Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

Mmmm paper cuts on your arse. Fun!

Random question: does anyone know which company I can head to for a hammer drill that isn't a piece of shit? Needs to have a chuck that isn't garbage and needs to be mains powered. Need to use it to blow some light holes in brick work and drill Hammond boxes as well with a step drill.

Edit: currently considering Makita HP1640 at the moment. Proper chuck. Not too many horrible reviews. Available same day on amazon for 70 quid.

Looks like you found it already but yea, Makita has a bunch of corded hammer drills.

[tggzzz]

I don't know about GSP, but even domestic shipping in the US is sporadic these days. Sometimes stuff shows up days ahead of schedule. Other times, days or weeks late.

I had a time sensitive letter posted on 24th August in San Diego. It arrived on 4th September, i.e. 11 days.

Pretty circular stamps, though.

[med6753]

Come to think of it, most of my stuff recently was via USPS. However, an Amazon order recently scheduled for Friday is arriving later today. Not that I mind stuff arriving faster, of course.

Well, I only got up to reply #99350. To be continued...

Night all!

Amazon via USPS is always on time or early. I think it's because Amazon dings their helmet if they are late. Which proves USPS can do their job. But non-Amazon...forget it. Whenever they freaking feel like it. 

[BU508A]

Mmmm paper cuts on your arse. Fun!

Random question: does anyone know which company I can head to for a hammer drill that isn't a piece of shit? Needs to have a chuck that isn't garbage and needs to be mains powered. Need to use it to blow some light holes in brick work and drill Hammond boxes as well with a step drill.

Edit: currently considering Makita HP1640 at the moment. Proper chuck. Not too many horrible reviews. Available same day on amazon for 70 quid.

Makita fanboy here. Go for it. But take one with SDSplus!

[tautech]

Mmmm paper cuts on your arse. Fun!

Random question: does anyone know which company I can head to for a hammer drill that isn't a piece of shit? Needs to have a chuck that isn't garbage and needs to be mains powered. Need to use it to blow some light holes in brick work and drill Hammond boxes as well with a step drill.

Edit: currently considering Makita HP1640 at the moment. Proper chuck. Not too many horrible reviews. Available same day on amazon for 70 quid.

Drilling brick is like cheese compared to concrete so most anything will do what you want unless you've got 100's of holes to do.
Ideally if doing big stuff you want both a slip clutch and electronic overload protection like an AEG hammer drill I had.

[med6753]

Not sure if this is the best place to put this, but being a number of you use Ebay, thought I'd ask. Is anyone else having delays with Ebay orders via GSP from items originating in the USA? I've had nothing but a stellar experience in the past, but suddenly I have three orders that seem to be in limbo. My best guess is that Kentucky, where their distribution center is located, is experiencing record COVID-19 cases, and it may be affecting processing of items. Two of my items are being held by FedEx in Kentucky, because they couldn't even be delivered to GSP, which really makes me think there's a serious problem inside their distribution center at the moment.

I saw a couple of items I might want to bid on, but think I'll hold off until I hear that there aren't anymore issues with GSP.

Unless this is very recent, like in the past few days, I had no trouble with my last Mouser order a week ago that was via FedEx through their Kentucky hub to me on time in 2 days.

There was no problem with FedEx. They got it to Independence, Kentucky quickly, which is just a few miles from Erlanger, Kentucky where the GSP center is. Then an exception saying the packages are on hold with FedEx and can't be delivered to GSP. Another package made it to GSP, which usually means in less than 24 hours an international tracking number will be generated with the international carrier, but nothing for that package yet. Anyways, I'm in no hurry to get my orders, but just slightly concerned if something's happening there at GSP we don't know about.

If it involves US Customs, which it most likely does, they are like USPS only worse. They will not be hurried and whenever they feel like it. 

[beanflying]

My last GSP from New York to me comprehensively SUCKED  Nearly four weeks for a CAD Mouse and three of those weeks was getting out of the USA.

[beanflying]

Mmmm paper cuts on your arse. Fun!

Random question: does anyone know which company I can head to for a hammer drill that isn't a piece of shit? Needs to have a chuck that isn't garbage and needs to be mains powered. Need to use it to blow some light holes in brick work and drill Hammond boxes as well with a step drill.

