Dutch Pong Clock Finally For Sale
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
I first came across Buro Vormkrijgers' Pong clock a few months ago after the prototype was finished. They've now started a production run of the finished product, which looks absolutely great! It's a fair bit smaller than the prototype, which was a big wall hanging affair, but it'll no doubt keep the cost down. £140 may not seem that cheap, but I really do love the clock, and I know I'm going to have trouble resisting, despite the numerous better uses I could put the money towards...
"While this game of Pingpong randomly plays, the so called players score the time. The left player scores the hours, and the right player scores the minutes, creating an unusual timepiece, ideal for those Friday afternoon moments at our headquarters.
How does it work?
The left player and the right player are playing a random game of pong. Their game runs for 24 hours, and the scoring is synched with time. At midnight it's game over, and the start of a new game of pong. And.... you can also play a game of pong against the clock.What happens every hour?
The left player finally scores, he sucks at playing pong compared to the right player. Because of his lack of talent we reward his point, by erasing the right players score. You know what? After that he still sucks at playing pong."
Posted at 17:24
Far Too Cold For Being Naked
Friday, January 20, 2006
But fortunately it's the car, not myself - whilst you'd be forgiven for thinking the bodywork had rusted away to nothing, I've actually removed the missing parts myself. It's quite amazing just how much weight you can lose from shifting a few bits, whilst the Police might not take too kindly, driving it in the state below is immense fun - if I had the cash, I'd go on a major weight loss campaign, fibreglass panels where appropriate, epoxy doors etc.
All the pictures and descriptions I've seen of bonnet removal on the Herald based cars suggest two people, but I was determined to remove it on my own. I'd estimate the weight at about 50kg with the various fittings in place, but I've not got any scales to check - the copious quantities of underseal don't help matters... It's far more the awkward size than the weight that makes the removal tricky - your arms need to be at full stretch across the bonnet whilst manoeuvring it out of the chassis hinge supports - I can see why it would be easier with a person on each side.
Posted at 12:17
Progress with the Spitfire
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Rather a misleading title, as there's not a huge deal of progress, but hopefully there will be before long. I took it off the road a while ago, which was a far more simple process than I'd expected - take the V5 into the Post Office, they scan the barcode on it, job's a good'un.
I've taken it off the road to undertake a full restoration - it doesn't really need it, in the sense that I could easily make it road worthy with a bit of minor welding, but I've been doing less and less miles in it, so I decided it was as good a time as any to do some major work on it. I bought it as a fun project, but never had any real problems that needed working on, so now it's going to fulfil that criteria, albeit perhaps not that much on the fun side - more the sort of project with copious quantities of skinned knuckles and Plus Gas soaked clothing.
With the chassis being separate from the body, the obvious path is to get the body off, but it's a fairly big job, and I've got rather limited space, so we'll have to wait and see. I'm also rather short of money and time, but other than that I'm good to go!
I've no definite plans for what I'm going to do with it as yet - suspension and brake overhauls are a bit of a given. If I take the body off, I'll get the chassis in as good a condition as I can. Bodywork will depend on how much I feel needs replacing as I strip it back. Whether I go for a respray or I'm unsure - I'll be replacing the sills regardless, but the majority of external body panels are in decent shape. I can't help being tempted by a Le Mans style bonnet though, which would need to be sprayed regardless.
I've no particular interest in keeping it in a Concours condition, so perhaps some minor modernisation, some decent wiring wouldn't go amiss, but I'm not going to go changing the nature of the car, it's a classic and it'll stay that way. Keep an eye out for some progress reports!
Posted at 09:34
My Favourite New Tools
Monday, January 2, 2006
I first came across these a fair few years ago on a shopping channel when flicking through a friend's Sky channels - Super Wrenches. It's difficult to convey how amazing they are without you giving them a try, but they really are a cracking tool.
The shape of the heads and positioning of the pivot are tricky to describe, but they provide an obscene amount of torque and grip in the desired direction, and yet it's completely free in the opposite direction, creating a ratcheting effect, yet there's no screws to adjust as with adjustable pliers or mole grips. I even have a £60 pair of mole grips I won in a Practical Classics competition, which are the business, but these completely trounce them in terms of grip strength, and there's no fiddly adjusting or physical exertion to get the best out of them.
I decided to recreate one of the demonstrations they use on shopping channel promotions for these, which involves a presenter gripping a smooth round metal bar at about the height of a pull up bar with one of the wrenches, and using it to do pull ups. It sounds like the sort of thing you'd see on the internet when he puts them on the wrong way round and goes flying. I have a pair of spare forks for an old bike lying about, which offer good solid round metal to grip. Positioning the forks across each side of the loft hatch, I gripped the largest of the four wrenches on and grabbed a hold. Perfectly solid, not the slightest bit of movement. Safe? No. Impressive? Yes. I can't wait to use these for shifting old UJ bearing cups!
I managed to pick up the set of four for £20, which offers jaw sizes that can cover anything from 3mm to 35mm. The sizes also overlap, so apart from the top and bottom of the scale, you always have two wrenches that can cover each size, so great for plumbing jobs when you're gripping two things at once.
I'm starting to sound more like an advert than an advocate here, so I think I'll sign off, but being sceptical when ordering, I simply couldn't believe how great these tools where - if you've got some cash to spare, they're well worth the expense.
Posted at 10:13
