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Due to a certain car repair I needed to make, I had to buy a hydraulic press. Here it is, standard setup with a bottle jack.

The jack has the lever that you need to use to raise and lower the press. The lever has to be moved from the pump to the release valve, back and forth as you raise and lower the press.

The previous owner had put a zip tie around one leg, so that it could hold the lever and he would have a place to put it. But I did not find that a convenient location.

I found I was just placing the lever on the top of the press. It was very convenient, but not very stable as the lever could just roll off.

So I took some measurements of the top of the press, fired up the old CAD program, and put together an STL file so I could 3D print something that would fit on the top of the press and prevent the lever from falling off.

And it works.

Here is the file in case you need it. STL file for a cap to cover the top of a typical garage hydraulic press

Subtitle: in which I improve the government’s records

Allow me to introduce to you the 2025 SFS List of Baby Names that Combine Similar Pronunciations. That baby name list is the place to go in case you are wondering what are the most popular baby names in 2025 regardless of how they are spelled. The Social Security baby name list does not adjust the rankings based on alternate spellings (like Catherine/Katherine), but SFS does.

It was just Mother’s Day, so the SSA released the name rankings for 2025. Last year’s champion, Liam has repeated as the most popular boy’s name in the US, for the third year, so the trend is official. Liam and Noah and Oliver repeated as the top 3, but Liam’s lead is dwindling.
No controversy for the girls – it’s Sophia again, and by a similar margin as last year, and no signs of slowing down.

Some Stats

• In the top 11 names for the boys, names 1-4 are the same, and then 5-11 have a bunch of shakeup since last year.
• The top 5 names for the girls are the same as 2024, with the only order change being Charlotte overtaking Emma for spot 4. Then 6-10 get all mixed up.
• Again, Liam has the title of the highest-ranked boy’s name that has no spelling variations, at number 1.
• New this year, Charlotte is the highest-ranked girl’s name that has no spelling variations, at number 4.
• Girl names still have more spelling variations than boy names (247/1000 vs. 170/1000 alternates)
• Kayson once again took the prize for the most spelling variations for the boys at 10, well above Kayden with only 6.
• Kehlani once again took the top honor for the girls with 6 ways to spell it, just barely above several names with 5 variations each.

2025 Improved Baby Name List

Click on the link above and peruse to your heart’s content!

Subtitle: in which I improve the government’s records

Allow me to introduce to you the 2024 SFS List of Baby Names that Combine Similar Pronunciations. That baby name list is the place to go in case you are wondering what are the most popular baby names in 2023 regardless of how they are spelled. The Social Security baby name list does not adjust the rankings based on alternate spellings (like Catherine/Katherine), but SFS does.

It is almost Mother’s Day, so the SSA released the name rankings for 2024. Last year’s champion, Liam has repeated as the most popular boy’s name in the US, for the second year, so the trend is official. Liam and Noah and Oliver repeated as the top 3 and with large gains, whereas Jackson is on the decline.
No controversy for the girls – it’s Sophia again, and by a similar margin as last year.

Some Stats

• In the top 11 names for the boys, names 4 and 5 switched spots, and then 6-11 have a bunch of shakeup except name 11 stayed in place, and Lucas and Luca switched spots.
• The top 9 names for the girls are the same as 2023, and in the same order for the first 5. Then 6-9 get all mixed up.
• Again, Liam has the title of the highest-ranked boy’s name that has no spelling variations, at number 1.
• Again, Emma is the highest-ranked girl’s name that has no spelling variations, at number 4.
• Girl names still have more spelling variations than boy names (248/1000 vs. 176/1000 alternates)
• Kayson once again took the prize for the most spelling variations for the boys at 9.
• The girls finally don’t have a tie for most spelling variations – Kehlani gets top honor with 6 ways to spell it.

2024 Improved Baby Name List

Click on the link above and peruse to your heart’s content!

Since I’ve been tracking them, the baby names have been released by the Social Security Administration on the Friday before Mother’s Day.

It is the Friday before Mother’s Day and the names have not been released. Note that it appears the SSA does have the list and let People magazine see it. Why not just let the rest of the world see it too? I’m hoping it will go live this weekend and I can have the baby names updated early next week.

