Cool toys dump
22This started on my “Heroes/Stunning in Purple” topic, with a reference to me likely being “Gallium Man” since I’m nowhere near “Man of Steel” right now. 
Gallium melts at 86 F, so it’s solid in air, but melts in your hand. Non-toxic too, and fun to play with. This was after holding the plastic vial in my fist for a while. The edges melted, and the center stayed solid.
The liquid will leave a dirty mark (gallium) on your hands, but it washes right off. My nephew tried just rubbing his hands together, and got this.
So, the gallium foolishness led to the question: “What other cool toys can you suggest?” I still haven’t grown up, so the list is long. And several folks suggested I put it in a separate topic to make it easier to find. And I’ll chop it into smaller bits too. So here we go:
- 41 comments, 149 replies
- Comment
Somehow I forgot about one of the best, so let’s lead with that:
Oooh, I forgot one of the best toys. My youngest brother introduced me to this one. Feel Flux. Gravity might not be quite as constant as you think it is.
It’s magnets, of course, and Lenz’s law, but it feels like I’m breaking gravity every single time I play with it.
The great introductory trick is to challenge people to catch the ball when you drop it through the copper cylinder. Build it up a bit, and it breaks their brain every single time.
The original model is a copper cylinder. There’s a stunt model (they call it “skill”) with two aluminum cylinders, but the ball falls faster through the aluminum. There was a very pricey limited edition silver tube model, that was said to be even slower than the copper.
It’s not cheap at $100, but for the amount of smiles and laughs and disbelieving looks, it’s been worth every penny.
http://feelflux.com/shop/
I’m not sure how long it will last, but their black Friday special includes an extra copper cylinder, and that’s not cheap.
Aaron’s Crazy Putty.
Silly putty on, um, steroids. You can get glow-in-the-dark, magnetic, heat sensitive color changing, iridescent, metallic, clear (way cooler than it sounds), and magnetic (with magnet). Not ALL in the same tin at one time, of course, but some combinations do line up. There was even a special edition “Lady Liberty” with flakes of the actual statue! They never explained how they pulled that off, but claim it’s real.
There are generally two sizes: the full size, 4" tin, 3.2 oz; and the sampler size 2" tin, 0.47 oz. Get the big one!
Only get the littles if you’re trying to sample a bunch of different types. (There are also a few fancy types in a 1.6 oz tin.) I think my favorites are the magnetic, thermal and iridescent.
@blaineg My 13 y.o. son went bonkers over this stuff last year. His favorite was the magnetic one. It was really creepy to let it consumer small objects like a 50’s B horror movie!
@blaineg
Magnetic time lapse:
@blaineg The first photo is of two of the Super Illusions colors.
Optical Calcite: rock you can see through. Sort of fiber-optic rock. The one I got is pretty cloudy, so I’ll have to look into polishing it somehow.
@blaineg Mine isn’t nearly this good.
Here it is. Can you read what I wrote?
@blaineg
Magnetic Field Viewing Film: a thin green sheet that shows magnetic fields. A lot of those one piece magnets are not. The typical flat “sticker magnet” is a riot of little magnets.
@blaineg Here’s a photo, maybe I should do that for some more of the things on the list.
Radiometer: the old spinny in sunlight thing.
Glow in the Dark & Reflective Paracord, I found some that is both.
Glow sticks. Any sort. You can get 200 of the bracelet type for $15 or so. Kids will love it, and it makes it easier to keep track of them after dark.
Cheap quadcopters. No idea where you’d find any of those.
@blaineg My daughter had a great time at grandma’s playing with glow sticks and a “flying disco ball”. $5 from Rural King (for those rurally situated).
@blaineg The good old radiometer.
Stomp Rockets: Big fat foam tips, powered by stomping on a plastic bladder. If you really want to wear out the little ones, aim the launcher tubes so they have to run after them.
Crowd control at the launchpad is a good place to teach taking turns and sharing. But they can handle full teen/adult stomping too. A few rockets have worn out, and a launch stand broke, but we haven’t been able to kill a stomp bladder.
LED version available for night launch too!
@blaineg I’m nearly 250 pounds, and I have stomped on the bladder of ours has hard as I can. I expected that it would break, but instead, the rocket was launched a simply insane distance.
We generally situate our launch angle around 60 degrees, we like the height, but also want it to go a ways. Great toy, we really love it, and the neighbors come out to join in when we are playing with it.
@blaineg Stomp Rockets basic set:
The LED rocket seems popular.
Super Soakers. 'Nuff said.
Nerf! The current ball ammo shoots WAY farther than the older discs or original darts. Good for full-on teen/adult warfare. But not indoors with the ball ammo!
Also BOOMco makes fun nerf gun knockoff stuff. Just noticed that it’s really Mattel.
@blaineg Looks like “Rival” is the name for the ball ammo & guns.
Nerf mele:
Swords, shields, axes, maces, etc. Seems to be more popular than the guns, because you don’t have to reload.
I’ve seen 20 somethings, and little girls in pitched battles with them. (No, not the same battle!) It was really funny to see the little girls having as much fun with them as the boys do.
