Electronics Repair (sci.electronics.repair) Discussion of repairing electronic equipment. Topics include requests for assistance, where to obtain servicing information and parts, techniques for diagnosis and repair, and annecdotes about success, failures and problems.

Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #1   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 5,247
Default Pet hates ?

Great dollops of that white goo between metal to metal thermally conductive
surfaces. Heatsink to metal casing in amplifiers etc. I'm not sure why it is
even necessary with perhaps 20 square inches of contact and bolts between. I
always wipe away with paper etc on first parting but always some gets on my
clothing - I've not worn white lab coats for many a year.


  #2   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 15
Default Pet hates ?

On 1/19/2011 9:54 AM, N_Cook wrote:
Great dollops of that white goo between metal to metal thermally conductive
surfaces. Heatsink to metal casing in amplifiers etc. I'm not sure why it is
even necessary with perhaps 20 square inches of contact and bolts between. I
always wipe away with paper etc on first parting but always some gets on my
clothing - I've not worn white lab coats for many a year.


Heat sink compound is usually very necessary.

One of my pet hates is torx screws with a pin in the center.

  #3   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6,772
Default Pet hates ?



"N_Cook" wrote in message
...
Great dollops of that white goo between metal to metal thermally
conductive
surfaces. Heatsink to metal casing in amplifiers etc. I'm not sure why it
is
even necessary with perhaps 20 square inches of contact and bolts between.
I
always wipe away with paper etc on first parting but always some gets on
my
clothing - I've not worn white lab coats for many a year.



Me and white heatsink goo have a very bad working relationship. I only have
to walk into the workshop when there's something on the bench using it, and
all of a sudden, I'm covered in the rotten stuff, without even going near
the bench. At least it seems that way ... :-\

Arfa

  #4   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 5,247
Default Pet hates ?

Lab1 .@... wrote in message
...
On 1/19/2011 9:54 AM, N_Cook wrote:
Great dollops of that white goo between metal to metal thermally

conductive
surfaces. Heatsink to metal casing in amplifiers etc. I'm not sure why

it is
even necessary with perhaps 20 square inches of contact and bolts

between. I
always wipe away with paper etc on first parting but always some gets on

my
clothing - I've not worn white lab coats for many a year.


Heat sink compound is usually very necessary.

One of my pet hates is torx screws with a pin in the center.



The harware that I always have problems with in the UK , never organised a
stock of, is UNF and UNC nuts and bolts for USA kit. And of course,vice
versa, repairers in USA never have metric (and lesser extent BA) for UK and
Japanese kit


  #5   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 3,833
Default Pet hates ?

Poodles.




  #6   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6,772
Default Pet hates ?



"N_Cook" wrote in message
...
Lab1 .@... wrote in message
...
On 1/19/2011 9:54 AM, N_Cook wrote:
Great dollops of that white goo between metal to metal thermally

conductive
surfaces. Heatsink to metal casing in amplifiers etc. I'm not sure why

it is
even necessary with perhaps 20 square inches of contact and bolts

between. I
always wipe away with paper etc on first parting but always some gets
on

my
clothing - I've not worn white lab coats for many a year.


Heat sink compound is usually very necessary.

One of my pet hates is torx screws with a pin in the center.



The harware that I always have problems with in the UK , never organised a
stock of, is UNF and UNC nuts and bolts for USA kit. And of course,vice
versa, repairers in USA never have metric (and lesser extent BA) for UK
and
Japanese kit



I once got in a lot of trouble with my boss when I was young and worked for
a U.S. based company. At that time, I didn't understand that there was a big
difference between British 'tongue-in-cheek' humour, and the much more
direct U.S. type. I was talking on the phone to one of the designers of a
piece of equipment that we sold here in the UK, and asked the guy if he
could arrange to send me some screws for the cabinet, as they were a thread
that we didn't readily get over here. He asked if I knew exactly what size
they were so I replied, quick as a flash, thinking that I was being funny,
"I guess that they are round about 3/16ths APF." "What's APF ?" the guy
asked. "American **** Fit", said I ...

Stony silence on the phone. Half an hour later, I was summoned to the boss's
office. Apparently, the guy had been really offended by this, thinking that
it was a slur on what he considered to be good American engineering, and had
called my boss to complain about me. Just goes to show how easily offence
can be caused between nations, even when they speak what's basically the
same language ... :-)

Arfa

  #7   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 15
Default Pet hates ?

On 1/19/2011 1:00 PM, Arfa Daily wrote:

I once got in a lot of trouble with my boss when I was young and worked
for a U.S. based company. At that time, I didn't understand that there
was a big difference between British 'tongue-in-cheek' humour, and the
much more direct U.S. type. I was talking on the phone to one of the
designers of a piece of equipment that we sold here in the UK, and asked
the guy if he could arrange to send me some screws for the cabinet, as
they were a thread that we didn't readily get over here. He asked if I
knew exactly what size they were so I replied, quick as a flash,
thinking that I was being funny, "I guess that they are round about
3/16ths APF." "What's APF ?" the guy asked. "American **** Fit", said I ...

