{"id":39475,"date":"2021-11-26T09:00:27","date_gmt":"2021-11-26T16:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=39475"},"modified":"2021-12-02T12:12:19","modified_gmt":"2021-12-02T19:12:19","slug":"windell-oskay-robot-designer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/windell-oskay-robot-designer\/","title":{"rendered":"Windell Oskay, Robot Designer"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Our guest this week is Windell Oskay. Windell is the co-founder of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.evilmadscientist.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories<\/a>, where he designs robots for a living. You can find Windell on Twitter <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EMSL\" target=\"_blank\">@emsl<\/a>.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none;\" title=\"Libsyn Player\" src=\"\/\/html5-player.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/21274754\/height\/90\/theme\/custom\/thumbnail\/yes\/render-playlist\/no\/custom-color\/88AA3C\/\" width=\"100%\" height=\"90\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/cool-tools-show-and-tell\/id605920446?mt=2\">Subscribe to the Cool Tools Show on iTunes<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/feedpress.me\/cooltoolsshow\">RSS<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/13T3bP0Mmd62K712UrWJh8FXLZJLBHk6M\/edit?usp=sharing&amp;ouid=114410946437942683660&amp;rtpof=true&amp;sd=true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Transcript<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/tag\/cool-tools-show\/\">See all the Cool Tools Show posts on a single page<\/a><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong>Show notes:\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-39480\" src=\"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2021\/11\/businesslime.jpg\" alt=\"businesslime\" width=\"500\" height=\"452\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2021\/11\/businesslime.jpg 500w, https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2021\/11\/businesslime-300x271.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/geni.us\/Ji3ATz\" target=\"_blank\">Business slime<\/a><\/div>\n<div>This year I worked on a photography project, doing a lot of close-up photographs of objects. This kind of photography is about 5% photography technique, 5% lighting, and 90% cleaning. While compressed gas dusters work fairly well, there is a sense in which they just move dust around. And, more conventional tools like microfiber cloths tend to leave their own debris. I ended up using a type of cleaning gel or \u201cuniversal dust cleaner\u201d as they brand it. It is basically the same stuff that is sold as \u201cslime\u201d in toy stores, but wrapped up in corporate IT-department friendly packages. Nominally, you can clean things like keyboards with it. But as a tool to trap and remove dust for photography, it\u2019s remarkably good.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-39476\" src=\"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2021\/11\/ruler.jpg\" alt=\"ruler\" width=\"500\" height=\"71\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2021\/11\/ruler.jpg 500w, https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2021\/11\/ruler-300x43.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/geni.us\/OJOw\" target=\"_blank\">Mitutoyo 182-107 ruler<\/a><\/div>\n<div>This is a classic 6 inch\/150 mm steel ruler, or \u201cmachinist\u2019s scale\u201d. It\u2019s marked with inches on one side \u2014 subdivided into tenths and hundredths \u2014 and millimeters on the other. Mitutoyo is one of the most respected names in precision measurement, and this particular ruler is simply a joy to use. I use other scales of this size, but this one is just a little thicker and has eight perfectly square sides. It has a better surface finish (precision ground with satin chrome plating), and has markings that are just a little finer, and easier to read. It feels like they could charge $100 for the same thing and get away with it, but it\u2019s about $15, and worth every penny.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-39478\" src=\"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2021\/11\/miteebite.jpg\" alt=\"miteebite\" width=\"500\" height=\"204\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2021\/11\/miteebite.jpg 500w, https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2021\/11\/miteebite-300x122.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/www.miteebite.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Mitee-Bite Catalog<\/a><\/div>\n<div>Mitee-Bite is a manufacturer of workholding equipment for machining. They make a wide range of extremely specialized tools for holding chunks of metal \u2014 sometimes really weirdly shaped chunks of metal \u2014 in place while CNC machines do their thing. I\u2019ve found their little catalog to be one of my most frequent references when designing setups for machining, but also in just designing parts in the first place. There are so many clever tricks that they use to build strong mechanical structures, and there\u2019s a lot to learn from them.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-39481\" src=\"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2021\/11\/orion.jpg\" alt=\"orion\" width=\"312\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2021\/11\/orion.jpg 312w, https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2021\/11\/orion-187x300.jpg 187w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 312px) 100vw, 312px\" \/><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/geni.us\/DzUexN\" target=\"_blank\">Orion SkyQuest XT8 Dobsonian Telescope<\/a><\/div>\n<div>Ask a whole lot of telescope lovers what the best \u201cfirst\u201d telescope is and you\u2019ll probably hear about the Orion XT8, well and above any other suggestion. It\u2019s a Dobsonian, meaning that it\u2019s nearly instant to plop down on a sidewalk and start observing. It\u2019s big enough to let you see all kinds of amazing things, and upgradeable, if you get into it.<\/div>\n<div class='ctx-module-container ctx_default_placement ctx-clearfix'><\/div><span class=\"ctx-article-root\"><!-- --><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cool Tools Show 306: Windell Oskay<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1559],"tags":[2367,1472],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39475"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39475"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39489,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39475\/revisions\/39489"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}