After years of enthusiastic use there’s some minor surface damage, and one structural failure, fixed with superglue. Impressive!
@blaineg That would be epic to witness 20 little girls in an all-out nerf melee brawl.
@medz It would! This was about 8 of them, in the 4-10 year old range. Self-rescuing princesses all.
@blaineg The good stuff, the current swords are shorter.
Mace and axe:
Two great, and very short, reviews:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2009/03/i-am-not-left-handed-ars-reviews-the-nerf-n-force-swords/
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2010/03/not-at-all-safe-the-nerf-marauder-longsword/
Beamo Flying Hoop: a nearly 3 foot diameter “frisbee”. Hoop rim, covered in fabric, kid sized hole in the center. Flies surprisingly well, and you can play hoop toss ONTO the kids. Also very funny to watch a kid try and launch something as big as he is!
Nite Ize LED frisbee: Flash Flight is their name for it. Great at night! Powered by CR2016 batteries. Normal and Jr. sizes, but get the big one.
@blaineg Not a great picture, but you can see the sheer size of it:
Apparently the color cycling FlashFlight I’ve got is called the Disc-O. Dumb name, but looks cool.
Eye candy:
Lava Lamp, still amusing after all these years.
Plasma Globe: wanted one since I was a little kid, but too expensive. I’ve got several now. Love watching the bolts dance against your fingertips. The bigger the funner. I just found a 15 incher, $280. Drool!
Plasma/Lumen disc: a favorite SciFi prop. Flat version of the globe. Cool, but not as interactive. It does do a great light show to sound/music on a corner of my desk.
@blaineg I bought a plasma ball in a skull at Halloween. OK I bought three plasma balls in skulls at Halloween. So cool!
@blaineg @sammydog01 Years ago when the small plasma balls got cheap, I found a battery operated ~4" one (at Walgreens!). I was into an MMORPG back then that had an annual convention. I made a ‘wizard staff’ with the dismounted ball in the crook at the top, with feed wires coming down inside the staff to the ‘grip’ area, then exposed as two strips of copper tape.
Then I made a glove with a connected battery pack that strapped above the wrist (inside the arms of the costume) with matching metal studs on the two fingers that matched up to the strips on the staff when I held it right.
The result was a staff that would only light up when its master grasped it. For all others it remained dark and cold…
I wish I had pics; I took a film camera and the developer ruined them. I gave the staff to one of the company gamemasters who took a liking to it, and was an online friend at the time, so its long gone.
@duodec Wonderful project, thanks for sharing the details!
@duodec I need more information about this! Sounds wicked cool. Ant idea what I should search to find the contact mechanism?
@RiotDemon the tape was something like this
I used a cotton jersey glove as the base since it was cheap, easy to work on and through, and dye-able, with ‘armor’ on the outside made of heated and curved styrene pieces (sold in model and hobby shops) hot glued on to resemble an articulated finger gauntlet, and a sock tube stitched onto the opening to run up the arm a few inches and cover the wires if the costume sleeve slipped back. Stitched the wires from the battery pack (Radio Shack, with a tennis wrist sweatband glued to it to hold it on the arm) into the glove and up one side of the index and ring finger.
Then decorated the glove exterior (over the “armor”) with the extra copper tape (but I found the stuff that corroded it so it looked verdigris), wrapped a ring of copper tape around the outside of the ring and index finger on the glove itself inside the “armor” and soldered it to the wire in each finger (that way the middle finger kept them separate when not grasping the staff), then a strip soldered to that ring extending an inch or so up and down those two fingers (for more contact area) about. I forgot I originally used a snap installed like a stud in the glove fingers to contact the staff but it didn’t work reliably so I switched to the ring and strip of tape.
The sphere itself had the transformer and a circuit board that were not separable so they were incorporated as the lower mount for the sphere. I wanted to make it ‘floating’ with just some wires but the transformer had to stay attached.
Hope that helps!
@duodec thank you!! This helps a lot. I’ve screen shotted your posts for a future project. All projects are on hold until I get around to fidget plinko.
@RiotDemon “Fidget Plinko” The next big thing
@RiotDemon Making is fun!
@therealjrn hopefully I’m not that slow, lol!
@duodec for sure. After your post that showed me the way of the tape, I ended up finding an instructable for a similar setup. Someone must of used your idea!
@RiotDemon Or came up with it independently; its cool either way. My first idea was batteries in the staff with a disguised pressure switch (like a weaponlight tape switch) but the idea of a staff that only I could ‘activate’ led to the tape.
In retrospect I wonder if the desoldering wick would work better for the contact surfaces since it could conform to the variable underlying surfaces better.
@duodec The outer braid on coax cable is good for that sort of thing as well.
@blaineg Surely needs no introduction:
Plasma globe:
Lumindisk - have I been assimilated?
I got Dad a bunch of little things to help stave off boredom when he was in rehab center for a few weeks:
Ball of Whacks, bunch of identical plastic pyramid/triangle things, forms a ball, or many other shapes. Claims to be an adult creative tool.
