The IT build continues. I spent some quality time in my workshop today and got to fiddle a bit with my newest Halloween prop. It is usual for these types of projects to break things first and I had to tear up my new clown decoration. It was necessary to remove his “bones” so that the arms would collapse when sinking into the toilet. It took a bit of work but I got it to function. It’s going to take some finishing work but at least now I know that what I’m trying to do is at least possible.
I had to counter balance the toilet lid. The automotive power antenna that I’m using to raise the clown isn’t very strong. The clown’s head will push the lid open. A cord attached to the clown’s neck will make the lid close down when the antenna retracts. It would have been easy to use the clown decoration as it came out of the store if I didn’t require it to pass through a toilet seat but the seat was available and my builds are more fun if I upcycle or at least save material from going to the landfill. Besides, I think the toilet seat adds to the idea that the clown resides in the sewers.
The normal (starting) position of the clown will be standing in the toilet. Once triggered, the clown will drop down and make room for the jumping spider to slide over the toilet seat. It will then jump at the observer. You can see a video of the clown sinking and rising HERE.
In 2015, I did a similar rework on a jumping dog prop from the Spirit store. It also used an automotive power antenna, motion sensor, and an Arduino program to make it all work. You can see it in action HERE.
It looks a bit like I’m building an outhouse. I had a good building day. It started with drawing up plans—the best laid plans of mice and men…as they say.
The first priority was to get an overall size for the box. The prop will contain a clown that ducks down in a toilet seat. It will also include a jumping spider that I bought from the Spirit store. The front of the prop will have the toilet seat and clown. The rear will have the jumping spider. The height of the box was determined by the dimensions of the linear actuator that will lift the clown and toilet lid. The width is determined by the size of the jumping spider’s base and the length is determined by the distance that the spider will move forward before it jumps at the viewer.
I had enough 1×4 lumber on hand to build the frame like structure that will hold the toilet seat. Once again the compound miter saw came in handy along with the biscuit joiner. I applied glue and went out to do other things.
Everything was going so well up to this point but it was time to prove out the old adage about “best laid plans.” Adjustments will have to be made. Originally, I was going to have the spider come out of the rear of the prop at an angle but trial fitting the remaining components and considering the strength of the automotive radio aerial that I’m using as a linear actuator, caused me to revisit the plan. It’s not unusual, of course. Also, I know with confidence that I can make a Spirit prop move horizontally since I built a doghouse for a jumping dog prop that I bought from the Spirit store in 2015. Besides, it will make the build simpler.
The final steps will involve automating the prop after all the parts are assembled and manually tested.
This should be the first part of a series. Here are some of the items I’ve collected 
so far for the build:
Now I have to review the situation and make sure that all the rash things that I said when the failure first happened are fair. I’m a scientific Skeptic and would like to think that I judge things fairly. In my first “
Today is Labor Day. It is the traditional end of summer and a chance to escape from reality, apparently. In Atlanta Georgia people attend 
most of the attendees and the crowd at Burning Man is a bit younger. I might be getting 
too old to attend that event but as I write this, I’m reminded that I didn’t report on the one national event that I did attend—The 
Of course my pathetic little R2 looked small compared to their highly detailed full sized models but they put it on display front and center.
I took a stroll out on my favorite path yesterday. In an effort to keep myself fit (and sane) I try and walk four miles per day. Lately, I’ve settled on a path that runs around the whole of Tucson. It’s called The Loop. Mainly it is a bicycle path but it’s also for pedestrians. It has the advantage of being away from vehicular traffic. It is well maintained and I particularly like the fact that it has trash cans located along the path. 
It’s back to the workshop and I couldn’t be happier. Years ago right after retirement, I drew up plans for a workshop. It is 12 x 24 feet, attached to the house, and finished so that it matches complete with cement tiles and stucco siding. There are French doors on both ends—one set opens to the front yard and the other opens to the back yard. There are no windows. Instead there are two 3×4 foot skylights. Sitting next to the holes in the ceiling are two 4 bulb high pressure fluorescent light fixtures that provide lighting when the skylights can’t. A large number of wall sockets are scattered around the workspace 4 foot from the floor. Most important for a Tucson based workshop is the 220V AC/Heat unit mounted high on the wall.
LEDs or other electronic components are usually bought in bulk and on-sale. Surplus houses often have a wide variety of useful stuff but you can’t guarantee that it will be always readily available. So FedEx, USPS, and UPS trucks often visit my house throughout the year and stuff starts to stack up. Regular readers of this blog know that I built 
Finally, I was able to sit down and concentrate. The resulting owls may be part of a computerized display or they may be placed in random locations. I haven’t decided yet but they’re cool and I’m ready to move on to more challenging builds.
We are indeed living in “interesting times!”
Normalcy returns. Yesterday, the Sears repair technician came to the house with a new compressor for my Kenmore Elite (LG) refrigerator. He left a mere 3 hours later and my behemoth stainless steel kitchen decoration has the potential once again to be a useful appliance. Of course, it won’t be fully graduated to that status until the ice maker bin is once again full of those half-moon shaped gems that make life in the Arizona Desert bearable. Tony, the very courteous and understanding Sears technician sublimated my pure hatred of anything from Sears and anything made in Korea into now guarded optimism that, at least for a time, life in the Lacey house can resume as before.
Generally, my life is great and I really don’t have much to complain about. However, my contentment seems overly fragile at times. Today, I’m between big events and commitments. It’s a great time to binge watch TV and expand the available recording space on the DVR. I’m sipping on beers left over from previous parties. Then Nancy tells me that the refrigerator has stopped making ice. “OK, I’ll look at it,” I tell her. Then I’m just about to order replacement parts when she says, “The refrigerator is warm too.” More trouble shooting and I determine that the freezer is working fine but the refrigerator is warmer than it should be. Also, there is probably nothing wrong with the ice maker. We bought the refrigerator last year with great fanfare. It was a huge fancy beast—the best that Sears had to offer—a Kenmore Elite. It cost 3 thousand dollars and it was replacing our previous Maytag that we had for 16 years. Surely, this would be the last refrigerator that we’ll need to buy in our lifetimes. It’s only a year and a half old and now the refrigerator is not cooling as it should. Now my life is not quite as good as it was. Now, I have to think about something that I thought I wouldn’t have to think about ever again. I did what I could and reached out for help. There is a local appliance repairman that we’ve used in the past. He asked about the model number and told me that he couldn’t help with this fancy machine. He wasn’t equipped to fix it. He did recommend someone else who also thought it was not something that he could handle. So I had to call Sears Appliance Repair…
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