MadModder

Sounds like you've found a Linux distro you like. But I can't help also making a suggestion of Puppy Linux, and specifically (for newish computers) a version of it called F96-CE.

One interesting thing about Puppy is that you can install the whole operating system as a simple directory within your main OS. You you can dual boot at startup into either your original OS or Puppy. You do not have to reformat your hard drive for Puppy Linux, unlike most Linuxs. This is called a "Frugal" install in Puppy lingo. And in fact it's the preferred method of installation.

In fact, that directory doesn't have to even reside on the main hard drive. It can be on a thumb drive. That gives you a completely portable operating system that can be plugged into another computer. And the speed of the OS isn't hampered by the speed of the thumb drive, because at boot time the OS is copied into RAM, and then operates from there. It's extremely compact. Of course you can add whatever browser or application like Blender you want to that base OS.

Anyway, I like the OS. I've been using it for nearly 20 years.

(Later... out of curiosity I just looked up Blender on the Puppy Linux forum and found a portable app (which is a piece of cake to install) set up with an older version of Blender 3.1. So I tried it, and here's the initial screen:

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(pps.. I tried Waterfox also from the original website, but it crashed when trying Youtube. I see there's a Waterfox development note on that bug...)

Then it was on to the adjustment nuts. Finally something straightforward in the lathe, out of metal! These were drilled tapped, knurled, and finally parted off in my homemade lathe, the most enjoyable part of today's work:

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I marked out and drilled all of the hole locations in the torque arm, and drilled the smaller ones full size.

The large hole for the drum was drilled undersize with a Forstner bit.

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Professor Chaddock recommends boring on the lathe, but I find centering an odd shape like this one difficult without some kind of initial pilot hole, particularly on wood. Much easier to pre-drill on the drill press. A large hole in the piece was actually easier to center on the lathe than a small pilot would have been. I just clocked in the ID with a gauge. Then I did the final boring to size.

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This is again sort of an off-topic one.

Blender 2.92 is the last version that works in Win 7. It has far fewer functions, and it doesn't seem to be as stable as the newest versions.

That's why I've had to use Win10. But the more I use W10, the more I want to avoid using it.

One option that's left, was to install Linux. As I'm not too much into learning it (Linux) at the moment, I tested several distros in VM, to see which one has most easily configurable (or "windowsy") settings.

One that stood out was Pop OS. It has a GUI that imitates W11, having options to customize it a bit more easily available(although some settings require some serious searching). Plus it supports browsers like Brave, Opera, and Waterfox, which I've constantly used in Windows.

It also has a version that has Nvidia drivers included, and that's what I'm using.

It might not be the best of the best option, but so far, after few days of using it, Blender has worked without problems (as well as the browsers mentioned), and it feels that it could be good enough alternative to W10: 

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What comes to running Blender on Linux in VM, only a lot older version of Blender worked; newest one installed just fine, but gave an error message and simply refused to run.

I guess one has to have a PC with quite beefy specs, and to know how to configure hardware for VM for that kind of CPU-heavy tasks.

So, what a better excuse to utilize a moped class PC, than to install software on bare metal instead?

It was a lot of fun when rehabilitating No. 83, my hot air engine to see how fast it would go after each change. But top RPM is not a very good measure of a hot air engine. Since I want to go further with modifications, I really need a way to look at power output. And I'd like to build other hot air engines as well (in fact I've already started on No. 84, a Rider type engine) so a tool for the job is needed.

Enter Professor Dennis Chaddock and his Prony brake dynamometer for hot air engines, featured in September 1976 Model Engineer. This simple device was used to compare model hot air engines submitted for a new competition slated for the upcoming 1977 Model Engineer Exhibition.

This device used a steel brake drum and brake shoes of hardwood, with a notched and graduated aluminum balance arm with moveable weights. The moment was used to figure momentary torque, and in conjunction with a clockworks tachometer the power output could be arrived at arithmetically.

I'm going to use some of Professor Chaddock's design, but use a digital tach, and scale, since I already have both. Somewhat less visually elegant, but a lot easier to work out the power curve -- particularly since I can do it in Watts with minimal units conversion, by comparison with his original inch and ounce torsionometer.

Another slight variation, his was designed for a standardized motor shaft of 5/32" diameter and mine will be for 8mm, since that's what No. 83 has, and is a standard I intend to continue. Also he modestly referred to his cool little dynamometer as "a bit of oak" because of the brake shoes. Mine will be "a bit of cherry," in that case since I have a lot of that hardwood, which I cut and milled on my own property.

Here's a start, parting off the brake drum on my homemade lathe:

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And here's the cherry wood I'll be using, milled out. It's kind of surprising how small this all is, after having looked at the plans many times over the years in the magazine.    It really is just a little bit of... whatever!


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