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Metalworking (rec.crafts.metalworking) Discuss various aspects of working with metal, such as machining, welding, metal joining, screwing, casting, hardening/tempering, blacksmithing/forging, spinning and hammer work, sheet metal work. |
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#81
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Unusual gifts
On Sat, 27 Jun 2015 23:48:42 -0500, David R. Birch wrote:
On 6/27/2015 9:30 PM, Gunner Asch wrote: On Sat, 27 Jun 2015 22:28:13 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell" wrote: 62, but you'll get more if you can wait till you're 65. Thats what I thought. Thanks for the confirmation Actually, you get more until you're 70. I retired at 65 because I was tired of what I was doing and because several of my friends didn't make it to 70 or 65 or 62. Another complication: For married couples, it sometimes makes sense for the higher-earner to file early (eg age 66) and then suspend benefits until age 70. Meanwhile, the lower-earner gets "free"* spousal benefits at half of the higher-earner's rate. (As I understand it. For actual facts, see http://www.socialsecuritychoices.com/info/fileandsuspend.php and http://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/suspend.html.) *http://www.socialsecuritychoices.com/info/freespousal.php -- jiw |
#82
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Unusual gifts
On Sun, 28 Jun 2015 22:12:43 +0000 (UTC), James Waldby
wrote: On Sat, 27 Jun 2015 23:48:42 -0500, David R. Birch wrote: On 6/27/2015 9:30 PM, Gunner Asch wrote: On Sat, 27 Jun 2015 22:28:13 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell" wrote: 62, but you'll get more if you can wait till you're 65. Thats what I thought. Thanks for the confirmation Actually, you get more until you're 70. I retired at 65 because I was tired of what I was doing and because several of my friends didn't make it to 70 or 65 or 62. Another complication: For married couples, it sometimes makes sense for the higher-earner to file early (eg age 66) and then suspend benefits until age 70. Meanwhile, the lower-earner gets "free"* spousal benefits at half of the higher-earner's rate. (As I understand it. For actual facts, see http://www.socialsecuritychoices.com/info/fileandsuspend.php and http://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/suspend.html.) *http://www.socialsecuritychoices.com/info/freespousal.php Yes, that's exactly what we've done. Give them a call and, if you get a nice lady like I did, she will very patiently explain all of it. -- Ed Huntress |
#83
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Unusual gifts
On Sunday, June 28, 2015 at 6:20:22 PM UTC-4, Ed Huntress wrote:
On Sun, 28 Jun 2015 22:12:43 +0000 (UTC), James Waldby wrote: On Sat, 27 Jun 2015 23:48:42 -0500, David R. Birch wrote: On 6/27/2015 9:30 PM, Gunner Asch wrote: On Sat, 27 Jun 2015 22:28:13 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell" wrote: 62, but you'll get more if you can wait till you're 65. Thats what I thought. Thanks for the confirmation Actually, you get more until you're 70. I retired at 65 because I was tired of what I was doing and because several of my friends didn't make it to 70 or 65 or 62. Another complication: For married couples, it sometimes makes sense for the higher-earner to file early (eg age 66) and then suspend benefits until age 70. Meanwhile, the lower-earner gets "free"* spousal benefits at half of the higher-earner's rate. (As I understand it. For actual facts, see http://www.socialsecuritychoices.com/info/fileandsuspend.php and http://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/suspend.html.) *http://www.socialsecuritychoices.com/info/freespousal.php Yes, that's exactly what we've done. Give them a call and, if you get a nice lady like I did, she will very patiently explain all of it. -- Ed Huntress If not, go to the library. There have been a couple of good books written on this very subject. I just turned 61, and this is high on my list of subjects in which to get educated this year. Funny that Gunner is even thinking about this. a) Social Security is evil in his book, isn't it? b) By his account, he hasn't paid payroll taxes in many years, if ever. If he is counting on the FICA from his imaginary jobs in the Army or as a Sherriff's deputy, I hope he has fun cashing his imaginary SS checks and buying imaginary food with the proceeds. |
#84
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Unusual gifts
On 2015-06-28, Ed Huntress wrote:
On Sun, 28 Jun 2015 11:42:02 -0500, Ignoramus24678 wrote: On 2015-06-28, Ed Huntress wrote: When Mitutoyo was my advertising client, back when their HQ was in NJ, I frequently took items home to photograph on my seamless backgrounds and tabletop setups with a view camera, which I didn't like to take to their office. Things like a digital mike, a conventional mike, two digital calipers, a granite surface plate, and a bunch of ceramic gage blocks. When I tried to return them, they'd say, "Oh no, we can't take them back. We've already written them off as advertising expense." Nice. Those granite surface plates are very handy. My 200,000 BTU pool heater is sitting on a 24x36" granite surface plate right now. Makes a very nice platform. Ha-ha! Yes, I'll bet it does. g It weighs about 300 lbs, I put it on a bed of "river stone" and it sits very nicely. i |
#85
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Unusual gifts
On Sun, 28 Jun 2015 22:12:43 +0000 (UTC), James Waldby