Stony silence on the phone. Half an hour later, I was summoned to the
boss's office. Apparently, the guy had been really offended by this,
thinking that it was a slur on what he considered to be good American
engineering, and had called my boss to complain about me. Just goes to
show how easily offence can be caused between nations, even when they
speak what's basically the same language ... :-)


While on vacation in the Dominican Republic we ran into a really nice
group from the UK who were there for a wedding. We would hang out and
talk with them down at the in-pool bar almost every evening. I never
quite got used to them asking me to bum a fag. I'm from the US and I
smoke cigarettes, not fags.

--
-Scott

  #8   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 3,833
Default Pet hates ?

I once got in a lot of trouble with my boss when I was young and worked
for
a U.S. based company. At that time, I didn't understand that there was a

big
difference between British 'tongue-in-cheek' humour, and the much more
direct U.S. type. I was talking on the phone to one of the designers of a
piece of equipment that we sold here in the UK, and asked the guy if he
could arrange to send me some screws for the cabinet, as they were a

thread
that we didn't readily get over here. He asked if I knew exactly what size
they were so I replied, quick as a flash, thinking that I was being funny,
"I guess that they are round about 3/16ths APF." "What's APF ?" the guy
asked. "American **** Fit", said I ...


Stony silence on the phone. Half an hour later, I was summoned to the

boss's
office. Apparently, the guy had been really offended by this, thinking

that
it was a slur on what he considered to be good American engineering, and

had
called my boss to complain about me. Just goes to show how easily offence
can be caused between nations, even when they speak what's basically the
same language ... :-)


It's hard /not/ to interpret such a description as an intentional insult. I
can't imagine what it actually means -- in any innocuous sense, anyway.


  #9   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 667
Default Pet hates ?

On Wed, 19 Jan 2011 14:54:35 +0000, N_Cook wrote:

Great dollops of that white goo between metal to metal thermally
conductive surfaces. Heatsink to metal casing in amplifiers etc. I'm not
sure why it is even necessary with perhaps 20 square inches of contact
and bolts between. I always wipe away with paper etc on first parting
but always some gets on my clothing - I've not worn white lab coats for
many a year.


Overuse of that stuff is worse for thermal conductivity than none at all.
I've clean up gobs of it since they started using it decades ago.



--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse
  #10   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 12,924
Default Pet hates ?


Lab1 wrote:

On 1/19/2011 9:54 AM, N_Cook wrote:
Great dollops of that white goo between metal to metal thermally conductive
surfaces. Heatsink to metal casing in amplifiers etc. I'm not sure why it is
even necessary with perhaps 20 square inches of contact and bolts between. I
always wipe away with paper etc on first parting but always some gets on my
clothing - I've not worn white lab coats for many a year.


Heat sink compound is usually very necessary.

One of my pet hates is torx screws with a pin in the center.



Can't afford $5 for a set of security bits?


--
You can't fix stupid. You can't even put a band-aid on it, because it's
Teflon coated.


  #11   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 12,924
Default Pet hates ?


William Sommerwerck wrote:

Poodles.


Puddles. Under Poodles. ;-)


--
You can't fix stupid. You can't even put a band-aid on it, because it's
Teflon coated.
  #12   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 15
Default Pet hates ?

On 1/19/2011 2:50 PM, Michael A. Terrell wrote:

Lab1 wrote:

On 1/19/2011 9:54 AM, N_Cook wrote:
Great dollops of that white goo between metal to metal thermally conductive
surfaces. Heatsink to metal casing in amplifiers etc. I'm not sure why it is
even necessary with perhaps 20 square inches of contact and bolts between. I
always wipe away with paper etc on first parting but always some gets on my
clothing - I've not worn white lab coats for many a year.


Heat sink compound is usually very necessary.

One of my pet hates is torx screws with a pin in the center.



Can't afford $5 for a set of security bits?


Yes, but given the frequency that I run into those I find my punch set
and hammer tend to do the trick - security torx to just torx!


--
-Scott
  #13   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 15
Default Pet hates ?

On 1/19/2011 2:25 PM, Meat Plow wrote:

Great dollops of that white goo between metal to metal thermally
conductive surfaces.


Overuse of that stuff is worse for thermal conductivity than none at all.
I've clean up gobs of it since they started using it decades ago.


This is something I'm currently wondering about. I have a fridge-like
thermo-electric cooler than has two sections, top and bottom, with
different temperatures. The top suddenly stopped getting cool at all, so
I took it apart to figure out why. The fans and voltages were all there
so I broke down the heat sinks on the bad one to get to the Peltier
device. With it isolated, I powered it up briefly and much to my
surprise the Peltier device got hot real quickly with the opposite side
getting cooler. So the device works, it has to be something with the
heat sinks?
They did use white goop on both sides, but very little and it was
already dried. The heat sinks are milled flat where they make contact
with the Peltier device, so my thinking is they need new goop.
Looking around I found that Star heat sink compound is about the best
you can get, so I ordered some. It just arrived the other day so I'm
planning to clean up the old goop, put on some new goop and hope for the
best. I don't think too much would be an issue in this case, I want it
as cold as possible.





--
-Scott
  #14   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 12,924
Default Pet hates ?


Lab1 wrote:

On 1/19/2011 2:50 PM, Michael A. Terrell wrote:

Lab1 wrote:

On 1/19/2011 9:54 AM, N_Cook wrote:
Great dollops of that white goo between metal to metal thermally conductive
surfaces. Heatsink to metal casing in amplifiers etc. I'm not sure why it is
even necessary with perhaps 20 square inches of contact and bolts between. I
always wipe away with paper etc on first parting but always some gets on my
clothing - I've not worn white lab coats for many a year.

