What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!

[Muttley Snickers]

I suspect that SeanB is having us all on, I can tell by the horrendous internal mess that this device is without question a Delonghi coffee machine, no other machine on earth could make such a mess, we run a Delonghi Magnifica where a two minute coffee turns into a two hour cleanup job.   

[TerraHertz]

we run a Delonghi Magnifica where a two minute coffee turns into a two hour cleanup job.   

Coffee drinkers... drug addicts deserve all the pain they cause themselves.
Me, I prefer chocolate bars. Just as bad for the health, but no mess to clean up afterwards.

[Muttley Snickers]

Chocolate bars, don't tell me about chocolate bars, you people and your silly soft centres.   

[BU508A]

Haribo Goldbears:



Source: https://www.candymachines.com/Haribo-Gummi-Bears-3-lb-Bag-P3753.aspx

[TerraHertz]

Haribo Goldbears:

Are you hoping  someone thinks "my, those look yummy, I'll order some and eat them" ?
Sadist.
Also, worst clean up mess imaginable.

(For those who don't know, google haribo gummybears review )

[cdev]

My favorite coffee making method is very simple and cleanup is a breeze. It is the so called "French Press" method. It was invented by a company "Chambord" I think.. I was taught this by a former girlfriend who is now a successful restauranteur, many years ago. It involves a straight glass beaker with a mesh plunger and you end up with just two sublimely delicious cups of coffee that have a bit of chewy grit in them. And your grounds in the bottom of the beaker. Then you rinse it off. Done. The coffee is really good. As good or better than expresso and much less trouble. Also, no need to buy filters, ever. Just keep it clean. Definitely worth trying. The french presses are now mass produced and quite cheap. So no reason not to try it if you drink coffee.

This is the one I have.

https://www.bodum.com/us/en/1928-16us4

There are cheaper ones which work just as well.

The parts are replaceable, so save them if you break the beaker. I am on my third one.

Don't know why it is so good, but they really make a spectacular cup of coffee.

[cdev]

Old large format color inkjet printers can produce really nice output. I have always wanted one. They are great for artists.

Good for you! I hope you get it running satisfactorily and give it a good home.


Quote from: SeanB on Yesterday at 10:37:14

Well, this followed me home today. Got for free from the printer tech company I deal with, as they were going to throw it out as scrap. did not get the stand it was on, they were going to use that for the new printer the customer traded this old clunker in on. Probably works too, seeing as it still is full of ink and solvent as well.

[Gyro]

Well, a couple of days ago anyway. A nice cheap ebay find, a 6 decade thumbwheel variable resistor assembly. Unboxed and in a rather nasty green front panel but with decent quality Contraves Swiss made switches. The main resistors are 2% metal film 0.5W, I've swapped the carbon film ones on the Megohm decade to 1% metal film too.

I've boxed it today and it's taken its place as 'big brother' to my tiny home made 3 decade substitution box (I think they look rather sweet together). Not the highest accuracy of course but handy for substitute and measure applications.

[nctnico]

I got a new Ersa hand piece (the old one gave up after 20+ years), some rings for my Ersa SMT tweezers to keep the tips aligned and I got some new soldering tips. XL style!

The hand piece is one step up from the ultra low cost hand piece from Ersa and it has a very flexibele wire unlike the low cost one.

[SeanB]

Old large format color inkjet printers can produce really nice output. I have always wanted one. They are great for artists.

Good for you! I hope you get it running satisfactorily and give it a good home.

Well, it is an older continuous jet inkjet, designed for printing whatever is selected in the memory onto the substrate moving past under it. Either has an encoder giving line speed, or will simply have a preset width and assumes the line is moving. Will have a trigger input, some status outputs and such, but I have none of that, just the printer. Yes, probably does work, but as the cost of the consumables is not cheap, i likely will be parting it out.

Yes it will be messy, looking to go buy at least 20l of methylated spirits and a sacrificial roll of plastic to do this on, along with a whole big batch of newspapers to soak up the spills, plus wear old clothes and a lot of latex disposable gloves.

[cdev]

I am now the proud owner of an ultra cheap DS3231 precision RTC module purchased off of ebay.

If it is the genuine article its an incredible deal.

The chip is marked

DS3231SN
1030A3
24088  (or 240BB)

and the PCB is marked "DS3231 for Pi" I forget what I paid but it was under $2 with free shipping. It took a long time to get here.

