Fabrication PCB

Pasta has to be Italy’s greatest contribution to world cuisine. Most people usually associate pasta with noodles, but pasta actually refers to a wide assortment of flour and grain concoctions that come in a variety of shapes. Macaroni is one such pasta that is not in noodle form. The word pasta comes from the Italian word for paste or dough.

Pasta also refers to dishes that have pasta as the main ingredient and which are usually spruced up with sauce or a type of seasoning.

There are two ways to cook pasta- by extrusion and by lamination. Extrusion mashes the ingredients through a die, which is a plate with holes. Lamination calls for the dough to be kneaded and folded, later rolled to achieve a thick mixture before it is cut with the use of slitters. Fresh pasta is easy to cook and is ready quickly but it spoils easily as well since its content is mostly water. Dry pasta lasts longer because it has only around 10% moisture.

There are now Italian pastas as well as American pastas. The Italian pasta, which has a yellow color and a chewy texture, comes from durum wheat semolina. American pastas are made from farina and semolina, with a texture and flavor that are inferior to Italian pastas and are used mostly in casseroles. There are also Asian noodles, which are thinner than pasta and come from wheat flour.

The most popular pastas are certainly the noodle-type pastas such as spaghetti and vemicelli. Macaroni is the most popular short tube pasta, followed by penne. Fettucine and linguine are pasta that are shaped like ribbons. There is also pasta made from tiny grains such as couscous and orzo as well as pasta made from large sheets like lasagna. Ravioli, tortellini and manicotti are an entirely different pasta group, as they are hollow pasta that is filled with stuffing.

Here’s a little known fact about pasta. Did you know that it was Thomas Jefferson who first brought macaroni to America? Upon returning to the US in 1789 after a stint as the ambassador to France, Jefferson brought with him a macaroni machine, which was the first such recorded contraption in the United States.

Jonathon Hardcastle writes articles on many topics including Cooking, Home Improvement, and Outdoors

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I started scrapbooking about three years ago. When I decided to take the big leap into what has become a beloved hobby, I had no idea what supplies I needed or even how to plan layouts and purchase supplies based on those plans. I ended up buying more than I needed, along with items that I didn’t use and still don’t use to this day. If I had taken the time to research and plan, I would have saved a lot of time and money.

Over a long period of time, scrap booking can and will be a very expensive hobby. But the longer you scrap and the more familiar you become with tricks and techniques, the more supplies you will need to be able to accomplish what you’d like with the pages you’re planning. That doesn’t mean that you need to buy all of those supplies at once, though. The best way to start - and determine whether or not scrap booking is a hobby you’d like to continue - is to start with the most basic supplies and add as you go.

There are three things in my scrapbooking supplies that I find to be indispensable:

A 12″ paper trimmer is useful for trimming both 12″ by 12″, as well as 8

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We’ve been working the whole year on planning for the candy windows that the Provo Arts Council sponsors each year at Christmas time. I was in charge of getting a globe for the moon in our display. I thought that would be easy enough, but it wasn’t. I finally resorted to building two half round lamp shades and putting them together.
Since the globe is a free form piece with no laid out pattern pieces, I started with strips of glass, cut with a strip cutter.

I knew that the final globe would be covered in candy and icing, so I didn’t have to worry about the gaps and perfect solder job that most lamp projects require.

I prepared a “Worden” Styrofoam lamp base by laying tape over it to protect it. I added side pieces to constrain the pieces and I put horseshoe nails along the edge where I wanted the glass pieces to start.

Since the mold was round, I needed to lay strips on the mold and mark where they should probably go.

I started at the bottom of the mold and worked my way to the top, marking the glass, foiling it and tacking the pieces together, a row at a time.

I laid up one row at a time, so they wouldn’t fall off.

At the same time, I laid up a row of glass on the other side of the mold.

I foiled the row as soon as it was cut out.

I set the mold on the soldering table and soldered in much the same manner that we always work.

As I tacked the pieces together, gravity worked against me. But I didn’t worry about drips at this stage of construction.

At the top, I selected a bigger piece of glass to fill in the final space.

After the panel was tacked, I needed to solder the outside while still on the mold. I placed the mold in a box with paper to support things. I also used a garbage can to raise the piece up to a comfortable height.

After the outside of the panel was complete, I gently removed it from the mold.

Then I placed the panel into the box for soldering. It’s very important to solder along the most flat line possible, so placing the glass on paper allows me to shift and balance the panel for successful soldering.

That was easy, then I just had to build five more panels. Once they were done I began to tack the three top panels together.

I had to pinch the gaps together.

I also had to be careful not to let hot solder drip on me as I held things together.

Then, it was back to the box to solder the inside connections. It would be difficult to solder them after the globe was finished.

I then placed the top half of the globe on the table, ready to align the bottom half of the globe to it.

Finally, the globe is ready for final assembly. I place the two halves together to test for alignment.

Before I can solder the two halves together, I need to attach the wires which we will hang the globe from. Later I’ll solder a rib of copper wire around the opening to add a little more strength so that there will be less stress on the glass as the globe hangs.

I have to add foil around the gap that runs around the “equator” of the globe. Then I solder around it, sealing the gap. I also solder all the areas that haven’t yet been soldered on the outside of the globe.

I have to reach a long way to solder on the inside of the globe. After that I add a piece of glass which closes the bottom of the globe and allows for a nice flat surface for the globe to rest as other work is done to it.

I then cleaned it well with cleanser and brush and hosed it out.

The last thing to do is attach the wires on the completed globe to the ring which it will hang by.

You’ll be able to see the globe if you visit Provo during the Christmas season. But it won’t look the same. It will be covered in candy as part of the window displays they do every year.

Photos that go with this article are at http://www.betterstainedglass.com/Newsletter/
Archives/2005Nov-buildaglobe/nov2005buildaglobe.htm

David Gomm started building stained glass windows professionally back in 1983 and has become an expert at many aspects of stained glass building, design and repair. He writes a monthly newsletter at his better stained glass website.

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