Heat sink compound is usually very necessary.

One of my pet hates is torx screws with a pin in the center.



Can't afford $5 for a set of security bits?


Yes, but given the frequency that I run into those I find my punch set
and hammer tend to do the trick - security torx to just torx!



As long as there is no liability involved. If someone else opens it
with a 'just torx' tool and is hurt or killed, you could be sued. I
just carry the security tools in my toolbox and and ready for a loot of
different hardware. I even keep Posidrive in the same toolbox.


--
You can't fix stupid. You can't even put a band-aid on it, because it's
Teflon coated.
  #15   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,017
Default Pet hates ?

On Jan 19, 6:54*am, "N_Cook" wrote:
Great dollops of that white goo between metal to metal thermally conductive
surfaces.


Worse, hotmelt glue or cyanoacrylate on a solder joint. Hit it with
the iron,
and the tip seems like it'll NEVER get clean again.


  #16   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 15
Default Pet hates ?

On 1/19/2011 5:05 PM, whit3rd wrote:
On Jan 19, 6:54 am, wrote:
Great dollops of that white goo between metal to metal thermally conductive
surfaces.


Worse, hotmelt glue or cyanoacrylate on a solder joint. Hit it with
the iron,
and the tip seems like it'll NEVER get clean again.


Oh yeah, GM delco car radios, IMPOSSIBLE to work on those circuit boards
due to some resin/glue coating on everything.

--
-Scott
  #17   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,716
Default Pet hates ?


"Nutcase Kook "

Great dollops of that white goo between metal to metal thermally
conductive
surfaces. Heatsink to metal casing in amplifiers etc. I'm not sure why it
is
even necessary with perhaps 20 square inches of contact and bolts between.



** Err - because there are always large areas between fasteners that have
air gaps.

I always wipe away with paper etc on first parting but always some gets on
my
clothing



** When you separate the metal parts - cover them both with " Glad Wrap".

It later peels off easily and leaves almost all the white grease behind.

Anyone here remember the Bose 1800 /1801 amplifiers ??

Discovered this trick when servicing those horrible POS.



...... Phil


  #18   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
Ron Ron is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 314
Default Pet hates ?

On 19/01/2011 23:05, Phil Allison wrote:


Anyone here remember the Bose 1800 /1801 amplifiers ??


Remember them! I've still got one, still works too. Not that I would use
it for anything other than a door stop mind.

Ron
  #19   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 142
Default Pet hates ?

On Wed, 19 Jan 2011 16:39:09 -0000, N_Cook wrote:

The harware that I always have problems with in the UK , never organised a
stock of, is UNF and UNC nuts and bolts for USA kit. And of course,vice
versa, repairers in USA never have metric (and lesser extent BA) for UK and
Japanese kit


Here in the colonies, whenever I have a piece of unrepairable Made in
Japan, Made in Tiawan, Made in Korea kit, or Made in China POS that is
going to the landfill, I use some of my 'mental health' time to
disassemble the thing and toss all the screws, nuts, washers, shaft nuts
and washers, etc. into a bank of 'metric' jelly jars.
WFM

Jonesy
--
Marvin L Jones | jonz | W3DHJ | linux
38.24N 104.55W | @ config.com | Jonesy | OS/2
* Killfiling google & XXXXbanter.com: jonz.net/ng.htm
  #20   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6,772
Default Pet hates ?



"William Sommerwerck" wrote in message
...
I once got in a lot of trouble with my boss when I was young and worked

for
a U.S. based company. At that time, I didn't understand that there was a

big
difference between British 'tongue-in-cheek' humour, and the much more
direct U.S. type. I was talking on the phone to one of the designers of a
piece of equipment that we sold here in the UK, and asked the guy if he
could arrange to send me some screws for the cabinet, as they were a

thread
that we didn't readily get over here. He asked if I knew exactly what
size
they were so I replied, quick as a flash, thinking that I was being
funny,
"I guess that they are round about 3/16ths APF." "What's APF ?" the guy
asked. "American **** Fit", said I ...


Stony silence on the phone. Half an hour later, I was summoned to the

boss's
office. Apparently, the guy had been really offended by this, thinking

that
it was a slur on what he considered to be good American engineering, and

had
called my boss to complain about me. Just goes to show how easily offence
can be caused between nations, even when they speak what's basically the
same language ... :-)


It's hard /not/ to interpret such a description as an intentional insult.
I
can't imagine what it actually means -- in any innocuous sense, anyway.



There ya go then ! Anyone from the UK would see it as a quick-fire
throw-away line, and would laugh at it. It's sort of intended to be
'barbed', but not in a malicious way. It's a very hard to describe form of
humour that is quite prevalent over here.

Arfa



  #21   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 36
Default Pet hates ?


"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
...


