Test Equipment Anonymous

tggzzz wrote: ↑Mon May 22, 2023 10:26 pm

Zenith wrote: ↑Mon May 22, 2023 10:13 pm I've tried explaining to friends that £3 to enter a radio rally is far better value than £12 to enter a country show, because at the radio rally there are wonderful things, like oscilloscopes and boxes of valves and test equipment, but the country show is the same old stuff.

Best said with a deadpan tone of voice, but with word that leave.doubt as to whether you are being serious.

They've known me for over fifty years and there's little scope for such bullshit. This particular country show has a vintage vehicle section, which is pretty good. One of the vehicles last year was a jeep with a machine gun, which they pointed out to me. I explained it was an M2 Browning, .50 cal and in front line service for the last hundred years. This one had almost certainly been wickedly rendered useless. Eyes glazed over.

The country show is worth going to.

tggzzz wrote: ↑Mon May 22, 2023 10:26 pm Let's hope neither bd drops dead while they are gone. But if they do we will console ourselves that they died with a smile on their face.

I'm sure that the SOA has been considered and adequate heatsinking arranged.

mnementh wrote: ↑Mon May 22, 2023 10:42 pm

Robert wrote: ↑Mon May 22, 2023 6:25 am The Pultra I got isn't as tidy as that one. I've fancied one (or a Schaublin) for years. Didn't think I'd get one for £40. I've already got a possible line on a cross slide.
Looks like mine is a bit of a hybrid. It has an earlier bed probably a P type and a 1750 headstock. Not an issue, it was a feature of these that they were precision made to size so you can swap parts from one to another and still maintain accuracy without adjustment. This was important in a production environment with several lathes. It meant that a single capstan unit could be used on different lathes as requred for a job. This one looks like it was set up for coaxial drilling which may explain the lack of cross slides.
Pultra-1.jpg

No pics of the tailsstock, chucks etc yet.

40 quid...?

mnem
here, take my coffee to wash it down...

I've been offered a compound slide for £50. Can't say no to that. A motor is no problem I have several suitable ones about. I might still make my own compound slide as I have two assemplies from laser scanners that each have a pair of minature linear bearings and a fine leadscrew driven by a stepper motor. Hmm that could be a CNC Pultra....
It will be better for small parts than running the Myford flat out.

Yes very jammy indeed.

mnementh wrote: ↑Sun May 21, 2023 4:23 pm .

...Went from "got the hub motor assembled and bolted on" to "Ready for first road-test" over this week; all while sick as the proverbial dog. Lots of printed parts already...

For those who're interested; I've put current state of the project and most of the details up on another build thread.

Link is here: viewtopic.php?t=175

mnem

Just for fun a couple more drawers of handheld equipment besides the ones that have calculators in them.

Started the main body of the ESC box last night before dinner; only a 2-day print...

for those who care; details and 3DP Nerd-stats are here in the "What did you print today?" thread:

viewtopic.php?p=3751#p3751

mnem
You may now return to your regularly scheduled insanity.

I was browsing around my phone and found a couple of pictures from 2013 to round out Friday afternoon. Up top, my first workbench after moving into the house. It's still there in that location in the basement but doesn't get used much anymore since I have the nice L shaped work area just out of view to the left now. The cabinet with the Philips scope is still there but the scope is now on top of a Hewlett Packard 4192A Impedance Analyzer.

The second picture is a closeup of an actual radio ground wire that's bonded to the cold water supply. The person who lived in the house before me must have reinstalled that after replacing the plumbing because the house originally had galvanized steel water pipes which were later replaced with copper. Some of the galvanized steel pipes got reused as bars to put coat hangers on and the rest of them were thrown under the back vestibule. I've never found where the other end of the radio ground wire is. I assume it came out in the living room somewhere but I've never found any indication of where it did; what's left of it must be abandoned in one of the walls.