wrote: On Sat, 27 Jun 2015 23:48:42 -0500, David R. Birch wrote: On 6/27/2015 9:30 PM, Gunner Asch wrote: On Sat, 27 Jun 2015 22:28:13 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell" wrote: 62, but you'll get more if you can wait till you're 65. Thats what I thought. Thanks for the confirmation Actually, you get more until you're 70. I retired at 65 because I was tired of what I was doing and because several of my friends didn't make it to 70 or 65 or 62. Another complication: For married couples, it sometimes makes sense for the higher-earner to file early (eg age 66) and then suspend benefits until age 70. Meanwhile, the lower-earner gets "free"* spousal benefits at half of the higher-earner's rate. (As I understand it. For actual facts, see http://www.socialsecuritychoices.com/info/fileandsuspend.php and http://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/suspend.html.) *http://www.socialsecuritychoices.com/info/freespousal.php Yes. I believe that can be referred to as a form of "tax avoidance". Something that the wealthy are damned for practicing :-) -- cheers, John B. |
#86
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Unusual gifts
On Sun, 28 Jun 2015 06:58:20 -0700, Gunner Asch
wrote: On Sun, 28 Jun 2015 09:18:59 -0400, "Jim Wilkins" wrote: The benefit steps up by your age in months and gives you a constant total by age 78 IIRC. Starting early may be better if it will preserve your high-interest investments. "high interest investments"? What might those be? Must be Greek. -- Another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise. -- Margaret Atwood |
#87
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Unusual gifts
On Sun, 28 Jun 2015 08:58:44 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote: "Larry Jaques" wrote in message .. . ... Air dream: I'd love to build a small electric car or motorcycle for kicks. I had my fun with those, building prototypes at Segway. The machine You realize how jealous all of us are for your employment there, don't you, Jim? you sucked itself wasn't as big a challenge as monitoring, logging and analyzing its performance and changing the controller parameters as needed. That's what set me looking to buy or build my own low cost, high resolution portable datalogger, first a microcontroller-based one with a troublesome common ground and then separate optically isolated DVMs. Was that just to get performance data on them during design and testing, or for continued input? A compact Campbell Scientific datalogger was hard enough to mount securely on a motorcycle, a laptop would be quite a challenge. Laptops are a great solution on machines that carry a passenger, they were the original control and display terminals for prototypes of this: http://www.freeflightsystems.com/products/ads-b The new, smaller laptops with solid state disks would be easier now. Bolt a bracket surrounding the gas tank (remove laptop, open gas filler cap, fill with gas, replace), but even easier on an electric car. At the same time I was adding a hydraulic bucket loader to my garden tractor. Hydraulics took more machining to implement but were easier to debug. g The pump puts out a constant flow volume per turn so I only needed to control engine speed and watch pressure and lifting force, both easy static measurements. I made a knob-adjustable pressure relief to replace the fixed one on the control valve assembly and run it as low as will do the job. The valves are open in the center position and the fluid just circulates freely with only frictional losses. That sure should keep the heat down. The controls for electric wheelchairs would be excellent for a homebrew vehicle although I wouldn't divert them from the grey market for non-subsidized repairs. How many were you thinking one of us was building? blink -- Another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise. -- Margaret Atwood |
#88
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Unusual gifts
Gunner Asch on Sun, 28 Jun 2015 09:48:57 -0700
typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following: "high interest investments"? What might those be? The ones you are highly interested in, yes? (I think he means those mythical investments which bring above market returns, such as the ones which CalPers uses to base future pensions on.) -- pyotr filipivich "With Age comes Wisdom. Although more often, Age travels alone." Oh..I dont have any of those. My personal networth is simply what I own in hardware, my home and $300 in the bank. Investments? Sold the few I had years ago when I needed money badly. Which is one of the reasons you had made those investment - so that when you needed it, it was there. I once at $150,000 in the bank..seriously. But I was single and had no medically needly family. That of course..changed Family is like that ... B-) -- pyotr filipivich "With Age comes Wisdom. Although more often, Age travels alone." |
#89
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Unusual gifts
"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
