What did you do today?

[Bob Engelhardt]

Good on you. The little experience that I have with fixing scopes was filled with challenges of getting them apart. The designer wanted it to be compact, of course.

It's much sharper in real life, just hard to get a photo to focus properly. Display is basically perfect. It's a 40mhz Hameg oscilloscope model 404-2

Part of the problem is that the trace is so much brighter than the rest of the frame that it is over-exposed. If it was important, you could get real close to set the exposure based on the trace, freeze the setting, and move back for the shot. Unless that would freeze the focus also, then never mind.

[DennisCA]

It's much sharper in real life, just hard to get a photo to focus properly. Display is basically perfect. It's a 40mhz Hameg oscilloscope model 404-2

[Cenedd]

Ah, it looks like you fell for the same problem you get with PCs. If you put the lid back on without testing it first, it's almost guaranteed not to work. If you test it first, of course there'll be nothing wrong with it!
Nice though. One of the few CRTs still in use I'd bet. Doesn't look like the focus has suffered much over the years either.

[DennisCA]

My new to me oscilloscope had only one working channel, it is supposed to have two. It turned out to be a simple break in the solder joint behind the channel connector. Obvious once I had it apart.

But due to me not knowing all the tricks to taking the thing apart I dismantled it excessively. I learned by taking it apart that far, I could simply have removed a lid and left it mostly intact. The board with the connectors was inside a steel case that was soldered together, turns out I could have just desoldered the lid and gotten access to the board directly without removing it from the scope body. Instead I removed the whole case and also the attached control panel board.

Oscilloscope, the silver part on the bottom contains the board I wanted to inspect:


Control board with case. The board I want to access is inside the case, they are connected with a 3 pin band cable and I couldn't figure out how to get them out separately.


Well I opened up the case and found the bad solder joint:


I put everything back together and nothing worked as it should! I was really biting my nails and worrying about what had happened, my initial thought was I'd fried something, perhaps via ESD even though I was careful to ground myself and also use an ESD mat.

Fortunately someone tipped me that it could be that band cable I had been wrestling around, they where sensitive and can break inside without it being visible. A quick check wth a multimeter showed one of the three had indeed broken. I wondered if just one broken cable between the control panel and this board could cause that much trouble...

I put in a replacement cable and soldered it to the other board to test it (by now I also figured out I could access the board without removing it). And sure enough everything started working properly again!



I put the lid back on and left the cable I had moved. I am not sure if it will be an issue with the cable going there or not. The whole board is enclosed like this, even certain components are closed from each other in order to protect it from electromagnetic interference. But this shouldn't be transmitting the actual signal anywhere, it just connects the front panel to the signal board.



And now I got two working channels, here I am testing a 3khz sine wave I am feeding from my PCs headphone socket.


I also tried playing oscilloscope music via my PC (check youtube) and sure enough it worked, pretty cool that audio signals can make visuals.

[PStechPaul]

I've been putting in a sidewalk using octagonal brick pavers. They are a bit tricky to get the interlocking to look good, but with dog's help it turned out OK.







That's not the final result. And the last picture was the first one I took with my new Motorola E6 smartphone.

[The Metal Butcher]

charitable

In one of Keith Rucker's recent videos he visited a friend just across the Florida border who was clearing out a number of machines. Said to be a little above scrap, just to get them into somebody's shop.

Yeah I need to check that out. However, knowing those youtubers, they get a lot of gifts but don't tend to be too charitable when selling machines.

---

Today was mostly welding, a bit of grinding and gouging. I bought some 7014 that I am having much better luck with than 7018. Even got some beads where the slag could be flicked off. I'll get there. Stuck with MIG for the mission critical stuff, I can lay down a nice hot bead with that.

[reggie_obe]

I just got all three of my economic impact payments and my first tax return. I see more machinery in my future.

In one of Keith Rucker's recent videos he visited a friend just across the Florida border who was clearing out a number of machines. Said to be a little above scrap, just to get them into somebody's shop.

[Tungsten dipper]

A couple months ago i had to clean up some junk wiring in the basement, and lost the plug that went to my beer fridge in the garage. Today I ran a new circuit over, and hooked it back up. Now I can also run my small electric foundry off that circuit too without chancing the lights going out.

BEER IS important.

[Dan Dubeau]

A couple months ago i had to clean up some junk wiring in the basement, and lost the plug that went to my beer fridge in the garage. Today I ran a new circuit over, and hooked it back up. Now I can also run my small electric foundry off that circuit too without chancing the lights going out.

[Cenedd]

I just got all three of my economic impact payments and my first tax return. I see more machinery in my future.

I see a man with no wife yet.....otherwise he'd be seeing more cushions in his future....and vases you can't put flowers in!

[Captain K]

Legamin. Release the brakes, with wheels blocked. Crawl underneath and hit the edge of the drum with a 3-4lb short handled sledgehammer. When the drum rings they’re loose. The brakes will let go almost every time. Then drive it, the rust will be gone in a couple miles

[Dan Krager]

Today I made progress long threading more skinny hand screw rods 18" long making passes with an adjustable die while the rod was spun slowly, maybe 100 rpm, by a variable speed machine. It took about 75 seconds per pass to cut 7" of 3/8"-16 RH threads. Three passes are required. Used tap magic and the die got noticeably warm but not untouchable. It's just big box junk steel, but it will do the job. I have a thread on here where I posted the learning process of how to do this. The next step will be to finish all the rods all passes at RH end and then set up for 9 1/2" of LH threads on the other end. By doing the RH threads first, I can hold the rod in the machine using a coupling nut locked to the rod with another nut. This won't damage the RH treads.
DanK

[Dan Dubeau]

Taking a break from finishing the bottle rack on my welding cart. almost done. Might get to the cord/whip/torch hanger tonight too. Installed the spoolgun harness in my mig last night too. I don't have any aluminum welding on the list, but it was an easy job on my list i've been forgetting/putting off for a while.

I'm trying to get better organized and writing down a bunch of 10-20 minute jobs out there that need done (and other longer ones), so that when I get 20-30 minutes during the week I can just go out, look at the list and pick something that fits the time I have and get something done. Instead of what I normally do which is wandering around aimlessly trying to remember what needs done, not wanting to start or finish a big project, and not really getting anything done. So far so good, but I'm still writing down more stuff than I'm crossing out lol.

Might pull down some overhead cabinets tonight/tomorrow in anticipation of my shop heater arriving next week. A job I'm dreading, but I'm really looking forward to warm fingers and a usable shop this winter .

[The Metal Butcher]

I just got all three of my economic impact payments and my first tax return. I see more machinery in my future.

[Tim Clarke]

Ya, some lining has metal particles. Back off the slack adjuster, and see if the shock treatment works. I’ve never tried evaporust on brakes, let us know what happens.