Monday, October 29, 2018

Leaves of Autumn

Leaf Typing, Royal QDL, Excerpt from Ferlinghetti’s Poem The Pennycandystore Beyond the El
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The time is short - go out, collect some suitable leaves and try this yourself, then report back. I'd love to see what others do with this idea.

Here's a video on leaf-typing:



Typecast via Adobe Rose.

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Wednesday, October 24, 2018

What, More Hand-Built Tripods?

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The three tripods together as they'll be used for tabletop video production.

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The aim of this project was to build two accompanying tabletop tripods for my video light and monitor, each using a triangular base with vertical support column. Instead of making an equilateral triangle for the base directly from something like plywood, I fashioned two square sticks together in a T configuration, of the appropriate length, such that the ends of the sticks form an equilateral base. Rubber faucet washers are used under the ends of the base for support feet.

These ended up being very lightweight, as you can see in the video, linked below. I find they're more manageable on my desk than a single large tripod with a heavy cage for all the gear.

The 17" tall tripod, with 10" wide base, for supporting the Viltrox video light:
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The smaller 14" tripod, with 9" base, for supporting the Lilliput monitor:
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These tripod heads use a block of wood, with the vertical support dowel glued in place and an eyebolt used as a 1/4-20 mount: P1020172

Here's the video about this project:

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Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Wards Signature 300

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The machine also came with this padded carrying case, the first I've seen for a Brother machine.

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Post-Script: This machine also came with two operation manuals, one for the model 300 and the other for a model 511.

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Here's a video about this machine:



Here are several photos I took near Central Ave. in ABQ during my walk.

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Sunday, October 14, 2018

More Escapement Excitement

Sears Forecast 12 and Munk’s Typewriter Repair Bible
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Post-Script: There are too many other adjustments on these machines to cover in a reasonably-sized video; best to get your own Typewriter Repair Bible, if you're interested. I didn't cover the adjustments for the two positions of the escapement dog rocker, which involve bending some arms to set them such that, when engaged with the escapement cog, the teeth of the cog and rocker dog both align properly. There is also advice for adjusting the escapement trip point based on the heaviness of hand, or technique, of the typist. Another good reason to favor these 5- and 6-series machines in your collection: not only do they perform well, but they are perhaps the easiest to service, with the most complete service literature available - and many of these machines also sport the easy-to-remove platen feature, for gaining access to clean the rubber rollers, paper pan and ribbon guides.

Here's the video that covers this adjustment in detail:

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