What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!

[mnementh]

      https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000T9UG60/

Wiha basic electrician screwdriver set. I actually bought this because it was on sale for $23 right before we moved from Tejas a few years ago... I just now unearthed the bin it was packed away in, still sealed in the Amazon baggie. 

Classic Wiha eggy grips are a joy in the hand; balance is flawless on all in the set. These drivers love you long time.

mnem
Just an ordinary tinkerdwagon spending my days trying to unscrew the inscrutable...   

[pardo-bsso]

Any Lathe is better than no Lathe 

I have been looking at dropping a good chunk of change on a Lathe as my tame go to guy has more or less retired at age 83 and then this rustic toy turned up for sale 5 minutes drive from home for not very much. $300 AUpesos with metric and imperial change gears a little tooling and a faceplate so it will do me while I save likely at least 10X that lot for what I want to get.

I have the same lathe, it's good but the gibs and carriage needed a bit of love to get rigidity.
I don't like the plastic bearing at the end of the leadscrew, in mine it was kind of cracked and broke while carrying it in the car.

[cdev]

I have an old Microsoft Kinect.
What is this open source mapping software you talk of?
It sounds very interesting.

It's Freenect  http://openkinect.org/  Aso https://github.com/OpenKinect/libfreenect for the source code reposittory.. Check out the various demos..especially Kinect Fusion, which also might be found under the phrases "loop closure".. or "Visual SLAM" as its used in indoor mapping and spelunking. for those of us who live in cave like spaces.Have fun!  (and it is a lot of fun as well as being a good way to map 3D models of your indoor space very quickly.. super useful, for architecture and lots of stuff like that. Also look at "Kintinuous" (MIT student project)


It also can (somehow) be used as a webcam and the quality is really good. (color and resolution are very good)

 

[beanflying]

Any Lathe is better than no Lathe 

I have been looking at dropping a good chunk of change on a Lathe as my tame go to guy has more or less retired at age 83 and then this rustic toy turned up for sale 5 minutes drive from home for not very much. $300 AUpesos with metric and imperial change gears a little tooling and a faceplate so it will do me while I save likely at least 10X that lot for what I want to get.

I have the same lathe, it's good but the gibs and carriage needed a bit of love to get rigidity.
I don't like the plastic bearing at the end of the leadscrew, in mine it was kind of cracked and broke while carrying it in the car.

Yep not the most rigid slide mech on the BV20 so I am considering removing the Compound and replacing it with a spacer block. 98% of what I am likely to be doing will be parallel turning, bores and threads so not a big loss and can be swapped back if needed. Robrenz and Stefan Gotteswinter have videos on youtube showing this mod.

The whole lead screw on this one needs some 'help' the split pin holding the screw to the gearbox allows 1-2mm lateral travel and the plastic block will likely get an Aluminium/Bearing replacement.

Also some more mods here on one too if you haven't found it http://mrjones.id.au/html/bv-20_lathe.html

[tautech]

Any Lathe is better than no Lathe 

I have been looking at dropping a good chunk of change on a Lathe as my tame go to guy has more or less retired at age 83 and then this rustic toy turned up for sale 5 minutes drive from home for not very much. $300 AUpesos with metric and imperial change gears a little tooling and a faceplate so it will do me while I save likely at least 10X that lot for what I want to get.

I have the same lathe, it's good but the gibs and carriage needed a bit of love to get rigidity.
I don't like the plastic bearing at the end of the leadscrew, in mine it was kind of cracked and broke while carrying it in the car.

Yep not the most rigid slide mech on the BV20 so I am considering removing the Compound and replacing it with a spacer block. 98% of what I am likely to be doing will be parallel turning, bores and threads so not a big loss and can be swapped back if needed. Robrenz and Stefan Gotteswinter have videos on youtube showing this mod.

The whole lead screw on this one needs some 'help' the split pin holding the screw to the gearbox allows 1-2mm lateral travel and the plastic block will likely get an Aluminium/Bearing replacement.

Also some more mods here on one too if you haven't found it http://mrjones.id.au/html/bv-20_lathe.html

Bean, you really need the compound slide for thread cutting, you really do.

[beanflying]

Depends on how you cut them really and doing a few other tweaks to the Lathe is needed too. DRO's are now affordable even on scungy Lathes like this

https://youtu.be/WzdvJ19KrK0?t=1890

[Muttley Snickers]

If you need any tooling for the lathe or anything metal work related David at Auna Tools in Sydney Rd Coburg will likely have what you need including a replacement compound slide.

[impetus_maximus]

bought most of what i need for my 'Lumen Tube' project today. (not my design/idea)
three 4" elbows and a step down for the light meter (UT383BT) bit.

[DeanA]

bought most of what i need for my 'Lumen Tube' project today. (not my design/idea)
three 4" elbows and a step down for the light meter (UT383BT) bit.