... On Sun, 28 Jun 2015 08:58:44 -0400, "Jim Wilkins" wrote: "Larry Jaques" wrote in message . .. ... Air dream: I'd love to build a small electric car or motorcycle for kicks. I had my fun with those, building prototypes at Segway. The machine You realize how jealous all of us are for your employment there, don't you, Jim? you sucked They hired me as a temporary, PTOC contractor while their lab tech was out for medical reasons. Like all R&D they struggled to keep engineers occupied after the product had been finalized, so it wasn't -that- great a place to work, especially for a temp. It went downhill once the principal designers left for Apple etc. https://engineering.purdue.edu/Engr/...DEA_2015/Field itself wasn't as big a challenge as monitoring, logging and analyzing its performance and changing the controller parameters as needed. That's what set me looking to buy or build my own low cost, high resolution portable datalogger, first a microcontroller-based one with a troublesome common ground and then separate optically isolated DVMs. Was that just to get performance data on them during design and testing, or for continued input? Just to match the motor controller to vehicle dynamics, such as acceptable motor speed ramp-up and ramp-down rates. I've had the new front and rear tires of a bike break loose in a corner on asphalt when I forgot about the mold release. I could handle it from dirt bike experience but still I almost banged into the far curb. A compact Campbell Scientific datalogger was hard enough to mount securely on a motorcycle, a laptop would be quite a challenge. Laptops are a great solution on machines that carry a passenger, they were the original control and display terminals for prototypes of this: http://www.freeflightsystems.com/products/ads-b The new, smaller laptops with solid state disks would be easier now. Bolt a bracket surrounding the gas tank (remove laptop, open gas filler cap, fill with gas, replace), but even easier on an electric car. The "gas tank" was for appearance. For engineering work I prefer older, larger (heavier), more capable business-class laptops, which approach the expandability of desktops but are portable on internal battery or external 12V. My Dell Latitude Ds accept both a boot SSD and a Terabyte spinning HDD in the CD bay, Cardbus plus ExpressCard plugins which I use for USB2 and USB3 or more datalogging serial ports, and a DVD or another large HDD in a special higher-power USB expansion bay. http://www.amazon.com/Dell-PD01S-Ext.../dp/B001ULDYXI I found that the built-in 15" screen was fine for detailing the CAD drawing of the trolley wheels and axles and I don't need to plug in the 22" monitor. This IDE model made in 2005 is running XP from a SATA SSD in the CD bay. The IBM Thinkpads and Toshiba Satellites at work were similarly capable. I happened to go with Dell at home because they are cheap and plentiful, including the batteries and accessories. USB adapters like these connect a laptop to automotive and smart battery electronics: http://www.amazon.com/USB-CAN-Conver.../dp/B00FFZ8L24 -jsw |
#90
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Unusual gifts
On Mon, 29 Jun 2015 08:47:09 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote: snip For engineering work I prefer older, larger (heavier), more capable business-class laptops, which approach the expandability of desktops but are portable on internal battery or external 12V. My Dell Latitude Ds accept both a boot SSD and a Terabyte spinning HDD in the CD bay, Cardbus plus ExpressCard plugins which I use for USB2 and USB3 or more datalogging serial ports, and a DVD or another large HDD in a special higher-power USB expansion bay. I have a 2006 Latitude 14" that weighs like sin, but I lug it with me on business trips, whenever I have to do a lot of writing. It has the best keyboard of any laptop I've used. Ir was my son's machine all through college and he's moved on, but it's just too good for my work to get rid of it. I've loaded it with RAM, fast Wi-Fi, and an ExpressCard USB3 adapter. It still rocks, even though I hate lugging it around. -- Ed Huntress |
#91
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Unusual gifts
"Ed Huntress" wrote in message
... On Mon, 29 Jun 2015 08:47:09 -0400, "Jim Wilkins" wrote: snip For engineering work I prefer older, larger (heavier), more capable business-class laptops, which approach the expandability of desktops but are portable on internal battery or external 12V. My Dell Latitude Ds accept both a boot SSD and a Terabyte spinning HDD in the CD bay, Cardbus plus ExpressCard plugins which I use for USB2 and USB3 or more datalogging serial ports, and a DVD or another large HDD in a special higher-power USB expansion bay. I have a 2006 Latitude 14" that weighs like sin, but I lug it with me on business trips, whenever I have to do a lot of writing. It has the best keyboard of any laptop I've used. Ir was my son's machine all through college and he's moved on, but it's just too good for my work to get rid of it. I've loaded it with RAM, fast Wi-Fi, and an ExpressCard USB3 adapter. It still rocks, even though I hate lugging it around. -- Ed Huntress I've seen a stack of still-working Latitudes whose metal shells had been mangled or punctured in transit. These people sell individual replacement key caps for them: http://www.machinaelectronics.com/store/ The keys aren't easy to replace but at least it's possible. -jsw |
#92
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Unusual gifts
On Mon, 29 Jun 2015 10:02:57 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote: "Ed Huntress" wrote in message .. . On Mon, 29 Jun 2015 08:47:09 -0400, "Jim Wilkins" wrote: snip For engineering work I prefer older, larger (heavier), more capable business-class laptops, which approach the expandability of desktops but are portable on internal battery or external 12V. My Dell Latitude Ds accept both a boot SSD and a Terabyte spinning HDD in the CD bay, Cardbus plus ExpressCard plugins which I use for USB2 and USB3 or more datalogging serial ports, and a DVD or another large HDD in a special higher-power USB expansion bay. I have a 2006 Latitude 14" that weighs like sin, but I lug it with me on business trips, whenever I have to do a lot of writing. It has the best keyboard of any laptop I've used. Ir was my son's machine all through college and he's moved on, but it's just too good for my work to get rid of it. I've loaded it with RAM, fast Wi-Fi, and an ExpressCard USB3 adapter. It still rocks, even though I hate lugging it around. -- Ed Huntress I've seen a stack of still-working Latitudes whose metal shells had been mangled or punctured in transit. These people sell individual replacement key caps for them: http://www.machinaelectronics.com/store/ The keys aren't easy to replace but at least it's possible. -jsw Thanks. I've saved that one. -- Ed Huntress |
