Nitroblue Investment

2008 Sienna Transmission Fluid Project

2012-02-11T19:58:00.000-08:00

I did it. I successfully did my transmission fluid and filter change with components purchased from Amazon and the Tracy Toyota dealership. First, I drove the van halfway onto the sidewalk so the drain plug was on the bottom of the tilt. Then, using the 10 mm hex wrench, I drained the fluid and lowered the pan.

The fluid was dark brown--almost black--and there was at least 2 mm of sludge and metal filings on the magnets. Using some stoddard solvent, I cleaned the magnets and the pan and removed the old cork gasket. I removed the pick-up strainer and o-ring and then installed a new strainer. The Beck Arnley kit contained the strainer and rubber gasket, which I believe is better than cork.

I torqued the new strainer to 96 inch-lbs and then put the pan back on: 18 ten mm bolts, torqued to 70 inch pounds. It was a relief hearing the torque wrench click. Torqued the drain plug to 36 foot lbs, filled up the reservoir, and drove the van off the curb to check the level. Added some fluid, cleaned up, and then Scott and I took a cruise.

First, I was happy to not be able to detect any clicking. Maybe it was just because the engine was still warm, but after three hours of being off, it was mostly cold. Even still, there was no evidence of clicking. Next, the transmission shifted super smooth. You could hardly feel the 2nd-3rd shift. I did a van power and was pleased at my little VVTi V-6 and successful transmission fluid change.

Was it worth it? You bet, because even though it took three hours and I had to buy a torque wrench just for inch pounds, I still got all the parts for under $80 and there's no way a transmission shop could get all that sludge out with their "transmission flushes." Just removing the metal filings from the magnets was laborious. Second, my theory about the clicking was that it was related to the torque converter because it only clicked when in gear but was proportional to engine speed. Tomorrow will be the true test: a cold start for the ride to church.

I'm happy about the swagger wagon. 98,709 miles.

New topic. My motorcycle jacket's zipper broke again. To repair it this time, I used the handpiece to do a little prep in the metal. Then I laced some ortho wire through the holes and ligated it. It's working well, but my jacket is getting irreversibly dirty. Several of you have asked how long I plan on keeping the VFR.

I don't know.

I am aware of that at some point, my repairs may not be worth my while or my money and then it will be time to move on. I recognized that point with the Riv and got rid of her. We are not there with the VFR yet. I don't think my repair costs are excessive and many of the projects I've taken on have been elective. The only thing that really disabled the VFR was the ignition switch and I haven't had any stranded episodes since then, and that was over 10,000 miles ago.

Good old VFR.

The case of the bad assistant chair

2012-02-08T20:51:00.000-08:00

I don't get a lot of dental professionals reading my blog for how to maintain dental equipment. Probably zero, in fact. This post is mainly so I can keep a log of the things I repair. This week's project was diagnosing and repairing the assistant stools that seemed to lose pressure and sink to the bottom of their height adjustment.

I called ADEC and complained. The representative was surprisingly helpful and said, "We are aware of this problem. It's not the cylinder (like I had suggested), but the mounting plate is too small. So the piston is getting partially engaged." He sent me some new mounting plates under warranty but said the labor wasn't covered. I told the hygienist, "I'll just do it myself."

She's like, "Can you do that?"

"I'm Danny McMillan."

"Yeah, that's true."

So my new parts came, and they were the exact same size as the defective ones! So I studied the lever mechanism and decided to use good old Joe Dandy to trim off the offending part.

I brought my Craftsman socket and box end wrenches to the office for easier chair disassembly/assembly, and when I tried in my modified height lever, it worked! ADEC should consult my blog and give do-it-yourself dentists my instructions, rather than sending ineffective parts. But whatev.

Now I gotta talk about Bessie. My dad brought her from Utah to surprise Scott. While I was at work, they fired her up and Scott drove all over the court. I was impressed that the motor still worked because it hadn't been run since 2003 when I got pulled over at BYU for riding on campus. I haven't even changed the oil! The steering gears are missing one cog and they get jammed easily, so I need to machine some new ones or weld them or even JB weld them. I also need to weld the seat. But it's good enough for Scott! Good old Bessie.

As for the RC cars, well, I got some replacement parts in the mail today. I put a new front right suspension arm on Rustler and a 26 tooth pinion on Bandit and the boys and I had a bash in the court. RC is a good hobby for Tyler because he's not super physical. I also ordered a 3000 mAh NiMH battery for pumpkin. That way, we can tow the boat and Scott's friends can have a car to drive. Pumpkin still has the 55 turn motor, so we should be able to get about 70-90 minutes per charge.

Another successful repair

2012-02-01T20:21:00.000-08:00

I rode the VFR to SF tonight. I was pleased about how the VFR felt. She seemed to move effortlessly and nimbly, even though all I did was lube the center stand, throttle grip and cables. Nevertheless, I believe in the placebo effect and the engine was singing all the way to San Francisco. The idle was way high, though, so when I parked, I adjusted it.

The manual had discussed the throttle freeplay and as far as I can tell, the cables are within normal limits. At the hospital, I met a guy with a BMW GS1150. I said, "My college roommate had one of those and it was getting to the point that some of the maintenance things were due and they were way too expensive, so he got rid of it (Dan-o, I don't know if that's why you sold Anna, but I remember we had discussed the ABS and stuff).

He said, "No way! You just service things yourself!"

"Well, he wasn't willing to deal with the ABS." Then I had to talk about the VFR's mileage. Yar, mateys!

The case of the sticky throttle

2012-01-31T07:21:00.000-08:00

On last weeks cruise into SF, I noticed the VFR's throttle was sticky. It wouldn't return to idle unless I pushed it. On the freeway, it was almost like having cruise control. After researching it on the internet, I decided to diagnose.

I took off the handlebar weight, undid the cables on top and bottom, ran some teflon oil through the lines, greased the bar with some of Lyle's synthetic grease, and put it all back together. It still stuck. Then I removed the bar end weight and it turned freely. Was it the handgrip rubbing against the end weight? Perhaps, but I'm pretty sure I tested it with the bar weight off. Nevertheless, I pushed the grip more onto the plastic and reattached the end weight. Now it turns freely. At the least, I lubed it and verified function. Or, I may have just avoided a bigger setback. 118,700.

N stuff

2012-01-27T19:39:00.000-08:00

I am in San Francisco for Tyler's surgery. After work on Wednesday, I rode the VFR to UCSF. On bypass, I split the lanes up to the light at Sand Creek. The BMW to my left began inching forward, as if to convey the message that he was going ahead first. I thought, "First, I don't need to beat you to feel self worth. Second, I will beat you anyway."

I gave the VFR 60% and chewed the BMW up and spat him out. I nestled into a nice rhythm at 80 and didn't have much traffic until the bay bridge. I spent Wednesday and Thursday night at UCSF, and while we were waiting for Tyler to come out of surgery, Heidi and I were reading some magazines. She tossed me a Car and Driver and I said, "I don't care to see these new cars. I want to see who's getting to a million and how are they maintaining their cars."

I am still curious that Italians make exotic-looking, high performance cars with a terrible reputation for being unreliable. Toyota, on the other hand, has the reputation of building boring, trouble-free cars with decent performance. What about GM? I really don't care, but their cars are still ugly. You can call the swagger wagon what you want, but it is the most powerful, pleasant-to-drive car I have ever had. The eldo had a cool engine sound, but was too heavy to be fast. It wasn't as much an engineering nightmare as Boy's Ford Bronco, but a wiring disaster just the same.

One of the UOP students told me that his high speed was failing every week. I checked the bearings and said, "You got any handpiece lube? No? Got any WD-40? These bearings are rough."

The manufacturer of these particular handpieces claim a lube-free design. That is complete and utter rubbish. I oiled up said handpiece and tried it out: Smooth as can be. Then I started thinking that if the university's sterilization techs just spent an extra 6-10 seconds oiling the handpieces before autoclaving them, they could save up to 60K per year. But what would I know? Actually, I know a lot about how to maintain things and get like fifty times the normal expected life. But they're never gonna listen to me, which is sad, because the cost is going to eventually get passed on to the students in the form of higher tuition.

Ah, and while I'm on the subject of dental equipment maintenance, I have to talk about the other sterilizer: the Midmark M11 in pedo. One of the girls asked me to look at it because it was leaking. Sure enough, quite a bit was dripping out of the lower left panel. I said, "Shut it down. Use the other one." Within minutes, I had it taken apart and it looked like the water maintenance hose was loose and the hose clamp was detached. I tightened it up, refilled it, and said, "It looks like someone pulled too tightly when draining the water." My repair seems to have worked.

Sienna Transmission Fluid Project

2012-01-23T17:57:00.000-08:00

I'm gonna do it. I have sufficiently studied the manual and consulted my professional friends. I'm going to perform a complete transmission fluid service, including draining the fluid and replacing the strainer and gasket. Several sources recommend I use only Toyota ATF type T-IV, so this morning, after our Tracy DMV appointment, I got some from the Toyota dealership there. It was 2.25/quart less than the Walnut Creek dealership.

Next, I'll order a kit from amazon which contains a new gasket and strainer.

Then I'll jack up the van and do it. I have to get a smaller torque wrench to accommodate the 69 inch-lb torque value on the drain pan bolts. That's a little under 6 ft-lbs, and I learned my lesson on the VFR trying to negotiate 9 ft-lbs with a big wrench.

So that's that. The condo continues to stress me. The other night, after work, I needed some time to unwind. The kids were extra demanding and I needed to escape. I went out to the van, turned up the stereo really loud and blasted the subwoofer for about 15 minutes.

Clutch lever bushing

2012-01-16T12:24:00.000-08:00

I replaced the worn-out bushing in the clutch lever that was responsible for so much play. I used some MoS2 grease from the swagger wagon to grease the new bushing.

That's like 1 mm of wear.

Compare the new one. Fancy.

Then Scott wanted to ride to Starbucks and get hot chocolate with extra chocolate, so that's what we did. There is no play in the clutch lever and I'm pleased. I also wired a 60 amp fuse to the swagger wagon's subwoofer system and used the new soldering iron.

Lyle gave me a magazine that detailed one guy's 45 year journey of 2.9 million miles on a 1966 Volvo. The motor has been rebuilt only twice. It was impressive, and he gave commentary on how he did it, and one of the things was to keep the car clean.

So on Saturday, I mixed up a neutral soap solution and scrubbed the inside of the van and vacuumed it thoroughly. I also studied the manual on how to replace the spark plugs, and you have to reference a different chapter to remove the intake manifold, and in order to do that, they refer you to still another chapter to remove the windshield wipers, motor, shroud, and some resistor. I talked to Lyle about the spark plugs and he said, "I wouldn't do it. If it's running well, I wouldn't replace them." Lyle has mad car skills.

He does recommend replacing the serpentine belt, which involves removing the right front tire and wheel well cover. I can do that, but I might need Toyota's specialty tool. And I think I'll have a shop do the transmission fluid, even though the manual gives instructions for how to do it. I doubt I'll be able to flush the fluid out of the torque converter, which is what Lyle recommends.

Hall of Fame

2012-01-13T11:44:00.000-08:00

I got my new mirror and brake lever on the VFR and they are money. My ride to San Francisco was cold, but good because the VFR was just singing along. At lunch, I went to the dealership to get a new bushing for my ever-loosening clutch lever.

I said, "Can I be in the hall of fame? I have a hundred and eighteen thousand."

The guy said nothing, and I said, "Are you not impressed with that mileage? Do you get a lot of bikes in here with more mileage than that?"

"Wow! That's a lot! I put 57,000 on my Honda and I thought that was a lot." But then he didn't pursue the hall of fame, so I just dropped it. As I was leaving, some bored salespeople waved to me on my way out. I said, "Can I be in the hall of fame? I have 118,000 miles."

"F--- yeah! That's awesome!" And one of them came outside and took my picture in front of the old, faded VFR. I'll let you know how my clutch bushing repair goes. I like maintaining my bike. I am so happy with how the VFR has held up over the years. She starts every time, runs smooth and solid, and most of these projects I take on are optional. Gotta run.

The music of 2011

2012-01-11T11:50:00.000-08:00

Certain songs bring up certain memories. For 2011, my list is:
1. Maroon 5's Misery
2. Maroon 5's Moves Like Jagger
3. Foster the People's Pumped Up Kicks
4. Adele's Rolling in the Deep
5. Katy Perry's Last Friday Night.

How's it looking for 2012? Coldplay's Paradise is a good jam. I am happy to report that I have two twelve inch subwoofers. Now, all we need is a sub in our bedroom for when we watch Modern Family on the DVD machine. Excessive? Probably, but they're like 36 bucks.

People magazine had an article about a Mill Valley family who produces one liter of trash per year. They recycle, compost, and buy used. I think buying used is the best way to get really nice stuff. There are probably people out there who are better craigslisters than I am, and that's great. I'm also really pleased that the kids are onboard with the craigslist routine. Scott's bike got vandalized at school, so we got back on CL to find him a different one. He selected a red no-namer in Brentwood and we picked it up. It's aluminum, has straight wheels, a coaster brake, as well as front and rear horseshoe brakes. Not the best, but Scott's happy. I'll get a new seat post for white lightning and give it to Scott in years to come.

We still have a lot on our plate right now but I'm getting less stressed. I realize that as long as I'm not in physical pain, I'm okay to do lots of stuff. I am up to 110 miles on my bicycle since my surgery and I think the exercise is good therapy. My muscles are still weak and I wake up in pain sometimes, but today, I'm at a pain level of two.

Banzai!

