What did you do today?

[Arcane]

Oddly enough there was an item on the BBC local radio just now saying that during lockdown there has been a lot of requests to the RSPCA for people wanting to adopt pets but also around 2k abandonments over the country leaving them with and overall increase to over 5k dogs in care.
Lots of people drive to just outside my place to walk dogs in the countryside but a couple of times they have let the dog out of the car and when it runs off drive off quick to leave it. My neighbour adopted a couple like that.

I don't know how they can do that. To me, my dogs were like my children, my furry kids.

[PStechPaul]

I was a bit disturbed that Griffey and Nyke's owner wanted to rehome these wonderful dogs because of a new baby on the way. But he explained that he worked two jobs, one of which would get very busy in September, which is also when the baby is due. And he thought they would not be able to give them the attention they deserved. He did say he would take them back if for any reason I could not care for them. Back in 2007 I acquired a second dog as a rescue from BARCS "death row", and I was afraid she and my first dog Muttley would hurt each other, so I arranged for her to be adopted through Defenders of Animal Rights. I told them I'd take her back if they had any problems, but when I visited a few days later she had already been chosen for adoption. I checked a couple years later and they showed me a picture of her happily living with a nice young family. But she was a very sweet dog and it was very hard to give her up.

[challenger]

Took out a difficult bee hive.

[Dan Dubeau]

That reminds me, I need to go spray a yellow jacket nest in the boat later tonight. Effers got me about 10 times in the hand, arms and head on the weekend when I opened up the back hatch to get the muffs out. Turned around to start running and smoked the bimini top frame with my forehead. Would have made a great youtube video if someone was filming lol

[mattthemuppet]

ouch!

As part of my ode-to-reggie-obe I fixed up an LED worklight I found at the side of the road. Had to replace a bunch of surface mount current limiting resistors on the back, a few LEDs on the front and make a support bracket/ heatsink for the LEDs. Added a hook and a HDD magnet to the heatsink. Looks ugly as sin, but it's seriously bright. Look at the LEDs briefly and then you can't see how ugly it is.

yeah, that's some ugly soldering


the medium bright LEDs are the ones that were working, the really bright ones have lower resistance replacement resistors and the dimmer ones the opposite. Had to work with what I could find on some old junk boards.

see

see, told you it was ugly.

[DennisCA]

Baked bread

[Ridgerunner]

Was brush cutting when a piece of a tree came flying back and blew out the front window. I got a few small cuts on my hands. Installed a replacement windshield made from 1/2" thick clear polycarbonate. Feel much safer now, but have had a heavy steel brush cutter blade fly off twice so don't know if the polycarbonate would survive that or not.

[The Metal Butcher]

I re-leveled both lathes in the shop today. The best level I had before was a 0.005" per foot Starrett No. 95, but I picked up a Lufkin No. 59 0.0005" per foot for $80. I don't know how much more accurate the lathe will cut, but the level spoke quite clearly to how far it was out. Pretty futsy, but I got them both to within 2 to 3 tenths of twist, maybe better.





I think the photos speak for themselves just how ineffective the Starrett is.

[danlb]

We finally found a comet. Every previous attempt in the last 60 years has been foiled by weather, terrain or buildings. Yesterday we did not see it. We live in a valley and the foothills had a layer of low clouds / smoke across their peaks. Today we still had a pall of smoke, but less coverage by marine layer clouds. We almost aborted because the the stars came out and we still could not find it. Before putting away the tripod I scanned the sky once more with the binoculars and realized that there was a smudge just halfway between the hilltops and the big dipper. If I looked to the side I could see the a smudge with a tail. With the glasses I could clearly see there was a body and tail too.

I missed Haley. I missed Halebop. I missed Hyakutake. I missed Kohoutek (but so did most people). At last I've seen one.

Dan

[Dave C]

[QUOTE=Baz;n1886840
Lots of people drive to just outside my place to walk dogs in the countryside but a couple of times they have let the dog out of the car and when it runs off drive off quick to leave it. My neighbour adopted a couple like that.[/QUOTE]

There should be a special place in hell for anyone who does that.

[J Tiers]

I re-leveled both lathes in the shop today. The best level I had before was a 0.005" per foot Starrett No. 95, but I picked up a Lufkin No. 59 0.0005" per foot for $80. I don't know how much more accurate the lathe will cut, but the level spoke quite clearly to how far it was out. Pretty futsy, but I got them both to within 2 to 3 tenths of twist, maybe better.

..........
I think the photos speak for themselves just how ineffective the Starrett is.

Those Lufkin as I recall have a cutaway middle and a pad at each end that is the ref surface. Does that one have a flat bottom for sure? Does it blue up as flat?

