But how can you really be sure @med ?
![Laughing :-DD](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/smiley_laughing.gif)
Time to get a calibrated source or meter ....
Spent part of the evening playing with now sharp blades. Brought a set of very poorly sharpened Marples chisels and took to them with stone and then several grades of wet and dry. Still some more to do but the hollows in the faces and the horrid rounding and chips on the tips are now gone not to mention one of them had a small bevel on the back face
![Face Palm :palm:](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/facepalm.gif)
.
But how can you really be sure @med ?
Time to get a calibrated source or meter ....
Is it 100% certainty, of course not. But I'm very confident it's up over 99%.
The replacement vacuum tubes and resistors for the RCA 55-45 scope are all delayed due to the weather. Tell me something I didn't already have the smarts to figure out myself.
Anyone looking for a nice frequency standard ? ![Azn ^-^](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/azn.gif)
"May not ship to the Netherlands" Bummer...
This comes to mind when I see that and people mentioning going to collect it:
This comes to mind when I see that and people mentioning going to collect it:
Naa when I see that I imagine this happening instead while hauling it on the snow to
med6753's house...
Just found myself a home for my HP 8656B - with room for some friends.
eBay auction: #323991523569
Giggity! ![ThumbsUp :-+](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/icon_smile_thumbsup.gif)
@freqq: did you really have nothing but the midget HP as a power supply? Sorry, but I think you are pulling our legs, aren't you?
ok. in the spirit of full disclosure i will embarrass myself. in addition to the tiny hp there is a box of assorted junk raped out of old pc's, and one ancient dinosaur (new jersey electronics? who the hell were they?) that is the sum total of my power supply resources. shameful isn't it? it may get me shunned, but it feels good to be out of the closet.
THAT is my whole fukkin' bench. ![Face Palm :palm:](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/facepalm.gif)
mnem
Some people don't know when they've got it good... ![Tongue :P](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/tongue.gif)
i call horseshit. we have seen the supplies you have in storage. they weigh more than the freqq did in high school, and there are places in the world where they could power an entire village. (the pipe wrench still makes me smile)
It's not what you have, its what you do with it! Seriously about the only two things missing for a full bench, really are a freq gen and a scope. The stuff I made with the crappiest of an unregulated soldering iron!
![](https://media1.tenor.com/images/b1b7686be22fa195b82040820e80aa0a/tenor.gif?itemid=14746341)
Of course my point was to put your "embarrassment" into perspective... to some it would be an embarrassment of riches. And truth be told, as much as I may feel a bit jelly of your NJE linear
right now (which
I'll wager weighs more than "my whole fukkin' bench" ![Laughing :-DD](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/smiley_laughing.gif)
) for many, even my Spartan workspace would be similarly luxuriant.
As for "unregulated soldering iron"... I'll have to admit to being spoiled from VERY early on. Old man Basche (the head of the HS AV Dept who got me started in Electronics) gave me a Weller GT (now known as a GT7) as part of the "toolkit" they issued me (Which I was allowed to keep at the end of the year), AND my spot at the bench had a nearly-new WTCPN on which I learned to solder.
*Cue flashiebackie music*(In German accent so thick you'd swear it was Freud himself speaking) "Zo-o young man... do hyou know how to solder...?""I know how..." *pause to think about what I'm saying* "I HAVE soldered. I've never been taught how."
"Zat... eez a good honest answer. Zere may be hope for hyou yet. *Plops little scrap PCB on the bench* "Allright... first, tin zee tip... zat's eet, just a little bit. Eet helps zee heat transfer to zee work..."[/flashback mode]Looking back on it, that exchange was probably one of several "you passed a test and didn't even know it" moments which secured my place in that
"Electronics Dojo", and the "much-more-patient-than-I-deserved" tutelage I received as a result.
![Shocked :o](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/shocked.gif)
mnem
Wheel of Morality, turn turn turn... Tell us the lesson thart we should learn: If you don't know what you're doing, be honest about it or keep your mouth shut.
Tautech, what's the status of this? It's been almost a month now.
Sent them mail about this yesterday, sorry no reply as yet.
*Cue flashiebackie music*
(In German accent so thick you'd swear it was Freud himself speaking) "Zo-o young man... do hyou know how to solder...?"
"I know how..." *pause to think about what I'm saying* "I HAVE soldered. I've never been taught how."
"Zat... eez a good honest answer. Zere may be hope for hyou yet. *Plops little scrap PCB on the bench* "Allright... first, tin zee tip... zat's eet, just a little bit. Eet helps zee heat transfer to zee work..."
[/flashback mode]
Looking back on it, that exchange was probably one of several "you passed a test and didn't even know it" moments which secured my place in that "Electronics Dojo", and the "much-more-patient-than-I-deserved" tutelage I received as a result. ![Shocked :o](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/shocked.gif)
mnem
Wheel of Morality, turn turn turn... Tell us the lesson thart we should learn: If you don't know what you're doing, be honest about it or keep your mouth shut.
When I joined IBM they wanted to send me to "Solder School". So I was asked "What soldering experience do you have?" To which I replied "About a dozen Heathkits". I was qualified on the spot, didn't have to go.
Spent part of the evening playing with now sharp blades. Brought a set of very poorly sharpened Marples chisels and took to them with stone and then several grades of wet and dry. Still some more to do but the hollows in the faces and the horrid rounding and chips on the tips are now gone not to mention one of them had a small bevel on the back face
.
Being hollow ground is not a bad thing, tip to heel needs to be ~25
o and the honed edge @ 30
o. That way getting a nice edge back takes less effort as you're taking off less material.
Still got my honing guide exactly like yours from nearly 45 years back.
![Shocked :o](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/shocked.gif)
Rarely use it now, instead just freehand
oil water stone stuff now.