bluegriff

I built a hackintosh to replace the outgoing Mac Pro a few months back. One problem I ran into was 5 hard drives into a case originally designed to be stuffed to the brim with fans. The original position for the 2(!) hd sleds were nothing more than a compromise; they had to allow for all that cooling to insure the ridiculously hot CPUs previously inhabiting this space wouldn’t melt into a pile of grey goo.

So I go online and there are people with a fantastic amount of time on their hands. Like, the machines they built into the carcasses of dead G5′s and Mac Pros are on par with what you’d experience pulling these boxes out of the package for the first time. I am in awe of their dedication.

I am not that dedicated.

When I’m done with this guy, it’s going to sit under a desk and not once will I bring up to guests my endeavors taken to get it set up and running reliably. No tales of tales of tucked wires and framerates. Eye rolls averted, lets move on.

Back to the task at hand: I need a hard drive cage to store the 5 hard drives. I tried ripping out the pressed aluminum cage from another dead PC, but there was no place to attach a fan without running additional sheet metal. I threw open Google SketchUp, thinking I could design something to get cut and folded at the local metalshop. Then that voice came from the ether, “… dude, this isn’t going to gain any HP at the wheels. You aren’t in Fast and Furious. Let it go and function over form it already.”

So I went to Home Depot and purchased a galvanized air vent register.

The width is 4″, just like the standard HD size. So with that and some tin snips, a hand drill, and some household items I created a $7 hard drive cage.

Trim down the collar and we can get to work cutting the tabs for the fan.

Tabs roughed out! Time to check out how the fan sits…

I created a stencil of the HD shape on an index card. That way I can mark where the drill holes should go.

And here it is in the case. The fan pulls in the air from front cheesegrater just fine. I am going to revisit it at a later date and add fins in front of the fan to even up the flow but for now none of the HDs are getting too hot. The previous temps were around 130F now they idle at 80F and go up to 99F during activity.

Room for improvement, but not bad for $7.

Channon borked her ACL during a routine scooter stunt over Memorial Day weekend. Month later the surgery and recovery dance begun and that meant no more bike rides for quite a while. She was a sad panda so I shelved the lowrider and began building a tandem. I figure she can get the range of motion exercise while I perform anti-fall-down maneuvers up front.

I found two big-box bikes that appeared to be from the same megafactory in 中国 so with that I was ready for a long day with the angle grinder!

All the dead craigslist bike plaque is accumulating in the corners of the shop.

Didn’t like how close the back rider would be so I decided to cut away the back triangle and build my own longer wheelbase frame.

I was so fricking happy with how straight the frame was! But somewhere, deep down, I had a feeling that something wasn’t quite right. But I plodded onwards.

Aaah… Now I get it. Test fitting shows that the rear cranks hit the ground. GJ!

4th of July weekend. Time to power through. Cut the frame back down and start over. Get the angles right. Pop some droning dance music on and BAM, drop the stick. All the welding places are closed for three days. Murphy’s fucking law.

Ok! With the help of friends of friends, I’m back in business with replacement parts for the welder. Get the frame all welded up and painted.

Paint is “dry” and test fitment begins. It looks like a real bike now!

Got it all assembled and went for a test glide. It’ll do pig. So now it’s time to get chain and cable and we’re in business.

Lowracer is being whiny, like Hobbes when Calvin started taking his antipsychotic meds. “I’ll get to you very soon!”

Five years ago I purchased a ReplayTV RTV5516 160 hour DVR. It was great. You could skip 30 seconds ahead and you could copy saved recordings to your computer. Best of all, it had an easy-to-use UI and just worked™.

Fast forward to today. TiVo and ReplayTV have been squeezed out by the cable and satellite providers by way of digital and encrypted channels.

“Hey buddy, how’s that analog DVR working out for you? Oh wait, thats right! There are no analog channels anymore. But hey, you go on and enjoy your freedom to fast forward through those commercials.”

Its clear the war against fair use has been settled on the side of content providers. Fine. We get it. Torrents, fines, and lengthy court time for any who desire otherwise. But FUCK YOU for being so complacent that you can’t even produce a product that has a UI on par with something that came out over five years ago. No lube for you, we’re going in dry.

