January 2005

Engineering

First, something of an introduction:

I'm a degreed mechanical engineer (UNO, 80 and 84) with mucho electrical engineering courses who specializes in the design of high performance underwater equipment. In the course of doing this I use SolidWorks MCAD software to design the equipment, Nastran from Noran Engineering to analyze the equipment, LabVIEW from National Instruments to control the equipment and IntelliCAD to layout out hydraulic and electric schematics to operate the equipment. I've been doing this since the mid-eighties so I hopefully I'm pretty good at it by now!

RM-300

Things at PCS have been rather slow, but luckily I've kept busy until the last week or so:

Over the summer of 2004, I helped the principles at Ocean Dynamics rewrite the control software for the RM-300, which is a large cable spool handling machine.

This thing is enormous and is the largest piece of equipment I've ever written code to control. All the software was developed inLabVIEW v7.0 from National Instruments. It had been a while since I had done any coding in LabVIEW, but the visual nature of LabVIEW allowed me to effectively jump right back in. You can see a more pictures here.

EMD

In the fall PCS decided to develop a tool to accurately measure the inside and outside diameter of pipe and collect the data for analysis of the optimum line up condition of pipe ends for welding. I designed and assembled tools for both 10" pipe and 16" pipe. The tools use lasers to measure the pipe and the data is relayed through interface boards from www.rs485.com to a Symbol Palm Pilot hand held computer.

The tools take measurements at 16 discrete points around the periphery of the pipe and a data analysis routine was written to properly line up the pipe ends for welding. There seems to be some interest in taking data at many more points, but nothing concrete has been defined as of yet.

Al Tortorich at New Orleans Machine and Fabrication did the machine work and all the mechanical and electronic assembly was done by yours truly. I'll post some pictures of the actual tools forthwith.

T D Williamson

As I mentioned on the front page, I've been commuting from my home in Slidell, LA to Houston, TX every week to assist in the development of some pipeline tools for the offshores services division of TD Williamson. I've been designing some extremely small hydraulic control systems for actuation of the pipeline tools. I can't tell you a lot more as I am under NDA, but it's been really interesting and a challenging project.

That's about all I have to talk about. More later....

Woodworking ala Dubea

My woodworking hobby has recently been revitalized as I have had more time to do some things. I've decided to embark upon a bold initiative to update all the mounting base for the free standing tools that I own. One of the caveats to all this is the tools must be moveable because when I'm not using it my workshop moonlights as a garage for our two cars.

Table Saw

My first foray was the table saw. I have a 50's era Sears Craftsman 10" radial saw that my grandfather used to build Lafitte Skiff's from cypress. It was handed down to my Dad when my grandfather died, but my Dad really doesn't understand the use of the table saw, so it sat many years in his garage until he gave it to me. I completely disassembled the saw and replaced the bearings and some missing bits and pieces. The parts people at Sears are really missing the boat here. They didn't have a clue and I wound up buying everything I need from other sources. After doing this, I discarded the rickety frame that someone had made to support the saw and decided to build one out of mdf. Nick Engler had recently posted a piece in American Woodworker about building a multiple cabinet base for a contractor table saw, so I fired up SolidWorks on the computer and started designing what I wanted.

This is what I wound up with:

The neat part of designing in SolidWorks is I had drawing of all the individual parts so this would be a cinch. Hah! I went off to our local Home Depot and was astounded to find out how much mdf weighs. Whew, this stuff is heavy! Well, I managed, with the help of a HD employee, to load 5 sheets of mdf into the truck. So far so good. I started doing my cutting but what I didn't realize that mdf comes in 49" x 97" sheets. Naturally I made all my critical cuts 1" wider than I needed so when it came time to assemble, nothing fit. Well instead of measuring twice and cutting once, I measured once and cut twice. In the end it all worked out and the base works great. The downside is the removable out feed table weighs more than I do and is a real chore to use. I have to design something that permanently attaches to the saw that folds down when not in use. As part of process I discarded the fence that came with the saw (actually I gave it to a fellow woodworker from rec.woodworking) and bought a Biesemeyer home series fence for the saw. I love the fence!

Ultimate Work Bench

I was reading Popular Woodworking (I think) when I saw an article for the "Ultimate Work Bench". This was a carcase type of bench that would handle several of my "portable" tools such as the cut off saw, thickness planer, etc. The article can be found here . Again I fired up my SolidWorks and this is my version:

Router Configuration	Chopsaw Configuration	Thickness Planer	Outfeed/Clamping

The project was completed over the Christmas vacation and took 5 sheets of mdf and created a dusty mess in my workshop (aka garage). It took me a full day to vacuum up all the dust generated in the cutting. I definitely have a love/hate relationship going with mdf! I still have some details to finish like cutting the clamp slots in the tops, cutting the whole for the router plate, etc, but the bulk of the effort is complete. I made some modifications to the concept such as the sliding top sections to accommodate my thickness planer, but overall it holds true to the spirit of the concept.

