Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[McBryce]

Question.

Here are my old drawers I got as a teen, where I stored all my brand new 5% resistors.

Now it's not that convenient and wastes 99% of the drawer volume.


I am wondering if there is a solution to store that kind of component, 2 legged axial low power stuff like these resistor..... in a much more compact/efficient manner ?

How do you people store your new resistors ? Was wondering if maybe something like a binder with plastic "sleeves" of a special design... a bit like the "sample books" for small surface mount components ? Is there a company somewhere that sells plastic inserts for binders, custom designed for that kind of purpose ? I don't even know if that's doable or a good idea... just to illustrate an example of compact storage... I am open sto any design or suggestion ! Maybe there is none, I don't know... but if there is a more compact way than wasting drawers space, I would like to hear about it and consider it !

These drawers could still be used , much more efficiently, to store all sorts of small parts like fuses, fuse holders, buzzers,  trannies, diode bridges, caps, trimmers, 7 segment LED displays, small misc H/W like ferrite beads, plastic standoffs, small heat sinks for small package trannies, rubber feet ... a ton of misc stuff ! ... but axial resistors no, IMHO ?! 

Tell me all about your cool storage solutions and ideas, links to products, anything... help me !!! 

Just buy more resistors so that the drawers are fully used.

McBryce.

[Specmaster]

I'll bring the beer and a big chunk of pig.  (I know the way to a German boy's heart. )

What...you'll take British beer to a German boy are you crazy or what? German beer is among the world's finest, they have purity laws over there for their beers 

[capt bullshot]

I've bought this drawer box with assorted resistors some 20 years ago. Can't remember the price, but still serves me well.



And also doubles as a storage place for small magnets ...
 


It occupies quite some space, I've found a place where it can live. SMT resistors are easier, they all fit in a smallish box.

[Neper]

Here are my old drawers I got as a teen...

Sell them on ebay. Teens' used drawers and sneakers fetch premium prices there. 

[1Ghz]

My two HP front covers for spectrum analyzer arrived today.
Now I can sleep much better! 

BLASPHEMER!!! Get thee off to the Bay of EEEVIL and atone for thy sins posthaste!

Two Lord Tektronix' Prayers and 3 Hail Hewlett Packards should suffice to scrub thy soul clean.

mnem
That was a close one...

Oh, Lord i'll follow you.
I'll be back later. See you soon. 

Two Lord Tektronix' Prayers and one Hail Hewlett Packard more to go... 

[McBryce]

I've bought this drawer box with assorted resistors some 20 years ago. Can't remember the price, but still serves me well.



And also doubles as a storage place for small magnets ...
 


It occupies quite some space, I've found a place where it can live. SMT resistors are easier, they all fit in a smallish box.

Probably from Conrad? The same place I bought mine too. I have 2 of them. One for resistors and one for capacitors. I bought mine without the contents though.

https://www.conrad.de/de/p/metallschicht-widerstand-sortiment-axial-bedrahtet-0-25-w-1-1-set-420190.html

McBryce.

[capt bullshot]

Probably from Conrad? The same place I bought mine too. I have 2 of them. One for resistors and one for capacitors. I bought mine without the contents though.

https://www.conrad.de/de/p/metallschicht-widerstand-sortiment-axial-bedrahtet-0-25-w-1-1-set-420190.html

McBryce.

Yes, it's from Conrad.

[Neper]

I've bought the same, many moons ago. Mine came with a set of separators for the drawers, so I've put two values into each of them and use the rest for other components.

[dl6lr]

I guess the only way for the average US guy who wants decent bread and croissant is just to learn to do them themselves... but I guess wouldn't be economical, and too time consuming, so nobody could justify doing it 
Not an expert but I gather the number one factor for a good baguette vs a cheap crap one, is to let the paste settle for 24H minimum.. not practical.

Why not? I am not in the US of A but currently I am doing all my bread myself. Letting the dough settle is a matter of time, not of labour. You need a good planning, though. I have three types of sourdough available all the time (rye, spelt and wheat). One of the last breads was San Fr'isco sourdough bread, which is a little different here as the wheat is not the same as in USA.
The dough for the rolls at the weekend has to settle for 3 days. With a little care every day.
With regards to croissants and baguettes: They will be different due to different butter and wheat in the USA, too, so you will have to modify french recipes. That is one reason I buy butter and wheat in Denmark whenever I am there, as it's different from the german.

[dl6lr]

Storing Resistors:

Here's my makeshift solution. I took a stack of old unused envelopes with rotten adhesive and put all powers of ten into one. Advantage above zip bags: You can easily make notes, e.g. what's inside.

