Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

I'm getting old. Woke up today a hurting pup. Sore muscles in my arms and chest from jackassing that heavy 535A around on the bench. I may have to hold off doing that last capacitor today in order to heal up a bit.

In addition all that moving is denting and scratching the bench 2 surface. Oh well, at least the end of this is in sight.   

See it this way: Tek saved you from a membership in an expensive fitness studio. And it glows in the dark. 

TBH necking some Polonium does that as well.

[med6753]

I'm getting old. Woke up today a hurting pup. Sore muscles in my arms and chest from jackassing that heavy 535A around on the bench. I may have to hold off doing that last capacitor today in order to heal up a bit.

In addition all that moving is denting and scratching the bench 2 surface. Oh well, at least the end of this is in sight.   

I name thee Teksisyphus:

Love it!  And that's exactly the way I feel moving that big bastard around. 

[BU508A]

I'm getting old. Woke up today a hurting pup. Sore muscles in my arms and chest from jackassing that heavy 535A around on the bench. I may have to hold off doing that last capacitor today in order to heal up a bit.

In addition all that moving is denting and scratching the bench 2 surface. Oh well, at least the end of this is in sight.   

See it this way: Tek saved you from a membership in an expensive fitness studio. And it glows in the dark. 

TBH necking some Polonium does that as well.

Polonium? Perhaps you've meant Plutonium. 

[bd139]

That would work too. I did mean polonium. Glows blue like a Tek and if you ingest it it would save you from a membership in an expensive fitness studio

Edit: for some context, read about Alexander Litvinenko

[med6753]

As it currently sits this morning mocking me.  In order to replace that last capacitor I have to turn it 180 degrees and THEN lay it on it's side. 

[GreyWoolfe]

This is more like the Ikea experience I reckon.

There is something wrong with your mental faculties if Ikea furniture poses anything close to that much of a challenge. Having to disassemble a part because you jumped the gun as you ignored the manual, maybe. Anything beyond that raises serious questions.

Totes with you on this one, even with out instructions there are reasonable to work out, just take your time and think it through before jumping in with both feet.

Never had the pleasure of assembling IKEA furniture.  I have put together my share of RTA and found it never is, with the exception of a desk from Walmart that Mrs GreyWoolfe wanted.  Went together easily and well and only needed her help once to turn it upright.  It is actually a nice piece of furniture.  Shame the desk is too small for my needs or I would have bought one for me.

[BU508A]

That would work too. I did mean polonium. Glows blue like a Tek and if you ingest it it would save you from a membership in an expensive fitness studio

Edit: for some context, read about Alexander Litvinenko

Hmm, if it is glowing blue, I think this is Cerenkov radiation, caused by the alpha particles traveling faster than light in a certain medium.

[bd139]

Nothing quite as exciting. It ionises the air around it apparently 

[BU508A]

Nothing quite as exciting. It ionises the air around it apparently 

Ah, yes. If you look at this Pu-sphere in the picture I've posted you can spot a blue corona around the Pu-sphere.
Probably the same effect. 

[Cerebus]

...
I wasn't a member. Only the assassins society which meant drawing a victim from a hat once a week and the victim had to avoid being stabbed by a joke shop knife in the neck by about 30 people. At which point you'd have to die a loud and horrible death wherever it occurred (usually in lectures). If the death wasn't loud and horrible as voted by the committee you'd have to pay the bar round. You'd get arrested now 

Ah fond memories. Some friends at Uni used to play a game called 'killer' where there was a designated victim with all the other participants assassins who might work individually or in teams. The victim had the advantage of knowing who all the participants were, but still had to keep their guard up outside of designated neutral zones (such as the Union bar).

If you think you'd get arrested now for your version, tactics and weaponry consider the likely current response to the following.

Many of you will be familiar with the M72 LAW anti-tank rocket, shown here with the launch tube opened, the business end is to the left:



A friend, and participant in killer, John* had come into possession of a used LAW launch tube left over from an army exercise by perfectly legitimate means (His old school was the sort of place where the Combined Cadet Force got to go on real military exercises and many CCF members legitimately expected to be running one of the services, or at least very senior in them, in 20-30 years time). Obviously this munition was spent and didn't contain the actual projectile, and moreover, the igniter mechanism had been fired so the thing was completely inert.

The igniter is that lump to the top right. It turns out that the heart of the igniter is essentially a .22 starting pistol that takes a .22 blank cartridge. It's cocked by extending the telescoping launch tube, decocked by closing it, and fired with a press trigger on the top, just to the left of the rear sight. There was also a manual safety pin (not shown) similar to the pin on a grenade, that had to be pulled out to unlock the end cap.

Although the igniter mechanism is single use, it's quite easy to dismantle and re-arm with a new blank cartridge. If you then seal off the base of the launch tube (right) all the exhaust gases from the blank go down the main body of the tube. Add some wadding with a couple of disks of thin cardboard to make a seal and you get a gas propelled piston that will travel the length of the barrel and then come to a halt.

If you top this piston with some shaving foam you have the mother of all custard pie throwers, accurate and effective out to about 20 feet. In one round of killer John deployed this as his weapon of choice, to devastating effect.

* Not his real name for obvious reasons.

[mnementh]

I'm getting old. Woke up today a hurting pup. Sore muscles in my arms and chest from jackassing that heavy 535A around on the bench. I may have to hold off doing that last capacitor today in order to heal up a bit.

In addition all that moving is denting and scratching the bench 2 surface. Oh well, at least the end of this is in sight.   

