Revenge

Reminded of this by a post from Scaryduck today.

DTL vs the Fluff-Ball

The was and still is a misrable old bastard up the road from me. He walks a yapping bundle of fluff up the road twice per day, letting it shit where ever it wants. Complaints about this are shrugged of with

“its only a fuckin’ dog. I can’t stop it shittin'”

and several days of the dog ‘deciding’ to drop a load right outside your house.

It was after the poo stared to pile up on the pavement outside my house I decided to get revenge.

From the juices of the Sunday joint, I made up some of the tastiest gravy known to man or dog, poured it into a cup and left by the microwave ready for the evening dog walk.

Seven PM rolls by and the yapping gives away the aproach of the dog. The microwave goes on to warm up the gravy and thirty seconds later I’m at the door, cup in hand. Waiting until the Miserable Bastard can see me, I pour the gravy over the pile of shit remaining from the morning walk.

Fluff-ball scampers up seconds later and starts wolfing down the gravy covered shit in full view of Miserable Bastard. My job done, I head back inside to watch dog being dragged back home in disgust with the Miserable Bastard ranting and raving at the dog ,

“stupid fuggin dog”

and the world in general,

“bastards!”

I’ve had no trouble with that dog shitting outside the house since.

Scientists must write.

“Scientists must write” so says the title of a book on the shelf next to me. I bought the book almost a year ago in Cambridge, aside from a quick flick though on the train home I’ve not read it. I’ve been too busy writing to read a book telling me I should write.

I’ve pretty much got the thesis finished now. It should be bound up and submitted by the end of next week. I should regain my spare time to write here, something I’ve rather neglected of late.

gah!

I think I should have become an engineer.

I like problem solving, I like building things and dammit, I need an excuse for the CNC mill I want.

What prompted this? Well it is the annual laser repair time. For a piece of equipment that cost somewhere between £30k – £50k, you have to wonder why various bits of the high pressure chamber (3 atmospheres of corrosive gas) is made from a combination of Japanese lamp post metal* and tinfoil.

The two ends of the laser – the plates where the mirrors are mounted are made of the softest aluminium they could find. Now corrosive gas under high pressure + soft, easily corroded metal. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Yes the whole fucking thing was stuck fast and looking furrier than a 12 week old cheese roll.

At some point a pin hole leak had developed around an O-ring. It wasn’t there 3 months ago when we last looked. The whole of the front mirror mount was a mess, and a £250 optic was buried in the middle of it.

I’ll spare you the details, but in the end we used an angle grinder, a chisel and a club hammer to free everything up. Now I’ve to work out a way to clean everything and put it all back so it is once again gas tight.

Would it have really been so much trouble to make the end pieces from stainless steel or chrome?

Now if I had a CNC mill I could machine up the parts myself…


* You know the stuff I mean. Tools made from it disintegrate the moment you use them for anything serious, screws and bolts made from it shear or chew up when you try and shift ’em, etc.