Member postings for SillyOldDuffer

Malbolge is a programming language designed to be as difficult to learn and write as possible. Its creator has never written a working program in it.

Rather easier to write is Whitespace. Whitespace programs are written using only space, tab and newline characters. This makes them rather hard to read.

And you lot think chinglish is hard!

Dave

I wouldn't worry too much about chemicals. Most of us are digging our graves with our teeth...

Damn and blast it! Isn't anything ever easy?

Hey that's interesting!

Wouldn't measuring anything remotely bendy (like a rod supported at one end in a chuck) be rendered inaccurate by an instrument needing that level of force to get a reading?

Ta

Dave

Much depends where you are. Some areas are replete with local engineering stockists, others have none.

Not all locals suppliers are interested in selling small quantities of metal and they may have contracted out their scrap disposal arrangements - so no off-cuts. Some people are lucky enough to know a friendly foreman who let's them root through company scrap bins. Where I worked it was a sacking offence to give away anything and it was also a sacking offence to give permission to another employee to give stuff away. Some companies just want to get rid of scrap as fast as they can. It helps to be in the trade to know which is which.

Scrapyards may be a cheap-ish source provided they'll let you through the gate. My local scrappy used to welcome passing trade: now there is razor wire, an angry dog, and a big "No Visitors" sign.

Once inside buying from a scrapyard is a tricky business unless you know what you're doing. The trouble is you don't know what scrap is made of: as beginner most of my bad experiences were due to using odd bits of metal all of which turned out to be unsuitable. You may be lucky: some people on the forum an excellent relationship with their scrapyard.

Buying new metal in small quantities isn't cheap. I'm lucky enough to have a local supplier, but his range is limited. When he fails the internet is my friend: in addition to ebay and amazon etc there are several metal and plastic suppliers who will happily sell you stuff. Again not cheap, but you usually get what you ask for. Try searching for MetalSupermarket and similar. There are suppliers catering for Model Engineers such as Noggins End and College Engineering. Horologists have sources too.

Old printers and scanners contain useful metal rods and other bits. Anything that breaks in my house gets taken apart to see if there's anything useful in it. Don't think your lathe is useless if it won't cut the stuff though: much of what's in an appliance is far from being general purpose.

The problem gets easier as you build up a scrap box and know what to look for. When making anything I try to over buy metal in order to build up a stock. It hurts at first, but money is saved thereafter.

Dave

Yes, but only because many electrical items are stressed by being switched on and off. The US military discovered in the Vietnam War that their electronics became much more reliable when it had to left running continually for operational reasons.

This is about probability though - there are plenty of other reasons why your clock might have failed. Western may be completely innocent. You would have a much stronger case if several other appliances had broken at the same time. My boss came home from work one day to find his street blocked by fire-engines and electricity vans. An electrical mistake had burnt out most of the appliances in many homes. They paid up with no demur.

A point about haywire devices: it may not be permanent. Lots of appliances these days contain a microcontroller with persistent memory that can be scrambled by a power-cut. My cooker goes mad if it's switched off. It may be necessary to reset the item to restore order. Sometimes this is done by leaving it unplugged for an extended time before restarting. Other items have tiny reset buttons or some other read-the-manual method.

Dave

Information Technology is hard to beat for acronyms. File Access Requirements Table

I'm all for the Queen's English, though it's hard to keep up with whatever it is. People laugh at you if you call for a taximeter cabriolet.

The rule where I worked was to decode acronyms on first use, thereafter to use them because they made the paper easier to read. Allegedly. More often documents just turned into alphabet soup.

Even if we could wipe out new acronyms Neil has a historical justification for his Glossary. Smelly Hobbits have been writing and talking engineering jargon since the dawn of time. Where's the Rosetta Stone?

Dave

Never heard of PICNIC. We had Hardware, Software and Wetware problems.

And the person responsible for the programming mistake that crashed Hitomi likely has an underware problem.

Dave

Being a junior Dr Johnson is hard work!

Cast Iron. A range of about 30 different high carbon/iron mixes, very fluid when molten and good for casting. Different variants are used to make Brake Blocks, Engine Blocks, Machine Tools, Pipes and Street Furniture etc. Quality ranges from very poor to very high. Easily machined except liable to have a very hard outer skin, very dirty, no cutting fluid needed. Strong in compression, weak in tension.

DTI : Dial Test Indicator. An instrument used to measure small distances (0.01 to 0.005mm). Used to accurately position work and to test the roundness, droop, or deflection of a work piece.

EN1A (aka 230M07). A type of Mild Steel suitable for machining general purpose components to a good finish. Low tensile strength (for a steel). Cannot be heat-treated. May be case hardened.

EN1APb. As EN1A but softer and more easily machined. Must not be welded.

