What did you do Today 2018

Slide-Rule !, an essential tool on the Airline Flight Decks and Load Planning Offices still in the early 70s. almost disappeared by mid 70s. I/we also mistrusted Electronic Calculator's answers when they first became available. Only used to check figures after manual calculations in 6 digits for quite a while. Also weren't allowed for Weight and Balance License Exams.

So today, I made a small dent in producing the some of the small constituents of my T. Engine's 'Outfit' by finishing the Axe and Coal/Ball Pein Hammer(s). They have 'Wedges' inserted as well-

Still too cold for me to spend much time on the machines in the Cave.

Just a few pics of a tiny part of our collection

Edited By Oldiron on 07/01/2018 19:09:17

Edited By Oldiron on 07/01/2018 19:10:25

Today I decided to tackle fitting the protective screen that I had purchased for my new Ipad (Christmas present). I had purchased a good quality screen protector in the hope that I would manage to fit it without the frustration of removing the inevitable bubbles that I had suffered with cheap versions on previous equipment. Well the number of bubbles was considerably reduced this time and by lifting the screen in strategic places I managed to get rid of all the bubbles but despite meticulously cleaning the Ipad screen before starting there were two annoying dust particles, I decided that I had endured enough stress for the day and they will remain forever embedded in the screen protector, am I the only one who is unable to achieve perfection with these screen protectors?

Dave W

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I have never even contemplated fitting a screen protector to my iPad.

My 'first generation' iPad screen is still good, and I doubt the 9.7" Pro and Pencil would respond favourably.

MichaelG.

I've played those games, getting screen protectors on without annoying voids. There are 2 main sources as you say - air bubbles (which are simple enough to remove) and dust. With dust, once you've caught some, you are stuffed. It's pretty much impossible to remove dust after the event.

One of the techniques I saw on the internet for reducing dust levels is to fit the screen protector in the bathroom after it has been thoroughly steamed up. That makes a lot of sense, as airborne particles will nucleate water vapour and be removed from circulation.

I never bother fitting them to my own phone. Instead, I only carry it in my left pocket, secured from falling out with a clean handkerchief, faced against my leg. I never carry anything else in the pocket with it that could scratch it. I also use one of those phone cases to protect the main housing. Generally they extend slightly past the screen, so if you place your phone face down, the screen doesn't contact the surface of the table.

Murray

OldIron, how do you dissolve the old grease off the mechanical calculators. I too have several different makes but hesitate taking them to pieces to clean them (Yes they are jammed up) but don't want to damage the various plastic and metal painted wheels by aggressive solvents.
BobH

Speedy Buiders5. We use brake cleaner in small doses on metal parts and wd40 or Fairy liquid to dilute down the old grease on other surfaces. Depends on the material. Many times these machines are jammed up by misuse not old grease etc. If the calculator is jammed solid they can be a real pain in the butt to unjam. Unfortunately they are not like a typewriter where you can just pull everything back into place. It like a jigsaw puzzle trying to unravel the lockup. Can take a lot of work to do. My wife spends many hours stripping them till she gets to the stuck parts.

regards

Edited By Oldiron on 07/01/2018 20:41:51

Back in the olden days when we developed our photographic film at home it was usual to time this job with bathtime and the film was hung up to dry after bathing finished. The steam from the bath removed dust particles from the air and the film dried in a clean (literally!) environment.  ( The use of talcum powder after bath was prohibited)

Edited By Robbo on 07/01/2018 21:39:42

Practice and fit in in one go. The protector on my phone is well scuffed, but no bubbles!

I love the tiny traction tools and the old calculators are fascinating too, I have a few slide rules and a nice old book on their use.

I was the only kid in my class with a slide rule

Neil

The sight of all those slide rules and mechanical calculators was just too much and my memory flew back to about 1952/3. It was the first morning of a six-month spell in the DO as part of my tool-making apprenticeship. I took with me a few drawing instruments and a cheap slide rule that I used at tech.

When the section leader saw the slide rule, he said, “You can burn that! We only do calculations long hand!”

Six-figure trig and log tables were the exception.

Some years later, perhaps around 1960, two of us had a heap of shrinkage figures to calculate in preparation for the dimensioning of miner’s lamp battery moulds. We used one of these; **LINK**

To speed up the process, my colleague read out the numbers and I punched them into the machine, turning the handle while listening for the ring of the bell.

Perhaps out of boredom, but while waiting for more numbers, I discovered that after entering 625 into the register, cranking the handle backwards (for minus and division), caused the bell to play a rhumba rhythm.

How’s that for a piece of nonsense?

When I went to school in a (posh) London Grammar School (Parmiter's, got a scholarship ) a slide rule was not only mandatory, it had to be a Faber Castel as we were given lessons on how to use them, not bad for a 12 year old to learn the basics.

