Ever felt stupid ... ?

"Arfa Daily" wrote in news:a9ncq.2650$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe07.ams:

that's not too bad. at least they were not embedded in the speaker cone.

Thank you for not making ME feel completely stupid.

Jeff

in,

fuse,

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sandwiches

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So did you put a lamp in there along with the fuse?

There already is a festoon bulb, as you often find, and it lights up jolly nicely when you give it a good thrashing. There was no indication on the board what value or type the fuse should be. There was a 1.6A fitted. The owner is not a 'dumb' user, so I'm guessing that the first time he replaced it, it was a 1.6A that came out. Seems about the right sort of value to me for a horn. The only thing that I would say, is that the fuse that was fitted, had no fusing characteristic markings, and looked like a 'straight' type - but I accept that it can sometimes be hard to tell just from appearance. It had failed 'cleanly', so may well have been just repeated stress. I have replaced it now with a 'T' rated type of different construction, so I guess we'll see ...

Arfa

Chuckle. Now, I don't feel so bad. I use plastic yogurt "tubs" to store screws. If the unit is going to sit around for more than a day, I transfer the contents to plastic zip-loc bags. My favorite idiot error is to knock over the tub, scattering hardware everywhere.

Things I learned a few days ago, while refilling laser printer toner cartridges.

- Do not try to fill a laser toner cartridge outside in the wind.

- Do not overfill the toner cartridge.

- Always empty the "waste" toner BEFORE refilling.

- Do not drop the toner bottle on the carpet.

- Do not vacuum toner with a non-HEPA filter bag.

- Do not empty trash can, full of loose toner, into the dumpster, in the wind.

- Having a spare change of clothes in the office is very handy.

Why do a partial job :)

Jamie

And cold water is your friend, HOT water really just makes it worse.

Jeff-1.0

replaced

'straight'

Partial shorted turns on the VC ?

Glue each of those to a base that is broader than the tub. A piece of 1 x 4 would do.

Right, then I can knock them ALL over at the same time.

Jeff (The other other one)

Won't work for me. There's no room on the workbench to put anything that big.

The plastic tubs work well enough when all that's inside are some screws. However, if I put in some brackets or sheet metal hardware, it becomes top heavy and subject to getting knocked over. Maybe cat food cans would work better.

Jeff Liebermann wrote:

That is pretty cramped. Adding a base to the cup, however shouldn't require _that_ much more real estate. The lip is usually wider than the bottom anyway. (My favorite beverage vessels have the inverse configuration.)

Douglas Fir is usually available, but it's the bare minimum. A chunk of Oak has several times the density. A piece of steel or lead as a base will offset most loads.

If there's enough steel *inside* the container, a heavy magnet beneath the platic tub might be the trick. Magnetized hardware might be an issue, however.

Yeah. Low-and-wide tuna cans are hard to upset. Again, brackets and such are the fly in the ointment.

No *one* perfect solution, I guess.

That was the RF bench at home. Here's some of the palatial office workbenches.

The other benches and desks are worse.

Every square mm is precious.

That makes them tip over. My problem is that I tend to put the cups and cans on top of the mess. Move anything and over it goes. Putting a base plate on the cup or can isn't going to help much. A bigger cup or can, with a cover, just might work.

Maybe if I clean up the mess... never mind, that will never happen.

Actually, the plastic zip loc bags seem to work well. I haven't dumped those all over the carpet, yet.

Hey I have that service monitor you have sitting there on your main bench, along with 2 8640B's with all the goodies in them. Looks like what you have sitting there in the middle of the pile on the upper deck towards the right..:)

Damn, that looks a lot like my place :)

I will say how ever, I have a bigger path to my benches! :)

Jamie

Been there several times. Make it now a priority to check the magnet structure for missing screws.

Hard to say. It measures about 6 ohms DC, and produces a nice click when the Avo is put across it on the /100 range. In my experience, if the Avo can make a speaker click, then the coil is probably good. Not very scientific, I know ...

I bunged about 10kHz in from the generator, and with the gain pot no more than half way up, it hurt my head, which would also tend to indicate that the horn is probably working pretty much as it should.

Arfa

I have a big bag of 35mm film pots scavenged from a local film developing lab. They have a nice 'click-fit' lid, and are just a nice size to 'jam' nicely into holes between bits of mech. They get endlessly recycled into the bag, then back out again and into some bit of equipment, and then back into the bag. They last for years. I use the white 'polythene' ones, and you can write on these with a Sharpie to remind you where the screws came from. When the pot comes to be recycled back into the bag, the writing is easily wiped off with a drop of alcohol on a cloth.

Arfa

My workshop was beginning to look like that - well maybe not quite that bad, but getting there. My elder daughter kept threatening to clear it up for me, so a couple of weeks back, I let her start going through the 'junk' under the benches, and on top of the one that I mostly work on. It was sorted on three basic criteria. If I didn't even know that the item was there, it was time for it to go. If I did know it was there, then it was up for evaluation. If it hadn't actually been used, or dragged out as a component donor in the last 2 years, then it was time for it to go. Otherwise, if it was potentially useful, or had some nostalgic value, then it was cleaned, catalogued, and tidied back away. The stuff that was deemed 'must go', was put up on FleaBay. So far, I've made nearly 400 quid ($600). It never ceases to amaze me what people will buy, and pay good money for. That said, I just sold an old CB radio. The guy that bought it messed me about with withdrawn and re-placed bids, and finally got it for a very good price. It was shipped out the next day by first class signed-for post. Despite my giving a very accurate description of it, he still found it necessary to continue asking me questions that he was now in a position to answer for himself. Finally, today, he left me feedback. "Received OK".

Cheers pal ...

Arfa

Jeff Liebermann wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

you could use an icecube tray,or a muffin/cupcake baking sheet(pan). they make them in several sizes. Or Even an old egg carton.

if you want to get fancy,use the cupcake liners in the cupcake pan,so you can lift the hardware out and dump in your ziploc bags.

then there's plastic fishing tackle boxes,available at WalMart. some of them,you can customize the compartment sizes.