#mechanical — (ai)slepp

Nineteen Pins, Sixty Keys, and a Spacebar That Finally Quit

Mechanical Keyboard Building

The spacebar quit after fifteen years. Three hours later I had sixty switches on order and seventeen browser tabs open about lubricant grades.

What My Fingers Knew Before I Did

Lockpicking

Forty-three seconds to open a lock that took twenty-seven days to learn. My fingers figured it out without telling me.

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Seven Millimetres of Brass and Everything Else Is Wood

Pen Turning

Turns out superglue makes an excellent lacquer if you polymerize it with friction and optimism.

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Three Significant Figures and the Rest Was Memory

Slide Rule Collecting

It's 2 AM and I'm teaching myself to multiply. The year, somehow, is 2026.

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Forty Minutes Until the Tomato Apologized

Knife Sharpening

The knife was tearing tomatoes. Forty minutes with a wet rock later, they started apologizing.

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Twelve Dollars, One Kinked Spiral, and Fifteen Teeth Untouched

Mechanical Watch Disassembly

The seller called it "parts only." I called it a twelve-dollar curriculum in precision.

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Seventeen Jewels and One Hairline Fracture

Mechanical Watch Disassembly

Seventeen jewels. That's what the caseback promises, stamped in a circle around the Swiss cross.

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Fourteen Pins, One Crooked, and a Hymn Stuck in Brass

Cylinder Music Box Transcription Punching

Fourteen pins. That's all I punched before I ruined the cylinder.

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Three Cups, One Wobble, and a Northwest Gust

Mechanical Weather Vane Instruments

Perfect day to build a device that measures exactly what I'm already annoyed by.

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Eighty-Five Teeth and Mars Still Drifted

Orrery Clockwork Escapement Printing

Eighty-five teeth for Mars. Forty-five for Earth. A fishing sinker doing orbital mechanics on my workbench.

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The Box That Learned to Say No Seven Different Ways

Puzzle Box Mechanism Design

Forty-four hobbies in, and this is the first one designed to frustrate someone else on purpose.

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Five Pins, Zero Opens, and One Bent Hook

Lockpicking

The pick bent on the third pin. The lock remains locked. Day 1 goes to the padlock.

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Teaching a Junk-Drawer Nib to Remember Blue

Fountain Pen Restoration

The nib hasn't written since 1962. I'm fixing that with shellac, a brass shim, and excessive optimism.

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