Kevin Olson

I would think that the steel burr style of grain mill, rather than one with stones (whether natural or synthetic) would be a surer bet, though I have no experience with hackberries.

I discovered this spring that we have a hackberry growing on the edge of our yard, but it hasn't produced any berries, as far as I can see.  We are quite far north (above 45 degrees by a good bit), and I suspect we are a somewhat marginal here for hackberries.  It was very late leafing out (the tree surgeon asked in the middle of May if it was dead, because it had no leaves, but by the end of May it was beginning to show leaves).  This tree is very tall and slender, because it's in an overgrown row of trees along the lot line.  Most of the trees are in the vacant lot next door, so I don't mess with them unless they are dangling over our garden or laying on my truck (it's happened).  This tree has one lower branch that's now drooped down out of the canopy and over our clothes line.  Once it leafed out fully, I had thought it might be a walnut-like tree - perhaps one of the less common butternuts - because of the compound-looking leaves, but my sister's phone app promptly identified the leaves as a hackberry, and when I checked the tree book, it was a match.  My old timer retired farmer and engineer neighbor wasn't able to identify it, either, so I didn't feel so bad.  He does have a few black walnuts on his farm, but they are uncommon here.

Maybe berries next year.  Unless hackberries aren't self fertile, and require a nearby "friend".  I am unacquainted with their habits.

On edit: maybe a "pounder" - a heavy length of wood, with another pestle-like chunk of wood?  Something with closed grain, dense and hard (ironwood? maple?), I'd think.  Anyone know what was used by plains Indians for chokecherry pounders when making pemmican?  Maybe osage orange?

Bogdan -

Here are the photos of the greenhouse my brother built for my nephew.  The lumber was sawn from a large oak tree in my brother's woods which some of the neighborhood kids cut down with an axe (probably just to see if they could).  So, my brother made lemonade from lemons, as they say, and cut up the trunk of the tree into lumber to make the greenhouse.

It would be better if there were some diagonal boards screwed or nailed to the inner chords of the trusses on each side,  but it has been OK so far, even with more than 300 inches of snow last winter.  The photos of the end look like the trusses subtend a bit less than 60 degrees - the triangle that can be inscribed within the arch is more acute than an equilateral triangle.  I suspect there was more spring back of the trusses when they were removed from bending jig than my brother had expected, so the radius increased and the subtended angle decreased.  But, no matter, it still works just fine.

There was some chatter a while back (as best I recall) that purchases outside the US can't be the same price as US domestic.  I forget the details, just now - something not physics-related, if you get my drift.  I'll see if I can track down the post, and link it here.

On edit:  I think what I was remembering is Paul's post, here:

VAT and non-US purchasers

Beau also discussed, down thread, putting the links on gumroad for non-US people...

I assume these are black bears?  Does your friend have the option of running the bear-attracting compost through chickens or pigs before the bears can get at it?  The chicken litter or hog manure can then be composted, along with any carbonaceous amendments, as required.

Bears are generally a seasonal nuisance by us - spring and fall, mostly.  A dog in the yard can help, since bear hunting is legal here, and bears learn pretty quickly that dogs mean hunters.  Juvenile bears may not have received the memo, though.  Even a small dog, but with a good yap, is a pretty good bet, here.  We had a Jack Russell terrier who barked at the mere presence of oxygen.  She was also a big dog trapped in a little body; nothing much phased her - not bull mastiffs, not draft horses.  She also had a small tank, if you get my drift, so there were many (many!) outings in the middle of the night, no matter the weather.  She was happy to spend her days patrolling the perimeter - unless there was a ball to be chased!  It may be coincidental, but we never had bears around our yard until after she passed on.

Making a compost enclosure actually bear proof seems like a difficult proposition, though perhaps not impossible.  Welded steel and/or poured concrete sound like reasonable choices, to me.  Bears are incredibly strong, curious and determined.  If they want the off-cuts of your over-ripe honeydew melon, then good luck trying to keep them from it.  At least, that's been my experience.  I once saw a cook stove that had been rolled around and knocked apart, with castings scattered over 10 square yards or so of upland northern hardwood forest.  Reading the tea leaves, someone had probably thrown the last of the bacon grease in the firebox at the end of deer camp, and taken down and packed up the wall tent.  The cook stove was left in the woods until next hunting season, being too heavy to easily move from its remote location, and the bear had subsequently wrought its handiwork to recover the vestiges of breakfasts past.  Even if all of the parts and pieces were recovered, I am doubtful that the stove was ever the same.  Possibly, wasn't even usable.  At least, not without some nickel welding rod and a rosebud torch tip.  And, I've heard of bears peeling the plywood sheathing off a deer camp shack to get at whatever was inside, breaking the ever-so-slightly-rolled-down driver's window out of a Jeep station wagon to get at the bag of dog food on the back seat, pushing a window out of the wall of a substantial, well-built modern house (i.e. 2X6 stud wall, not log - but I don't know if that's germane) to get inside for a casual look-see, and more.

