cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/50842014

When I moved into my home many years ago, there was this lock-box mounted to the water main on the side of the house. I figured it was one of those used by real-estate agents to store the house key for viewings, but months passed and it still remained there. No one from my buyer's agent's office had a clue what this was, and the seller of the house had already moved out-of-state.

Recently, I had some plumbing work done, and that also included replacing the main water valve for the house, allowing this lock box to come free from the plumbing. Now inspecting it up close, and looking up the model online, I realized that it has an alphabet wheel and uses a three-letter combination.

As it happens, Thanksgiving weekend was upon me, and since I was bored, I figured I'd try all the possible combinations. Just 17,576 possible combinations, how bad could it be?

The most immediate problem was that due to being out in the elements, the dial did not turn easily. It would move, but was rather rough. And since the knob is only ~1 cm diameter, this is an incredibly un-ergonomic endeavor. I had to stop after the first 100 tries, due to the finger exhaustion.

Knowing this would be untenable for the long-run, I decided to build my way out of this problem. Since a combo lock involves making rotations that almost go all the way around, I drew inspiration from rotary telephone dials, where one's finger starts with the intended number and then swivels the dial around.

But whereas a rotary telephone dial only needs 10 positions, I needed to fit 26 positions, one for each letter. I decided on each hole being 17 mm to comfortably fit any of my fingers, but that also dictated the overall diameter of the wheel. But that's good, since a larger diameter wheel means more leverage to overcome the rough lock movement. It also happens to be that this wheel has a diameter of 180 mm, which is just enough to fit in the 200 mm bed of my 3d printer.

Using FreeCAD, I designed this wheel so that it fits around the splines of the lockbox dial, which held remarkably well. I had thought I would need Blu Tack or something to keep it together.

Using this wheel, I'm able to "dial" combinations much quicker using one hand, while holding the lockbox with my other hand to press the lever down to test the combination. This should be good.

(note: some parts of this story were altered to not give away identifying details)

FortNine as a YouTube channel mostly covers motorbikes but on-and-off will do some bicycle and ebike content. Being YouTube, the clickbait-esque title is customary but the video is a look at where the fastest, heaviest, not-strictly-legal "ebikes" blur into the low-end of motorbikes.

The specimen in question is, from all that was pointed out in the video, rather abysmal by motorbike standards but par for the course by consumer goods standards. This includes:

• An obnoxious startup introduction to remind you that their brand name is pronounced Aniioki
• Illogical rear suspension design
• Complete disregard for Canadian and British Columbian ebike classifications
• Questionable chain design that keeps falling off the chainring
• A throttle with huge delay before reacting
• And more!

But the paltry nature of this particular ebike wasn't my main takeaway. It's that ebikes at-large are filling a gap in the market, where young people want mobility without the expenses and licensure of motorbikes. Here in California, the chasm between legal ebikes and motorbikes is so wide that I would imagine the same statistics could be found here as FortNine found in Canada. And it makes perfect sense: cheaper, lighter, electric, nimble, and unencumbered by frivolities like highway roadworthiness. For getting around town or to work, it makes perfect sense.

That said, they also touched upon the very real problems faced by faster ebikes (legal or not) today. Motorists -- because let's face it, most problems of micromobility are caused in large part by automobiles -- might expect to see a motorbike doing the speed limit, but not an ebike doing 2/3 of the speed limit. A USA Class 3 ebike can legally do 45 kph (28 MPH) and while that's slower than typical speed limits here of 35 or 45 MPH, the problem arises when there's enough motor vehicle congestion that slows motorists to about the same speed. And that's where the conflict shows up, such as when a car enters the road from a driveway.

Do I think it's a bit silly to bring a 150+ lbs "ebike" onto the ferry, or dangerous to ride along a multi-use trail on the side of a bridge when there are also pedestrians? Absolutely! But again, I think the takeaway is that the times are changing and preparations must be made in anticipation.

