I've always admired stained glass. Last year, I decided to give it a go. I think I'm hooked.

I bought a starter kit and some glass, read a book ( Rainbow Vision SG has a great starter book, and incidentally, is from Harrisburg), and started digging in.

I found inspiration for a first project from a picture online. I needed a pattern to work from, however. So naturally, I drew it in CAD.

I gave Inkscape a try, but quickly realized that I'm an engineer and not a graphics designer, so I switched to Creo Parametric (my favorite modeling software). This may have been overkill, but it got the job done. (I'm guessing most stained glass artists don't work with 3D parametric models of their desgins...)

I ended up with this, which is almost certainly not 1:1 as pictured:

Once I had my pattern, it was time for the real fun to begin.

Cutting glass is an odd experience, at least initially. You take your glass sheet, make a scoring line with your glass cutter, grab your breaking pliers, and then "pop", you have two pieces of glass. Each score has to be a straight line from one edge of the glass to another, so you start to get decent at laying out your pattern to get the most out of your sheet of glass.

During this process, it became quickly apparent that I needed a glass grinder to get the pieces to final shape and clean up the edges. The kit came with a grinding stone, but I think I would have lost what's left of my sanity in the process.

The grinder has a water basin and a pump to keep the diamond cutting head lubricated. It works amazingly well.

With all the glass pieces ground to shape, it was time to start foiling. There are two main methods of assembling stained glass: lead came, and copper foil. Copper foil is generally used for smaller pieces. This piece is 6" square. The foil is adhesive backed, and wraps around the glass.

The copper foil can be applied by hand, but I decided for sanity sake (again) to pick-up a foiling machine. That's the device you see on the far left-hand corner of my workbench. It's basically a tape dispenser with a guide to keep the glass centered. I'm getting the hang of it still, but I can't imagine foiling without it.

Finally, the foiled glass pieces are soldered together, and you get the final result which you already saw:

I've soldered electronics before, and pipes, but never glass. I still need to work on my solder beads, but that will come with time and practice.

I'm already lining-up my next project, so stay tuned...

I've been a bit quiet on the stained glass front since I shared the bluebird panel back in May. I got a bit ambitious on the subsequent project, and decided to build a lamp. Of course, it wasn't enough to build the lamp shade, so I built the base as well.

As always, everything was laid-out in CREO Parametric. I went with a Mission / Prairie style for two reasons. First, I like the style, and second, this style favors square edges rather than complex curves...

I bought some woodworking tools and some project ready walnut and got to work.

I didn't grab many pictures of the lamp base build, but here you can see the Veritas router plane in use. The holes were drilled with the brace and some forstner bits. The lamp base was built entirely with hand tools.

A picture during the glue-up of the lamp base. I decided to use a hide glue to continue down the path of old-fashioned construction techniques. I went with Old Brown Glue, which was really easy to work with. As an added benefit, it only vaguely smelled of horse...

The completed lamp base, stained with poly, wired, and all lamp hardware installed. I can finally say I've wired a lamp!

Now, onto the shade. After a few tweaks to my initial design, I settled on this pattern.

With glass obtained, it was time to start building the first of four panels. The glass was a mix of Bullseye & Oceanside.

Pieces rough cut, before initial clean-up.

Then onto grinding...

and fitting...

and foiling... (also, you can see the brass cap that will be used during final shade assembly)

and soldering. Now, to do this three more times!

With that complete, time to assemble the shade.

The shade was taped and initially tack soldered. I'm seriously considering building a fixture for future endevours... it was bloody difficult getting everything sitting how I wanted it.

Shade soldered, and the cap tinned and tacked in place.

The completed lamp, not illuminated.

And illuminated again.

This was quite an involved project, but one I enjoyed quite a bit!

Another piece completed. This time, inspiration was drawn from a book of Art Deco stained glass patterns published in the '70s.