"William Sommerwerck" wrote in message
...
I once got in a lot of trouble with my boss when I was young and worked

for
a U.S. based company. At that time, I didn't understand that there was a

big
difference between British 'tongue-in-cheek' humour, and the much more
direct U.S. type. I was talking on the phone to one of the designers of
a
piece of equipment that we sold here in the UK, and asked the guy if he
could arrange to send me some screws for the cabinet, as they were a

thread
that we didn't readily get over here. He asked if I knew exactly what
size
they were so I replied, quick as a flash, thinking that I was being
funny,
"I guess that they are round about 3/16ths APF." "What's APF ?" the guy
asked. "American **** Fit", said I ...


Stony silence on the phone. Half an hour later, I was summoned to the

boss's
office. Apparently, the guy had been really offended by this, thinking

that
it was a slur on what he considered to be good American engineering, and

had
called my boss to complain about me. Just goes to show how easily
offence
can be caused between nations, even when they speak what's basically the
same language ... :-)


It's hard /not/ to interpret such a description as an intentional insult.
I
can't imagine what it actually means -- in any innocuous sense, anyway.



There ya go then ! Anyone from the UK would see it as a quick-fire
throw-away line, and would laugh at it. It's sort of intended to be
'barbed', but not in a malicious way. It's a very hard to describe form of
humour that is quite prevalent over here.

Arfa



We have that kind of humor in the US too.. But only amongst friends or
people you know fairly well. If a stranger uses sharp humor with me (some
do) and It gives the feeling of you dont know me well enough to be poking
humor at me, and we also usually take the fact there is ususaly truth in
humor.. And honestly you probaly think the US standards are idioic and
stupid to still be using when the rest of the world is using the metric
system. Thats the feeling I get here in Japan at least. People cant
understand why the US uses the old system still.

Anyhow.. Just my $0.02

  #22   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 36
Default Pet hates ?


"Lab1" .@... wrote in message
...
On 1/19/2011 2:25 PM, Meat Plow wrote:

Great dollops of that white goo between metal to metal thermally
conductive surfaces.


Overuse of that stuff is worse for thermal conductivity than none at all.
I've clean up gobs of it since they started using it decades ago.


This is something I'm currently wondering about. I have a fridge-like
thermo-electric cooler than has two sections, top and bottom, with
different temperatures. The top suddenly stopped getting cool at all, so I
took it apart to figure out why. The fans and voltages were all there so I
broke down the heat sinks on the bad one to get to the Peltier device.
With it isolated, I powered it up briefly and much to my surprise the
Peltier device got hot real quickly with the opposite side getting cooler.
So the device works, it has to be something with the heat sinks?
They did use white goop on both sides, but very little and it was already
dried. The heat sinks are milled flat where they make contact with the
Peltier device, so my thinking is they need new goop.
Looking around I found that Star heat sink compound is about the best you
can get, so I ordered some. It just arrived the other day so I'm planning
to clean up the old goop, put on some new goop and hope for the best. I
don't think too much would be an issue in this case, I want it as cold as
possible.





--
-Scott




Too much of the stuff will be a problem whether you are trying to heat or
cool. I have some major doubts that a thin coating of that stuff would be
enough to make any major difference in the performance of peteler junction.
Now on the other hand, if the heatsink is loose... That could give you some
real issues.

  #23   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 379
Default Pet hates ?

In article ,
Michael Kennedy mike@com wrote:

They did use white goop on both sides, but very little and it was already
dried. The heat sinks are milled flat where they make contact with the
Peltier device, so my thinking is they need new goop.


Too much of the stuff will be a problem whether you are trying to heat or
cool. I have some major doubts that a thin coating of that stuff would be
enough to make any major difference in the performance of peteler junction.
Now on the other hand, if the heatsink is loose... That could give you some
real issues.


Michael is quite correct.

The thing about heatsink compound, is that you should only use a
*very* thin layer, and use it between surfaces which are already flat
and well-fitting. Adding a thicker layer of heatsink compound than is
necessary, will actually reduce thermal conductivity.

You want as much direct metal-to-metal or metal-to-ceramic contact as
you can get - enthusiasts who "overclock" their PCs will often flatten
and polish the top of the CPU and the bottom of the heatsink to
increase direct contact. A *thin* smear of heatsink compound is
appropriate... just enough to fill the remaining gaps between the
heatsink and the heat-sunk :-). You almost want to smear it on, and
then wipe most of it off gently with a single-edged razor blade, so
that there is no excess buildup between the two surfaces.

And, yes, if the heatsink actually comes loose from the Peltier
junction (e.g. if it was originally spring-clipped in place, and the
clips are loose or have fatigued and lost pressure) then you've got
problems... you'll get a layer of air between the two surfaces, and
thermal conductivity will become quite poor. Adding a thicker layer
of goop to try to fill the gap isn't the right thing to do - instead,
fix whatever caused the devices to become loose, clean the surfaces,
reapply a *thin* layer of compound, and secure the devices back
together with the proper amount of pressure.

If there was (apparently) nothing holding the two surfaces together -
no clips or retainers - then you're probably dealing with a "thermally
conductive adhesive". Some of these are good, some are poor... and
you'll have to strip off all of the remains, and then reapply (again)
a very thin layer of a suitable thermal adhesive, and fasten the parts
back together with appropriate pressure until the adhesive cures.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!
  #24   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 5,247
Default Pet hates ?

Michael Kennedy mike@com wrote in message
...

"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
...


