Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cerebus]

Aye, once upon a time (i.e. my youth) every neighbourhood had a 'back street engineers'. Somewhere in the backstreets of the neighbourhood there'd be a gateway, usually double width, between two regular houses, that led to a patch of land that didn't quite fit the plan for rows of houses and there'd be a yard with a few workshops on. One would be a carpenter, the local builder would usually have a place there and there'd be one or more workshops doing metalwork of some kind, perhaps a jobbing printer as well. One at the end of friend's street had an organ builders in - their scrap timber and metal was something else entirely. Any enterprising young lad could find small quantities of wood and metals for free, just by asking politely. And if they gave sensible answers to the inevitable "What do you want it for?" (rather than resenting the question) they might get truly valuable materials and advice for free, sometimes a quick part run up on a lathe or milling machine for free.

Nowadays all those places have gone, squeezed out for being dirty and messy and having land that's worth more with poky little 'starter' homes on, and lads who would have built go-karts and got scabby knees from them have to do all their racing on an LCD screen.

Of course they weren't just useful to lads in short trousers. They were a valuable service to hobbyists who could get materials for scrap, or near scrap, prices like you used to, and they kept many homes supplied with newly fabricated parts for ancient lawnmowers, welded up this and that, and generally kept the world in reasonably good repair at a reasonable price.

[mnementh]

Aye... but most of those people lived through the Great Depression and Wartime rationing; they knew what it was like to do without because you didn't have or couldn't get.  That tends to open one's heart to the misery of others; especially when accompanied by bright-eyed youthful faces.

mnem
"Use it up, wear it out; make it do or do without." ~The Mantra of Depression/Wartime Era America

[bd139]

Aye, once upon a time (i.e. my youth) every neighbourhood had a 'back street engineers'. Somewhere in the backstreets of the neighbourhood there'd be a gateway, usually double width, between two regular houses, that led to a patch of land that didn't quite fit the plan for rows of houses and there'd be a yard with a few workshops on. One would be a carpenter, the local builder would usually have a place there and there'd be one or more workshops doing metalwork of some kind, perhaps a jobbing printer as well. One at the end of friend's street had an organ builders in - their scrap timber and metal was something else entirely. Any enterprising young lad could find small quantities of wood and metals for free, just by asking politely. And if they gave sensible answers to the inevitable "What do you want it for?" (rather than resenting the question) they might get truly valuable materials and advice for free, sometimes a quick part run up on a lathe or milling machine for free.

Nowadays all those places have gone, squeezed out for being dirty and messy and having land that's worth more with poky little 'starter' homes on, and lads who would have built go-karts and got scabby knees from them have to do all their racing on an LCD screen.

Of course they weren't just useful to lads in short trousers. They were a valuable service to hobbyists who could get materials for scrap, or near scrap, prices like you used to, and they kept many homes supplied with newly fabricated parts for ancient lawnmowers, welded up this and that, and generally kept the world in reasonably good repair at a reasonable price.

My grandfather was one of those people. It was a complete nightmare cleaning his place out when he dropped dead. 

30 minutes on the lathe and band saw once and he made me and my cousin a golf game with clubs and a ball from crap lying around!

[SilverSolder]

Aye, once upon a time (i.e. my youth) every neighbourhood had a 'back street engineers'. Somewhere in the backstreets of the neighbourhood there'd be a gateway, usually double width, between two regular houses, that led to a patch of land that didn't quite fit the plan for rows of houses and there'd be a yard with a few workshops on. One would be a carpenter, the local builder would usually have a place there and there'd be one or more workshops doing metalwork of some kind, perhaps a jobbing printer as well. One at the end of friend's street had an organ builders in - their scrap timber and metal was something else entirely. Any enterprising young lad could find small quantities of wood and metals for free, just by asking politely. And if they gave sensible answers to the inevitable "What do you want it for?" (rather than resenting the question) they might get truly valuable materials and advice for free, sometimes a quick part run up on a lathe or milling machine for free.

Nowadays all those places have gone, squeezed out for being dirty and messy and having land that's worth more with poky little 'starter' homes on, and lads who would have built go-karts and got scabby knees from them have to do all their racing on an LCD screen.

Of course they weren't just useful to lads in short trousers. They were a valuable service to hobbyists who could get materials for scrap, or near scrap, prices like you used to, and they kept many homes supplied with newly fabricated parts for ancient lawnmowers, welded up this and that, and generally kept the world in reasonably good repair at a reasonable price.

