What did you do today (2015)

I would think this is just a variation of the Chrome/Molybdenum steel just tweaked slightly, Beretta have always used chrome/molybdenum steel for their barrels and they make strong light barrels. I remember they chrome the inside of their barrels also. Browning had a Black chrome process.

From how you ask, maybe this is Beretta unobtanium?

Barrel rusting in a shotgun has always been a problem and I have seen many a pitted barrel but never in a Beretta.

Clive

Edited By Clive Hartland on 15/12/2015 09:47:28

Further to my problems with a spot welding transformer, tried a 100 ohm fire element in series, now not enough current. I reckon it was about 65A. So tomorrow, its going to be 50 ohms.

Frank

Here's something unusual I found on Wikipedia today:

Can't tell whether they are making blue whiskey, or premixed petrol/oil about 16:1 as a fractional distillation column.

If it's just a blue ball generator, could have saved themselves a lot of trouble by just visiting my shop on a February morning at -30 deg C and 70 kph wind. Guaranteed blue balls there and then, no extra apparatus needed.

I keep my dustbin next to my garage, which is about 50 yards from my house. A strange pipping noise was coming from the bin this morning, and it got louder when I lifted the lid. Had to sort through no end of yucky stuff, and I eventually found the source - an old carbon monoxide detector my wife had thrown out, without removing the batteries. The only reason for the alarm to go off that I can think of is that rotting vegetable matter could have released methane. Could it, or can anyone think of another explanation?

Mike - it could have just been a low battery warning. I had the same sort of experience some time ago with a CO detector that had been taken down and stored away. Kept hearing this strange noise but had difficulty tracing it as it was a single "pip" and then silence for about a minute or more. Eventually found the CO detector at the back of a drawer in a kitchen cabinet. It had been driving my uncle spare for days - and he was the one that had taken it down and put it away!

Neil, is it an analogue computer? I have vague recollections of something looking like that that demonstrated some aspect of finance.

Martin

Mike / Keith

I had a similar experience recently. We have smoke detectors fitted to the ceilings downstairs and upstairs. Experiencing the intermittent bleep I did a quick whizz around then removed the batteries from each unit - bleep still occurring occasionally. Had forgotten about the CO detector which was sitting behind the clock in the sitting room! I'm not too sure that it's needed as we now have a heat pump for the C/H though maybe, if it ever gets cold enough to light the log burner?

Norman

Edited By NJH on 20/12/2015 12:26:10

Thanks, gentlemen, but this definitely wasn't the low battery warning. It was constant rather than intermittent, and although it didn't seem too loud to me because I am deaf, one of my neighbours told me she could hear it all night.

The low battery warning is a single pip every minute or so, so doesn't sound like that's the problem.

This (see graph bottom of page 2) seems to be a typical sensor element and the datasheet shows that it is sensitive to various gases / hydrocarbons, not just CO. So perhaps the products of decomposition are the cause of the alarm, like ethanol for instance.

Also possible that the sensor has gone past its' working life. Electrochemical detectors do have sensor material and electrolyte solution in the sensor cell that do not last forever. Typically they last 8 to 10 years max. Some detectors have a function built in to alarm or signal when the sensor component is no longer working properly, and call attention to this state. This is a better failure mode than just going silent/not operating when sensor is no longer working properly. It's similar in logic to the single "chirp" when battery is low. If it's more than 5 years old and alarming (high volume or low volume sound) open all windows, get outdoors immediately, do normal checks for a CO source - it may be from your neighbour's house or car, too. If you are at all unsure, call the local fire department's non emergency line and ask them to come out with their professional quality CO detector meter. Tell them you have no combustion source in the house but have a CO detector in alarm mode. If they come and check and say there is no CO present, throw out the old detector and get a new one the same day. JD

.

Mike,

Sorry to be a bore, but; that's not really 'the done thing' these days.

... Interesting story though !!

MichaelG.

I think that laboratory tests in the US about 8/9 years ago showed that small quantities of CO occurred during the composting process.

Unfortunately I cannot actually find a reference of any sort in my junk now, probably got chucked out!

So maybe the rubbish had started to decompose and actually set the alarm off, of course it could also be something simple like a damp circuit board, dodgy connections, or any of the many other ideas already expressed.

The last two CO detectors I installed had a specified 7 year lifespan.

Michael is correct about not chucking this type of thing in the bin, you might get a visit from the "bin police", take the batteries to your local Superstore or DIY Store disposal box, do not bin the rest either, I notice some stores now have multi disposal units that take alarms and CFLs etc, local Council Tips now have disposal facilities for this type of thing as well.

Edited By V8Eng on 20/12/2015 15:50:24

Neil, is you mystery photo a clock?

The scales are for 60 units on the Right Hand side & 12 on the Left Hand side.

Regards

Brian

It could be a clock! There was a fluid digital clock in a shopping centre in Kurfurstendamm in Berlin I once saw that looked similar. It worked by filling a column up every few seconds (10?) with a measured quantity of water, so that after 6 top-ups (a minute) the column overtopped a siphon arrangement causing it to empty and dump a small amount of water as it did so into the next column, which needed 60 top-ups to cause it to empty every hour and so on with an extra column that needed 12 (or 24?) dollops of water. I remember the water was coloured and you read the time by the column height.

Bit baffled by this.

Right click on image > Properties ... tells you it's a water clock or is it a more philosophical question?

Maybe I'm too simplistic ?? .. and completely missed the piont

Dave

Edited By Dave Daniels on 20/12/2015 20:15:42

Edited By Dave Daniels on 20/12/2015 20:16:50

No option to right click when using a tablet touch screen.

Martin

It is indeed, by a Frenchman, Bernard Gitton.

And yes there is one of his clocks in Berlin.

Neil

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 20/12/2015 21:13:00

Yesterday watched the waterbombers sucking water from the lake.
Lake Hume holds more water than Sydney Harbour so it's not an immediate problem.

Too much smoke for decent photos as the fires are just up the road at Barnawatha and West Wodonga and the smoke detectors in the workshop kicked in, could not see far. It was time to go fishing in the Murray river. Caught two golden perch on soft plastic curly tail grubs, a first.

Today I did manage to make a tap holder to fit my tailstock dieholder (M.E.W. #233 -John Ashton) but shrunk the dimensions to suit B.A. taps. For the inserts, turned a spare length of rod to fit the holder so that pieces may be drilled to suit the tap in question and sliced off as required.

A simple device but quite handy.

* Danny M *

I hope the fires aren't threatening life and property this time.

Nice to hear when a design from the mag is built.

Neil