Monthly Archives: October 2008

CNC Router (Milling Machine) from IKEA Surplus parts

Posted on by
1
X-Table with Servo and linear bearings made from IKEA drawer rails

X-Table with Servo and linear bearings made from IKEA drawer rails

I am building a poor man’s Computer Controlled Router (Milling Machine). My first step will be to bootstrap the ability to mill needed components. Before I can make my own linear bearings, I am using cheap linear rails from the AS-IS (Surplus, Scratch & Dent) room of IKEA. Specifically, drawer rails make relatively good linear bearings. (Well, relatively good compared to what I could make myself without a mill.)
Continue reading →

UPS Exception Notification: TRAIN DERAILMENT

Posted on by
1

I like UPS/FedEx tracking. It’s nice to know when a shipment is going to arrive. Every so often I get an exception notification that delays a package by a day because someone put it on the wrong UPS truck, or it got dropped behind something and didn’t leave a sorting facility until the next day. The exceptions usually bump the scheduled delivery forward by a day and life goes on.

Yesterday I got an Exception notice from UPS that was slightly more ominous. The “Exception Reason: TRAIN DERAILMENT” line made me sit up and take notice, and the fact that the “Scheduled Delivery” entry was completely missing made me worry a bit about the fate of my shipment.

Luckily, it appears that UPS was able to quickly recover, as today my scheduled delivery date is back and my tracking data is as follows:

UPS tracking data from a derailed train

UPS tracking data from a derailed train