What have you been doing today?

[Shelton]

I know this is just not building, but I caught this photo of the sky last evening. It was from a parking lot as I was doing errands.

 

[RonGinger]

I have been building a railroad coach. This is a replica, as accurate as we can make it, of the firs coach owned by the WW&F Ry, in 1894. There were two coaches, we have one still in service but the other was scrapped in the 1950's. We have been working on this for a couple years now, have maybe 2 more. There are 3 of us working on this a couple days a week, with other volunteers occasionally helping.

google photo

 

[Bentwings]

yeah, agree, "weird day" - came out in the morning, someone had broken the door lock on my old Suburban with a hammer, then pried and hammered at the ignition for a while before giving up, called police, they came by and took report, fixed door tumbler, collected the pieces of plastic to reglue, verified ignition switch and lock are OK, then worked on some legal documents (I hate that stuff), and then disassembled and cleaned this (the green one), tomorrow to decide on a final color and repaint -- raise your hands, do I have the only one of these? (raise both hands and cheer if you have one too, one hand, no cheer if you know what it is) - tiny hint , you can read the company name and location on the first image, and yes, it is useful for model making. For tomorrow, work on daughter's 944, paint and reassemble thing in picture

ii have been re learning solid works one hour a day. Some days it’s just finding an icon but it coming back . This version is several ahead of where I left off at retirement. We are goingvto attempt to hook up my desktop computer monitor so I have a larger scree. I was going to use a tv but the refresh rate is probably too slow. Anyway I hope Friday to get this hooked up . Otherwise just the same day to day stuff. Going to a memorial fri afternoon for a race guy that passed away about a year ago. .
One of my younger sons lives in Chicago they were in a coffee shop about two blocks away from the big shooting . He said people are running an screaming all around them glad he I ok . I was worried as I knew he lived near there.
Also working on the heli coils is for retreading some steamer parts. I had to take some of the engine apart to fix the threads. Just getting it back together today.and tomorrow. It’s pretty warm… about 92 deg today almost no wind. Doc visit in a few minutes. I like these in home visits. It’s just like the old days.

 

[william_b_noble]

never use a television for a computer monitor unless it is designed for that purpose. I could offer a long explanation, but I won't.

 

[Nikhil Bhale]

Just came home a few days back after working in offshore oil field for 2 months. Now planning to get booster shot for COVID.
Have few "projects", some half complete some still in my mind. Working on Solid toolpost mount for lathe and Rider Ericson hot air engine, still thinking about QCTP for lathe, Van der Graf generator etc

Regards
Nikhil

 

[ajoeiam]

This has been an eclectic mix of responses.

Hopefully not too frustrating for those not interested - - - -
(For those into gardening - - - )

I've been trying to find a forum like this one for gardening - - - - no luck yet - - - - and I'm more a 'northern (grin) gardener - - - - any suggestions?

 

[ShopShoe]

ajoeiam,

I'm not a gardener, but my wife and I are trying to grow some vegetables and flowers in our yard. My Dad was a great gardener all his life and he was a member of some garden clubs in his town.

I tried Googling variations of "Minnesota ... Garden .... Forum" and found some forums sponsored by clubs in your state. You might have some luck doing that. My Dad's gardening friends were a friendly bunch. There's probably also some information available if your state has an Ag extension system.

--ShopShoe

 

[Toymaker]

I know this is just not building, but I caught this photo of the sky last evening. It was from a parking lot as I was doing errands.

View attachment 137794

This sunset photo was taken today in Phuket (pronounced: Poo-ket), Thailand. Maybe caused by some interesting pollution circling the planet Whatever the cause, they're both beautiful sunsets.

 

[RM-MN]

This has been an eclectic mix of responses.

Hopefully not too frustrating for those not interested - - - -
(For those into gardening - - - )

I've been trying to find a forum like this one for gardening - - - - no luck yet - - - - and I'm more a 'northern (grin) gardener - - - - any suggestions?

