2014-06-09 (M) Tennis Ball Launcher



Your motivation is strong when you first think “I should do this.” I was thinking about a comment through G+ on 2014-06-06 (F) where a reader said he was impressed by my meticulous note taking. I was flattered because I have not always been so.  But, I wanted to be so I started.

I wanted to keep a journal of the things so I started three years ago. I was afraid I would fail at blogging but I started three months ago, which isn’t any time at all. Since then I have not regretted it. I tried a video blog about my completed projects but it just didn’t work for me. I don’t regret trying and I learned a lot, a LOT, from making videos. Plus it was fun. This blog has been fun. So I’ll keep writing it.

Starting isn’t taking the first. Taking the first step comes after
Determining your location
Negotiating your destination
Planning a route, even a straight line
Judging feasibility
Choosing method
And you can probably think of other things
THENNNNNN you can take your first step

We find a lot of room to discourage ourselves before we put our feet in motion. If something is important then you have to ask yourself just ONE question. “Is success possible?” If the answer is yes, then you can put the other things down as details and commit.

An example I like is losing weight. If you want to lose weight don’t start tomorrow. It is possible and unless you are already underweight it can be done safely. One last snack is shirking off your commitment. Anyone who has dieted before knows that willpower isn’t enough but if you remind yourself of what you want it becomes easier and easier to look at food and say “I want to lose weight instead.”

If you have trouble motivating yourself to read more books but constantly find yourself playing video games make your mantra, “I want to read more books.”

If you have trouble being meticulous, acknowledge your tendency to plow through tasks and tell yourself, “I want to take better notes so others can follow my plans.”

If you have trouble going to the gym tell yourself, “I want to be fit,” the next time you start to discourage yourself.

We are hedonistic by nature, don’t fight it; direct it. We want to eat donuts and masturbate all day but we want to be fit and sexy. Choose.

Commit to yourself first
Start whatever you want
Remind yourself why you are doing it

::steps off soap box::

Let me know if something here resonated with you.

Enough background.
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Wood glue from another project was chosen to hold the wooden biscuit to the top of the handle since it is durable and readily accessible. Any glue from the Titebond line would be suitable and likely any quality wood glue would suffice. A dab of glue was applied to the wood biscuit where it will touch the top of the handle. The biscuit and handle were joined and kept from jarring.
 
Selected glue: Titebond III
 
 Only a dab is used

Excess glue was wiped away

Friction tape, like that used on hockey sticks, was chosen to wrap the handle. The wrapping started at the base of the handle taking care to not dislodge the freshly glued biscuit. The handle was fully wrapped and the tape was folded over to cover the bottom of the handle.

Inexpensive, easy to find friction tape

Neatly wrapping from the base up
 
Wrapped handle
 
The PVC caps, segments and elbows which were unpainted, were brought to the parking garage, placed in a cardboard box and painted to match the PVC to which they will attach. The pieces were carried back to the apartment in a clean box and allowed to dry overnight on the porch.
 

Blue painted PVC

All the painted PVC in a clean box

I actually kept my hands clean until I broke down the dirty boxes

The bolts holding the straight bracket to the sides of the PVC pipes were replaced with shorter three inch versions to avoid snagging.  The bolts were short enough that acorn nuts can replace all the nuts on the ends of the 5/16” rods and bolts.

 Comparison of long carriage bolt to 3" hex head bolt

Installed bolts all align neatly

To do:
  • Shorten central PVC distance to release mechanism 
  • Buy + install eight acorn nuts 
  • Sew hammock to a curved, shallow shape 
  • Sew magnets into hammock strap 
  • Document



The rest of the posts for this project have been arranged by date.



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