What Did You Do Today (2017)

[Jon GibbsParticipant @jongibbs59756]

I was inspired by watching one of MrPete222's youtube videos on rust removal and bought some anhydrous citric acid off ebay at £9 for 1kg.

Last night I tried experimenting on some badly rusted parts last night and the results were really impressive. Scrubbed the items with detergent first to remove all oil and grease and then left them in the citric acid solution for a couple of hours and then cleaned lightly with webrax.

Definitely recommended if you haven't tried it.

Jon

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Webrax not heard of that before but it seems to be Scotchbrite equivalent. Learning something everyday. BTW I've still got an 8inch floppy drive must be at least 100k per disc- who needs SSDs.

[Jon GibbsParticipant @jongibbs59756]

Posted by Bazyle on 09/02/2017 13:29:33:

Webrax not heard of that before but it seems to be Scotchbrite equivalent.

Yes – sorry. I perhaps should have used the more brand neutral – "green pan scrub"

[Martin King 2Participant @martinking2]

Jst finished cleaning up this Sunday's boot sale bargain for £2!

Second small press in a week, really strange as you often don't see them for years. Chuck is really nice with good springs, not sure ifit is home made, no makers marks anywhere.

Cheers,

Martin

[MikeParticipant @mike89748]

Rik and Cornish Jack: In the mid 1980s I just had to have a 386 computer, so got a long-defunct firm in Watford to build one for me. I begged them to keep the price under £3,000, and they managed it by adding mine to an order they had from British Aerospace. Wow, it had a 40-megabyte hard disk! It ran on Dos 3.3, and, rather than using the poplar Windows, I used Desqview (remember that?) and the British-made Smart suite comprising word processor, spreadsheet, communications package and database. If I remember, Smart cost be over £600, delivered on 15 floppy disks. Wish I had that sort of cash to spend on computers now! I've never built my own.

[Iain DownsParticipant @iaindowns78295]

If that's how it is.

My first PC had a 10 or 25 MB hard disk and I remember wondering how I would ever fill it. I *think* it was Dos with 640K of memory, but not likely to be as late as 3.3 and i remember trying to write windows 2 programs on it at one point. The 16 bit CPU was probable 10MHz.

Some time prior to that I worked for one of many sole importers of the apple II where a PC with 48K of RAM with 1MHz processer and four 140K floppy drives was a giant.

The machine I'm typing this on has 32GB of RAM, the equivalent of 12 x 64 bit CPUs each running at 3.4GHz with around 8TB of (mainly RAID duplicated) Hard drive (some of it SSD).

So 5000 times more RAM, 1200 times the CPU power and nearly a million times more hard disk capacity. than my first machine and at 20 times more than that bigger than the first PCs I worked on. I shake my head in wonder.

I've worked most of the time since my early PC as a freelance and close to the bleeding edge. My PCs have been equally close to the bleeding edge. Until around 8 – 10 years ago a decent PC (Apple II to a Windows desktop) would have cost around a grand and a steaming machine would be 4K – 5K.

Since around that time the prices have dropped in real price so a decent entry level machine is 200 – 300 quid and it's quite hard to spend a lot more than a couple of grand.

Well, I think it's interesting.

Iain

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

I'm still running a 486 on DOS on a weekly basis, works fine once the boiler is stoked

[Anthony KnightsParticipant @anthonyknights16741]

Too cold for the workshop today, so set up a pair of trestles in the conservatory and did a bit of woodwork. The box is to store my circular saw as it's original cardboard box is getting a bit tatty. No fancy joints, just glued and screwed to fillets in the corners.

I now have to prime, undercoat and topcoat with a light sanding in between coats. It could take several days.

All my portable power tools have their own box. Usually a cheap plastic toolbox if they didn't come with their own case. This ensures that all the various bits are kept together and the gremlins can't hide vital parts. I had to make my own this time because of it's awkward shape.

Incidentally, the above photo above was shrunk down to 640 x 480 pixels using an ancient version of Adobe Photoshop, running on a Windows 2000 O.S. The computer itself is 20 years old and was built initially with my sons castoffs when he upgraded his PC.

[WindyParticipant @windy30762]

After that enjoyable few hours talking about speed record engineering with friend Graham yesterday and collecting some more material he got me for the steam machine I have certainly got a project to tax the old brain cells.
But that is the fascination of my sport to create speed machines especially the more unusual.
Here is a few basic bits of what's ahead of me making wire worms and swarth when I'm allowed in the workshop hopefully in about 4 weeks. Hope the old laptop does not go up in smoke when back in hospital as a lot more design problems to solve.
The consultant did mention about my time on it and problems with circulation in my legs so have to alter my seating arrangements..

 

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[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Good on you Windy.

Keep at it.

[john carruthersParticipant @johncarruthers46255]

… and this is what the above spanner is for.
An all stainless telescope mount prototype. It's a modified English mount that can be seen at Astrofest from today.

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

Posted by Windy on 10/02/2017 00:10:11:

After that enjoyable few hours talking about speed record engineering with friend Graham yesterday and collecting some more material he got me for the steam machine I have certainly got a project to tax the old brain cells.
But that is the fascination of my sport to create speed machines especially the more unusual.
Here is a few basic bits of what's ahead of me making wire worms and swarth when I'm allowed in the workshop hopefully in about 4 weeks. Hope the old laptop does not go up in smoke when back in hospital as a lot more design problems to solve.
The consultant did mention about my time on it and problems with circulation in my legs so have to alter my seating arrangements

You need one of those electric hight adjustable desks. They are all going mad on them at work. Flick a switch and you can work standing up.

regards Martin

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Anthony Knights on 09/02/2017 23:02:03:

Incidentally, the above photo above was shrunk down to 640 x 480 pixels using an ancient version of Adobe Photoshop, running on a Windows 2000 O.S. The computer itself is 20 years old and was built initially with my sons castoffs when he upgraded his PC.

