Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

Most 'interesting' job I did was supply a Hydraulic Drive Peristaltic Pump (40mm hose) with marine bronze fasteners for pumping Nitro-glycerine. 'Allegedly' it is safe providing it remains in an aqueous solution which is what we were moving. The isolated building was away from any others and surrounded by 12' high earthen barriers so I remain unconvinced. All tools in the building were also Bronze to avoid sparks 

https://goo.gl/maps/WpT6YEvaRfxu767x5

I see that it was close a site known as Tunzafun, that had me chortling away, thinking I bet it was given the material you was pumping and the precautions taken [emoji12]

Sent from my POT-LX1 using Tapatalk

[bd139]

No worse than 1950's america... 



Mmmm fallout

[beanflying]

Speaking of Double Gloving  That sort of Pumping is illegal in NSW where the plant is but ok in Victoria with a permit  Oops Tunzafun is a Waterpark 

It used to be Australian Defence Industries back in the day, they make a large chunk of the propellants for shells among other things that go ka-boom. Security was tight even back in ther 1990's bit surprised Google Satellite allows detail to be shown.

[med6753]

No worse than 1950's america... 



Mmmm fallout

"There's absolutely no danger" 

[tggzzz]

Cost of a bank of Weston Cells $1-2k, cost of a JJ Array $xxx,xxx+ ?  I won't be adding one to my Cal gear. 

The worst chemical I have ever played with is HF https://msds.orica.com/pdf/shess-en-cds-010-000034430201.pdf A company I used to work for sold and serviced Pumps for a producer of it. Plenty of other nasties we worked with as well but this one eats bones with contact among it's other issues. Barrier cream on hands, double gloves, disposable overalls, full face forced respirators ......

Chronic effects:  Chronic low dose exposure to hydrogen fluoride by inhalation can lead to ulceration and perforation of the nasal septum.  Chronic exposure to excessive quantities of gaseous or particulate fluoride results in nausea,vomiting, loss of appetite and diarrhoea or constipation.  Fluorosis or other chronic effects may result from significantacute exposures.  Hydrogen fluoride is a calcium scavenger binding with calcium in the bloodstream and bones

Mercury is a lightweight 

In comparison, yes indeed. (Except perhaps where Hg-Al amalgams in aircraft cause the aircraft to crash )

My father wasn't a wimp, but HF scared him.

[Specmaster]

No worse than 1950's america... 



Mmmm fallout

"There's absolutely no danger" 

Nah, its miles away, don't worry, probably think its a huge fire 

[bd139]

Cue terminator theme... 

[mnementh]

Speaking of Double Gloving  That sort of Pumping is illegal in NSW where the plant is but ok in Victoria with a permit  Oops Tunzafun is a Waterpark 

It used to be Australian Defence Industries back in the day, they make a large chunk of the propellants for shells among other things that go ka-boom. Security was tight even back in ther 1990's bit surprised Google Satellite allows detail to be shown.

Interesting topography... with the lake and rivers and Tasmania right below, it makes a slow zoomout to "big blue marble" perspective quite illuminating. 

mnem
*off to a Dr's appt with my daughter*

[bitseeker]

Speaking of power cables, what's a reasonable way to check the quality of unknown ones without cutting them open? I'm suspicious of most cables included with consumer equipment made in the last decade or so.

Megger of some sort for insulation 1-5kV or my recent Test and Tag box albiet it tests at 500V.

OK. I have a budget 1kV insulation tester. Will use that.

Conductor rating of anything evilbay treat it like PMPO for Audiophools divide by two divide by the square of two then halve it again as a safety margin  Or you could set up a low voltage DC load test I guess as it is easier and safety than a mains AC test. 

DC load test sounds good. Easy to control and monitor with an e-load. Thanks, bean

[mnementh]

I am now 0 for 6 attempts at buying this thing. And this was a fleaBay "Sponsored" listing. 


mnem <~~~ Lives in Houston, TX
 

[Brumby]

Third
Fourth
Fifth
Sixth
Seventh time's the charm!


..... or is this your masochistic streak showing?

[Brumby]

   Oh, sorry.... I forgot where I was.   

[bitseeker]

I am now 0 for 6 attempts at buying this thing. And this was a fleaBay "Sponsored" listing. 

Ah, I was wondering what had happened to that suspect listing. So, it was a scam after all. The price was definitely low.

I guess these scammers make more than enough cash off eBay to afford to pay them back via sponsored listings.

[bitseeker]

And now for something completely different...

This morning I heard a subtle ticking sound coming from my bench. I don't have anything on the bench that intentionally ticks, but there's a lot of junk piled up on it lately, so who knows what might've gotten dumped there when I wasn't looking.

After a bit of binaural scanning and a little excavating, I found the source. Everyone's favorite: a Duracell AA alkaline battery. It had leaked — no surprise there — and it was ticking. I couldn't see anything like sparks, even when placed in the dark, but it sounded like it was sparking. Weird.

Here I thought I had finally banished all the Destroy-a-cell batteries. Maybe this is the last of them.

[bd139]

Duracells are all bastards. Banned from this house.

I did a drawing a few weeks ago in a meeting of a dying duracell bunny crawling its last few feet while vomiting and shitting acid after the powerpoint was scuppered by a leaking AA in the projector remote. I'll see if I can find it but I think I may have shredded that notebook now.