My work van

2012-01-07T20:28:00.000-08:00

We rented a blower and dehumidifier from Wally's in Concord. The dehumidifier can't be tipped on its side and it was pretty tall. We loaded it into the swagger wagon, along with the blower and Scott's bike. There's no way all that stuff coulda fit in Heidi's old piece of garbage exploder.

The subwoofer is nice. And the VFR is running well. I saw a 1996 for sale on Craigslist with 170,000 miles and the seller was confident it would go another 170K. I am at 118,180 and she's still running fab. At my current rate, I won't hit 200K for fifteen more years. My, the VFR will be old then. I've been repairing the plastic with MMA and I just might paint her this year. My dad's been painting the Lexus's bumper with a sprayer he probably got from China Freight. I'll have to ask him.

Sienna subwoofer project, part 5

2012-01-04T13:38:00.000-08:00

This is the best amp I've ever had: a Boss Audio mono amp with signal to noise ratio >102 db. And it was super cheap from amazon.com

Plus, it has these cool led's. The kids hung out in the van while I cleaned up the wires. It's a nice setup. Next, I think I'll carpet the speaker box and put a grill on it.

2011: Epic

2012-01-03T08:12:00.000-08:00

2011 was epic, both bad and good. The good:
1. New job for me. Better commute (bicycle), better pay, good peeps.
2. Move to Brentwood. Nice to have our own space.
3. Swagger wagon: dope. Need I say more?
4. TREK bicycle for me.
5. Scott's kindergarten, which he loves.

The bad:
1. Tyler's two fruitless hospital stays
2. Hip surgery
3. Heidi's kidney stones
4. Tenant flooded the condo--an expensive demonstration of negligence; a headache for us

Eh, that's all I feel like writing right now. 2012 started out good because I got the subwoofer going, fixed the drain in the bathroom and replaced the taillight in the van. Kira continues to wander into our bed in the middle of the night and Tyler usually cries out, "MOMMY! SLEEP WITH ME!" And if Kira isn't already in our bed, Tyler wakes her up and then they both sleep with us. Scott sleeps pretty well through the night.

This week, I need to work on the VFR. It's time to replace my broken mirror. I hit 118,000 miles last week. Good old VFR.

Sienna subwoofer project, part 4b

2012-01-02T20:37:00.000-08:00

Today I snipped the leads into the existing subwoofer and verified that they were, indeed, high-level inputs.

Then I spliced in the speaker wire to feed into the electronic crossover.

My new soldering iron is money!

Scott kept busy using my old soldering iron. I taught him how to flow the solder into the wire but he was more interested in burning leaves.

I found a convenient ground behind the door light and then wired everything up. I turned on the key and the amp and crossover powered up, but there was no sound. I turned the levels all the way up and then I could hear the sub, but it was weak. Then I discovered an input sensitivity switch and when I switched it, the bass began to boom! Yes! Success! I still have to place wire ties and that's when I'll take a picture of the final product, but I'm stoked! Yeah, here's to 2012!

Sound systems in general

2011-12-30T10:08:00.000-08:00

For Christmas, I got an indoor 12" subwoofer. It sounds nice, but the 200 watts they claim is far-fetched. In fact, I could pump more through my old homemade 15's that were only designed to handle 130 watts. But Heidi doesn't like when I blast the tunes, so we're okay.

Last night, Steve and I went to the BYU basketball game at St. Mary's College in Moraga. It was good chatting with Steve about investment strategies and dentistry. The arena was about the size of Layton High's, and the sound system was mediocre. My essay today is about sound systems.

Despite what I may have ranted about BYU, they have the best sound systems in the world. The Marriott Center's system has been recognized as one of the top five in its class and can deliver 110 dB to every seat. Charles, my mentor, used to say it's not the wattage that mattered, but the SPL it can produce (30,000 watts was impressive, though). When I used to work for BYU AVS, I would set up and maintain the sound systems all over campus. You can hear the football stadium's sound as clear as a bell from over four miles away and they don't skimp on the bass.

Another system I used to operate was called the X-Arrays: eight fifteen inch woofers in four cabinets and two eighteen inch subwoofers in one cabinet. I'd set it up in the Wilk and blast the bass. It pounds your chest from over 200 feet away.

BYU's Varsity theater's system was also amazing. When I was a first-semester freshman, Dan-o and I went to a movie in the Varsity--a small theater with unimpressive layout. Then, the bass came in and I was hooked. We saw Val Kilmer's The Saint and the bass pounded throughout. We ended up seeing the same movie in some Provo dollar theater and it just wasn't the same.

Now I'm installing a 12 inch subwoofer in the van and I can't wait. Everyone should have a subwoofer. But not everyone cares. Well, I do.

Sienna subwoofer project, part 4a

2011-12-19T15:09:00.000-08:00

This morning, I removed the rear trim and began removing the side panel that covers the subwoofer. My little plastic upholstery tool from China Freight has proven indispensible. Also, in the cold, several of the plastic retainers have fractured. But I was prepared for that and stocked up at the dealership.

Part 4a includes my plan for how to wire in the high level inputs to the amp. Here's what I am planning on doing:

Disconnecting the current 8" subwoofer and soldering the leads via access through the door light. To remove the whole trim panel is too risky. My current soldering iron is big and clumsy, and I have asked Santa for a fancy, smaller one that would more easily negotiate the cramped access. Even still, I can use my big soldering iron to do the job.

I just love my van.

Regular bashing

2011-12-17T21:09:00.000-08:00

The boys and I rode bikes to Heritage for an RC bash. It was the first time we had been there since my surgery and it was great being back. E-maxx was making a weird sound and I discovered a cracked chassis, which must have occurred when Scott and his friends were driving it while I was at work. Still, E-maxx was driveable and I continued. Suddenly, the pitmann steering arm broke and that was the end of E-maxx for the day. Scott and Tyler continued to do jumps for about an hour.

Bandit has a big crack in the rear shock tower, and I might start buying aluminum components because this will be the fourth shock tower on Bandit and the fourth skid plate on E-maxx.

Sienna subwoofer project, part 3

2011-12-17T20:58:00.000-08:00

Today I removed the trim in order to string the power, remote, and level cables. Before starting, I disconnected the ground. I learned my lesson, you know. Heidi wrapped presents in the garage and the kids all hung out in the van while I did my thing. Scott was interested in helping.

Sienna subwoofer project, part 2

2011-12-14T21:47:00.000-08:00

Last night, Heidi and the kids hung out in the van while I worked on stringing the power cable. I was able to go through an existing grommet in the passenger side firewall and I was glad I didn't have to do any drilling.

Next, to prevent the cable from coming all the way through the firewall, I attached it to the battery. This morning, I was using a hanger to pull the cable behind the dash. Kira was in the car with me and I looked up and there was all this smoke coming from the dashboard. I thought, "Kira, what have you done?" Then, I looked down and saw that my hanger was red hot. It must have grounded out somewhere, and because of the amount of smoke, I realized I needed to get that hanger out of the way so the whole van didn't burn down.

I reached out and yanked it, but it stayed. I burned my hand pretty badly, but I ran around to the other side (yes, ran--I got clearance from my MD to go full weight-bearing) and saw that the power cable had detached from the hanger. Before telling Heidi, I turned on the key and the van started up. I was surprised for several reasons:

1. There was tons of smoke
2. The van easily could have burned down.
3. No electronics were damaged

I went inside and scrubbed the char off my hand. I was pretty stressed because the van really smelled, and it was that burnt electronics smell. I was stressed for most of the day, but when I went to pick up Scott's bike at school, the van didn't smell as bad and I couldn't find anything wrong with it. I think the van has forgiven me and I can continue with my subwoofer project.

I made a big error. I knew to disconnect the negative battery cable, but my brain wasn't engaged. Dumb me. Oh well. I bandaged up my hand and was still able to work.

Oh, after work tonight, I put a new battery in my electric toothbrush. It took a long time and was laborious. I was about ready to just throw in the towel and buy a new toothbrush, but then I thought, "Now who am I? I'm freakin Danny McMillan." And I soldered in another Ni-Cd and it works! Yesssss!

My work shoes

2011-12-11T16:37:00.001-08:00

My vintage shoes failed. The buckle's elastic separated, which I believe is an easy fix. In the meantime, I've been wearing my nice shoes. I asked the girls at work how they liked my nice shoes. They said they looked the same as my work shoes. Therefore, I decided it was worth fixing my work shoes because if I wore my nice shoes to work, they wouldn't be my nice shoes anymore. They would become my work shoes. Then I might have to get another set, and I don't like shopping for shoes. Or clothes.

So I dropped the vintage shoes off at the shoe repair store and asked them to give me an estimate before they proceed, just in case the repair is unreasonable for how much I paid for them (free fifty-free).

I like my vintage shoes: comfortable and durable.

Sienna Subwoofer Project, part 1

2011-12-04T07:07:00.001-08:00

I've been wanting a big sub in the swagger wagon for a while now. After studying a youtube video on how to remove the stereo, I was able to get to this point in about two minutes using a set of plastic upholstery tools from China Freight.

Next, I found a wiring diagram online but the colors didn't exactly match, so I used a light bulb to determine the switched 12 volt lead. Then, I cut it and soldered in the blue remote lead. It was tough managing the little wires, and I ended up wrapping a thin copper wire around them to bind them together. Then I soldered over the bundle and covered it with heat shrink tubing.

I put the dash all back together and verified function. Next, I will string the power cable alongside the remote cables. I think I'm going to have to drill through the firewall because I couldn't find any compatible grommets. vv

Back on

2011-12-01T17:48:00.001-08:00

I rode the VFR to UOP today. She fired right up and I was so pleasantly surprised at the power, despite my getting used to the acceleration of the swagger wagon. It was a beautiful day in San Francisco even though it was windy, and I was prepared for the cold with my thermals.

Man, I love my bike. I had to stand up twice because the circulation in my right leg isn't that great, but at nine weeks post-op, it's about the same as my left was after about fourteen weeks. And the range of motion on the right leg is already better than the left, so that's good.

I've been using a collapsible cane that I can fold up into my backpack. After night clinic, I'm excited for the ride home because the traffic is way better and I can just cruise in sixth gear. Yar, mateys.

Autoclave: Success!

2011-11-28T20:30:00.001-08:00

My autoclave repair was successful. My new gaskets arrived today and I removed the heating element, cleaned up the interface, and installed the new gaskets. There is no evidence of leakage.

Heating element installed with new gaskets.

I'm very excited about this because I feel empowered in fixing dental equipment. The girls are learning how to troubleshoot, too. Today, one of them diagnosed a bad water reservoir based on troubleshooting sequela I had given her.

I rode my bicycle to work today. It was great being back on it, and when I tried to get up to 20 mph, my legs didn't have any power. Still, it felt good to get my heart rate up and try out my new speedometer. I still need to install my light.

What I've been up to

2011-11-23T19:03:00.001-08:00

I just love my work. Today, the girls gave me two handpieces that had problems. I fixed one of them, and the other had some defective parts that need to be ordered. Easy. Then I was talking with a patient about how great was the swagger wagon, and she's like, "You're joking."

"No, I'm serious. It's the most powerful car I've ever had. You stomp on it and it'll peel out until 30 mph. I have tinted windows, and I'm putting in a 12 inch subwoofer." She said her husband wasn't willing to be seen in a van, and I was like, "You'll never know until you drive one."

I began taking apart the van to map out how to string the cables, and I have ordered the crossover and cables. As I was searching for a place to go through the firewall, I found a mousetrap in the bottom of the engine well. Scott and I had set two traps about three months ago and they both tripped but we couldn't recover one. I suspect it was a big old rat whose tail got stuck in the trap, and it jumped into the van because it was warm, dragging the trap with it.

I bought a cane: A collapsible one that I could put in my backpack and ride the VFR or my bicycle. Well, I don't think my muscles are ready. So I'm still on the crutches and my hands are getting some big callouses. But when I'm sick of the crutches, I cruise around on the cane.

Autoclave Repair

2011-11-18T09:39:00.001-08:00

The other autoclave, Midmark M11, started leaking water. A lot. Here, I have dismantled it, troubleshooting it with the directions from allclaveparts.com.

Wally recommended I check the pressure relief valve. If it was defective, the water would fill the cup. It tested good.


The source of the leak was the junction of the heating element in the chamber. I found a bad gasket and ordered a new one. I'm still waiting, but I know it's gonna work. I'm pretty excited about this because my fixing it saved about 2000 bucks. With autoclaves, you can't just take them to your local "jiffyclave" or "autoclave zone." You have to call a guy. And the guy is expensive because he has to troubleshoot it. Well, with the advent of the internet and Wally's sweet site, I can fix them myself.

Subwoofers

2011-11-14T11:39:00.001-08:00

Walt gave us his old computer monitor, which is bigger than our old one. However, the old monitor had speakers built in. So now we need some new speakers, and since I have wanted a subwoofer for a while, I'm considering the altec lansing setup. The kids have been into music, specifically, Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night." And we need a good subwoofer for that song.

I still need to get the JBL's from the single's ward chapel in San Francisco, and I still think about getting an indoor 12" sub. But we need to make it through our various recoveries. Tyler went to the hospital yesterday and got put on milrinone. He'll be chilling until Friday, surgery day. Then we'll see how things go.

On the way home from the hospital I was cruising in the swagger wagon and a fierce-looking new generation camaro began tailgating me. Suddenly, the camaro's V-8 engine began to scream and the camaro switched lanes and pulled ahead. Seriously, you could hear that ringing sound and I knew its throttle was wide open. I thought it was silly to try to race the camaro, because one would hope a performance V-8 would be faster than a mini-van. But I did press the gas down a little bit. I was not pleased with how hard the Camaro was accelerating, especially hearing the ring of its engine. However, I was supremely proud of the swagger wagon for its effortless acceleration, even though if I had seriously wanted to race, I would have needed to drop another gear.

