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My original post on the subject of my Pioneer DEH-P6700MP car stereo has received so many comments that I created this second post, just so people don’t have to scroll down so terribly far to read all of the terrific comments.

I have closed comments on the original post. Please leave a comment here to continue the thread.

Yours in music,

Lee

My original post on the subject “Motorized Bicycle” has received so many comments that I created this second post, just so people don’t have to scroll down so terribly far to read all of the terrific comments.

I have closed comments on the original post. Please leave a comment here to continue the thread.

Yours in bikes,

Lee

Whether you haven’t quite decompressed from the Burn, or perhaps you missed this year’s trek to the desert, there’s one last opportunity to experience a little taste of the playa for 2007. On Saturday October 20th, XEssential presents, “Best of the Burn”- featuring some of the best music and art from Burning Man 2007.

Bringing you the sounds of the playa…
Zach Moore [Deep End Sound Camp]
Friction [Purgatory Cruiser Art Car]
Tamo [Garage Mahal Art Car]
Ross Barringer [BrassBunnyRita Sound Camp]

Featured Art from the playa…
Belisama of the Celtic Forest [Laura Kimpton] – www.celticforest.net SWARM autonomous machines [Michael Prados] – www.orbswarm.com Equatorial Encounter [Matt Evans] – www.xessential.net Sunflower Robots [Stefano Corazza] – www.sunflowerrobots.com

For more details on the djs and art of this event, please visit:
www.xessential.net

supperclub sf
657 harrison st @ 3rd
doors open @ 10pm
cover::$10 in playawear – $15 w/out
*********************************************************

We will be updating our site with artist info and links. If you have any special requests pertaining to this, please let me know.

Glad to have you all part of the event. See you Saturday.

Cheers,

John Kobé
Creative Director
XEssential

I used to have Search Everything installed but it broke in some version of WordPress. Well, it’s back. Now, when you search on my blog it looks at all of the comments as well as posts. You can also search for phrases with “quotation marks”. :-)

I was recently at a Bus Stop Rave (Sept 21st) and was handed this poster by some kind soul.

Here’s a printable version

SWARM used a TIG welder to weld the aluminum orbs together. I took some notes about it…

We went through our first bottle of argon on the TIG welder alarmingly quickly. A bottle costs about $80 and a trip to Praxair to refill. Here are some tips that will let us use the gas much more efficiently.

– I am now able to set the pressure at about 21 CFM without any problem. We initially had it at 35 CFM. When welding, you should decrease the pressure until you start seeing little black flecks in the weld. Turn the gas back up just high enough so that you don’t see them any more and you’ll be dialed in.

– Set the post flow down to 3 seconds. We had been leaving it as high as 15 seconds but here’s what I think:
I’ve not seen any difference between a post flow of 3 seconds and one of 15. The aluminum is completely solid after 1-2 seconds. It’s not like you are holding the torch over the weld for 15 seconds anyway.
Con: I’ve noticed that the tungsten discolors when the gas stops short. I’ve noticed that this causes the tungsten to be consumed slightly each time. However, over 5 hours of constant welding, I lost about 1/8″ of tungsten. This hasn’t affected the quality of my welds. If we were working on a slower cooling metal like steel, we’d probably want to extend the post flow time.

– The gas lens lets you put the pressure a little bit lower than the regular nozzle. I think I had to keep it at 25 CFM with the regular nozzle.

– If you have to extend the tungsten electrode to get into tight spots (like welding up the base), you might have to turn the gas pressure up a little to keep the black flecks away. The gas lens will make it so you don’t have to turn the pressure up quite as much. For example, with the regular lens, I needed to leave it at 35 CFM when the electrode was extended. With the gas lens, I can turn it to about 27.

Someone asked me… here’s my response

Really quite simple…

To remove playa dust from our electronic gear (http://orbswarm.com), we used an air compressor at 90psi with a blower attachment to get the most of it off. Then a dust-pan broom… and for a little touch-up, a toothbrush. That got just about everything off.

For the shells that have some bearings, we washed it with a pressure washer… our local self-serve car wash :-). Then we re-greased the bearings and were done with it.

For the last tiny bits that wouldn’t come out perfectly, we said “Bah. Life is too short!” and moved on.