Using the digital caliper

I have now used the General® UltraTech™ Fraction+ model #1433 3-inch digital caliper (UPC 0-38728-01433-7) a few times and am not impressed.

The first thing I did was use it as a converter.&npbs; I needed to know how many millimeters in an inch.  Because the tool does not have a fine-adjustment wheel, I kept missing the 1-inch mark.  It took several minutes to finally coax the decide to exactly 1 inch.  Those are minutes I will not get back.

Later, I needed to determine how wide something was.  I opened the calipers and used the outside jaws to place them.  However, I forgot to turn the unit on, so I pressed the on button and remeasured.  The number that appeared was much smaller than what the piece looked like.  Fiddling with the caliper, I noticed that there was sometimes a negative distance.  I turned the unit off and on again to confirm my suspicion.  Sure enough, the unit starts at zero no matter how far the caliper is spread.&nbps; To get a true measurement, one has to close the caliper and zero it out, just like taring a scale to zero.  Hence, every time I use the caliper, I have to press it closed and hit zero before measuring.  This is a little bit of an inconvenience and, therefore, an annoyance.

I will post again when I have used the item more.

As always, I welcome your comments.  Click on the Comment link below; it may say "No" or have a number in front of it.

References:

Digital calipers for jewelry making

As part of my jewelry making projects, I determined I needed a digital calipers to help in the sizing of items.  A trip to the Lowe's was almost a bust, until the floor clerk “remembered” they carried a line of precision tools.  Thus, I was introduced to the General® UltraTech™ Fraction+ model #1433 3-inch digital caliper (UPC 0-38728-01433-7), paying $18 plus tax.  They also have a 6-inch model, but I chose the 3 inch because my measurements should all be rather small.  The measurements display digitally in either fractions of an inch, decimals of an inch, or decimals of millimeters.

The tool comes in one of those impossible-to-open sealed plastic containers.  In fact, the container was so well sealed that I tore the manual upon removing it.  Opening the package released a paint-like smell, which I found unpleasant.  The tool comes with a plastic case that has a shaped foam insert in which to place the tool.  It is this foam that is giving off the smell.  The case has a pressure-release clasp and clear plastic hinges.  Even the caliper jaws are plastic; this could cause problems in the future due to wear and erosion one would not experience with an all-metal tool.

The manual itself is only four pages.  As always, I performed a scan of the manual so I couldn't lose it and uploaded it to my shared Google Drive, which you can click here to view.  The first page is just the front cover art.  The two inside pages consist of a diagram of the device with lettered arrows and the names of those parts, although some of those parts are mislabeled.  There is very little explanation of how to actually use the device.  They do not even say what kind of battery it requires, only that one is to “puch cover upward to access battery”.  It should be noted, though, that the battery has an expected life of 3 years under “normal on/off conditions”. Also, there is no stated warranty.&nbps; If the device fails, I guess I lose my $18 with no recourse.

At this point, I would have to say I am disappointed with the tool  It feels cheap and is not properly documented, and it literally stinks.  There are three buttons to control the digital display but nothing to control the movement of the caliper or lock the caliper in place, in the event I wish to do the measurement first.  I am hoping I get good life out of this device, but I am not counting on it.  I will blog more posts as I actually use the tool.

As always, I welcome your comments.  Click on the Comment link below; it may say "No" or have a number in front of it.

References:

Ninja, a re-enactment

I finally got around to doing the re-enactment of the Ninja™ Master Prep™ Professional peanut butter video (available on YouTube).

I must say, the results were quite eye-opening.  First, using the oil created a more liquid product than I got from using the almonds.  The problem with that is the final result wasn't so much peanut butter as peanut soup.  In fact, it is still quite liquid after being in my refrigerator for about a week now.  So, the demonstration was accurate to a point.  What I need to do now is adjust the proportion of nuts to oil, and I should be able to create more nut butters.

As always, I welcome your comments.  Click on the Comment link below; it may say "No" or have a number in front of it.

Planted Green Onion, week 2

The Monday of week #2 didn't see any new growth.  In fact, the ends where I clipped the leaves are already starting to shrivel again.  Am I supposed to be cutting off the entire leaf?

Tuesday saw no real significant change, although the two plants on the right continue to grow.  The one on the left seems to have slowed down significantly.

Here are close-ups of the plants.  This does really demonstrate how the plant on the right seems to have stopped growing.

On Thursday, I noticed roots in the two jars on the right.  The left jar did not have any roots.  We shall see how things look again next week.

As always, I welcome your comments.  Click on the Comment link below; it may say "No" or have a number in front of it.