"William Sommerwerck" wrote in message
...
I once got in a lot of trouble with my boss when I was young and

worked
for
a U.S. based company. At that time, I didn't understand that there was

a
big
difference between British 'tongue-in-cheek' humour, and the much more
direct U.S. type. I was talking on the phone to one of the designers

of
a
piece of equipment that we sold here in the UK, and asked the guy if

he
could arrange to send me some screws for the cabinet, as they were a
thread
that we didn't readily get over here. He asked if I knew exactly what
size
they were so I replied, quick as a flash, thinking that I was being
funny,
"I guess that they are round about 3/16ths APF." "What's APF ?" the

guy
asked. "American **** Fit", said I ...

Stony silence on the phone. Half an hour later, I was summoned to the
boss's
office. Apparently, the guy had been really offended by this, thinking
that
it was a slur on what he considered to be good American engineering,

and
had
called my boss to complain about me. Just goes to show how easily
offence
can be caused between nations, even when they speak what's basically

the
same language ... :-)

It's hard /not/ to interpret such a description as an intentional

insult.
I
can't imagine what it actually means -- in any innocuous sense, anyway.



There ya go then ! Anyone from the UK would see it as a quick-fire
throw-away line, and would laugh at it. It's sort of intended to be
'barbed', but not in a malicious way. It's a very hard to describe form

of
humour that is quite prevalent over here.

Arfa



We have that kind of humor in the US too.. But only amongst friends or
people you know fairly well. If a stranger uses sharp humor with me (some
do) and It gives the feeling of you dont know me well enough to be poking
humor at me, and we also usually take the fact there is ususaly truth in
humor.. And honestly you probaly think the US standards are idioic and
stupid to still be using when the rest of the world is using the metric
system. Thats the feeling I get here in Japan at least. People cant
understand why the US uses the old system still.

Anyhow.. Just my $0.02



I got the impression that was where Ricky Gervaise went wrong, last week, at
the latest Hollywood bash


  #25   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 117
Default Pet hates ?

Packing peanuts.

Probe slips.

People begging me to work on stuff which I used to turn away, but now have
to take in because business is slow.

Mark Z.



  #26   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6,772
Default Pet hates ?



"Michael Kennedy" mike@com wrote in message
...

"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
...


"William Sommerwerck" wrote in message
...
I once got in a lot of trouble with my boss when I was young and worked
for
a U.S. based company. At that time, I didn't understand that there was
a
big
difference between British 'tongue-in-cheek' humour, and the much more
direct U.S. type. I was talking on the phone to one of the designers of
a
piece of equipment that we sold here in the UK, and asked the guy if he
could arrange to send me some screws for the cabinet, as they were a
thread
that we didn't readily get over here. He asked if I knew exactly what
size
they were so I replied, quick as a flash, thinking that I was being
funny,
"I guess that they are round about 3/16ths APF." "What's APF ?" the
guy
asked. "American **** Fit", said I ...

Stony silence on the phone. Half an hour later, I was summoned to the
boss's
office. Apparently, the guy had been really offended by this, thinking
that
it was a slur on what he considered to be good American engineering,
and
had
called my boss to complain about me. Just goes to show how easily
offence
can be caused between nations, even when they speak what's basically
the
same language ... :-)

It's hard /not/ to interpret such a description as an intentional
insult. I
can't imagine what it actually means -- in any innocuous sense, anyway.



There ya go then ! Anyone from the UK would see it as a quick-fire
throw-away line, and would laugh at it. It's sort of intended to be
'barbed', but not in a malicious way. It's a very hard to describe form
of humour that is quite prevalent over here.

Arfa



We have that kind of humor in the US too.. But only amongst friends or
people you know fairly well. If a stranger uses sharp humor with me (some
do) and It gives the feeling of you dont know me well enough to be poking
humor at me, and we also usually take the fact there is ususaly truth in
humor.. And honestly you probaly think the US standards are idioic and
stupid to still be using when the rest of the world is using the metric
system. Thats the feeling I get here in Japan at least. People cant
understand why the US uses the old system still.

Anyhow.. Just my $0.02


Yes. Knowing the U.S. and its people much better now, as I tend to visit
twice a year and have now for many years, I would say that was pretty much
spot on. Although I've found that American people are much more friendly in
general to strangers, than people over here are, I also find that they are
much more 'reserved' in actually getting to know them as a friend. Here in
the UK, if you are just in the same business as one another, you tend to
automatically think in terms of communicating with a 'kindred spirit'. So
even on a first contact with someone, if you appear within a few sentences
to be speaking the same language, it becomes quite acceptable to introduce a
degree of 'chuminess' into the conversation such as calling the person
'mate' and such-like. Barbed humour between you is then immediately
accepted, and is likely to get thrown back at you by the other person, and
often gets deflected onto the company that you, or the other person works
for. Having made the 'APF' comment to the guy, in my naivety, I was
expecting him to just throw back a similar comment like " so what, then ?
Your British threads are better than ours, are they ? :-) "

Like I say, easy to cause unintentional offence, if you are not familiar
with the country, and it's people and their cultural differences, even if
they appear to speak the same basic language. Many countries in Europe speak
English as a second language. If you speak it to a German for instance, in
general, he will not understand British humour. Not likely to be offended by
it. Just won't understand it. A Frenchman, will understand it, and be
offended - or at least pretend to be ... OTOH, a Dutchman will both
understand the humour, and give back as good as he gets. They seem to have a
very 'English' understanding of the English language. I don't know why that
should be, but I was once told by a Dutch guy that I had dealings with, that
it was because they easily received UK television over there, so tended to
watch a lot of British made drama and comedy programmes. I wonder if this
will change now analogue TV is almost now all gone. I bet that they don't
receive the digital multiplexes across the water, anything like as well as
they did the high power analongue transmissions. Any Dutch people reading
this care to comment ?

