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Nov. 29th, 2022 04:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psipsyIt's starting to be time to do a computer build again. I finally have the parts for it, it's just a matter of getting it all together. Then I have another computer project waiting in the wings.
A couple years ago, I found a pair of brass locomotives for cheap in the used/consignment pile at a local train store. Brass model railroading stuff tends to be expensive, so getting the pair for $25 each was irresistable. The builder (Kumata) is still in business. They seem to have gone completely to O-scale, which is much more rare in Japan than in the US. I could try sending them some kind of message, asking them about the history of the models. Or they might not know anything about product from 50 years ago.
Anyway, I finally got around to working on the worse of the two. This required tearing down anything with gears and cleaning out dried grease, taking apart the motor itself, and re-engineering the driveline between the motor and the gear towers. The original used some kind of floating 3-pin coupling that would bind up hard on turns, enough to stall out the surprisingly stout 7-pole motor. I'm not quite done, either. There are bits of brass that are supposed to help hold the body to the frame, and they've gone missing. So I'll have to come up with something to replicate that. At least I have a better feel for how the resistance soldering iron is supposed to work.
Since Japan is officially open to tourism again, I looked at plane tickets for a theoretical trip in March: $1800. When I went in 2017 and 2018, I paid about $1000. I wasn't really planning to go so early in 2023 as it is, more like later in 2023. If the tickets get under $1500 and the dollar/yen exchange rate holds, I'll consider it viable enough to go.
I hear Akihabara isn't the same as it used to be. Many places closed, moved, downsized in the last 2 years. Some of the buildings were torn down because they had reached the end of their design life. Oh yeah, that's a thing there, many buildings have set lifespans. After a certain number of years, it comes down and a new one goes up, better designed to be resilient to earthquakes than before. That's the biggest reason for that policy; and it shows. But Akihabara (and Tokyo as a whole) are constantly evolving. There's a Twitter account dedicated to posting pictures of Akihabara from 10 or 20 or even 30 years ago, and comparing it to now. In that sense, the recent changes there are a natural course of events.
Time to work on Ai again. She's on the lift now; a quick oil change was done followed by draining out the coolant into a bucket for the thermostat replacement. I'm planning on reusing the coolant for the time being, since it'll get drained out again when it's time to do a timing belt/water pump job in the near future. It's quite liberating to be able to let everything drain in a slow yet controlled manner and just let it flow overnight, because everything is being done inside a garage. Hm, when were the radiator hoses replaced last? Who knows. Might as well replace them now.
In Japan, 11/29 is celebrated as "Good Meat Day".
A couple years ago, I found a pair of brass locomotives for cheap in the used/consignment pile at a local train store. Brass model railroading stuff tends to be expensive, so getting the pair for $25 each was irresistable. The builder (Kumata) is still in business. They seem to have gone completely to O-scale, which is much more rare in Japan than in the US. I could try sending them some kind of message, asking them about the history of the models. Or they might not know anything about product from 50 years ago.
Anyway, I finally got around to working on the worse of the two. This required tearing down anything with gears and cleaning out dried grease, taking apart the motor itself, and re-engineering the driveline between the motor and the gear towers. The original used some kind of floating 3-pin coupling that would bind up hard on turns, enough to stall out the surprisingly stout 7-pole motor. I'm not quite done, either. There are bits of brass that are supposed to help hold the body to the frame, and they've gone missing. So I'll have to come up with something to replicate that. At least I have a better feel for how the resistance soldering iron is supposed to work.
Since Japan is officially open to tourism again, I looked at plane tickets for a theoretical trip in March: $1800. When I went in 2017 and 2018, I paid about $1000. I wasn't really planning to go so early in 2023 as it is, more like later in 2023. If the tickets get under $1500 and the dollar/yen exchange rate holds, I'll consider it viable enough to go.
I hear Akihabara isn't the same as it used to be. Many places closed, moved, downsized in the last 2 years. Some of the buildings were torn down because they had reached the end of their design life. Oh yeah, that's a thing there, many buildings have set lifespans. After a certain number of years, it comes down and a new one goes up, better designed to be resilient to earthquakes than before. That's the biggest reason for that policy; and it shows. But Akihabara (and Tokyo as a whole) are constantly evolving. There's a Twitter account dedicated to posting pictures of Akihabara from 10 or 20 or even 30 years ago, and comparing it to now. In that sense, the recent changes there are a natural course of events.
Time to work on Ai again. She's on the lift now; a quick oil change was done followed by draining out the coolant into a bucket for the thermostat replacement. I'm planning on reusing the coolant for the time being, since it'll get drained out again when it's time to do a timing belt/water pump job in the near future. It's quite liberating to be able to let everything drain in a slow yet controlled manner and just let it flow overnight, because everything is being done inside a garage. Hm, when were the radiator hoses replaced last? Who knows. Might as well replace them now.
In Japan, 11/29 is celebrated as "Good Meat Day".