#93
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Unusual gifts
On Mon, 29 Jun 2015 08:47:09 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote: "Larry Jaques" wrote in message .. . On Sun, 28 Jun 2015 08:58:44 -0400, "Jim Wilkins" wrote: "Larry Jaques" wrote in message ... ... Air dream: I'd love to build a small electric car or motorcycle for kicks. I had my fun with those, building prototypes at Segway. The machine You realize how jealous all of us are for your employment there, don't you, Jim? you sucked They hired me as a temporary, PTOC contractor while their lab tech was out for medical reasons. Like all R&D they struggled to keep engineers occupied after the product had been finalized, so it wasn't -that- great a place to work, especially for a temp. It went downhill once the principal designers left for Apple etc. https://engineering.purdue.edu/Engr/...DEA_2015/Field Yabbut, working inside a Big Boy's Toy Factory... itself wasn't as big a challenge as monitoring, logging and analyzing its performance and changing the controller parameters as needed. That's what set me looking to buy or build my own low cost, high resolution portable datalogger, first a microcontroller-based one with a troublesome common ground and then separate optically isolated DVMs. Was that just to get performance data on them during design and testing, or for continued input? Just to match the motor controller to vehicle dynamics, such as acceptable motor speed ramp-up and ramp-down rates. I've had the new front and rear tires of a bike break loose in a corner on asphalt when I forgot about the mold release. I could handle it from dirt bike experience but still I almost banged into the far curb. Mold release? I expect to hear that during an injection molding discussion, but not in an electrics/electronics discussion. What meaneth thou? A compact Campbell Scientific datalogger was hard enough to mount securely on a motorcycle, a laptop would be quite a challenge. Laptops are a great solution on machines that carry a passenger, they were the original control and display terminals for prototypes of this: http://www.freeflightsystems.com/products/ads-b The new, smaller laptops with solid state disks would be easier now. Bolt a bracket surrounding the gas tank (remove laptop, open gas filler cap, fill with gas, replace), but even easier on an electric car. The "gas tank" was for appearance. I forgot myself. Then it should have been a clamshell (or simply a platform) for the laptop. For engineering work I prefer older, larger (heavier), more capable business-class laptops, which approach the expandability of desktops but are portable on internal battery or external 12V. I programmed a voice card/telephone tree database for a guy who gave me a suitcase computer to work on. He sold classic hotrod refurb services. That was interesting. http://tinyurl.com/at82m8s That was a typical '80s business class "laptop". Your Latitude is a bit smaller. My Dell Latitude Ds accept both a boot SSD and a Terabyte spinning HDD in the CD bay, Cardbus plus ExpressCard plugins which I use for USB2 and USB3 or more datalogging serial ports, and a DVD or another large HDD in a special higher-power USB expansion bay. http://www.amazon.com/Dell-PD01S-Ext.../dp/B001ULDYXI Those are going for a song, wot? I found that the built-in 15" screen was fine for detailing the CAD drawing of the trolley wheels and axles and I don't need to plug in the 22" monitor. Yeah, just mount the 22" monitor to the windshield... This IDE model made in 2005 is running XP from a SATA SSD in the CD bay. The IBM Thinkpads and Toshiba Satellites at work were similarly capable. I happened to go with Dell at home because they are cheap and plentiful, including the batteries and accessories. How's the reliability? I hear the business models have been considerably more reliable than the consumer crap Dell puts out. I'd hope so, as they sold for $2-5k new. USB adapters like these connect a laptop to automotive and smart battery electronics: http://www.amazon.com/USB-CAN-Conver.../dp/B00FFZ8L24 How so? Not familiar with CAN bus. -- Another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise. -- Margaret Atwood |
#94
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Unusual gifts
Ignoramus23199 wrote:
I am wondering if anyone else ever received unusual gifts. For example, today, a company unexpectedly gifted me sixteen brand name pallet jacks in great condition. nice. Any short narrow ones for sale? |
#95
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Unusual gifts
On Friday, June 26, 2015 at 3:57:33 PM UTC-7, Ignoramus23199 wrote:
I am wondering if anyone else ever received unusual gifts. I have a 14" band saw that the drive wheel was really wobbly and the bearing was shot. Except when I opened it up, the split pin had dropped out of the wheel retaining nut and loosened it off. A zero dollar and two minute repair. Emailed them they could come and get it, but they never did. I got a small Emco CNC milling that could not be made to work. I found a 5-pin DIN plug on the back panel was missing. It just connected one of two lines depending on set up to be used. A piece of jumper wire pushed in Pin-1 to pin-4 and bingo another zero dollar repair, well, after about ten minutes with the manual I found online. I offered to return this one but they had replaced it so said "keep it." Quite a few others, 60W laser engraver, 65W CO2 medical laser tube and controller. |