(Attachment Link)

Ok, you got me curious.  What is your "Lumen Tube" project?

[tautech]

Depends on how you cut them really and doing a few other tweaks to the Lathe is needed too.

Sure you can get away with plunge cuts for threading in the smaller sizes or fine pitches but jump up in size with ISO coarse, Whitworth or UNC and use a plunge thread cut instead of compound cutting and it won't go well.

[beanflying]

Depends on how you cut them really and doing a few other tweaks to the Lathe is needed too.

Sure you can get away with plunge cuts for threading in the smaller sizes or fine pitches but jump up in size with ISO coarse, Whitworth or UNC and use a plunge thread cut instead of compound cutting and it won't go well.

Compound isn't going away just won't be fitted for general use. Reality is everything I do will be M12 and down 98% of the time. What is this 'Whitworth and UNC' you speak of anyway in our metricated world

I had sort of planned on a Lathe in the early part of next year so this is just a filler and will help me do some odds and ends in house.

[impetus_maximus]

Ok, you got me curious.  What is your "Lumen Tube" project?

a poorish man's way of isolating the light from a bulb, or flashlight from outside sources and measure it's output in lumen. (not calibrated)
i won't try to explain the mechanics as i would probably get it wrong.
got the idea from Matt Smith on youtube.
he first shows an integrating sphere made out of a cooler, later in the video a lumen tube.
i think he might be incorrect using foot candles though.



Texas_Ace over on BudgetLightForum AKA BLF also has built many lumen tubes.
https://budgetlightforum.com/node/60100

the tubes are somewhat like an 'integrating sphere' but more reliable at defusing the focused beams or 'throwers' of flashlights than the styrofoam cooler method.
if you search for lumen tube and see a pair of lungs, disregard that. lol
i tried finding a good article on the theory, mechanics etc but found WAY to many bot made articles. 

i want to be able to compare lumen:watt ratios for LED light bulbs before and after modifying them.
with either cutting 1 of 2 parallel resistors on current limiting type PCBs of plastic dome bulbs, or swapping it's value.
also putting a captive dropper in line with the AC of brighter 'non-dimable' glass bulb LED lights.
both inspired by our beloved BigClive. 

contemplating getting a UNI-T cheapo thermal imaging camera (UTI690A) as many LED bulbs seem to run well over 60°C by my finger-o-meter.
would also be handy for many other things.

also want to see efficiency curves for LED flashlights at different LED driver currents and types to show diminishing results in both directions.
diminishing efficiency on the low side, diminishing output on the high side.

if i were just doing bulbs, i would probably had done a cooler box.

ok, this reply has gone on for way too long. 

[mnementh]

Depends on how you cut them really and doing a few other tweaks to the Lathe is needed too.

Sure you can get away with plunge cuts for threading in the smaller sizes or fine pitches but jump up in size with ISO coarse, Whitworth or UNC and use a plunge thread cut instead of compound cutting and it won't go well.

Compound isn't going away just won't be fitted for general use. Reality is everything I do will be M12 and down 98% of the time. What is this 'Whitworth and UNC' you speak of anyway in our metricated world

I had sort of planned on a Lathe in the early part of next year so this is just a filler and will help me do some odds and ends in house.

LOL... good thing you're on the other side of the planet... I'd be tempted to come mug you as soon as you "outgrow" that little beastie. 

mnem
 

[Gyro]

A tiny SkyTronic DMM, acquired from a tool stall at our local 'Antiques Emporium' for £2.

It carries an entirely believable Cat1 300V rating and has a beautifully high contrast display. It even boasts shielded input jacks, a 250mA fuse, and a PTC - and has all of the current ranges on a separate input. Clearly I'm not going to be using it for anything serious, but it reads accurately and it will fit in any pocket - useful for checking out potential purchases. It is capable of lighting white LEDs on the diode setting. The continuity bleeper is so glacially slow that it is quicker to glance across at the display! I think they did a later version with a pointless transistor hFE socket and less convenient sockets, I don't know it it is was bigger too.

Somehow I couldn't resist it... It just radiates cute!

[mansaxel]

Now that the Shariar Effect^(tm) has worn off a bit from the [hp] Nixie counter market, time was right to make the counter stable complete(r).

Has arrived. Counts happily. Am happy. Some tinkering required, of course, but that's how things are.

[rsjsouza]

A tiny SkyTronic DMM, acquired from a tool stall at our local 'Antiques Emporium' for £2.

That is also sold as the Aneng mini, a nifty little bugger that found its way to a few of us around here. Sure, the 12V battery alone costs many times over the meter, but it is quite useful. I use mine primarily for battery testing, as it shows the current of the battery under load.

