Tips.

[leitmotif]

Using a five gallon plastic bucket, inserting your power leads across from each other, fill bucket with water and gradually add salt to measure your current levels . Not recommended!! However sometimes when your out in the field its a good way to test breakers.

Did the basic same thing for testing weldor outputs. However used baking soda instead of salt to prevent chlorine generation.
Worked great I just changed teh depth of one electode to change current.

Dan Bentler

 

[Lancie1]

How about the old emergency thermocouple weld trick?

1. Pour some mercury into a small clear glass jar, so that you have approximately a 1/2" deep pool of mercury.
2. Pour about 2" of oil (mineral is preferred, vegetable will work) on top of the mercury to act as an arc suppressor.
3. Connect the neutral (white) wire from a 120 volt AC power cord to a heavy washer or other weight to hold the wire in the bottom of the jar, so that it is immersed in the mercury.
4. Connect the hot 120 volt AC wire to one end of your thermocouple extension wire, twisting both TC wires together and splicing to the power cord with a wire nut.
5. Twist the other ends of the TC cable together
6. Plug the cord into a 15 amp 120 volt receptacle.
7. Lower the twisted TC wire ends into the mercury.

When it touches, there will be a small arc, the TC wires will weld together in a small neat bead, the mercury will be blown away from the wire, and the oil will suppress the arc. Now you may safely remove it from the jar. An instant thermocouple weld was made. It is fast, easy, and I have never had an accident, tripped a breaker, or had any problems in making hundreds of thermocouples over the years.

The problem nowdays is finding some mercury. We used to play with it, but now it is considered to be an enviromental hazzard. If you do find some (old thermometers), save it for future use!

 

[geniusintraining]

There just something about live wires, liquid, and small explosives (controlled or not), that I don’t care to be around. Oh ya did I forget to mention that the liquid that is exploding is a carcinogenic

 

[Rod]

From '67 on I used MEK, Lacquer thinner, methyline chloride, other fun chems. Immersed up to my elbows daily, breathing in and practically bathing in those oh so sweet fumes.

I'm now 57 years old - found a spot on my forehead 5 years back, then 3 years ago had 60% of my tongue cut out and NOW I have TERMINAL bone cancer. Cancer HURTS!!!! All my docs can do is write a 'script for *******.

Those labels that say "This product is known to cause cancer in California" - well guess what - they cause cancer here in Texas too.

Even if you have to you buy your own. - - - Carbon filter masks, high quality gloves, Quick Orange hand cleaner - rinse, rinse, rinse. And when the boss says 'Spray paint that machine with Imron paint" tell him where to ......

Maybe you younger guys will see your grandkids graduate

Rod (The CNC Dude) - If only I had known

 

[TConnolly]

Actually mike i find that just the Electrical tape works the best on minor cuts, Something in the glue..?

Superglue works great too. Pinch the cut together, apply a drop.

 

[TConnolly]

I found the brine tank discussion of interest and googling I stumbled across this site that has answers to hundreds of scientific questions.
By the way I found on that site that pure water is a poor conductor here. Cool.

Brian.

When the performance of your home vaporizer starts to taper off just add a bit of table salt to the water. Most vaporizers heat the water by passing a current thru it.

De-ionized water is commonly used in cooling systems where the water must contact energzied components. De-ionized water and distilled water will not conduct electricity.

 

[ToddM]

Hi Folks...OkiePC wrote

Use a short piece of 3/8" (or is it 1/4"?) tubing to extract lamps from pushbutton sockets.

The jacket off of SJO cord works too. I carry a piece heatshriked to the end of a 1/4 in nutdriver with the end cut off, so it has a handle.

Later....Todd

 

[Ron Beaufort]

Rod,



I don’t know how to say anything that won’t come across as trite or unfeeling. Saying “I’m sorry” doesn’t even come close, but it’s all that I can do.



We thank you for the warning.

 

[cdisher]

Good Morning:

A shot of WD 40 in the carburetor of a balky lawnmower usually helps it start.
To get a tubless tire to seal on the rim, Spray a SMALL amount of starting fluid (ether) into the tire. Stand back and throw a lighted match at the tire, The resutlng explosion will seat the tire. Be sure the tire id restrained. I doubt OSHA will approve!

 

[rsdoran]

Geez its been thirty years

The first time I got married I took a job working at a salvage yard that busted cars into little bitty pieces. The system separated the fluff (seats, plastic etc) from the metal and I had the good fortune to drive a truck to haul the fluff.

The yard was strewn with metal so flats were a regular thing. It was a tandem axle dump and on any given day I would replace at least 4 or 5 tires but on some days I did over 10.

Anyway I chained and gassed them to make and break the seal. I have not done that since nor will I ever do that again.

Talk about young and dumb but thats how I was shown to do it.

 

[TimothyMoulder]

Rod,

Like Ron said, thanks.

TM

 

[wes]

Tip...

You can clean your dog with a spray bottle with Listerine (original) and water (50/50). Just spray and wipe.

There is a book called "Paint Your House With Powdered Milk, and Hundreds More Offbeat Uses for Brand-Name Products" You may find it interesting.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0786882085/103-6706047-8723846?v=glance&n=283155

 

[Lancie1]

Thanks for the warning Rod, and sorry about your condition. I know some younger guys that could profit from your advice.

 

[leitmotif]

Rod,

I would not wish cancer on anyone, sorry for your bad luck. You do have an important message for the rest of us to hear.

Dan Bentler

 

[Alan Case]

Here is one that I would not recommend to anyone to use but when I was young and silly it did work.
On a building site with a central services area, we had conduits (25mm) out to the walls (30 metres distance) for power, telecoms etc.
The bricklayers or concreters on the 5th floor had tipped concrete into the conduits at the wall ends (probably just to be smart**rses) so therefore our conduits were totally blocked. The external walls had been bricked in up to a height of about a metre then the glass windows were installed. I remember someone telling me how acetylene could clear a blockage so I put the oxy acetylene torch down the pipe in the centre of the building and just turned on the acetylene. My mate was at the wall end and when he could smell the acetylene he shouted for me to turn off the torch (which gave about the right mix of acetylene to air in the pipe) and then he held a lighted peice of paper at the wallbox hole at the base of the wall. There was a loud explosion and all the rocks/cemet was blown out of the conduit into the wall cavity and we had a clear pipe. We had 9 to clear but on about the 5th one it seemed to take forever for him to smell the acetylene. I did not know that the conduit extended higher into the wall cavity than normal and that the whole cavity filled up with acetylene before he could smell it. When he put the flame to the hole there was an almighty explosion that blew him back about 5 metres, blew all the sill bricks off and shook a 6 storey above and 2 storey below ground mainly concrete building so bad that the site foreman felt it in the level one basement. Luckily no-one was killed and I had to raid the companies petty cash to pay the brickies to rebrick the wall. Much wiser now.
Regards Alan Case