What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!

[Gyro]

A nice old Ernest Turner Electrostatic Voltmeter. I've never seen one with a FSD as low as 1kV before. It has 3 nice smooth fixed vanes and 2 moving vanes. The needle was catching the scale slightly so I had to open it up.

Rather surprising is how well it retains its reading from just it's own capacitance when disconnected. The yellow resin rear is an amazingly good insulator, given that I've only given it a quick wipe over so far. I took the first photo several minutes after charging the meter to 1kV. By the time it reaches mid scale, the reading only drops by about 20V/minute and it holds 200-250V for a couple of hours. Its capacitance at zero reading is around 8.5pF, so I estimate its capacitance at FSD to be around 5 - 10 times that.

I had a 10kV meter as a kid, purchased in Lisle Street for peanuts, but I was unfortunately too young to appreciate it. It would be nice to still have it around today.

[mnementh]

   

https://www.harborfreight.com/28-Amp-5-in-Random-Orbital-Palm-Sander-63999.html

Twenny Dollah JittahBug... Made of WIN!

That pretty much covers it. If you have any need to sand anything... this thing belongs in your toolbox. Runs smooth at all speeds (yes, I know it's a jitterbug; but no funny crunchy feel or rattles,etc), and has plenty of power: I cannot stall it out even leaning my considerable weight into it.

It runs cool, has a good balanced feel in the hand, and get this: it has a dust collection system that actually works. No, it's not perfect... but unlike the bad old days, I am not having to stop every minute or two to sweep the surface of my work to keep the dust from clogging the paper. 

And speaking of the paper... the matching Velcro-oid sanding discs are excellent; $9 gets you a 15-pack, and it lasts very well, provided you clean every few minutes with a welder's wire brush. I used two discs of 150 grit and two of 220 grit for the whole thing, once the stripping and shaping was done with 40/80 grit on the belt sander.

This little beast is on sale through the 22nd, and for $20 it's a no-brainer. This was literally one of the most pleasant tool surprises I've had all year. 

mnem
*toolish ol' dwagon*

[Teti]

If you can consider this as a latest purchase, then a big fat order from JLCPCB

[jonpaul]

Bonjour à tous
A Complete surprise, found  in boxes of old junk....

HP 355D 0..120 db 1 Ghz attenuator

€15 at flea market in Paris

excellent condition, works fine!

Jon

[vk6zgo]

Bonjour à tous
A Complete surprise, found  in boxes of old junk....

HP 355D 0..120 db 1 Ghz attenuator

€15 at flea market in Paris

excellent condition, works fine!

Jon

Sweet find, Jon!
That takes me back to many years ago, when one of those travelled around (amongst a lot of other TE) with me when, along with another guy, I travelled the State, testing remotely sited TV transmitters.
It is amazing how much you miss such "secondary" test equipment when you don't have access to it any more.

[jonpaul]

Rebonjour Cher monsieur

One expects great TE bargains at ham fleas like Silicon Valley, Dayton,  Germany

At Paris Fleas and neighborhood sales, over the years I have accumulated

Hameg German analog scopes
5 €, one ch  10 MHz
25€ 2 ch 20 MHz both working!
Swiss  made 3A 240V Variac € 20
Philips France DVM, LN in case with safety bannana leads, €10
Various sizes vintage soldering irons, €1..2..3
Many fine electronic tools, mostly French, German, Swedish or Swiss made.

So, finally a little electronic lab in Paris 6eme ....a dream...

Bon journée

Jon

[Mortymore]

Arturia MiniLab MK2 inverted edition.

It has the size of a laptop.
With such a small device, I have lot to learn now.

[RAPo]

Got me a Tek 2445 (Eu 150,--) that looks mighty fine on top of a Tek 225.

[beanflying]

Oops went to a real life bricks and mortar equipment and tool Auction 

I now own a third large Compressor and a second largish Dust extractor and a few assorted sundries 

[mnementh]

Aspire R5-471T-51UN Flip-Convertible ultrabook in new unused condition, according to Post-it stuck on screen. Even got the original box.


https://www.acer.com/datasheets/2015/4876/R5-471T/NX.G7WAA.006.html

Intel Core i5 6200U (2.30 GHz)
8 GB LPDDR3 Memory.
256 GB m.2 SSD.
3270 mAh Lithium-Ion Battery (9hrs)
I/O: USB 2.0, 3.0, 3.1, Type C, HDMI, SD Card, Audio Out w/Mic
14” IPS Touchscreen 1920 x 1080.
Windows 10 Home 64-Bit.

While not quite as much laptop as my current Lenovo Flex 3 1580U ((Core i7/6500U, 15.8" IPS touchscreen), it was only $80 at the Thrift and doesn't have a cracked digitizer which is a pretty much unobtanium oddball part number. 

We'll see... if I can't live with a mere 14" screen after being spoiled by the big Lenovo, I can probably flip it for enough to get something similar. 

mnem
"Oooooh... shiny..."