Arfa

  #27   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
JW JW is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 519
Default Pet hates ?

On Thu, 20 Jan 2011 05:29:16 -0600 "Mark Zacharias"
wrote in Message id:
om:

Packing peanuts.


There's a good one. Especially when the humidity is very low, and the
peanuts are all broken up in pieces!
  #28   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 12,924
Default Pet hates ?


JW wrote:

On Thu, 20 Jan 2011 05:29:16 -0600 "Mark Zacharias"
wrote in Message id:
om:

Packing peanuts.


There's a good one. Especially when the humidity is very low, and the
peanuts are all broken up in pieces!



Low humidity is rarely a problem in Florida.


--
You can't fix stupid. You can't even put a band-aid on it, because it's
Teflon coated.
  #29   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 3,833
Default Pet hates ?

It's hard /not/ to interpret such a description as an intentional
insult. I can't imagine what it actually means -- in any innocuous
sense, anyway.


There ya go then!


Please don't semi-quote Ronald Reagan. It's not becoming.

If I'd been in a debate with Ronnie, and he'd pulled that "There you go,
again" crap with me, I would have ripped him a new one, even if it cost me
the election.

(This is way OT, but remember last year when Barney Frank ripped into a
stupid woman who was griping about Obama being Moslem? I was proud to be
queer. If all politicians -- conservative or liberal -- were that
intelligent and quick witted, the level of political discourse in this
country would be at a much higher level.)


Anyone from the UK would see it as a quick-fire throw-away
line, and would laugh at it. It's sort of intended to be 'barbed',
but not in a malicious way. It's a very hard to describe form
of humour that is quite prevalent over here.


I admire someone who can come up with quick throw-aways -- but unless they
make them all the time, it's hard to tell they're supposed to be humorous.

I offended people with "innocuous" wisecracks so many times that I gradually
became careful about what I said. A word to the wise...?

If you cut yourself on barbed wire -- you're cut, regardless of how you came
in contact with the wire.


  #30   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 15
Default Pet hates ?

On 1/20/2011 2:03 AM, Dave Platt wrote:

And, yes, if the heatsink actually comes loose from the Peltier
junction (e.g. if it was originally spring-clipped in place, and the
clips are loose or have fatigued and lost pressure) then you've got
problems... you'll get a layer of air between the two surfaces, and
thermal conductivity will become quite poor. Adding a thicker layer
of goop to try to fill the gap isn't the right thing to do - instead,
fix whatever caused the devices to become loose, clean the surfaces,
reapply a *thin* layer of compound, and secure the devices back
together with the proper amount of pressure.


I agree. The assembly goes like this:
Small heat sink (cold side) - square plastic gasket with embedded rubber
seal that doesn't physically touch anything - square block of Styrofoam
with a square cutout in the middle - Peltier device - foam tape around
the styrofoam - large heat sink. To screws go through everything on
either side of the Peltier to sandwich it all together.
And oddly they hot-glued the ends of the screws and nuts.

This is obviously made in China, everything is pretty crudely
manufactured and assembled, heat sink fins were mashed together in
spots. I didn't think to check the tightness of those two screws when I
took it apart, but I bet you are right and they weren't nearly tight
enough. I'm going to rebuild the 2nd one while I'm at it and will check
the tightness after I pry off all the hot glue...


--
-Scott


  #31   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 100
Default Pet hates ?

On Wed, 19 Jan 2011 18:00:17 -0000, "Arfa Daily"
wrote:



"N_Cook" wrote in message
...
Lab1 .@... wrote in message
...
On 1/19/2011 9:54 AM, N_Cook wrote:
Great dollops of that white goo between metal to metal thermally

conductive
surfaces. Heatsink to metal casing in amplifiers etc. I'm not sure why

it is
even necessary with perhaps 20 square inches of contact and bolts

between. I
always wipe away with paper etc on first parting but always some gets
on

my
clothing - I've not worn white lab coats for many a year.

Heat sink compound is usually very necessary.

One of my pet hates is torx screws with a pin in the center.



The harware that I always have problems with in the UK , never organised a
stock of, is UNF and UNC nuts and bolts for USA kit. And of course,vice
versa, repairers in USA never have metric (and lesser extent BA) for UK
and
Japanese kit



I once got in a lot of trouble with my boss when I was young and worked for
a U.S. based company. At that time, I didn't understand that there was a big
difference between British 'tongue-in-cheek' humour, and the much more
direct U.S. type. I was talking on the phone to one of the designers of a
piece of equipment that we sold here in the UK, and asked the guy if he
could arrange to send me some screws for the cabinet, as they were a thread
that we didn't readily get over here. He asked if I knew exactly what size
they were so I replied, quick as a flash, thinking that I was being funny,
"I guess that they are round about 3/16ths APF." "What's APF ?" the guy
asked. "American **** Fit", said I ...