I alluded to my choice of glass in my earlier post:

I drew the piece from scratch in Creo Parametric, modifying the concept into a 6"x6" panel with a border.

The border is Oceanside Compatible glass, while the remaining pieces are all Youghiogheny stipple glass. This was my first time working with either glass type. Its interesting how different glass behaves differently with cutting and grinding.

The texture and density are some of the attributes that affect how easy the glass is to work with. The smooth, relatively light Oceanside glass is a lot easier to work with compared with the relatively dense Youghiogheny stipple glass.

Something else to note, the Youghiogheny turquoise stipple is iridized. I'm still trying to figure out where iridized glass fits into the equation. The iridization shows up when the glass isn't backlit, and disappears when it is backlit. It's probably more suited to something like a lamp, rather than a panel. However, it doesn't detract from the finished piece, in my opinion.

Here's the piece after it was foiled.

And the finished piece again.

The next piece is in the planning stages, completion TBD.

As I was exploring Elizabethtown on Saturday, I stumbled upon a stained glass shop. Curious, and intrigued by some of the pieces in storefront windows, I decided to stop-in and check it out.

As I walked in, I noticed quite a few interesting pieces scattered around the small front "showroom". As I stood in the "showroom", I could see a stained glass workshop, which occupied 2/3rds of the small main street storefront.

The purveyor, an older gentleman named Jack, was sitting on a couch in said "showroom". He asked if he could help me. I told him I thought the glass-work on display was very impressive and I was curious about the place. We got to talking a bit about the pieces he had on display, and about his background. Jack has been working in stained glass for 20 years and does commissioned jobs and repair work.

We continued to converse, and in the process it came up that I was starting to get into stained glass as a hobby. His eyes lit-up, and he proceeded to spend the next hour and a half giving me a tour of his workshop and sharing his 20 years of knowledge. Tips, tricks, experiences, both good and bad. His favorite tools, some of which he designed and built himself. His tools, glass, and projects in progress were scattered about his workshop, but he knew exactly where everything was. He flipped through his big book of past projects - commissions and personal projects (really, something I should consider doing in some form), recounting stories behind a few of them. Mixed in with all the projects were pictures of his bone-stock Super White MR2 Spyder.

It was a fun encounter, one I won't soon forget. I think he had even more fun sharing than I had listening - I had a lot of fun listening.

Honestly, if I end up like him in another ~ 50 years, I'd be perfectly fine with it.

My most recent stained glass project has taken flight. The inspiration:

A picture a friend took and shared in a group chat.

I imported said photo into CREO Parametric and turned it into a pattern.

All pieces cut, grinding & fitting in progress.

All pieces fitted.

Foiled again!

And the finished project again. The small pieces added some difficulty in grinding, fitting, foiling, and soldering. Additionally, I'm not quite as happy with my glass selection as I'd thought I'd be... specifically, the "tan" background pieces. They are a bit more orange when backlit than I anticipated. I'd have liked there to be a bit more contrast between the background and the orange of the bird. There is still a fair bit of contrast based on the difference in texture and translucence, however, I like it more in the non-backlit state. This is something I should have caught when picking out the glass, but something I'll definitely be watching out for more in the future.

Overall though, I'm quite happy with how this piece turned-out.

By the way, this piece isn't sticking around... it's going to my bird-loving mom for Mother's Day.

The GD WRX is one of those cars. A really good friend of mine recently acquired an '03 WRX from a mutual friend of ours. This particular GD never had a spoiler, which bothered my friend. Mutual friend liked that it didn't have the spoiler... it now has a spoiler.

My friend was looking for complete trunk lids with spoilers, as he didn't wish to drill into the factory non-spoiler trunk lid. A few were listed on eBay in various conditions for ~$500 or so plus shipping. Kinda pricey, and a hassle to ship. Then, we had a though... maybe the local salvage yard has one...?

