Member postings for Sam Stones

Just an old flame Nick.

It was never going to last.

This is the best I can do.

Regards to all,

Sam

Hi Paul,

My dream of building a steam engine (actually a beam engine), became a skeleton clock.

But then again, it was mostly for display purposes.

Check up on `skeleton', under Clocks in the drop-down list.

Regards,

Sam

Martin,

You whizzed me back to early ‘57 and the time when we bods were training to be ground wireless mechanics at RAF Locking.

We had to gain an understanding of CRDF by drawing the block diagram, and also climbing onto the roof to get a glimpse of the four-way dipole and the triode valve with its special `grounded’ grid.

Happy daze!

Sam

When an apprentice was learning to read a Vernier, bedding blue was often already smeared inside a doll’s eye magnifier for the unsuspecting learner.

Getting them to change eyes for a better look (pun), brought on more laughter.

Regards to all,

Sam

Thanks for your comments Neil.

I hadn’t realised that this ICE process (Image Correction and Enhancement) was possible/existed. My `Head-in-the-Sand’ perhaps.

However, to satisfy my own curiosity, I found a couple of interesting articles, which can be viewed via the links below.

Although appearing to be a translation into English by ScanDig, and a (sales) lead-in to having ones slides digitised, the first one explains some of the issues, especially about Kodachrome. It also explains to some extent why we can see a sort of surface rippling or undulation on the backs of the Kodachrome slides.

Some of the technology is explained to a lesser extent in the second http.

Thanks again for bringing this to our attention.

Best regards,

Sam

**LINK**

**LINK**

Edited By Sam Stones on 31/05/2013 00:11:14

Part 3

The next part of the exercise was to arrange some bits of wood as a frame, onto which I could mount the slide carrier and some form of light diffuser. With a couple of Speedlites (flash guns) in my Canon camera kit, I planned to back illuminate the slides through a piece of thin, white, plastic sheet. The flash/camera link was set to master/slave, with a wireless Speedlite transmitter sitting on top of the camera.

With the arrangement as described in Part 2, it takes very little time to both set up and to take pictures. Focus and exposure are fully automatic, so there is little else to do but keep feeding slides into the slide carrier and pressing the cable release. For the number of slides I needed to digitise, it probably took me longer to build the device than it did to take the photographs.

In order to show the versatility of the CS3 Photoshop software (not that I have any commercial interests), I have included a `before and after picture’ in another album entitled `Workshop Photography’ (to suit this thread). To add a little more explanation, especially since my over-night memory has improved, the Cyprus slide of the swimming pool (RAF Nicosia), was installed between glass, while the ship and tug picture (taken in Oct ‘62) remained in its original cardboard mount.

Here's the Ship and tug, before and after Photoshop once again, this time as a means of comparing the original colouring renderings with the Nicosia swimming pool.

The swimming pool - RAF Nicosia Oct ‘62

Perhaps this (lack of protection) was responsible for the colour deterioration. I don’t know!

Regards to all,

Sam

Phew!!!

Part 2

Here’s my continuation of Part 1.

I rather like Raymond G’s comments about the 64 LED photographic lights. One of the difficulties with flash off the camera, is knowing where to position the flash light(s) for best modelling.

As for my actual digitising as requested by David Littlewood, I thought it better to describe my setup, especially since building equipment etc. is the primary topic of ME.

I decided upon using my (at the time - newly purchased) 100mm macro lens and to photograph the slides directly. You can see from the setup that the lens was `buried’ inside a cardboard tube, thus while avoiding extraneous light. It did however remove access for manual focussing. This was not really an issue since the Canon lens was equipped with ultrasonic auto-focus. Wonderful stuff!

With a very limited workshop, I set about building (more like assembling) a slide copier. My photographs show the physical set up. To capture the whole setup and how the camera was positioned, I had to take a couple of pictures through a low cost digital camera, hence the poorer quality images.

The basic parts of the setup are a slide carrier `borrowed’ from my now rather ancient slide projector; a large diameter (about 95mm) cardboard post-office document tube with its plastic end caps; and a couple of MDF drinks coasters. These latter items were used to pack the underside of the camera until the centre-lines of camera and slides were properly lined up and square. All this was mounted onto a larger piece of MDF, while a piece of wooden dowel served to locate the camera via its 1/4" Whit tripod hole.

With the post-office tube, the camera to slide distance (minus the lens), turned out to be close to 320mm. However, for the lens to fit properly and be supported without any interference with the focussing mechanism, a shorter length (about 230mm) of tube was necessary.

