which is pretty famous for the view. (And as another side note for Goonies fans, this is the beach where Mikey finds the stones that match the dubloon!) This was our first real taste of what the next three days along the Oregon coast were going to be like. Almost the whole coast of Oregon looks like this - it's ridiculous. Every time you think that must be it, another view comes along and knocks the wind out of you again.

CRT2018: Astoria, Oregon

Our first major stop of the trip was in Astoria, Oregon. Astoria is right at the mouth of the Columbia River, and across the river from Washington state. There were lots of giant container ships in the port - it's really hard to get a sense of just how big they were from the photos.

Walking along the riverfront pathway in Astoria, we walked by this picturesque abandoned building. Not sure what it used to be - maybe some sort of fish processing station? I loved the look of it, and the light was just right.

For those who don't know, one of my favorite childhood movies - The Goonies - was filmed in Astoria. For fellow fans, the house right in the middle of the next photo is Mikey's house from the movie, and the one directly to the right of it (all you can see is the roof) is Data's house. They're privately owned now and you can't really go see them, but I thought it was cool to catch sight of them from the river walk.

CRT2018: Washington State

This year's road trip with Carter started in Portland, Oregon. We dipped just into Washington state to get credit for the state (although we'll be back to explore it more thoroughly in the future). This was the view from the Washington side of the Columbia River, just a few miles from where it meets the ocean.

Nixie Tube Clock

I've been wanting to build a Nixie tube clock for many years now, but the high voltage required always scared me off. Recently I was looking online for a step-up power supply to try to finally build it, and found a site that sold a pre-built Nixie clock board for less than the parts would have cost me. So I ordered one, and built an enclosure for it. The outer enclosure is painted pine, and the 'face' is bubinga that I CNC cut around the Nixie tubes.

Welcome Amber!

We adopted a new dog about a month ago - we finally wore down Lori's resistance! Her name is Amber, and she's about 2 years old and about 50 pounds. She's more or less the best dog I've ever seen. She's had no accidents, she loves to snuggle (but not *too* much), and loves to play (but also, not *too* much). She's fit right in so far, and it feels like she's been with us forever already.

Moon Cake

Carter made this "moon cake" a couple of weeks ago. She baked it in a big Pyrex bowl to give it a half-globe shape. She also experimented with fondant for the first time to make the decorations. She tried to carve out "craters" in the sides of the cake, but they didn't quite work. She learned a lot from this one, and if she had to do it all over again it would definitely go a lot smoother!

Metal Stock Drawers

Now that I'm starting to gather more materials for working with the metal lathe, I needed somewhere to store it. So I used some old plywood and pine to build this no-frills set of drawers to hold all my stock. I separated it by type (steel, aluminum, brass, etc.). I've still got a few empty drawers for the future.

Tailstock Die Holder

One thing I've been doing a lot of lately on the lathe is cutting threads. One trouble with cutting threads with a handheld die holder is keeping the die precisely perpendicular to the work - even something that looks perfect to the eyeball might be a degree or two off, which can be pretty noticeable when the surfaces don't make perfect contact when you screw them together. And it isn't like with wood, where you can force the joint a bit and crush everything together slightly to hide a slightly-off joint. So one solution to this problem is make a die holder that rides on the tailstock, to keep it both perfectly aligned with the axis of the lathe and perpendicular to the shaft being threaded. Over the past couple of weekends I've been making my old tailstock die holder, as you can see below. The tapered shaft on the left mounts in the tailstock, and the die holder (on the right) rides on the narrower half of the shaft (which isn't tapered). The narrow bar in the middle can be screwed into the body of the die holder if a little more torque is required. The recess at the end of the die holder is where the round dies are mounted when in use. The die holder was made from aluminum (to keep it light), and the rest of the parts are made of steel. This was my first experience turning steel. It went better than I expected, but I've got some reading to do to learn what cutting tool edge geometry works best for steel.