That's how I got my SMD resistors: tape cuts in envelopes. Some time ago we made a group buy of one spool each for a selection of values and divided them in 500's quantities. Now they are stored in 3D-printed dispensers. Several boxes full. And the wired are in those drawers.

[Andrew_Debbie]

'Lots' of analogue TV goodies in next Months PP auction.  Stacked in with the nearly useless PALish things, there are at least two HP distortion analysers.   

https://www.ppauctions.com/auction/338/february-collective-sale-electronics


There are  few items I may bid on.   

[Cerebus]

Vince what have you done without us for so many years?

 

Until we came along he was a very successful and widely respected breeder of wallet moths. 

[tautech]

Vince what have you done without us for so many years?

 

Until we came along he was a very successful and widely respected breeder of wallet moths. 

Ya think.
Actually Vince has spent some years mainly over in the Repair board and of his 28 topics most of them are there until I dragged him over here. Like some others here he has an impressive repair queue but needs be careful with his funds now without formal and gainful employment.

[Cerebus]

Storing Resistors:

Here's my makeshift solution. I took a stack of old unused envelopes with rotten adhesive and put all powers of ten into one. Advantage above zip bags: You can easily make notes, e.g. what's inside.

Back in the day, commercial stationery shops sold little strong brown paper envelopes about 90 x 75 mm (at a guess) intended for paying weekly cash wages. Being strong enough to take a few coins and sized to take a banknote folded in half they were almost ideal for storing a small handful of through hole components. Better still there were also filing tray and lockable cash boxes sized to fit them.

A quick check shows that they are still available (which surprises me at least) and the standard size is in fact 108 x 92 mm (4 1/4" x 3 5/8")



Available plain and pre-printed, so the plain ones are still a viable option for component storage. Prices range from ~£13 for 1000, to £43 per 1000. I can find no trace of any specialised filing/trays/boxes for them any more.

With the cessation of paying the majority of blue collar and lower grades of white collar workers in cash something has disappeared from the world - the "wages snatch" where criminals would rob the (weekly, entirely predictable) delivery of cash to factories.

[Cerebus]

I'll bring the beer and a big chunk of pig.  (I know the way to a German boy's heart. )

What...you'll take British beer to a German boy are you crazy or what? German beer is among the world's finest, they have purity laws over there for their beers 

I'm not carrying beer (or half a pig) all that way when they've got perfectly good local stuff. Not that all German beer is great, it's quite possible to get a Maß of insipid, national brewery beer in Germany, just like you can here. "Bitte ein Bit?" - nein danke. Thankfully, the Germans have been a bit more insistent than us in keeping their local breweries alive and kicking and generally if you drink what's brewed locally you can't go wrong.

[mnementh]

...Anyway, as I'm surfing the stomp box builder forums, there are two themes that strike me;

• The cheap opamps (especially JRC 4558) that were chosen for price and market availability Back Then^(tm) and now are obsolete or suboptimal are of course in true Cargo Cult fashion cherished as the Proper Solution, and woe him who suggests a TL072 instead of the 062... (the 062 usually was chosen for lower current consumption; but with a 9V wall-wart, that's no issue)
• The only kosher way to publish ones work is as mounting/jumper instruction for stripboard. These people have neither heard about JLCPCB nor KiCAD.

Oh, good lord... I must've thrown away a goldmine then, when I cleared out all my car stereo amp parts PCBs... those things were peppered with JRC 4558s, especially if the amp had any kind of crossover built-in. Easily a dozen or more, even on the cheap $49 amps. Hell, they even got used in the power supply section every once in a while.

   As much as I do love me somev good ol' ghetto-fab on protoboard, I look forward to your attempts to bring your project up out of those Stygian depths. 

mnem
turn it up to 11!!!

[mnementh]

If there's anybody who would do it the hard way just to tweak the shrew-disciple's nose, it is you.

mnem
I'm certain that tinkerdwagon collateral damage was just the frosting on that Black Forest Cake...

Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte? Now we're talking. Black Forest Gateaux, as it gets called here, is regarded as a bit naif in Britain but personally I love a generous helping or three whenever I can get any.

Talking of buying food and drink in Britain, as I was earlier, I can't find a bottle of Kirschwasser anywhere I frequent for love nor money.

mnem
Anybody know where I can get a decent carrot cake...? you know, like with actual flavor...?

[AVGresponding]

mnem
Anybody know where I can get a decent carrot cake...? you know, like with actual flavor...?

Carrot and cake, two words that never belong in the same sentence.   