Now, the world has been re-organized so that every time anyone needs to blow a f@rt,  you end up paying someone a cut!     

It gets more and more difficult to make and maintain things at the "ground level" because it is seen as bad for the economy.

[Cerebus]

30 minutes on the lathe and band saw once and he made me and my cousin a golf game with clubs and a ball from crap lying around!

Cool!

[bd139]

30 minutes on the lathe and band saw once and he made me and my cousin a golf game with clubs and a ball from crap lying around!

Cool!

Yes indeed.

Ok ebay crap listed. So 241 items on the spreadsheet to list

On a positive note I put the kids' old bikes on the street last week and someone hobbed off with them within an hour. That was a winner as they were rusty old Apollo death traps after spending at least 5 years in a damp shed

[med6753]

Before.....




After. Dry brush only. Slightly damp paper towel to clean off the tubes and CRT shield. I am not brave enough to do a "wet" clean.




There's a lot more to do. Stay tuned.

[bd139]

Looking good. Nice work as always 

[mnementh]

Tinkerdwagon 101: Fixing a Borked Philips Screw Head



Sometimes you'll find yourself needing to use a Philips screw you have on hand (either it's a special screw, or one that's not commonly available to buy, or you're stuck onsite with a rack full of switches and 2 screws short... you know the story), and just don't have a choice about replacing one with a buggered-up head.

This morning I'm doing some house-mending, and I need to install some wall anchors. I have just enough for the project, including one with a chewed-up head from several off-on cycles of trial-fitting. If a screw is soft enough to chew up easily, odds are it's also soft enough to repair using the following technique.   



First you need a work surface suitable for hammering on; a vise is preferable, but in a pinch you can use a 10" or 12" adjustable wrench like the one I have here, provided you have a smallish hammer with approx the same or slightly less mass. I keep one of each in my site bag for this and a thousand other reasons. 

Put the screw between the jaws like so and tighten it up just finger-tight; you aren't trying to grip the screw, just supporting the shoulders of the head snugly and evenly so they don't get destroyed by your hammering.

Remember to wear eye protection whenever hammering on things; eye-patches are ONLY kewl on people in the movies.   




What we're trying to do here is to peen the metal of the screw head such that some the lost metal is replaced with that metal deformed by the peening process. For this, you need to place the hammer so that the face is flat and square against the head of the screw, and used moderate, controlled strikes to land your blows flat and square.




Typically, only a few blows is required; once you do this a few times, you'll notice that the sound of the impact changes when you have achieved a good peen. You want a nice, flat peen like this across approx half the head of the screw or so. If you use a hammer with a smooth face that hasn't been all chewed up like mine, the peen will also be nice & smooth; barely discernible from a new screw. 

I've noticed that these combination head screws seem to be the worst offenders; they seem to be MADE to strip out easily. 




Next comes the dangerous part: Reforming the Philips slot. We're going to use an appropriately-sized (P1/P2/P3, etc) drill/driver bit as a die to reform the slot. Place the bit in the slot so it is as close to the original orientation of the slot as possible; it will know where to go.

Remember to apply eye protection whenever hammering on things; wearing a eye-patch is only fun as foreplay. 

Choose one that is new or nearly new to get the best, cleanest impression, and try to use a name-brand one if you have it. The cheap Chinesium ones tend to be brittle and shatter when struck; not a fun time if you're holding it between fingers ( I recommend pliers if using the short ones); the longer impact bits are safer, but the shorter ones seem to make a better impression. It's your fingers, your blood, & your pain, so it's your choice.   

Just a couple whacks and you'll hear the impact change to a dull thud; this means you're bottomed out and any more whacks will just waller-out the slot. STOP HAMMERING!




The money shot: This one turned out ugly because my hammer face was ugly. But the Philips slot is good and the bit gets a good bite again. Now to go hang some mirrors. 

mnem
*passing it on to the next generation*

[25 CPS]

Aye, once upon a time (i.e. my youth) every neighbourhood had a 'back street engineers'. Somewhere in the backstreets of the neighbourhood there'd be a gateway, usually double width, between two regular houses, that led to a patch of land that didn't quite fit the plan for rows of houses and there'd be a yard with a few workshops on. One would be a carpenter, the local builder would usually have a place there and there'd be one or more workshops doing metalwork of some kind, perhaps a jobbing printer as well. One at the end of friend's street had an organ builders in - their scrap timber and metal was something else entirely. Any enterprising young lad could find small quantities of wood and metals for free, just by asking politely. And if they gave sensible answers to the inevitable "What do you want it for?" (rather than resenting the question) they might get truly valuable materials and advice for free, sometimes a quick part run up on a lathe or milling machine for free.

