Planet Box

Got the idea one night while looking at Saturn through my telescope.

First I found a block of highly figured basswood. This I used to make the two halves of the planet.
This turned out to be the easiest part.

I tried all kinds of ideas for the rings, plywood, and several woods laminated into a board. None looked right. I then stopped into a local wood supplier, Kencraft of Toledo, Ohio.
And there just waiting for me, was a piece of claro walnut. It had a large knot that made the wood grain curve into a perfect ring look.

I cut a hole that was a tight fit over one half of the globe. I then made a wood chuck for my lathe for turning it. It took a light touch to turn the taper on the ring piece. During sanding I had to keep it from getting too hot.

The base stand was made from the left over walnut. It was designed to get that school globe look.

I then finished it with danish oil and a homemade hard wax. The inside is flocked with a suede type material. The crescent moon is made from deer antler, found in the woods.

Next I'll post my latest coffee table.

Venus -- my princess and shining star

Sorry my return post should be sad news.
But it's been a rough year. Aside from my health issues, we lost Venus.
She was our second greyhound in the family of 6.

She passed away on July 12th 2011. She was 13.5 years old. But she acted like she was 3 or 4.
She had issues with a disc in her neck for a few years. It finally went completely. This caused her to lose the use of her right front leg. It was also very painful.
So again I had to make the most hated of decisions. I know it was the right thing to do. But every one of these decisions haunts me daily. Another part of me to be lost. This side of the rainbow bridge is getting crowded.
So now we have just Echo. She is the last of what I considered to be my closest family members.

I'm glad of my photography ability. It has allowed me to have a favored photo of each for my greyhound wall.

I will try and get back into posting new items. I have quite a bit of woodworking projects to post about.

Bugatti 3/27/10

Our beloved Bugatti is waiting at the bridge, as of Saturday.

From the day we took him from the bad home he was in, he has been a super fun and loving member of our family. It was like it was meant to be.

Even though he was slowly losing the use of his legs, he stayed a happy, playful friend.

He is very much missed by us and the two greys, Venus and Echo. The girls are really down right now.

It ripped my heart out to see him fade. But I love all my greys too much to force them to stay beyond that time. If it was up to me, they would live as long as me.

Now I have one more friend awaiting my arrival at the bridge.

When the last one crosses over, I'll be ready too.

Being fair-Never again Castle Photo Ltd

Just to be totally fair to the jerk that is running the print shop, I took two photo files in for printing. One of which had won me a third place out of 600+ entries. Now they had done these for me 6 months ago with no problems.
Now he says my files are not going to come out as I see them on the monitor. He claims the photo never is going to come out as he sees it on his monitor.
Dialog with owner.
Question: What color profile are you using?
Answer: I’ve got it set for infinite color.
Question: Are you using CMYK, RGB, or sRGB?
Answer: That doesn’t matter, I use infinite color.
Question: Why are the photos coming out so dark, with such muddy colors?
Answer: Your post processing is at fault.
Question: Why then did the prints come out perfect 6 months ago?
Answer: The files must have been corrupted since then.
He was then shown 6 prints he did 6 months ago for a contest.
He was asked why these were just fine, considering they were done on the same computer, software and monitor.
Answer: I have no idea how those were done.

Then he decided to jabber with no idea of what the hell he is talking about.

I don’t know what you want.
We’re not used to doing fine art prints.
I don’t know what to do for the prints.
We’ll try upping the saturation, and darkening them a little to bring out the colors.
Pictures that are lightened too much lose color.

Yet they are the ones saying my photos are too dark to start with.

To be honest.
This guy couldn’t pour pee out of a boot, if it had directions on the heel.
I doubt he’d know a good print, even if it bit him in the ass.
I’m totally done with the low grade moron. Guess it’s time to start raising cash for a top line photo printer for home.
So his claim to fame is that he knows how to destroy a business in less than a year

Castle Photo Redo- ROFLMAO

Well I gave the guy another stab at redoing the prints. Obviously he does not know how to print colorful photos. Even after having the problems explained, giving him the website info to allow him to see what they should look like, and supplying a CD with all full rez photos, he flubbed it.When it was suggested that he bring them up on his monitor to see how they looked. He said that was worthless, because they probably wouldn't look the same when printed. DUH!! What kind of BS is that.

He got a couple fairly close, but one in particular he trashed it. I have several rose shots that are almost 3D. But he couldn't even get the colors right.

The photo on the left is the original shot, with very little tweaking. The one on the right is his supposed faithful print. I'm done messing with this hack printing outfit.