Ugears: laser cut wood puzzles, toys etc. From Ukrane = U gears. From little puzzles, to working trains.
Hanayama Cast Metal Brain Teaser Puzzle: many, all sorts of shapes and difficulties.
Escher’s Mirrorkal Brainteaser Puzzle: odd one. Five Escher sketches in one puzzle made of 9 cubes. Easy, right? One face of each cube is a mirror. Good Luck!
Coggy - Fat Brain toys - lots of stuff there. Mostly younger, but but not all.
Kikkerland Square Bear Toy Figure: Wood & elastic cube that turns into a bear, and back.
@blaineg +1 for whacks. My 3 yr old son got it last year for Christmas. I think I’ve had as much fun with it as he has.
@blaineg Ball of Whacks.
Simple Ugears:
Complex Ugears:
The Hanayama Puzzle I got for Dad:
They make MANY of them.
Mirrorkal:
Coggy:
Square Bear:
Paper/card Corner Cutter - Dad wanted rounded edges on his 3x5 note cards, so they’d slide into his pocket easier.
I’m a sucker for stationery toys in general.
Haven’t ordered from them yet myself, but www.jetpens.com seem to have a good reputation. Lots of Japanese import stuff.
And I always carry a Fisher Space Pen. Titanium Nitride finish. http://www.spacepen.com/
@blaineg You should check out @hollboll’s and @ChadP’s Scribe thing. Maybe not toy enough for you though.
http://www.scribedelivery.com/
@sammydog01 That looks dangerously interesting. Thanks!
@blaineg Any recommendations on a fountain pen as a gift?
@Pantheist Sorry, I know nothing about fountain pens. But I’ll bet some of these guys do:
http://www.penenthusiast.com/
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/
https://www.penaddict.com/
https://blog.gouletpens.com/2015/11/10-gifts-for-fountain-pen-enthusiast
http://edisonpen.com/
http://www.mypenneedsink.com/blog/
@blaineg Handy, thanks! There is a lot more involved than I initially thought.
@Sohmageek Do I remember right that you know a bit or two about fountain pens?
@Pantheist
www.massdrop.com
Does deals for people with special fine tech interests. Headphones. Traditional keyboards. Writing instruments. Ultralite camping. Etc.
Good stuff. Nice place but sometimes not fast shipping.
Warning. This is another storefront that should carry an
Addiction Warning
On every webpage.
Better yet. Explore Massdrop. Figure out what’s been popular and in-demand and coveted in the past.
Then go to eBay and purchase the same pen from someone who never used it and now needs the cash.
@speediedelivery what are you looking for in a fountain pen. There are cheap cheap ones that are fine to start with. And there are expensive ones that I would love (my current eye is on the twsbi mini gold with a 1.1 stub nib, with a ink bottle for easy filling it’s about $100 in total… that’s a cheaper pen, twsbi also has an eco for economical and it’s cheaper)
Actually the pilot petit is a good starter that’s super cheap (amazon is a good place for that think 8 were about $20, sometimes amazon isn’t a good place for it though ) then if you move sideways (different feel) there is a pilot Metropolitan (Staples has them in store, but you can find all over the place about $15 for the pen) I didn’t like that pen but it could have just been a bad/scratchy nib. I have and love a pilot plumix which has a stub nib (fancier writing) it was under $15 for the pen.
I have a Lamy safari. It was a good pen. The grip bothers me now.
I’m currently using one of the clearance pens from staples. It’s a cheap cross.
One of the nice things about fountain pens is getting a bottle of ink instead of cartridges. I’ve got a few bottles and haven’t purchased one in over a year (haven’t emptied one yet) cartridges seem to go quickly. Now converters are more than the cartridges but they last a long time.
Gouletpens.com is a great resource. Let me know what you’re thinking of.
@Pantheist sohmageek added some pen info…
@f00l Thanks for bringing up Massdrop. I’ve been aware of them, but never tried it. It kind of struck me as being somewhere between a nice idea that couldn’t really work, or sheer brilliance.
But your second suggestion of checking Ebay for leftovers is genius.
@sohmageek @speediedelivery Thanks- I’m looking to spend ~200 for a pen, ink, and paper. I know she prefers pens with a thinner grip and about 1mm for the inky part.
@f00l Great, thanks!
@Pantheist 1mm being gel pen? Fountain pens aren’t the same. But 1mm being a bold line I’d look at stub nibs. I hear that the lamy logo is a thinner pen. If you’re looking for something more unique the twsbi vac/vac mini have a vac filler instead of a piston, I have also herd full of ink the vac is heavy the mini is more manageable. If you go with the vac I’d get the vac bottle for easy filling and no mess.
Pick a color and get a bottle of ink. I really like the pilot Iroshizuku ink line, or the j. Herbin inks are awesome (you need a nice broad or stub nib for the 1670 or 1798 special inks with gold flecks in them) I’ve had some noodlers but it tends to stain clothes easier and is more permanent.