Move south? I too am a northern Minnesota guy. I and my wife have planted tomatoes, beans, peas, lettuce, and radishes. My wife asked me to build a raised bed last year and she really enjoyed the vegetables grown and the fact that the raised bed was waist high so she didn't have to bend down to pick beans.

 

[Shelton]

@Toymaker - that is a stunning photo.

 

[Bentwings]

Story that sells, yes you can make statistics appear to say what ever your goal is at "story" level interpretations. For example how can ALL the bigger manufacturers have the top selling truck ? Well one could count every truck sold for the last 50 years ( rusting behind a barn doesn't matter) another could count every truck sold last week when a large fleet owner placed their order. Both above could be true without even bending the facts but maybe NOT telling you ALL of the pertinent data. Seems like a story that sells is might be more important than the"whole story" nowadays.
J

we went to a memorial barbecue and car show. Lots of unusual cars and trucks. For the real old timers there was an original Ardun flat head. These are hemi heads that were special made just for the flat head Ford engines only about 2000, sets were ever made most went on Ford dump trucks as they made a lot more power than the flat head. Many of these went into car racing I’ve only seen one other set. This car dates back to mid 50’s drag racing . It’s completely restored as street rod ‘32 Ford coupe . I remember the young mans dad. With yhecoriginal car.

 

[animal12]

I've always been amazed just how much punishment those old 239's could take for a motor with only 3 main bearings . Those Flatheads done right are one of the sexiest motors out there .
animal

 

[Nikhil Bhale]

This is a sunset photo I took during my last time offshore. One advantage of working offshore is you get to enjoy good sunrise and sunset. Also the air is fresh with little pollution.

 

[ajoeiam]

This is a sunset photo I took during my last time offshore. One advantage of working offshore is you get to enjoy good sunrise and sunset. Also the air is fresh with little pollution.

I've got no neat pics but if you want sunsets AND sunrises - - - why not come visit the northern prairies.

There is beauty and to spare - - - - clouds. storms, sunrises sunsets (and work!).

 

[stanstocker]

never use a television for a computer monitor unless it is designed for that purpose. I could offer a long explanation, but I won't.

Greetings,

I have to say that most modern 4K flat screens work quite nicely with computers. Text isn't quite as sharp as on my 4K 32 inch and 29 inch true monitors, but it's perfectly legible on my 42 and 52 inch flat screens, which have computers / android TV sorts of devices hooked up. A big benefit is that as aging eyes deteriorate a bit, a big screen can be used in a high resolution but with a large text and icon size. To have a 42 inch display for under $300 makes life a lot better and easier for folks who already have glasses as thick as a telescope objective.

If you need calibrated IPS display curves and such TVs are a non starter, but for watching youtube and doing casual browsing and email they work pretty well. I should try using something like LibreCAD on one of the large screens. I doubt the results will be as satisfactory as on a real monitor, but a lot of the "real" monitors sold these days are either full HD only as the focus is on gamers so response time is more important than getting to 4K, or have fairly lousy appearance until you get into higher end and higher cost monitors. My 4K 42 inch Samsung TV has sharper and better image quality than my several year old LG 32 inch full HD monitor, and it cost about the same this year as the LG monitor cost five years ago. It cost less than my 32 inch 4K true monitor.

Alibre on my laptop while travelling is perfectly usable on even most hotel room large screens, when travelling there is always a long HDMI cable in the bag. It's not high end monitor perfect, but it's perfectly usable without excess eyestrain or headaches. Probably not good enough for hours of work, but the current consumer grade 4K tv's are far better than the computer monitors most of us used for many years, and far better than the 1080p monitors Dell and HP bundled in their everything you need boxes. It's really quite pleasing to be able to get such a large and good display considering what we were paying for MAG, Viewsonic, and NEC monitors back in the old CRT days

An old TV using a VGA jack will probably not be very pleasing, but a current 4K large screen using HDMI may be completely suitable for most people. The biggest issue with current TV's is that they are too darn big for using on a normal desktop at normal viewing distances while also using a keyboard in a conventional "desktop" sort of set up.

