The Johnson Blog

Ramblings of a geek with a few hobbies…

  • Table Saw Upgrade

    Table Saw Upgrade

    In early March I finally felt worthy to upgrade from an inexpensive Hitachi jobsite table saw to a real one. The inability to consistently create accurate and repeatable cuts on my little Hitachi was causing so much frustration that I was finding myself avoiding projects. The fence was garbage, the entire thing wobbled, and I had had enough.

    I placed an order for a SawStop, the contractor model with upgraded fence system, cast iron extension wings, and a 36″ extension table. It arrived a little over a week later, and took 7 hours to assemble, but I have been completely satisfied with every aspect of the tool.

    It took me a while to finally make the purchase of a SawStop. The increased cost of this over other really good saws is not insignificant. That said, I hate to call those other saws competitors because the SawStop technology is available nowhere else. Being a software developer who makes a living on a keyboard, the technology is invaluable. For the uninitiated, this saw detects when flesh touches the blade and instantaneously drops the running blade below the table – giving the operator a vastly improved chance of having no life altering injuries.

    The purchase was timely. Shortly after delivery Illinois enacted their stay-at-home order, so I’ve had plenty of time to putz around the basement, learn, and put it to good use. I have spent several ours in the basement in each of the 7 weeks or so that we’ve been confined to the house. Projects abound!

  • Fabric Organizer

    Fabric Organizer

    One of my recent projects was an organizer for Ana’s sewing room. She has been overrun by fabric and was in need of something to unstack the piles.

    Plans

    Earlier in the year I started making the transition from SketchUp to Fusion 360 for my woodworking plans. Since I’m so new to Fusion 360, it probably took about three hours to get the model built how I wanted and plans generated.

    I don’t recall having to run back to the computer during the build to check dimensions or fix anything, so I’m satisfied with what I produced with Fusion. A copy of the plans is available upon request.

    Build

    This build was great for learning how to use my new dado stack. And learn I did. I spent a long time getting the dado stack installed (along with the appropriate SawStop brake) and fence setup for the cut. I made the first two cuts on the board which would later be ripped into two equal halves for matching top and bottom boards, and quickly found that the two dados were too wide.

    I was furious.

    It wasn’t the common mistake of mistakenly cutting to 1/2″ thick for 1/2″ plywood that’s actually thinner than 1/2″. Nope. This is when I learned there were specific left and right blades!

    What made this so frustrating was that I had just enough wood on hand for this build, and now I was going to have to get more wood. During a stay-at-home order.

    Sigh.

    Later the next week I placed an online order for new wood, which was delivered a few days later, just in time for the next weekend. I don’t think I’ll ever forget about the left and right blades, lesson learned.

    The rest of the cuts went well. With my new saw I was able to make precise and repeatable cuts, and for the first time just assembly line the cuts. It was such a pleasure.

    Dry fit before final assembly.
    Stack of all of the shelves, 1/4″ birch plywood.
    Of all of the dados, I had little one cutting mistake. I refuse to point it out.

    Paint

    Procuring paint and materials during the lockdown also delayed the completion of this project. It seems as if nobody ships paint, and buying even white paint online causes pause because you just have no way of telling exactly what shade of white you are going to get.

    I placed an order at Menards.com, and they proceeded to somehow ship the order to the entirely wrong city. I later ended up doing curb-side pickup at Lowes for the paint. As an aside, after more than a week of no response from Menards about the order, they shipped a replacement. It arrived at my door just two days ago – but it was not my order.

    My original plan was to paint the large sheet of 1/4″ plywood before cutting the shelves, but the ordeal in procuring paint interrupted these plans. I knew it was going to be a pain to paint 26 individual shelves but I didn’t want the project to sit while waiting for paint.

    I painted the entire thing without the shelves inserted. In order to allow the shelves to be glued after installation, I applied tape along all of the shelf edges which would later get glue and painted around them. It worked well and didn’t turn out to be a huge problem.

    Completed

    The completed organizer has been in Ana’s sewing room for about two weeks now and is quickly filling up.