#96
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Unusual gifts
"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
news On Mon, 29 Jun 2015 08:47:09 -0400, "Jim Wilkins" wrote: So much to explain. I'm glad I didn't describe the Inca culture as "chalcolithic". I had my fun with those, building prototypes at Segway. The machine You realize how jealous all of us are for your employment there, don't you, Jim? you sucked They hired me as a temporary, PTOC contractor while their lab tech was out for medical reasons. Like all R&D they struggled to keep engineers occupied after the product had been finalized, so it wasn't -that- great a place to work, especially for a temp. It went downhill once the principal designers left for Apple etc. https://engineering.purdue.edu/Engr/...DEA_2015/Field Yabbut, working inside a Big Boy's Toy Factory... Temps weren't numbered among the core Big Boys, or invited to contribute projects to Frog Days. I was nominated onto a three-man Tiger Team for a hot special project and paid the price in resentment from those not chosen. ... Just to match the motor controller to vehicle dynamics, such as acceptable motor speed ramp-up and ramp-down rates. I've had the new front and rear tires of a bike break loose in a corner on asphalt when I forgot about the mold release. I could handle it from dirt bike experience but still I almost banged into the far curb. Mold release? I expect to hear that during an injection molding discussion, but not in an electrics/electronics discussion. What meaneth thou? http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/...d.php?t=669165 A compact Campbell Scientific datalogger was hard enough to mount securely on a motorcycle, a laptop would be quite a challenge. Laptops are a great solution on machines that carry a passenger, they were the original control and display terminals for prototypes of this: http://www.freeflightsystems.com/products/ads-b The new, smaller laptops with solid state disks would be easier now. Bolt a bracket surrounding the gas tank (remove laptop, open gas filler cap, fill with gas, replace), but even easier on an electric car. The "gas tank" was for appearance. I forgot myself. Then it should have been a clamshell (or simply a platform) for the laptop. The "Industrial Designers" rather than the engineers had final say on the appearance. Techs had no say at all. For engineering work I prefer older, larger (heavier), more capable business-class laptops, which approach the expandability of desktops but are portable on internal battery or external 12V. I programmed a voice card/telephone tree database for a guy who gave me a suitcase computer to work on. He sold classic hotrod refurb services. That was interesting. http://tinyurl.com/at82m8s That was a typical '80s business class "laptop". Your Latitude is a bit smaller. "Portable" means it has one or more handles, as do upright pianos. I tried to spread the term "schleppable". My Dell Latitude Ds accept both a boot SSD and a Terabyte spinning HDD in the CD bay, Cardbus plus ExpressCard plugins which I use for USB2 and USB3 or more datalogging serial ports, and a DVD or another large HDD in a special higher-power USB expansion bay. http://www.amazon.com/Dell-PD01S-Ext.../dp/B001ULDYXI Those are going for a song, wot? I paid $25 for the D820 I loaded the CAD program on. It inherited 4 GB of RAM from another one that went to 8 GB. I found that the built-in 15" screen was fine for detailing the CAD drawing of the trolley wheels and axles and I don't need to plug in the 22" monitor. Yeah, just mount the 22" monitor to the windshield... In July it will be illegal to draw while driving here. The IBM Thinkpads and Toshiba Satellites at work were similarly capable. I happened to go with Dell at home because they are cheap and plentiful, including the batteries and accessories. How's the reliability? I hear the business models have been considerably more reliable than the consumer crap Dell puts out. I'd hope so, as they sold for $2-5k new. There were real and alleged problems, like burning batteries, overheating nVidia graphics chips, mother board cracks, etc. AFAICT only the fittest have survived. They are relatively easy to open up and work on. They aren't entirely suited to Windows 7 and may need suboptimal Vista drivers. Only the final x30 models have an AHCI option and ability to take 8GB of DDR2 RAM if you install a 64 bit OS. The fastest available processor appears to be an overpriced Core 2 Duo 2.6GHz T9500, my best one is 2.4GHz. The graphics are good enough for live HDTV but reportedly not for gaming. http://dellwindowsreinstallationguid...dows-7-32-bit/ "This model and Operating System is not supported by Dell." USB adapters like these connect a laptop to automotive and smart battery electronics: http://www.amazon.com/USB-CAN-Conver.../dp/B00FFZ8L24 How so? Not familiar with CAN bus. http://canbuskit.com/what.php http://www.instructables.com/id/Hack...o-and-Seeed-C/ -jsw, waiting for the weather to clear before I set up my log lifting equipment. |
#97
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Unusual gifts
On Sun, 28 Jun 2015 20:32:02 -0700, Larry Jaques