Cheers,
Stan

 

[stanstocker]

What I'm doing today:

Trying to resurrect an old Wanhao duplicator I3 plus. Why? Heck if I know, I have an Ender3V2 that will always be a better printer. Guess it just bothers me to toss something that almost works, or maybe polishing things not meant to be polished is a sign I'm channeling Don Quixote.

Going through a lifetime collection of pliers, screwdrivers, tweezers, all the odds and ends of hand tools that accumulate in a lifetime of electronics and then clock repair and restoration. Have dupes and triplicates of many things as it was easier to have a tool set for house calls and another set for the shop. Time to put them all in good clean order, get some organization going between the shop buildings, and toss the old diagonal cutters with chewed up edges.

Writing here rather than walking the 500 feet to the shop as it's raining and I might melt...

Cheers,
Stan

 

[Toymaker]

Greetings,

I have to say that most modern 4K flat screens work quite nicely..... <snip>

It's really quite pleasing to be able to get such a large and good display considering what we were paying for MAG, Viewsonic, and NEC monitors back in the old CRT days

Cheers,
Stan

I could almost toast marshmallows over the old Viewsonic monitor I had many years ago; great monitor for it's time, but truly an antique compared to todays HD monitors and HDTVs.

 

[Steamchick]

I used the flux cored aluminum braze I mentioned in the topic on which braze to use; the residual flux is the whitish-grey color on the tube and aluminum block.
View attachment 137742 View attachment 137743

To clean off some very hard ceramic flux residue I use for Silver soldering or brazing of Stainless steel it says on the container to use "Caustic soda solution". Of course this will dissolve aluminium, but maybe if you use a diluted caustic solution and soaked COLD for a long period that would loosed the flux without much damage to the aluminium? I find 2 to 4 days of soaking that flux in Washing powder (for washing your clothes) will make it loose enough I can scrape it off easily with a sharp point or knife. It just flakes off.
K2

 

[ajoeiam]

I could almost toast marshmallows over the old Viewsonic monitor I had many years ago; great monitor for it's time, but truly an antique compared to todays HD monitors and HDTVs.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm - - - fascinating - - - - in the next room there sits a Viewsonic P815-4 monitor that has been the monitor for my wife's system since circa 2012 - - - its the sharpest display in the house - - -yet! I have 4 1920x1080s and a 4k display on my system and love the screen real estate but for sharpness - - - that old girl that I bought in 1999 is still the best. Most efficient or using the least amount of space - - - - smile - - -not at all - - - but then perhaps you were not referring to such a monitor. LCD is ok but I've got one of mine that is showing some 'ghosting' on occasion and at only 12 - - - - - that's not good enough in my books. Not trying to say that the older technology was 'wonderful' but it sure wasn't garbage either.

 

[Toymaker]

Hmmmmmmmmmmm - - - fascinating - - - - in the next room there sits a Viewsonic P815-4 monitor that has been the monitor for my wife's system since circa 2012 - - - its the sharpest display in the house - - -yet! I have 4 1920x1080s and a 4k display on my system and love the screen real estate but for sharpness - - - that old girl that I bought in 1999 is still the best. Most efficient or using the least amount of space - - - - smile - - -not at all - - - but then perhaps you were not referring to such a monitor. LCD is ok but I've got one of mine that is showing some 'ghosting' on occasion and at only 12 - - - - - that's not good enough in my books. Not trying to say that the older technology was 'wonderful' but it sure wasn't garbage either.

I bought my Viewsonic back in the 1990s,....exactly when I cant say. Mine quit working years ago and was taken to the local electronics recycling center. I never had the opportunity to do a side-by-side comparison between my Viewsonic and a modern LCD or OLED screen so I'll have to take your word that your old Viewsonic provides sharper pictures. But seriously, I used to set my coffee on top that monitor as it was great at keeping my morning coffee quite warm until I finished it.