Thinking about the radio ground picture. And then about the kind of infrastructure we put in today. Will it live and be useful, comprehensible in 50 years? I think optical fibre would qualify. If single mode, and well documented, open and reusable. So that, plus some copper is what I'm putting in my walls. The "smart" stuff is where I'm getting cold feet. I don't want to participate in a consumerist circle-jerk where things get replaced at an accelerating rate. If well built, a simple light switch will survive 50 years -- I have several in our 1971 house that are from the initial install, in good working condition.

mansaxel wrote: ↑Fri May 26, 2023 9:34 pm Thinking about the radio ground picture. And then about the kind of infrastructure we put in today. Will it live and be useful, comprehensible in 50 years? I think optical fibre would qualify. If single mode, and well documented, open and reusable. So that, plus some copper is what I'm putting in my walls. The "smart" stuff is where I'm getting cold feet. I don't want to participate in a consumerist circle-jerk where things get replaced at an accelerating rate. If well built, a simple light switch will survive 50 years -- I have several in our 1971 house that are from the initial install, in good working condition.

That is how well-made wiring accessories should be, decent ones will be working for many years, cheaper ones will need replacing far sooner. Never pay to go cheap, especially when your safety is at risk.

mansaxel wrote: ↑Fri May 26, 2023 9:34 pm Thinking about the radio ground picture. And then about the kind of infrastructure we put in today. Will it live and be useful, comprehensible in 50 years? I think optical fibre would qualify. If single mode, and well documented, open and reusable. So that, plus some copper is what I'm putting in my walls. The "smart" stuff is where I'm getting cold feet. I don't want to participate in a consumerist circle-jerk where things get replaced at an accelerating rate. If well built, a simple light switch will survive 50 years -- I have several in our 1971 house that are from the initial install, in good working condition.

My house is a "dumb" house. I don't have any "smart home" or IoT devices here. There's been more than a few stories about the privacy issues or vendors dropping support or going bust completely leaving unusable orphaned devices. Between the two, it's put me off.

My house is a bit older. It's is a wartime house that was built in 1942 so it's now old enough that some of the infrastructure in it has been replaced. The original galvanized steel plumbing has been replaced with copper and the original electric service and fuse box along with much of the wiring has also been replaced. Both are common replacements for houses that age here. Galvanized steel plumbing has age related problems, then there's the huge issue where 60 amp electric services with fuse boxes and knob and tube wiring that make it hard to find home insurance and any insurance company willing to cover it charges a massive premium. If you look closely at the picture of the workbench to the top left of it, you can see the wood frame that held the original fuse boxes and see them outlined in the wood.

I finally fixed the 100 foot extension cord that I hit while I was trimming shrubbery. Given the choice between bringing the 100 foot long 12 AWG cord downstairs or bringing some tools outside on a beautiful afternoon, I opted to work outside. The repair is wired correctly. The two left LED indicators are actually on in the middle picture but they flicker at 60 Hz and I was having trouble getting pictures showing the correct status indication because the line frequency flicker and camera's shutter speed were interfering.

The repair appears to be fine but just to be sure, and since I can do it, I'll stick the insulation tester on it tomorrow. Ran out of time today.

Entered a car show today. The 2004 Honda Civic Coupe surrounded by dozens of American muscle cars and hot rods both vintage and modern. Walked away with a trophy "1st Place Import - Stock/Restored".

Eat your heart out bitches.

Well done Mike, and is the car restored or just well cared for?

Specmaster wrote: ↑Sun May 28, 2023 10:07 pm Well done Mike, and is the car restored or just well cared for?

Other than normal maintenance the car is all original. 19 years old and 195k miles.

MED6753 wrote: ↑Sun May 28, 2023 9:58 pm Entered a car show today. The 2004 Honda Civic Coupe surrounded by dozens of American muscle cars and hot rods both vintage and modern. Walked away with a trophy "1st Place Import - Stock/Restored".

Eat your heart out bitches.

VROOM!

mnem

For those who care: It's finished, and ready to take a nice family bike ride over the holiday.

viewtopic.php?p=3778#p3778

mnem
also VROOM!

mnementh wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2023 2:32 am

For those who care: It's finished, and ready to take a nice family bike ride over the holiday.

viewtopic.php?p=3778#p3778

mnem
also VROOM!