Workbench

I had a pile of dimensional lumber left over from when we built the house and after ten years decided to do something with it. Yes I can be slow sometimes. I planed it all down to consistent thicknesses and glued it all together to make a workbench top. Thus far that's as far as I've gotten. I've got to build a base and buy a vise to mount on it. I know it weighs a ton. Someday I might build something light. Hah!

Jointer/Planer

Next on the hit parade is my jointer/planer. It's still on the rickity dimensional lumber base I made for it shortly after we moved in the house. I need to do some research on the best type of base for it.

Photos

Welcome to the photo page of dubea.com. I've recently become the proud owner of a Nikon D-70 digital camera. It's been a relearning experience as I was heavily into photography while I was in college. In those days I was a purist and used an Olympus OM-1 35 mm SLR. It was manual everything and I only had a couple of prime lenses.

My how things change. The D-70 is auto everything and has a 17-80 mm zoom lens. Auto focus, auto exposure, etc, etc, etc. Couple this with the added complexity of digital photography and we have quite the learning experience. Add into the mix the SB-800 TTL flash and 70-300 mm zoom I bought before Christmas and wow, information overload. I did buy a 50mm f1.8 prime with the zoom and the flash and it's like going home. Everything becomes familiar again. Walk before you run dubea. Walk before you run.

In saying all that these photos are particularly pedestrian. Nothing outstanding here. There isn't anything here that's going to astound you. This site is for me to learn. HTML, CSS, digital photography, etc. So please be kind.

Annapolis | Total images: 26 | Date added: 22.11.2004

This is from a trip I took to Annapolis on business. Here are some photos of the Severn River and surrounding countryside.

DAR | Total images: 5 | Date added: 22.11.2004

Maureen LeBlanc Gravesite DAR Commemoration.

Fall Encampment | Total images: 73 | Date added: 22.11.2004

Here are some photos I shot at Camp Salmen in Kiln, MS at the Boy Scout Fall Encampment.

French Quarter | Total images: 11 | Date added: 22.11.2004

We decided to take the new Canal Street streetcar from the beginning near City Park to the end of the line in the French Quarter in New Orleans. Here are a few of the images.

Memphis | Total images: 10 | Date added: 22.11.2004

After getting Meghan settled in her room at Ole Miss (see Oxford trip), we drove to Memphis to see the Masters of the Medici exhibition at the Phoenix. After the exhibit we walked around Beale Street a bit. Unfortunately, there isn't much in Memphis open on Sunday.

Oxford | Total images: 13 | Date added: 22.11.2004

We traveled to Oxford, MS to get Meghan settled in her dorm at Ole Miss.

Phoenix International | Total images: 20 | Date added: 22.11.2004

This is from a trip I took to Landover, MD to visit the office of Phoenix International. I was there to witness a test of the drilling equipment mounted on the back of their ROV, the Nereus II. Unfortunately, the hydraulic system on the ROV had water in it, so the test was postponed.

Phoenix International | Total images: 74 | Date added: 22.11.2004

This is from a return trip I took to Landover, MD to visit the office of Phoenix International. I was there to witness a test of the drilling equipment mounted on the back of their ROV, the Nereus II. The tests went wonderfully, and a nice clean hole was drilled in the limestone in less than an hour.

RM-300 | Total images: 18 | Date added: 22.11.2004

This is the RM-300, a machine designed and built by Ocean Dynamics, Inc. to manipulate large cable spools. I helped OD rewrite the control software over the summer of 2004.

Sunrise | Total images: 9 | Date added: 22.11.2004

A few sunrise shots taken over Lake Pontchartrain.

The Woods | Total images: 15 | Date added: 22.11.2004

Here are some pictures from my neighborhood, "The Woods" in Slidell, LA. These were taken during brief respite from a several day long rain shower in August.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all. There isn't much going on in our lives at present. Jourdan just celebrated his 10th birthday on Saturday with a bevy of friend for an overnight stay at the house. It is an annual experience, but they aren't getting any quieter! Meghan is home from Ole Miss for the semester break. She will return to Oxford next week for the spring semester.

Melanie and I will be doing a more thorough than usual housecleaning this spring as I think we are going to put the house up for sale once the weather warms a bit. This should be an interesting experience. I've only sold one other house before and that was over 10 years ago. It's always odd having strangers walking through your home.

I've added some content to the woodworking and professional sections. Have a look!