[mnementh]

With all due respect... you can kiss my scaly dwagon arse.

A good carrot cake full of walnuts and cinnamon-sugar and shredded carrots... layered with with orange marmalade glaze & topped with decadent cream-cheese icing... it is a thing of beauty.

It was what I got for my wedding cake, and we try to make it happen for dwagon birthdays as well... tho infrequently enough do we find a decent one that it hasn't happened since I left San Antonio and the sphere of influence of a certain Jewish bakery...

mnem
*toddles off to look for a drool sponge*

[mnementh]

My version of a genuine Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte:   

 

Well, all very nice, but I don't see the box with my address on!?!

That's because I already fly-by mugged him for it.   

mnem
 

[AVGresponding]

With all due respect... you can kiss my scaly dwagon arse.

A good carrot cake full of walnuts and cinnamon-sugar and shredded carrots... layered with with orange marmalade glaze & topped with decadent cream-cheese icing... it is a thing of beauty.

It was what I got for my wedding cake, and we try to make it happen for dwagon birthdays as well... tho infrequently enough do we find a decent one that it hasn't happened since I left San Antonio and the sphere of influence of a certain Jewish bakery...

mnem
*toddles off to look for a drool sponge*

Marmalade? Ugh, it just keeps getting worse! 

[AVGresponding]

Resistors eh...



It starts with a drawer, just one or two (or three or four),
But sooner or later it becomes one or two more.
Soon for some space you'll look all over the place,
On top of the drawers, the meters, the floor,
Some hide in boxes, some hide some more,
Some hide in cupboards or behind a door.
Some you just can't bloody well find at all.

[Cerebus]

I guess the only way for the average US guy who wants decent bread and croissant is just to learn to do them themselves... but I guess wouldn't be economical, and too time consuming, so nobody could justify doing it 
Not an expert but I gather the number one factor for a good baguette vs a cheap crap one, is to let the paste settle for 24H minimum.. not practical.

Why not? I am not in the US of A but currently I am doing all my bread myself. Letting the dough settle is a matter of time, not of labour. You need a good planning, though. I have three types of sourdough available all the time (rye, spelt and wheat). One of the last breads was San Fr'isco sourdough bread, which is a little different here as the wheat is not the same as in USA.
The dough for the rolls at the weekend has to settle for 3 days. With a little care every day.
With regards to croissants and baguettes: They will be different due to different butter and wheat in the USA, too, so you will have to modify french recipes. That is one reason I buy butter and wheat in Denmark whenever I am there, as it's different from the german.

One of the tricks to a good baguette is, as you say, the flour. The French use what they call T65 flour for baguettes. The 65 is the "extraction percent" after milled flour has been through the sifters, so if you start with 1kg of freshly milled wholemeal flour (with just the really big chunks already sieved out) you end up with 650gm of white flour at the end.  This is in fact a little less refined than typical cake flours (which are usually about 61% extraction) but more refined than typical 'white bread flour' (usually around 72%). Very highly refined T45 flour gets used for patisserie and Viennoiserie. The French classify by extraction so it's easy to see what's what, finding an equivalent flour by the local name (it it exists) is a black art.

Just to confuse matters, different people use extraction percentage differently. You can talk of either extraction percentage relative to the raw whole wheat kernels, or relative to crude raw milled flour that hasn't yet been sifted but has passed through a basic coarse sieve to remove large chunks of bran. Raw milled and sieved flour is only typically about 85% of the mass of the input whole grains. So T65 is 65% of the 85% that is left over after sifting and milling respectively.

And here's the real article in my sticky little mitt:

[mansaxel]

With the cessation of paying the majority of blue collar and lower grades of white collar workers in cash something has disappeared from the world - the "wages snatch" where criminals would rob the (weekly, entirely predictable) delivery of cash to factories.

When did that end in various places?

My first paying job was a council sports arena groundskeeping one, in the summer school vacation. They wired directly to bank account; and this was ~1985.   Next one (early 90s) was initially a bit ancient in style; we got cheques once a month (Weekly wages haven't been a thing here since the 1930s; the unions fought it  and got monthly payments instead.)  but over the course of perhaps two years they migrated to wiring money too. Since then, everyone, even the company who tried to pay me without the taxman knowing, have used wire transfers. 

[Cerebus]

mnem
Anybody know where I can get a decent carrot cake...? you know, like with actual flavor...?

Carrot and cake, two words that never belong in the same sentence.   

I have two words for you: "Lardy cake".

(My mother used to have to bake lardy cake for my father because no bakery in the south of England had even heard of it, let alone sold it.)