So...

[Aethian]

With all that has been happening lately I really had no where to escape to. I had work and I had the apartment and whatever games I could run on this slightly decrepit laptop. One of the customers mentioned having more work he could handle and if he could find someone to train to take over some of what he was doing. I laughed and said I would do it, he really didn't anything to that.

Till a few days later and I went for my first training session of repairing and cleaning Perkins Braillers. Yes you read that right a brailler.

The first night it was taking one apart to figure out why it didn't do what it was supposed to do. We found it to be a over stretched spring not even the length of my pinkie nail. After that it was time for me to head out and for the brailler to sit for 24 hours before getting oiled and put back together.

The next time I was there we finished that brailler and when trying to put it back together we found that it wouldn't sit flat and instead rocked. So it got shifted and a different screw put in and huzzah it sat nice and flat. Having enough time we started another brailler and the complaint on it was that a few of the keys weren't leaving marks. Testing it however didn't give that problem and so after cleaning it up and testing it again it seemed to be fine, but for some reason was leaving shadow bumps on a space. Long story short on that one, it just needed cleaning and a screw tightened.

Last night I got to work on one all by myself...well with my teacher standing next to me working on one himself. The note with it said that it wasn't leaving any indents at all. But it tested fine... Sat level on the desk... Oh look sticker parts IN the brailler, okay well then it's time to open it up and do a light cleaning and checking on the oiling of some parts.

Four hours later it was set to rest for 24 hours. Turned out a pin about a inch long was bent and so in certain instances it didn't leave the marks. Since I didn't have to work today he had me come in to finish that brailler up. It surprisingly didn't take long and looked pretty good when I finally was able to box it up.

Then I got to start work on my second one...came from MSU...looked so nice and clean. Cept for some reason it liked to take in the paper and not stop...started taking it apart and the paper feed lever is all gunked up. But we only got up to that point... He's going to show me how to take that part off and clean it up, next Monday.

So this is a interesting learning experience and maybe a profitable one when I can do these on my own. I'm far from that however.

[AccountingDrone]

Now that sounds like a wonderfully obscure job - and a critical one that nobody even thinks about normally.

I think it is neat, especially since I like fiddly little stuff like that

[Aethian]

What's funny is in looking them up I've only found 10 places that do repair/cleanings over the whole US. I'm sure there are more but I didn't find them in a loose google search.

[SongsOfDragons]

Is a Brailler like a typewriter but for Braille? Or is it one of those doobries that translates a web page into something that can be felt? Do you have a photo of one? Or do I have the wrong end of a many forked stick as per usual?

*iz fascinated*

I can't help but imagine something very Steampunky

[Ree]

That's really great!

It just might turn into something profitable as a side job, or even a main job, if there are only about 10 places that do the kind of work you're learning.

Nice.

[Aethian]

Is a Brailler like a typewriter but for Braille? Or is it one of those doobries that translates a web page into something that can be felt? Do you have a photo of one? Or do I have the wrong end of a many forked stick as per usual?

*iz fascinated*

I can't help but imagine something very Steampunky

It is just like a typewriter and even has some of the same looks as a old non electrical typewriter. And it is VERY Steampunky when you open them up and see the levers/springs/and cogs.

We don't handle (we as in my teacher and I) one of the electrical machines that translates pages into braile. He says they aren't worth the trouble to fix since they break so easily. If they haven't changed from the one I first saw at Adrian College, I whole heartidly agree, that thing was down more then it was useable.


Ree, it's just going to be a side job. Each brailer should only take 3-4 hours at a time with a hour to put it back together after it's full cleaning. I don't think I would be able to sit and do them full time, too much fine stuff.

[Mytical]

If I had the patience and my hands wouldn't shake so, that sounds like it would be interesting.

[SongsOfDragons]

Oh I see!! A lever for each dot rather than individual letters. That's cool

[Aethian]

So I went over the Perkins website and managed to start putting together a list of tools I should have in a kit. I know I have several of them already at Mom's but there are some I'm going to have to find either online or in the store.

I also watched their video for cleaning the machines a few more times and I think I'm getting more adept and remembering which parts are what. Just going to take a bit of time to really learn how to trouble shoot them I think.

[ComputerNecromancer]

Is a Brailler like a typewriter but for Braille?

Yep, except that you have to know braille to use it because there are only 6 keys (one for each dot in a braille "cell", a space bar, and a "return" key.

I've got a blind friend and helped her get one.

BTW, the *manual* ones run around $500. The electrics are even more spendy. And the design dates back to the 1930s.

Or is it one of those doobries that translates a web page into something that can be felt?

Those are something else, I forget what they are called. They start at several *thousand* dollars and go up rapidly (try $18k!)

Do you have a photo of one?

http://www.google.com/search?q=perki...w=1600&bih=934

There are also braille "embossers". Think printers that output braille. Those are spendy too. You also have to "translate" regular text a bit because braille uses a lot of special character combos as shorthand for common words. Look up "level 2 Braille" and "level 3 braille".

There are free programs ffor translating plain text to level 1 and level 2 braille. Level 3 braille requires either knowing it yourself or sending it thru *expensive* translation services.

[Aethian]

Necromancer, I don't mind the post but I had already answered that post... O.o Did I not do it correctly?

[SongsOfDragons]

Two answers, both indepth. ^^ Lots of results is better to me than one (though I was satisfied!) It's like when I fo research into something, I want to find multiple answers to the same research point before I'm happy, if the research is something tricky, jargon-filled, prone to nonsense or blurred by time.

I knew about braille, just not the awesome typewriter - I'd only seen the manual ones. I did research on Braille for a secondary character who was blind from birth through LCA - she sends a note to one of the (seeing) protagonists in Braille and it takes him all day to translate it - his quote is 'Braille comes in GRADES? O.o' ^^ luckily for him she wrote in Grade/level 1.

[Aethian]

I just feel like I don't matter when I post a response and it's clearly ignored. Like when I offer a answer directed to me or when I give postal advice and the same exact question is brought up a few more times after I've answered it. I just wanted to share my happiness in finding something I like and now I feel like it's been downplayed and negated.

[42_42_42]

I don't think he was trying to do that. I think he was just trying to add to what you'd said.

[Ree]

I just wanted to share my happiness in finding something I like and now I feel like it's been downplayed and negated.

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

This is a community filled with lots of people with lots of knowledge and unique life experiences, but sometimes, people feel a kinship if they can offer some feedback to a post and offer something of which they have some knowledge as well.
That's not downplaying or negating, ignoring anyone's previous posts.
That's just participating in a thread.

If a person starts to dictate what can and can't be posted in their threads, they start to run the risk of having nobody post in their threads after a while.