Today I continued to strip a model aircraft of ancient tissue using neat acetone so definitely an outside job. Not so hot as yesterday, only reached 97° F so sat in the shade with gentle breeze on back, but I felt pity for the English Test Team as I listened to the cricket on the radio, the heat is hitting them hard. Just up the road from the SCG Penrith (outer Sydney) reached about 117° F yesterday.

At least it was not too humid but apparently many of the 'Barmy Army' went to Bondi Beach and turned into lobsters. This is not a good idea as skin cancer (melanoma) is prevalent under the southern sun **LINK** .

* Danny M *

Slide rules were very effective for flicking ink pellets as I recall...

I put the drain rods away having swept a chimney at the weekend.

Five minute later my stepson spotted we had a blocked drain.

I hate baby wipes! New sign for the loo:

"Will anyone using babywipes please note that the drain rods are behind the firewood store".

Neil

Sounds like you have Victorian sewerage, like me. It was designed to operate with the old-fashioned two-gallon flush, not the miserable dribble you get from modern toilets like ours. I'm all for conserving water, but there are limits .....

After putting up a similar note, I got the baby cleaning job...

Toilet tissue is designed to turn to mush quickly once it becomes wet. These blessed "wet wipes", for people who can't wipe their bums with normal tissue are (not surprisingly) designed NOT to disintegrate when wet. Apparently it's one of the key contributors to those fatbergs.

British visitors to places like N America soon discover how much easier their smaller diameter soil pipes are to block up than the UK ones (3" vs 5". A British visitor armed with wet wipes must be their ultimate nemesis.

Murray

Anyone know what the "wet" is in wet wipes and baby wipes? In my last job our computer keyboards used to get filthy, and the only things which would clean them properly was baby wipes - this on the advice of the women in the local Tesco, who used them for cleaning the key pads on the checkout tills.. They're also useful for getting sweaty grot out of the chequering on shotgun woodwork. Makes me wonder if I'd really like to use them on a baby's skin.

And baby wipes were recommended to me by a fellow shopper in a supermarket as "ideal for cleaning garden furniture made of plastic" (or whatever its properly called).

1938 This is the first time (or maybe second) time it's blocked on our property, rather than out on the road, usually a few seconds of 'pumping' frees everything up. Only two rods in and the plunger jammed solid, had to use a second rod with the twirly metal bit to clear the wipes then bash the first rod until it freed up. Nerve wracking!

I think something had jammed across a joint, then accumulated baby wipes. I might send a disposable cheap webcam down to have a look, a six-foot USB extension lead will be plenty and the run is normally dry (well damp but not flooded).

On our first Christmas here in 2002 the sewer out on the road collapsed due to a sky cable trench over the top. The poor crew took four days over the holiday to find the break, dig it up and repair.

I finally got irked enough by the strange graunchy noise coming from the spindle of my CNC machine to actually do something about it. It's clearly not coming from the actual spindle bearings themselves, yet doesn't sound like the sort of noise motor bearings could make either. Have a listen here. The only way to fix it is to remove the motor and belt housing to have a closer look. There are other benefits to doing so: the belt looks as if it's not long for this world, the back gear assembly is one area I haven't overhauled and I would like to fit a shaft encoder to the spindle so that I can do rigid tapping at some point. Finally, there will come a point soon when I will need to extract the machine from the workshop through the roller doors that are only 7' high. This will require me to remove the motor / drawbar / belt housing etc, so it would be sensible to have a dry run up front. The workshop was built around the machine, so getting it in wasn't a problem.

The main issue is that the motor is big and heavy (50kg?) and is over 2m from ground level. And the belt housing isn't a lot smaller or lighter, being a large cast iron jobby.

Managed to extend the boom of the engine crane sufficiently to reach above the motor and bring it down in a controlled(!) fashion. Ditto the housing. No death, hospital visits or changes of underwear were required.

It's now clear that the funny noise was due to the perished belt which is hard and shiny in places. But what surprises me is that it has 60 degree faces on the vees. It measures about 11mm across the top of the vees. Has anyone seen 60 degree vee belts before? It's a new one on me. Having said that, the motor and spindle pulleys are clearly worn in places, so I may as well remachine them to a 60 degree profile.

The next step is to remove a couple of kg of heavy grease from the gear chamber, then degrease everything, check bearings, regrease and reassemble. Before regreasing, i will fit a couple of proximity sensors next to the main spindle gear. By placing these apart by 1/4 of the pitch of a tooth I should get a quadrature signal that indicates spindle direction as well as speed.

Murray

Edited By Muzzer on 08/01/2018 18:50:32