Faux mercury glass, a test

As part of my utensil holder project, I thought it would look neat to use faux mercury glass, so I went out to the web to investigate the technique.  It seems there are two prevailing schools of thought on this.  The folks at the White Picket Bentz blog advocate spraying the dry surface inside a glass container with looking glass paint, following this with a spray of 1:1 vinegar and water, then popping the resulting bubbles.  The folks at the 17 Apart website, on the other hand, advocate spraying the dry surface outside a glass container with 1:1 vinegar and water, immediately spraying with looking glass paint, spraying again with vinegar/water, then dabbing the surface dry before adding more coats.  What this means is I have four different methods to test.

I decided to give the 17 Apart method first, spraying the outside of the jars.  These pictures are of the glass with 1, 2, and 3 coats, respectively.  Not a bad look.  You can click on them to see them larger.

Here are the pictorial results from using the White Picket method of spraying inside the jars.  After the first coat, I was really not happy with the result, so even though the method did not call for coats, I added coats 2 and 3.  Again, you can click on the picture to get a larger version.  To me, the White Picket method resulted in a more translucent coloring than the 17 Apart method.

Here is a side-by-side comparison.  The inside method (on the left) seems to be reflecting more light than the outside method (on the right).  This is a quality of the looking glass paint, which does recommend spraying on the inside to create the reflective surface.  Comparing my photos to the reference photos, the pictures on the White Picket Bentz website show a more completely painted surface.  However, I kind of like the look of the outside method better.  It seems more antique, so I am going to do an additional test using copper paint.

Using the outside method, I sprayed with copper metallic paint rather than looking glass.  Above are the results for 1 coat and 2 coats, respectively.  Using the copper, unfortunately, gets rind of the glass appearance of the silver sprays.  I'm wondering if I should try doing the inside method with the copper, but I want to use the inside of the jar to store my utensils, so that might be a bad idea.

Here, then, are the jars 4 hours later.  The first jar is unpainted, the second is the copper, the third is the inside silver, and the fourth is the outside silver.  I do like the shininess of the looking glass paints, though the copper may coordinate more with the rest of the utensil holder.  I think I will look for a food-grade sealer I can spray into the jar.  If I find one, then I will do an inside test on the copper; if not, I am leaning toward the outside silver.

As always, I welcome your comments.  Click on the Comment link below; it may say "No" or have a number in front of it.

Review of Anchor sharp knives

Back when I moved into a new apartment after being homeless, I needed a set of sharp knives.  I came across the Anchor Home Collection™ 6-piece knife set with cutting board (UPC 0-48676-95873-7) at the local Big Lots.  It was only $8, so I thought I would give it a try.

I was surprised at how stiff the blades were.  Dollar Tree sharp knives are very flexible; these were nicely stiff, meaning they would not bend during cutting.  They rivaled my few remaining chef blades from cooking school.  They also had full tang inside the riveted handles.  The handles themselves are a very cheap-feeling light-weight plastic.  It is a very unsatisfying feel compared to riveted wooden handles.  However, they do give the longer knives a nice center of gravity just in front of the handle, which is great for those of us who grip the knife at that location, like the picture below.

The three things I don't like about this set:  1) The cutting board that is the sixth piece of the set is a thin plastic piece of crap that I will probably end up cutting through if I used.  I will stick with my wooden cutting board.  2) The outline of the tang does not always match the outline of the handle.  Sometimes there is metal sticking out, and sometimes it is recessed, creating a good place for water and germs to pool.  I've already had to remove rust from one of the knife tangs.  3) In the picture below, you can see odd waves in the blade.  I presume this is where the machine sharpened the steel.  Waves usually mean the machine was not operating properly, like it was going too fast for the lubrication present.

In conclusion, I am quite satisfied with this purchase.  I have not had any real problems with the knives other than the one appearance of rust on a tang.  In fact, I use what they call the carving knife to slice home-made bread, and it does not crush the loaf.  I would call this an acceptable frugal buy.

As always, I welcome your comments.  Click on the Comment link below; it may say "No" or have a number in front of it.

Count the Mondays next month

To count the number of Mondays in a month in an Excel cell, use the following formula:

=sumproduct(--(weekday(row(indirect((eomonth(today(),0)+1) & ":" & (eomonth(today(),1)))))=2))

In December 2013, this returns 4 because there are 4 Mondays in January 2014.  How do you alter the formula for any day of the week?  Change the 2 at the end of the formula to the number corresponding to the day of the week:

• Sunday = 1
• Monday = 2
• Tuesday = 3
• Wednesday = 4
• Thursday = 5
• Friday = 6
• Saturday = 7

For example, changing the 2 to 6 in December 2013 would result in the number 5, as there are 5 Saturdays in January 2014.

As always, I welcome your comments.  Click on the Comment link below; it may say "No" or have a number in front of it.