I had a pleasant couple of hours with Derek today, exploring the world of inductivity and stuff.
Late start in the morning; slept in till 9, but then, I needed it.
A few hours, then, of coffee and of trying to wind some stinking solenoid coils. Dang, that's hard, without a decent jig. I had two indecent jigs -- I modified the rotating spark gap prop to try a really SLOW wind, too slow -- and I clamped some stuff into my drill press for a really FAST wind.
I went with fast and crappy. A 1" long and a 2" long; 30ga (I think; leftover from the firefly project) and 24ga wire, respectively.
After Derek, some tests on the coils. NOT doing what I wanted them to, and most specifically heating wayyyyyy too hot. They will work, in a different configuration than I planned (but a better one, a cleaner one; physics is conspiring to help for once!), but only once I solve the heat problem.
I could do some more testing and thinking on that one, except I can't find my multimeter. I've got a BIG multimeter that I've fried the heck out of (hmmm, they don't like 15kV? who knew!), and a small one that is gone.
Lost.
No resistance testing for me.
So, after fiddling with hot, smoking coils a bit more, went to bottle beer. Cooked up some priming sugar, started setting up for the sanitizing and.... no bottle capper.
I know I have it, I _saw_ it. But it's gone too.
Look, you stupid gnomes, I know it looks like my house and shop are a mess, but I do have an underlying system. I can usually find things, even though it sometimes takes some looking. I know where I put things, where things of a given type go. So just because it looks chaotic, doesn't mean it really IS (except in certain cases, but those are specialized and isolated)... you can't be stealin' my stuff and thinking I won't notice.
But I'm on to you. Next stop, Gnome Poison. I mean it.
Unless you return my tools.
Right now, though, I'm annoyed and frustrated, blocked from doing things that need doing. I can't even borrow a capper, 'cause Matt is out it seems.
Anyway, the fire thing is kinda pretty, and I may even get my Chladni thing done in time (IF and ONLY IF I can solve my heat problem). I really really don't want to use a speaker for the driver; I really really do want to coil my own.
I guess I'll have a beer, and sleep or something. I don't have any books I want to read even right now.
I really just don't have enough time to do the things on my lists. And I don't know what I'm willing to drop off of it.