That saddle looks like an anti theft device, stop anybody riding off with it

It sucks out loud, and has been replaced with extreme prejudice. More, even.

mnem
*toddles off to Ratchet & Clank widda boi*

Update on the Pultra lathe. It's a bit of a hybrid. The tailstock from a earlier P type like the bed. The tailstock is lever operated and seized solid. "4 hours in penetrating fluid did not allow any movement by hand. A bit of heat from a hot air gun and some careful tapping with a soft block and dead-blow hammer was required. Tapping back and forth with cleaning and lubrication after each movement finally got it free with no damage. It came with a jacobs style chuck and drawbar for the tailstock. SWMBO wanted to go to a local market yesterday. So I took her and there was a used tool stall. Amoungst all the junk was a small wooden block and 14 collets. They looked about 8mm but there are lots of different designs around this size. At £15 for the collets and a thread gauge it was not a big risk so I bought them. Put a micrometer and the thread on them when I got home and sure enough they are Pultra / Boley style 8mm collets. This is the correct size for the tailstock of my lathe. The headstock takes 10mm. So far I'm at £40 for bed, headstock, tailstock, 3 chucks, one collet and two drawbars, £40 for a compound slide in need of some assembly and £10 for 14 collets.
I can get a correct 1750 bed and tray for £80 and I'm quite tempted. It's collection only and a long way from here but only a short detour from a road trip we are making at the end of June. Decisions decisions...

Robert.

Yes, machine tools are another rabbit hole

MED6753 wrote: ↑Sun May 28, 2023 9:58 pm Walked away with a trophy "1st Place Import - Stock/Restored".

I find the trophy a prime example of car trophies, that is, ugly as fuck and then some, but the honour, it's pristine, all yours and you really deserve it, for being the underdog -- so to speak -- and by performing normal maintenance. Also I love stock! I can not find in my heart place to like hot-rodded cars. They unvariably end up as plump caricatures of "cool". The boring but correct observation is that most professional car designers are much better at doing the job than a hack with a oxy-acetylene cutter, an angle grinder and a wild idea..

mnemeth is writing....

My favorite is the gag trophy I won at a Miata event about 15 years ago. We took a wrong turn and got a bit off course, and despite my best efforts at driving in reverse for about two miles along some back roads (as my right seater laughed hysterically) wasn't able to unwind enough to undo the goof up.



-Pat

mansaxel wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2023 8:41 pm

MED6753 wrote: ↑Sun May 28, 2023 9:58 pm Walked away with a trophy "1st Place Import - Stock/Restored".

I find the trophy a prime example of car trophies, that is, ugly as fuck and then some, but the honour, it's pristine, all yours and you really deserve it, for being the underdog -- so to speak -- and by performing normal maintenance. Also I love stock! I can not find in my heart place to like hot-rodded cars. They unvariably end up as plump caricatures of "cool". The boring but correct observation is that most professional car designers are much better at doing the job than a hack with a oxy-acetylene cutter, an angle grinder and a wild idea..

mnemeth is writing....

"hot-rodded cars"?!?

Hey mans the 1970s just called, they want their phrase-book back.



This is what "hot-rods" look like nowadays. Nary a line out of place.

AVGresponding wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2023 9:58 pm
"hot-rodded cars"?!?

Hey mans the 1970s just called, they want their phrase-book back.

yeah, yeah, I know. English is probably only my third language -- am pretty certain I learnt a bit Danish before.

This is what I mean:



I can at most muster some hesitant admiration for the work spent, but in a completely unproductive direction.

And the trophy is just as fucking ugly.

mansaxel wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2023 8:41 pm

MED6753 wrote: ↑Sun May 28, 2023 9:58 pm Walked away with a trophy "1st Place Import - Stock/Restored".

I find the trophy a prime example of car trophies, that is, ugly as fuck and then some, but the honour, it's pristine, all yours and you really deserve it, for being the underdog -- so to speak -- and by performing normal maintenance. Also I love stock! I can not find in my heart place to like hot-rodded cars. They unvariably end up as plump caricatures of "cool". The boring but correct observation is that most professional car designers are much better at doing the job than a hack with a oxy-acetylene cutter, an angle grinder and a wild idea..

mnemeth is writing....

mnem
meh.