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day 4404: odin makes some aftermarket mods to his nerf strongarm dart gun.

day 4404:  odin makes some aftermarket mods to his nerf strong-arm dart gun. I.

odin heard from a friend that you could put a more powerful spring in nerf guns and shoot the darts farther and faster. so he took it upon himself to figure out how to take apart his strongarm all on his own without any help from youtube videos and how to remove the spring to be replaced.

it was impressive show of self directed tinkering which is a skill i love to foster in him so i just had to help him find a replacement spring. we went to the local hardware store and they had springs that were very close, but were just a bit too wide or too hard to compress ( hardware store kid helping us broke into a big grin when he asked what we were looking to use the spring for ).

day 4404:  odin makes some aftermarket mods to his nerf strong-arm dart gun. II.

online we went and of course there are folks who specialize in these sorts of things and we bought a pack of 3 springs from orange mod works. each spring has a 7kg power output ( stock strongarm is 2.8kg ) and they claim it the “muzzle velocity” will increase to 90+ feet per second.

the aftermarket spring is on the left. you can see it has a few more coils and is a bit harder to compress which leads to the increased power output.

later: it works! with some rudimentary testing it looks like he can shoot a dart around 130-150 feet which is over twice the distance he can get with stock strongarm!

i made a poor decision which resulted in a ride in a police cruiser.

i made a poor decision which resulted in a ride in a police cruiser.

went for an early run trying to beat what dark sky described as “light rain”. about 2 miles out it turned to heavy rain which is manageable but as i started to get nervous as the thunder started to get more rumbly and i noted i was one of the taller objects around while running along a road with soy fields on both sides.

i turned around to head home and soon after a police cruise passed me and went around a bend and about 20 seconds later a lighting bolt hit in a nearby stand of trees and was so loud and so startling that i almost tripped in the street and let out an involuntary stream of expletives.

i thought about asking a homeowner if i could hang out on their porch for a bit while the storm passed and while i was mulling it over, the cruiser rolls up and the officer rolls down his window and says, “hey, you want a ride home? it’s getting ugly out here.”

“you bet!”

thanks viroqua pd! i never did catch the officer’s name but i sure appreciated the ride.

#shouldistayorshouldigonow

i got 7 more rainy miles in after police ride home and storm died down. I *think* I can get a few more in before the yellow blob gets me! #shouldistayorshouldigonow

later: got back just as the booming started again!

the galaxie 500 horn has started honking on its own which can be SUPER AWKWARD.

the galaxie 500 horn has started honking on its own which can be SUPER AWKWARD.

for 14 years the galaxie 500 horn has not worked because a clip on the horn ring ( the thing you press to make contact to complete the horn circuit ) is broken. finding some parts for a 51 year old car can be a challenge and the clip on the horn ring is one of them. not impossible, but just hard enough that it’s been easier to just not have a horn.

on a recent longish road trip in the old ford i recommitted to finding the part to fix the horn because it’s sometimes it’s a safety issue to one! i stopped into the local ford dealership to see if they had the part. unsurprisingly, the answer was no.

weirdly, the week after i started thinking about fixing the horn it started honking on its own! but only when i’m cranking the steering wheel around more than a full rotation. i assume there’s a new bare spot on the horn wires in the steering column that are touching and completing the circuit when i turn the wheel?

it doesn’t honk all the time, just when i’m cranking the steering wheel around. and when am i most likely to be doing that? when i’m parking! which i’m quickly realizing can be super awkward when people are walking by. when i was leaving work some women were walking nearby when i was pulling out and the car started – HONK! HONK! HONK! of course, they looked at me perplexed which meant i had to stop and explain that i wasn’t honking at them. it was the car! doing it on it’s own! not me! crossed wires!

more perplexed looks.