The absolute worse-case would be if these overpowered two-wheelers unlawfully dressed up as ebikes were to proliferate to the point that it's total chaos on the roads. At that point, Pandora's Box cannot be closed. Thus, it behooves us to mitigate that situation by, among other things:

• Build actual infrastructure for riders on bikes and ebikes, that isn't doing double-duty as pedestrian or recreational paths
• Incentivize legal, battery-safe ebikes to stave off a glut of illegal, shoddily-made "ebikes"
• Make existing bikes more useful with destination improvements, like bike lockers or secure/valet bike parking
• Seize road space currently used for motor vehicles, and do anything else with it. Parklets, public toilets, bioswale, donut shop.
• Expand public transportation options, for anyone who can't/won't ride a bike, but also as range-extension for anyone who wants to do bus+bike

The premise of a well-built city is that it shouldn't require a two-ton automobile just to buy milk. I would further the sentiment with the opinion that a 160+ lbs two-wheeler also shouldn't be necessary to travel across Vancouver in a timely fashion. We can, in-fact, build our way out of this future problem but only by starting right now.

Hi! I've only posted here maybe once, but I'm looking to change that and have been working to improve my joinery.

Specifically, I recently had the geometric realization that adjusting the horizontal angle on my miter saw is one of the least precise adjustments I can make, when trying to make two cuts that add up to 90 degrees. So instead, I now set the angle for the smaller angle, make the first cut, then set the workpiece for the second piece using a square against the fence. Basically, I'm rotating the piece so it's 90 degrees to the saw fence, and that lets me cut the complementary angle without realigning the saw angle.

The new problem is that because I'm still using slightly-warped and slightly-twisty stock, the surfaces aren't terribly great for gluing up. In one case, I glued up one end of a diagonal brace but the other end was lifting up, off-plane. Hand sanding with a block helps, but more often than not, I end up rounding off the edges and glue leaks out. So I'm now seeking recommendations for a small hand plane, so that I can have better, flatter surfaces to glue together.

Is this the right approach? If I'm mostly working with narrow stock like 1x4-inch, is there a correct-sized hand plane to smooth out an end-grain on that small of stock? Apologies in advance for not really knowing all the right wood terminology. I'm still learning.

Ideally, I'd like to buy something that will be versatile and serviceable for a long time. So cost isn't too important, but ideally it'd be proportional to my (few) other tools. If I know what to look for, I'll keep my eye out for such a specimen while at the thrift store.

EDIT: To clarify, a use-case would be if I'm gluing a diagonal brace at mid-height of a post. If i had a plane, I could work the post so that it has a flat face, so that the brace won't deviate left/right. For the diagonal brace itself, I can mostly trust my miter saw to cut the angle reasonably plumb.

EDIT 2: Might I actually want a card scraper instead?

EDIT 3: y'all are awesome and I now have a fair number of suggestions to consider. I guess there goes all my disposable money for September, once I go visit the nearby woodworking shop.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/45285572

I've put off the overhaul of my ebike's Bafang G510 mid-drive motor for so long that it has never actually been serviced since I bought it 3800 km ago. Over the past weeks, I slowly pulled the motor off the bike, carefully disassembled it, and found the rotor shaft gear in a poor state. Metal flecks were visible within the blackened grease, making a mess within the housing.

To get the sprockets off of the motor, I did have to obtain a deep-socket YC-29BB tool to remove the "spider" from the crank shaft. A standard wrench for the Bafang lock ring will not work, because the spider itself is in the way.

This motor has an all-metal gear arrangement, consisting of the primary gear axle which is coaxial with the cranks, a secondary gear axle, and a tertiary gear axle which is driven by the rotor shaft gear. It was the gears where the tertiary axle and rotor shafts meet which were substantially ground down, resulting in play between gears that causes additional wear every time the motor accelerates or decelerates.

Note: some references online say that the G510 pre-2023 had a nylon gear. I could not locate any images of this, and my motor appeared to have all-metal parts. So idk.

Part of the issue is that the tertiary axle used a gear which isn't as deep as the rotor shaft's gear, resulting in wasted gear-to-gear surface area. A newer gear design for both the rotor and tertiary axle came out in 2023, and can be swapped in but requires recalibration of the motor.

So with the motor half disassembled, I figured the only sensible way forward was to order both the new rotor shaft and new tertiary axle, plus the CAN bus-specific Bafang dealer tool to perform the recalibration. I purchased these from greenbikekit.com, which didn't have the most intuitive ordering process but they did deliver in the end.

