Announcements – Page 3

Update on the DDO Restoration

Written on November 29, 2020.

New paint job on the dome Ylab’s home at the DDO has been undergoing an extensive restoration since the spring. As scaffolding is starting to come down, it’s looking amazing. The work has been extensive. Removing all the old lead paint without getting it in the environment. Carefully restoring all the windows to their original...

Another fix-it night. Sorry, Crappy Tire.

Written on November 7, 2019.

We just happened to pick this one Our recent fix-it night posts here and here seem to have a common thread: crappy Crappy Tire tools that need repairing. This week… well, we didn’t intend to pick on them. It was just the luck of the draw. Small 12V tire compressors – the type that plugs into the cigarette lighter 12V...

Closing up the desktop project

Written on November 3, 2019.

Case closed. Desktop too. We posted earlier about our project to make a lockable enclosure for the reception desk of our home, the David Dunlap Observatory. We left that post with a pretty crappy picture. Protective plastic was still covering it. Test usage showed an area for improvement. Sliding everything into place would work better...

More tool repair

Written on October 31, 2019.

Nose to the grindstone Last week we posted about our evening repairing crappy Crappy Tire tools. One tool could not be fixed. Here once again is our picture of a pair of side-cutters that broke simply doing what side-cutters are supposed to do. Reminds us of the old mechanic’s joke about there being two types of tools – Snap-On...

Fix-It Night for Crappy Tire Stuff

Written on October 21, 2019.

We have a bunch tools at ylab, and some of them from Crappy Tire. We can call them that – after all, Canadian Tire fought for the use of that name. You would normally think we would be using their tools to fix other things. Nope. We had to fix the tools. This Mastercraft drill is about 4 years old, the first 3 1/2 years being unused...

Ylab Fall Kick Off: Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Periodic Table of the Elements.

Written on October 18, 2019.

Your high-school periodic table was never this cool. UNESCO has declared 2019 to the International Year of the Periodic Table to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Mendeleev periodic table. You know, that thing you studied in high-school chemistry. Ylab member and high-school chemistry teacher Karen could not let that go unnoticed. Working...

You’re doing what with a microwave???

Written on October 18, 2019.

Don’t be a hero. Many pages on the Internet tell you how to make a spot welder from a discarded microwave oven. We always thought it was a crazy idea. And then a couple of the more experienced ylab members told us it made sense and would not result in electrocution or being nuked into a medium-rare meat sack. That explains some of the...

Ylab and A.I. North team up: Python crash course on Sept 20

Written on September 8, 2018.

Ylab member Lucian has been running the Artificial Intelligence North meetups for the last couple of years at Markham Public Libraries’ Angus Glen branch. He’s had an incredible variety of quality speakers and topics – machine learning, neural networks and more. Click on the link to see for yourself. The meetups have...

Radio Open House: New Faces, New Ideas

Written on June 27, 2018.

Great to see many new faces at our amateur radio open house on Monday, June 25. In addition to the presentation and discussion around the various aspects of amateur radio, we had a great group of people from Toronto Mesh. Directional antenna for mesh networks. They are active in several areas of distributed mesh networks, and are putting...

Radio non-silence. Background non-noise.

Written on April 9, 2018.

Ylab has run some amateur radio events and classes with our friends from the York Region Amateur Radio Club (YRARC). We like radio stuff because there’s a history of it at the DDO, and there’s some fascinating new activity and technology that’s clearly not your grandfather’s old ham rig. Some ylab members are also Scout leaders, and we’ve been helping...

YLab

Located inside the Richmond Hill David Dunlap Observatory
123 Hillsview Dr, Richmond Hill, ON L4C 1T3