wrote: On Sun, 28 Jun 2015 08:58:44 -0400, "Jim Wilkins" wrote: "Larry Jaques" wrote in message . .. ... Air dream: I'd love to build a small electric car or motorcycle for kicks. I had my fun with those, building prototypes at Segway. The machine You realize how jealous all of us are for your employment there, don't you, Jim? you sucked itself wasn't as big a challenge as monitoring, logging and analyzing its performance and changing the controller parameters as needed. That's what set me looking to buy or build my own low cost, high resolution portable datalogger, first a microcontroller-based one with a troublesome common ground and then separate optically isolated DVMs. Was that just to get performance data on them during design and testing, or for continued input? A compact Campbell Scientific datalogger was hard enough to mount securely on a motorcycle, a laptop would be quite a challenge. Laptops are a great solution on machines that carry a passenger, they were the original control and display terminals for prototypes of this: http://www.freeflightsystems.com/products/ads-b The new, smaller laptops with solid state disks would be easier now. Bolt a bracket surrounding the gas tank (remove laptop, open gas filler cap, fill with gas, replace), but even easier on an electric car. At the same time I was adding a hydraulic bucket loader to my garden tractor. Hydraulics took more machining to implement but were easier to debug. g The pump puts out a constant flow volume per turn so I only needed to control engine speed and watch pressure and lifting force, both easy static measurements. I made a knob-adjustable pressure relief to replace the fixed one on the control valve assembly and run it as low as will do the job. The valves are open in the center position and the fluid just circulates freely with only frictional losses. That sure should keep the heat down. The controls for electric wheelchairs would be excellent for a homebrew vehicle although I wouldn't divert them from the grey market for non-subsidized repairs. How many were you thinking one of us was building? blink The controller on my '75 Fiat 128 conversion was dead seimple voltage switcher with switched resistance - 2 battery packs in parallel through resistor - short resistor, switch packs to series through resistor, short resistor - then weaken field with rheostat - motor was a military surplus aircraft generator. |
#98
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Unusual gifts
wrote in message
... The controller on my '75 Fiat 128 conversion was dead seimple voltage switcher with switched resistance - 2 battery packs in parallel through resistor - short resistor, switch packs to series through resistor, short resistor - then weaken field with rheostat - motor was a military surplus aircraft generator. Was it practical in city traffic? |
#99
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Unusual gifts
On Mon, 29 Jun 2015 17:53:52 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote: wrote in message .. . The controller on my '75 Fiat 128 conversion was dead seimple voltage switcher with switched resistance - 2 battery packs in parallel through resistor - short resistor, switch packs to series through resistor, short resistor - then weaken field with rheostat - motor was a military surplus aircraft generator. Was it practical in city traffic? It was actually pretty good. I ran 8 GC2H 215AH golf cart batteries, so 24 volts for startup, and 48 for cruise - through the Fiat 4 speed transmission with no clutch. 50 miles at 30mph, 30 miles at 50mph - slightly less in city traffic. Could spin the tires taking off in first with the small motor. In an attempt to get more power and more range, I installed a bigger motor, and it became almost undriveable - I needed a better controller because even on 24 volts through the resister it could smoke the tires - pulling away in second was more civilized but I had to be carefull I didn't pop the breaker (set to 400 amps or 600 instantaneous). The breaker was a big paddle right behind the shifter between the seats. In storage over the winter someone disconnected the battery maintainer and I lost most of my battery pack - and being a 7 year old FIAT the rust-worm had done a number on the undercarriage- so it sat another year and then was scrapped. Still have the motor and contactors, and I think the breaker. |
#100
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Unusual gifts
On Mon, 29 Jun 2015 13:18:23 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote: "Larry Jaques" wrote in message news On Mon, 29 Jun 2015 08:47:09 -0400, "Jim Wilkins" wrote: So much to explain. I'm glad I didn't describe the Inca culture as "chalcolithic". I had my fun with those, building prototypes at Segway. The machine You realize how jealous all of us are for your employment there, don't you, Jim? you sucked They hired me as a temporary, PTOC contractor while their lab tech was out for medical reasons. Like all R&D they struggled to keep engineers occupied after the product had been finalized, so it wasn't -that- great a place to work, especially for a temp. It went downhill once the principal designers left for Apple etc. https://engineering.purdue.edu/Engr/...DEA_2015/Field Yabbut, working inside a Big Boy's Toy Factory... Temps weren't numbered among the core Big Boys, or invited to contribute projects to Frog Days. I was nominated onto a three-man Tiger Team for a hot special project and paid the price in resentment from those not chosen. Aren't people wonderful? ... Just to match the motor controller to vehicle dynamics, such as acceptable motor speed ramp-up and ramp-down rates. I've had the new front and rear tires of a bike break loose in a corner on asphalt when I forgot about the mold release. I could handle it from dirt bike experience but still I almost banged into the far curb. Mold release? I expect to hear that during an injection molding discussion, but not in an electrics/electronics discussion. What meaneth thou? http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/...d.php?t=669165 