Perhaps the most arduous process was cleaning out all the old grease, which requires some solvent to shift. And even then, some crevices were unreachable without a very long cotton swab. In any case, I then re-greased using Permatex 80345 white lithium grease, since this has a higher temperature rating than typical white lithium grease, according to its data sheet. I obtained this from the local auto parts store, and this was the best I could get locally; Mobilgrease 28 was not available near me.

For the recalibration procedure, I knew that I wouldn't have -- nor would want to register for -- the Bafang dealer software to use with the programmer tool. Also, I'm a believer in the right-to-repair and having to beg for software is antithetical to this notion. Fortunately, someone has a FOSS project that can control the programmer and issue the recalibration command, among other neat features.

After dealing with a file permissions issue for /dev/usbhid2, the programmer was able to issue the calibration and the motor was set for reinstallation into the frame. This was basically all the earlier steps in reverse.

During testing, it is notable how much the new gears add the characteristic "whirling" sound of an electric motor. However, because the play within the gears was reduced and with new grease added, I found that the overall noise signature of the motor is substantially reduced. Also appreciated is how much less current the motor draws when riding at speed, compared to before the overhaul.

While it did take a while to assemble the parts and procedure for this endeavor, I am pleased with the results and would suggest periodic re-greasing for ebikes in regular service.

From my earlier post, y'all helped me fill my micromobility niche with a refurbished Segway Ninebot G30LP. So I wanted to give my first impressions after having it for a week.

To start, the scooter arrived in a fairly sizable box, some 100cm by 50 cm by 25 cm. There was a small hole in the cardboard box, but it looked like typical handling and broke into a void, rather than impacting the scooter.

Opening the carton, I removed the scooter itself, the charger, manual, Schrader valve extension tube, and the recall-related maintenance kit. The latter consisted of various sizes of hex wrenches and a rather-long screwdriver. As my first (electric) scooter, I figured I should RTFM before getting ahead of myself.

That's when I realized that I am missing some parts: the six screws needed to secure the handlebar component to the stem. So already, I could not perform the singular assembly step. Oh dear.

From the manual, I sent an email to Segway support with my scooter's model and serial, and they replied the next day for my mailing address. The day after, they had a tracking number for me for that parcel, which reached me three days later. So five days after writing to them, I had the screws in hand. Not bad at all.

That said, I did notice that these screws are slightly out of spec. From what I could gather online, the six screws for the stem should be countersunk M5 screws with length 16 mm. However, I measured these closer to 18 mm, and given the angle of how the screws insert, I think the extra length is causing the left-side screws to collide with the right-side screws.

While I could leave the screw protruding by about 1 mm, I figured I'd cut the screws to length, as that's within the capabilities of my metalworking. They did, after all, send me a pack of ten screws, so I could cut the four spares down. Now they sit flush with the stem.

Anyway, with the handlebars attached, I could continue through the manual, which basically had other advisements for safe operation. Separately, I had seen advice online that the air pressure for these tires should be closer to 40-50 psi (~3 bar), to avoid flats but would trade off some springyness. From the factory, I measured 37 psi, which is what the manual recommends. I tend to run my bicycle tires closer to the sidewall rating, so I wanted to shoot here for at around 45 psi.

The Schrader valves on these tires are quite something. The front is workable, but the rear has a very short stem, meaning only my digital air gauge could be attached to read out the existing pressure. But to add pressure with my manual floor pump for the rear tire, I needed the extension tube. Note: this tube does not have its own one-way valve. So once the tire is pressurized, some air will leak out when unscrewing the tube from the tire stem. And of course, it's a cramped position. But hey, at least I can check the air pressure without the extension hose.

Out of the box, the battery has a state of charge around 60%, so I was able to test basic operation by gliding around my driveway. But it does beep persistently, due to not being activated with the app. I personally don't like devices which must be chained to an app -- which might disappear one day -- so I was pleased to find that there's a community app that can do the same.

Using this app, I was able to activate the scooter and confirm other parameters about the its manufacturing, the battery pack, cell voltages, and the odometer reading, which is precise down to 0.01 km. What I couldn't figure out is how to commit the global or eco speed limits, as I have no need to run faster than 13 kph (8 MPH).

