Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[VK5RC]

Sorry for a completely off topic post but my daughter took this photo of our dog Griffin, in full flight.

[mnementh]

Did someone eye a metal lathe/mill this month ? I am having a case of TES http://www.mini-lathe.com/Mini_lathe/Start/start.htm#tes

TES and TEA are simply two facets of a similar condition. You are in the right place, just keep on keeping on. But do try to up the ante from Chinesium lathes..

The Grizzly minis have a good rep (at least the older ones that still had all-metal gearsets) for being the right mix of inexpensive vs cheaply made. Of course, that has driven the price up to a point where you'll usually be wishing for something a little more capable, unless you can get a steal on one from someone who doesn't know what they are.

mnem

[mnementh]

   Sorry for a completely off topic post but my daughter took this photo of our dog Griffin, in full flight.

So... your dog is what... hidden behind the mini-sasquatch stalking across the living room carpet...? 

mnem

[mnementh]

Now this is what a real repair queue looks like. Geez I just wish I had half that space for my lab

Look what you can achieve if you don’t get married! 

I just watched that video. I feel so inadequate. 

Very surprised that there are reels of SMD, think he only do tubes. Is it a basement or the floor will collapse 

Its a basement, and he does a lot of SMD work, all of his new inventions are done with SMD, its a great channel, and he takes a lot of care to fully explain what he is doing.

Yeaaahhh... I'm telling you dude; this guy has a walk-in freezer with shelf after shelf of neatly boxed and indexed human lips.

mnem
And when nobody's watching he sits in a wing chair, smiling beatifically & dipping cookies in his tea while he listens to them sing...

[bd139]

Did some work on the 6206b this morning. Checked out caps - all good. Calibrated and destickered half of the front. Other half still to go. Annoyed about the scratches from the previous idiot owner who used a screwdriver to get a cal label off.

[McBryce]

Ok so I spent the afternoon being bad patient #1 and had a look at the 8060A again. It hurt but it was worth it. Firstly the meter was dead again. Hmm. So I replaced the battery clip on it which had been yanked off by the previous owner leaving bare wires. This took 40 bloody minutes including finding all the Metcal bits I'd packed away. Fired it up again, a lot of nope again. After doing a full brush over and inspection the elastomere strip looked like the culprit so I took the display assembly off and cleaned the board and both edges of it. Reassembled it and bam, it works perfectly, at least on DC, ohms, continuity etc. I haven't tested AC yet (waiting for FG to arrive).



Reassembled it and we're good. I like the continuity on this. Top notch!



Not content with stopping here, I know these are prone to leaking and destructive electrolytic capacitors so once my arm is better it's getting recapped and scrubbed to give it hopefully a couple of decades extra.

Total spend so far:

Meter - £18
PP3 clip - £0.54
Capacitors - £3 (incoming)

Edit: this came with the grey carry case and some TL75 style probes. I will clean them up as well later. I think the probe tips have had it so they might get binned. I've got some Pomona ones spare lying around.

So you inspired me to restore my Fluke 8060A today, which needed to be opened anyway due to the battery clip falling apart. I checked the electrolytics while I was there and they all look fine, so I didn't replace them (highly influenced by the fact that I don't have any capacitors short enough to replace them).

McBryce.

[BU508A]

Sorry for a completely off topic post but my daughter took this photo of our dog Griffin, in full flight.

Looks like that the living room carpet is a dangerous enemy.

[med6753]

Did some work on the 6206b this morning. Checked out caps - all good. Calibrated and destickered half of the front. Other half still to go. Annoyed about the scratches from the previous idiot owner who used a screwdriver to get a cal label off.

(Attachment Link)

Dealing with past Gorilla activity will always be our lot in life. 

That's why I always have a stock of Krylon on hand. 

[TERRA Operative]

Whoops, I did it again, baby. Yeah!

Photo from the auction I just won now.

[med6753]

The verdict on this Type 3A74 Vertical plug-in.......

I managed to get 4 traces. All unstable with channel 3 being the worst. It bounces where ever it wants to. None will consistently pass a signal although I did manage to get channel 1 to pass something...and then it died. Apparently I'm going to have to dive into the attenuator switch decks and completely clean them too. Oh fun. I was hoping I wouldn't have to. But not today. Got other things to do. Into the repair cue.