Maruman Mnemosyne is amazing Japanese paper. I love the stuff. A 2nd Japanese paper would be Apica. The next best (depending on size and look of the paper) would be Rhodia or Clairfontaine. Paper is very important with fountain pens. Although I tend to use crappy paper sometimes. It just feels better on a better quality of paper. I wish I could remember the name of the paper that was in the scribe delivery. @hollboll @chadp if you remember. Which was the one that had the weird grid that was awesome. And the other one was the one with the code and the big rubber band.
@Pantheist I’d suggest Gouletpens.com for shopping. You can chat with them/email them and they can help too
Brian & Rachel Goulet own Goulet pens. They will chat with you too on Snapchat or they used to do periscopes.
@sohmageek Thanks! Yeah- she uses 1mm for a ballpoint- didn’t realize it was different, thanks for the heads up on that too.
@Pantheist 1 mm is a very bold/broad line. Stub/italic/oblique nibs will give a certain direction a broader line and a thinner line the other stroke. Goulet pens shows you what the strokes look like.
@sohmageek I’m watching the 101 series there now. Good stuff.
@Pantheist by the way, I took my pilot metro (I hated) and my plum… Took the feed and nib out and swapped them… Now I have a metro with a stub nib and I like it again
@sohmageek
@blaineg
EXACTLY
a friend bought me a space pen as a gift, and gift indeed.
@sohmageek I have no need for a fountain pen, but you are sorely tempting me!
@blaineg Cherry wood covered notebook. I’ve carried one for several years now. Of course Field Notes makes many others, but I like wood.
@Pantheist You might want to take a glance at levengers.com for other pen information. They’re a tad pricey, but it’s likely you can use the site for ideas and then order most of them from other dealers.
@blaineg Who actually needs a fountain pen?
@magic_cave Thanks, but I ended up getting a new old stock pen from ebay and paper and ink from goulet pens. Still spent more than I planned, but the stuff is pretty cool.
@sammydog01 Apparently I do, now.
@blaineg
/giphy I need it now
@magic_cave Tried to check it out out of curiosity- you mean the site without an s at the end right?
Anyone who was wondering- I ended up getting her a waterman executive that had never been used, a bunch of inks, and two kinds of paper. She loved it.
Shifting gears back to general toys:
Metal Earth models. 1-3 sheets of stamped sheet metal (stainless steel?) will make branded stuff like Star Wars, or real world stuff like ships and bridges. Very detailed.
Some are even in colors, like Iron Man, and a Kawasaki motorcycle. You can get by with whatever, but you’ll be happier with some good, small needle-nose pliers and side cutters. And magnification, if you need it.
http://www.fascinations.com/metalearth
@blaineg They had cardboard things like that at the Woot-off. I bought a dragon and a unicorn. If my kid doesn’t like them I’ll put them together myself.
@sammydog01 I came THIS close to grabbing some of those in the Woot-off.
@blaineg I’ve bought several of these models on eBay. It’s a nice distraction for a few hours.
I’ve only made three so far. I think I have four more waiting on me.
So far I’ve done the Millennium Falcon, a Star Destroyer, and the Black Pearl.
@sammydog01 I almost wanted one. But I wanted free shipping. It was before I got my boc
@sohmageek It’s usually better to get your crap at the end for that reason. Did you see the unicorn?
@sammydog01 Missed that one. Cute.
@sammydog01 I wish I hadn’t missed those!
@RiotDemon The Metal Earth Millennium Falcon is looking down on me now.
I know I built the Tardis (pretty in blue metal), and have been trying to figure out where it went. It suddenly clicked. I gave it to my 8 year old niece that “helped” me build it.
That was a tough build because I didn’t have any decent magnification with me. It was equal parts squinting or guessing.
@sammydog01 https://www.dodopuzzle.co.nz/
Amazon carries a few, search for Dodoland.
@blaineg Here’s a link to 8 kits.
https://www.amazon.com/GeoToys-Eugy-Cardboard-Miniatures-Panda/dp/B06XTBJ3SH
Perplexus: a sealed ball (or cube, or…) with a 3D maze inside. Just maneuver the ball around the maze to the finish point. Easy, right? Wrong! Many different sizes and types, including a Death Star model.
@blaineg I remember seeing those with a spot for a bill in the center. Seemed like it could be frustrating.
@Pantheist All the Perplexus I’ve seen are pure puzzle, but I have seen the bill holders you mention.
The Perplexus puzzles have varying sizes, and the difficulty is mostly in the length of the path. They’re challenging, but beatable. Here’s a few pictures:
The Q-bot is about a 4" cube, one of the smallest.
On the other end, there’s the Death Star, with lights and sound, and a movable X-Wing.
Others here: http://perplexus.net/
@Pantheist The Giant, and interview with the inventor Michael McGinnis.
@blaineg Fascinating history too. http://superplexus.com/history/
@blaineg These are much different (and cooler) than what I was thinking of. For some reason I never got the email alert from the tag.
Books:
Either of Randal Munroe’s books. He does the xkcd.com comic.
“What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions” What if we emptied all of Earths oceans onto Mars to help Curiosity out with it’s quest for water? And he runs the numbers (and makes the numbers funny) and sketches some maps!
“Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words” Explain complicated things in the ten hundred most common words. (Thousand is NOT one of them.) It started with this comic, Up Goer Five.
@blaineg I would give this suggestion a bazillion stars if I could; Randall Munroe is the best!
@blaineg I read what if on my kindle and it WAS awesome! I like his comics in general too, but he is excellent at explaining the obtuse to the obtuse [moi]…
@PhysAssist And there’s always http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page to fall back on when he goes way over my head.
@blaineg
I didn’t know anout that, thanks…
Alien Next Door - perfect bedtime story! HAHAHA.
@blaineg Just the subtitle is enuff for me to want to read it.
OLD Stuff:
Spirograph is back. So’s a lot of stuff from my childhood.
Creepy Crawlers are NOT, but if you’re ok with children’s toys with open hot plates (welcome to my 60’s childhood), you can easily get original 1960’s ThingMakers and molds on Ebay. The easy way to get PlastiGoop is PattyGoop, and everyone seems happy with it.
But if you want to DIY all the way, you want fishing worm lure casting plastic, Plasti-sol. And hardener, and colors, and… forget it, go with PattyGoop! (But go about 10-20% hardener, or they’ll be too soft with straight Plasti-sol.)
I revived Creepy Crawlers for this year’s “Cousin Camp” family get together, and it was a hit with all ages.
Hot Wheels!
Scale model kits. Haven’t really done much with them for a LONG time, but it’s starting to pull me back in, and kits are starting to pile up. I’d better do something about that.
@blaineg I have my old Thingmaker set. Maybe I’ll find some of the goop you mention. I liked the bugs the best.
@sammydog01 I’ve been very blessed that a lot of my childhood stuff has survived, especially since I’m the oldest of nine. But the Creepy Crawlers weren’t one of them, so I’ve been rebuilding from scratch via Ebay this year.
@blaineg http://www.patti-goop.com/ is the site, she sells through Ebay.
@blaineg If you want to do it the hard way: http://www.jannsnetcraft.com/Search/plastisol.aspx
@blaineg used to make fishing lures with them and sold them at flee markets when I was just a kid. Memories
@Cerridwyn I used to make them, fish with them unsuccessfully, and lose them to snags and bush-fish.
@blaineg I got my “open hotplate” at age 7 and only got minor burns, and only very few of those.
@blaineg Woah! Look what I found in the cellar yesterday. It was back behind other boxes, and has probably been there since we moved in 20+ years ago.
I haven’t dug through the whole box yet, but each of those slots is filled to the bottom with molds. If I’ve still got the Batman and Superman molds, those are real treasures.
@blaineg Batman, Superman, and Green Hornet molds! Only Superman is a figure, the other two are bat and hornet shapes.
Electronics/soldering. Lots of potential here, and not as hard as you think.
http://mightyohm.com/blog/2011/04/soldering-is-easy-comic-book/
Arduino, Raspberry Pi microcomputer boards. Endless possibilites, overlaps with soldering and electronics, depending on which way you go.
@blaineg I got my daughter a soldering kit for Christmas last year. She had fun- I should go look for some new projects for this year.
Grown up tools/toys:
Plastic razor blades, great for de-gunking without worrying about damaging the thing you’re working on.
Releasable & Reusable Cable Ties: same as always, but a larger, easy to to release latch. Wonderful in some applications.
Magnetic work mat: Holds all the little screws from whatever you took apart. Label it with a fine dry-erase marker. You won’t remember next week when you go to put it back together!
http://kk.org/cooltools/ Web site, and a book spin-off. Where I find a lot of goodies. “Anything useful” is kind of their definition of a tool. Tool, book, idea, it’s all the same.
Just plain fun:
Wallace and Gromit
Shawn the Sheep, spinoff.
Schlock Mercenary: Funny SciFi web comic. Updated Every Single Day since June 12, 2000, even when a data center blew up. Five Hugo Award nominations. http://www.schlockmercenary.com/ (Hint, actually updates at 7pm Mountain time.)
Howard Tayler, the author, recommends starting here:
http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2008-02-29
or here: http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2009-03-02
Motorcycles. Well, off the list for now, but lots of fun, and loads of memories. Dad taught me how to ride. He said he figured he could forbid us, and it would happen behind his back, or he could be involved and have some influence. I guess it worked, I’m mostly a mild-mannered trail rider, not a skyborne lunatic.
Lots of good memories riding together off road. Sand dunes. Moab. Canyonlands. The mountains five minutes above town.
Hope all this is some use, and fire away with any questions.
Blaine
Resources:
“Toy” stores:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/
https://www.vat19.com/
https://www.perpetualkid.com/
https://www.fatbraintoys.com/
Raspberry Pi & Arduino toy stores:
https://www.element14.com/community/community/raspberry-pi
https://www.adafruit.com/
https://www.sparkfun.com/
https://shop.pimoroni.com/
Electronics surplus:
http://www.halted.com/
https://www.allelectronics.com/
http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/
Mainstream electronics suppliers happy to sell to hobbyists:
https://www.mouser.com/
https://www.digikey.com/
https://www.jameco.com/
http://www.jdr.com/
Also check out “Geek Dad” (site & book) and “Dangerous Book for Boys” and “Theo Gray’s Mad Science: Experiments You Can Do at Home - But Probably Shouldn’t” series.