During testing around the neighborhood, I resolved to wear at least the same gear I would wear (helmet, goggles, gloves) for riding my acoustic and electric bikes, and found that with cruise set at 15 kph (9 MPH), this was a reasonable saunter through the quiet streets, with bumps amplified by the short wheelbase. But still manageable. Kinda like a brisk walk.

When discovering that switching from Eco mode to S mode permits the full 25 kph (15 MPH) limit, I decided to try the top speed after doing a few loops. But already at 22 kph, I stopped, being unable to understand how anyone can ride a scooter at this speed without 100% focus and both hands on the handlebars. And I've seen riders on shorter electric scooters with smaller, non-pneumaric tires. It's utterly terrifying, and I say that having negotiated 45 kph, lumbering ebikes through harrowing city traffic.

But my own sensibilities aside, it's fairly capable with large -- but still jarring -- dips in the road surface, and does not bottom-out at sidewalk ramps or turning into driveways.

Here in California, the laws on electric scooters are substantially nerfed, prohibiting sidewalk operation or even just making left turns in the street. They intend for electric scooters to operate in the bike lane, though most riders I see will use the sidewalk anyway. As a long-time bike rider, I fear the poor running surfaces of sidewalks and prefer the smoother asphalt surface of the bike lane. Though I grant you that the motor vehicle traffic whizzing by is not exactly totally comforting, especially when I intentionally operate at a lower speed.

But taking the scooter out for its first ride, it was mostly uneventful and I met up with a friend, who later took me and the scooter home in his car. It fit perfectly in the trunk, which proves the multi model credentials of this scooter. So far as I can tell, the odometer is fairly accurate and while I've only done 11 km so far, the app suggests a range of 40 km at my speed.

I'm still figuring out how to ride this safely, but seeing as my needs are very specific (see prior post), it's likely I can optimize to a high degree.

Hi everyone!

Once again, I come to you all for advice. Currently, my fleet consists of my trusty acoustic bike, my Class 3 electric bike, and my own two feet. Couple this with my transit card and I've eliminated a lot of unnecessary automobile trips. Roughly, my trips fall into:

• trips within town that I can run them with my acoustic bike, or the ebike if I'm short on time. Usually sub 8 km (5 mi)
• trips to the outlying suburbs by hourly bus, getting me within 2 km of my actual destination, so I just walk
• trips into the metro core by bus + LRT, within 4 km of my destination, so I might walk or might wait 30 minutes for the bus. The ebike won't fit on the bus, and even with the acoustic bike, this bus line often fills the front bike rack.

That latter one is what I want to optimize, since I missed that bus by 1 minute and then proceeded to walk in 38 C (100 F) heat to the LRT station. That was brutal.

So I wish to consider adding an e-scooter, as a faster-than-walking solution for short distances. This would be more compact than bringing either bike, and easily brought onto the bus or train. If I were going any farther than 2-4 km, or bringing more than I could carry, then the bike is needed.

That said, I know enough people that have eaten dirt on an e-scooter, so I would easily accept a scooter that is limited to some 15 kph (9 mph) -- still faster than walking -- so long as it can climb 3-5% grades. I would also like the largest diameter wheels I can get; 10-inch would be great. Suspension would be nice, but I'll take what I can find.

I've searched locally on Craigslist for options, and predominantly see used GoTrax and Niu e-scooters, but these have 6-inch wheels and no suspension, as well as clones of the Xiaomi M365, like Maxshot. These are cheap, but still don't meet most of my criteria, and it seems these clones have a habit of failing due to poor quality construction.

As extra background, I've never ridden a skateboard, so an electric skateboard is not being considered. Nor rollerblades. I would consider a really small folding bike or ebike, but this is only marginally better than what my current fleet can offer. Hence why I'm looking to e-scooters.

EDIT 1: forgot to mention that I'm in California/USA

EDIT 2: thanks to @Showroom7561@lemmy.ca , I honed in on the Segway Ninebot Max family, and settled on a refurbished G30lp for $315+tax.