Now, in the Lehigh Valley (where he lives and where I grew up) we're a bit spoiled. We have access to a Subaru specific salvage yard. It's massive!! PMP Auto Group mostly deals in Subarus as well as Miatas, RX7s, and other enthusiast cars. They even had a few Isuzu Impulses on the lot.

PMP generally strips cars and inventories the parts, however, they will pull parts from cars on the lot for you on the weekends.

Success!! PMP happened to have one out back amongst a whole pile of trunk lids. As a bonus, it still had all its badging, which was missing on the original. As a bigger bonus, the trunk lid was on sale for $50!

Sure, it looked like it was pulled out of the woods, which it kinda was, but it looked like it would clean-up nicely. We bought a few other items while we were there, too.

Several passes with a pressure washer later, and it cleaned up nicely. Well, nice enough to match the rest of the paint. The clear coat on the spoiler looks a bit burnt, but the hood scoop is missing paint, so...

This is the car that really got us into working on cars, so its great that its sticking around. It's a great compliment to his '88 Camaro. In fact, I think he's been driving this one more!

I don't blame him... its a fun car. And it makes all the right noises. It's straight out of the early '00s, TurboXS BOV and all.

(not his, but sounds similar)

With ~198k on the clock, its nice that it's finally being retired from daily status. We've done a lot to it over the years, and it seems like its always needing something. Such is the case with an old WRX.

We have a lot more lined up for it. The biggest thing this WRX needs is some rust repair, and a fresh coat of paint. @MM54, are you free this summer...?

I've been searching for one of these license plates for a few years now, and when I saw this one eBay, I immediately bought it. To understand what this license plate actually is, and why it is special*, a bit of backstory is needed.

Some states issue special license plates for use by vehicle manufacturers. These plates are commonly used on newly introduced vehicles driven on press tours or given to journalists to review. Other times, you may find them on prototypes or test mules. Usually, the plates are issued by the state where the manufacturer is headquartered, but there are exceptions.

Back in 2014, I spotted this Subaru Legacy 3.6R in a hotel parking lot in Mechanicsburg, PA. The BN Legacy was new for the 2015 model year and were uncommon on the road at the time (as I recall). The license plate also stood out, but other than noting that it was odd, I thought nothing of it.

A few years later, in 2018, I spotted this Subaru Crosstrek in a hotel parking lot in Schaumburg, Il. It was the second time I had spotted a MFR plated Subaru in person. By now, having seen these two and having looked more closely at a number of press photos, I started noticing a pattern.

To the best of my knowledge (based only on the two plates I've seen and on looking at countless pictures available online) it appears that in Illinois, manufacturers are issued a specific MFR license plate number. Every plate issued to that manufacturer keeps that same number, while the two letters change. In Subaru's case, that number is 14.

Strangely, Subaru uses MFR license plates from Illinois. I have no idea why. In the US, Subaru is based out of New Jersey (formerly Cherry Hill, now Camden). They do have a manufacturing plant in the mid-west, however that is located in Lafayette, Indiana. It's a mystery!

The "IL 14 MFR" plates have stayed true over the last 15 years. However, you may have noticed that asterisk in the first paragraph... this is where things get a bit fuzzy.

The Tribeca pictured above has a IL MFR plate from 2007. This is the earliest one I've found a picture for online. Prior to this, Subaru was using New Jersey MFR plates.

Take this B9 Tribeca...

Or this Baja...

There doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason behind the numbering of the New Jersey MFR plates, but that's not important at the moment.

This practice dates back to the late '70s or early '80s, based on the BRAT.

There does seem to be some overlap in usage, based on this BRZ circa 2012.

The question remains... did Subaru have the "IL 14 MFR" plates back in 2002 when my plate was issued? Was it ever on a Subaru press fleet vehicle or prototype? Did some other manufacturer have "IL 14 MFR" plates until Subaru stated using them? It is unlikely I will find an answer.