I ended up passing the Camaro miles later anyway. And I started thinking about Corvettes. True, they have lots of power and torque, but I'm afraid that driving one would be like driving a tank. They feel heavy. The doors are heavy. The interior is crappy. What GM needs to do is design a four overhead cam engine. Consider this: The swagger wagon's 3.5L v-6 produces 278 hp. The Corvette's 7.0L engine produces 505 hp, and that's exhaust tuned, intake mapped, and the "best" that GM can do. If we extrapolated the swagger wagon's to be the size of a corvette, it would produce 556 hp. Why not the overhead cam, GM? Well, GM has always been about 5-8 years behind. What do I care?

There was a 1995 Lexus LS400 on sale on craigslist with 308,000 miles. The lexus V-8's seem to go forever. I have revisited that notion again. Eh, anyway.

My berfday

2011-11-12T11:40:00.001-08:00

I had a great birthday. I like to celebrate all week, so we call it birth week. On Thursday I had UOP, so I drove to Walnut Creek, then took BART to Montgomery and got on the 3 Jackson bus. The students sang happy birthday to me, we had cupcakes, and they gave me a rubber dart gun.

For lunch, the operative crew went to lunch at Out the Door on Bush street and it was good. I did night clinic and then rode BART home. Friday morning I got to open my presents and I was happy about what I got:

bike pump
bike light
bike odometer
powerful lithium flashlight
van heusen white shirt
blade mSR tail rotor motor
electric razor
Toyota floor mat clips
chocolates.

I saw patients on Friday and it was a good day. Heidi surprised me on Friday night with a surprise party that she'll have to tell you about on her blog.

I got my bike pump installed on the seat post and I like that it's dual acting and smooth. As I was installing it and getting the tires pumped back up (they had gone flat since I haven't ridden it for 6 weeks), I thought, "I could probably take this around the block and be fine." But I didn't. I'm six weeks post-op and have begun putting pressure on my right leg and the muscles are still weak. Each day I improve about one percent and I'm okay with that because I notice it.

I talked with Lyle about painting the VFR. I would need to do some body work, which would take a lot of time. But I also thought that my motorcycle's degree of fading shows that it's been well-used--not just stored out in the sun, but ridden all over creation. You can also see how much my backpack has faded just from commuting five years.

Patient's here.

Geico

2011-11-08T14:20:00.000-08:00

I heard a funny Geico commercial on AM radio today. The guy was like, "My wife's monthly salon visits are really costing a lot, from the cut and color to blah blah blah. So to save money, I'm cutting her hair. While she's asleep."

I had a chuckle because I've been cutting Heidi's hair for a while. Only she's awake. Her haircuts come randomly, as she announces, "Okay, I'm ready for my haircut." I like cutting hair. There's nothing irreversible about it and you get to practice your artistic license. Tyler could use a haircut, but his long do almost has wings, which is how I want it.

I gave Lyle the on-road drifter so his son could gauge his RC interest. I tried selling it on craigslist, but the only person interested low-balled me and I was about to take it. But he flaked. Then, as soon as I gave it to Lyle, somebody called up and sounded pretty serious. Eh, whatev. I had to order some replacement parts for the Rustler from e-bay. Including shipping, they were $3.00, the same price as from hobbytown! Sweet!

My thoughts on subwoofers

2011-11-05T10:31:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking long and hard about an after-market subwoofer in the swagger wagon. Currently, it has a mediocre 8" sub in the back. There are tweeters in the dash and 6x9s in the front doors, and I believe the rear speakers are two-way coaxial 6x9's. JBL does a nice job of putting a reasonable system in at the factory, but the swagger wagon needs more.

Options:

1. Put a better amp behind existing subwoofer.
     a. Could more easily adjust "punch" frequency, which right now, seems to be 100 hz. I want 45 hz.
     b. Space wouldn't be an issue.
     c. Still might be weak.
2. Put in existing Pioneer 12.
   a. Proven performance.
     b. Cargo space would be compromised.
3. Create custom fiberglass box for Pioneer 12 to fit right down into cargo space.
   a. Lots of work.
     b. Would be sweet. Something to brag about.
     c. Lots of work.

In each of these cases, I will have to run a power cable from the battery to the amp and a signal cable to the head unit. Luckily, youtube has an informative video on how to remove the head unit. I'm more concerned about stringing the power cable. But then I reflect on my experience, and the swagger wagon will be the fifth car I've installed subs in. Each time, I get better. The cadillac's was easier than expected because there was less plastic to remove. The Riv had a lot of upholstery to negotiate but I got a nice result.

The negative of having a sub: Decreased cargo space. But we can always remove it.   When I graduated from dental school, I told Heidi, "I'm putting a subwoofer in your car [the exploder]." She agreed, which surprised me. So I went to the Ford dealership and got a wiring diagram which made my job way easier. I tapped into the head unit, found the switched and constant power lines, then strung my cables. It was slick.

Another thing is that I need another amp. I sold the Riv's, which was an okay amp. The best amp I had was the Alpine V-12 I bought right after my mission. The Riv had two tens and a Jensen amp that failed like 10 days after winter semester started. I was so depressed without my subwoofers that I went to Ultimate Electronics and bought the V-12. With about $800 to my name, I paid about $129 for the amp and it lasted me 11 years. That was a good amp because it had such a good signal to noise ratio. When I consider buying a used one, I think, "What if it's already 11 years old and it fails in two weeks?" I don't know.

I think eventually, I'll put a subwoofer in the van. It's just how I roll. But I like to think about my projects for a time to make sure I'm serious about them and that I have adequate armamentarium. I joked with the dental students that I thought longer about what kind of CD changer to buy than Kim Kardashian was married.

Back to the Grind

2011-10-28T07:29:00.000-07:00

I went back to UOP yesterday. It was good being back, but since I can't ride the VFR, the transportation is complicated. Heidi drove me in the swagger wagon to Pittsburg BART, which took an unusually long time due to the bottleneck at Somersville. I rode BART to the Montgomery station, where I waited for the 3 Jackson bus. It seems like I waited for 20 minutes, and finally my bus came, but it didn't stop.

I yelled for the bus to stop, but no, so I chased it down to the next stop. I was going pretty fast on my lame crutches, and the people began boarding the bus at the next stop. Then, the door closed but I was only about halfway there, so I tapped the bus with my crutch and said, "OPEN THE DOOR!" Then I was able to board. They give disabled people a discount, which is nice.

It was good being back at UOP. I talked to Miles about piston slap and he said, "Unlikely in a modern engine. It's more likely to be a dry cam lifter. The oil drains out of them at night and takes a while to get filled back up. In the mean time, the rocker arm is just slapping." That also seems logical, but what would cause the oil to drain out? Sludge in a passage? I may have to run some sea-foam in the crankcase, too.

It took a long time to get home from UOP. Between waiting for the BART and getting stuck in traffic afterwards, it was about 2.5 hours. With the VFR, I can do it in 54 minutes. Only five more UOP days until I can ride the VFR again. I can make it. I could ride it right now, but if anything happened, people would tell me I was foolish for not following my doctor's orders.

Scott's repair session

2011-10-19T09:38:00.000-07:00

It was Scott's idea to bring in the jack and lift up E-maxx. Then, he wanted to remove the tire. He said, "I'm doing it myself! You always told me that I would never learn unless I did it myself. So is this lefty loosey (motions with his hand), or this?" I told him and he was able to remove the tire.

He was patient with Kira.

Then there was a stuck wheel nut. It had seized due to rust, and this is how I had to remove it after Scott sprayed some WD-40 on it. I can do some repairs at the kitchen table, but standing up is hard, and just going out to the garage to get tools is challenging. But we're making it, and Scott has been surprisingly helpful. I showed him how to check for bad bearings, and there was one. Scott loves bearings.

I'm also glad that Scott is into fixing things. I was talking with one of my friends about how easy it is to fix things, and he said, "My brain just doesn't work like that. I have no idea how to do that kind of stuff." I'm grateful the Lord has given me that talent.

Welcome back

2011-10-13T18:24:00.000-07:00

Here I am. Still alive.

Almost two weeks post-op, and what have I been up to? Not a whole heck of a lot. I'm better able to get around on my crutches, so the boys and I have had several bashes with the RC cars. While my dad was here, we used E-maxx to push him on the longboard. E-maxx has hecka power. I have revisited the idea of a two speed transmission in E-maxx, not for higher top end, but for more low-end torque. Pushing around the kids on the skateboards would be a perfect application for it, not to mention the big hill climbs we do at Heritage High. A bit excessive? Maybe. But the radio is wigging both on steering and throttle, so I might have to get a new 3 channel anyway. Besides, my birthday is coming up and I like to buy myself presents. Last year, I got E-maxx. It was a good birthday.

We have been flying the helicopter indoors, too. Scott is taking off and landing the blade mSR and I'm pleased. I still think about getting him a coax 4-channel MCX from craigslist. Eh, we'll see. Right now, the boys are addicted to the iphones. They want me to download them new games, that they tire of in less than an hour. So the new rule is that when they get a new game, we have to delete an old one.

Oh, and what's up with the swagger wagon's exhaust valve? I did some research and it is most likely piston slap, which is moderately concerning. Because the pistons have such short skirts in order to lower the friction and improve fuel economy, they begin to rock in the cylinder. One guy on youtube made a recording that was exactly like ours. Catastrophic engine failure may be in the not-too-distant future. Still, I'm very happy with the swagger wagon. It was noticeably more powerful than the 2005 Highlander with a 3.3 VVTi V-6.

I am grateful to the people who have helped us while I've been out of commission, through meals, child care, and lawn services. I'm going to go back to work in two more weeks and I'm excited about that. Right now, my range of motion is fair, but compared to last surgery, it is very good. I still have that annoying numbness on my skin. But whatev. Things aren't so bad.

Autoclaves

2011-09-27T14:33:00.000-07:00

I've been fixing things around the office. Last week, the sterilizer gave an error code. I looked it up on google and there was a complete troubleshooting guide from allclaveparts. First, I replaced the gasket, but that didn't fix the error code. Next, I checked the door latch solenoid and the unit failed the test. I lubed up the latch pins and that seems to have fixed it and we haven't had an error code since.

In the meantime, we had been using another sterilizer that began to have a door latch problem. I called the technical support number on the website and spoke to Wally. I said, "Hi, this is Danny. I'm calling about a Midmark M11. First of all, your website is awesome. Is there a troubleshooting guide to test the door latch solenoid for the M11?"

He's like, "Let me check the manual and call you back."

He calls back and said, "It has a motor. It's on the right side. If the motor doesn't work, it might be the switch and you can test it with a continuity tester. Otherwise, it's the motor." Sweet! But I lubed the latch pins and it seems to be working well now. Yeah. Skills.

Chores

2011-09-26T11:42:00.000-07:00

My surgery is on Friday. I'm not going to be able to do yardwork for a few months. Some nice people in the ward volunteered to cut the grass, one stating that he was in charge of the scouts and they could work in my yard as a service project. I said, "Well, then, we'll get them on the edger and the hedger."

Today I cut the grass. First, I edged. Then I got aggressive with the weedeater in the back yard. The switch started to wig and I think it's because the motor was pulling too much current and the switch's contacts were burning. So I took apart the machine, cleaned and lubed the motor, and put it back together. That seems to have fixed the problem. Electric yard equipment is nice because it's cheap and quieter, but it doesn't have the power or mobility of gas.

Then I fired up old faithful, the lawnmower. I was planning on doing the sea foam treatment, so after cutting the front, which allowed the engine to sufficiently warm, I blasted the sea foam into the intake. It ran rough and blew out some smoke, and then I sprayed it in the intake until the engine killed. After letting it sit for a few minutes, I pulled the cord and it started right up and ran great. Every time I cut the grass I feel proud that I brought this lawnmower back from the dead.

Oh, so the reasons I serviced my yard equipment was because suppose the scouts come over and can't get anything to work. They're like, "what the..." We'll see how my surgery goes. Yar, mateys. I'm excited to go because my hip has been bugging me. I also don't think the recovery is going to be as bad as 2009, but we'll see.

The opinion of a non-motorcyclist

2011-09-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

Got an email from Seth, my dental school classmate. It was good to hear from him. He was talking to a recent UOP grad and said, "I asked him if he knew a Dr. McMillan, and he said, "is that the guy with the crappy motorcycle?" Don't worry, I set him straight on his observation and told him that that "crappy" motorcycle has almost 200,000 miles."

This gives me a chuckle because indeed, the VFR is getting old and faded. But every time I ride someone else's bike, it feels sloppy compared to the VFR. Plus, I was looking at Gary's pristine ZX-10, that he babies, and the chicken strips were fat fat. Mine are skinny. Who gets more performance? Riiiiiiight. 117,560 miles.

Oh, I fixed my derailleur! I cleaned everything, lubed it up, and the thing that made the difference was lengthening the cable. Tyler started riding little bike this week and I was pleased. He can balance fine but pedaling seems to wear him out. Still, I was happy. Good old little bike. Scott has been doing well with his craigslist bike and I wonder when I'm going to give him White Lightning.

It's not for sale

2011-09-21T14:32:00.000-07:00

I was working on my bicycle in the garage this morning. The derailleur doesn't work right when upshifting, so I tried cleaning it and adjusting it to no avail.

Meanwhile, the window washer from across the street approached and said, "Is that your motorcycle?"

"Yes."

