The Mad Penguin

To quote the Bad Astronomer, “This picture is totally freaking cool”

The “Hang-Tank” is also known as a “stage” or “deco” “tank”, “cylinder” or “bottle” and is a self-contained cylinder and regulator configuration that is placed on the anchor line, or below the boat in some way at a depth that allows divers to complete their safety stop. This piece of equipment has been around for a long time and so is nothing new. However when I’ve seen it in use, it’s often ad-hoc using someone’s 2nd cylinder and spare set of regs as opposed to a specialized set of equipment. This isn’t in itself wrong, but I think there are opportunities for improvement over that system.

A number of years ago I read a contractor’s report about Computers In Spaceflight.  It was fascinating to me to understand just how much went into this one facet of space programs, and just how little computing power it took.  Any college student familiar with basic electronics can understand the fundamentals of these early computers, but the true magic was what the programmers did to squeeze so much out of such a “small” package.  Now it’s easier for us to have one of our very own thanks to one man’s hard work.

Here’s one of my early projects done while the Canadian Women’s Hockey Team were winning the gold medal in 2002 with the use of my 7×12 minilathe from Grizzly.

These are nesting pin pushers for a couple types of electrical connectors I was using commonly at the time. They combine together into a nondescript brass rod to carry in a pocket.

This was written way back in early 2002. I have a whole new stash of goodies to apply to a mill/drill when I have a little bit of coin and time to throw at it, but as you can see, it’s not too hard to bang out a very small machine to play with.

This is a 5 part collection of photos from various industrial machines I’ve built and/or serviced over the years.

I originally wrote this as an article in August 2004 for Etobicoke Underwater Club’s newsletter Fins Below.  This was just after finding the club and realizing what it could do to improve my (to date) failing scuba diving career.  I thought this might be a fun first post, though the writing style feels a little immature to look back on it, I decided to preserve it more or less for posterity.

Pausing at a safety stop on the Niagara II
– Photo Gillian Ord