Single central holes were cut into the two polyethylene tube end caps. One hole was about 45mm for the slide-carrier end (could have been slightly larger, but not critical), and one about 70mm into which the lens could slide neatly and would fully locate both the lens and the camera. This latter task was accomplished carefully by hand using a sharp scalpel. It should be emphasised that the plastic end caps are made from high-density polyethylene, which requires a fair degree of skill and extreme care to allow for this material’s very slippery nature. Be very careful if you take on this task, it’s easy for the knife/scalpel to slip.

Continued in Part 3

Hi Everyone,

This has turned out to be an even longer (epic?) postings. As a result, I have been obliged to split this post into two or three parts, so here goes.

Part 1

To pick up from previous comments which were started by SLOTDRILLER Ian four days ago, had I known about the colour deterioration due to light exposure, perhaps I wouldn’t have projected my colour slides quite so often. Upon reflection (pun?), some of my slides were taken while I was stationed at RAF Nicosia (Cyprus) c1957-58 and would therefore be at least fifty-five years old. And yet, they don’t seem to have suffered the same amount of colour loss when compared with those taken in Holland c.1962.

In my early enthusiasm of the late fifties, I protected many of my slides by placing them between glass. About two hundred in all received this treatment. They were stored in a couple of partitioned slide boxes which were fitted snugly inside a larger box along with my projector. Light penetration was thus minimal. Perhaps being kept in a garage for forty plus years (while subjected to the fluctuations of our Melbourne temperatures and humidity), was responsible for some of the deterioration. As I began to digitise my slides, I found and had to contend with lots of dust, and tiny hints of fungal attack, while Newton had left quite a few of his rings.

Although I carefully disassembled and cleaned those slides sandwiched between glass, most of the remaining `grime’ was still transferred as part of the image during digitising. It was a relatively easy job to remove the spots by way of the `Healing Brush Tool’ and the `Spot Healing Brush Tool’ courtesy of Adobe Photoshop CS3. Much easier than the old way of a painstaking use of spotting brush and spotting ink. Confetti on black and white wedding pictures for example.

You can see what I mean from these two versions, `Before’ and `After’.

Continued in Part 2

Hi David L and Gentlemen,

I'll respond tomorrow, with a somewhat lengthy posting and some photographs.

It's tea time in Melbourne, and I'm ready for a rest.

Regards to all,

Sam

Sandwiched between my tertiary studies, I spent a couple of seasons engaged in a short course in photography. The lecturer told us a tale about an exercise when he was studying for his photographic qualifications.

The exercise was to photograph three brand new steel balls placed together under a conical light tent, and to adjust the lighting to produce the most even illumination possible. Just in case you haven't heard of a light tent, you poke the camera lens through a hole in the top with the camera pointing down vertically. The tent is translucent, and floodlights are placed around the outside of the tent shining inwards.

It was a trick really because as the specified lighting conditions are achieved, the balls disappear.

BTW, my current photographic fun is cleaning up some rather dusty (now digitised) colour slides which I took in Holland in 1962 on Kodachrome (probably 64 ASA). I was using a friend’s Leica M4, mostly hand-held, and although the slides have tended to fade slightly towards a blue tint, with Adobe Photoshop CS3, I’ve been able to bring some of them back to life.

If you want/need to use flash, better results are obtained with the flash off the camera. Depending upon your subject, start with the flash about 45 degree to the right (or left), AND raised by about the same angle to the vertical.

It falls under the category of modelling, so (tongue in cheek ), it’s not too far off model engineering.

Regards to all,

Sam

I have only glanced through the posts on this thread so I may have missed something. In a different context, I feel sure that I have presented some of this elsewhere. However, I am reminded of the following couple of experiences.

Our next door neighbour worked for a well known lift company, who not only installed lifts into new buildings, but also replaced some of the very old ones.

One day, he asked me if I was interested in some lengths of steel which had originally been the winding shafts in a very old Melbourne building. Well, it seemed too good an opportunity to be missed so I `took delivery’ of several pieces roughly 3" in diameter. They had been dismembered from service by means of an oxy torch. Not that that was any real concern to me.

Several years passed before I found a use for a couple of short sections. They would eventually form the two-piece body of an adjustable fly cutter for the milling machine. I sliced off the requisite couple of lengths in the bandsaw, complete with sufficient extra length for `chucking’ etc.

Apart from the expected grumbles from my ML7 as I cleaned off the flame-cut faces, all seemed to go OK.