"Is it for sale?"

"No. Are you looking for a VFR?"

"Kind of."

"Try Craigslist. I have 117,000 miles on this and I paid $2500 in 2004."

Good old VFR. It's not for sale.

Pinks

2011-09-21T08:24:00.001-07:00

I discovered hulu this year. You can watch just about anything on hulu, so I checked out Pinks: Lose the race, lose your ride. Two teams do a quarter mile against each other, and they usually do a heads up all out race for the first run. Then they can negotiate the races to make them more fair. Yesterday I watched two episodes, both were Ford Mustangs against 1980's Toyotas.

In the first episode, the 1987 Supra beat out the 1995 Mustang. The second episode was hysterical: a 1989 Cressida against another 1995 Mustang. During race one, the Mustang's engine killed at the starting line and therefore, lost the race. Then, it started leaking antifreeze and brake fluid on the track. It also killed at the starting line of heat two. So they brought in a surrogate car: a nitrous equipped 1989 Mustang with a 302. It did its burnout at the start and the engine caught on fire. They extinguished it and did the race, which the Mustang won.

For the last race, the Mustang's starter wouldn't engage and the Cressida won. Toyotas. It still fascinates me that a three liter six cylinder can develop more horsepower than a Ford five liter V-8. So why don't more people put Toyota engines in their race cars? Probably because of availability. Everyone and his brother has access to Ford and Chevy parts, as well as aftermarket accessories.

Scott and I rode the motorcycle to school again today. One of the valves is noisy, and I think it has been since about 75k. I'm probably not going to pursue it because at freeway speeds I can't hear it. I'm getting ready for my surgery next Friday. Today I gotta give blood. Ugh. At least I get to take the VFR.

Voicing, part II

2011-09-19T14:57:00.000-07:00

Scott has been doing really well with his piano lessons--better than I expected he would do. When he practices with Heidi, I can listen objectively to the piano and certain keys were still out of tune. This morning, I tuned them up nice. Then I voiced the piano by dripping some isopropanol on the hammers and used the monokote iron to steam it out.

Scott noticed that it smelled like alcohol and I told him about voicing. Then I told him which keys I had tuned and he seemed pleased. I think I'm proficient enough at tuning pianos that I could tune someone else's in a reasonable amount of time, but I'm not marketing myself or anything.

Sea Foam in the Swagger Wagon

2011-09-17T20:37:00.000-07:00

Lyle and I did the Sea-Foam treatment to the swagger wagon. Lyle has mad car skills. I explained the sound that the van was making and he said, "It might be the exhaust gasket. They expand when they heat up and close." Yes, that's valid. But since we had the sea foam, we did the treatment.

We disconnected a vacuum line from the throttle body and Lyle sprayed 3/4 of the can in. We let it sit a few minutes and Lyle said the check engine might detect a misfire. Sure enough, it did. The van blew out a ton of smoke, as Lyle had predicted, but the check engine light stayed on. The instructions on the Sea-Foam said to drive aggressively to blow away any carbon residue, but when I stomped on it, the van had no power. I was nervous. We were hoping it was just electronically limited due to the check engine light, and I said, "Lyle, this is only running on four or five cylinders. It's like driving the Buick: The engine revs, but you don't really accelerate.

We drove to his brother's house to use the code reader, and there were three errors: three cylinder misfires. That means the swagger wagon, running on three cylinders, was as powerful as the Riv running on all eight. We cleared the codes and then the van ran like a champ. Good old swagger wagon. I still think about putting a subwoofer in, especially because someone's blog had an article about how to pimp your minivan. The swagger wagon needs no pimping, but one of their suggestions was to install a subwoofer. Ha!

Homemade soap, part II

2011-09-17T11:01:00.000-07:00

Heidi used my soap for a load of wash. I wasn't too impressed, but it's too early to call it a failure because I don't know how much she used and I didn't add any scents. Even still, it may be a failure. Eh, whatev. I still like using my drying rack because the clothes have to get folded at some point and it's more comfortable to fold them standing up.

The floor mats came for the swagger wagon and I'm pleased. On the freeway the other night, in order to allow a person to merge, I stepped on the gas, the transmission dropped to third with no hesitation, the engine revved to 5200 with a jolt and we rocketed outta there. Variable valve timing. Swagger wagon. I try telling people at school, and they don't believe me. I'm like, "You will never know until you drive one."

Homemade laundry soap

2011-09-12T16:00:00.000-07:00

I made my own laundry soap today. I had been thinking about it for a time, and I tried bouncing the idea off people and got a lot of negative feedback. Why do I need to make my own soap when the costco stuff is pretty cheap? Well, it doesn't work that well. Aside from making the clothes smell better, it doesn't clean that great.

My efforts to get the clothes clean have involved pre-soaking and scrubbing in the kitchen sink. If I'm going to all that trouble, it would be better to get a big washboard and do the wash myself, by hand, because I am way better at removing stains than the electric washer. But I'd rather have chemistry do the work.

The other thing about making my own soap is that I'm into smells and I want to make my clothes smell good. All I need now is some essential oil from San Francisco. SF is into that kind of stuff.

I studied the various webpages regarding homemade laundry soap and educated myself on Arm & Hammer washing soda, sodium carbonate. Despite what I've said about not learning anything worthwhile in college, I do have a broad chemistry knowledge base thanks to Matt Peterson's Chem 352 class and TA'ing Chem 105. Sodium carbonate is completely soluble in water and the carbonate is a strong nucleophile, stripping the hydrogen atom off a water molecule, resulting in more OH- , an alkaline solution. It's great for cleaning other areas of the house, but I need to try my laundry soap first.

At the worst, I'll be out the 25 cents in chemicals and a half hour of my time. At the best, we'll have three quarts of nice laundry soap. Am I turning into a tree-hugger? No, but I pruned the tree out front and everyone should learn the art and science of pruning. That's another topic.

On another note, I think the swagger wagon has a sticky exhaust valve. It's noisy when the engine is cold and goes away after a few minutes. I talked to Lyle about Sea Foam and he says to get the spray kind and shoot it through a vacuum hose right into the intake until the engine kills. Then you let it sit there for ten minutes, then start the engine and blow away all the soot which is old carbon residue. I don't know where the vacuum line is, but I'm going to see if he can help me.

Fuel shut-off

2011-09-08T07:45:00.001-07:00

I found the remains of the old exhaust gasket sitting on top of the collector box. This morning, I fired up the VFR to go to UOP. Right after taking off, she was running really rough. I gave her some gas and heard that choking sound. Then, the engine killed.

I had forgotten to turn the fuel back on! Last night, in the dark, I was fumbling around trying to find the switch. Heidi asked me to leave it and I forgot about it.

My ride was great. The VFR is running fab. One of the students asked which bike was mine, and I said, "the old red one. With 117,000 miles."

He said, "That's not very many for a bike."

"Yes, it's unusual to have that many. Most people crash them at 30,000 or sell them to people who crash. Fifty is considered high."

I ran some sea-foam through the swagger wagon because the fuel injectors were noisy when the engine was cold. The sea foam seems to have taken care of it. Go, sea foam! I also put some in my lawnmower and cut the grass yesterday.

Exhaust leak repair, update:

2011-09-07T14:13:00.001-07:00

I went home for lunch and fired up the VFR. There is no evidence of exhaust leakage. How long is it going to stay sealed? I don't know. Tomorrow is UOP and we'll see how my ride goes.

I've had a lot on my mind the past few weeks. Eh, anyway.

Exhaust leak repair

2011-09-07T09:24:00.000-07:00

Last night, after putting Kira to bed, I dismantled the rear exhaust pipes from the header. It was no easy task, as the access was cramped and I had to rely on my little cheap flashlight.

I could not adequately remove the previous gasket. It was a thin little ribbon and kept tearing off when I got a grip on it. I think the cause of the failure was that previously, I had not adequately removed the old one and it worked its way out. I don't know, but I like to think about why things failed so my subsequent repairs can be successful.

Well, I tried and tried to extract this gasket but couldn't. The access was limited, and I had to hold my flashlight in my mouth and pry open the pipe with a 10 mm box wrench, and it was a very tough go. I contemplated removing the front headers and moving the collector box, but that would require removing the fairings and I wasn't willing to do that because I need the VFR for Thursday and there are not many moments for me to work on it. I thought and thought about it and decided to fire up the engine and blow the pieces out the other end.

So I fired her up. The exhaust was super loud and throaty, and I gave the motor a little gas and blew away the existing gasket residue. I watched to see if it came out the tailpipe, and it didn't, but I'm sure on my ride tomorrow, it will dislodge. What's the worst that can happen? It'll get stuck somewhere in the collector box and rattle around and I'll have to remove the muffler to fish it out. I doubt it'll get stuck in a pipe.

I fitted the new gasket and torqued the nuts pretty hard. Today, I'll fire her up to check for leakage. As I talked to myself through this procedure, I reasoned that if I had taken the VFR to a shop, handed them the new gaskets and said, "Please put new exhaust gaskets on the rear header to collector box," they would have not been as meticulous in removing the old gasket. I don't know; that's just what I think.

One of the girls at work asked me what I repaired this morning (usually I get up early and fix something). I said, "Well, it was last night," and I proceeded to tell her of my gasket repair. She said, "Time to get a new motorcycle."

I launched into my discussion that the VFR is an old friend: If your friend got cancer and went to the hospital, you wouldn't say, "Well, see you! Gotta find me a new friend!" She was like, "Well, when you put it that way...but your motorcycle doesn't have feelings."

No, I do.

Traxxas

2011-09-06T16:35:00.001-07:00

Traxxas RC cars are great. For labor day weekend, we spent the night at Lake del Valle in Livermore (Heidi will post about that) and the next morning, we drove the RC cars all over the campground. E-maxx was doing great after I repaired the front end, and I discovered that the sluggish steering was due to some binding in the mechanism that I fixed.

And then along came the ranger. He said that although they hadn't had any complaints, the cars were putting up a lot of dust and they were quite loud. Yes, I agreed about the noise, but come on! The people near us were blasting the tunes and yelling until about one in the morning! But whatev.

I got the rest of the ball bearings installed in bumble car but now the Ni-Cd battery is dying a slow death and can't adequately perform. Scott keeps asking about lipo, and I am pleased that he knows about brushless and lipo, but I don't know if this little weak chassis can handle 3s power. I do want a 3s battery, but it opens up a new dimension of crash possibilities.

I had a flat tire this morning. I pumped it up and made it to work, but it was flat at lunch. I had the slime tube installed, but there were still some puncture vines in the tire. So at lunch, I took off the wheel, removed the tire, cleaned out the rest of the spikes, then walked it to Chevron and filled it up. I need a portable bike pump. I need a lipo. I just ordered floor mats for the swagger wagon...

Oh, I put Heidi's car on craigslist and we've had some nibbles! Someone is checking it out tomorrow. I'm excited that the Ford is on its way out the door! Yeah.

Sea Foam

2011-09-02T13:36:00.000-07:00

I had heard about Sea Foam from numerous sources online and in person. So for six bucks, I had to give it a try, even if it is just petroleum distillates. I poured a few ounces in the tank before my ride to San Francisco and was pleased with the result. There was no more hesitation, the throttle curve was smooth and peppy throughout, and I was up to a buck ten with no problem.

Therefore, I am pleased with the VFR as a result of Sea Foam. Good old VFR. 117,100 miles.

This morning, I woke up early to fix Bandit, Rustler, and E-maxx (Tyler and Scott had a head-on at full speed, so that's a combined 60 mph impact). I told Scott that since Bandit doesn't have a bumper, he can't crash, and that might mean driving more slowly. Ha, watch. We'll be back to the hobby store next week.

Oil change

2011-08-31T21:12:00.001-07:00

Changed the oil on the swagger wagon with some 5w-30 full synthetic oil. It utilizes a removable filter element within a machined housing and silicone o-rings, so the process took longer than usual. But I was surprised to see some debris in the canister. I meticulously rinsed it out with some solvent before putting it back on and refilling the oil. 93,500 miles.

Would a dealership have done that? No way. They probably do the worst work, but charge the most money. That way, when things fail prematurely, you have to go back. I asked Heidi, "How can people trust others to work on their cars?" She says it's because people don't know how.

But with Haynes manuals and youtube, you can learn how to do pretty much anything.

Swagger Wagon Repair

2011-08-30T21:19:00.001-07:00

Part of the reason we got the swagger wagon for so cheap was because the rear door didn't open from the outside. Yesterday morning, I woke up early and took apart the rear door and then ordered a new latch assembly from the dealership. I picked it up on the VFR and installed it in about two minutes after work, but alas! It didn't work!

I was dejected. I checked every fuse and couldn't find any broken ones. Then, I pressed the unlock button on the clicker and then it worked! Now we can open it from the outside. Was it just locked the whole time? No. We tried every possible trick to get it to open and the sensor had failed. The latch mechanism came with a new sensor. Yeah, skills.
Latch mechanism installed. Tomorrow morning, I'll put the upholstery back on since my MMA repair has fully cured.

Swagger Wagon!

Follow-up

2011-08-30T14:28:00.000-07:00

I called a bunch of people regarding my carburetor dilemma. I was on the verge of overhauling the carbs myself but still wanted to try my poor man's tune-up.

I picked up the specially ordered part for the swagger wagon in Antioch (more on that later). I rode the VFR and decided to give a fair and honest evaluation of the performance. As far as I could tell, the performance exceeded my expectations on all but one run, and I believe I may have just had some dirt in some fuel passage or some bad gas.