[Gyro]

Ah, yes. There look to be several variants, all seem to have a transistor socket. Mine substitutes a signal output - a 2V squarewave at 63Hz  I was expecting something like 1kHz, I don't think I'll be risking backdriving that setting. The battery tests threw me for a while too (I was expecting voltage under indicated load), until I realised that the probes needed to be on the current jack, I might avoid those as a fuse saving measure!

I picked up a 2-pack of Varta batteries for £2.79, so a single was slightly less than I paid for the meter!


P.S. The Aneng looks different internally. No fuse or PTC (maybe value caught up with the engineering!)...



and...

[cdev]

On Friday, I received orders for 2 of my Generator Autostart ATS Control Panels.
Spent some time on Saturday, and most of this afternoon completing the board layout.

>then this evening I Just spent over ZAR700 (about a tank of petrol) with ITEADSTUDIO
>for 10 off 10x10cm Prototype PCB's
>Most of the cost was for the DHL shipping.

>I just couldn't wait 4 months for the standard shipping.

>Now I have my fingers crossed that they will arrive in 2 weeks!

P

Oh my God..thats really bad.. There must be a better way.. Ouch...

[jonovid]

Retro Arcade Box Game Console
micro SD card 3k classic games with an on screen menu.
like 4 or 5 consoles and a room of arcade cabinets in one.
open source Linux system. supports PSP/PS1/N64/NDS/MAME NEOGEO & other emulators  according to the instructions in English.
4-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU   5-core Mali-450 graphics processor.
HDMI HD video output. or AV standard-definition
two WiFi or USB corded PS2 style of hand controllers.
they have a lightweight low quality plastics feel in the hand, .
when compared with the feel of playStation 2 controllers.
recommend you keep this lot out of the sun light.
PC docking to add new games.   
 network LAN interface
AilEx
must reset the console and or re-boot to transition between games.  exit a game to menu.
some buttons do not work on the B USB port so on solo player use the A USB port
no pilot light or power-on LED  a bit unusual. 
missing power adapter  -an easy fix.

[rdl]

I bought a new chair. The old one was totally broke down and is headed for the trash. It was a bit of a pain to assemble, took about twice as long as I expected. One good thing is that even with the gas lift all the way down it's still acceptable. This is good for when it inevitably starts to leak and won't stay up. I've had bad luck with this kind of chair over the years and now consider them disposable, so I didn't want to spend a ridiculous amount of money.

https://www.amazon.com/Serta-43675-Leather-Executive-Chair/dp/B00AVUQQES

[SiliconWizard]

Just received this electric screwdriver, a Xiaomi Electric Precision Screwdriver. It's pretty well made.

[sleemanj]

I've had bad luck with this kind of chair over the years and now consider them disposable

I got so sick of swivel chairs going bad, not so much losing gas as thats a 5 minute job to replace a cylinder, but they always go wobbly or lop-sided on me, probably because  I sit funny or something, anyway, it ticked me off so much that last time one went bad on me I just got a plain old non-adjustable 4 legged dining chair to replace it.

[BigBoss]

I have purchased a Desktop Computer.

AMD Ryzen 5900X 12 Core 24 Thread Processor
Gigabyte X570S AORUS PRO AX
64 Go Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200 MHz
8 Go AMD RADEON™ RX 6600
1 To SEAGATE FIRECUDA 530 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe

It's amazing ! Booting time is just 7.2 second. Associated with 400 Mbit Fiber Internet, it has become an ideal Workstation.
I recommend pcspecialist. They work very professional.

[SpacedCowboy]

So I have been waiting on tenterhooks for Fedex to arrive (it was supposed to get here Saturday, but just arrived now). Haven't been out of the house for days so I don't miss the delivery-guy (it needed a signature)...

But finally. It is here MSO8104 - soon hopefully to be *cough* liberated to an MSO8204 with the wonderful help of tv84 It's quite the upgrade from my old 'scope (a DS1102D), you can see them next to each other in the photo... The new one...

- Samples at 10GS/sec
- Has 1GHz b/w, will hopefully soon be 2
- Came with a bundle enabling all the options, just registered for the keys for that
- Can do eye-diagrams and jitter analysis (which is the main reason I got it)
- Also includes an arbitrary waveform generator, spectrum analyzer, frequency counter, logic analyzer, protocol analyzer, FFT etc.
- Came with 4x500MHz probes and 2x 1.5GHz probes. I think the latter were a gift because I don't recall ordering them
- Also came with the LA probes (I did order those).

I am so happy right now

[aduinstat]

I just bought two 6.5 digit multimeters on ebay: An HP 34401A, and a Keithley 196. Trouble is, I didn't think both my offers would be accepted. 

I also bought a power supply on this forum, and have a Siglent SDS1104X-E and a SDG2042X is the mail. All this'll make for a pretty nice bench.