A while ago, I wrote this overview of California's Coast Rail Corridor project, which would run conventional trains between the existing, popular, state-subsidized commuter rail systems in Northern and Southern California. This is nowhere near as sexy as high-speed rail, but imagine a single seat that rolls through the rice paddies outside Sacramento, past the oil refineries of Richmond in the Bay Area, down through Oakland adjacent the Coliseum, bisecting Silicon Valley, then hugging the coast of Central California towards the beaches of Santa Barbara entering Los Angeles County and then further to San Diego.

Then make it affordable and timely, and all of a sudden there's a way to spend time watching the scenery slowly, while also being practical. Trains are much less of a slog than sitting on a bus. High speed rail is important and laudable, but this humble, rather dull project will likely carry passengers between north and south a decade or more before high speed rail does, which is why the state is pursuing it in parallel.

I hope this type of content is an alright fit for this community.

(Does this community allow posts about product restorations? I didn't forge these skillets, but I did make them usable and appealing again.)

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/30170080

(long time lurker, first time poster)

A few months ago, a friend convinced me on the benefits of cast iron skillets. Having only used Teflon-coated non-stick pans, I figured it would be worth a try, if I could find one at the thrift store. Sure, I could have just bought a new Lodge skillet, but that's too easy lol.

So a few weeks pass and I eventually find these two specimens at my local thrift store, for $5 and $8 respectively. It's not entirely clear to me why the smaller skillet cost more, but it was below $10 so I didn't complain too loudly. My cursory web searches at the store suggested that old Wagner skillets are of reasonable quality, so I took the plunge. My assumption is that the unmarked, smaller skillet is also a Wagner product.

10-inch skillet ($5)	9-inch skillet ($8)

It's very clear that both these skillets are very crusty. Initially, I tried to remove the buildup using a brass wire brush. This was only somewhat successful, so I switched to a stainless steel wire brush. That also didn't do much, except reveal some of the inscription on the bottom.

Some research suggested I could either do an electrolysis tank, a lye bath, or try lye-based oven cleaner. For want of not over-complicating my first restoration attempt, I went with the oven cleaner method, using the instructions from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pvf0m9jTeE

For both skillets, I had to apply the oven cleaner six times to finally shift all the crud, each time leaving the skillets in the garbage bag for a full day-and-a-half in the sun. In between applications, I would brush off more buildup, with the handle root and the skillet walls being the most stubborn areas. The whole process smelled terrible and hunching over the garage utility sink to brush pans is not my idea of a pleasant time.

Nevertheless, having stripped both pans, I proceeded with six rounds of seasoning with very old corn oil -- it's what was handy -- at 450 F (~230 C) using my toaster oven. This happened over six days, since I wanted to use my excess daytime solar power for this endeavor. I wiped on the oil using a single blue shop towel, to avoid the issues of lint or fraying with paper towel.

I don't have a post-seasoning photo for the larger skillet, but here's how the 9-inch skillet turned out. I think I did a decent job for a first attempt. And I'm thrilled that these are as non-stick as promised, with only minimal upkeep required after each use.

We live in a very strange timeline where the Ontario Premier is outdoing American governors on what constitutes "really dumb ideas". If you live in Ontario, I would urge you to watch to the end of the video and file a public comment during Bill 212's consultation period, ending on 20 November 2024.

https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/019-9266

The median age of injured conventional bicycle riders was 30 (IQR, 13-53) years vs 39 (IQR, 25-55) years for e-bicyclists (P < .001). Scooter riders had a median age of 11 (IQR, 7-24) years at the time of injury vs 30 (IQR, 20-45) years for e-scooter riders (P < .001) (Table 1 and Figure 3). As a group, those injured from EV accidents were significantly older than those injured from conventional vehicles (age, 31 vs 27 years; P < .001) (eTable 1 in Supplement 1).

e-Bicycles have lowered barriers to cycling for older adults, a group at risk for physical inactivity.9,10 Biking has clear-cut physical and cognitive health benefits for older adults, so this extension of biking accessibility to older e-bicyclists should be considered a boon of the new technology.22,23 However, as injured e-bicycle riders are older than conventional bicyclists, the unique safety considerations for older cyclists should be a focus of ongoing study.