Therefore, I am not going to pursue any kind of carb work. I did, however, pick up some sea-foam since many people on the internet swear by it. I'll dump some in the tank for Thursday's ride and update you.

Also, I have installed ball bearings in the TT-01. Scott calls it the bumble car, and it's not any faster but there is less vibration in the wheels. I think it was designed to be a drift car and not a fast road car, which is kind of a bummer since we wanted it to be wicked fast. Even still, it's fun to do speed runs against the Bandit and Rustler because Scott's Bandit is by far the fastest, but he has to brake just right and mind the throttle or else he'll wheelie over. The Rustler is probably as fast as the bumble car but accelerates faster. Bumble car needs lipo to be competitive but it might heat up the motor too much. Eh, anyway.

Oh, I fixed the swagger wagon's interior upholstery yesterday. The previous owner had broken a mounting tab and tried to fix it with epoxy. When I was a nymph gluer, I used epoxy inappropriately too. Now I use methyl methacrylate for plastic repairs and it's waaaay better. Okay, gotta go.

I'm troubled

2011-08-28T19:19:00.001-07:00

On the way home from UOP, the VFR seemed starved for fuel. I disregarded this because the air was especially damp and sometimes the VFR didn't run that great until the engine had sufficiently heated. Then yesterday, on my way to drop off Tyler's holter monitor, the VFR was not running well. It hesitated, and the performance was off.

Also, the engine is running a bit hotter than usual. What does all this mean?

My thoughts:

1. Exhaust leak could be compromising engine performance and creating excess heat.

2. Increased engine temperature may be secondary to lean fuel mixture.

3. Lean fuel mixture may be secondary to old, deteriorating gaskets letting in too much air.

4. Carburetor overhaul may be in order.

5. Poor performance may be warning signs of catastrophic engine failure.

I think it's a carburetor issue, because even though I've never checked the compression, the VFR has always pulled strong. When I got my Yamaha in 2001 and had the dealership do the carbs, it came back super strong.

I studied the manual a bit and don't know how I feel about taking on the carburetor overhaul project. I successfully rebuilt the Riv's quadrajet when I was only like 22, so I'm confident I could get it done. But it would take time. So then I consider taking the VFR to a dealership. They'd ask me the mileage, and we'd get that gradu about how "it could be anything." I thought about saying, "It reads 16954."

On the VFR forums the correspondents say that the last thing to go in a VFR is the engine, so I highly doubt my engine is on the brink of failure. Even still, I must consider it as part of my differential diagnosis. Also, Dale Carnegie recommends asking yourself, "What is the worst that could possibly happen?"

This would be the worst: catastrophic engine failure which leads me to sell the VFR. If that happens, what will I do?

Buy a 1999.

There, things aren't so bad.

But what am I going to do? Call a few places to get price quotes, then I'll probably end up overhauling the carbs myself. I might put in a dynojet stage one kit. Eh, we'll see. Tomorrow I gotta wake up early to fix the door on the swagger wagon.

All for now.

Exhaust leak

2011-08-26T13:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, after UOP, I fired up the VFR. She sounded poppy. Suspecting a loose exhaust fitting, I took a look this morning. Sure enough: one of the nuts had fallen off and the gasket is falling apart. I must not have done a good job reassembling it when I fixed the oil drain pan gasket in 2009.

I needed new gaskets and the closest Honda dealership was 30 minutes away. They didn't have them in stock, so I ordered them from cheapcycleparts.com and the shipping was the same price as the parts. Normally, I would balk at that. Now, I think, "Well, I don't go to Concord anymore, so it would have to be a special trip. It would take an hour. How much is my time worth? Are they open when I'm not working?"

Thus.

I'm still really happy with the VFR, especially when I filled up last night and got 56.5 mpg. Yeah.

Several bashes

2011-08-21T09:27:00.000-07:00

We had the Pentlands over on Friday for bbq and bash. It was great seeing them, as this is the first time we hung out in Brentwood. We went to the high school for the rc bash and within a few minutes, Tyler had destroyed the steering bellcrank on the Rustler. I offered him E-maxx, and within a few minutes, he had rendered E-maxx useless. I don't even know what he hit, but the impact broke the front right bulkhead (7 mm's of nylon), suspension pins, steering collar, and front skid plate.

I tore E-maxx down to the front differential and was impressed at the build quality of Traxxas vehicles: metal gears, tough nylon components, and ball bearings everywhere.

This is the Tamiya TT-01 we picked up for Tyler in preparation for his surgery. We all share it and do drifts, as that's what the boys are currently into. Tamiya cars are not built as well as Traxxas. Even after I put in a Castle Creations 5700 kv motor and sidewinder SV2 esc, it was still not as fast as Bandit. There are some upgrades I can do, including up to 3s lipo, but I'm worried the motor will get too hot. Traxxas doesn't make an on-road electric vehicle.

Scott repairing Bandit after he broke the rear stub axle. He wanted to drive another car, but I made him repair Bandit. My theory is that he will be more careful in order to spend less time in the pits and more on the road. Bad idea? Eventually, he will be able to troubleshoot, diagnose, and repair better than me. I'm excited about that.

Kira likes hanging out with us, too. Unfortunately, she likes bending the antennas and throwing the batteries at Tyler.

Tuned

2011-08-14T21:08:00.000-07:00

Got my piano tuned. I did it myself. My kit came from China, and Miles and I debated the quality. I said, "There's one built in the States for $28 and one from China for $18." Miles was like, "Yeah, the one from China might be crap."

I piped up, "What guarantee do I have that the one built in the States is any good?" Miles agreed.

My kit arrived this week and I was pleasantly surprised at the fine finish on the wooden hammer (that's what they call the wrench), the mutes, and nice carrying case. Then, I downloaded an app for $3.99 and began tuning the piano. I did it in three separate sessions. Each time, the bass notes would sag but be closer to spec than the previous session. The boys helped me here and there and it's pretty good right now. I am excited. Scott starts piano lessons tomorrow.

I need to voice it again because the hammers are getting the grooves again. This time, I'm going to make a nozzle for my pressure cooker and steam them.

What am I going to do with my new-found skill? Probably just tune my own piano. I'm not fast enough to do other people's pianos.

Lyle's wife spoke in church today about provident living. It was very good; she talked about happily living below our means, being content with what we have, and saving for a rainy day. She said that her family had budgeted for unexpected auto expenses and this week, the Suburban's water pump failed. It was not a stress for them because they had set aside money for that specific purpose.

After church, I said to them, "Nice talk. Lyle, did you fix the water pump?"

He was like, "Course! I got a new pump, not remanufactured, for fifty bucks. The shop wanted at least 350." Then his wife said, "I didn't want to say that he had done it in case it made the other men feel bad." Skills. Good old Lyle.

Repairs

2011-08-13T07:58:00.001-07:00

I began repairing the Bandit last night. I purchased double spare parts this time, because in not very much time, I'll be repairing the suspension pins again. Compare the old with a new:

This is the first time the steering bellcrank has broken. When I fixed it, I replaced the bushings with 850 ball bearings.

I didn't realize it before my excursion to Hobbytown, but the shock shaft is non-functional and I'll have to go back today. I need shock oil, too.

I'm not bothered to have to make these repairs. I like that the kids like to do it and that they can share once in a while. That's why we keep the pumpkin going: The kids can gauge their interest and skill before taking on the Traxxas vehicles.

Ferrari

2011-08-12T10:53:00.000-07:00

I got my hot cocoa from Bank of America yesterday in San Francisco. While I was strolling around Fillmore, I saw a Ferrari Italia 458 parked on Clay street. I went to admire it and the driver approached: a mid 30's guy. I asked him what his payments were. He didn't answer because he was flippin' mad over a parking ticket he had received. He used some choice words to describe the meter maid and then drove off.

The students had their first practical yesterday. One of the students had broken off the water spray adjuster at the hub and couldn't retrieve the stub. He asked me what to do.

"Did you call the maintenance guy?" I said.

"Yes, and there was no answer."

I looked around and said, "I'm a dentist. I get it DONE. Here's what you're going to do: Use your high speed, drill a hole in the stub, then put your slow speed in reverse and remove it like an easy-out."

I thought he was going to ask what was an easy-out, but he did like I recommended and removed the stub. He exclaimed, "You're the man!" Yeah. Skills.

This morning, I went to ride to work but my new bike's front tire was flat! Then I remembered that Heidi had ridden it to back to school night. I didn't have time to load the slime into it and pump it back up, so I just rode the seat-less white lightning to the office. A patient who owns a bike shop is supposed to drop off a slime laced tube, so that should be good.

Still

2011-08-11T07:31:00.001-07:00

Yesterday the boys wanted to drive cars in the court. E-maxx had just been charged and the Rustler was still working, but the Bandit was out again because I took all the cars to soccer practice and Scott was showing off with the Bandit and broke the steering bell crank. Bandit is tough, but Scott flips it at 30 mph and it cartwheels like seven times before coming to a halt.

So Tyler said, "I want to drive E-maxx. Where is he?" So they did obstacle courses for a few minutes and then it was time to cut their hair.

Scott asked about the red car. I told him I was seriously considering a touring car, like the red car, but faster and more reliable. He seemed excited.

Slime

2011-08-08T15:47:00.000-07:00

I got a flat on my bicycle. Four holes, in fact. Scott, Kira and I went to Wal-mart for a new tube and some slime. I got the new tube installed, loaded it with 4 oz. of slime and pressurized it to 40 psi, just in time to accompany Scott to kindergarten. Man, I love my bike. And my compressor.

Projects

2011-08-07T21:43:00.000-07:00

I need to write some of my thoughts regarding my projects.

1. Refinishing the piano. I have ordered a kit to tune my piano myself. This is important because if I refinish it, it will need to be tuned again and I have to make sure I can do it since I might have to take apart the piano multiple times. Good idea? Bad idea? Mechanically, the piano is about a 5. Most of the keys work ideally, and the ones that don't are at least clinically acceptable. The tone is maybe a 7, and the action, an 8. I like how it feels, even though they claim that it's out of spec. I figure that at the worst, the piano refinishing project will be a disaster and I'll have to just give it away on craigslist and start over with another free piano that someone else is giving away. Craigslist. But if I refinish it, I will do it well and I want to do it black with a lot of varnish. I also thought to do it white. We'll see. All I have is nostalgia right now, and we see where that led the Riv.

2. White lightning rebuild project. I took out the seat post to try to straighten it, because it is so far bent that I can't lower it for Scott. My new TREK got a flat tire and I found a puncture vine in the tire, and when I removed it, there was a loud hiss. We were going on a bike ride tonight, so I decided to just take White Lightning. But wait! The seat post was loose. I just pedaled around without it. Tyler wanted to ride with me, so I put him on the main bars and we were off. I thought he could learn to balance, so I jumped off and began running with him. He couldn't balance and started tipping over. I grabbed him and ended up tripping over the bike, cutting open my toe. Tyler was mad, even though I was the one bleeding. The most straightforward approach is to just order a new seat post on ebay and not powder coat the bike or even paint it.

3. an on-road RC car. Heidi thinks this is a silly idea, but the boys have been into drifting and the only real drifter is e-maxx, which has way too much traction for the road. The bandit and rustler understeer, but Scott likes to go full speed and then lock up the rear tires to slide. I think if they had a 4wd on-road car, they could drift to their heart's content. Heidi said, "You've already grown out of your car?" No. I am very happy with e-maxx, the bandit, and the rustler. I just think that when we're not driving in the dirt, like when they want to just drive in our court, an on-road drifter would be great. So what would I get? Probably some craigslist Tamiya TT-01 with a brushless conversion. Indeed, if we're going to do it, it's going to be fast. Like 80 mph capable. Associated makes a TC-4 that can go over 100 mph, but Tyler and Scott would end up crashing into some parked car and denting the rims of the full-size auto. And the TT-01 is more popular. I just don't think it's as well-built. Hobbytown recommended it, but I need to do more homie worky. Maybe I'll change my mind anyway. I am going to "lend" Ove the Wildcat, since the boys aren't into it that much, and that will free up some space in our RC fleet.

4. That's all for now.

Finished

2011-08-03T06:37:00.000-07:00

Got the rear brakes done on the highlander. It was slick.

I ran some errands during lunch yesterday and one of them was the bicycle shop. I asked for fork oil seals for my rock shox and they were 40 bucks. I was willing to pay 30, so I refused the sale. They said, "The rock shox are so cheap, you can just buy a new one for $150 'cuz it's not worth rebuilding them."

"A hundred and fifty bucks! That's more than I paid for the bike!" I exclaimed.

The guy shrugged and said, "See, your bike is probably not very good."

Salesmen. You can't count on them to evaluate quality. I don't care how good my bike is; it's good enough.

I was talking to a guy who put 130,000 miles on his harley. He was proud as he told me that. I said, "Wow, I only have 116. Have you rebuilt the motor?"

"Twice."

Ah.

Highlander brake project 2011

2011-08-01T21:09:00.001-07:00

This is the second time I've done the brakes on the 2005 Toyota Highlander, and both times, I've had to turn the rotors. It has 54,366 miles. I jacked it up from the center, removed both front tires, put on the new pads and newly turned rotors and got it back together in a little over an hour.

When I did my test drive to make sure all was in working order, I detected a squeal on the left rear, especially when veering left. Suspecting spent pads on the rear as well, I jacked it up to have a look. Sure enough, the rear pads were down to the squealer. It's late, though, and I'll have to pick up more pads tomorrow.

I'm a little disappointed that they no longer put xylene in brake parts cleaner. All the good stuff has been banned: toluene, methylene chloride, and now xylene. What's next? Carbon dioxide?