Oh, tires! Yeah, mold release. I was entirely in electronics mode in that conversation so you threw me. The "gas tank" was for appearance. I forgot myself. Then it should have been a clamshell (or simply a platform) for the laptop. The "Industrial Designers" rather than the engineers had final say on the appearance. Techs had no say at all. Is that anything like "military intelligence"? Thot so. For engineering work I prefer older, larger (heavier), more capable business-class laptops, which approach the expandability of desktops but are portable on internal battery or external 12V. I programmed a voice card/telephone tree database for a guy who gave me a suitcase computer to work on. He sold classic hotrod refurb services. That was interesting. http://tinyurl.com/at82m8s That was a typical '80s business class "laptop". Your Latitude is a bit smaller. "Portable" means it has one or more handles, as do upright pianos. I tried to spread the term "schleppable". g My Dell Latitude Ds accept both a boot SSD and a Terabyte spinning HDD in the CD bay, Cardbus plus ExpressCard plugins which I use for USB2 and USB3 or more datalogging serial ports, and a DVD or another large HDD in a special higher-power USB expansion bay. http://www.amazon.com/Dell-PD01S-Ext.../dp/B001ULDYXI Those are going for a song, wot? I paid $25 for the D820 I loaded the CAD program on. It inherited 4 GB of RAM from another one that went to 8 GB. I found that the built-in 15" screen was fine for detailing the CAD drawing of the trolley wheels and axles and I don't need to plug in the 22" monitor. Yeah, just mount the 22" monitor to the windshield... In July it will be illegal to draw while driving here. Don't laws like that burn you up? They'll certainly save the lives of texters and sketchy people everywhere. Where's Darwin when you need him? I understand they're padding light posts in London for that same reason. Crom help us! The IBM Thinkpads and Toshiba Satellites at work were similarly capable. I happened to go with Dell at home because they are cheap and plentiful, including the batteries and accessories. How's the reliability? I hear the business models have been considerably more reliable than the consumer crap Dell puts out. I'd hope so, as they sold for $2-5k new. There were real and alleged problems, like burning batteries, overheating nVidia graphics chips, mother board cracks, etc. AFAICT only the fittest have survived. They are relatively easy to open up and work on. They aren't entirely suited to Windows 7 and may need suboptimal Vista drivers. Only the final x30 models have an AHCI option and ability to take 8GB of DDR2 RAM if you install a 64 bit OS. The fastest available processor appears to be an overpriced Core 2 Duo 2.6GHz T9500, my best one is 2.4GHz. The graphics are good enough for live HDTV but reportedly not for gaming. 7? Hell, Win 3.1 had most everything we could want. ('cept memory) http://dellwindowsreinstallationguid...dows-7-32-bit/ "This model and Operating System is not supported by Dell." USB adapters like these connect a laptop to automotive and smart battery electronics: http://www.amazon.com/USB-CAN-Conver.../dp/B00FFZ8L24 How so? Not familiar with CAN bus. http://canbuskit.com/what.php http://www.instructables.com/id/Hack...o-and-Seeed-C/ I'll check it out. Yesterday and today each have 1.5 hours of work for me. It's nice to relax. I have Jupiter Ascending and Last Knights waiting for me in town at the local RedBox, too. -jsw, waiting for the weather to clear before I set up my log lifting equipment. We've been toying with 100+ degree weather here for a couple weeks now. May we borrow your rain, please? -- Another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise. -- Margaret Atwood |
#101
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Unusual gifts
On Mon, 29 Jun 2015 09:29:39 -0700 (PDT), "Dave, I can't do that"
wrote: On Friday, June 26, 2015 at 3:57:33 PM UTC-7, Ignoramus23199 wrote: I am wondering if anyone else ever received unusual gifts. I have a 14" band saw that the drive wheel was really wobbly and the bearing was shot. Except when I opened it up, the split pin had dropped out of the wheel retaining nut and loosened it off. A zero dollar and two minute repair. Emailed them they could come and get it, but they never did. I got a small Emco CNC milling that could not be made to work. I found a 5-pin DIN plug on the back panel was missing. It just connected one of two lines depending on set up to be used. A piece of jumper wire pushed in Pin-1 to pin-4 and bingo another zero dollar repair, well, after about ten minutes with the manual I found online. I offered to return this one but they had replaced it so said "keep it." Quite a few others, 60W laser engraver, 65W CO2 medical laser tube and controller. Very cool, all. -- Another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise. -- Margaret Atwood |
#102
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Unusual gifts
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#104
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Unusual gifts
On Tuesday, June 30, 2015 at 5:10:44 PM UTC-4, Larry Jaques wrote:
We've been toying with 100+ degree weather here for a couple weeks now. May we borrow your rain, please? How about some of our snow next January? Dan |
#105
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Unusual gifts
On 06/28/2015 08:57 PM, rangerssuck wrote:
