Decisions, decisions

The CNC book arrived quicker than I expected. It was a fun read, flipping through the pages and figuring out the design mechanics. That got me started on a lot more reading and Googling. Turns out there are actually a lot of different DIY CNC plans floating around the internet, and whole forums dedicated to their construction!

To summarize an entire evening of Googling and reading into the wee late hours, I stumbled upon the Solsylva CNC plan site, and purchased a set of plans for the Solsylva 25x25 CNC machine. This came in the form of a very large PDF file filled with great-looking instructions and plans for what seems to be a very solid looking machine. It was basically between the Solsylva and the "book" machine, and what it came down to for me was that I was far more comfortable working with dimensional lumber than drilling countless bore holes into pieces of MDF. That's just personal opinion.

Of course at this point everything is still very theoretical. I've done a lot of reading but haven't actually, you know, built anything yet...

DIY CNC?

I haven't posted much to the blog because I promised myself I wouldn't be that guy who always posts "sorry I haven't posted to the blog" posts. There just isn't that much to talk about.

This week, however, I started making the first steps down a road that could potentially be worth blogging about:

I want to build a CNC machine.

This is possibly the biggest impulse "I want it!" I have ever had, besides this and this. I stumbled on MAKE magazine and saw a feature article about some guys that published a book about how to make your own CNC machine using little more than MDF boards and aluminum angle. It all just clicked. Woodworking, robotics, motors, computer control: it's all there!

I promised my camp colleagues that I would create a bunch of signs around the campsite. I had previously looked for router letter templates or instructions on how to route the signs freehand. With my own CNC machine, I could just program the design into a CAD/CAM package and let it rip!

But really, that's just a justification. I already know I want to do this. It's a great excuse to get my hands dirty again. I've always loved playing with electronics. I had one of those Radio Shack project kits with the sproingy terminals that showed you how to create, like magic, your own radio, or sound maker. As a kid I had all kinds of designs for robots I was going to build -- one day. In high school I sketched out a schematic for a Z80 based computer -- from scratch. I built my own digital clock, one chip at a time, on a breadboard in first year university -- just for fun. My fourth-year project in university was a pan/tilt camera controller for a robotic vehicle. But I haven't touched any of that stuff since then -- 10 years ago.

It's time to get busy again! I've already ordered the book.

Haiku Movie Review: Iron Man 2

Loud, fast paced and fun.
Need to see the first one now.
I'd see this again.

This is why I want an iPad!

Well, one of the reasons, anyway.

Check out these screenshots from a new app called OnSong:





If this app is anywhere near what the screenshots and write-up make it look like, then I could see this being an absolutely fantastic tool, especially at camp when I'm flipping through chord charts for songs around the campfire. All my songs in one place -- no more loose sheets of paper that get lost, torn or trampled on. The ability to dynamically transpose chords, look up chord fingerings, the fact that it's a backlit LCD screen instead of a paper and a flashlight...

I was totally "meh" about the iPad until I realized that apps like this were possible. Now I'm very excited to see one for myself when they're released in Canada next month.

Fool me twice...

I stopped by Tim Horton's again this morning.

I ordered a donut.

Fool me once...

As fate would have it, I was in a rush, needed breakfast, and stopped at the local Tim Horton's again. This time I thought I'd order a Bagel B.E.L.T. sandwich.

With bacon, I stressed. I felt it may have been redundant, given that B.E.L.T. stands for bacon, egg, lettuce, and tomato. But if experience is any indicator...

Sure enough, when I got to the sandwich counter, I watched as the employee took some bacon out of the little drawer (convenient!) and put it into my...

Homestyle biscuit sandwich??

Granted, I suppose I should have been suspicious when the cashier failed to ask me to specify what kind of bagel I wanted.

Bacon? Sausage? Who cares...

Aww, screw it.

Last week I wrote a big long rant here before about, of all things, a Tim Horton's breakfast sandwich, and how the guy behind the counter managed to completely mess up my order. Basically I ordered it with bacon, saw him make one with sausage, reminded him that I wanted bacon, watched him confer with the cashier who took my order and look up the "order history" screen or some such, confirmed with me that I wanted bacon, then proceed to make me a new sandwich... with sausage.

See, when I write it like that, it's funny. You roll your eyes, you take it, and you move on (which is pretty much what I did, because I was late for work.)

In the original post I think my tone was a little more along the lines of "bemused, but slightly angry". I vented for several hundred words, before I closed with this quote:

"From the errors of others, a wise man corrects his own." -Syrus

I started off typing the rant thinking it there would be some humor in it, the type of thing you see at NotAlwaysRight.com or some such... but by the time I got to the end of the post, I realized... it was pretty stupid.

So what's left is this observation: Hey, nobody's perfect. We all make mistakes. I did, too, when I worked retail at Canadian Tire (a story for another day). And I met a bunch of rude weirdos, for sure, which just reinforces my assertion. Everyone needs to just chill a little, and the world will be a much happier place.