Edit: currently considering Makita HP1640 at the moment. Proper chuck. Not too many horrible reviews. Available same day on amazon for 70 quid.

I brought a completely bottom of the barrel generic 1/2" Impact drill some years ago and yep the chuck is crap but it only gets used when the gutsy wrist breaking Makita cordless isn't up to the task so not very often. My call is buy a trash impact one with a 2-3 year warrantee and punish it in concret and brick and spend you $ on a nice cordless.

edit and when you have a lot of holes to do Water Jet or Plasma into 5mm Steel - ALWAYS  Finished weight around 40kg according to Fusion and 4kg of holes 

[med6753]

More troubleshooting but this one turned out to be a simple fix too. RCA WO-505A that I restored a few years ago. Hasn't been powered up since I can't remember. Brought it up and it flat out refused to sync. Nothing more than dirty controls. Deoxit to the rescue.

The reason for the note concerning the intensity is that the CRT is a little tired. If you give it full intensity it doesn't get any brighter but it goes out of focus and "blooms". There's no bias control to help compensate for that. And all the resistors and capacitors in the HV section were replaced when it was restored.



Internal porn shot.

   

[Henrik_V]

Random question: does anyone know which company I can head to for a hammer drill that isn't a piece of shit? Needs to have a chuck that isn't garbage and needs to be mains powered. Need to use it to blow some light holes in brick work and drill Hammond boxes as well with a step drill.

Edit: currently considering Makita HP1640 at the moment. Proper chuck. Not too many horrible reviews. Available same day on amazon for 70 quid.

Also a Makita fanboy ...   
 ...  but don't forget to add GOOD Drills to your list. A Hilti one (for a price you get a noname hammer drill) compared to a 'Standard' SDS (+) in concrete is a big difference , especially for larger diameters (> 12 mm).

[bd139]

edit and when you have a lot of holes to do Water Jet or Plasma into 5mm Steel - ALWAYS  Finished weight around 40kg according to Fusion and 4kg of holes 

Those are some heavy holes 

TBH I'd love to be able to get into that sort of stuff but don't have the space for it. I'm limiting myself to basic sheet metal working so I've got shears, drills and will obtain some bending bars when I get around to it.

Makita ordered. As always I ended up buying extras so got myself an automatic centre punch, a bunch of reasonable quality HSS bits, masonary bits and a step drill. First attack will be on some Hammond boxes. Then a curtain rail 

I've been using a shitty Clarke NiCd based "screwdriver pretending to be a drill" for the last decade and I have had enough of the turd.

[med6753]

The latest USPS jackassery.

An Ebay order for #44 lamp bulbs left Philly on August 29th. I still don't have them but supposedly at my PO this morning. Last week it arrived at the Newburgh, NY distribution center but for some reason they sent it to a PO across the Hudson River from me. How could that happen when everything is scanned? Apparently some bimbo threw it into the wrong delivery bin. Now, would you think that when that PO discovered the error they would send to back to Newburgh? Surely you jest. They send it to a distribution center in Stamford, CT. Stamford sent it to a distribution center in Jersey City, NJ. They send it to a distribution center in Albany, NY. Albany sent it back to Newburgh. Newburgh finally got their act together and it's at my PO this morning. At least that's what the tracking sez.

And you wonder why USPS looses money. 

[Specmaster]

Warning - While you were reading 96 new replies have been posted. You may wish to review your post.  

It's orificial: The dwagon has landed... In Brampton. 

The truck's been returned intact and 7 hours early at 2am; the WiFi is online and tomorrow's iced tea is brewing on the counter.

Time for me to drag my sorry carcass off to bed; myassiss dragon.

mnem
 yes dear, I'll bring some bath tissue up with me...

Hmm, on Google Earth it sure does look like a nice place to live, fingers crossed that its the last time you have to move, I hate moving, so stressful living out of boxes.

[Specmaster]

Mmmm paper cuts on your arse. Fun!

Random question: does anyone know which company I can head to for a hammer drill that isn't a piece of shit? Needs to have a chuck that isn't garbage and needs to be mains powered. Need to use it to blow some light holes in brick work and drill Hammond boxes as well with a step drill.

Edit: currently considering Makita HP1640 at the moment. Proper chuck. Not too many horrible reviews. Available same day on amazon for 70 quid.