There is a popular conception that ebikes are ridden recklessly on streets and sidewalks by youths, doing dangerous stunts, riding against traffic, not wearing helmets, and incurring serious injury to themselves and others as a result. This conception is often used to justify legislation to restrict or ban ebike use by minors. However, the data suggests quite the opposite, as it is older riders which are racking up injuries.

The data does not support restrictions on ebikes, but rather their wholesale adoption, especially for audiences which are at risk of inactivity or disadvantaged by a lack of transportation options. Ebikes are not at odds with conventional bicycles.

The California Bicycle Coalition offers this succinct summary:

“We think this backlash against e-bikes is the wrong direction for what we want for safer ways for people biking and sharing the road,” said Jared Sanchez, the policy director for the California Bicycle Coalition. “We don’t believe that adding restrictions for people riding e-bikes is the solution.”

They also have a page on how to fight against "bikelash", aka naysayers of bicycles and bikes: https://www.calbike.org/talking-back-to-bikelash/

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/22165919

This entry of mine will not match the customary craftsmanship found in this community, but seeing as this was formerly a pile of miscellaneous, warped scrap 2x4 segments recovered from old pallets, I think I've made a reasonable show of things.

This bench is for my homegym, designed to be stood upon, which is why there's a rubber mat inlaid on the surface, a leftover of the gym floor. My design criteria called for even the edge of the top surface to support weight, so the main "box" of the bench uses 2x4 segments mitered (badly) together at 45 degrees, held together with wood glue.

I then routed the inner edge to support a 1/2" plywood sheet, which is screwed into the box. And then the rubber mat is glued down to the sheet, so there are no visible screws.

Finally, the legs are also 2x4 segments, cut so the bench sits 43 cm (~17 inch) from the floor; this is only coincidentally similar to the IPF weightlifting bench standards. I used screws instead of glue, just in case the legs needed to be shortened later.

All edges were rounded over with a 1/2" bit, as the bench is expected to be picked up and moved frequently. And everything stained in cherry and clear-coated.

Some of the annoyances from using scrap included:

• Stripping old paint off. Awful chemicals, awful scrubbing, awful disposal.
• Sanding away twists along the 2x4 segments
• Filling nail holes or arranging them so they don't draw attention
• My lack of experience with clamping and gluing wood that's not dimensionally consistent

If I were to do this again, I'd figure out a way to reduce the amount of routing needed for the inner edge, since I essentially removed 0.75 inch by 1.5 inch of material all around the edge. This took forever, and perhaps a CNC machine would have simplified things, in addition to squaring and planing the surfaces before mitering.

This entry of mine will not match the customary craftsmanship found in this community, but seeing as this was formerly a pile of miscellaneous, warped scrap 2x4 segments recovered from old pallets, I think I've made a reasonable show of things.

This bench is for my homegym, designed to be stood upon, which is why there's a rubber mat inlaid on the surface, a leftover of the gym floor. My design criteria called for even the edge of the top surface to support weight, so the main "box" of the bench uses 2x4 segments mitered (badly) together at 45 degrees, held together with wood glue.

I then routed the inner edge to support a 1/2" plywood sheet, which is screwed into the box. And then the rubber mat is glued down to the sheet, so there are no visible screws.

Finally, the legs are also 2x4 segments, cut so the bench sits 43 cm (~17 inch) from the floor; this is only coincidentally similar to the IPF weightlifting bench standards. I used screws instead of glue, just in case the legs needed to be shortened later.

All edges were rounded over with a 1/2" bit, as the bench is expected to be picked up and moved frequently. And everything stained in cherry and clear-coated.

Some of the annoyances from using scrap included:

• Stripping old paint off. Awful chemicals, awful scrubbing, awful disposal.
• Sanding away twists along the 2x4 segments
• Filling nail holes or arranging them so they don't draw attention
• My lack of experience with clamping and gluing wood that's not dimensionally consistent

If I were to do this again, I'd figure out a way to reduce the amount of routing needed for the inner edge, since I essentially removed 0.75 inch by 1.5 inch of material all around the edge. This took forever, and perhaps a CNC machine would have simplified things, in addition to squaring and planing the surfaces before mitering.