Stony silence on the phone. Half an hour later, I was summoned to the boss's
office. Apparently, the guy had been really offended by this, thinking that
it was a slur on what he considered to be good American engineering, and had
called my boss to complain about me. Just goes to show how easily offence
can be caused between nations, even when they speak what's basically the
same language ... :-)

Arfa



I think it matters in what part of the U.S. this person resided. I'm
originally from the North East and humor that would be considered mild
there is considered a great affront to some people in the South.
However, racist remarks, that I find offensive, don't seem to bother
their delicate constitutions. Chuck
  #32   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 78
Default Pet hates ?


"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
...


"Michael Kennedy" mike@com wrote in message
...

"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
...


"William Sommerwerck" wrote in message
...
I once got in a lot of trouble with my boss when I was young and
worked
for
a U.S. based company. At that time, I didn't understand that there was
a
big
difference between British 'tongue-in-cheek' humour, and the much more
direct U.S. type. I was talking on the phone to one of the designers
of a
piece of equipment that we sold here in the UK, and asked the guy if
he
could arrange to send me some screws for the cabinet, as they were a
thread
that we didn't readily get over here. He asked if I knew exactly what
size
they were so I replied, quick as a flash, thinking that I was being
funny,
"I guess that they are round about 3/16ths APF." "What's APF ?" the
guy
asked. "American **** Fit", said I ...

Stony silence on the phone. Half an hour later, I was summoned to the
boss's
office. Apparently, the guy had been really offended by this, thinking
that
it was a slur on what he considered to be good American engineering,
and
had
called my boss to complain about me. Just goes to show how easily
offence
can be caused between nations, even when they speak what's basically
the
same language ... :-)

It's hard /not/ to interpret such a description as an intentional
insult. I
can't imagine what it actually means -- in any innocuous sense, anyway.



There ya go then ! Anyone from the UK would see it as a quick-fire
throw-away line, and would laugh at it. It's sort of intended to be
'barbed', but not in a malicious way. It's a very hard to describe form
of humour that is quite prevalent over here.

Arfa



We have that kind of humor in the US too.. But only amongst friends or
people you know fairly well. If a stranger uses sharp humor with me (some
do) and It gives the feeling of you dont know me well enough to be poking
humor at me, and we also usually take the fact there is ususaly truth in
humor.. And honestly you probaly think the US standards are idioic and
stupid to still be using when the rest of the world is using the metric
system. Thats the feeling I get here in Japan at least. People cant
understand why the US uses the old system still.

Anyhow.. Just my $0.02


Yes. Knowing the U.S. and its people much better now, as I tend to visit
twice a year and have now for many years, I would say that was pretty much
spot on. Although I've found that American people are much more friendly
in general to strangers, than people over here are, I also find that they
are much more 'reserved' in actually getting to know them as a friend.
Here in the UK, if you are just in the same business as one another, you
tend to automatically think in terms of communicating with a 'kindred
spirit'. So even on a first contact with someone, if you appear within a
few sentences to be speaking the same language, it becomes quite
acceptable to introduce a degree of 'chuminess' into the conversation such
as calling the person 'mate' and such-like. Barbed humour between you is
then immediately accepted, and is likely to get thrown back at you by the
other person, and often gets deflected onto the company that you, or the
other person works for. Having made the 'APF' comment to the guy, in my
naivety, I was expecting him to just throw back a similar comment like "
so what, then ? Your British threads are better than ours, are they ? :-)
"

Like I say, easy to cause unintentional offence, if you are not familiar
with the country, and it's people and their cultural differences, even if
they appear to speak the same basic language. Many countries in Europe
speak English as a second language. If you speak it to a German for
instance, in general, he will not understand British humour. Not likely to
be offended by it. Just won't understand it. A Frenchman, will understand
it, and be offended - or at least pretend to be ... OTOH, a Dutchman will
both understand the humour, and give back as good as he gets. They seem to
have a very 'English' understanding of the English language. I don't know
why that should be, but I was once told by a Dutch guy that I had dealings
with, that it was because they easily received UK television over there,
so tended to watch a lot of British made drama and comedy programmes. I
wonder if this will change now analogue TV is almost now all gone. I bet
that they don't receive the digital multiplexes across the water, anything
like as well as they did the high power analongue transmissions. Any Dutch
people reading this care to comment ?

Arfa



Its actually funny the fact that we speak almost the same language. Although
I am an American, I currently live in Japan. The fact our languages are so
different, provides some kind of cushion for misinterpretations, well
usually.. I try to take things people say without getting offended, even if
they seem to be offensive in English. I understand that there is a language
barrier and also a culture barrier. Many people mutually understand that
when I am talking to them in Japanese as well.

So my point is we are so alike, Brittish and Americans, that we assume that
nothing is different..

Mike


  #33   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 43,017
Default Pet hates ?

In article ,
N_Cook wrote:
The harware that I always have problems with in the UK , never organised
a stock of, is UNF and UNC nuts and bolts for USA kit.


Have a look in a classic car mag. A few companies sell selections of UNF
and UNC nuts and bolts. Or sell individually.

--
*Proofread carefully to see if you any words out or mispeld something *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.
  #34   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 5,247
Default Pet hates ?