Nowadays all those places have gone, squeezed out for being dirty and messy and having land that's worth more with poky little 'starter' homes on, and lads who would have built go-karts and got scabby knees from them have to do all their racing on an LCD screen.

Of course they weren't just useful to lads in short trousers. They were a valuable service to hobbyists who could get materials for scrap, or near scrap, prices like you used to, and they kept many homes supplied with newly fabricated parts for ancient lawnmowers, welded up this and that, and generally kept the world in reasonably good repair at a reasonable price.

Interestingly, my neighbourhood actually had one of these type of places at the end of the next street to the south.  It was a fairly large haphazard lean-to constructed against the back of a small brownstone apartment building and occupied part of the building's parking lot.  The structure was like a dark rabbit warren, even bare 100 watt lightbulbs hanging down from the ceiling weren't able to push back the gloom inside, probably from different parts being built and tacked on at different times.  The specialty was small engine repairs but they did a lot of other things too.  The sign outside said free estimates.  The sign inside said estimates were $30.

I don't know how the place hung on especially with business practices like that but it was there seemingly forever until one day I passed by walking down to the main road and it was gone and the apartment building's parking lot was wide open.  All you could see is the outline on the pavement and on the back wall of the building where the lean-to type thing had been.  I don't know if they got shut down or evicted or the guys that ran it retired and packed it in or what but they were the most child unfriendly nasty old farts you could've found.  No free or cheaply priced scrap bits, no help, no nothing.  They wanted top dollar for junk.  After one or two visits including being sent down by my parents to get a free estimate on having the lawn mower repaired and being turned around when I didn't have the $30 nobody knew that this was going to cost to be estimated but I never went back on my own and my parents got the mower fixed elsewhere.

[med6753]

I better lock my doors and get my gun ready. In addition to the normal Amperex Bugle Boy 6DJ8's it has a genuine Bugle Boy 12AU7/ECC82. 

That's gonna put me on audiophool hit lists. 

[bd139]

I better lock my doors and get my gun ready. In addition to the normal Amperex Bugle Boy 6DJ8's it has a genuine Bugle Boy 12AU7/ECC82. 

That's gonna put me on audiophool hit lists. 

I reckon you can dangle it out of the window as bait and then shoot the fuckers.

[mnementh]

Save some for yer friendly neighborhood fire-breather. 

mnem
*FWOOOOM!*

[Cerebus]

Ok ebay crap listed. So 241 items on the spreadsheet to list

Ah, Ferengi prices for some items I see. 

On a positive note I put the kids' old bikes on the street last week and someone hobbed off with them within an hour. That was a winner as they were rusty old Apollo death traps after spending at least 5 years in a damp shed

My local council makes it a complete pain in the arse to get rid of anything that doesn't go in the main dustbin or recycling bin. The result is that (1) the whole neighbourhood treats the side of the end-of-terrace house next to me as a fly-tip, (2) anything of any scrap value whatsoever just gets left on the street and local 'entrepreneurs' go around in white vans and collect it for free. Some of these 'entrepreneurs' may even collect things that are merely resting somewhere for a few minutes. Such enthusiastic entrepreneurship no doubt warms the cockles of Maggie's cold, dead heart.  One of the 'entrepreneurs' has gone so far as to get a van with a wire mesh cage on the back that is all but indistinguishable from that the council uses for paid 'large refuse' collections.

[mnementh]

Hmmm... back home in farm country they used trucks like that to collect stray animals and unattended children. 

mnem
"Enter at your own risk. Prosecutors will be violated. Unattended children will be sold as slaves."

[Cerebus]

I better lock my doors and get my gun ready. In addition to the normal Amperex Bugle Boy 6DJ8's it has a genuine Bugle Boy 12AU7/ECC82. 

That's gonna put me on audiophool hit lists. 

I reckon you can dangle it out of the window as bait and then shoot the fuckers.

I vote for a pit with spikes. It may be old school, but sometimes that's what you need.

Now, I've got to toddle off for a bit, defrost the freezer and tidy up my 'tying damsels to railway lines' ropes.

