Over Half...

The mentalist was really cool, but made me very angry at the same time. I'm a hands-on kinda guy...I like to understand how things work, take them apart and see all the little articulated bits. There was really no way that I could how some of the stuff this guy was doing made any sense at all.

I'm fairly certain him refilling and resealing a Pepsi can in front of everyone was just some fancy slight of hand, but what about the rest of it? He was literally reading minds. Science has failed me! :(

In regards to the title, today is the second day of the second half of the first semester of my last year of college. Haha. Midterms were last week, which (I would like to say!) means it's all downhill from here, but in reality, the work is just starting!

I think I've mentioned that my earliest class all week is at 12PM, and that's only on Fridays. Every other day, I've been sleeping in until early afternoon. Well, I woke up early today and couldn't fall back asleep, it's amazing how much you can get done in a morning! Maybe I should try this morning business more often!

Now, off to do some dishes, hit the gym, drum lesson, and then my one class for the day. I'm going to make this day productive enough for the rest of the week!

Another CPR event.

I've mentioned before how CPR (Campus Programming and Relations) always has something planned on campus. They're always setting up something to do. Well, last night, they had Jessica Sonner perform, who is a singer/songwriter from Colorado. I know what you're thinking..."That sounds lame", or "It's parents weekend, I would only go there if my parents came". Well, my parents weren't here, and I went to check her out! Two of my friends opened for her and did a pretty great job...I have to say that I'm not sure what I was expecting, but Jessica was really, really good! I had a great time! Check out some of her stuff!
http://www.myspace.com/jessicasonner

Tonight, CPR is having a "mentalist", which I guess is a hypnotist without the bad hype. (Get it? haha, sorry, bad joke.) 8PM in the PSC!

Strange realization...

Yesterday was a milestone day. I had a moment that completely blew my mind. I was looking through some NFL stats and stuff and I stumbled on Packer's receiver Jordy Nelson... "Wow, born May 30th, 1985!" I thought. "He's only a couple months older than me!"

Then I looked around a little further...Jermichael Finley...born March 26th, 1987. Wow. I'm a year and a half older than him, and a bunch of other Packer's players! This took a little bit to sink in. In fact, I'm officially getting old...the average age of the Packer's backup players is 22.4, and I'll be 24 in about 6 weeks.

In any event, I still have a bit of work to do on that lab report due tomorrow evening. I've done a fantastic job of putting it off so far and now I'm blogging so I don't have to do it! We're going to get time tomorrow (after we hand in the reports) to work on our projects, which is great, because we're quite a bit behind on ours! I think everyone is, we haven't gotten any time to start them yet, and due dates are looming!

Back to work.

Had a pretty busy weekend at home, definitely didn't get as much done as I would have liked to, but it's good to be back!

This week is going to be another hectic one. I've got a test in about three hours that I'm about to do some last-minute reviewing for, and then a sizable paper due on Wednesday that needs a lot of work yet. Probably will be stuck in my room tonight and tomorrow before class, hopefully that will be enough to get it done!

Also, the cupola furnace project is ready to start...we've got all the calculations done, it's just a matter of getting in there with an oxyacetylene cutting torch and chopping the cylinders up. I was hoping I could get someone else to cut it, as I haven't had too much practice with the torch, but it looks like I'm going to get practice! That will probably take up the rest of my free time this week. It feels kind of early for the semester rush to start letting on, but I guess I've got more projects this semester!

On my way out...

Casting last night... I really wanted to make another frying pan, for Christmas gifts, but we were pouring ductile iron instead of gray iron. Ductile iron is used in place of steel for many applications, and is used in applications where a lot of shock needs to be absorbed without breakage, like car suspension components. Also, it is poor at conducting heat and would make a lousy frying pan!

So, I started wandering around the lab looking for something to make a mold out of. I had nearly decided on just making a giant iron hammer (for no reason at all, except to hit things, in a rather hilarious fashion), when I was reminded of a very pretty set of blanks that were made and never used. One of the guys that graduated two years ago who I knew made a set of weightlifting plates that said UWP AFS on them, and they had never been cast. I cast a 45 pound plate, and it turned out really good! (Now I need to make a matching one, hahaha!)

Today I slept in, then I went into the CNC lab and used a mill to elongate the bolt holes in the end of my driveshaft for my RX-7, so I can finally get that installed this weekend as well!