Dave Plowman (News) wrote in message
...
In article ,
N_Cook wrote:
The harware that I always have problems with in the UK , never organised
a stock of, is UNF and UNC nuts and bolts for USA kit.


Have a look in a classic car mag. A few companies sell selections of UNF
and UNC nuts and bolts. Or sell individually.

--
*Proofread carefully to see if you any words out or mispeld something *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.



This is a useful resource near me, stainless steel only and tend to be
larger sizes.
One man band , now internet only but no minimum order so worth bookmarking.
http://www.a2a4.com/acatalog/
Last time I talked to him, late 2010, he mentioned he was starting a range
of "classic car" nuts and bolts , whatever that is, cannot find mention on
his site though



  #35   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 43,017
Default Pet hates ?

In article ,
N_Cook wrote:
Last time I talked to him, late 2010, he mentioned he was starting a
range of "classic car" nuts and bolts , whatever that is, cannot find
mention on his site though


In the UK, modern cars use metric threads. Ones from about after WW2 to
the '80s mainly UNF and UNC. Pre WW2 BSW and BSF. BA was common for
electrical stuff.

A classic car is really just any which isn't recent and not defined under
the strict headings of vintage etc. It isn't restricted to any make - just
over 20 years old. Although that age isn't agreed by everyone.

--
*Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.


  #36   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
Ron Ron is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 314
Default Pet hates ?

On 21/01/2011 10:13, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In ,
wrote:
Last time I talked to him, late 2010, he mentioned he was starting a
range of "classic car" nuts and bolts , whatever that is, cannot find
mention on his site though


In the UK, modern cars use metric threads. Ones from about after WW2 to
the '80s mainly UNF and UNC. Pre WW2 BSW and BSF. BA was common for
electrical stuff.

A classic car is really just any which isn't recent and not defined under
the strict headings of vintage etc. It isn't restricted to any make - just
over 20 years old. Although that age isn't agreed by everyone.

Frosts carry an impressive range of useful bits and bobs for the
classic car restorer, their free catalogue is a good read

http://www.frost.co.uk

Ron
  #37   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 5,247
Default Pet hates ?

Dave Plowman (News) wrote in message
...
In article ,
N_Cook wrote:
Last time I talked to him, late 2010, he mentioned he was starting a
range of "classic car" nuts and bolts , whatever that is, cannot find
mention on his site though


In the UK, modern cars use metric threads. Ones from about after WW2 to
the '80s mainly UNF and UNC. Pre WW2 BSW and BSF. BA was common for
electrical stuff.

A classic car is really just any which isn't recent and not defined under
the strict headings of vintage etc. It isn't restricted to any make - just
over 20 years old. Although that age isn't agreed by everyone.

--
*Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.




In the UK it probably means BSF and BSW threads perhaps brass or cyclo as
well


  #38   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
b b is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 764
Default Pet hates ?

On Jan 20, 2:38*pm, Lab1 .@... wrote:

This is obviously made in China, everything is pretty crudely
manufactured and assembled,


Most consumer electronics stuff these days is made in China! From low
end kit to decent, so you can't generalise that something made in
China is automatically shoddy.
Although a fair proportion is indeed cheap and disposable, that is the
case because they are responding to a demand. They only supply what
the west is prepared to pay for anyway!

Pet hates: excessive amounts of screws holding covers of TVs etc.
together. this seems to have got worse with flat panels.Often you
spend as much /more time assembling and re-asembling than the repair!

-B

  #39   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 12,924
Default Pet hates ?


b wrote:

On Jan 20, 2:38 pm, Lab1 .@... wrote:

This is obviously made in China, everything is pretty crudely
manufactured and assembled,


Most consumer electronics stuff these days is made in China! From low
end kit to decent, so you can't generalise that something made in
China is automatically shoddy.
Although a fair proportion is indeed cheap and disposable, that is the
case because they are responding to a demand. They only supply what
the west is prepared to pay for anyway!

Pet hates: excessive amounts of screws holding covers of TVs etc.
together. this seems to have got worse with flat panels.Often you
spend as much /more time assembling and re-asembling than the repair!



Some large color TV consoles built in the '60s had 20 to 30 screws.


--
You can't fix stupid. You can't even put a band-aid on it, because it's
Teflon coated.
  #40   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 25
Default Pet hates ?

Lab1 wrote:


I'm from the US and I smoke cigarettes, not fags.


Michael Terrell's from the US and he smokes fags, not cigarettes.
Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules

Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
OT - Spinning yourself a legacy when everyone hates you.... Wes[_2_] Metalworking 1 January 4th 09 03:29 AM
OT - Spinning yourself a legacy when everyone hates you.... Wes[_2_] Metalworking 3 January 4th 09 03:28 AM
OT - Spinning yourself a legacy when everyone hates you.... Wes[_2_] Metalworking 0 January 4th 09 03:05 AM
OT - Spinning yourself a legacy when everyone hates you.... Wes[_2_] Metalworking 0 January 3rd 09 09:33 PM
OT - Spinning yourself a legacy when everyone hates you.... Wes[_2_] Metalworking 0 January 3rd 09 07:48 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 04:25 PM.

Powered by vBulletin® Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 DIYbanter.
The comments are property of their posters.
 

About Us

"It's about DIY & home improvement"