  • Camp Oven

    Camp Oven

    The last couple times we’ve gone camping, my uncle has brought along a small plywood box lined with aluminum flashing which my grandfather made years and years ago – a great little camp oven!

    Baking in it is as simple as putting a small tray with a few pieces of hot charcoals in the bottom and food on the metal rack, close the door and wait.  It’s perfect for little side dishes to go with the rest of your camp dinners.

    In order to compliment the Chuck Box I built last fall, I decided it was time to build one myself.  This was the perfect opportunity to address a few of the shortcomings of the original:

    • You have to open the door to see how the baking is going
    • The temperature inside is anyone’s guess
    • As coals lose their heat you want to lower the food closer
    • Opening the door is the only way to regulate airflow, but you’ll lose much heat.

    The last time we went camping, my uncles brought out a small plywood box, lined with metal flashing, which my grandfather had made years and years ago.  What was this curious device? An oven!

    Here is the final result!

    Let’s take a look at its features.

    Window

    I custom ordered a piece of 1/8″ thick PyroCeram, heat resistant glass for the 3″x8″ window. It can resist temperatures upwards of 1300 degrees Fahrenheit. This was purchased through http://onedayglass.com.

    Thermometer

    No more guessing how warm it is inside. This is an inexpensive smoker thermometer available through Amazon.com. I picked this one because it is large, has good readability, relatively flat, and had a probe that looked compact enough to not get in the way. It’s essentially countersunk into the door panel and the probe ends up sticking beneath the baking rack and where the coals will sit. I’m sure it will read a little high given the location, but it’s better than nothing.

    Adjustable Vents

    Airflow can be tweaked by turning either the front or top vents. They’re just like the vents on any grill, wrapped in Anti Slip Traction Tape for easy turning.

    One-hand Latch

    Knowing we’ll probably be opening and closing this with something in our hands, I wanted it to be easily latched with one hand without fiddling with little metal fasteners. A little spring does the trick.

    Adjustable Rack

    This still needs a little work, namely I need to learn how to braze aluminum and permanently attach the wires to the sides of the rack. Once that’s done, the whole rack will be able to slide in and out as well as be moved top to bottom.

    The remaining two pieces I am contemplating are a handle on the top for easy carrying and two rails on the bottom so the door can open freely if sitting directly on a surface.

    We can’t wait to try it out!

  • Chuck Box

    Chuck Box

    We go camping a couple times per year and every time it comes to making meals I get a little frustrated when I have to look in multiple places for things I need.  Hunting around in Rubbermaid containers for spoons, spatulas, spices and paper plates – while food is on a hot camp stove – just isn’t fun.

    So a few weeks ago I decided to try and remedy this.

    Enter the Chuck Box.

    Using plans from REI’s How to Build Your Own Camp Kitchen Chuck Box  as a base, I was able to build our very own kitchen.

    Make no mistake, it’s heavy.  Made with a full sheet of 1/2″ maple plywood, it should weigh roughly 48 pounds empty.  Loaded, well… like I said, it’s heavy.

    5D4_2905

    Customized to a length of 36″, this box is wide enough to accommodate our long Coleman camp stove, with its propane tank attached.  When the propane isn’t attached and the box is closed, there’s room on the top for our dish washing tubs, extra gas tanks, towels, and other random items.

    Deviating from the REI plans, the top shelf panel is custom for our stove – with cutouts for the latch as well as burner dials.

    I also chose to add an actual lid stay instead of a tent pole to keep the lid open.  I was wary of wind gusts blowing the lid down onto a burning stove.

    I believe the only other change was the addition of supports underneath the top shelf.  These not only support the shelves but also offer more bulk material for the handles to attach to.  The last thing I wanted with something this heavy was for the handles to rip off!

    5D4_2921

    The fold-out front is a perfect table top for meal preparation and holding our cups of coffee while waiting for breakfast.  The shelf has plenty of room for a couple utensil/silverware trays and other odds-and-ends.

    The fold-out front is held tightly in place by the lid latches as well as a pair of heavy duty magnets.  In hindsight, one would have sufficed.