The equivalent Starrett (the 0.0005 ones) are scraped for an undefined small amount of relief in the middle for a similar effect as the cutaway middle, so you might want to set that Lufkin on a parallel, even if it looks flat, and try it again. Just a suggestion.....

[The Metal Butcher]

Those Lufkin as I recall have a cutaway middle and a pad at each end that is the ref surface. Does that one have a flat bottom for sure? Does it blue up as flat?

The equivalent Starrett (the 0.0005 ones) are scraped for an undefined small amount of relief in the middle for a similar effect as the cutaway middle, so you might want to set that Lufkin on a parallel, even if it looks flat, and try it again. Just a suggestion.....

I guess that's possible. It's uniformly scraped looking across the bottom.

I'm not really setup for good metrology work. I don't have any good precision ground stones, my largest surface plate is shorter than the level, even diagonally. Also neither dad or I can find the damn tube of Prussian blue. I checked it on a surface plate at the sellers shop and it pivotted pretty close to the 2/3rds mark from either end, even somewhat dirty. I have a couple big parallels I could set it on, but that sounds like a recipe for it crashing into the chip pan lol.

I appreciate the suggestion. Only takes a few seconds to check it on a parallel, I'll do that tomorrow.

[Cenedd]

Pretty futsy...

I think the photos speak for themselves just how ineffective the Starrett is.

I think you pointed out one of the important differences there. A carpenters level isn't sensitive enough (even though they erroneously claim the same sensitivity as the Starrett) but if your lathe is unlevel to start with, you'd probably start with the carpenters level and move on to the Starrett as you'd probably find it was off-scale on the Starrett. It's better for fine-tuning once you've got it roughed in. I suspect you may find the same with the Lufkin.
The one thing I can say is stay clear of cheap import levels that claim that sort of sensitivity. I have a 100mm (4") frame level but the adjustment mechanical is so woefully inadequate that you spend hours trying to get it set (it's so damn twitchy) and then it doesn't hold the calibration for any length of time. Also far too twitchy to actually use. So the (2nd hand) Starrett was, for me, a massive improvement. </2c worth>

[The Metal Butcher]

Was brush cutting when a piece of a tree came flying back and blew out the front window. I got a few small cuts on my hands. Installed a replacement windshield made from 1/2" thick clear polycarbonate. Feel much safer now, but have had a heavy steel brush cutter blade fly off twice so don't know if the polycarbonate would survive that or not.

I seem to recall Andrew Camerata mowing with one of those open cab. While I am not extremely danger adverse, that sounds like a bad idea. Hopefully that polycarb keeps you safe in there. What caused the blades to get flung?

I think you pointed out one of the important differences there. A carpenters level isn't sensitive enough (even though they erroneously claim the same sensitivity as the Starrett) but if your lathe is unlevel to start with, you'd probably start with the carpenters level and move on to the Starrett as you'd probably find it was off-scale on the Starrett. It's better for fine-tuning once you've got it roughed in. I suspect you may find the same with the Lufkin.
The one thing I can say is stay clear of cheap import levels that claim that sort of sensitivity. I have a 100mm (4") frame level but the adjustment mechanical is so woefully inadequate that you spend hours trying to get it set (it's so damn twitchy) and then it doesn't hold the calibration for any length of time. Also far too twitchy to actually use. So the (2nd hand) Starrett was, for me, a massive improvement. </2c worth>

Agreed. I'd start with a carpenter's level, then the Starrett, then the Lufkin when leveling from scratch. Otherwise you'll just frustrate yourself (more).

This one came to calibrated and remained that way the whole car ride home, so that's nice. It's always awesome to get old tools for a fraction of the new price that work just as well as a new one.

[Cenedd]

Ridgerunner Glad it only smashed the glass of the cab and not the occupant! A steel mesh might help against a blade but interfere with vision. Would a second layer of PC do it? Sort of in the same vein as laminated glass.

Had a delightful morning so far. Set the dishwasher last night. Didn't shut the door fully. Discovered this morning that the interlock has failed so it ran anyway. Mopped up the flood and went to check my dining table.

Solid oak table that the lacquer had gone tacky on. Had also moved slightly soaso wasn't flat anymore. Sanded it all back...to find the frame was solid but the middle was only vaneered....over MDF so it's refinished in Osmo Top Oil (was and oil combo similar to Danish oil) but it looks "bruised" in places. Final coat of finish went on last night and looks lovely......apart from where some sort of flying insect landed on it and got stuck

Electronic leadscrew is coming on ok though. Replacement connectors arrived, were soldered in - on the correct side of the PCB this time ! - and I didn't get the board. Now have a display that reads out the rpm of a rotary encoder. Need to decide on a hybrid servo to drive the leadscrew next. Choice seems to be a 2Nm or 8Nm...and I'm not sure which. Conflicted between "larger number must be better" and "larger number must be a lie".