What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!

[TerraHertz]

Speaking of angle grinders and cars... My obtainium 'parts donor' car is being put to it's intended purpose. For which the body is superfluous, and so is being whittled down and discarded. Currently it's providing the entire front and back suspension assemblies for swapping into my car.

[Cubdriver]

Speaking of angle grinders and cars... My obtainium 'parts donor' car is being put to it's intended purpose. For which the body is superfluous, and so is being whittled down and discarded. Currently it's providing the entire front and back suspension assemblies for swapping into my car.

Is that puppy front wheel drive?  If so, you should bolt some casters on the ass end and take it for a spin!

-Pat

[TerraHertz]

Is that puppy front wheel drive?  If so, you should bolt some casters on the ass end and take it for a spin!

It is, but Russians already did this. Also this is not Russia, and here I'd go to jail for doing such a thing.
Tempting as it is. And I have some castors.

[SeanB]

Everything keeps falling off..... Toyota.

[TerraHertz]

Everything keeps falling off..... Toyota.

Ahem. Mind your language. It's a Subaru. Half of one anyway.

[SeanB]

Everything keeps falling off..... Toyota.

Ahem. Mind your language. It's a Subaru. Half of one anyway.

saw almost exactly that side profile today, on a nice 1980's vintage Toyota hatchback, which, despite living in the corrosion capital of the planet, still was in reasonable condition body wise. I guess Subie and Toyota both shopped for the plastic parts and body panel dies for those models at Toyoda to make the models for various markets. Here the locally made models all had panels pressed at Rowen ( later Metal Pressings Inc now just Toyota Press plant) using local steel and mostly imported dies.

[NivagSwerdna]

Desoldering gun-san. Ganbatte kudasai!

[grumpydoc]

Yes, I know, had I held faith etc etc.

Just to be clear, this is not at all the point I was making, nor one I ever would make. My wife's default position about a car that's starting to need repairs is to immediately assume it's a money pit. But that doesn't mean my default position is to assume it's all fine and dandy, or have "faith" in it just needing this one part and then everything will be perfect.

Yes, I was trying (badly I suspect) to make the same point. You can't tell (and I agree one repair does not automatically mean a money pit will open up) but you make a judgement - in the case of the Saab it was after the turbo blew and that decision seems to have been justified when it suffered another potentially expensive failure only 5 months later.

The "held the faith" comment was not really directed at your earlier post - it was just in case someone tried to suggest "one more fix and it would have been OK"

Cars generally are money pits though. However I can't say I'm in favour of the current fad for avoiding maintenance costs by continually leasing vehicles. Yes you get a new toy every three years but they keep bleeding you dry for it.

Debt makes the money that makes the world go round after all.

[neo]

Yes, I know, had I held faith etc etc.

Just to be clear, this is not at all the point I was making, nor one I ever would make. My wife's default position about a car that's starting to need repairs is to immediately assume it's a money pit. But that doesn't mean my default position is to assume it's all fine and dandy, or have "faith" in it just needing this one part and then everything will be perfect.

I have a '98 ford explorer, still on blocks, the transmission or something went out. I was stubborn and wanted to fix it, long story short a few grand in i had a new transmission and it did the same. I kept working until one day a block i had a bottle jack on broke and sent 500 pounds of metal screaming for my head, it stopped so close to my face that you couldn't have fit a piece of paper between me and it. I stopped working on it that day because it was made very clear to me it was either the truck or my life (metaphorically speaking), though kept it on blocks because i am stubborn. 

My point, if you can say this ramble has one, is that some vehicles are just going to drag you down with them.

[bitseeker]

Desoldering gun-san. Ganbatte kudasai!

Gunbatte! Nothing like a good Janglish pun for the weekend.

[FrankBuss]

Bought a cheap synthesizer module rack (Doepfer A-100 LC1). Painted it with acrylic blue, now it looks professional 



Using it in combination with breadboards works surprisingly good:

[McBryce]

Painted it with acrylic blue, now it looks professional 

Tektronix would approve

McBryce.

[coalago]

TF card .

[deflicted]

Painted it with acrylic blue, now it looks professional 

Tektronix would approve

McBryce.

Unless he tries to sell it. Then they might follow Fluke's lead and sue him, then force him to destroy it. 

[FrankBuss]

Painted it with acrylic blue, now it looks professional 

Tektronix would approve

McBryce.

Unless he tries to sell it. Then they might follow Fluke's lead and sue him, then force him to destroy it. 

They can't do this just for the color, I would need to build a scope with it, and which looks the same

But now that I think about it, wouldn't it be nice to build your own rack of lab instruments, or is this already done? So far I've seen only synthesizer modules for this Eurorack type system. And in the audio world this format is often used, so you can add and mix modules from different vendors without problems. All share the same power supply on the back (+/-12V and 5V) and are available in standardized widths, with 1 HP the width granularity (5.08 mm = 1/5") and 128.5 mm height (5"). I bought a few blank front plates as well for DIY modules, they cost only a few Euros, depending on the width (you can see a few mounted, in the video).

I know there is the 19" rack format for professional lab gear, but this needs really a lot of space for some small hobby lab. And a 19" case is more expensive than just a small front plate with a PCB mounted on the back and a common power supply for all modules.

