Readit Newschrisys commented on Show HN: I built a desktop radiation monitor with Raspberry Pi, brass and wood balena.io/blog/show-tell-... · Posted by u/chrisys
Super job. More nitpicking: the real fanatics line up the screw heads to the geometry of the piece. For instance the Dekatrons would look nicer if the screwhead slots would form a circle too.
You're totally right of course, I was very afraid of snapping those little guys off :)
Was expecting someone to downvote me because they haven't seen Chernobyl on HBO. Haha
The opening line of my blog post was almost a reference to this, then nobody I had proof read the post got it so I took it out :P
Looks fantastic! Well done!
Why didn't you go full brass on the decatrons, instead of mixing stainless and copper? Same goes for the counter box: you only wrapped 2 sides when you pro'lly could have wrapped the whole thing in brass... you probably saved yourself 10 hours by not doing that, but you're already in for what, 30 hours already?
Now I'm going to nitpick. :) My only critique is the high gloss finish on the wood looks unfinished in the final assembly picture: you can see drips/wrinkles, and the grain wasn't filled which isn't a good match with high gloss, or if unfilled a hand-oiled finish would not have called attention. This is a consequence of working with mahogany. (And what's with the hand filed-gouges in the cutouts. Yes they are hidden, but details count, man!)
I'm also jealous you have a machine shop. Very jealous.
Super job!
Thanks for the compliments, and I appreciate your eye for detail and nitpicking :) I don't even wanna think about how many hours I put into this thing. It was one of those projects when you've got some free time you just keep working on it, then eventually, one day, it turns out there's nothing else to do.
For the Dekatrons, it was simply a case of I had 50mm stainless steel bar already in the shop, but the biggest brass I had was probably 30mm diameter. I bought a whole load of bar stock offcuts from an auction years ago and pretty much everything I make is made from that lot. That being said I broke so many tools trying to work with M2 threads in stainless that I could have just bought some brass bar!
As for the dips/wrinkles in the case, those were caused by my use of an oscillating drum sander. There's a photo in the blog post where you'll see I used the drum sander to bring the lid to size. I foolishly let it mark the previously pristine planed surfaces, and didn't realise until I had coated it with gloss. This is definitely a lesson learned from this project, I won't make that mistake again.
I have no defence for the hand-filed gouges hidden in the openings, and not filling the grain - more lessons learned for next time there. :)
Thanks for the comment!
This is really beautiful craftsmanship! It will definitely influence my own projects in the future, thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the compliment Peter, if I can inspire others like yourself to get building, I'm happy :)
Lovely piece of work. Scary how active those old gas lamp mantles are (in the video). Makes me wonder how radioactive your average campsite is, given that those things tend to crumble to dust when you change them.
They are quite radioactive for a household item indeed. The dust is a good point I keep that one double bagged for that reason, although they aren't as fragile when they're new.