Have a great fall break! I'm going to shower and hopefully be on the road by 6pm!

More from the lab

Short week this week, we've got Friday off for "Fall Break"...I'm not sure what it is, but I'm definitely not complaining! I'll be heading home Thursday night after class, and hopefully getting a TON of work done on my car!

In my Design for Production class, we've decided on a final design on the wine box. All teams built a prototype and then the team leaders all got together and coordinated a final design for the box. It was really interesting to see some of the crazy features some people integrated, and how a little bit of everything got incorporated into the final project. It's also interesting to get your design in front of other people...I thought our design was great, but someone said that the hole we put in the lid for a handle made the whole thing look like a bird-house! Now that I see it...I agree...haha

We're working with the 1430 Intro to Manufacturing class to develop teams and get the woods lab set-up into a real-time production simulation. We will develop stations and picture process maps, and hopefully do a pretty efficient test run in a few weeks!

Hilarious times at casting class!

Another Wednesday, another day of casting in the lab! I rammed up and poured a cast-iron frying pan. We flipped it out of the mold last night while it was still very hot and it looks excellent! I have to go in with a grinder and clean it up a bit today, then I have to make and attach a wooden handle, and then I'm going to cook up some tasty grub!

We usually have food at Wednesday night class...American Foundry Society (AFS) club springs for most of it, last night, we deep fried TWO whole chickens and scraped the meat off the bones and onto sandwiches. Cost me $1 for chicken dinner and a frying pan. Good deal!

Tonight is a huge night.

If you told me, 1 year ago, 2 years ago, 3 years, 5, 10, or even 15 years ago, that on October 5th, 2009, Brett Favre would be wearing purple and trying to defeat the Packers, I would definitely not have believed you.

As of right now, there is one hour, 58 minutes, and 21 seconds remaining until kickoff, and this game is huge on a number of levels. Will Favre "stick it" to his former team, who forced him to make and early retirement decision, and ultimately out of Green Bay? Will the Packers be able to stop Adrian Peterson, arguably the best back in the NFL? As far as the NFC North standings are concerned, this game is huge, as the Packers are already a game behind the Vikings...a win here would put us into first place, rather than two games behind.

Throughout his years in Green Bay, Favre had a habit of dropping the big games. How often did we see him fall apart when playing at Minnesota or at Dallas? Hopefully the same happens this game, (even if Favre's "House of Horrors" is now his home turf).

As a devout Packers fan, I really don't hate Brett Favre. He's still one of my favorite players of all time. If my team is down by 5, deep in our own territory, needing a miracle, I know exactly who I would want under center. When the Vikings beat the 49ers last week with :02 left on the clock, it was another example of a Favre miracle. How awesome would it be if Aaron Rodgers pulled out his first epic comeback, with a last-minute winning drive, against his old mentor?

Football aside, I should also mention that I've started working out again, and UWP has a fantastic weight-room facility on campus. It's open till 9 or 10, good hours, so you can always make it between classes or after class, and best of all, it's FREE for students! (It sounds like something obvious, but weight room memberships at University of Newcastle were around $300 a semester!!) I've got a 2 hour break nearly every day where I am going to start popping into the weight room and running for a bit. I always went here and again my first couple years, but it was hard to get into a habit. Now that I live closer to the weight room, I really think most of the trouble is out of the way...haha.

Casting!

Wednesday nights are casting. Last night I saw iron get poured for the first time!

It was a really interesting process. First, we spent some time in the classroom doing different calculations and playing with numbers to try and get the correct carbon content in our finished iron. Then, we went over the lab and checked on the melt. Liquid iron (roughly 2500 degrees F) is ladled off the top of the furnace and poured into a cup with a thermocouple in the bottom. Based on how it cools, the carbon content can be determined. The carbon content was way too low, we kept adding graphite, and it wasn't coming up. We made one pour, and then all of the sudden had way too much carbon floating on top of the iron! The graphite must have gone to the bottom and gotten stirred up when we poured.

You can pour whatever you want on these nights. Two of my friends made skeleton keys that say "UWP AFS" on them and also open bottles. I worked on making "hot dog cookers"...cast iron pudgy pie makers that hold a hot dog and bun and kind of toast the whole ordeal into a corn dog. We were sent to the grocery store for hot dogs and buns, and then took turns using a previously made cooker over the molten iron.

How long does a hot dog take to cook at 2500*? About eight seconds :)