[worsthorse]

I am now 0 for 6 attempts at buying this thing. And this was a fleaBay "Sponsored" listing. 

Ah, I was wondering what had happened to that suspect listing. So, it was a scam after all. The price was definitely low.

I guess these scammers make more than enough cash off eBay to afford to pay them back via sponsored listings.

Granted, I am not the brightest bulb in the marque but I don't get it. Someone help this confused old man, what's happening here? You buy it and they ship it to someone else? You buy it and they give you a fake tracking number and you don't know until it gets delivered to someone else? Some other scam?

[mnementh]

Bogus tracking number; all they have to do is find a number from their Province on 17track... or use the tracking number from some 2$ gewgaw they actually send to somebody over here and post that tracking to a dozen different listings. If they're playing the long con, sell trinkets AND these kinds of popular higher ticket items, then use the trinket tracking only on the bogus articles. By the time the dozens of sold high-ticket articles are due, you've sold enough of what-the-eff-ever small-ticket trinkets you needed the money to bankroll so you can cover the refunded bogus listings.

Like my purchase above... even with me proactively monitoring the purchase and filing a dispute the instant it showed delivered somewhere else, it'll be 10 days before I get a refund. They can sell a lot of trinketry in the 2 1/2 weeks since they got my money.

Best-case scenario, they're essentially using fleaBay/PayPal as a source of interest-free loans... worst-case, they close out the associated bank account and defraud PayPal entirely. They're making that harder and harder with the latest raft of international banking laws, but it still is possible.

mnem
"Next up on 'Douchebaggery for Dollars'..."

[mnementh]

Duracells are all bastards. Banned from this house.

I did a drawing a few weeks ago in a meeting of a dying duracell bunny crawling its last few feet while vomiting and shitting acid after the powerpoint was scuppered by a leaking AA in the projector remote. I'll see if I can find it but I think I may have shredded that notebook now.

You do realize the bunny is the Energizer mascot, correct?

However, they're no better... I just spent the afternoon helping my wife fix the wireless mics at her school for the talent show; after removing all dead cells from the mics, I found the recess of the storage briefcase full of AA batteries, so started testing them for good ones. After the first few cells, I noticed telltale grey flakes on my hands... the whole bottom 2 inches or so of the battery recess was full of leaked electrolyte from 6 or 7 cells. 

Energizers, every last one of the bastards, and not one of them with a best-by date less than 8 years away.

I had to rip all the foam out of the bottom of the case, wash it twice in the sink, then wash the bare boards of the briefcase with soapy water & sponge. Then instructed my wife to let it all air dry for two days before she put it back in the case. 

Fuck disposable batteries... every damned one of them.

mnem

[bd139]

Regional thing unfortunately. There's a Duracell bunny everywhere in the world other than the US and Canada. Apparently there was a trademark dispute and Energizer won that one in the US.

Litigation friendly country the US. Also why we use tissues and you use Kleenex

Edit: must say I've been using GP ultras and never had a single one leak ever. I had one that had no volts and that was it.

[mnementh]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duracell_Bunny

How the eff did I not know about this drawn-out marketeering clusterflop? I guess I must've just been so damned annoyed by the fuzzy little bastards I compartmentalized it all to death...


mnem
Either that, or it's another CRS nodule. 

[worsthorse]

Bogus tracking number; all they have to do is find a number from their Province on 17track... or use the tracking number from some 2$ gewgaw they actually send to somebody over here and post that tracking to a dozen different listings. If they're playing the long con, sell trinkets AND these kinds of popular higher ticket items, then use the trinket tracking only on the bogus articles. By the time the dozens of sold high-ticket articles are due, you've sold enough of what-the-eff-ever small-ticket trinkets you needed the money to bankroll so you can cover the refunded bogus listings.

Like my purchase above... even with me proactively monitoring the purchase and filing a dispute the instant it showed delivered somewhere else, it'll be 10 days before I get a refund. They can sell a lot of trinketry in the 2 1/2 weeks since they got my money.

Best-case scenario, they're essentially using fleaBay/PayPal as a source of interest-free loans... worst-case, they close out the associated bank account and defraud PayPal entirely. They're making that harder and harder with the latest raft of international banking laws, but it still is possible.

mnem
"Next up on 'Douchebaggery for Dollars'..."

really? besides being a PITA for you, that sounds like a lot of freakin' low margin work unless they are running many dozens of them in parallel. then again, they could do the "i've hacked your computer and watched you watching porn video so you better send me a hundred dollars right now" email scam in between fielding purchases and refund requests. 

[bitseeker]

really? besides being a PITA for you, that sounds like a lot of freakin' low margin work

Yeah, amateurs. The pros break into accounts with good standing, post thousands of products at hard-to-resist prices, and in a few days, run off with the money. No shipping required.

[bd139]

Duracells are all bastards. Banned from this house.

I did a drawing a few weeks ago in a meeting of a dying duracell bunny crawling its last few feet while vomiting and shitting acid after the powerpoint was scuppered by a leaking AA in the projector remote. I'll see if I can find it but I think I may have shredded that notebook now.

Well I went through all my notebooks and couldn't find it. However with some luck my eldest was wondering what I was up to so I explained and she decided to draw it again. She's even more vile than me.

[bitseeker]

Does it make ticking sounds, too?

[bd139]

 

I had a PP3 / 9v jobby explode once. I assume that's what happens after the ticking!