General > General Technical Chat
Tricks of the Trade - knowledge for every day life
<< < (14/31) > >>
RJSV:
Our mini computer lab had a cluster of older model terminals (screen and keyboard with discrete local processor). With arrival, of an in-house SERVICE ENGINEER, the software person watched:
  The service guy proceeded, soberly, to CLOBBER THE HELL out of the terminal side sheet metal. Man those 1972 vintage units used, like 1 cm thick steel, so the SERVICE PRO guy had to really wallop a couple smacks.
   As expected, I watched in amusement as the watching PROGRAMMER started to 'titter', then a full on belly-laugh.
   Felt kinda like watching a RODEO cow wrangler.
thermistor-guy:

--- Quote from: Kasper on October 28, 2020, 03:57:23 pm ---Hi Everyone, thought it'd be fun to share some tricks of the trade.  What random things have you learned about electronics that help in every day life?
...

--- End quote ---

Found something recently.

While removing some old thermal paste from a graphics card, the Arctic Clean (1 & 2) I was using also removed some permanent marker (Sharpie) lines. These were lines I'd drawn on a heat sink as an alignment aid.

Next time I need to remove "permanent" marker from metalwork, I'll try the Arctic Clean again.
Melt-O-Tronic:
The carrier solvent in most permanent marker inks is acetone.  Therefore, an acetone rub is usually the most effective means of removing these marks.  Just consider the base material that you're cleaning when choosing.
DrG:

--- Quote from: Melt-O-Tronic on March 26, 2021, 03:33:00 pm ---The carrier solvent in most permanent marker inks is acetone.  Therefore, an acetone rub is usually the most effective means of removing these marks.  Just consider the base material that you're cleaning when choosing.

--- End quote ---

Yep, I used to use ferric chloride to etch the date back on a certain type of US 5C. The dates were at a high point for wear and "dateless" nickels of this type were common. You could, however, etch the date using ferric chloride. To keep the ferric chloride right around the date area, I would use a permanent marker to make a border. After the date was revealed, acetone would remove the marker.



Now, an etched date was certainly detectable and not as valuable as one that had the normal visible date, but they were still collectible.

Not sure this counts as "tools of the trade" though :)


SilverSolder:

--- Quote from: Cerebus on October 28, 2020, 04:31:32 pm ---[... avoid charging cold batteries...]  Especially applies to battery packs with a permanent low capacity lockout - like Makita ones, where if the battery fails to accept 'sufficient' charge three times the battery management chip permanently marks the battery 'bad' and disables it.

--- End quote ---

That kind of technology is evil...   I prefer to be the judge of when the battery is no longer "good enough", not some dumb chip...
Navigation
Message Index
Next page
Previous page
There was an error while thanking
Thanking...

Go to full version
Powered by SMFPacks Advanced Attachments Uploader Mod