Snagerwgs? SNAGERWGS? How does one suck this bad? COX says its because the cable signal is too weak. Nothing has changed in the set up at all since I moved in a year ago. And besides, let’s just say for shits and giggles that this behavior does indeed happen when the signal is too weak…

What kind of company gets away with putting out such a fetid piece of excrement and expects to make money on it? There is absolutely no way to suck that bad without having cleared all the competition away by other means. Any other company would be out of business as customers vote with their wallets.

Channel providers point fingers at the DVR manufacturers. Motorola points fingers at Channel providers. Actually they don’t. They don’t really give a care at all because there is no other choice for the consumer. So enjoy your shit milkshakes everyone. Snagerwgs on the house.

UPDATE
Sunday brings the Cox repairman who walked in, took one look at the photo of the garbled interface and says, “Yep, this one is bad. I’ll go out to the truck and get you a new box.”

Now I have to start connecting the dots so that he rolling chassis becomes an actual bike. The crank assembly is designed so that it can be adjusted to different rider’s heights. Here I’ve repurposed the crank assembly from a bmx. I’ve trimmed the seat tube and support away and need to fabricate the arms that will allow me to secure it to the bike.

Here’s a 2 shot of the box arms ground down to form a folding lid, which will be welded shut

Arms balancing on the assembly and ready to be clamped down for welding. Too damn much grinding today and not enough welding. :/

Finished product. Could be prettier but I’ll save pretty for the 2nd bike

Here it is sitting on the frame rail. Granpa Schwinn in the background is a 1968 Collegiate complete with the original sales tags and brochure from the store. He and his mate, a matching green women’s Collegiate are looking for a new home.

Here’s a bonus pic of the bear dog my dad owns. He’s hank and is at least 180lbs.

I used to have this homemade red recumbent bike that sat so low to the ground… It was so much fun to ride! The builder, in his exuberance to birth his mad creation, had not solved the long chain routing problem and it would skip off its cogs whenever I’d go over a hard bump. This would most often happen on the farthest leg of the ride leaving me stranded in the heat while I attempted to fix. I left it in the backyard when I sold my house a few years ago. Hadn’t really thought much about it until a chance Craigslist crawl reminded me of what I had lost.

Wayback

You remember when you watched <insert favorite show or movie>? You couldn’t wait to get your hands on the <favorite show’s main char>‘s toy so you could relive all those awesome moments over and over with your friends! Then, holding that hunk of plastic in your hands… it just seemed wrong. The out-of-proportion shape kept nagging at you. Every time you ran your hands along the side and ran into the thin plastic seam, it broke you out of your immersion.

Yeah, it was kind of like that. What a piece of crap!

With rose-colored glasses ground right off I was left with a resolve to finally build the bike I wanted. Enter Atomic Zombie, 15 bucks later I had plans for a long-wheelbase recumbent – The Marauder 2! Sure, it was no Kaneda Bike, but at least it was a start. I figure this will be a good starting point for bike hacking and after this I can take what I learn and create something closer to what I want. Ideas mean nothing until they are implemented!

And with that here is the progress so far…

Craigslist mountain bike donates it’s bits and pieces to the effort. Rear suspension tube liberated from its former frame and ready to be welded.

Mill scale buffed off the end of the stock and suspension tube test fit.

Here is the mountain bike suspension connected to… a metal pipe.

Seat back and shock support strut welded in place.

Right side up and on to the next step!

Grinder action shot!

Most of the body welded together.

Front fork tube welded in place.

Woo!! Here it is! Lots still to go but it’s looking more like a bike and less like a bunch of tubes. Another Craigslist bike bites the dust. BMX bike front fork and wheel.

Another shot of the marauder. Still to go, seat brakets, seat, crank stand, steering….

Part 2 coming shortly! What color should I paint it?

I was staring at floating shelves at a big box store and had an idea…

I’m working on a larger-than-life bust of my dog, Toby. End result should have his mug on a Thomas Jefferson-esque coat and collar.

Stay tuned!

Thanks to each and every one of you that stopped by. A good friend of mine said the following:

“The most precious thing someone can give you is their time. Every person has a finite supply and if they stop and look at your art for even a few seconds, they’ve chosen to give you some of theirs.”

So thanks again for making this Blue Dome a great one!