And tools in general, and pocket knives.
http://toolguyd.com/ is a great place for tool info.
Way too many pocket knives, including a few from Meh.
But I’ve settled on a Ken Onion Shallot, with a Damascus blade. I’ve always wanted a Damascus blade, and getting in an assisted opening Ken Onion/Kershaw was perfect for me.
Kind of this, but silver handle and blade, and much finer Damascus pattern. I use it to slay defenseless cardboard boxes at work.
@eonfifty take note pls.
@blaineg BE CAREFUL with that sharpness pls!
@PhysAssist You bet! But Monday’s platelet count was up to 102, so I’m well out of the danger zone.
Sleep, well that’s another problem entirely…
They’ve been tapering down the steroid dose pretty aggressively this week, so hopefully that will help.
@blaineg
and hopefully the zzzz’s will return soon…
The sleep med isn’t helping?
Warm milk, progressive relaxation, and a sleep mask?
I could write some more about medical topics, I know reading medical journals invariably puts me to sleep…
Hang in there
@PhysAssist It’s been a rough week for sleep, the pattern seems to be a couple of hours of sound sleep to start with, then suddenly being as awake as that squirrel critter in the Ice Age movies.
Then maybe another hour or two here or there. And that’s with a CPAP machine. My doc is back from vacation, and he switched the sleeping med, but it hasn’t made must difference that I’ve seen. It works, it just doesn’t last. I don’t think I’ve hit much over 3-3.5 hours of sleep any day this week. Blea.
Today’s surprise was finally drifting off again about 9am, and having a telemarketer call 5 minutes later.
@blaineg
Ouch, that stinks!
Are you on “the do not call” list?
I hate when they do that, and sometimes it seems like know when you’ve just nodded off, and choose then to call…
Hang in there.
@PhysAssist Oh yea, been on the do not call list for years. It’s made a huge difference, but there’s always the criminals that just don’t care.
My ONLY response to the ones that get through is: “Are you aware of the federal do not call list?” With escalating volume, if required. But usually they terminate the call pretty quickly. Now I make sure to just pull the plug on the VOIP box if I feel a sleepy coming on.
I can remember reading an SF short story on the net a few years back about there being a death penalty for spammers, and a guy being desperate enough to risk it. Wish I could track it down again, but I’m mostly finding fact not fiction.
Things are improving slightly, I almost got four hours in two tries last night.
@blaineg
Congrats!@
Are you aware that you can report violators on the same website?
@PhysAssist Yep, I report the scumbags all the time. Though there’s so much caller ID spoofing going on these days, I wonder how much good it does.
@blaineg We have a Panasonic phone system, and luckily, it also allows us to block calls on a local basis, so they don’t even know we’re an actual working number.
@blaineg This is an AMAZING list!
@therealjrn Agreed. Great Thread!
You forgot mercury. I used to play with mercury. I guess that explains a few things.
@sammydog01 hA!
@sammydog01 Nope, didn’t forget it. I used to play with it too. Either I survived, or you’ve got a good explanation for me now.
Dad had a container of mercury when we were little, and the stuff is absolutely fascinating the way it moves, breaks up, and rejoins. The curl on the edge of puddles of it, from the high surface tension.
Of course we did some of this fiddling in the palm of our hands, not just the top of the desk. But Dad never let us hold it for very long.
Dad passed away at the end of May, and one of my sisters found what is probably the same jar of mercury in a drawer.
@sammydog01
Does proximity to mercury explain proximity to
Or
perhaps?
Or vv?
@blaineg Wow, again with the childhood experiences our younger generation won’t [and probably shouldn’t] ever be able to understand- but so many of us did and do…
My pops had a baby food jar half full of mercury, and we messed around with it periodically, but always tried [and usually failed] to get it all back in there when we were finished with it…
I used to love seeing what mercury would do to [copper] pennies- [made them look like they were silver-plated and shiny!].
My early onset dementia will prolly be [is] explained by this too, if the question ever pops up.
Magnatiles they are magnetic building tiles
Snap circuits they are like basic kid circuitry build fans and alarms ect
@CaptAmehrican my son got some snap circuits kits for his birthday. I was a little jealous they weren’t for me. he loved them!
@capguncowboy My own electronics journey started with wanting to light a Star Destroyer model kit back in 1977. A friend with some electronics skills helped me out with making sure I didn’t fry the LEDs (well, fry MORE of them, and they weren’t cheap back then, even as surplus), and somewhere along the way it turned into a career.
The electronics, not the model making. I always dreamed of working for Industrial Light and Magic, or someone like that.
I still remember a line from the Star Wars Fan Club newsletter interview with someone in the model shop. He said something like: “We don’t need more people saying ‘I’ll do anything to work for you’, We need people like Udo over there. He’s a machinist. He doesn’t make mistakes.”