If you would like to see how my photos look full size. You can see them here, http://swainphotography.smugmug.com/

Castle Photo & How to ruin a photo business

Castle Photo Ltd is located in Sylvania Ohio. It has been under new ownwership since May 2009.
In the past my photos have always been done to an excellent standard. But the quality has took a trip to the sewer. And when I tried to get them reprinted, I was stonewalled by the employees. They said only the manager/owner could ok reprints. But he makes his own hours, so after not hearing from him, I went and picked up the prints and CD. And what is really a hoot? He doesn't allow the employees to give out his name. Just ask for Joe. LOL
Sounds like the old movies about prohibiton speak joints.
You know. You go to the alley door and knock. A little window opens and you say " I was told to ask for Joe".
Either that or the guy is a member of a witness protection program. :) Of course I'm joking. But it makes for good straight lines when discussing the place. :)
But all I know is that the work there has become sub standard.
And yes, I'm a hard nosed, demanding customer. My tolerance for shoddy business practices is not great. I owned a business, and the customer was my paycheck. So I always made them happy.

NOTE:
He has now called the wife, not me, and agreed to reprint the photos. Gee, I wonder if it has to do with my attitude while there. And here I thought I had such a pleasant, sparkling demeanor. LOL It's only taken two days for him to decide to call. Now I'm supposed to drive another 60 mile round trip, to let him have another try at it. Well, this story may continue. But in the meantime, the locals better beware of the quality of the business.
And it seems I'm not alone in my opinon of the place, http://www.yelp.com/biz/castle-photo-ltd-sylvania.
I'll update when the results are in. ;)

More Astro Drive Bits

I'll be adding an aluminum plate to use as a tripod mount. The whole unit will be mobile and operate off a 12vdc auto battery. I now have to collect the parts for the stepper motor drive circuit. I plan on it being able to do full step, and half steps.
Plus I'm going to have a removable pully on the other end of the shaft. This will be used to power my "circus" fork mount I built, http://greyhoundman.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html That way I can use heavier scopes.

Astro Drive Bits & Pieces

I had been thinking about a astro drive for a while. But just couldn't accept the prices for factory stuff.

So I started scrounging again. :)

I found a 4", 120 tooth, 32 pitch worm gear on an astro site. It had a .750" hole for the shaft.

I drilled and tapped a shaft collar to act as a hub. I used a .750" rod to keep it centered while drilling. Next I installed a 32 pitch worm on a .1875 shaft. I pulled a couple of .1875" bearings from a printer to use on the worm shaft. I then built the worm carriage from some .500" Corian that was laying around. I made sure to have the stepper motor mount as part of the carriage, to prevent misalignment.

The main housing is also made from .500" Corian. I drilled and tapped the pieces for 8-32 machine screws, and washers. I machined notches to set the carriage in. I made them a little deep, to allow for shimming the carriage/worm for perfect meshing.

I used two .750", 2 bolt flange bearings for the .750" aluminum shaft. The shaft has .125" walls, giving a .500" sighting tube. I'll install crosshairs after everything else is done.

The stepper motor is from a large Epson dot matrix printer. It has 1.8 degree steps, and is unipolar. I made the motor to worm shaft coupler from a piece of .625" aluminum rod.

The hub that the ballhead mounts to, was made from a aluminum pulley. I cut the center from a 4" pulley, that had a .750" bore. I then mounted a 4.5" X .125" disc to make a turn table. I then made a long setscrew to attach it to the shaft. This way I can reset the ballhead without unmeshing the gears, or having to run the motor in reverse.

Astro Camera Part 2

Here is the camera ready to use, except for the flat black paint inside the mount.

Plus a shot of the soon to be completed astro drive.

I'll also be using my Pentax K200D on the astro drive.

Astro camera Part 1

Decided to build a webcam based astro camera for my astro drive setup. The drive is a work in progress.

I use Pentax cameras for my usual photo stuff. So I designed this to use those lenses. Once I found the proper thickness of the lens mount board, it went fast. I made sure to set this at the infinity focus of the lens.

I used some aluminum to make some side brackets to support heavier lenses.

The screw on top is to hold the webcam with it's after market nose piece.

The lens mount came from a junker K1000 Pentax I had in a box of camera junk.

I used #2 X .500" woodscrews to hold it in place. This entailed making the holes larger. I used a Dremel and a tapered diamond bit to do that. The T-nut is located on the bottom to give the best overall balance for the various sizes of lenses.

Another Bellows Experiment

I've been wanting to try making a clipped corner bellows. But I was not finding much in the way of clear instructions. So I sat and played with some stays till I figured it out.

I used the same form as for the other bellows for the Iston. But I tried some different material this time.

I bought some stretch satin, made with 97% polyester/3% spandex. I used some old manila folders to make the stays. The photo shows the layout. Before using the cloth, I coated it with a thinned batch of Tulip matte fabric paint. I've had very good luck with it sealing the fabric, but staying very pliable. The first coated side goes toward the form. After placing the stays I put on the outer fabric. It's coated surface faces away from the form.

It made a very light and pliable bellows, light tight.

I'll take off the previous bellows and install this one. It should be much easier on the adjustment parts.