An electric fence is worth a try, for sure, but even the deer are pretty handy at punching through an electrified fence, in these parts.  A bear feeling gaunt in the spring after a long winter's nap, or stocking up for this coming winter, may not be much deterred by an electric fence if you have something sufficiently interesting on offer.

Jerry Kobalenko, Canadian high arctic adventurer and photographer, and author of "Horizontal Everest" (about spring camping on Ellesmere Island, opposite the northwest coast of Greenland), has used an auditory alarm trip wire fence for polar bears.  Though the loud noise emitted by the alarm may spook a curious bear (hope springs eternal...), he admits that the main thing is that he'll wake up when the bear crosses the established perimeter, rather than when the bear is dragging his sleeping bag from the tent, with him still bundled inside.  He carries (or has carried) a 12 gauge pump action shotgun as "bear repellent", though as I recall, he's only had to fire once, and that just ended in the bear high-tailing it, none the worse for the wear, and a bruised cheek for Jerry due to a poor shoulder mount for the hastily fired shot.  Whether a shotgun is the best choice in a bear confrontation is debatable, but it demonstrably can be sufficient, you could certainly do worse, and in many jurisdictions a shotgun is treated more permissively than other classes of firearms.

Jerry describes the fence in some detail in "Horizontal Everest" and a bit in this blog entry, as well:
https://jerrykobalenko.com/expeditionsarchives2014.htm

Someone DIY'd a version, here:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1452016

I haven't been able to track down any details on Alfred Duller's original version of the fence, on which Jerry based his design.  Alfred was pulled out of his tent by a polar bear in no fewer than three separate incidents over a span of about 30 years, as described here:
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/01122014/chapter-3/
(Ctrl+F to find the Duller encounter relevant description).

Jerry's version shrieks until continuity is manually restored or the batteries die.  But, his alarm fence needs to be light and compact for his expeditionary style, and must run off battery power in cold weather (down to -40C  -even -50C - early in his spring trips, is not unreasonable).  Some design decisions have been made in the interest of simplicity and robustness under difficult circumstances (i.e. setup while wearing mittens).

I'd think some combo of noisemaker and flash strobe would be worth a try, especially if, unlike Jerry's alarm, it was self-resetting - maybe one of the timed motion-activated LED lights could be co-opted to flash and make a racket.  After the timer shuts it off, it could be ready for round 2, even if you aren't at home "on the day of visitation".

None of the above options are mutually exclusive, so you could combine them as you see fit (including implementing exactly zero of them!).

Not sure if any of this is actually helpful...

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:When I read 'bobbins' I think of bobbin lace.
I knew bobbin lace can be made with machines. Here's a machine making bobbin lace

Inge -

Thank you!

After a bit of digging, this seems to be a "Barmen" type lace machine, named for the town ( in then Prussia, now Germany) near Wuppertal (the cable way public transport system of which I once used as an example in attempting to steer the local university away from building a multi-level parking structure).  Or, something very similar to a Barmen lace machine, at any rate.

For anyone who, like me, is curious about how these work, see:
Lace Braiding Machines for Composite Preform Manufacture

which shows (at least some of) the mechanism of a modern version (a bit in section 4.2, but much more in sections 5 and following).  Presumably, the Jacquard mechanism would replace the solenoid(s) seen in the modern iteration, with some complicated linkage between the Jacquard cards (and the pins or plungers which drop into the punched holes) and the cam and drive clutch for each "biconcave disk" (Figure 6).

The text of the above article implies that much of the detail of how these machines are (and were) built and operated remains as proprietary trade secrets, closely held.  But, I now have my foot in the door, so to speak.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

Kevin

Karen -

One more question: do you know what the dobby head or Jacquard style loom for making the kumihimo braid/weave is called (seen at about 24:00 in the video)?

I am a bit perplexed as to how the mechanism works.

In the standard issue Western braiding machines, the only programming happens up front - how many bobbins, and where they are placed in the mechanism.  After, it's just enable/inhibit to control the length of the braid.  However, John Marshall implies in the video that bobbins (or more probably, groups of bobbins) can be controlled in some manner by the punch cards.  I can imagine a couple of actions that could be controlled: "side track" bobbin(s) so that the threads on them aren't woven (this would make a "float" on either the front or the back, depending on whether it was shunted to the outside or inside of the braid); or, advance or retard the bobbin(s) by a notch or two in the small plates of the gear train, so that the braid or weaving pattern is altered (i.e. from over one and under one, to over two and under two, or whatever).

But how that sort of control is accomplished mechanically has me scratching my head!

I'll keep poking at the internet.  If I can discover the correct terms to use, I'll probably be one my way...

Thanks again!

Kevin

P.S. I see that I have - once again - successfully derailed a topic.  Mea culpa!

Karen Radcliff wrote:With regards to braiding, Kevin, have you looked into Kumihimo?

