Ace-Garageguy

That bites. It's common knowledge (at least within the AI community) that AI lies and makes things up (which they oh-so-cutely call "hallucinating"), and that because as yet most AI models have little comprehension of context, it's prone to scrambling information and producing worthless incorrect results...but seeming very confident about it. Anyone who's even remotely aware knows that every time a piece of software is rolled out, it's continually updated and patched due to undiscovered bugs that were in it when it shipped. But selling flawed, sometimes deeply flawed, product is SOP for the "information technology" marketplace and others, including a similarly disturbing tendency in the pharmaceutical and automotive industries. They all blame each other essentially, on "market pressure", which actually means that "if we don't get our poorly functioning garbage to market quick, some other bunch of clowns will get their poorly functioning garbage to market before we do, and we'll lose sales from the gullible rubes who bought the other junk product instead of ours...so we don't have time to get it right; we'll just fix things on the fly as they come up, and hope for the best". It amazes me that embracing early, widespread implementation of any technology that has the potential to do as much harm as AI would be the action of anyone with a brain, but one of the flaws in human nature is getting in an anxiety-driven rush, when proceeding slowly and cautiously would be the much more prudent course. AI has fantastic potential, but it's a work in progress at best, and relying on it for anything critical at this point in time is simply foolish. It's a whole lot HARDER to save little Timmy AFTER he's fallen through the ice, and is being swept away underneath it by a strong current.

Thanks for your interest and comment. Much appreciated.

Very pleasant ACME meeting today, as they get geared for the upcoming October 25 show. I say "they" because even though I'm a member, I lapsed attending meetings until the past few months. A really nice group of people, especially notable for the effort and expense they put into doing the "Make-and-Take" events for kids. Some of the best modelers around too, including Bob Downey, Bill Cunningham, Pico Elgin, and "Kit Karson" whose real name escapes me at the moment...among many more.

PM'd

This is one of those niggly engineering buggers that works both ways. On the one hand, the big fat mounting flange on the case as delivered by GMC, with big fat bolts holding it down, was undoubtedly 'stronger' than a bunch of smaller studs and nuts installed around the perimeter of the mating surface between case and manifold after the big ol' mounting flange and stiffening ribs were machined off. On the other hand, as I mentioned above, sealing of the mating surfaces was said to be an issue on the OEM cases, as the mating surface on the case was essentially unsupported, so the perimeter fasteners, smaller but closer together and right on the face, installed out of necessity on the 'pruned' cases, would provide better clamping of the mating surfaces to each other. When Ohio George and Sneaky Pete tooled up to cast their pre-'pruned' cases, they would have most likely heavily reinforced the mating area by using thicker material in both depth and width, so the flange itself would be stronger, and could accommodate larger fasteners as well. The photo below illustrates the non-'pruned' configuration, with the big mounting flange made to take heavy hardware. The photo below shows the underside of a case in the 'pruned' configuration, with studs installed around the perimeter of the mounting face (and also appears to be oriented upside-down compared to the one above...which you can do).

Yup...looks like it. Unfortunately I didn't make a note of the uploader, so I don't know if an edited version has replaced it, or if it's just gone - both common occurrences on YT.

"Authentic" Mexican in my neighborhood is now actually a little cheaper than the same amount of food from TB, but whatever addictive substance TB uses keeps me going back---occasionally.

Man...I thought I knew some stuff, but I have NO IDEA what those wheels are. Time for a deep internet rabbit-hole dive I guess...

"Worthwhile" and "burgers" and "White Castle" make me think of Krystal, and as I'll be fairly near one later this PM, I think I'll treat myself to a sack...and some chili-cheese fries.

Wick: You have a PM In my mind, the most famous of all the trimmed-case cars was the 1966 iteration of Ohio George's Ford SOHC-powered '33 Willys. Its engine is shown below with one of his (and Robinson's) magnesium 6-71 housings, cast in the "trimmed" or "pruned" configuration. EDIT: Good color reference for Dow 7 too. It is NOT sparkly metallic as is often portrayed by modelers.

Hurt can make you stronger if you choose to confront and rise above it.

Yeah. I know exactly what you mean.

Looks pretty tasty to me. Nice work.

Looking better and better.

Rides in a hay wagon and picking apples with a pretty girl back in the 1950s sounds like a version of the Matrix I'd gladly plug myself into right about now.

Thank you sir. I really appreciate your interest and comment. I'm kinda thinking of dragging this one out, dusting it off, and showing it on the "primer" table at the upcoming ACME show at the end of October. Maybe get me motivated again...