[rfclown]

My first DRO. To help measure phase noise of a 100 MHz oscillator.

[cdev]

This looks like a fun toy to have. What kind of software comes with it?

Arturia MiniLab MK2 inverted edition.

It has the size of a laptop.
With such a small device, I have lot to learn now.

[gamalot]

Got this Keysight 16047A test fixture for A$150, like new, all accessories unopened.

[Mortymore]

This looks like a fun toy to have. What kind of software comes with it?

Arturia MiniLab MK2 inverted edition.
...

The idea is more of a portable instrument. At home we are new to DAW and MIDI world instruments so it wouldn't make sense to make a more substancial investment.
This is mainly intended for my daughter, though I will try to have some fun with it too. 

I bought the inverted edition (my daughter choice) so take note that it may come with more (or diverse) software than the regular MK2.

- Analog LAB Lite
- Analog LAB intro
- Mini V3
- Stage-73 V2
- Rev Plate-140
- Grand Piano (UVI)
- Ableton Lite Live

https://www.arturia.com/minilab-inverted

[beanflying]

Baby Battery operated Cold Cut Saw. Consider me impressed. Fairly quiet all but sparkfree even on this ancient Galvanised Iron. 6mm Steel cut was fast, cold and very clean only a bit of a deburr then it's done ready for whatever. Never using an Angle grinder again for long straight cuts.

Seems to collect nearly all of the chips and shavings on the thinner sheet and most of the heavier stock.

I will add a few more blades to it for Aluminium/Plastic and a timber one as I don't own any cordless circular saws (will be slower cuts due to the reduced speed but ok for casual use).

Due to 'reasons' it was cheapest to buy it from the UK via Amazon Prime https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B07HZD9HV4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Cubdriver]

Cold saws are awesome!  Very nice to have on hand and definitely beat the hell out of abrasive cutting.

-Pat

[tautech]

Cold saws are awesome!  Very nice to have on hand and definitely beat the hell out of abrasive cutting.

-Pat

Old timers cut roofing iron with a builders Skillsaw and the blade reversed.
Light gauge Coro is faster to just tear after a nick with snips on one edge where you start.

[Cubdriver]

I was blown away ten or twelve years ago when I finally tried cutting aluminum on my table saw - amazed at how well it went, and immediately went and bought a proper non-ferrous blade for it.  It goes through 1/4” 6061-T6 aluminum like a hot knife through butter and leaves a great finish on the cut.  Based on that, I bought the cold chop saw a few years ago and was similarly impressed.  Not quite as fast as the table saw on the Al, but still plenty quick and a beautiful smooth cut.  So, so, so much better than trying to cut either material with a band or jig saw.

-Pat

[beanflying]

For Aluminium/Plastic I got a low rake blade for my Tracksaw which works a treat. The Bandsaw for short cuts and curves is great but for long cuts and speed circular blades take some beating. I did look at a smaller blade for the Tracksaw to get the cut surface speed down for steel (not a good compromise because of the higher speed motor) but decided having a portable option made sense in the toy collection.



And if these won't cut the mustard then I can break out the Plasma Cutter just with some more cleanup after a cut

[Cubdriver]

Yeah, the plasma cutter will tend to be a little bit messier…. 

-Pat

[Ground_Loop]

Plasma on aluminum has never worked well for me. Leaves a really ragged cut. Maybe I'm just doing it wrong. 

[Cubdriver]

Plasma on aluminum has never worked well for me. Leaves a really ragged cut. Maybe I'm just doing it wrong.

I've never tried plasma on Al - don't think it would work.  Plasma is for steel.  I might have sown some confusion when I threw in the bit about cutting aluminum on the table saw.

-Pat

[beanflying]

Plasma can cut a bunch of conductive metals including Aluminium, Brass, Copper and some of the whacky steel alloys but you really need to consider playing with the Shielding Gas Nitrogen, CO2 and Argon mixes generally. The same thing applies with metal cutting Lasers too.

Not a fan of Aluminium and Plasma (and I don't have mixed gases) and as I don't build boats saws make most sense for roughing it out.

[Cubdriver]

Plasma can cut a bunch of conductive metals including Aluminium, Brass, Copper and some of the whacky steel alloys but you really need to consider playing with the Shielding Gas Nitrogen, CO2 and Argon mixes generally. The same thing applies with metal cutting Lasers too.

Not a fan of Aluminium and Plasma (and I don't have mixed gases) and as I don't build boats saws make most sense for roughing it out.

Given the load the plasma cutter puts on my air compressor, I can't imagine trying to feed it some specialty gas mixture - that would get expensive REALLY fast!

-Pat

[beanflying]

Yep I used to have a customer that was buying 6 bottles of cutting gas a week but they were building Aluminium Boats You can do thin Aluminum with Air so give it a go sometime, I wouldn't try anything much over 2mm and expect it to look ok.