Metal working with digital camara

Killer good idea! Congrats on your good thinking.

Harold

If you had room to slide a mirror in there to view the motor plate you could have photographed the mirror and then 'flipped' the photo in a photo software application.

I had to do that too recently. Another trick is to take an impression of the nameplate using modeling clay. If you're *really* looking you might be able to get your data that way.

BTW the lathe I was looking at was a 2-speed lathe (2 motor speeds) and it was 440 only.

GWE

Ah, good point. I've also done the digital camera in a tight spot thing, and may have a chance to try the mirror method this weekend (removing an engine from a new-ish car, with the to be expected tight engine compartment). Thanks for the idea.

My digital camera has been handy for helping my declining short term memory remember the way things where were before I disassemble the whole shebang.

Jeff

That is a GREAT idea, as long as I can remember where I put the camera.

On Fri, 07 Jan 2005 18:20:22 -0500, Jeff Wisnia calmly ranted:

That's an EXTREMELY good use for the camera, especially when something may sit in pieces for months at a time. I wish I'd had one back when I had to remove entire dashboards from Porsche 928s, etc., then wait for parts to be made in large runs in Germany before taking a slow boat over here.

I have a Nikon Coolpix 995 which can focus down to a few millimeters and sure wish I'd had it back in '84. Upload the pics to the computer and print them out for later use.

They're also fun to see the original condition and track the status of refurbs for the machinery we rebuild.

-- Remember: Every silver lining has a cloud. ----

It isn't just the digital cameras .. way back in the early '70s I saw the machinists in the shipyards, faced with tearing down a strange (huge) ship engine, shooting rolls of film before they started. - GWE

As a machine tool tech...mine has been essential when rebuilding gearboxes.

Gunner

It's not unwise to remember that Mother Nature is essentially a murderous, sneakly, promiscuous bitch who has been trying to kill you since your conception.

Eventually she will succeed, perhaps with the help of your fellow man.

Life consists in putting off the inevitable as long as possible and taking what good and joy you can before her success.

Whether you attribute that situation to evolutionary forces, a fallen nature after Adam and Eve screwed the pooch, or whatever, it's no less true.

Be friendly, pleasant, unaggressive, and honest toward all and be prepared to ignore, avoid, or even kill anyone who is otherwise toward you. Being ready doesn't mean eager, just ready. What true friends are found in life will undestand and accept that fundamental rule of human interaction." John Husvar

Likewise, I did the take a picture at arms length - but it was a blind access to the back of our TV. It has 6 sets of Digital and analog inputs. Don't you just love stuff with options...

I had to patch in and the cables were only long enough with the TV in the final position. The TV also requires 4 HE men to pick up, one to rotate it but the camera did the trick. Knew from the picture and walked the hand down the back and into the correct input.

Good input - and thought I would add another hint to the group.

Martin

I took one of those tiny video cameras you can buy at places like Marlin Jones for about fifty bucks. Soldered a white LED and a 330 ohm resistor to its 5V supply. Use any TV with a LINE IN as a monitor. What got me into this was a solder joint broke on my wife's speedometer on the dashboard PC Board. No way in hell am I taking that dash apart (Jaguar). So...Prefocussing its little lens at a working distance of 6", I was able to rest it on the cables, while taking a dab of conductive epoxy. It worked great. Now I have a surplus"Periscope" left over from the job. Sure, I had to go through some awful contortions to do the job, but it only took 20 minutes, opposed to all day. Then I was able to find a surplus automotive-type LCD monitor on ebay for very little..they are the 12V ones that people use in RV's. Now I have a complete setup for a hundred bucks, without stealing a TV to use. The little cameras put out a composite video viewable on any LINE IN device. These things fit where a real digital camera cannot. and they display realtime.

Sort of like arthroscopic surgery. Or maybe gynocology. ;-)

Most of the teeny-tiny digital cameras have video out (though NOT at full x megapixel resolution). If you have one of those, all you may need is the little LCD monitor. It would be nice to have a high resolution (at least 1600 x 1200) video camera set up with a 10:1 lens so I could use an LCD monitor instead of a microscope for little circuits. Edmund Scientific would probably want $5K US for something like that- I wonder if a high res camera is available for cheap?

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Yesh, working under thta dash on that thing is very much like:

The young Obstetrics Resident, despite a wonderful talent, could not stand the demands or residency, so he quit . At first, he was at a loss as to what to do, and happened to notice an opening, working for a painting conrtractor. To his surprise, he really enjoyed it! One day, he was to go to a job to paint a living room. He phoned in later in the day to tell the Boss the job was done. "What do you mean??!!! You never picked up the KEY to the customer's HOUSE!!! It is still hanging here in the office!!!

"I got here this morning and realized I had forgotten it, but rather than drive all the way back, I did the job through the keyhole".