Karen -

Nope - heretofore, I was completely unacquainted with this Japanese braiding and weaving technology, so thanks for (yet another) trail to pursue.

My experience with braiding (and hitching) has been from a distinctly Western perspective - Bruce Grant (Encyclopedia of Rawhide and Leather Braiding; How To Make Cowboy Horse Gear) and Ron Edwards (How To Make Whips).  I think it's fair to claim Ron Edwards is "Western", even though he's from Oz - definitely the Anglosphere, anyway.  And of course the standard Boy Scout projects - zipper pulls, key chain fobs, compass lanyards, and so on.

But I was unaware of Japanese braiding and weaving (and the Chinese antecedents from which the Japanese technology apparently derives).  The round version of the braiding stand would have been very helpful to me when doing the old Boy Scout projects.  Some of the more loom like devices are also fascinating, including the "caboose" peg shift mechanism - simple but very clever!

It might be possible to use the round stands - either the downward or upward tension versions - to over braid the Litz wire for our custom inductive power coils, but I suspect that the best use of someone's time in the long run will be to make a braiding machine to do the job.  We have a full machine shop and some rapid prototype capability in house, as well as 3D modeling and mechanical analysis tools, so making tools and fixtures to increase productivity, to minimize process variability, or to pull production in house to decrease lead times is de rigeur.  If we could churn out several tens of feet of over braided stranded wire on demand, that would be ideal.

And, I'll now feel compelled to research the Treasure House building profiled in the beginning of the video.  Any timber framed building that has endured for 1400 years has my attention!

Thanks again!

Kevin

Kevin Olson wrote:So, now I'm curious as to exactly what developments the SciShow video referred.

Perhaps to this paper, by Niu, Dion and Kamien, in PNAS:
https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.2416536122

Which uses "Föppl–von Kármán equations" to predict the behavior of knitted fabrics.

In this paper, they describe yarn as "one-dimensional", but anyone who has knitted knows that yarn isn't a theoretical Euclidean line, but has all sort of nuance - fiber type, number of plies, Z or S twist, smoothness or lack thereof, degree of twist, etc.  So, as a first approximation, this effort may leave quite a lot on the table.

There's an extensive bibliography at the end.  Another rabbit hole, down which to tumble...

I followed the linked webpage, and found Victoria's MFA thesis, here:
MFA Thesis, Victoria Salmon

After giving it a cursory flip-through (and there are some amazing designs and samplers in there!), I didn't see anything analytical (no high order partial differential equations or logic tables or what-have-you).  Obviously, a quick breeze-through isn't a careful reading, but it looks to me like she is still focused on art over analytic mathematical models, even if she does program the fancy industrial knitting machines to do her bidding.

So, now I'm curious as to exactly what developments the SciShow video referred.

Some of the lacier knits on the Another Knitted Thing page linked above are probably not far beyond what's needed one of my eventual plans - rebuild (i.e. unravel and re-use the yarn) my long handled wool underwear (now showing a fair bit of wear in the areas most prone to that) into wool fishnet string underwear.  I don't need fancy stitches, but a very open knit is the big idea, to facilitate moisture management next to the skin in cold weather during high output activities (skiing, snowshoeing, cutting or hauling firewood, etc.).  Stop and go activities, in particular.  Standard rib knit at the cuffs, hem and neck line, some stockinette or maybe even double knit at knees, elbows and on the shoulders (where pack straps or a canoe yoke will bear).  Lowers probably need to be fully fashioned (drop seat, fly, etc.) but the top may be knittable in the round (separate torso and sleeves, though).  I have no idea what I'm doing, but there's nothing like a good project to motivate some learning.

Of course, there's a reason I selcted the Browning quote for my sig block...

I had no idea that knitting was so objectionable.  Subversive, even.

Along the lines of keeping busy (though not while observing  deliberative body!), a clerk at one of the local hardware stores sometimes has a crocheting project in process while at the register.  If business is slow, she picks it up and works a few stitches.  Most recently, I think it was a doily of some sort, though I ought to have asked (and thus revealed the full depth of my ignorance).  But that's not knitting, either, so perhaps safer for the general public

A year or so ago, I picked up a couple of used knitting looms - one an original Knitting Board, about 3 feet long, the other a small sock loom - but I haven't yet put them to any serious use.  I had intended to give them a workout last winter, but life intervened with other priorities.  So, this winter...

I wonder, are knitting boards more or less subversive than using needles?  More unwieldy, almost certainly.

My sainted mother ensured that all of us kids knew how to do the basics - knit, crochet, darn socks, make gravy, and more.  I've used the cooking and mending lessons more than the rest - I've even replaced the zipper in a pair of M1951 Army surplus wool pants (the brass teeth were falling off the cotton tapes), using an old Standard Rotary sewing machine with no treadle, just spinning the wheel by hand - but you never know what you'll need, and learning skills has almost always paid dividends for me, even if not immediately.

But, back to knitting...