Then it was time to mill the dovetail. Oh dear! or even stronger words. What the ..... was going on? The stuff was wrecking the edges of my (proprietary) dovetail cutter, which in turn was glazing the `cut’ surface. I was too discouraged to complete the project, so I went out and bought a proper one.

In an entirely different direction, having nothing left by way of materials after selling my entire workshop, I needed to finish several small brackets on my skeleton clock. I was also not prepared to lash out and buy various lengths of brass.

Since most of the brackets were of relatively solid construction, they `threatened’ to waste a considerable amount of both types of brass (one being money). Although it was somewhat fiddly and required some extra precision during preparation, I managed to fabricate the brackets by carefully silver-soldering smaller pieces together.

Not a new idea, but you’ll get my drift.

Regards to all,

Sam

Edited By Sam Stones on 26/05/2013 23:44:54

Leaving aside cEKs John, I’m sure you will agree that a genuine headache can hardly be classified as a task.

If, on the other hand, the headache is an invention, then surely it has a place within this forum?

However, in order for `a headache' to be convincing, the owner will need to kindle a rudimentary level of multi-tasking.

Back to square one

Regards to all,

Sam

With apologies to Dave Greenham.

Judging from the posts, there is strong evidence to support the findings that we mere males are not well equipped to handle more than one undertaking at a time, especially when we have to concentrate.

Unlike our delightful ladies who are well able to multi-task, and who think it strange that we find it so difficult.

Try reading "Why Men Don’t Listen & Women Can’t Read Maps’ by Alan and Barbara Pease.

Regards to all,

Sam

Hi Neil,

That's a clever play on words.

Didn't think I was that dry though.

Hi Fizzy,

What's the IETB?

Regards to all,

Sam

Until I read JA's comments (22/03/2013), I was about to ask -

"What ever happened to the UK's ITB (Industrial Training Board)?"

Knowledge of this +/- 2% levy scheme was a tiny part of our final year engineering curriculum. Are there any remnants of it left?

Then, shortly after arriving in Oz, I learned that a survey by one of the local institutes found ...

that an important benefit to the particular industry (and therefore the country), would be Education and Training.

That was more than forty years ago!!!

Regards to all,

Sam

Evidently, there are many instances when materials behave `badly’.

Heading slightly off topic, this reminds me of the phase change in PTFE (Teflon), which only `surfaced’ for me when I was making small valves for biological research. Refer to my album - `A Plastic Valve'

The body of the valve was PMM (Perspex) and the spools were PTFE. The success of the valve came from its leak resisting performance. A primary requirement to achieve this was selective assembly between the bore of the PMM body and the PTFE spool. Even minuscule differences in their respective diameters could cause the spool to be too tight or conversely, they would leak.

It needs to be noted here that PTFE in its natural state (ie. no filler), has a low creep resistance so that a marginally oversize spool will become `squashed’ over time.

As with most materials, a change of temperature causes the volume of PTFE to increase or decrease correspondingly. However, at 19 degrees C, there is a phase change, causing the volume of this material to increase sharply. Expansion then continues at a rate similar to that below 19C.

I had developed the valve for use at around 38C although one particular series of experiments required that the valve as supplied, had to perform at temperatures in the range of 5C to 15C.

That was fine except that they couldn’t be stored above 19C while assembled due to their low creep resistance. I had to sell them with the spools removed, and with instructions to store them refrigerated after assembly. Prolonged storage above 19C would ruin the requisite degree of fit.

Thanks Ian.

Doesn't look too good for those living in/near the Grampians.

South east of Melbourne, we're well clear of those fires.

Regards,

Sam

Further south east from Melbourne, in a little place called Cranbourne, which is part way to Phillip Island, it's a degree or so cooler. Perhaps about 36C. It's forecast to remain hot for at least another week. Indications for overnight temperatures are that it will not drop below 18C, making sleep rather uncomfortable.

A friend living on the outskirst of NY sent a couple of pictures showing their second heavy snowfall in two weeks.

Quite pretty!

As an ow'd Lancashire lad, it brings back many memories, especially the 1940 snowfall in Bolton and surrounds.

Regards to all,

Sam

Raymond,

Sorry to use up your thread for this partially(?) OT.

I could imagine that `plasticiser migration’ would form part of an investigation agenda, as would knowing the main source of the stuff which coats the inside of a (largely new) vehicle windscreen.

What a tin of worms for (us) rocket scientists.

Regards,

Sam