Member postings for Danny M2Z

I always thought that people with their baseball cap on the wrong way around had their head on backwards.

That was until..................................I wore one at the rifle range and tried to sight in a benchrest target rifle. Had to turn it backwards!

At least it's the only place that I can wear a Donald Trump 'Make America Great Again' cap and get a few admiring smiles

It is surprising how many people ask me where did I obtain it and ask to borrow it for a selfie?

Disclaimer - a friend bought it for me and I don't want to upset her so I only wear it to get a few bites. No way do I support the bloke!

* Danny M *

When building a vintage '40's model aircraft with a spark ignition Ohlssen .23 it seemed appropriate to play "Glenn Miller's Greatest Hits" in the workshop. It got me 'In The Mood"

* Danny M *

A good question Peter.

The outbreak here in Victoria appears in clusters, many of which are in areas of Melbourne which are populated by people of low social-economic income so they have to work to earn an income to feed their families and pay their rent and thus they attend work, even if feeling a bit unwell.

Also, many of the infected people are health care workers and transient staff of aged care facilities who travel between various aged care centres. As their work is 'casual' they cannot claim sickness benefits so possibly they spread the virus, A t least our government has woken up to this one and offered compensation for these people to stay at home for 14 days.

Also abattoir workers seem susceptible as they work close together in a humid atmosphere for long hours

Next are the stupid, totally irresponsible people who flout all the rules Virus spreading teens in Australia

I hope that they get a spell in gaol, in solitary confinement. Not only to protect the other prisoners but to protect themselve from what the other prisoners might do to them.

My little part of N.E. Vic is pretty virus free at the moment. I live just 600m from the NSW border but noway can I obtain a pass to go shopping in Albury (15 Km trip). From tomorrow, if I want to go shopping in Wodonga (25 Km trip) I have to wear a face mask to shop.

As Ned Kelly said just before the trapdoor opened under his feet "Such is life"

Our premier is desperate to clamp down on this pandemic which is rapidly getting out of control so he has really tightened the noose. In Melbourne, ony 1 person per household permitted to shop wityhin a 5 Km radius of their home with a night-time curfew on any movement.

* Danny M *

I watched the Cup Final here in Australia.

All was well in the stadium with limited spectators, social distancing and the North London team won (although I am a Hammers supporter

But what I saw next astounded me, the pictures of supporters outside the stadium, crowded together and hardly a mask in sight, Social Distancing?

What was the point of banning them from the stadium in the first place if this is how people are behaving?

It only takes one infected person to spread Covid-19, just like it only took one person who liked bat soup to infect most of the planet and kill over 1/2 million people so far.

I really am amazed about how irresponsible some people can behave.

* Danny M *

Oh how wrong can you be Magpie.

The Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy are not about killing people. They are there to protect your country. your family and also your right to make such statements in public . (Try that in Hong Kong nowadays)

If some of the youth of today were conscripted for a year or two to learn a bit about cameraderie, discipline and maybe to learn about their own worth and potential then there might be a few less miscreants roaming around.

As a disclamer: I served 33 years in the ADF, Never killed anybody in all that time and only got close to being killed when an officer who could not read a map misguided my landrover to a place where 84mm mortar bombs were faling like snowdrops all around.

In an idealistic world, Vladimir Putin and Boris Trump would sorft it out in a boxing ring, winner takes all.

Unfortunately I can't see this happening. Also this leaves the Chinese referee a bit suspect

For keeping track of files, photos and documents I found that a disc catalogue application is quite handy.

20 Years ago when I owned a computer sales/build/repair business it soon became apparent that one could not charge a customer for the time taken to locate a motherboard/printer etc driver file so I asked one of the young geeks that I employed to find such a program to catalogue hundreds of CD's.

This is a typical current version of what he came up with Disk Catalogue Program

All our CD's were numbered and catalogued and so it became possible to locate the required info in seconds. (Wolfey got a pay rise for that one)

For photo's I would suggest giving them a meaningful name before archiving as many cameras just label them DFC123456 etc. which is quite meaningless if you want to search for photo's of "My new car'

Edited By Danny M2Z on 31/07/2020 09:53:37

Don't forget ambulace chasing lawyers of the "Had an accident,give us a call. No win - no fee" type.