[mnementh]

...I don't know if they got shut down or evicted or the guys that ran it retired and packed it in or what but they were the most child unfriendly nasty old farts you could've found.  No free or cheaply priced scrap bits, no help, no nothing.  They wanted top dollar for junk.  After one or two visits including being sent down by my parents to get a free estimate on having the lawn mower repaired and being turned around when I didn't have the $30 nobody knew that this was going to cost to be estimated but I never went back on my own and my parents got the mower fixed elsewhere.

So what you're saying is... America doesn't have a monopoly on assholes...? 

mnem
"They may not have invented 'asshole'... but they sure are trying to perfect it."

[Cerebus]

Hmmm... back home in the country they used trucks like that to collect stray animals and unattended children. 

In this case the wire mesh is a boring safety feature to stop crap dropping onto the vehicle behind the trash truck, but if it's passing next time the neighbourhood scallywags are playing street football too close to my car I may take advantage of it and lead them to believe that it is indeed there for the restraint of feral children - "Look, you can see the bicycle of the last kid they caught and that fridge and cooker are so they can keep you fed before they sell you on".

[bd139]

Ok ebay crap listed. So 241 items on the spreadsheet to list

Ah, Ferengi prices for some items I see. 

On a positive note I put the kids' old bikes on the street last week and someone hobbed off with them within an hour. That was a winner as they were rusty old Apollo death traps after spending at least 5 years in a damp shed

My local council makes it a complete pain in the arse to get rid of anything that doesn't go in the main dustbin or recycling bin. The result is that (1) the whole neighbourhood treats the side of the end-of-terrace house next to me as a fly-tip, (2) anything of any scrap value whatsoever just gets left on the street and local 'entrepreneurs' go around in white vans and collect it for free. Some of these 'entrepreneurs' may even collect things that are merely resting somewhere for a few minutes. Such enthusiastic entrepreneurship no doubt warms the cockles of Maggie's cold, dead heart.  One of the 'entrepreneurs' has gone so far as to get a van with a wire mesh cage on the back that is all but indistinguishable from that the council uses for paid 'large refuse' collections.

Prices are negotiable, just not through the ebay user interface (PM me if you are interested in reasonable pricing  )

As for the local council it's the same here. But they have a paid service where you give them £40 and they turn up two weeks later (yes that far off) and take up to 5 items away that are less than 6 feet in length. If anything is a mm over that or falls off anything you have outside when it's rotten and damp by then, it stays on your front garden. I usually drag it down the road then and leave it somewhere. During the storms here someone over the road was blessed with a new piss stained double mattress I assume from someone who didn't want to take a foot off the length of it so the council would take it.

As for the entrepreneurs you mention, I assume that is the common garden greater spotted pikey?

[mnementh]

Hmmm... back home in the country they used trucks like that to collect stray animals and unattended children. 

In this case the wire mesh is a boring safety feature to stop crap dropping onto the vehicle behind the trash truck, but if it's passing next time the neighbourhood scallywags are playing street football too close to my car I may take advantage of it and lead them to believe that it is indeed there for the restraint of feral children - "Look, you can see the bicycle of the last kid they caught and that fridge and cooker are so they can keep you fed before they sell you on".

A little fear is a wonderful thing. 

mnem
"Come closer children... and I'll tell you the gruesome tale of the Undertoad..."

[med6753]

More before.....




More after.....




And I found another Bugle boy 12AU7/ECC82! 

Left to do: Open the clamshell and brush that area out. Then pull the bottom plates and wash them.

[Cerebus]

As for the entrepreneurs you mention, I assume that is the common garden greater spotted pikey?

No, East Eurasian Banded Belly Pikey. Apparently their traditional migratory routes changed a few years ago, something to do with the prevailing winds over the Essex Marshes.

[med6753]

Inside the clamshell. Just needs some minor dusting with a brush. I wish all Tek's came apart like this. Gonna be a joy to work on. 

Wash the bottom plates and it's done. Then prepare the capacitor BOM and get them ordered.

[bd139]

As for the entrepreneurs you mention, I assume that is the common garden greater spotted pikey?

No, East Eurasian Banded Belly Pikey. Apparently their traditional migratory routes changed a few years ago, something to do with the prevailing winds over the Essex Marshes.

Ah yes identifiable by the trail of dog eggs

[AVGresponding]

Ok ebay crap listed.

PM sent to the future Grand Nagus...

Inside the clamshell. Just needs some minor dusting with a brush. I wish all Tek's came apart like this. Gonna be a joy to work on. 

Discrete components might make them big and power hungry, but it sure makes them more practical to work on. Those ceramic tag strips are a work of art. Is the coil of silver solder present?