You can save straining it's ancient processor – album uploads get automatically resampled to 1024 pixels in the long dimension (to save storage space), and scaled when displayed.,

Neil

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by john carruthers on 10/02/2017 08:13:39:

… and this is what the above spanner is for.
An all stainless telescope mount prototype. It's a modified English mount that can be seen at Astrofest from today.

>drool<

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Martin Kyte on 10/02/2017 09:21:20:

You need one of those electric hight adjustable desks. They are all going mad on them at work. Flick a switch and you can work standing up.

regards Martin

Now I fancy one that would let me work lying down or in the bath

Great update Paul!

[Rick Kirkland 1Participant @rickkirkland1]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 10/02/2017 11:59:33

You can save straining it's ancient processor – album uploads get automatically resampled to 1024 pixels in the long dimension (to save storage space), and scaled when displayed.,

Neil

Good to know that. I can put an album up now without panicking about resizing etc. Thank you Neil.

[SpurryParticipant @spurry]

Another 'nothing' job. A variation on the studs I usually make to hang pictures and such, securely onto the wall.

Pete

[MWParticipant @mw27036]

Posted by Spurry on 10/02/2017 12:31:25:

Another 'nothing' job. A variation on the studs I usually make to hang pictures and such, securely onto the wall.

Pete

Very neatly done.

Michael W

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Rick Kirkland 1 on 10/02/2017 12:18:11:

Good to know that. I can put an album up now without panicking about resizing etc. Thank you Neil.

One gotcha – it will time out if you try to upload several large pictures at once.

Neil

[WindyParticipant @windy30762]

Posted by Windy on 10/02/2017 00:10:11:

After that enjoyable few hours talking about speed record engineering with friend Graham yesterday and collecting some more material he got me for the steam machine I have certainly got a project to tax the old brain cells.
But that is the fascination of my sport to create speed machines especially the more unusual.
Here is a few basic bits of what's ahead of me making wire worms and swarth when I'm allowed in the workshop hopefully in about 4 weeks. Hope the old laptop does not go up in smoke when back in hospital as a lot more design problems to solve.
The consultant did mention about my time on it and problems with circulation in my legs so have to alter my seating arrangements..

 

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I'm a year behind with this project what with heart problems in February 2016 then serious blood disorders but encouragement and friends plus the Windy stubbornness a family thing (Mum and Sister) never give in despite the odds.

What with being taken to Coniston last November then told by two speed freaks while in hospital your off to Pendine Speed week with us a static caravan booked.

My model club PEEMS and the motorcycle top speed lads and lasses have helped me what with hot air engine running in the ward and patients with extremely serious health problems showing me their engineering projects has made my stay in hospital enjoyable despite the serious side.

Here is a couple of links to Coniston and Top Speed meetings.

**LINK**

**LINK**

[Russell EberhardtParticipant @russelleberhardt48058]

Posted by Iain Downs on 09/02/2017 16:53:04:

My first PC had a 10 or 25 MB hard disk and I remember wondering how I would ever fill it.

My first home computer in 1981 was a BBC model A, 8-bit processor running at 2 MHz and 16 kB of RAM. In the last few days I've been playing with a Raspberry Pi 3. It cost just over 1/10 th of the price and comes with a quad 64 bit processor running at 1,200 MHz and 1,000,000 kB of RAM. What can we expect in another 35 year's time?

Russell.

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

Posted by Spurry on 10/02/2017 12:31:25:

Another 'nothing' job. A variation on the studs I usually make to hang pictures and such, securely onto the wall.

Pete

Spurry

A few minutes ago I tidied some bit I had lying in a box at the back of my bench. One item looks just like the 'bobbin' in your picture and its one left over from a batch I made that were the 'fixed hook' part of a small toggle latch. The only difference is that the fixing hole is off centre so the latch tension could be adjusted.

It occurs to me that when hanging some pictures or mirrors that need two fixings, one of them could be eccentric so that the picture could be adjusted level.

Ian P

[SpurryParticipant @spurry]

Posted by Ian Phillips on 10/02/2017 14:45:34:

It occurs to me that when hanging some pictures or mirrors that need two fixings, one of them could be eccentric so that the picture could be adjusted level.

Ian P

Ian

That's a good idea. I'm looking to drill a pair of accurate holes, so I'm hoping not to have to make the eccentric versions. The main problem with those is that as the mirror/picture is levelled the centre/centre distance alters,(inside the brackets).

Pete

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Fitted a Warco DH1 mill vice, not used in anger yet but pleased with it's versatility compared with the old one.

Sharpened some HSS and turned a test bar on my lathe with pleasing results (0,01/0.02 over 100mm). But now I'm thoroughly unhappy with my cheapo DTI.

It's was a little sticky from new and has got markedly worse recently. Is it because my workshop is cold (about 6C today), or should I buy a decent one?

Dave

[RJWParticipant @rjw]

Fairly busy week shifting stuff into my new building despite sub-zero temperatures,
Got the Warco Minor mill cleaned, assembled and operational, just need to tram the bed and pray it's ok,
Treated my recently rebuilt Black and Decker valve refacing machine to its own new stand, and now ready for doing battle on the spare engine for the ailing car, and about halfway through cleaning, repainting and assembling the Myford, called it quits for today now, just too damned cold.

John.

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