    5D4_2922

    I originally had plans to stain the entire box a green to go with the color of the Coleman stove, but quickly learned that maple just doesn’t take stain well.  So I punted and used 4 coats of water based Helmsman Spar Urethane.  This won’t be left outside in pouring rain, but it should handle condensation, the occasional rain shower, and the inevitable spills.

    Overall I’m very happy with how it turned out.  If I were to make it again, I’d forgo making it fit the propane tank and just allow for a hose to exit the box and attach to a propane tank nearby.  I’d also consider using 1/4″ plywood for some parts of the shelving, again just to shave off some weight.

    Its first weekend outdoors went well and it proved to be even more useful than I had hoped for.  Having everything within arms reach was invaluable.

    5D4_2930

    Here’s to many years of camping!

    5D4_2941

     

  • Testing?

    It this thing on?

    …checks the date of the last post…

    August 12, 2015.  Over 4 years of neglect.

    Oops.

  • Surface 3 and Windows 10 “Touch is Right Click” Workaround

    After upgrading my Surface 3 to Windows 10, a very annoying bug surfaced where I’ll be writing with the pen and all of a sudden any and all touches (pen or finger) are interpreted as right clicks.

    For a few days, my only recourse was restarting.

    I have since learned that you can avoid a reboot by going into Device Manager and Disabling/Enabling the Surface TouchScreen Device (Human Interface Devices -> Surface TouchScreen Device).

    Here’s a PowerShell script I now have hooked up to a keyboard shortcut for when it happens again:

    $touchScreenDevice = gwmi Win32_PNPEntity -Filter "Name='Surface TouchScreen Device'"
if ($touchScreenDevice)
{
    write-host Found Touchscreen Device, Disabling...
    $null = $touchScreenDevice.Disable()

    write-host Enabling Touchscreen Device...
    $null = $touchScreenDevice.Enable()

    write-host done!
}

    I hope this helps everyone else running into this frustrating problem!

     

  • The Tall Ship Manitou, a GREAT Time

    While vacationing in Traverse City, Michigan last week, we took a cruise on the Tall Ship Manitou operated by the Traverse Tall Ship Co.  We had a fantastic time on the 2 hour cruise in Grand Traverse Bay.

    Our 7 year old, David, spent quite a bit of time asking questions of Captain Brandon.  Captain Brandon took the time to thoroughly answer all of these questions, and in a manner that further encouraged his curiosity.  To top it off, David was able to steer the ship under the Captain’s directions for at least 10 minutes.  That’s an experience he’ll never forget.

    IMG_6949

    Aside from being excellent with kids, the ride itself was fantastic.  A very tasty turkey wrap was served and plenty of great beer was available for purchase.  The crew was fun, lively, and open to questions as they went about the business of operating the boat.

    If you’re in the area and looking for a unique way to spend a couple hours, check their availability and give it a try.  You will NOT regret it!

     

  • South Manitou Island at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

    This post is meant as a warning to those fellow internet searchers looking for information on South Manitou Island at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Northwest Michigan.  We visited last week during our vacation (3rd week of July) and were looking forward to a great time.

    IMG_5765

    Unfortunately, none of the literature we encountered about the trip mentioned the possibility of ferocious, swarming, biting flies!  Our family now refers to the place as Fly Island.

    Upon our arrival, we walked to the Lighthouse and were immediately greeted by dozens of vicious flies attacking our legs.  We brought insect repellant (with DEET) with us, so we thought we’d immediately douse ourselves and be fine.  Oh no, if anything, the flies seemed to be attracted to it!

    Unlike typical flies, these things would grab onto our legs, hold on for dear life, and bite like crazy.  Simply moving wasn’t enough to get them off of you.  Thinking back, they really only attacked our lower leg and ankles, but they made our few hours on the island absolutely miserable.

    The only recourse we found was to continue walking, FAST.  Anywhere there was sun, they seemed to swarm us – the dock, the beach, the trails, you name it.  It wasn’t until we were deep in the forest trails did they finally leave us alone – and then the mosquitos were everywhere.  We ended up cutting our hike very short, and sat in one of the outbuildings for over 2 hours, swatting flies, until the boat arrived.