League Bash

2011-07-31T08:46:00.001-07:00

Scott had league meet at Los Medanos College in Pittsburg. He only had to swim two events but wanted to stay longer to be with his friends. The Bandit is out on repair leave due to a broken rear shock tower (Wednesday's hardcore bash), but we had the pumpkin, E-maxx, and Rustler. We ran two cycles through the pumpkin and two through E-maxx and about 30 kids were watching at one point.

Scott and his friends driving E-maxx down a steep hill.

The aftermath of the Rustler. The "three wrecks and you're done" rule was working pretty well but there was one kid with a bad attitude and he caused this. Afterwards, he got out of there pretty quickly.

Overall, it was a great time with the RC cars.

Voicing

2011-07-29T21:01:00.000-07:00

These are the hammers on my piano. Note the left ones have grooves in them from repeatedly striking the keys. I filed the ones on the right with a nail file. That's what "voicing the piano" means. I did all 88 keys this morning and was pleased with the result: Brighter, louder tone. I was happy to see that the piano had been well-played.

I still thinking about repainting it. The history of this piano is as follows:

1981: my parents bought it new and I began studying in 1984.

1991: Mom inherited some money and bought a Wurlitzer 6 foot grand, then sold the upright to her sister, Vicki. The upright was neglected. The Wurlitzer looked nice but I felt it had a dry tone and the action was heavy.

2001: I bought the upright back from Vicki and used it in Provo, UT

2003: Brought it to San Francisco, CA

2005: Moved it to Walnut Creek, CA

2011: Moved it to Brentwood, CA, and now Scott is going to study on it.

It has been fun for me to tinker on it.

Here I am, Christmas 1982 with the Cable upright piano. See?

piano tuning

2011-07-28T13:12:00.001-07:00

Young Whang worked on my piano yesterday. He took off the lid, front case, and bottom panel to do an evaluation. My piano, being 30 years old, was "out of spec." In a humble, straight-forward manner, he told me that the piano probably wasn't worth spending the money to put it back into spec.

That's fine. I told him that it's good enough for our needs, and I enjoy playing it even when it's out of tune. He recommended tuning it two times, at least two hours apart. So he did the first tune yesterday and then I pedaled Kira and the RC toys to Scott's meet at Heritage High.

Scott did great and dropped a lot of time, and the RC cars were a hit. We had e-maxx, Bandit, and the Rustler going at once. A group of about 8 kids gathered around and eventually Tyler let them drive the Rustler. The rule was that they would get three crashes and then they had to pass the radio to the next operator.

Scott did some great jumps with the Bandit and everyone was impressed. The kids ran the Rustler's battery dead, and when I charged it, it took 5140 mAh, which is very good. Then I checked my piano and it was back out of tune, like the tuner had anticipated.

This morning, I vacuumed out the piano case and watched a youtube video on how to tune pianos with household tools. There are just a few keys that are really off, so I put a 1/4 inch socket with the square end toward the piano and used an allen key to tune the two strings. It was good enough to tune it by ear, but I need to tune more than just that key and I'll need Young to come back. All for now.

Alpine fail

2011-07-27T15:25:00.001-07:00

Daaaaaa! The subwoofer amp in Heidi's car failed! I am disappointed because it was a good amp: adequate power, good signal/noise ratio, and bridgeable.

What am I going to do now? I don't know, because we are still in the market for a minivan and I don't know how much longer we're going to have that stupid Exploder. And when we get the van, is the 12 going to fit? It has to. I've never had a car without a subwoofer. The Riv had a great system because it had two twelves and six Pioneer coaxial speakers. I've thought about replacing the factory speakers on the van too.

Regardless, I miss the beat and want to get another amp. I don't care who you are, 600 watts is no good if it has a signal/noise ratio of 90 db. I've actually considered getting a new amp, rather than a craigslist special, because mine was 11 years old and failed. What guarantee do I have that the used ones are better? Hmmmm.

Ecco fail

2011-07-25T15:19:00.001-07:00

I knew my vintage shoes would outlast the eccos. The other day, Heidi commented on the fact that the sole was separating from the upper on the brown Eccos. I was disappointed. I have worn the vintage shoes about 700 days without a trace of fatigue, and yet, I probably wore the brown eccos less than 200. So what am I going to do?

Bring them back to Nordstrom. Though I dislike Nordstrom for the exorbitant prices and better-than-you attitude many of the associates have, they do have a good return policy--so good that I'm pretty sure they're going to just trade in my shoes.

Why did I even get these shoes in the first place? Well, when I was a young, single dental student, Heidi got me these shoes just a few weeks before we married. Admittedly, the eccos are more fashionable than Rockports, but they are not durable at all. The sole is hardly worn.

But my new bicycle is money! Now Heidi is talking about getting a nicer bike, too. I pumped up little bike's tire, hoping that Tyler will start riding soon. He has the skill, but he lacks confidence.

My new bike

2011-07-23T22:32:00.000-07:00

I have kinda outgrown White Lightning. Not all the way, but mostly. So I found this TREK 4500 alpha on craigslist. Kira and Tyler came with me in the car to pick it up, and Tyler was not too happy to be with me. The college-aged kid showed me the bike, and the chain was stuck around the hub and the brakes rubbed because they were not properly aligned. Still, I spun the front and rear wheels and said, "The rear is out of true."

The kid lowered the price by fifty bucks, which was lower than my original low ball offer, and I went for it. At home, Scott and Kira helped me clean it up with some stoddard solvent. I adjusted the derailleur, pumped up the flat rear tire, adjusted the front brakes, and took it for a spin. I was very pleased. I was expecting to have to rebuild the crank and shifters, but so far, so good. And here's a picture of my 20 gallon compressor, also a craigslist bargain:

I am very pleased with it too. I'm hoping to get 50 years out of it. My dad has a 20 gallon Devilbiss that his dad used, and although it has a bent crank, it still pressures up.

What is going to happen to white lightning? Scott is excited to inherit it. I want to disassemble it, have it powder coated, and put some new decals on it. I recognize that doing so will be about twice the cost of a new bike, but white lightning has been a solid performer over the past 23 years, and Scott deserves a nice bike.

Jeep

2011-07-22T13:28:00.001-07:00

The other day, Scott said, "Daddy, I want to build a Jeep."

I don't know where he got this idea. Maybe he has a friend whose dad is building a Jeep, but it sounds like he wants a big four wheeler to go off-roading. Instead of getting a Jeep and then chancing that Scott doesn't like garage tinkering, I recommended we get a broken lawnmower and fix it up. He seemed okay with that.

There were two free mowers on craigslist but they always get picked up fast. My five readers: Do you have any broken lawnmowers you can't get rid of? Want to help a young, budding mechanic learn some skills? Yeah. I'll still comb craigslist. Okay, back to worky.

Piano tuning

2011-07-21T07:17:00.000-07:00

My piano needs to be tuned. Last time it was tuned was about 2002, when I called various tuners in Provo and decided to have Barry, from Tip Top Piano, do it. Well, I had to do my homie worky this time, so I called around. One guy spoke to me for 14 minutes about how you can tune a piano in 45 minutes but it'll be a crappy tune, and he's better than that. He told me my piano wasn't any good, and I've heard that before. I asked him what he thought of the Schafer piano, and he said it was an average one, too.

"What makes a good piano?" I asked him.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I've played Steinway and Yamaha, and they're fine, and the Schafer sounds just as good."

"Then if you're happy, that's all that matters. But the piano isn't that great of a piano."

"Why?"

"It's not built the same," he said, exasperated.

"So the Steinways are expensive because they are put together better?"

"They are expensive because famous people play them."

"Oh, so they are expensive because of their name. But they might not be any better than the Schafer," I summed up.

The tuner then went on to discuss that Steinways were hard to tune--so hard that he wasn't confident about the last Steinway he had tuned. Meanwhile, the cheap Samick was easy to tune and sounded better than the Steinway, according to the tuner. It was all very humorous.

The kicker was that he said, "You know, pianos are like cars. They're pretty much all the same these days." Ha! I didn't even begin my soap box about cars.

He also said, "People call up and say the bass section of their piano is flat, but I go to tune it and the bass is great and everywhere else is flat. We tune our pianos to A-440."

I told him that my piano was flat, so A might be 420. He said, "How did you get this number?"

"The Contra Costa County yellow pages," I told him.

He was referring to how I arrived at A-420. I said, "I have perfect pitch, just like you." He said that he doesn't have perfect pitch but uses the stroboscope. I told all of this to Heidi, then whistled an A and checked it against the piano. She said, "Not everyone can do that."

But at BYU, it seemed like everyone had perfect pitch. I was in a music class and the teacher played a note and said, "What note am I playing?"

I thought, "A-440." The guy next to me said, "A-440." I thought, "Oh brother, I'm a nerd!"

Eh, anyway.

Scott had a meet at Valley Vista yesterday. I rode the VFR after work and parked on the sidewalk. Scott had a great meet and the weather was warm, so he was happy. Afterwards, several of the young swimmers were gathered around the VFR. A swim mom said, "They're all admiring this motorcycle."

"That's my bike!" I said, proud as can be. Then Scott wanted to climb up on it to show off. Good times.

sharp

2011-07-19T12:18:00.000-07:00

Matt let me use his die grinder and pedestal grinder to sharpen my lawnmower blade. I had to take off about 2 mm's in order to get a good edge, and I was pleased when I was done. My lawnmower started on the first pull and I cut the whole lawn without having to change the grass catcher.

The sharpened blade is money. And I am happy about how the edger is working. I didn't have time to do the weed eater, but I'll get it next time. I've been super busy with work.

I talked with Lyle about my theory of age wearing out vehicles faster than mileage. He agrees. Anyway, time for my nappy nap.

fluorescent bulbs

2011-07-15T11:47:00.000-07:00

It's time to rant. I tried to replace four of the burned-out CFL bulbs in our house. Three of them fell apart and one of them deteriorated to the point that the plastic sheath was stuck in the socket. Removing it was like extracting an endo-treated tooth--each time you got a good grip on it, a piece would break off.

I'm upset because those bulbs have mercury in them (not an issue to me until they break, like what happened this morning), they're super expensive and not very bright. Plus, I guess the guvment is arguing about preventing Edison/Tesla's incandescent bulbs from being manufactured.

I'm all for being green and stuff, but I bet when you consider the high cost of production, shipping, weak output and higher disposal costs of the CFL's, it's pretty much a wash to the so-called inefficient incandescent bulb.

Instead of deciding on how to reduce the United States' massive deficit, they're discussing light bulbs. They need a Dale Carnegie-trained individual to deliver a speech on Americana, capitalism, and survival of the fittest. But whatev. Until then, I'm going to Wal-mart to buy some incandescents before they're obsolete. Ah, and I need to replace those stupid CFL's.

On another note, yesterday was my UOP day. We got a new group of students, the DDS class of 2014. I rode the VFR and it was 114 miles round trip, but I had a great ride and made good time since I left really early and had night clinic. Okay, back to worky.

All done

2011-07-13T19:41:00.000-07:00

Behold, the mower that Craig built. No, I built it, and I got parts from amazon and Chris Pineda. It still runs a little rough before it's warmed up but I think it's just bad gas.

I have had a surprising number of people tell me to just get a new lawnmower. Phooey on you! Let a man enjoy his accomplishment. Don't rain on my celebration.

Now I'm off to get some garage shelves on craigslist.

Time is money?

2011-07-10T08:21:00.001-07:00

Dan-o and I had a conversation not long ago about how it might not cost us much to do our DIY projects, it just takes time. He said, "Time is money, but if I weren't doing my project, I wouldn't be working either. So that argument doesn't work." And it's true. For me, it's a buzz to spend some of my leisure time fixing up old, beaten-up things. It's like therapy. Instead of going to the spa, which costs money, I just tinker on my projects. The kids get involved too, especially Kira. who likes to play with the sockets.

Is it worth my while to drive to the hardware store? You bet, because I take the VFR and I love riding the VFR. You can't put a price on happiness.

But let's take the example of the free weed eater that I got on craigslist this week. It didn't work, and I spent 25 minutes disassembling, cleaning, and putting it back together before I was able to fire it up and trim around the tree. Was it worth it? How much am I worth?

Well, I had already worked that day and this was my play time. I had only invested my time, and yes, it was worth it because now I have pride of ownership and satisfaction that I had conquered a broken weed eater. You can't put a price on that.

Oh, and while I was out on my errands in order to maximize my time and fuel, I stopped in to Chris's lawnmower shop to follow up with my progress. He sold me the gasket I needed and he was pleased that I was able to fix my machine.

Yesterday I finally finished my drawer glider project. I had seen Dan-o's post about his homemade bed, which was quite impressive, and decided I needed to just finish my furniture project. It was not as straightforward as I had hoped, but I thought outside of the box and got a nice result. Much better than the factory door gliders, which had failed with the previous owner, hence the low price. Was it worth it? Yes, because we would never have bought this piece of furniture new, and now we have a nice, functional one at about 1/10th the price, plus a little time, which we have determined equals satisfaction and pride instead of money.

Let's just hypothesize by saying that I had bought all of my yard equipment new. It would be about $600, and it would probably work flawlessly. What would I have done, had I not tinkered on my projects? Nothing. We don't have a TV for me to use to waste time. The kids have all been at the pool in Walnut Creek with Heidi until evening, so for 1-2 hours a day, tinkering was my hobby time.

Some people hunt or golf as a hobby. I fix things. It's time well spent. And you can't put a price on that.

Lawn Mower, part 4

2011-07-08T18:18:00.000-07:00

I cut the entire lawn with my lawn mower, which included four changes of the bagger due to excess growth. I went to ACE yesterday for a filter and filter gasket. They had a filter for $8.50, and I said, "That's a little pricey. I'll give you six bucks." The kid was like, "How about 8.50?"

