[SGVHAK] 08/15 (Thu) meeting recap: ice cream abounds

[Tux Lab]

Well, if we factor in the deferred cost of buying products made in
non-free countries in term of increased military spending, worsening
world pollution,  unfavorable trade deficit, additional unemployment
burden, the consequences of legitimizing authoritarian capitalism, and
so on.   Buying parts made in free countries makes my build cheaper :)

On Sat, Aug 17, 2013 at 11:49 PM, John Kim <thinkndev at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hey John,
>
> Congrats to your friend; they have more funds than they possibly need :-P.
>
> I assume you're saying that using free parts makes your build more
> expensive. Doesn't that seem ironic?
>
> John Kim
> Student/FOSS Enthusiast
> www.internet-in-a-box.org
> thinkndev at gmail.com
>
>
>
> On Aug 17, 2013, at 10:47 PM, Tux Lab <project.tuxlab at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> The link to my friend's kickstart is,
>
> http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blueeaglelabs/kossel-clear-lets-build-a-full-sized-delta-3d-prin
>
> Tux-Lab is responsible for the acrylic parts and has a minor stake in the 3d
> printing venture.  The printer for SGVLUG/SGVHAK is built on the same frame
> but pushes the "Free as in Freedom" ideology by minimize parts from non-free
> countries.   By substituting parts, ie steppers, bearing and etc,  I think
> I've already exceeded their kickstarter price by 100%.   If I can somehow
> figure out how to generate gerber files for the electronics, I will build a
> few more printers
>
> .
>
> John
>
>
> On Fri, Aug 16, 2013 at 1:41 AM, Lan Dang <l.dang at ymail.com> wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Before I get to the recap, three items.
>>
>> 1) There is a Repair Cafe event this Saturday (Aug 17th) from 6-9pm at
>> Arroyo Food Co-op store (494 N. Wilson @Villa in Pasadena). I am not clear
>> if one must RSVP on Meetup in order to attend. I don't think I will be
>> there long, but I promised to bring ice cream. I rather feel like making
>> Nutella ice cream.
>>
>> http://www.meetup.com/Repair-Cafe-Pasadena/events/126348712/
>>
>> 2) The next HAK meeting is Saturday, August 24th, from 2-6pm at Hastings
>> Branch Library (3325 East Orange Grove Boulevard Pasadena, CA 91107). I
>> will send out another reminder closer to the date. Let me know if you're
>> planning any kind of show and tell or workathon so I can publicize it.
>>
>> 3) In the future, let's start the Thursday meetings at 6:30pm. That will
>> give Dave enough time to finish his work before we descend on him. Most of
>> us can't get there till around that time anyway.
>>
>>
>> RECAP:
>>
>> As usual, it was a fun HAK meeting. We had a larger than normal turnout
>> since we had folks who hadn't come to Dave's shop (or any HAK meeting)
>> before as well as folks we hadn't seen in months.
>>
>> I think we hit a peak of 15 people at the shop, of which 10 stayed to the
>> end and came to dinner. Carmine's on Live Oak seems to be our place now,
>> and the wait staff has noticed our regular attendance.
>>
>> There was a lot of activity. Dave was still working on something for work.
>> Adam and John K. were working on installing packages on Dave's new Linux
>> computer. John W. had another 3D printer kit he was assembling. I don't
>> remember if he has posted a link to his friend's Kickstarter. Braddock and
>> Joel and John K. worked on Internet-in-a-Box. Mic was doing another
>> lockpicking workshop. Thanks to Homan's advice and memories of Mic's LUG
>> presentation, I was able to pick 3 or 4 locks in quick succession. I
>> hadn't
>> realized that you *barely* want to put any tension on the lock.
>>
>> I brought a cooler with dry ice and several different ice creams. There
>> were Klondike bars, Skinny Cow sandwiches, homemade peach ice cream, a
>> homemade mango-passion-fruit yogurt mousse. I had the beginnings of a
>> cantaloupe sorbet.
>>
>> We did indeed make ice cream using a cryogenic bath of dry ice and vodka.
>> The inspiration for this was the following MAKE article.
>> http://makezine.com/2010/01/15/make-projects-15-minute-ice-cream/
>>
>> Mic had suggested using vodka instead of denatured alcohol because we
>> didn't
>> want to worry about tainting the ice cream with something potentially
>> toxic.
>> I got the containers recommended in the article, which was a gallon-sized
>> beverage cooler and a bain-marie, which is basically like a stainless
>> steel
>> beaker.
>>
>> We pulverized the dry ice with a rolling pin--great therapy for a bad day
>> at
>> work. The guys took turns pouring it into the beverage cooler. We then
>> poured in vodka and got hit with a faceful of alcoholic fumes and a lot of
>> fog coming out of the cooler. We ultimately ended up dumping the entire
>> bottle of vodka into the cooler.
>>
>> Mic jury rigged a handle for the bain-marie using a wire hanger. This gave
>> us a safe way to lift it in and out of the dry ice/vodka.
>>
>> At first, we were unable to make a liquid bath. The top froze over, so we
>> just rested the bain-marie on a thick ice crust and got very wet
>> cantaloupe
>> slush. Then Mic realized that the vodka was still liquid underneath the
>> ice
>> crust, so he pounded away at the crust and broke through to the liquid at
>> the bottom of the cooler. Now we were able to freeze the sorbet. We only
>> made a small amount at a time, because we needed the cooling liquid to
>> come
>> up to the same level as the sorbet in the bain-marie. We stirred
>> vigorously
>> with a rubber spatula until it became too solid to stir.
>>
>> This is our jury-rigged ice cream maker in action. Notice the empty bottle
>> of vodka in the corner. We did this out in the parking lot with a nice
>> breeze.
>> http://i.imgur.com/N1c2XIJ.png
>>
>> Now the guys give me a hard time and tell me I should have been using
>> liquid
>> nitrogen. All I can say is: you bring the liquid nitrogen, I'll provide
>> the
>> ice cream base.
>>
>>
>> Lan
>>
>> N.B. Apparently, you can keep your dry ice from sublimating too quickly by
>> insulating it really well. The first layer of insulation is wrapping the
>> dry ice in several inches of newspaper. Fill the cooler with wadded up
>> newspaper to further insulate the cooler I am going to try using a
>> wadded-up thermal blanket since I have one wadded in a bag somewhere,
>> never
>> having figured out how to refold the crinkly material.
>
>