    So, beware.  We were wearing shorts, which in hindsight was a mistake.  If you’re going to go at that time of year (late July), you should probably bring pants and thick socks.

    Hopefully this post finds you before it is too late, best of luck!

  • Surface 3 on Vacation

    I’ve had my Surface 3 (4GB of RAM model) since the day it was released, use it heavily daily for both work and home, and love it.  This past week it has taken its first road trip, vacation, and I couldn’t be happier with it.

    Devices, Devices, Devices

    Replacing my laptop on a trip isn’t an easy task for a tablet.  I take lots of photos and lots of video, which means I need to be able to pull this data off of a few different sources (Canon 7D, GoPro, and Sony camcorder).  Then there’s the sheer bulk of data to deal with, over 100GB on this trip the last I looked.  Rather than trying to fit everything in the 45GB free on the Surface (by shooting less, deleting more, etc.), I decided from the start to store everything on my USB 3 2TB Western Digital My Passport external hard drive.

    The Surface 3 has a single USB 3 port and a USB On-the-Go port.  Unfortunately, I didn’t put much thinking into how I was going to hook everything up until the day before we left and I was unable to purchase an On-the-Go adapter.  So, in order to get everything attached (CF card reader, external hard drive, second external hard drive for Lightroom import backups, and possibly simultaneously the camcorder), I ran to the store and picked up a small USB 3 hub by J5Create.  I’ve had terrible experiences with USB hubs, but so far this one has worked admirably.

    Surface 3 and Devices Attached
    A typical import setup, minus the camcorder.

    The Surface 3 was handled simultaneous photo import, copying to an external hard drive, with import backups going to second hard drive.  Many times, I was also copying video off both the microSD slot on the Surface to the external hard drive and the camcorder via USB to the external hard drive.  The Surface 3 handled it all incredibly well.

    Lightroom and Smart Previews

    My setup has the Lightroom catalog residing on the Surface 3, but the photos on the external hard drive for capacity reasons.  I initially thought I would just have to edit photos with the external hard drive attached, until I remembered a feature I’ve never used introduced in Lightroom 5 called Smart Previews.  Once configured, after import and while the external hard drive is still attached, Lightroom generates smaller versions of the full-sized photos you can view/edit/export when the originals are offline (the hard drive detached).

    Generating the Smart Previews takes a while, so I usually kicked off the import as we were unloading at the cabin after a day out swimming or sight seeing.

    Once the import and preview generation was complete, I put away all of the devices and was able to edit photos as time allowed.  Lightroom 6 has an excellent Tablet Mode for editing which I took extensive use of while laying in bed at the end of the day.

    Wrap Up

    The combination of the Surface 3’s ability to handle many devices at once and Lightroom’s Smart Previews and Tablet Mode make the Surface 3 an excellent travel companion.

    If you’re contemplating a Surface 3 but the Atom processor name worries you, like it did me, fear not.

     

     

  • Centering a WPF Window in an Outlook 2013 Add-in

    I recently came upon the need to show a WPF window in an Outlook add-in, preferably centered on the Outlook window (WindowStartupLocation = CenterInParent).  Easy enough, but without setting Window.Owner, it will appear in an uncontrolled location when calling ShowDialog().

    Setting Window.Owner is where things get a little tricky.

    Searching online produced a few variations of the theme of using the WindowInteropHelper class in combination with the win32 FindWindow API with the window caption discovered via Reflection.  Yuck.  Surely there’s a better way.

    Enter System.Process.  One of the properties of the System.Process class is MainWindowHandle, which Microsoft states:

    The main window is the window opened by the process that currently has the focus (the TopLevel form).

    Sounds like exactly what I’m looking for.  A quick call to Process.GetCurrentProcess() and we’ve got everything we need.  The final code to show the WPF window is:

    SomeView view = new SomeView();

WindowInteropHelper helper = new WindowInteropHelper(view);
helper.Owner = Process.GetCurrentProcess().MainWindowHandle;

view.ShowDialog();

    Simple as that!