On 21 Sep 2013 04:15:09 GMT, "DoN. Nichols"
wrote:

On 2013-09-19, Larry Jaques wrote:
On 18 Sep 2013 21:05:30 GMT, "DoN. Nichols"
wrote:

On 2013-09-18, Larry Jaques wrote:
On 18 Sep 2013 04:22:37 GMT, "DoN. Nichols"
wrote:

[ ... ]

We really should move this to private e-mail, though it is not
nearly as far off topic by now as the political postings are. :-) My
e-mail is sort-of spamproofed, but you can see how to fix it in my .sig
at the bottom (if your newsreader doesn't hide it. :-)

Yeah, let's wrap it up today.


[ ... Crystal oven ... ]

Mine's a bit larger. Roughly 14d x 18w x 20"t. There's a small
padlock hasp on the side and 2 shelves in the middle. The heater was
taken out before I got it, and there is a light bulb socket outside
(lower right near the back) which let you know it was running. I put
a piece of steel over the grommeted 3/4" hole on the top.

O.K. An oven -- and likely a lab oven, but not what I would
call a "crystal oven". (Perhaps the brand was "Crystal"? :-)

Unlabeled. It had been used as a crystal baking oven by the eng dept.
way back, hence the title.

Have a look at eBay auction #111172480292 for an example of what
I was talking about. Figure the diameter to be sort of between a 50 cent
piece and an *old* silver dollar.



The crystals we were using then (for our non-freq-synthesized manpack
radios) were about 1/8" thick by 1/2" wide by 3/4" tall with two 0.040
leads (SWAG) I did QA work so that was _all_ beyond me then (and is
only 60% beyond me now I don't recall the freq at all.


Probably yours was for a very different style of crystal. :-)

Or large production runs?


Just big enough to hammer out a block of katana steel, eh?

Well ... I guess that you could start with that much steel, but
for the subsequent re-heatings, I don't think that it would hold the
growing blade. :-)

Pop the end off, wot?


[ ... ]

That's when you borrow your buddy's lift and do it overhead, while
standing up. Much safer and easier. Shadetree's a bitch.

I don't have a buddy with a lift. At least none close enough to
make it worth while.

I don't either, but there's a duplex up the street where an auto mech
set up and he has a lift in his garage. I need to get to know him,
see what kind of trades I could work out with him for some lift time.
I miss not being able to check over my vehicles to catch things before
they become a fatal problem.

The priorities did not give me time to make friends with someone
who had a lift. :-)

Isn't that the way it always turns out? When things break down in
your driveway, you thank your lucky stars you didn't have to pay for a
$600 tow. (I now have towing insurance through USAA for $16/yr, and
am thankful for never having needed it.)


(And the town probably would not allow a private lift out in the open.

Damned bureaucrats.


Very different. My body has always wanted to be a late hours
person, and once I retired, my body claimed its due. :-)

I love the extreme quiet in the early morning. No phones, no parties,
no (OK, fewer) dogs.

You can get the same kind of quiet at about 1:00 AM or so -- if
you aren't too near bars which stay open that late. :-)

Dogs are still up then, though, especially around bars.


Most can't. I've always been a science buff and wild stuff thrills
me. There aren't too many things more wild than lightning.

Interesting. My wife has no problems with the thunder and
lightning -- but our rent-a-daughter (really the daughter of a long time
friend who sometimes stays with us) really does not like it at all.

I think most people are just neutral about it, not caring either way
and not interested in the power and majesty of these things. That's
what I have trouble understanding. I don't understand the lack of
curiosity/interest by most people, and I'm happy I have it.

Indeed -- I'm half-way tempted to move back down to South Texas,
where I can watch the thunderstorms approach from the distance.

I see that you have some deeply masochistic tendencies, sir.


As for grunion -- sounds more like a British name for an auto
part. :-)

Or a sound Brit trannies make when shifting gears?

Especially when the synchronizer rings get worn. :-)

Yeah, on the few Brit trannies which had them. I remember learning my
Corvair engine and tranny mesh speeds and could up- and downshift
without the clutch for all but complete stops. Ah, when we were
young...



I could tell that it was somewhat distant, because I first felt
horizontal motion for several seconds, and then vertical, which felt a
lot stronger.

I got a vertical ripple here a few years ago when the quake hit in
NorCal. I could hear it coming like an extremely fast freight train,
then the windows on my right boomed, then a split second later the
other side of the house boomed. We hopped a tenth of an inch, but no
damage. That's the first time I've felt vertical earth oscillations,
and it induced a very mild vertigo in me for a few seconds. That was
new. I don't think I'd like a 10.5 much. You?

No -- except perhaps to view it from a small airplane. :-)

Or as a movie.


With the horizontal waves, I wasn't really sure that it was a
'quake, but when the vertical ones arrived, I was quite sure. If they
had kept up for more than the few seconds, I would have made for
downstairs and outdoors. :-)

I usually just grin and freeze, but would crawl toward daylight if
possible if the fun just kept on coming. I wonder how much difference
there is in damage to the newer metal-studded buildings vs the old
stick-built homes after an earthquake. I'll have to Google that.
Oops, sorry, I got on topic for a minute.


[ ... ]

I think that I was about 17, and pretty much the same feeling.

That's during our Immortal stage, huh? g

Yep. Like the time a few years later when a group of us spent
the night in the crater of a somewhat dormant volcano. :-)

I had an eerie day the day the movie Volcano came out. I watched it
and got goose bumps all over my body when I saw San Vicente Blvd in
Beverly Hills. I had just been there the day before, working on a
bone densitometer for some Russian doctors, a block from that very
intersection where they demoed the building to redirect the flow of
lava. It was the first time I'd ever instantly identified with a
location shot in a movie.

--
Try not to become a man of success but
rather try to become a man of value.
--Albert Einstein