Don't know about right now, but I have had a mains powered drill from Lidl for about 5 years now and has a hammer function, speed control and forward/reverse, keyless chuck (as most are these days) and I have had zero issues with it, and it has drilled into masonry, concrete, metal of all kinds and thicknesses, perfectly. I also have a cordless one from there which is about 12 years old and still works, but batteries are shot, again no issues other than batteries, really cannot fault them.

[Vince]

Geez your recurrent stories in the US about your postal service, it's both scary, astonishing and entertaining. I will never complain ever again about the French post after reading all your stories !

Everything you relate is just soooo out of this world, so unbelievable from the richest country in the world... I can only believe it because well you seem legit people ! 

I am now starting to understand why 4 years ago, when I contacted a good friend in the US i San Francisco, and asked him to order some stuff from Mouser (a few CERMET trimmers to fix the storage and CRT board on my Tek 5111A scope... only Mouser had a good enough replacement somehow ! ) and forward it to me in France so I can avoid the $$$$ sum that Mouser wanted to export it to me.... he said to my dismay : "Look Vince, I would love to help you but I can't do that ! Our mail service here is so broken that it's not a good idea, trust me !!! ".

At the time I though hey maybe he is not really my friend if he can't even be bothered to send me an envelope.... but now in retrospect I understand he was not being mean or lazy, he was dead serious ! 

How do you do when you get an important registered mail, ig you get it too late or never get it at all ?! That cold get you into serious trouble !

[Specmaster]

Mmmm paper cuts on your arse. Fun!

Random question: does anyone know which company I can head to for a hammer drill that isn't a piece of shit? Needs to have a chuck that isn't garbage and needs to be mains powered. Need to use it to blow some light holes in brick work and drill Hammond boxes as well with a step drill.

Edit: currently considering Makita HP1640 at the moment. Proper chuck. Not too many horrible reviews. Available same day on amazon for 70 quid.

Makita fanboy here. Go for it. But take one with SDSplus!

Problem SDS and SDSPlus is that it does not do small holes and won't take step drills as SDS type drills do not have a rotary tightening function on their chucks, instead relying on the correct type of drill bit with a slot being inserted, hence the holes do not tend to be "light" but more heavy, big holes. 

I have a mains powered SDS drill which beast of a drill and will also take chisel bits and also makes short work of knocking out entire bricks or breaking up concrete, like a pneumatic road drill.

[Specmaster]

edit and when you have a lot of holes to do Water Jet or Plasma into 5mm Steel - ALWAYS  Finished weight around 40kg according to Fusion and 4kg of holes 

Those are some heavy holes 

TBH I'd love to be able to get into that sort of stuff but don't have the space for it. I'm limiting myself to basic sheet metal working so I've got shears, drills and will obtain some bending bars when I get around to it.

Makita ordered. As always I ended up buying extras so got myself an automatic centre punch, a bunch of reasonable quality HSS bits, masonary bits and a step drill. First attack will be on some Hammond boxes. Then a curtain rail 

I've been using a shitty Clarke NiCd based "screwdriver pretending to be a drill" for the last decade and I have had enough of the turd.

Sounds like a massive overkill to me 

[BU508A]

Mmmm paper cuts on your arse. Fun!

Random question: does anyone know which company I can head to for a hammer drill that isn't a piece of shit? Needs to have a chuck that isn't garbage and needs to be mains powered. Need to use it to blow some light holes in brick work and drill Hammond boxes as well with a step drill.

Edit: currently considering Makita HP1640 at the moment. Proper chuck. Not too many horrible reviews. Available same day on amazon for 70 quid.

Makita fanboy here. Go for it. But take one with SDSplus!

Problem SDS and SDSPlus is that it does not do small holes and won't take step drills as SDS type drills do not have a rotary tightening function on their chucks, instead relying on the correct type of drill bit with a slot being inserted, hence the holes do not tend to be "light" but more heavy, big holes. 

I have a mains powered SDS drill which beast of a drill and will also take chisel bits and also makes short work of knocking out entire bricks or breaking up concrete, like a pneumatic road drill.

I'm drilling here 4mm holes with no problems at all. 5mm and 6mm is the size I'm using most. if I need other drills, e.g. for wood, I just simply change the SDS adapter to the one which can handle those drills. 2mm? No problem.

