Daniel Busby

Tinkerings of a backyard scientist

Sketching Up and Hacking Up

12th February. By admin. Posted in Kinetic Sculpture.

We had a vague idea of how things are supposed to go together.  But, eventually, we’ll have to actually do it.  I took some measurements of the parts I was planning to use and started to put them into Google’s Sketchup.  It has a little bit of a learning curve, but the tutorials were helpful …read more

Four Wheels Complete

24th January. By admin. Posted in Kinetic Sculpture.

We finished crimping in the spokes for our wheels.  Over 196 spokes to make and then mount into the 4 wheels.  Luckily we won’t have to do that again. We bought an old golf cart that we hope to use for steering and suspension parts.  I threw all of the plastic away and removed the …read more

More Wheel Work

8th January. By admin. Posted in Kinetic Sculpture.

We made some great progress today on the kinetic sculpture.  I’m going to let the pictures tell the story.

ZEV Parking?

4th January. By admin. Posted in Sparkfire.

Back when I was researching all of the perks of owning my own electric vehicle, I came across a decal that is given out by the California DMV.  It is intended to ensure that the vehicle that’s taking up the “EV only” parking/charging spot is actually an electric vehicle.  I thought that I might as …read more

KickStarter Launch!

3rd January. By admin. Posted in Kinetic Sculpture.

I just launched our KickStarter campaign for A Moveable Feast. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/480257067/a-moveable-feast   Check it out and help out if you can!  Thanks!

Ranting about the TSA

2nd January. By admin. Posted in Uncategorized.

Every time I fly my biggest complaints are with security.  It’s slow, awkward, potentially dangerous, and as I’ll argue in this blog post, pointless. At face value the security checkpoint at an airport has a goal of preventing people from bringing weapons on board flights.  It makes sense that I don’t want a crazy guy …read more

Switching Banks

23rd December. By admin. Posted in Daily Life.

I’ve always disagreed with the money-grubbing policies of the big banks, but they were just too convenient.  I use a small credit union for much of my money needs, but I needed some online bill paying services to make my life easier.  I heard about the movement to move money out of big banks, but  …read more

The Beginning of a Kinetic Sculpture

19th December. By admin. Posted in Kinetic Sculpture.

For the past 4 years, I’ve been jealous of the kinetic sculptures at Burning Man.  Duane Flatmo’s beautiful creations were the first to catch my eye.  But soon I was noticing many other art bikes on the playa.  I kept dreaming about building my own, but I couldn’t wrap my mind around how to get …read more

Rubens Tube Finishing

13th December. By admin. Posted in Rubens Tube.

I realize that after a long time of not blogging that I simply forgot to blog about finishing my Rubens Tube.  Besides, I need to show the final piece in action.  Sorry about that!  Here are the first three blog posts about this.  One, Two, Three. Step 6.  Prepare the plate for the propane side.  …read more

Solar, taking the short and long view

5th December. By admin. Posted in Sustainability.

Now that I’ve realized it’s physically possible for me to actually install solar panels at my house, I now need to figure out the best combination of panels and inverter to meet my needs.  Inverters are the devices that convert the DC from the solar cells to the AC of my house.  There are many …read more

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