Update: Out of two super cheap RTCs received, only one seems to work properly. Now I need to find some way of testing its accuracy faster. RTCs are strange in that they seem to only keep time to the integer second externally. Which complicates the matter of measuring the accuracy it seems to me. Not the best situation..

Now I'm about to Google and see if I can find an easy way to test it. Based on the price, it may be counterfeit or a "retread",. But, who knows. We'll see.

[Messtechniker]

Smartphone holder for 1 EUR from China. See enclosed pic.
How on earth can they do this at this price which included shipping?
Anyway the spring inside is pretty stiff so that it holds the smartphone
really well.
And an adaptor 3/8-in. Whitworth 1/4-in (out of the studio junkbox)
to mount the smartphone on top of a common microphone stand.

And why I need it? To take many pics of stuff to be flogged on ebay.
Having the camera on a stand saves a lot of time and improves pic quality.

[djos]

My favorite coffee making method is very simple and cleanup is a breeze. It is the so called "French Press" method. It was invented by a company "Chambord" I think.. I was taught this by a former girlfriend who is now a successful restauranteur, many years ago. It involves a straight glass beaker with a mesh plunger and you end up with just two sublimely delicious cups of coffee that have a bit of chewy grit in them. And your grounds in the bottom of the beaker. Then you rinse it off. Done. The coffee is really good. As good or better than expresso and much less trouble. Also, no need to buy filters, ever. Just keep it clean. Definitely worth trying. The french presses are now mass produced and quite cheap. So no reason not to try it if you drink coffee.

This is the one I have.

https://www.bodum.com/us/en/1928-16us4

There are cheaper ones which work just as well.

The parts are replaceable, so save them if you break the beaker. I am on my third one.

Don't know why it is so good, but they really make a spectacular cup of coffee.

My wife scored one of these from her work for me (she hates coffee, but luckily loves me. ) - it produces amazing coffee and is very simple to use. French presses are easier but I found they went through a lot more coffee. The little Expresso machine has 2 different inserts depending on whether you are making 1 cup or 2 so you never use more coffee than you need. 

[Mr.B]

Don't go to Mitre10 with a wad of cash in your pocket... 

Bosch PBD40 drill press.



Edit: To correct model number.

[tautech]

Don't go to Mitre10 with a wad of cash in your pocket... 

Bosch PBD40 drill press.

Nice.
C'mon, how much ?

[Mr.B]

C'mon, how much ?

NZD 437

[Mr.B]

This also...
My wife gave me 4 minutes in the powertool section. 

[Mr.B]

Buying and installing one of these was the trade off...
Nobody tell her the price difference.
I think I did pretty well out of the deal.

[Gary.M]

Haribo Goldbears:

Are you hoping  someone thinks "my, those look yummy, I'll order some and eat them" ?
Sadist.
Also, worst clean up mess imaginable.

(For those who don't know, google haribo gummybears review )

Only for the discontinued sugar free bears, sadly. I'd love to try them. Maybe give them out at Halloween. But too late.

Sent from my x600 using Tapatalk

[bjcuizon]

We went to a local weekend market on a field and got this 2nd hand 30 metre long extension cord for $10. What a bargain! This will have plenty of uses in the near future.
Please excuse me for the picture quality, cause I just took this from the crusty tablet camera.

[BFX]

Terminator 50ohm 

[technix]

I am in kind of a gaming spree now. Arrived today are two more game cartridges: a Japanese copy of Pokemon Omega Ruby, and a unlocked English copy of Pokemon Black Version 2.

I may spend even more money on Pokemon games, starting from acquiring copies of English Emerald, Platinum and HeartGold, as well as a Nintendo DSi console.

[rollatorwieltje]

Wanted to test the quality of some sticker print shop, so I ordered some samples.

[BU508A]

Haribo Goldbears:

Are you hoping  someone thinks "my, those look yummy, I'll order some and eat them" ?
Sadist.

Thanks for all the flowers

[Gary350z]

Excelta 2843 round nose pliers for bending leads.
About $20. Nice quality.

Excelta: http://www.excelta.com/excelta-precision-small-hand-tools#!/p/10171205/category=19392024

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Excelta-2843-Overall-Length-Stainless/dp/B007XIKTWG/ref=sr_1_1?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1499364348&sr=1-1&keywords=ROUND+NOSE+PLIERS&refinements=p_89%3AExcelta