[Specmaster]

My Amazon order is now, at least according my Alexa, on route to me today. Checking the tracking details, it appears to have been checked as arriving at my local delivery depot 2 or 3 times yesterday at different times  It now says external events caused its delay, so hopefully I should get it today 

[Robert763]

This evening got to hear a whisper that an Antonov 124 was going to be landing at Stanstead Airport, these planes are pretty rare beasts on these shores and so my son and I went to try and grab some photos of the beast. Then just as we were about to leave, a last minute check on Flight Radar revealed that another fairly rare beast of a plane, queen of the sky, 747, was on its way and was due to touch down a couple of minutes before sunset, so we decided to try our luck, even though the light would be bad at that time and any sunshine would be murdered by the pollution in the air due to the very low angle of the sun.

Just as we could see the 747 on the approach, the sun went completely, so I cranked the ISO upto 640 and took a gamble and the result is here, a bit grainy as you would expect, but not that bad.

In other news, I took advantage of a low price on Amazon for some multiway test meter leads that come with various extras and adaptors to suit most types of meter inputs, so I grabbed 2, they were supposed to be with me by 10PM today, nah, they failed to show, so will looking for a reason in the morning.

Hmm,
Ukrainian rather than Russan and no ground mapping radar chin radome. Relatively new example, only 18 years old.

[THDplusN_bad]

[..]

I am now starting to understand why 4 years ago, when I contacted a good friend in the US i San Francisco, and asked him to order some stuff from Mouser (a few CERMET trimmers to fix the storage and CRT board on my Tek 5111A scope... only Mouser had a good enough replacement somehow ! ) and forward it to me in France so I can avoid the $$$$ sum that Mouser wanted to export it to me.... he said to my dismay : "Look Vince, I would love to help you but I can't do that ! Our mail service here is so broken that it's not a good idea, trust me !!! ".

Ah, I can see that there are more Tektronix 5000-series enthusiasts here in this forum. The 5111A is a design from the early 1980s and for sure a nice one - I like its large storage CRT...

Good luck with your repair.

Cheers,

THDplusN_bad

[xrunner]

My Amazon order is now, at least according my Alexa, on route to me today. Checking the tracking details, it appears to have been checked as arriving at my local delivery depot 2 or 3 times yesterday at different times  It now says external events caused its delay, so hopefully I should get it today 

Well I ordered an N quick-connect adapter from a seller across the pond - Bristol, UK. I want it for convenience on the bench - not for permanent use.

I figure let's test both shipping systems and see if it ever arrives ...

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/153606322234

[Cerebus]

Mmmm paper cuts on your arse. Fun!

Random question: does anyone know which company I can head to for a hammer drill that isn't a piece of shit? Needs to have a chuck that isn't garbage and needs to be mains powered. Need to use it to blow some light holes in brick work and drill Hammond boxes as well with a step drill.

Edit: currently considering Makita HP1640 at the moment. Proper chuck. Not too many horrible reviews. Available same day on amazon for 70 quid.

No comments on the particular Makita in question but Makita have served me well over the years. I tend to buy Makita tools that they consider fall into their pro/semi-pro ranges so that may bias things a bit, but I've not had anything from Makita crap out on me yet. Makita tend to fit better chucks on their drills than other manufacturers at the same price point, sometimes they even fit 'name' branded chucks. I've seen Rohm chucks on Makita drills.

For drilling Hammond boxes and the like you'd be better served by a pillar drill/drill press. Even a cheap one is likely to be better than the best hand held drill just because you're not hand holding it. But I suspect your response is going to be "Yeah, but space".

[bd139]

That is the reply unfortunately . I would love a pillar drill.

But at the same time this isn’t an every day thing I do so the compromise is generic tools and some inflexibility and the odd wonky hole here and there.

[25 CPS]

Warning - While you were reading 96 new replies have been posted. You may wish to review your post.  

It's orificial: The dwagon has landed... In Brampton. 

The truck's been returned intact and 7 hours early at 2am; the WiFi is online and tomorrow's iced tea is brewing on the counter.

Time for me to drag my sorry carcass off to bed; myassiss dragon.

mnem
 yes dear, I'll bring some bath tissue up with me...

Hold on, you drove a truck through Brampton and it's still intact?

Did you squeak by without being subjected to insurance fraud as well?