I setup a new blog for my model railroad posts and forgot to post about it here.
My model railroad is named The Blackwing and Western. Go checkout my new blog!
Setting Max Message Size in Mailman 3
This is more a personal note to myself, but it might be useful if others could find this answer more easily.
The web UI for mailman 3 (postorius) does not correctly implement setting Max Message Size (or the mailman API doesn’t support setting it, I’m not sure which.) In any case, you can set the Max Message Size using the mailman CLI like so:
# mailman shell list@example.com
Welcome to the GNU Mailman shell
The variable ‘m’ is the list@example.com mailing list
>>> m.max_message_size=nnnn
>>> commit()
>>> quit()
According to the documentation max_message_size is in kilobytes (1024) so setting it to 1024 would be one megabyte.
You can display the current value of max_message_size by just typing m.max_message_size in the CLI.
Building the STS Freight House
I made the mistake of visiting Scale Model Supplies a few weeks ago. Scale Model Supplies is an old-style hobby shop in St. Paul. It’s been around for a long, long time and has tons of stock. Not just model railroad stock, but they do have a lot of model railroad stock. A lot.
I managed to get out for only about $40, but that’s mainly because I didn’t go down all the aisles with model railroad stuff in them. One of the items I picked up was a laser cut kit to build a freight house. It was produced by Northeastern Scale Models, but they appear to have gone out of business. No matter.
This post will be picture heavy. Because I took a lot of pictures. 🙂
Continue reading →Blucher Glue Works
For my second laser kit I decided to go with something a bit larger. I bought a copy of GC Lasers Blucher Glue Works.
I bought it because it’s visually interesting, and it has an amusing name. If you are unaware of where the name comes from, you need to go watch Young Frankenstein. Interestingly enough, the word “Blucher” is not German for “glue” as is commonly thought. The horse whinny was just added because the producers thought it was funny.
Continue reading →Building Earl’s Oil
I’ve started building some laser cut buildings for my model railroad. I figured that I could get a head start buy assembling some buildings in the winter, before I can start building the actual layout itself.
Continue reading →Built a Spray Booth
The best way to paint models, rail road or other, is with an air brush. Second best is to “rattle can” it with cans of spray paint. Neither of these are recommended indoor activities without some method of venting the fumes.
So I built a small spray booth.
Model Railroading – Time to Start Again
When I was a teen I was crazy about Model Railroading. I loved (and still do) steam engines and I started to build this huge layout in my bedroom.
Continue reading →Building Marceline the Vampire Queen’s Axe Bass
My friend VK approached me about helping her build a working bass as a prop for going to conventions as Marceline the Vampire Queen from Adventure Time.
I had no idea what this was. 🙂 But I was game.
Miata Brakes and other Misc
This weekend I put new front brake pads and rotors on the Miata. The old pads were pretty worn.
Busy Car Work Weekend
This weekend I did a bunch of maintenance on the Subaru and the Miata.
I started out with the Subaru. Since we’ve been having some overheating issues when pulling the trailer I figured I’d replace the radiator and flush and refill the coolant. I also replaced the radiator hoses and thermostat since I was there already.
See if you can guess why the car was overheating based on this photo:
I probably could have just hosed the stuff off and re-used the radiator, but I figured after 200,000 miles the interior was probably silted up a little, and a new one was pretty cheap insurance.
The fluid that came out was pretty nasty looking. I’m afraid that I might have a leaking head gasket since it may have been using coolant a little bit. I have a tester for that and will use it later today. I don’t really want to do head gaskets on this car, but since I recently did it on a friend’s car I know what’s involved and that it can be done without pulling the motor.
After replacing the radiator I also changed the oil and filter since it was due.
Then it was on to the Miata. My friend Ben showed up in time to help with the Miata and I was happy to have him there. It was easier to do some of the things with two people.
First we lifted up the car. Luckily the jack I have fits under the front of the car and, as we discovered, it will lift it high enough that I can put my old ramps under the front wheels. Excellent.
Lifting the rear was a little trickier. The jack didn’t fit under the exhaust (it might fit if the front was not in the air) so we had to go in from the side at an angle. We also had to make sure we didn’t block the location for the jack stand. But we got it up!
I drained the radiator and we replaced the coolant tank. They are plastic, part of the pressurized system and tend to go bad and crack. Cheap insurance to replace it.
Next we crawled underneath and drained the transmission. Easy enough. After it drained we refilled it with the “magic” Ford synth transmission fluid. It’s supposed to make it shift better and the driving I did today seems to support that. Here is where it was really easier to have two people. One to hold the filler hose in the hole and one to run the pump.
After that was done it was on to the differential. Ben pulled the drain plug and then was going to pull the fill plug, but the wrench was too big. What? Mazda, in their infinite wisdom, decided that on the diff the fill plug needed to be a 23mm hex, instead of a 24mm hex like the drain on the diff and both plugs on the transmission.
Why? Who the heck knows?
Do you know how difficult it is to find a 23mm socket? I have a 22mm. I have a 24mm… 23mm is not a normally used size.
So we started driving.
We went to the local Ace hardware. Nope. No 23mm socket.
We went to Home Depot. Nope. No 23mm socket.
We went to Harbor Freight. Surely they will have one. Nope. No 23mm socket.
While we were standing in Harbor Freight Ben looked up Northern Tool on his phone and their web site said they had one. He called them to verify they really had one in stock: “Sure, we have one.” Great. Drive to Woodbury it is then. They did have one. Several actually, 6pt, 12pt, deep, standard. So if you need odd sockets Northern Tool is apparently the place.
So now I have a 23mm socket. It cost all of $3.50. I’ll put in the drawer next to all the other one-off sockets I’ve collected from working on vehicles.
We got home, pulled the fill plug and filled the diff. Whee.
The Miata now drives and shifts great.
Today I’m finishing the coolant flush on the Miata and later I’ll test for hydrocarbons in the coolant on the Subaru. Cross your fingers for me that I don’t find any, because I don’t really want to do the head gaskets if I don’t have to.
Still to do on the Miata today (I’m typing this as I take a break) is to mount the temperature sensor behind the bumper and run some wires for the mirror temp display. I’ll get that done since I already have all the plastic off the bottom of the car. It’s a bit of a pain to pull all that plastic, so as long as it’s off I’ll get this part done at least.
I’m still waiting on some connectors before I can finish wiring up the mirror, but it’s getting closer.