New idea for work bench?

On Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:46:40 -0500, the infamous Don Foreman scrawled the following:

Ooh, ooh! I wanna come to your house and throw a lit sparkler on your lawn to watch it _explode_!

-- Mistrust the man who finds everything good, the man who finds everything evil, and still more the man who is indifferent to everything. -- Johann K. Lavater

If you ignite unconfined modern smokeless gunpowder, it just burns. If you confine it, it burns faster, but it still doesn't explode, even inside a cartridge fired in a firearm.

David

"David R.Birch" fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@news5.newsguy.com:

Ummm... den whut's dat big NOISE I hears ever time I pulls duh trigger?

"Explode" only means - in connotation - to burn quickly enough to produce a rapid enough expansion of gas to make a loud noise or do work. Gasses in a modern reciprocating engine "explode", even when burning smoothly, but do not "detonate" when working properly.

Are you sure you didn't mean "detonate", which has a specific meaning as applies to explosives? (flame front progresses through the medium faster than the speed of sound in the medium [and more stuff, but it's boring]).

LLoyd

Your idea wouldn't do me any good. I am usually standing a foot or more away from the workbench surface when I drop my last 2-56 torx flathead into the pile of swarf on the floor.

-Frank

Not everything is 0.000004 micron process and will be destroyed by +4

If you can feel it at all, figure upwards of 3000 volts. Those nice carpet scuff zaps are more likely 5000-6000 volts, or so the story goes.

The plastic bag scenario, training video was a long time ago, but as I recall it was several thousand volts involved. Remember, this was changing the value of a resistor as they were being placed into a plastic bag. A measly 4 volts won't do that.

They were also finding that damage was being done to semiconductors, but not enough to cause an immediate failure. By dissecting exposed (to zaps, but still working) semiconductor devices in the lab they could document areas where they had been weakened internally. It was interesting stuff.

Most of the parts can be ID'd okay, but finding some of the more specialized ones can be a problem. An even bigger problem is figuring out how to calibrate/align things without instructions. The stuff I repaired for the most part had good manuals, with instructions describing how the circuit was suppose to work, layout, schematic, parts listing... Sometimes you had to fly by-the-seat-of-your-pants though. Experience helps a lot, but that isn't always enough either (shrug).

Some things can't be replaced anymore. They just don't make'em. My labor is dirt cheap and amusement/learning can be priceless.

The mats we had at work were soft too. They held up well to most chemicals and mild abrasions. Almost all the radio gear went right on the mat, but I didn't always use the wrist strap depending on what it was and what I was doing to it. We had a cement floor which I'm sure helped a bunch too.

I put down something sacrificial too if I figured it would tear up the mat.

There were some harder mats/surfaces coming on the market as I was getting out. Would like to have looked them over in person as maybe a more durable surface. Doesn't matter much anymore. Now you just have to know how to pack & ship, open and re-unite product with said customer...

On Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:34:31 -0500, the infamous "David R.Birch" scrawled the following:

Aw, c'mon, Davey. We're playing here. The seriousity factor was zero. Everyone but them thar gun-grabbin' Liberals knew I was joshing.

P.S: After a quick wetting during the daily watering, the powder would no longer be granular and wouldn't be lighting, anyway.

-- Mistrust the man who finds everything good, the man who finds everything evil, and still more the man who is indifferent to everything. -- Johann K. Lavater

You're right, but I was responding to someone who thought he could make unconfined gun powder explode by just igniting it. It would neither explode nor detonate, just burn.

David

I don't know. I use a Dillon Square Deal. Got a heckuva deal on it and it's met my needs very nicely. The powder measure on it works well enough as doesn't matter for handgun ammo. It keeps a tolerance of 0.1 grain or so and I don't load handgun ammo anywhere near max pressure so 0.1 grain is plenty close enough for me.

I use a Rockchucker for rifle ammo and I weigh every charge.

The guys at the shop are spitting out ideas about how they want to fully automate. Can they hit 3,600/hr? I don't know HOW they ever got the idea...wink,wink! It has nothing to do with shooting anymore, it's something else.

One round per second seems quite realistic when everything is going right.

Some keys to this will be:

• getting brass to feed so it's positioned perfectly every time
• getting bullets to feed so they're positioned perfectly every time
• sensing primer misfeeds. When pulling the handle, those are sensed by feel. It's important to sense this or you may have a lot of ammo to disassemble upon inspection.

When doing it by hand with my SD, it seems the faster I try to go the longer it takes because I have more problems to deal with. If I just set an easy, steady pace of maybe 200 rounds per hour, it goes very smoothly without problems. I seldom load more than 200 rounds at a time and I don't mind spending an hour doing it.

The problem with static is not 4 volts. Static charges can easily run into the thousands of volts. Merely separating two dissimilar materials builds up quite a charge; look up the triboelectric series to see where various substances sit relative to each other.

The currents available are generally quite small, but more than sufficient to destroy tiny semiconductor junctions.

I do find that the anti-static packaging of *everything* that comes from electronics suppliers is overkill; perhaps it's easier just to stock one type of bag.

Joe

The Harbor Freight Magnetic Trays work pretty good for holding Stuff and they are cheap enough you can buy a half dozen and keep em on the shelf.

And when you drop one..and the magnet falls off the bottom..simply use a decent epoxy to put it back on.

Gunner

"Lenin called them "useful idiots," those people living in liberal democracies who by giving moral and material support to a totalitarian ideology in effect were braiding the rope that would hang them. Why people who enjoyed freedom and prosperity worked passionately to destroy both is a fascinating question, one still with us today. Now the useful idiots can be found in the chorus of appeasement, reflexive anti-Americanism, and sentimental idealism trying to inhibit the necessary responses to another freedom-hating ideology, radical Islam"

Bruce C. Thornton, a professor of Classics at American University of Cal State Fresno

You do know that those magnetic trays are made by communists in China, don't you? By purchasing them, you are supporting you enemy.

It appears that YOUR enemy is literacy.

Actually..they are made by little yellow capitalists, all held in check by your fellow Party members as quasi slaves.

By purchasing them, Im making sure they have something to eat, and a place to sleep and something to wear.

If we keep up the good work..the slaves will be able to live another month or two longer and sooner or later..probably right after we kill all of our Leftists..they will be strong enough to rise up and kill all of theirs.

So its a wonderful twofer..the Chinese Communists and you are dead.

And everyone is happy!

Gunner

"Lenin called them "useful idiots," those people living in liberal democracies who by giving moral and material support to a totalitarian ideology in effect were braiding the rope that would hang them. Why people who enjoyed freedom and prosperity worked passionately to destroy both is a fascinating question, one still with us today. Now the useful idiots can be found in the chorus of appeasement, reflexive anti-Americanism, and sentimental idealism trying to inhibit the necessary responses to another freedom-hating ideology, radical Islam"

Bruce C. Thornton, a professor of Classics at American University of Cal State Fresno