New Book, More Research.
In this post, a bunch of stuff about Monaco and the French Riviera, castles and some machine guns.
References
More Research Stuff
This is the next in my ongoing research into the early 20th Century and New York City, with other things thrown in. I keep finding interesting things that I can use in the Dark Wars stories.
Even more research odds and ends
We live in amazing times. So much can be available at your fingertips.
This is another of my series of the things I found while writing my Mermaids story.
Here is the Research Odds and Ends Series
https://theartsmechanical.wordpress.com/2017/08/22/research-odds-and-ends/
https://theartsmechanical.wordpress.com/2017/09/14/more-research-odds-and-ends/
https://theartsmechanical.wordpress.com/2017/11/10/still-more-research-odds-and-ends/
More Research Odds and ends.
Here’s some more link and related stuff. In this post I’m going to do things like link to books in my library as well. Do I think that everybody will be able to access naval academy textbooks from the 1930’s? Not really, but I never expected to find them either, but when I did I bought them. and the set of The History of Technology and that book on farm life in the Nineteenth Century. The reason I have those references is that that I was open to buying them in the first place. As a writer the goal to be to write a book that Sarah Hoyt will not throw across the room. Your goal should be to not insult the reader’s intelligence, not go so far off the deep end that reader never wants to come back. You should do enough world building that the reader will feel comfortable living in that world.
My Hardware Favorites Folder, A Let’s Build Resource
Over the years, I’ve accumulated the websites of a bunch of stuff that I’ve used or might need someday. This my file of the engineering odds and ends that I can go to when I need to find something or look for a vendor for a part. It’s a rather eclectic collection, but saving stuff like this can save you time when you are pushing for that special part or machine element. It’s one of my more useful tools. At one time I kept most of these places as paper catalogs, but it’s easier to keep weblinks. So there are the links from my IE favorites folder.
Some Free Magazine Resources, Let’s Build
A guide to 3D printing from Machine Design.
http://machinedesign.com/3d-printing/ask-experts-3d-printing-tips-and-techniques
A whole bunch of stuff on motion control from Design News.
http://www.motioncontroltips.com/
The “Let’s Build” Series
Mechanical Toys, A Let’s Build Resource
Does anybody remember the old erector sets? Well you can get kits to do the same sort of stuff. Expensive ones. If your prototyping transmissions and linear motion these are big time savers. That’s important in product development.
https://www.sparkfun.com/news/1345
https://www.servocity.com/html/actobotics.html
Wm. Berg also sells prototype drive kits.
I’ll put updates on this page with more stuff like this as I run into it.
The “Let’s Build” Series.
Electronics Surplus Dealers. A Let’s Build Resource
Found this list here.
http://www.contrapositivediary.com/?p=2726
By and large the surplus business in the US is small operations and one person shops. Probably a lot of them have disappeared in the recent economy unfortunately as their source of supply and customer bases dried up. I’ve used none of these places and Don’t know how good the service is. This list is for reference only. I’m just going down the list to see of the websites work.
A Maker’s And Engineering Bookshelf. Lets Build Resource
I buy lots of books, on everything. As an engineer and a maker, I’ve managed to acquire a large collection of books on how to make just about everything. This list is going to be the books that should be anybody’s bookshelf if they want to know how to get stuff made and don’t have the skills right to hand. Any book on this list will be a book I own and like. I’m going to pick the that I have in a bunch of relevant areas. Most of these books have been a round for a long time and stood the test of time. Some of them may be out of print, but you can look online and in used bookstores. Many of the engineering books can be had very cheaply as they are not fast movers. Unless you are a millionaire and don’t care, or need a reference immediately, don’t pay full price if you don’t have to. This post is going to be updated as I pull more books or buy more books and read them.
The Arts Mechanical 