I laughed and said, "It's either six or zero, because I'll just go somewhere else and you'll lose the sale." The kid shrugged, and I went home empty handed. This morning, I ordered one on amazon for 5.09, including shipping.

So today after work, I filled up the gas tank, sprayed some brake parts cleaner into the throttle and fired it up. I tied the kill switch closed and let it run for a few minutes before putting on the dirty filter. I also ran some of the VFR's naphtha solution through the fuel lines to remove any remaining gunk, and I was happy about how it was running by the time I finished mowing. It was obvious that my blade needs to be sharpened because of how it hacked the grass and bogged down easily, and Matt has offered to let me use his pedestal grinder.

A success! Yeah! Wassup!

Lawn Mower, part 3

2011-06-30T22:13:00.000-07:00

Today Matt and I got the lawn mower to run predictably. We revved it up pretty high in an effort to blow away some of the carbon, and then I changed the oil. It was more like tar than oil. I still need a new air filter, new primer bulb, and air filter gasket. I can grind the blade to sharpness again, so including my stupid craigslist mower, I'll have a running machine for under $50.

Also, my new blade for the electric edger arrived today. It's a ghetto Craftsman for which I paid $10, but it gets the job done and it looks great. I'm still looking for a weed eater, but there are several on craigslist. Tomorrow is the Lake of the Pines, and I'm crossing my fingers that we don't have any RC catastrophes.

Bye!

My VFR

2011-06-30T11:42:00.000-07:00

I've been riding white lightning to work pretty regularly. Yesterday, Scott had a swim meet in Pittsburg, so after work, I rode the VFR to it. The last time I rode the VFR was last week, and I had forgotten how responsive and powerful it is. Like when I'm driving Heidi's car and I need to pass someone, I have to stomp on the gas and make sure it downshifts. With the VFR, I just roll the throttle and pass people in sixth gear.

115560 miles! Yeah.

My drying rack arrived. Inasmuch as we are very happy with our Kenmore dryer, there are many clothes that I like to hang up, and drying racks aren't common in the States like they are in Spain. I noticed in Spain that my clothes lasted longer because I didn't machine dry them, so we will be saving money on utility bills, as well as clothing expenses.

Lawn Mower, part 2

2011-06-28T21:16:00.000-07:00

I told everybody about my craigslist lawnmower failure. Brett and Cindy said, "Oh, you can have our lawnmower. We haven't used it in five years. We have been trying to get rid of it!" We loaded it in the truck and I took it home, where I put some gas in it and gave it some pulls. Well, nothing. So I took apart the carburetor and saw this:

Butterfly valve was stuck shut

Float bowl had tons of varnish

I cleaned the parts and put the carb back together, but it still wouldn't fire. Then, I discovered that there was no spark. I called several small engine shops and they said the coil is the most common failure. Chris at Pineda's Lawnmower Shop sold me a used coil for $10, and after that, I was able to prime it and get the motor to fire but not stay running.

Matt and I discussed it and we concluded that the engine wasn't getting any gas, so I took apart the carburetor again. I thought about what needed to occur in order for the gas to get from the bowl into the engine and discovered that the float bowl screw was clogged. After an entire course about how to rebuild small engines in Mr. Alleman's 9th grade shop, I still couldn't remember that float bowl screw having the holes in it. But I cleaned it out and was able to get the engine to run for 30 seconds! I still might soak the part in solvent overnight, and I need a new gasket for the air filter, but it's going to work!

Was it worth the $10 and my time? Yes, because if I didn't take this lawnmower, it would have ended up in the landfill. Also, it is enjoyable for me to fix up old things and make them work like new. Besides, Scott, Tyler, and Kira have all helped me with this project, and that's worth more than anything.

2s lipos

2011-06-24T22:21:00.000-07:00

My lipos for the Bandit and the Rustler finally came. Instead of a 3s for the Bandit, I got a 2s 5200 mAh for several reasons. One was that the 3s wasn't in stock for over a month. Second, the 3s heated up the motor and was too intense for Scott, who is now the primary driver. I geared it 28/76 and it's pretty fast. Not like with the 3s at 26/76, but fast enough.

Today I was talking with the anesthesiologist. He asked me how much dental school debt I had accumulated, and I told him. He commented that my amount wasn't too much.

"I live below my means," I told him. On that same note, we sold Scott's old loft bed on craigslist yesterday. We had used it for three years and sold it for the same amount we originally paid. Yeah, Craigslist! I have named our new home "The house that Craig built."

Evaporator Fan Motor

2011-06-21T21:33:00.000-07:00

My evaporator fan motor arrived today. Heidi had a late night in Walnut Creek, so tonight was my night to replace it. I reviewed my youtube video on how to install it, and our Hotpoint/GE freezer was pretty much identical to the one on youtube, so installation was slick. Still, it involved a lot of disassembly. The only snag I had was not having my soldering iron, since the thermister was hard-wired to the original plug. Matt came to my rescue with his soldering iron and the freezer has been on for about two hours with no evidence of moaning.

A success!

Was it worth the $34.00 in parts? Yes.

Was it worth my time? Yes.

I want my kids to know that they can DO IT. Whatever it is, if they do their research, they can fix anything. Deciding which tools are necessary to do any given project and whether we have them is another topic, but for right now, I am stoked!

fridge noise

2011-06-16T09:41:00.000-07:00

Our hotpoint side-by-side fridge works nicely. The ice dispenser works and both sides are appropriately cold. All would be perfect, if it weren't for that annoying moaning noise. Scott woke up in the middle of the night, asking about it.

So I did my homie worky. Other people who have complained about this symptom have said that it's either the control board or the evaporator fan motor. More people have had success by replacing the fan motor, so that's what I'm going to do. Amazon has it in stock for $34, and I watched my youtube movie to get educated. Now I'll just order it and wait.

We should be getting our lipo batteries this week, and I also ordered some drawer gliders and internet service for the house. Living in Brentwood is great.

craigslist fail

2011-06-13T14:47:00.001-07:00

I bought a lawnmower from craigslist for $30. It was just the model I wanted: 22 inch deck with Briggs & Stratton engine. The only problem was that it had a broken pull start, or so claimed the seller.

Naive me, trusting me, I bought the mower and set out to fix it early this morning. The rope for the pull start was 82 cents. I fixed it and gave it a pull and the engine wouldn't turn over. Then, I turned the mower on its side to check if the blade was stuck and the crankshaft was bent 30 degrees! Good grief!

Buyer beware. Stupid me. A craigslist fail. But then, at the worst, I'm out $30. I've spent more on bad meals. A lesson learned. Why didn't I just turn it upside down there? Daaaaaaaaa.

The blade was pretty banged up, too.

My craigslist appliances

2011-06-10T08:50:00.001-07:00

I rode white lightning out to Ace on Brentwood blvd. and got a hose gasket for the washer. We ran two loads of laundry through the washer and dryer and they work great! I am so stoked. Good old craigslist. And I'm pretty confident they are going to go another twelve years.

Scott and I were cleaning the old beat-up leather chairs we acquired. I sprayed some WD-40 on them, worked it in, and then used some shoe polish. They look way better. Scott is getting into refurbishing too, and I'm pleased because I didn't understand the value of making my things last until college. That's also where I learned how shoe polish worked.

The grandfather clock is keeping good time and it finally chimes correctly. Next, we'll get the cuckoo up and running. Things are good!

Moved in!

2011-06-08T08:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, we got all of the stuff in the house and we're still organizing it. Yesterday I installed the washer and dryer but there was a problem with the gas hose such that it leaked. After two trips to ACE and some helpful conversations with Stan, I got enough information to do it right. First, I sprayed some WD-40 on the existing flared adapter to loosen it up. Then, with the breaker bar, I loosened it and used brake parts cleaner to remove the residue.

There is a special PTFE tape made for gas lines which I installed, and after it was all tightened, I put on the soapy water to check for leaks and there were none!

Then, I connected the washer hoses, turned on the water, and there was a spray. Looks like the gasket on the hot water is defective. That'll be about a buck and some time on my bicycle (Yeah, I rode white lightning to work this morning: six minutes! ), but those are little prices to pay for the discount we got on these used machines via craigslist.

I also put together the boys' bunk bed. Eight of the allen screws were stripped and the hardware stores didn't have the same head diameter so I just used Joe Dandy to cut a slot for a screwdriver. The bed was assembled by the time Heidi and the kids returned from Walnut Creek and the boys spent the night in it! Yeah, craigslist! It's more work to get things used sometimes, but I like fixing things and saving money. In fact, had we bought all of our furniture new, we would have paid more in sales tax than we did for the whole lot.

The Bandit is back!

2011-06-04T08:56:00.001-07:00

Well, kind of. The new 2.4 ghz Traxxas radio system arrived yesterday and the boys and I installed it. We put the tackle box full of RC car parts on the counter and initialized the system. The boys were more into rummaging through the tackle box, looking for "old" parts they could collect and build an airplane, than fixing up the Bandit. Scott collected gears and Tyler found a used Dumas prop and his "lucky ball bearing."

I get a kick out of the boys' usage of the term "lucky ball bearing," because even when I give them old ones, they still say it's their lucky ball bearing.

We are still waiting for two lipo batteries from Hobbyking. One has been on backorder since April 21, and I am tempted to cancel the order just to get one of the batteries. We haven't had a bash since Heidi's birthday at Snug Harbor, where the other lipo failed. But I am excited about today's move because Brentwood has a lot of open space for RC bashing.

Oh, I gotta write about my new KaVo handpiece: The gentlesilence LUX. It is da bomb. It has so much more torque than the STAR handpieces and it's quieter, too. STAR has a special place in my heart because that's what I trained on at UOP, but KaVo is what I used since graduation and that's where my bias lies now. We have both STAR and KaVo at the new office and I can tell who's cutting with what based on the sound.

How I know

2011-05-31T08:48:00.001-07:00

Heidi and I picked up some bunk beds in a super nice neighborhood of Tiburon. The family was very nice and we had an enjoyable day. As we were disassembling the bed, Heidi said, "Dan, do you know how to put it back together?"

"Heidi, I'm Danny McMillan."

How do I know how things work? I must have been studying mechanics in the pre-earth life, because I just get things. But it also could have something to do with my childhood. I played with legos, took things apart to see how they worked, and Scott Truman gave me my first soldering iron when I was seven. The turbo clock (magnavox clock radio with my additions: line-level inputs and 34 watt amplifier) was in service from eighth grade until the middle of college.

Last night I went to check out a heavy duty soldering gun on craigslist. Scott asked if I could get one for him and I said, "You can have my old one," a 40 watt weller with wide spade tip. But when we tested the soldering gun, it didn't work. I said, "sorry to have wasted your time, but I'm going to pass." But I do need a good soldering gun, so maybe I can use Scott's until my birthday. I want Scott to learn that he can do anything if he does his homework, and that if he takes care of his things they will last a long time.

Warren Buffett had some "nuggets" of wisdom in the paper this morning. He talked about bailouts and implied that certain CEO's and their spouses should be left dead broke. He also said that the one diploma he has on his wall is a certificate from the Dale Carnegie course on public speaking. Yeah, Dale Carnegie! His books are great and I use his principles just about everyday.

Subwoofer wars

2011-05-26T06:46:00.001-07:00

This is the subwoofer in Heidi's car: a sealed Pioneer twelve.

This is the Riv's subwoofer: twin twelves in a bandpass enclosure. I've wanted a setup like this since at least 2003, when I drew a picture of them in my journal. I was very happy with them in the Riv, but now that the Riv is gone, I have posted these for sale on craigslist.

Not a single nibble!

So the boys and I had a subwoofer war between this box and the one I had built for Heidi's car. Scott was excited about watching "the beat" and it was interesting to compare the sealed Pioneer twelve to the bandpass enclosure. My observations:

1. Sealed twelve (ST) isn't as loud. Lower sound pressure levels (SPL). That's acceptable since it's sealed.

2. ST has a broader frequency spectrum with more uniform SPL.

3. Bandpass box (BP) has a more narrow "punch" range.

4. Within the punch range, BP delivers more noticeable SPL.

5. Outside the punch range, BP is weaker.

In order to do a comprehensive, non-biased evaluation, I would need equipment beyond my hobby's interest. This will have to suffice.

It should be noted that there are two twelves in the BP enclosure but I was only driving one at a time. Interestingly, there is one kicker and one Pioneer. In the Riv, the kicker was superior, but in Heidi's car, the pioneer was. This could be due to the amps, and I believe Heidi's Alpine to be better.

What's my conclusion? Sealed wins. The Pioneer twelve in Heidi's car has been more than adequate for several years. The alpine amp is now 11 years old; It was the first thing I purchased when I got home from my mission. That was a stressor, because I had a little over $800 to my name, but the amp was purchased new for about $150 (I didn't know about craigslist then). But boy, was I glad to have that amp in the Riv. Then I got the eldo and the subs and amp went in it. After I sold the eldo, the amp went in Heidi's car.

Fairing project 2011: completed

2011-05-23T14:43:00.000-07:00

I am pleased with my fairing project.

Used some masking tape to make a template for the broken tabs.

Some wax from the endo research lab to box in the methyl methacrylate.

A view from the top: See how shiny that new center piece is? Yeah. Also note the completed fairing tabs.

A view of my MMA tab from beneath: functional. That phillips M4 screw and washer were about 1/4 the price of Honda hardware, so hopefully they last.