Well...a lot of guys call them "pruned", and I'm pretty sure there were some cases that were cast in that configuration, probably aftermarket as far as I've been able to find. "Sneaky Pete" Robinson comes to mind as one of the suppliers, cast in magnesium. EDIT: Though I could have sworn there were OEM "oval case" GMC blower housings...because some that I've seen appear to be cast that way with no evidence of machine work or grinding marks, just areas that appeared to be as-cast...I haven't found any photos, and most people say "no, they all had the big lower mounting flange". There ARE, however, non-GMC Roots style blowers that came looking much like "pruned" GMCs. Anyway, "pruned" blowers were on everything from drag cars to rods, and were almost always used on the Potvin-style front-blown setups. Most frequent reasons cited for using them on a top-blown setup were for ease of valve cover clearance, especially on SBC engines, and superior manifold-to-blower sealing. An engine used in competition with a solid-lifter cam will require frequent valve-lash adjustments, so anything that cuts the time down to do that is a plus. And keep in mind that the OEM GMC blower was designed to scavenge the block of a two-stroke diesel, not to provide many extra PSI of supercharging pressure, so the revised mounting required with a "pruned" case, that moved the mount bolts inboard to surround the gasket flange, could be a huge improvement. I also seem to remember that some excessively weight-conscious drag racers who were looking for every ounce they could save would run "pruned" blower housings for that reason, so cast-that-way magnesium cases would be a natural. EDIT 2: Below is a magnesium 6-71 case cast pre-"pruned" in magnesium, by George Montgomery and Pete Robinson, probably used a "pruned" aluminum OEM GMC as a pattern, reputed to be one of about 200 made. More info here, including a copy of a contemporary Car Craft article that specifically states these things were indeed cast without the big OEM mounting flange. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/how-is-a-pruned-blower-case-mounted.999144/page-3. I KNEW I'd seen 'em cast that way somewhere...

Surgery on yourself with a dull, rusty knife really separates the men from the wannabois

Egg salad is much more filling than word salad, and it won't lower your IQ while you listen to it.

More than likely that has to do with the type of "sizing" that was applied to the f'glass cloth or mat. Some materials that work with polyester resins don't wet out well with epoxy, which is why we have to be careful of that very thing when doing aircraft work. The extremely fine-weave glass cloth I use on models now, primarily, is made by Hexel IIRC. It's not very expensive and works very well with the MGS epoxy. I'll look up the numbers if you're interested, though how it will work with other epoxies, like the Bob Smith 30-minute stuff (which I need to experiment with), I don't know. EDIT: Because of the high-strength nature of the MGS resin, I can make body parts that are only .030" thick but are stronger than styrene injection-molded parts that are much thicker. The downside, besides having to be mixed on a gram scale, is that the MGS takes 24 hours for a full cure at room temperature, and to reach full aviation strength it needs to be post-cured at much higher temps. In general, the longer any epoxy takes to cure, the stronger it will be. The longest-curing stuff from Bob Smith and other hobby-grade epoxies I'm currently familiar with is 30 minutes (though that may be the "working time"), so I suspect that parts made from it won't approach the strength I get from MGS...but only testing will tell for sure.

"Bacon!!!" slobbered Homer..."mmmm...bacon"...again and again.

Didn't realize I had a huge colony of yellow jackets living under a trash can, comb and all. I rarely use the can, as I take a bag or two at a time to one of the shops' dumpsters. Sooooo...I figgered I'd clean 'em all out prior to the big pre-Thanksgiving tidy-up in the house, fill 'em and take a big load in the old GMC. Got stung several times before I realized what was happening, then soaked down the entrance with Hilco Lube. Left for a few hours, came back when it was raining, moved the can off the nest and soaked it as well. Activity is way down now but there are still a few visiting the nest, so soaking it again in oil just before I leave is the next thing. First time in over 12 years I've had paper wasp and yellow jacket nests at this place...and a whole lot of big garden spiders (that I usually leave alone to eat the pest bugs). Only bad sting reaction is my right calf, and it's swollen considerably, itches like the absolute devil. Never had that happen before either.

I had that happen on occasion when I had shops. Funny thing was that I always worked IN the shop as well as owing/running it, and usually looked like a "greasy dirty mouth-breathing knuckle-dragger" by noon, and when new clients came in, after I gave them a very rough estimate (with plenty of disclaimers about the difference between "book" recommended flat-rate and what problems might come up on older vehicles, etc.), they'd sometimes ask ME if I did side work, assuming I was just the hired help. "Well sir (or madam), I'm the owner here, and since the second thing you do when you come through my door is try to cheat me, take your problem on down the road." Never cost me a cent because I always had enough repeat and referral business to keep me booked solid.