[Saskia]

finished a PC build for a fellow forum member. W7 in an ITX footprint with a Fractal Design case.
Hope he is happy with it.

[bd139]

Whoops, I did it again, baby. Yeah!

Photo from the auction I just won now.

Nice one.

Must. Resist. TM500. On. eBay. Watch. List. At. Moment. 

[med6753]

Whoops, I did it again, baby. Yeah!

Photo from the auction I just won now.

Nice one.

Must. Resist. TM500. On. eBay. Watch. List. At. Moment. 

I must be ill. I have nothing on my watch list at the moment. Must fix. 

[TERRA Operative]

Whoops, I did it again, baby. Yeah!

Photo from the auction I just won now.

Nice one.

Must. Resist. TM500. On. eBay. Watch. List. At. Moment. 

Take your mouse! Strike the buy button with all your hatred, and your journey towards the TEA side will be complete!

Use your obsessive feelings, boy. Let the test equipment obsession flow through you.

[Saskia]

I can feel your obsession. Let your obsession flow, and with one single strike of the buyitnow you will complete your journey to the dark side ...

[Cerebus]

Did someone eye a metal lathe/mill this month ? I am having a case of TES http://www.mini-lathe.com/Mini_lathe/Start/start.htm#tes

If you want proper tool envy over a lathe, take a look at Dan Gelbart's "scratch build" lathe and grinder.



Quote: "The machine you're looking at can cut, turn and grind parts to a tolerance of one micron. ... It's actually not that difficult to build a machine like this."

[Cerebus]

Did someone eye a metal lathe/mill this month ? I am having a case of TES http://www.mini-lathe.com/Mini_lathe/Start/start.htm#tes

TES and TEA are simply two facets of a similar condition. You are in the right place, just keep on keeping on. But do try to up the ante from Chinesium lathes..

I'll see your South Bend and raise you a Dan Gelbart.

[Specmaster]

Whoops, I did it again, baby. Yeah!

Photo from the auction I just won now.

Nice one.

Must. Resist. TM500. On. eBay. Watch. List. At. Moment. 

I must be ill. I have nothing on my watch list at the moment. Must fix. 

Same thing here 

[SilverSolder]

[...]

Quote: "The machine you're looking at can cut, turn and grind parts to a tolerance of one micron. ... It's actually not that difficult to build a machine like this."

...Provided you are a minor deity! 

[Specmaster]

Whoops, I did it again, baby. Yeah!

Photo from the auction I just won now.

Nice one.

Must. Resist. TM500. On. eBay. Watch. List. At. Moment. 

TM500 WTF? is it?

[0culus]

The verdict on this Type 3A74 Vertical plug-in.......

I managed to get 4 traces. All unstable with channel 3 being the worst. It bounces where ever it wants to. None will consistently pass a signal although I did manage to get channel 1 to pass something...and then it died. Apparently I'm going to have to dive into the attenuator switch decks and completely clean them too. Oh fun. I was hoping I wouldn't have to. But not today. Got other things to do. Into the repair cue.

So the A trace from my Type CA was doing the bouncing thing, turned out to be the switching multivibrator tube being bad. It stopped when I swapped in another 12AT7.

[bd139]

Tektronix TM500. Modular test gear.

Rest of 6206B cleaned up. Some permanent marker and scratches left but better for sure. Took all flipping day to do a 10 minute job 

Before:



After:



Most important thing is it works properly!

[xrunner]

Fantastic job! 

[Specmaster]

@bd139, Great job on that clean up, Bloody gorilla's, they have zero respect for equipment have they 

[med6753]

The verdict on this Type 3A74 Vertical plug-in.......

I managed to get 4 traces. All unstable with channel 3 being the worst. It bounces where ever it wants to. None will consistently pass a signal although I did manage to get channel 1 to pass something...and then it died. Apparently I'm going to have to dive into the attenuator switch decks and completely clean them too. Oh fun. I was hoping I wouldn't have to. But not today. Got other things to do. Into the repair cue.

So the A trace from my Type CA was doing the bouncing thing, turned out to be the switching multivibrator tube being bad. It stopped when I swapped in another 12AT7.

My planned tactic for working on this is to get channel 1 fully functional all the way to the Vertical output. That way I can use channel 1 as a template and a cross check while troubleshooting the other 3 channels since they are all identical.