That being said, this is the only "14" plate I've seen for sale, and if its not quite genuine by backstory, it's likely the closest I will get. I have to imagine Subaru keeps a tight hold on these plates, likely destroying them once expired. There may be the rogue plate in circulation, but it can't be common.

If it is genuine, then I have found my favorite piece of Subaru memorabilia. If it isn't... nobody will ever know or care... (except for OPPO)

Not how I wanted my Sunday to go.

Long story short, I was making the curve towards my apartment when the Camry driver strayed into my lane. I veered right best I could, but this was the outcome.

Driver claimed I was in her blind-spot / driver's side pillar. Sure, OK... she got two citations. I got none. What a dope!

Now to deal with insurance.

I found this at a flea market this past weekend. I was unaware that these existed until I saw this one. After some research, I learned that these were first issued on January 1st, 1987 as a commemorative piece for the Space Shuttle Challenger. The $25 extra fee went to the Astronaut Memorial Fund. Last registered in 1992; its a little beat-up, but a neat find.

I also found this, which can only be described as teal...

My friend's late '80s Craftsman air compressor became an unscheduled project this past weekend. It's been getting a bit noisier over the last few years, but only recently started knocking a bit. I don't think getting the sand blast cabinet running again has helped this...

Well, it reached the point where we were getting concerned it might disassemble itself, so we decided to see what was up.

First though, we swapped in the complete spare pump my friend had sitting on a random shelf, because of course he has a spare laying around. The compressor is running great, and sounds a lot better.

While we had both pumps on the bench, we discovered a potential source of the knocking. I'm no expert on air compressor pumps, and don't know the specs for this particular one, but I kinda doubt the crankshaft should have ~0.040" of play fore and aft...

Disassembly commenced, which was fairly straight forward. Removing the pulley took the longest.

The rearmost bearing is a little worse for wear...

Generally speaking, the rollers in roller bearings are supposed to turn...

It turns out, this compressor pump was made by Devilbiss, and many parts are still readily available. We'll see if some new bearings make any improvement. Worst case, we still have the spare pump as a fallback.

I really hope we don't need a new cranksheet though, as it’s NLA...

Bonus shop cat picture!

@ttyymmnn

Amusingly, one of the 5s was throwing the Paper Jam error without having a paper jam. One of the pickup rollers wasn’t picking up the paper in the first place.

@Just-Jeepin Wonderful!

@jminer Thankfully this one has a JetDirect card!

@atfsgeoff Good to know that the enterprise stuff is still good. My opinion of modern HP printers has been colored entirely by their consumer line.

My 4 came from a university. The 5s from the high school my friend teaches at.

That’s a nice score!

@Just-Jeepin And still supported on Windows 10!

@tophercrowder I wouldn't be surprised if they actually are! These are fun to move!

My trusty LaserJet 4M+ suffered a hardware failure last week. Specifically, the power supply died. Likely the original from 1995, it had a good run. This printer started life as a printer for a university. Only 127k page count though.

In most cases, this would mean time for a new printer... but, what do you do when you have a LaserJet from the mid-90s...?

You scavenge a compatible and slightly newer power supply from a LaserJet 5, of course! My friend has a few of these laying around and happened to have one for parts. The middle printer was the donor, the 4M+ on the right.

Don't you miss when printers were easy to work on? Very little needed to come apart.

The dead power supply. Amusingly, you can still find refurbished power supplies for these.

Fun fact: while the power switch for the printer is located on the lower front corner, the actual switch is located in the power supply. There is a mechanical linkage nearly the width of the printer to turn it on!

@ClassicDatsunDebate I'll have to check this out. I've been really getting into Jazz Fusion lately.

@Highlander That's a neat story. Through high school I played the Benge Los Angeles trumpet my dad bought new in the mid-70s. It was cool playing something with family history, and I think my dad enjoyed seeing it get used again.

@Roadkilled

Honda tuners started doing this 10 years ago... maybe it will finally catch on for the mainstream?