That inspired me to work on developing actual, usable skills. The actual direction turned out to be much different than I’d imagined, but I’ve wound up in a dream job. I get paid to play with computers (hardware, networking, and industrial control) and nearly free reign to get the job done.
@blaineg I have a friend that works for ILM and he said it’s so much cooler than he had ever expected (and that’s all he talked about growing up). He’s worked on a lot of big movies over the years and is loving every minute of it.
That’s awesome that you found something you enjoy and made a career of it. That’s a rare feat these days. I never did decide what I wanted to do when I grew up. I took a job in the credit industry when I was 19. A few promotions and many years later and it kinda’ stuck. I don’t hate it and I get to work from home, so that makes it enjoyable
@capguncowboy Tell your friend I envy him, in the best possible way.
A geeky friend made this comment on my gallium-plated nephew:
He should get a job running half a train. Because now he might be a [ … ]!
(It took me about half an hour…)
@blaineg seriously, 1/2 an hour??? this English major got it
@mikibell Got steroids? That’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it.
@blaineg hehhehe…thank goodness, NO! Have antibiotics though! Finally figured out why I was running a fever…have an ear infection…no self respecting adult should have to do ear drops!! Can you say awkward??
@aetris Gallium is used in semiconductor applications.
@therealjrn - Gotcha. Well, I got half of it!
@aetris And the really bad thing for me is: I know that. It’s part of my field.
@aetris didn’t you actually miss the half of it?
reminded me of Archie McPhee.
https://mcphee.com/collections/new/products/clip-on-man-buns-handmade-in-seattleemphasized text
or
https://mcphee.com/collections/stocking-stuffers/products/bacon-candy-canes
or
https://mcphee.com/collections/stocking-stuffers/products/bacon-bandages
@sgrazi Love Archie!
Thx thx thx for this thread!
Another throwback is carbide cannons. https://www.bigbangcannons.com/ They are a little pricey (made of cast iron) but are ultra safe. They are virtually unchanged from the original design over 100 years ago.
@DrWorm Thanks, those weren’t anywhere on my radar. I love that they sell Family Packs of cannons!
@DrWorm Those are awesome; I received two as gifts over the years, and we used to set them off a lot on Independence Day.
Unfortunately I tried to do the same here in ill annoy and was told by the police a neighbor called (on Independence Day) to please not use them here, even though its not illegal.
The Bangsite tubes do not reseal well. Once you open one, either use it up or you can try sealing it into a vacuum sealer bag if you can, ot put a little sealant or grease on the threads when you cap it back up; no guarantees though.
@duodec The locals here are fans of tannerite. Yee-haw!
https://www.google.com/amp/dfw.cbslocal.com/2017/03/31/reports-of-possible-explosion-in-midlothian/amp/
@sammydog01 We’ve been able to go to a rural outdoor range here that let our group use Tannerite; we taped small ones onto bowling pins. Then what I think were 1 pound jars sitting on a plank. Those blew apart the 2x6 studs they were set on.
@DrWorm We grew up with the usual fireworks indiscretions, complicated by the fact that you couldn’t get “the good stuff” in Utah. About all we could get was sparklers, smoke bombs, and snakes. So smuggling runs across the border to Wyoming were the stuff of school yard legends. As were legends of highway patrol countermeasures and arrests (which probably never happened). But even firecrackers were contraband in Utah when I was a kid.
So that’s a long way of saying anything like firecrackers or bottle rockets were great treasures worth guarding closely. So when I caught my brother playing with some firecrackers he’d stolen from me, retribution was in order! Nay, required!
He was messing around with them on the carport and driveway, so I approached through the house, to the carport door, and waited for my moment. I lit a firecracker, opened the door to throw it, and a freak fast fuse let it blow up in my hand, arm cocked back past my head, ready to fling. So instead of revenge served cold, I’ve now pranked myself. I’m half-deaf, which I figure will pass (it did), but what worries me is that I’m not sure if I still have fingers (I did) because my hand was back behind my head, out of my line of sight.
My thumb and fingers both feel like they’ve had a blow from Thor’s hammer, and I’m not 100% sure they are still there at all. And I’m not sure I want to look and find out what is or isn’t there. The agony of unknown seconds.
But no damage done, except to my pride, and my yelling at my brother for his crime was seriously undermined by his laughter at my self-prank.
@duodec Tale #2. Just out of high school. We’ve discovered the hydrogen balloon trick.
If you don’t know it, you need aluminum foil, Drano drain cleaner, water, and a bottle that can handle some heat. The old glass pop bottles were perfect. Mix Drano and water in the bottle. Shred the aluminum foil into the brew, pop a balloon over the mouth, and it fills up with hydrogen. Then attach some paper towel or TP as a fuse, light it and let go.
It floats gently skyward, and then goes “pop”. Just a nice quiet “pop” and maybe you see a bit of the flame flash. Not that impressive, but cooler because it was airborne.