I name thee Teksisyphus:   

Blue Teksisyphus

Done.

mnem
 

[Mr. Scram]

What I found incredible was that while everyone could see that he was going crash, nobody thought about jumping into a vehicle and racing off to see the crash site in case by some miracle he was still alive 

That would pretty much be a miracle in the religious sense. That's not anywhere near a survivable crash. It's a senseless death but pretty much what's to be expected. It was also abundantly clear this rocket didn't and couldn't serve it's supposed purpose.

[mnementh]

As it currently sits this morning mocking me.        In order to replace that last capacitor I have to turn it 180 degrees and THEN lay it on it's side. 

There's a reason you always see a big honkin' cutting mat on my workbench; not only does it HELP protect the surface, but with big heavy stuff like this, it makes spinning the thing around EASY. Especially with stuff that tends to concentrate the weight on a few spots, like that THX-certified Onkyo Receiver I showed y'all a while back.    Just grab a corner of the cutting mat for the leverage you need to turn the thing. 

mnem
*tech-ily*

[Cerebus]

I'm getting old. Woke up today a hurting pup. Sore muscles in my arms and chest from jackassing that heavy 535A around on the bench. I may have to hold off doing that last capacitor today in order to heal up a bit.

In addition all that moving is denting and scratching the bench 2 surface. Oh well, at least the end of this is in sight.   

See it this way: Tek saved you from a membership in an expensive fitness studio. And it glows in the dark. 

TBH necking some Polonium does that as well.

Polonium? Perhaps you've meant Plutonium. 

²³⁹Pu - half-life 24100 years, specific activity 0.062 Curies/gram
²¹⁰Po - half-life 138.376 days, specific activity 4500 Curies/gram

So ²¹⁰Po is roughly 72580 times more radioactive than ²³⁹Pu. I'd happily hold a 1 gm chunk of unshielded ²³⁹Pu in a gloved hand, I wouldn't go into the same room as an unshielded 1 gm ²¹⁰Po source. In fact I'd want to be 270 times further away from a ²¹⁰Po source than I would a ²³⁹Pu source of the same mass.

[med6753]

As it currently sits this morning mocking me.        In order to replace that last capacitor I have to turn it 180 degrees and THEN lay it on it's side. 

There's a reason you always see a big honkin' cutting mat on my workbench; not only does it HELP protect the surface, but with big heavy stuff like this, it makes spinning the thing around EASY. Especially with stuff that tends to concentrate the weight on a few spots, like that THX-certified Onkyo Receiver I showed y'all a while back.    Just grab a corner of the cutting mat for the leverage you need to turn the thing. 

mnem
*tech-ily*

I do have a mat but it proved not to be heavy enough and was getting mangled so I have to run "bare back" and take the risks. 

[mnementh]

You want one of the thick, stiff ENKAY mats. They're about 5mm thick and hardface plastic on both sides; you can barely bend the thing. I've put an engine block on one on my old bench and still spun it around as needed.

mnem
 

[mnementh]

What I found incredible was that while everyone could see that he was going crash, nobody thought about jumping into a vehicle and racing off to see the crash site in case by some miracle he was still alive 

That would pretty much be a miracle in the religious sense. That's not anywhere near a survivable crash. It's a senseless death but pretty much what's to be expected. It was also abundantly clear this rocket didn't and couldn't serve it's supposed purpose.

Yeah... this is definitely a case of "the guy died doing what he loved"; in this instance making an ass of himself as publicly as possible. It's entirely possible the motivation was as much financial as wingnuttery; every failed "attempt" has resulted in a cash influx for his next "attempt". Added to that is the repeated conjecture that he was also fighting cancer; if so, the payout from Discovery Channel was likely the "magic number" for his surviving family as far as he was concerned, so he decided to go out on his own terms. 

mnem
"If it bleeds it leads."

[worsthorse]

I'm getting old. Woke up today a hurting pup. Sore muscles in my arms and chest from jackassing that heavy 535A around on the bench. I may have to hold off doing that last capacitor today in order to heal up a bit.

In addition all that moving is denting and scratching the bench 2 surface. Oh well, at least the end of this is in sight.   

I name thee Teksisyphus:

Love it!  And that's exactly the way I feel moving that big bastard around. 

this is why i try not to work on anything bigger than TM500 plugins.   

[BU508A]

²³⁹Pu - half-life 24100 years, specific activity 0.062 Curies/gram
²¹⁰Po - half-life 138.376 days, specific activity 4500 Curies/gram

So ²¹⁰Po is roughly 72580 times more radioactive than ²³⁹Pu. I'd happily hold a 1 gm chunk of unshielded ²³⁹Pu in a gloved hand, I wouldn't go into the same room as an unshielded 1 gm ²¹⁰Po source. In fact I'd want to be 270 times further away from a ²¹⁰Po source than I would a ²³⁹Pu source of the same mass.

In atomic batteries you can find ²¹⁰Po (e.g. as a heater in the Sovjet modules which landed on the moon)
or ²³⁸Pu with a half-life of ca. 87.4 years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium#Power_and_heat_source

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonium-210#Applications

²¹⁰Po is very active, yes, but it produces alpha radiation which can be easily shielded. But I would not keep both of them in my gloved hands.
Way too much radioactivity involved

[Mr. Scram]

Have any of you ever bought spares from Fluke? How was that experience?

[bd139]

Have any of you ever bought spares from Fluke? How was that experience?

Buy them from TME. Better than Fluke.

[Mr. Scram]

Buy them from TME. Better than Fluke.

I'm not seeing a lot of spare parts on there. Am I missing something?

[bd139]

Depends what parts. All the ones I ever needed were on there.

[Mr. Scram]

Depends what parts. All the ones I ever needed were on there.

You mean fuses and such? I'm after case parts and similar bigger items.

[BU508A]

Probably he is after some more fancy stuff, e.g. the LTFLU-1 / resistor combo or something.
This is not available at TME.