Traxxas: Oh, dear

2011-05-20T13:15:00.000-07:00

I decided to stop fussing about the $20 fee that Traxxas requires to replace the radio system. I packaged it up, included a $20 and sent it off last Thursday. Yesterday, I called Traxxas to confirm that they had received it.

No.

Oh, dear. At the worst, I'm out my twenty bucks plus a radio system. At the best, they'll ship a new system back to me. In preparation for the worst, I got on hobbyking.com and saw that my 2.4 ghz system is available from the USA warehouse for a total of $26, including shipping. I should just get it. But not yet. Blast, Traxxas!

Scott has gotten more interested in airplanes lately and I am seriously considering fixing up the Butterfly. It would need a new radio, fuel, glow plug ignitor, and starter motor. It might be cheaper to go brushless, but Scott needs to experience the smell of nitro. Good times.

The Butterfly after rebuild in 2002

Dan-o and me with the Box in Spanish fork, 2001-2002. The Box was a unique airplane with barn-door ailerons, no landing gear, and a Fox .25 engine.

Master cylinder: not so fast

2011-05-19T08:13:00.001-07:00

My ebay master cylinder came. It was clean. But there was tons of play in the lever system--way more than my current master cylinder! So the kids and I went out to the street, where they played on the skateboards and I examined the clutch master cylinder. There was no evidence of leakage at the clutch master cylinder, and there never has been any problem with its function. I thought there was significant wear in the lever and mechanisms, but it is way better than the ebay MC.

So I'm sending it back today. I don't even know if I should rebuild the master cylinder now. When I read the service manual with the exploded diagrams of parts, I am impressed at how many things can fail, yet don't. I'll probably just keep going until I see it leak or I can't shift right.

Twas a great ride to San Francisco this morning. 114,620.

Why I won't write a book

2011-05-18T09:06:00.000-07:00

Yahoo has these silly articles on how to save money. I would give the hyperlink, but I don't think it would work after a few days. Today's article was submitted by a lay person, not a columnist. They said they were going to save $12K this summer by having ground beef instead of steaks, by not painting their house as they had every previous summer, and by doing their own landscaping.

First of all, who paints their house every year? See, the reason I can't write a book is because people would bash it to a pulp, with reason. I cut my own hair, fix my own vehicles, and do my own pruning. Not many people are willing to cut their hair or even their spouse's. But whatev.

Even more funny about this article were the comments that people had submitted. One said, "I'm not going on my space exploration trip, so that'll save me 20 million, and I'm not going to buy that house on the cliff in Malibu. Another $20 million. See? Everyone can save!"

Next, I was watching a program on extreme couponing. It's a form of hoarding, where people buy $2000 worth of groceries every week that only cost 8 cents. Great! Oh, wait. Every cubic inch of their home is filled with peanut butter, diapers, or deodorant. "I have thirty canisters of deodorant that I got for free! I won't use them for another twenty years, but they were free!"

Maybe I'm in that category but to a lesser degree. You know, the craigslist buzz and all that. See? That's why I can't write a book. I was just thinking about how I should reinforce my VFR fairings with more MMA, then use epoxy filler, then prime and paint them. How long will the VFR last? No one knows. But she runs like a champ. My clutch master cylinder should arrive tonight. On Friday, my handlebar weights and tail light fairing should arrive. Good old VFR.

Clutch master cylinder

2011-05-14T09:30:00.000-07:00

This morning, as I was waiting for the light at Treat and Bancroft, I began examining my clutch handle. Indeed, there is a lot of wear and play in the handle, but it has seemed to work thus far. Then I noticed there was some fluid residue at the dust seal. Some leakage? Likely, which explains why I had to fill up the reservoir. But also, maybe I was just careless when I filled it up. So I'll clean it today, but I am interested in replacing the handle and some of the components because of wear. Eventually, the master cylinder will need to be rebuilt, even if there is no leak right now. Dan-o had to rebuild the front brake master cylinder in college on his old Honda and they make reasonably priced kits on ebay. Eh, we'll see.

But I had a great ride and my fairings are still intact. Yeah, fairing repair!

Fairing project 2011

2011-05-13T20:09:00.000-07:00

I processed the information from youtube about how to repair fairings. Then, using my lab handpiece and an acrylic bur, I removed the old epoxy, fiberglass, and JB welds from previous repair attempts. I cut a groove in the polyurethane and filled it back in with methyl methacrylate. Then, using a bigger white stone, I smoothed them flush.

Kira helped me. Well, she kept me company but liked taking the sockets out of the toolbox and putting them into another box. After everyone went to bed, I finished my project and it is money! The fairings fit together way better and I have a new taillight piece coming from stupid ronayers. I sent them an email telling them that they should denote which are the discontinued parts, like cheapcycleparts.com does, and they immediately shipped my order.

Discontinued

2011-05-11T06:25:00.000-07:00

I got an email from ronayers.com stating that my right and left rear fairings had been discontinued. I was most displeased. Now, I'm going to have to just fix them myself, so I've been on youtube watching videos on how to do it. It looks like there are two ways to repair fairings:

1. Plastic welding, which uses an overpriced soldering iron and some plastic rods

2. Acrylic "plastifix," which uses methyl methacrylate and also is overpriced.

I need to do more homie worky about these because I already have a soldering iron and MMA, but their technique videos were helpful and I should be able to get a good result without using a body shop. Although my fairings are faded all the way through to the primer, my main reason for pursuing new fairings was structural. Last night after arriving home from San Francisco, the taillight fairing came off.

Car flops

2011-05-10T10:25:00.000-07:00

Yahoo had an article on the biggest car flops. Among them were the Ford Excursion, Dodge Durango hybrid, GM EV1, and a Lincoln luxury truck that didn't have 4wd. I noticed that all of them were American models.

How do these models get past the board? Let's roll play. Say I'm the one who thought up the Excursion, that behemoth 7200 lb SUV that got 12 mpg at best but 4-5 at the worst.

Me at the board room table: "I have an idea for a new car. It's a hotel on wheels except that it doesn't have a bathroom or sink."

The Board: "We already have the Expedition. How is this going to be better?"

Me: "Bigger is better. All your friends will want to be like you because you need a step stool to get into your Excursion. You have to park it out front because it doesn't fit in your garage, so everyone sees it."

The Board: "Is it going to sell?"

Me: It'll be better than GM's Pontiac Aztek!

The Board: laughter. "Okay, let's do it!"

Then, some quiet guy on the board named Simmons speaks up, "Uh, guys, I'm skeptical. I think we should try to squeeze more power out of a smaller motor and make more efficient usage of space so we can have seven passengers in a smaller chassis."

The board boos.

But what would I know? I'm not on a board. But I do know how to make things last. Maybe Ford, GM, and Chrysler should talk to me. But they never will. I already tried emailing GM and Ford to no avail. I think it all goes back to American's disposable lifestyle. Things aren't built to last like back in the day, and how would businesses survive if people did everything themselves?

Penny Pinchers

2011-05-06T13:32:00.001-07:00

Miles was talking about finding contestants to compete in the battle of who could pinch their pennies harder. He was telling the students about the Riv and they got a chuckle. Then, one of the students said that he was happy eating beans and rice. I was so happy! I was like, "Yes, I could get them down to nine cents per serving!"

Now, I add fancy peppers and tomatoes so it's more like $0.30/serving, but still worth it. Beans and rice.

Early this morning, I filled up the VFR's clutch master cylinder reservoir since it was a little low. The fluid was a bit dark, but not cloudy, so maybe it's time to flush it again. I think the last time I did that was in 2005.

Oh yeah, I went to the temple yesterday and noticed that the taillight is about to fall off. After returning to San Francisco, I ordered the new fairings I had been talking about. I'm very excited because the old ones were pretty beaten up and faded. I had checked out a 1983 Honda Nighthawk for Heidi and the owner said he just sold a CBR with 100,000 miles and new fairings. We're not going to get the nighthawk because Heidi isn't ready, but someday...

Recessionista

2011-05-05T08:30:00.000-07:00

Kate Middleton got married not long ago. She was in People magazine and got criticized for wearing the same outfit four times. They called her a recessionista! Boo. I thought, "Now there's someone who's getting her money's worth," and yet, she's taking heat for it.

I was talking with a patient about the United State's budget deficit: 13 trillion dollars. He said, "If you take all of the billionaires in the States, their entire net worth wouldn't even put a dent in the budget," which seems to be true. Take Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, who are estimated at around 90 billion, total. That's only 0.7% Not even one percent! So how did we get ourselves in this hole?

Rather than step onto a political soapbox of which I really don't know that much, I can talk about pop culture and the pressure to always buy, buy, buy. My frugal campaign will probably never gain the popularity of the "keeping up with the Joneses" campaign, but it makes me happy anyway.

I don't remember if I ever posted about a conversation with a personal banker, but she said, "I went to New York with all the cool people."

I was like, "Cool people?"

"Yeah, you know, the cool people!"

I said, "I don't know who's cool and I don't care."

She said, "See, you're cool because you don't care!"

"Maybe I am cool, but who cares? Whether I'm cool or not doesn't matter." I still don't care. I just want to be a good guy, a good dad, and enjoy my life.

And I had a great ride on the VFR this morning. 113,800 miles.

Upgrade

2011-05-02T21:43:00.000-07:00

We went to the hobby store today and used one of those "juice in the city" deals, in which you spend $15 to get $30 worth of merchandise. You can get hosed with those deals, though, but Heidi and I also went to Kohl's for her wardrobe update and they had similar deals. I kept telling her, "I don't care what you get as long as you wear it." She didn't appreciate that too much.

For myself, I got some new shorts. I almost didn't do it, because I already have three pair and that's plenty, but Heidi liked these new ones. Eh, we'll see.

But here's how some of my hobbytown money was spent:

An aluminum blade holder. It made a big difference in the tracking and the mSR hovers pretty well now. I also talked to the hobby people about Traxxas radios and they recommended getting a different brand. Something else that amuses me about the hobby store is that they ask me my name each time I go. I think to myself, "Don't you know who I am by now?" But whatev.

Rubbish!

2011-05-02T08:40:00.001-07:00

I just called Traxxas customer support. I thought I would give them the opportunity to make things right. They seemed helpful on the phone and told me that all I had to do was send in $20 to replace the radio. I told them I was still not happy because this was the second time the radio had failed. I said, "Don't you guys troubleshoot it so you can fix subsequent systems?"

I don't know if I'm willing to stick with Traxxas radios. Bah.

Yes, indeedy

2011-05-01T20:53:00.000-07:00

I troubleshot the Bandit's glitchiness to the radio system because both ESC's performed predictably in the Rustler. For $20, I can send back the radio system to Traxxas and they will repair it. Or, for $16, I can buy a completely new 2.4 ghz system from hobbyking that got 5 star reviews. Hmmmm.

I am bothered about this because the reason we upgraded to 2.4 ghz in the first place is because there was steering and throttle glitchiness. The 2.4 ghz system corrected that for a long time, but now it is back in a different form. Bah. I guess in my field, if something fails, I consider other alternatives. I have given traxxas two opportunities to make a good radio system and they have failed. The only thing is that I like how those Traxxas radios feel. I guess Scott would be driving the Bandit anyway. Yeah, I've pretty much made up my mind.

Things that make you go Hmmmmm

2011-04-30T08:41:00.000-07:00

I ordered and received my new brushless ESC: the Castle Creations Sidewinder SV2. I followed the manufacturer's instructions for setup and there is a problem. Startup is rough, and sometimes the throttle cuts out entirely. Throttle positions 20-50 are the worst. Full speed is okay.

I called Castle Creations technical support and spoke with a guy named Greg. We talked about my radio setup, motor, and batteries. He was very confident that it was a battery issue. I said, "I see you're confident that is not the controller, but it still could be." He agreed, but said it was highly unlikely.

This morning Tyler woke up at midnight screaming for orange juice. We told him he could have water, not juice. The battle of will power ended after 30 minutes of screaming and him wearing himself out and eventually drinking water. After I went back to bed, I started thinking about the symptoms of the original VXL 3s speed control and they were similar to my new one. So now I need to consider that my throttle position sensor is bad. I'll test this on the Rustler's radio--which, of all the radios, is the cheapest--but works the best.

Heidi's berfday

2011-04-27T20:48:00.000-07:00

For Heidi's 30th birthday, we stayed in a trailer on the Delta. She'll post about it, but I had to

include some videos of our RC toys.

Tyler learned how to do a frontflip off a speedbump and could do them consistently.

The Wildcat didn't have any catastrophic failures until Tyler crashed into Scott and cracked the hull. Also, the Rustler's lipo failed. Daaaaaaaa.

Troubleshot

2011-04-27T07:44:00.000-07:00

Terry drove me home yesterday. Kira was sleeping, Scott was at swimming, so Tyler came out to troubleshoot the VFR with me. He rode his bike while I retrieved the voltmeter.

First I checked the battery voltage. There was no reading. "Hmmm, that's weird."

So I checked the battery in the voltmeter and it was good. I tested the battery again and there was nothing. I put the battery charger on and the lights came on. I had suspected a bad battery once I put on the charger and the lights were still dim, but I gave it the benefit of the doubt and let it charge for an hour.

Diagnosis: bad battery! I was surprised that it would fail so completely and so suddenly. Historically, with my dead batteries, there would be at least a little bit of juice to give dim light but not enough to start the motor.

Heidi, the kids and I bought a new battery from autozone and I loaded the electrolyte last night and then charged it this morning. I was confident it was going to work, but it was still a relief when the VFR started.

Am I still interested in a new VFR? I don't know. I like my VFR, and eventually, all batteries fail. Mine was six years old and I only expected five.