Paul VanKoughnett (Retired, Pensionär)
@pvk.bsky.social
a ancient man
I dremeled it off. I feel a little insane.
December 6, 2025 at 7:15 AM
I dremeled it off. I feel a little insane.
Ok smart people. How would you deal with this totally stripped, 1/16” hex set screw? I have now tried:
- WD-40
- Penetrating oil
- Heating it with a soldering iron (only melted the plastic a bit)
- Flathead screwdrivers (1/16” too small, 3/32” too big)
- Hammering a 5/64” hex key in (too big)
- WD-40
- Penetrating oil
- Heating it with a soldering iron (only melted the plastic a bit)
- Flathead screwdrivers (1/16” too small, 3/32” too big)
- Hammering a 5/64” hex key in (too big)
December 5, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Ok smart people. How would you deal with this totally stripped, 1/16” hex set screw? I have now tried:
- WD-40
- Penetrating oil
- Heating it with a soldering iron (only melted the plastic a bit)
- Flathead screwdrivers (1/16” too small, 3/32” too big)
- Hammering a 5/64” hex key in (too big)
- WD-40
- Penetrating oil
- Heating it with a soldering iron (only melted the plastic a bit)
- Flathead screwdrivers (1/16” too small, 3/32” too big)
- Hammering a 5/64” hex key in (too big)
Oscilloscope guts. The CRT runs at 2000V 🫨
December 3, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Oscilloscope guts. The CRT runs at 2000V 🫨
What do you think they’re doing? Answer in the replies.
November 8, 2025 at 9:31 PM
What do you think they’re doing? Answer in the replies.
Dog food… but for men. How devilish.
November 6, 2025 at 3:26 AM
Dog food… but for men. How devilish.
Many find these operations baffling. Vexing, even. But to me? They’re trivial.
November 4, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Many find these operations baffling. Vexing, even. But to me? They’re trivial.
going to rocky horror
October 29, 2025 at 11:28 PM
going to rocky horror
this is allll power supply for my busted tv. so complicated!
October 13, 2025 at 8:46 PM
this is allll power supply for my busted tv. so complicated!
I’ve been recording spooky Halloween sounds with friends today
October 12, 2025 at 9:19 PM
I’ve been recording spooky Halloween sounds with friends today
Some of you need to go back to
October 12, 2025 at 3:44 AM
Some of you need to go back to
You’re allowed to add in 15 pounds of potatoes on “cheat days”.
October 11, 2025 at 9:23 PM
You’re allowed to add in 15 pounds of potatoes on “cheat days”.
Listen, don’t ask me if the PVK® Nutritional System™ works. Ask any of the thousands of people who’ve tried it for themselves and woken up one day with perfect health and bodies they couldn’t believe.
October 11, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Listen, don’t ask me if the PVK® Nutritional System™ works. Ask any of the thousands of people who’ve tried it for themselves and woken up one day with perfect health and bodies they couldn’t believe.
I feel like this kind of stuff was the peak of AI image generation in that it was doing something genuinely weird and unexpected and unique. How would you get outputs "like this" on a modern image model?
October 2, 2025 at 10:21 PM
I feel like this kind of stuff was the peak of AI image generation in that it was doing something genuinely weird and unexpected and unique. How would you get outputs "like this" on a modern image model?
Obsessed with this Reddit ad:
1) Scheduling an AMA for three weeks out like you’re Chappell Roan
2) What does the medicine do???
3) I’m aware of the elaborate conlang developed for naming medicines. It is cool. It seems like we’ve drifted though from “vaguely Greek” to “Akkadian blood god”.
1) Scheduling an AMA for three weeks out like you’re Chappell Roan
2) What does the medicine do???
3) I’m aware of the elaborate conlang developed for naming medicines. It is cool. It seems like we’ve drifted though from “vaguely Greek” to “Akkadian blood god”.
September 30, 2025 at 3:01 AM
Obsessed with this Reddit ad:
1) Scheduling an AMA for three weeks out like you’re Chappell Roan
2) What does the medicine do???
3) I’m aware of the elaborate conlang developed for naming medicines. It is cool. It seems like we’ve drifted though from “vaguely Greek” to “Akkadian blood god”.
1) Scheduling an AMA for three weeks out like you’re Chappell Roan
2) What does the medicine do???
3) I’m aware of the elaborate conlang developed for naming medicines. It is cool. It seems like we’ve drifted though from “vaguely Greek” to “Akkadian blood god”.
Now the thing about my optocoupler swap-out setup is, the pins I put in are actually too close together to use alligator clips! So for experimentation with different optocouplers, as you can see, I have to sort of stick on these header wires with a bunch of blu-tack.
September 22, 2025 at 5:44 AM
Now the thing about my optocoupler swap-out setup is, the pins I put in are actually too close together to use alligator clips! So for experimentation with different optocouplers, as you can see, I have to sort of stick on these header wires with a bunch of blu-tack.
Offboard wiring. People complain about this — jacks are annoying to solder to, and you have to work three-dimensionally in a way you don’t on a board. I splattered solder all over the place for this part.
I then popped everything out 1 last time and cleaned off the flux with rubbing alcohol.
I then popped everything out 1 last time and cleaned off the flux with rubbing alcohol.
September 22, 2025 at 5:44 AM
Offboard wiring. People complain about this — jacks are annoying to solder to, and you have to work three-dimensionally in a way you don’t on a board. I splattered solder all over the place for this part.
I then popped everything out 1 last time and cleaned off the flux with rubbing alcohol.
I then popped everything out 1 last time and cleaned off the flux with rubbing alcohol.
lmao. 10/10 album, btw.
September 21, 2025 at 4:14 PM
lmao. 10/10 album, btw.
and now we can pull it back out and everything’s in the right spot, and we can do the offboard wiring (tomorrow, i think — gotta sleep!)
September 16, 2025 at 5:09 AM
and now we can pull it back out and everything’s in the right spot, and we can do the offboard wiring (tomorrow, i think — gotta sleep!)
putting these little header pins where the optocoupler is supposed to go so i can swap out different optocouplers. is this dumb? should you do this on a breadboard rather than a finished product? i don’t know!
September 16, 2025 at 4:41 AM
putting these little header pins where the optocoupler is supposed to go so i can swap out different optocouplers. is this dumb? should you do this on a breadboard rather than a finished product? i don’t know!
this is the correct way to solder on switches, pots, etc., in my opinion — you put em in the enclosure first and then solder in the enclosure. so you know everything fits!
September 16, 2025 at 4:41 AM
this is the correct way to solder on switches, pots, etc., in my opinion — you put em in the enclosure first and then solder in the enclosure. so you know everything fits!
I’m pretty proud of this… these capacitors were too thicc for the circuit board so i soldered some loose component legs on them and wrapped them in heatshrink. looks like dogshit. we’ll see if it works!
September 14, 2025 at 5:36 AM
I’m pretty proud of this… these capacitors were too thicc for the circuit board so i soldered some loose component legs on them and wrapped them in heatshrink. looks like dogshit. we’ll see if it works!
somehow fitting that this album is now lost in a sea of mass-produced copycats
September 6, 2025 at 7:28 PM
somehow fitting that this album is now lost in a sea of mass-produced copycats
September 4, 2025 at 5:42 AM