Work Hardening. A phenomenon whereby a material becomes harder and more difficult to machine as it is worked. Some stainless steels can become harder than the tools being used to cut it. The problem is exacerbated by over-gentle cutting or blunt tools.

Lathe. A metal working machine that cuts by rotating the work against a fixed cutting tool.

Mill. A metal working machine that rotates a cutting tool against a fixed work piece.

Reamer. A tool used to finish a drilled hole to an exact size by removing a small amount of metal.

MT2. A specification for a wedge tool holder. A male shank on the tool is tapered to fit into an equivalent female socket, for example a lathe tailstock. The wedge action of the taper stops the tool rotating whilst still allowing it to be pulled out and exchanged.

Plutonium. Silvery-white metal. Radioactive, hot, highly toxic and highly reactive. Critical mass about 10kg (a 100mm diameter sphere) Used in the boiler of an enhanced LBSC 'Tich' being built by Guy Martin for the 2018 IMLEC

My thinking was identical to JA's: "I have never met a metal that only possessed one of these two properties" and "I do wonder whether I have missed something here"

I got hung up on the properties of Copper. The Silly putty example is much better: it makes the difference clear.

Thanks

Dave

There's no way I'm going to pee on my earth spike. It's in full view of the neighbours and they already think I'm weird!

Dave

Earth spikes have been dubious for as long as I can remember. They are all but useless as an RF Ground or lightning protection and may be inadequate in an AC power system. (I have a disused earth spike outside my garage: it's resistance to ground is appalling - about 300Ω. )

There's more to a good earth than banging spikes into the ground or clipping wires to any old pipework that happens to be handy.

I expect an electrician will put me right if I've got this wrong, but I think the big problem is what happens to an installation with two or more different earths when there's a fault.

As it's unlikely that each earth spike will have the same resistance to ground, a fault will create a potential difference between appliances that should be equally grounded. That's a shock and fire hazard especially if the earth resistance isn't low enough to blow the fuse. The modern way seems to be to bond everything together and run all the earth wires in an installation back to a common earth.

What I don't know is what comprises an "installation". I see sense of wiring everything in a house back to a common earth, but that might not apply to a separate workshop at the end of the garden. Possibly a remote building should have it's own earth? I suppose this is why electricians have qualifications!

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 10/11/2016 15:04:40

Here's a trivial point that's been confusing me this week.

I'm OK with Hardness, Toughness and Brittleness, but what's the difference between Malleability and Ductility that makes it possible to be one without the other?

Dave

Shouldn't be a problem if the Glossary is managed by a professional editor. Can anyone suggest a suitable candidate?    ( I feel bad about that ghastly smiley. Chaucer, Shakespeare and Dickens all managed perfectly well without Imoji. Oh well, one must move with the times.)

I think a Glossary is a good idea: we beginners need all the help we can get. And don't forget I have a terrible memory.

Humorous definitions could go into a Devil's Dictionary for publication in April. I'm sure I could explain "Wedding Tackle" if someone reminded me!

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 10/11/2016 13:58:03

Faulty heat treatment? A more likely cause of brittle failure than being made of cast-iron I think.

I'm not so sure about that. We're not talking about amateur or prototyping printers here. There will be a range of heavy duty industrial printers for different materials, all capable of accurate work.

Thousands of them could be warehoused in a lights-out automated factory with robotic input ,assembly, packing and dispatch. Products will be computer designed anywhere in the world and the instructions downloaded directly into the 3D printers and robots needed to make them. This will involve several printers working with different materials with groups of such printers working in parallel to achieve volume followed by assembly by robot.

The benefits are considerable. Very few people will be needed, and there is none of the tooling and preparation cost needed to set up a conventional assembly line. 3D printing is flexible: it can be told to make something different at the press of a button, products can be printed wherever it is cheapest to make them, and the production of small and medium quantities of niche goods is economic. Just in time production adjacent to local markets could reduce transport costs. Energy and raw materials are used more efficiently.

Much of the technology already exists and the economic pressure to get the whole working together is substantial. I think this is well on the way and the impact on industry will be revolutionary.

Obviously 3D won't be suitable for everything or even a good way to make high-volume items. But it's hard to think of things that could never be 3D printed, particularly when many different types of 3D printer cooperate to do the job. The potential is enormous.

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 09/11/2016 18:06:43

The two lathes are similar except that the Warco has a more powerful motor. It will have beefier electronics too.

If as you say everything else is equal, then the Warco is 'better'. I wouldn't use the extra power to take brutal cuts though. Rather I'd use the extra power to give the lathe an easy life by allowing it to cruise. Overworking the motor and electronics of a hobby lathe is asking for trouble.

Dave

No problem Richard. Not your fault. Tell her a big boy did it and ran away!

Very nice indeed! I assume something that good looking is allowed in the house. In my book it beats a motorbike as a living-room ornament any time.