The my brother has The Idea. Acetylene is FAR more energetic than hydrogen. Let’s use Dad’s torch setup to make an acetylene balloon! It was underwhelming, just a louder pop as the heavy balloon sat in the gutter, and some ropey black acetylene smoke.
And then THE IDEA chapter two hits: Oxygen! We need an ox-acetylene balloon. So he runs downstairs to the shop, lights off and adjusts a perfect blue flame, extinguishes the flame on a block of wood and fills a small balloon. Fortunately, it was very small compared to our hydrogen balloons.
Because when it went off, we thought we’d cracked the gates of hell open. The boom was so intense, I’m not sure how we didn’t crack every window on both sides of the street. The house directly across the street had one of those huge single panes of glass for the front room window. I can still clearly see that giant pane dancing forward and back in its frame, looking something like a glass balloon itself, and wondering how glass could be that flexible.
Of course we hid in the basement for hours, with my little brother often muttering something like: “I was holding that in my HAND.”
That was our first and last oxy-acetylene balloon.
@blaineg Clark County NV is a ‘dry’ county fireworks-wise. Safe and Sane (aka boring) only when we were growing up. Sometimes we would drive to Pahrump, in a neighboring county, and load up on the good stuff.
Sometimes we made our own, or remade the boring fireworks into… less boring fireworks.
Dad didn’t have welding equipment so we didn’t have access to gas… that sounds like fun!
@duodec Learning how to weld, and welding itself, was fun, and a very useful skill to have. I got quite good at gas welding.
The balloon bomb was sheer fear, and “We coulda killed ourselves” afterthoughts. Never had the slightest desire to try a second balloon!
Bucky balls are great as long as no one eats them.
/giphy goat eating
Otamatone. I was looking for a musical something for a Christmas gift; I thought about a Stylophone or the new more advanced one (too expensive) and saw… straight from Japan:
The Otamatone.
If you can play Bohemian Rhapsody on it, it has to be at least interesting…
@duodec That started me down a rabbit hole. This product description threw me for a loop.
Weird…
@duodec I got interested in these but they seem to have mixed reviews as far as build quality. Looking at the packaging for the regular one I feel like maybe these are the equivalent of $10 in Japan and we’re paying the stupid American tax because it’s a cute Japanese thing with a cult status.
I’m debating getting a pair of the ~$30 ones and having a toy that my wife and I can play in harmony or bumping up to the ~$72 deluxe one that seems better built, more like an instrument and more adult sized (but then a pair is pricy). Seen any better deals on the Deluxe?
Actually, as I sort through open tabs, I’m trying to figure out if this one is really the deluxe version: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B017BYZD86/. The price is good if it is and shipping time doesn’t cut it close to Christmas like all the ones shipping from overseas.
@djslack @duodec My son actually asked for one of these for Christmas, and while I can’t speak to the quality (we obviously haven’t had it out of the package yet), I did do a little research before purchasing.
@djslack
I can tell from the neck, that the one in your link is NOT the Deluxe version
@DrWorm Thanks!
Look! Another toy store.
http://www.unitednuclear.com/
Got Gallium? A kilo is only $300.
https://www.rotometals.com/gallium/
Or make a spoon.
@blaineg my son remarked last night – gallium, the safe toy alternative to mercury!
sigh, I was hoping he didn’t know what it was
Heavy metal?
1.5" tungsten cube, 1KG.
https://midwesttungsten.com/1-5-tungsten-kilo-cube-with-base-best-seller/
@blaineg Some place was selling a pair of cubes the same size. One was aluminum and one was tungsten.
@blaineg Here you go: https://midwesttungsten.com/tungsten-aluminum-1-5-cube-set-one-kilo-tungsten-150-grams-aluminum/
@simssj Thanks, that’s going on my list for Santa this year!
@blaineg and other contributors - thanks for the most awesome thread in a long time! I clearly need to play more.
@mehcuda67 “Play is the highest form of research.” — Albert Einstein
(Probably mis-attributed, but still sound in my book.)
@mehcuda67 I appreciate everyone’s contributions, keep them coming!
@cranky1950 We used to play this on car trips…heh.
@therealjrn On car trips! I could barely do it sitting still!
@blaineg Yeah, it kept us busy lol.
@cranky1950 It never turned as fast as I wanted it to.
@cranky1950 I thought only “executives” could have these. The ones at Spenser’s anyway.
@cranky1950 I got a beauty a couple of years ago for Christmas.
@cranky1950 We had a giant one of those at the science museum. It’s gone now.
@cranky1950 Careful! You’ll put an eye out!
@therealjrn I was more worried about my teeth when those things were popular.
@cranky1950 My Mom could keep those things going forever. I never got the hang of them.
@duodec My sister was good at it, I could keep them going for about 30 sec then I’d beat myseff in the head or other sensitive places.
@cranky1950 Sounds like my little brother and his home-made nunchucks!
Picked up one of these today.
@walarney I don’t think I’ve ever seen a spirograph knockoff.
@cinoclav Probably won’t work so well on aggregate, but maybe it’ll give the grandkids another canvas besides my garage doors.