Funny that Gunner is even thinking about this. a) Social Security is evil in his book, isn't it? b) By his account, he hasn't paid payroll taxes in many years, if ever. If he is counting on the FICA from his imaginary jobs in the Army or as a Sherriff's deputy, I hope he has fun cashing his imaginary SS checks and buying imaginary food with the proceeds. I would happily give up the pittance SS deposits in my account if the *******s would give me back all the deposits I was forced to make into the ponzi scheme, plus interest. technomaNge -- |
#106
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Unusual gifts
On 6/28/2015 6:57 PM, rangerssuck wrote:
On Sunday, June 28, 2015 at 6:20:22 PM UTC-4, Ed Huntress wrote: On Sun, 28 Jun 2015 22:12:43 +0000 (UTC), James Waldby wrote: On Sat, 27 Jun 2015 23:48:42 -0500, David R. Birch wrote: On 6/27/2015 9:30 PM, Gunner Asch wrote: On Sat, 27 Jun 2015 22:28:13 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell" wrote: 62, but you'll get more if you can wait till you're 65. Thats what I thought. Thanks for the confirmation Actually, you get more until you're 70. I retired at 65 because I was tired of what I was doing and because several of my friends didn't make it to 70 or 65 or 62. Another complication: For married couples, it sometimes makes sense for the higher-earner to file early (eg age 66) and then suspend benefits until age 70. Meanwhile, the lower-earner gets "free"* spousal benefits at half of the higher-earner's rate. (As I understand it. For actual facts, see http://www.socialsecuritychoices.com/info/fileandsuspend.php and http://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/suspend.html.) *http://www.socialsecuritychoices.com/info/freespousal.php Yes, that's exactly what we've done. Give them a call and, if you get a nice lady like I did, she will very patiently explain all of it. -- Ed Huntress If not, go to the library. There have been a couple of good books written on this very subject. I just turned 61, and this is high on my list of subjects in which to get educated this year. Funny that Gunner is even thinking about this. a) Social Security is evil in his book, isn't it? b) By his account, he hasn't paid payroll taxes in many years, if ever. If he is counting on the FICA from his imaginary jobs in the Army or as a Sherriff's deputy, I hope he has fun cashing his imaginary SS checks and buying imaginary food with the proceeds. By his own words, gummy-bitch makes no more than $28,000 per year. I doubt he's paying any payroll taxes, or as much as he should be paying. This dole-scrounger already got Medi-Cal to pay for his bypass surgery, and care following his stroke. |
#107
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Unusual gifts
On Tue, 30 Jun 2015 18:40:34 -0400, wrote:
On Tue, 30 Jun 2015 14:15:42 -0700, Larry Jaques wrote: On Mon, 29 Jun 2015 20:21:30 -0400, wrote: On Mon, 29 Jun 2015 17:53:52 -0400, "Jim Wilkins" wrote: wrote in message m... The controller on my '75 Fiat 128 conversion was dead seimple voltage switcher with switched resistance - 2 battery packs in parallel through resistor - short resistor, switch packs to series through resistor, short resistor - then weaken field with rheostat - motor was a military surplus aircraft generator. Was it practical in city traffic? It was actually pretty good. I ran 8 GC2H 215AH golf cart batteries, so 24 volts for startup, and 48 for cruise - through the Fiat 4 speed transmission with no clutch. 50 miles at 30mph, 30 miles at 50mph - slightly less in city traffic. Could spin the tires taking off in Har! first with the small motor. In an attempt to get more power and more range, I installed a bigger motor, and it became almost undriveable - I needed a better controller because even on 24 volts through the resister it could smoke the tires - pulling away in second was more civilized but I had to be carefull I didn't pop the breaker (set to 400 amps or 600 instantaneous). The breaker was a big paddle right behind the shifter between the seats. Why no clutch, or equiv? Why? Didn't need it. Except that it'd burn out in first and blow the breaker in 2nd. Nope, didn't need it at all. g -- Another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise. -- Margaret Atwood |
#108
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Unusual gifts
On Tue, 30 Jun 2015 19:49:47 -0700, Larry Jaques
wrote: On Tue, 30 Jun 2015 18:40:34 -0400, wrote: On Tue, 30 Jun 2015 14:15:42 -0700, Larry Jaques wrote: On Mon, 29 Jun 2015 20:21:30 -0400, wrote: On Mon, 29 Jun 2015 17:53:52 -0400, "Jim Wilkins" wrote: wrote in message om... The controller on my '75 Fiat 128 conversion was dead seimple voltage switcher with switched resistance - 2 battery packs in parallel through resistor - short resistor, switch packs to series through resistor, short resistor - then weaken field with rheostat - motor was a military surplus aircraft generator. Was it practical in city traffic? It was actually pretty good. I ran 8 GC2H 215AH golf cart batteries, so 24 volts for startup, and 48 for cruise - through the Fiat 4 speed transmission with no clutch. 50 miles at 30mph, 30 miles at 50mph - slightly less in city traffic. Could spin the tires taking off in Har! first with the small motor. In an attempt to get more power and more range, I installed a bigger motor, and it became almost undriveable - I needed a better controller because even on 24 volts through the resister it could smoke the tires - pulling away in second was more civilized but I had to be carefull I didn't pop the breaker (set to 400 amps or 600 instantaneous). The breaker was a big paddle right behind the shifter between the seats. Why no clutch, or equiv? Why? Didn't need it. Except that it'd burn out in first and blow the breaker in 2nd. Nope, didn't need it at all. g That's just if I stuck my foot into it too hard. ( and blowing the breaker was only with the BIG motor. |
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