[alm]

Sounds like you are describing the Tektronix TM500/TM5000 line, introduced in the early seventies. Hameg had (has?) the less ambitious HM8000 line. They had edge connectors that carried AC and DC power rails and some optional unused pins for interconnections between modules. They had power supplies, pulse/sine/function generators, DMMs, frequency counters, even oscilloscopes and some specialized gear like differential and current probe amplifiers. The motivation behind that was that transformers were expensive, and so were displays.

This way you could have say a function generator without a display, and if the user needed an accurate frequency read-out, they would add a frequency counter plug-in that would be internally connected to the function generator. If you wanted an accurate level read-out, you could add a DMM plugin to do the same. Ultimately these instruments required much more R&D than stand-alone because the power, EMC, thermal and size constraints they had to work against. Especially when cheap LCDs removed the cost advantage of sharing displays. Usability was also compromised due to the much more limited front panel real-estate.

Another application was building custom systems. You could use a function generator to drive the VCO input on another generator to sweep. This way you could generate complicated signals. These days, you just add another sweep generator inside the function generator, or use an arbitrary waveform generator. If you want a power supply that can output arbitrary waveforms, you just add an arbitrary waveform generator inside the power supply. Tektronix sold the TM5000 lines to Tegam in the late eighties, who put it on life support for a number of years before killing it.

These days, when you can find cheap AC-DC and DC-DC power supplies, and LCDs can be bought for a few $, I do not see the advantage. If you want something that looks nice together, build instruments in matching cases that stack well together, like you see on many half-rack Agilent/Keysight and Keithley instruments.

[FrankBuss]

Right, probably it doesn't make sense these days anymore, and half-rack size looks good. I wonder how long these audio modules are available anymore, until everyone uses a PC for it.

[Rbastler]

Got some new gear. I bought a Fluke 8050A und a Phillips power supply too. Need to take pictures. The Fluke is damaged but I hope I can fix it. Replacement parts are on the way and then I will see if it works again.

[bitseeker]

From the front panel of the HP 8447E:

"Exceeding this limit may cause amplifier destruction." 

Destruction!

I guess they really wanted to get the point across.

[aargee]

Speaking of angle grinders and cars... My obtainium 'parts donor' car is being put to it's intended purpose. For which the body is superfluous, and so is being whittled down and discarded. Currently it's providing the entire front and back suspension assemblies for swapping into my car.

Slowly disappearing via the wheely bin? Been there, done that with large stuff.

[TerraHertz]

Slowly disappearing via the wheely bin? Been there, done that with large stuff.

No, there's a Sims Metal recycling depot nearby. I could take the bits myself (once my car is registered again), but it's simpler to ask a guy who lives round the corner and does scrap metal collection as a kind of retirement hobby, to come take it away. I have about a trailer load of scrap steel for him to take. He's coming Wed morning. The yard will look a lot better after that. The other half of that old car is cut into easily liftable sections.

The wheely bin mostly gets used for all the plastic panels scrap, from disassembling photocopiers, TVs and the like.

A bit of excitement today, bought this



It'll be a couple of weeks before I can pick it up but I'm looking forward to it.

I am EXTREMELY envious. Currently I need to machine an aluminum disk 306mm dia and 45 mm thick, 200mm dia hole in the middle, and some large radial holes through it. My lathe has only about 115mm (4.5") radius throw, so cannot do this piece. Still looking for a solution (other than paying a local fabrication shop to do it.)

I also envy that you have the spare space to set that monster up. Even if I found a big lathe for free, housing it would be near impossible.  Hmm... I suppose another sheet metal 'garden shed' would be required.

How did your move go? (Oh wait, two weeks, not yet huh?)

[Rbastler]

Other stuff I got new. The lower range resiators were quite damaged and damaged the 8050A. Don't know wy.

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

[DTJ]

@TerraHertz, re you looking for some large diameter turning....... Maybe check out woodworkingforums.com.

I think you're on the oz east coast (?). Join up and poke around the CNC and other metalworking forums on that site.
I've seen a few guys there trading jobs / skills and even just doing jobs just for the love of it.


Edit - I forgot to add there's a lot of Aussies on the forum.

[TerraHertz]

@TerraHertz, re you looking for some large diameter turning....... Maybe check out woodworkingforums.com.

Sounded like a good idea, but sadly "Due to lack of interest, this forum has been closed."
When was the last time you visited? With my luck, it will have just closed yesterday.

I think you're on the oz east coast (?).

Yes, Sydney, south to be precise.

Join up and poke around the CNC and other metalworking forums on that site.
I've seen a few guys there trading jobs / skills and even just doing jobs just for the love of it.
Edit - I forgot to add there's a lot of Aussies on the forum.

  Not any more.
But in general, yes, I'll have to scout around and see what metalworking forums I can find, with local members.
Btw, wood turning lathes are completely different, and don't have the structures to turn precise shapes in metal.

[DTJ]

@TerraHertz

My bad it should have been http://www.woodworkforums.com/

I doubt it's still possible but you used to be able to attend machining classes at TAFE / Tech College / night school and work on your own projects. I did it 30 years ago but things change......