Here is an intresting thread about light bulb history Light Bulbs

Qantas just pensioned off it's last 747 to the Arizona graveyard.

After 50 years in service the fleet is being replaced.

The flight path of the last flight over the Pacific Ocean was most interesting. (Tracked on FlightAware)

* Danny M *

Thanks Neil for hanging in there during this serious disruption and thanks to your publishers and distributors for doing their best in 2020. A year that shall remain in history!

I have set of Sutton Tools (Australian) B.A. taps. Each size came in taper, intermediate and plug sizes. The plug (2 black stripes) have a square cut end with a minute tapered section.

What I did find interesting is that the diameter of the threaded sections gradually increases from the tapered to the plug version so that when changing from taper to intermediate the tap will cut the previous thread a bit deeper.

Quite useful if one is tapping a 'tight' thread such as for a model diesl engine compression screw.

For tapping a blind bottomed hole the pointy ones look a bit useless.

* Danny M *

Lol, you were lucky.

In the early '70'sI worked with 1965 technology magnetic drum memory systems that were used to compute the parabolic flight of a projectile, a mixture of valves and an early version of a transistorised computer used to drive me crazy debugging the faults, but when it worked the operators were very happy.

The drum had enough memory to store azimuth, elevation and bearing data points for a single radar tracked projectile which were then integrated to plot the origin or the destination using fixed constants for gravity and air drag. We were told (1974) that a replacement magnetic drum unit cost $120,000

On a good day, the people firing the projectiles could be located to within 30m at 10km range so were not happy when a quick CB return fire of airburst arrived over their location.

That was a long time ago but it's factual and it's history.

* Danny M *

Just like the millenium bug was hyped this new vision has surfaced. 2038 bug

Just like the millenium bug I presume that some people shall try to profiteer from the hype, but then I wonder how many operating systems shal be 32 bit in 18 years time ?

* Danny M *

That's quite a useful linky as they also offer conversion kits for other mills (such as my X2).

Thank's for that.

* Danny M *

My ultrasonic cleaner has a stainless steel tank and I regularly use a solution of citric acid in it to clean used brass cartridge cases before re-loading them.

The results in 10 minutes are better than when I previously used a vibrating tumbler full of crushed walnut shells running for hours. After use I flush the u/s cleaner tank with tap water and it's still working well after 6 years.

* Danny M *

Edited By Danny M2Z on 30/06/2020 08:41:58

My table has never moved during use. As Neil pointed out, the grinding forces are small.

The mounting board has two threaded inserts so that the rest can be fixed repeatably in the same position.

If you noticed the protruding bolt to the right of my grinder that is for the drill sharpener (same reason).

The metal ball was from a friend who's son managed to crash his car so might be easy to pick one up from a car wrecking yard. The spigot was a useful bonus.

Magnetic mounting seems nice but how does one assure positioning repeatability and what happens if the tool being ground digs into the grinding wheel?

* Danny M *

I made my version about ten years ago and it's had regular use for producing the cutting edges on lathe tools and sharpening end mills.

I had didfficulty locating the plastic ball so used a donated steering ball joint. This had the advantage of a spigot and might last longer than the plastic ball.

I keep a soft brush nearby as the grinding dust gets everywhere. For that reason I do not use oil for the sliding/pivotting parts, powdered graphite works ok.

* Danny M *

I just finished three books in two days.

That's a lot of colouring in ;-(

Many years ago (about 1980) I visited the home of a very competitive aeromodeller friend in Brisbane, Australia..

In his "office" was an EMCO Unimat lathe that he used to produce spraybars and other sundry parts for his models and engines.

Thus impressed I decided that a small lathe would be a great asset and a few years later managed to pick up an original Australian Sherline lathe (complete with brass bed and heaps of accessories).

Thus I was hooked

* Danny M *

Edited By Danny M2Z on 20/06/2020 09:30:06

Edited By Danny M2Z on 20/06/2020 09:30:46

For a beginner this is an excellent build log.

Thank you very much for posing all the details Dr_GMJN

BTW, I often use a slip of paper between vice jaws and the work. Not so much to protect the finish though as it really improves the grip between the components

* Danny M *