I did not have another blog post planned for this week, and now I’m out of days for this week, so I’m posting this to say why there’s no blog post this week.

For my PT Cruiser, I have a set of summer tires (all-seasons, not actual summer tires) and winter tires. They each have their own rims for easier swapping.

The difference is that my summer tires are on the PT Cruiser rims and the winter tires are on Volkswagen New Beetle rims, so the PT hubcaps don’t fit on the winter wheels.

The problem with that is that with no hubcaps, the axle nut is exposed to water and dirt and salt. Here in Michigan they get rusty and corroded enough even with hubcaps, leaving them exposed is just asking for trouble next time you need to pull the knuckle or axle. So I wanted to cover them up.

So I measured the axle nut and I already knew my bolt pattern (5×100, same as VW New Beetles and Toyota Prii), so I got to work in Tinkercad.

I came up with these thingies. The center bump needed to be large enough to accommodate the axle nut protrusion. And the mini hubcap needed to be large enough to fill in the concavity containing the lug nuts, to effectively keep splashes of whatever from trickling into the axle nut. No, it’s not perfect, as stuff on the outer rim can trickle into the middle. But it’s a spinning wheel so in theory anything viscous enough to drip into the middle would have already been flung off the wheel during driving. Ideally.

I also wanted to lower the print time, so I was going to reduce the material used. I started to make extra holes in the outer skirt, but then that would have allowed stuff to splash in. So I made the material thinner in spots but not holes all the way through.

It did take me about 3 iterations to get the size of the lug holes right (hard to measure well with that taper so it sits snug against the nuts but doesn’t get pinched enough to crack) and to account for the cotter pin variance on the side I didn’t measure.

I printed it in PETG instead of the PLA we normally use. The main reason behind the PETG is better UV resistance. These hubcaps are going to be sitting outside the whole time, lots of sunlight exposure, so UV stability is good.

The end result was this:

And for those of you who are interested enough to print your own, here is link to the STL file for the mini hubcap.

Enjoy!

Subtitle: in which I improve the government’s records

Allow me to introduce to you the 2023 SFS List of Baby Names that Combine Similar Pronunciations. That baby name list is the place to go in case you are wondering what are the most popular baby names in 2023 regardless of how they are spelled. The Social Security baby name list does not adjust the rankings based on alternate spellings (like Catherine/Katherine), but SFS does.

It is almost Mother’s Day, so the SSA released the name rankings for 2023. Last year’s champion, Liam has repeated as the most popular boy’s name in the US, for the second year, so the trend is official. Liam and Noah are still heading upwards, but Oliver and Jackson are on the decline.
No controversy for the girls – it’s Sophia again, and by a similar margin as last year.

Some Stats

• In the top 9 names for the boys, names 3 and 4 switched spots, and then 5-10 have a bunch of shakeup except names 6 and 9 stayed in place.
• The top 11 names for the girls are the same as 2022, and in the same order for the first 4. Then 5-11 get all mixed up.
• Again, Liam has the title of the highest-ranked boy’s name that has no spelling variations, at number 1.
• Again, Emma is the highest-ranked girl’s name that has no spelling variations, at number 4.
• Girl names still have more spelling variations than boy names (238/1000 vs. 167/1000 alternates)
• Kayson once again took the prize for the most spelling variations for the boys at 9.
• For the girls, there is a 7-way tie for most spelling variations. Madelyn, Layla, Kehlani, Charlie, Aria, Adeline, and Aaliyah all have 5 variations.

2023 Improved Baby Name List

Click on the link above and peruse to your heart’s content!

I had some spare sheet metal, so I thought I’d make some driveway decorations.

In theory, you could make these out of cardboard or plastic sheeting or whatever.

I made a set of 3, because that’s how many Mario Kart gives you at a time. Here is what they look like in progress – one finished, one mostly painted, and one not painted.

Please ignore the ugly welds.

The goal was to make them “life-size” if you were to have Mario Kart items in real life. They could be a little larger, but I went with this size because the 10-inch width of each strip was what a bunch of my sections of sheet metal were.

Here is the end result:

I have not tried it, but I doubt they would make you spin out like they do in the game. At best they would scratch the paint or scuff the tire.

In case you do want to try this at home, here is how I made them.