Even during construction, it’s important to have signage for wayfinding.
Signage
Number Stamps
When in need of labeling that won’t come off for anything, stamp it directly into the material surface. No permanent marker; no paint; no adhesive sticker. We have the letters of the alphabet (not pictured) and the numbers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 0.
Six being nine and all. That and five makes a decent-enough ess in a pinch.
Summer Construction Season
Spotted on a nearby office door. Summer is the season for construction around here, for fenced-off parking lots, for the interminable beeping of construction vehicles in reverse, for doors and paths suddenly in need of detours.
But the seasons change, as they ever do, and here we are in autumn, barreling toward winter, whose cold and wind leave us dreaming of construction season once more…
Blow Darts
‘Tis the season for toy kits once more, an entertaining feature of the introductory Physics sequence. Among all of the miscellaneous goodies intended to illustrate Newtonian mechanics through ordinary things, few catch one’s attention like suction-cup blow darts.
Hundreds of plastic tubes and their counterpart foam blow darts.
Panic
An unexpected find in the library while searching on an alternate topic. Welcome back, students!
Preparation
With the impending start of classes, it’s time to get ready. Packing hundreds of toy kits, a collection of odds and ends to show how ordinary things can illustrate scientific principles. Maybe it’s just an excuse to remind everyone how entertaining a yo-yo can be?
In Haste
“Physics Shop needs to be taken to + fixed. Chem 107”
Clearly written in haste, an encouragement for someone else to take this inoperable hot plate down to the shop for repair. But, look, it got here. If it’s fixable, we’ll fix it. So, good enough?
Glass Beads
Four heavy-ish boxes of beads, all soda-lime glass in various sizes. 1 millimeter up to 4. Remnants of an old research project, untouched for years.
But it’s not like they go bad, not on a human timescale. So 60 lbs. of little glass beads, headed for storage, awaiting the day when they’re useful to someone or the space they’re occupying is more valuable for something else.
Anybody have ideas for an arts and crafts project?
Bag of Screws
Approximately half a gallon – the classic method of fastener measurement – of 3/8″, 8-32 thread pan head slotted screws. For $2.00, that’s a pretty good deal… assuming you have a plan for all of those.
Do you have a plan for all of those?
Assorted
Bins of old stuff, acquired because we might find some of it useful before it heads to the scrap heap. And we do, we really do.
But when it comes to unsorted bins of fasteners and other bits, loaded with so many sizes and threads and styles? Fills you with dread until you remember there’s a bin for scrap metal recycling.