The youth of today!!!

Remember that Miller welder with a TIG attachment that I bought for $0.99?

I sold it on Craigslist. The buyer paid $150 for it, which was a great deal for a working welder on a running gear, with a working TIG attachment.

The interesting thing is that the buyer is a teenager. (!!!)

I delivered and helped him unload. What he told me, then, was that he was going to convert it to single phase by installing capacitors on the primary side of the transformer.

I immediately gifted him the oil filled run caps that I had.

After a couple of weeks, he told me that it works great.

What I think, seriously, is that this guy may be the next Tesla. It is not really a huge accomplishment (just a great one) for a grownup, but for a teenager, it is pretty tremendous.

My stereotype of today's teenagers is that the ony thing they are good at is using cell phones and twitter. Turns out, that not all people are like that.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus14233
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It is always a joy to meet someone that is bright with a will to do things.

The internet is a real boon to those with a desire to go outside of the traditional box.

Wes

-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller

Reply to
Wes

Hey Iggy,

Don't lose his phone number. Get him to go with you and your son(s) to a live steam show sometime, or get him in contact with the Chicago Model Engineers.

He might like IMTS2010 coming up in September too. You too.

Take care.

Brian Lawson, Bothwell, Ontario. XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Reply to
Brian Lawson

Be nice to them -- they'll be our salvation when Chinese wages start reaching parity with ours, and we realize that we don't remember how to make stuff any more.

Reply to
Tim Wescott

Good for him.

Maybe Google help or Dad. There has been a number of news feeds on the subject. Either way, he is on his way up the road to independence.

Mart> Remember that Miller welder with a TIG attachment that I bought for > $0.99?

Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

We can just ask them how we use to make stuff, since they are so good at copying originally U.S. made items.

Darren Harris Staten Island, New York.

Reply to
Searcher7

I recently dumped a bunch of old things on Craigslist for very low prices, one of which was a mower which would start then die (but was otherwise still "bright and shiney") for a buck. Of all the projects I have, fixing another mower for fun is no longer on the list.

A kid about 18 picked it up. Clean looking kid, in an older, small truck.

I was glad that he got it, and I hope he was able to get it running and make a few bucks on it.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Danniken

I think that's the plan. Cheapjunk us, until all our factories close, and then tighten the noose around our wallets.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

He's probably sold it by now, to some very happy customer. Some teens have a gift.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

I'm not sure that they're thinking that far ahead -- they _are_ politicians, even if they're more crooked (or at least more blatantly crooked) than ours.

But that's what's going to happen, in effect.

I don't think it's all that bad, on a number of different levels -- I don't think they're going to maintain their totalitarian society when their prosperity gains level off, if they're busy trying to peacefully stomp our businesses into the ground they won't be busy trying to stomp our coastal defenses into the ground, and I can't be against them bringing themselves up to a higher standard of living.

If the Islamic fruitcakes in the Middle East were as good of business people as the Chinese, they could have bought the damn twin towers and papered over them with sayings from the Koran. But you have to turn off so many brain cells to be a religious fruitcake, you can't have enough left over to do business well.

If there's material salvation for us it's the whole "DIY" movement, with the rent-a-shops &c. I don't think we're _all_ going to forget how to work. Or at least I hope...

Reply to
Tim Wescott

Unfortunately, the religious nuts out there DO have a certain modicum of "DIY" ingenuity. Blowing up cars, digging tunnels, evading roadblocks, hijacking planes, welding piping for nuclear centrifuges and getting ahold of weapons are only a few of the things they're good at. Safely landing airplanes and placing inherent value in human life seems beyond them, however.

If only the rest of us didn't need that black gold over there. Let the fools spend their time trying to kill each other off, undisturbed by the modern world.

Reply to
TinLizziedl

And this is why I support "alternative energy". I would prefer the whole country covered with windmills, nuclear power stations, etc to having to kiss their asses.

Even the Three Mile Island accident was, essentially, a triumph of nuclear safety.

Then we would need oil for chemical production only.

I also agree with Buffett in that 20 years from now, almost all vehicles will be electric.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus8858

I know a young fellow that covers both- one of my son's classmates that is opening a rent-a-shop (member's shop?) in Boston.

Kevin Gallimore

Reply to
axolotl

--snip--

Yep. I love my humungous V-8, getting 12 to 14 MPG, but I also love my little Smart Car, getting 45 to 50 MPG.

I'm torn- Should we all drive big vehicles as much as humanly possible so as to use up all the world's oil as quick as we can, forcing us to evolve our power supplies? Or should we all drive extremely fuel- efficient vehicles when we drive at all, so as to try to cut consumption and stop making rich american-hating arabs and south-american despots richer?

I favor "green" energy sources too, BUT-- Anyone here wanna calculate the square footage of solar panels needed to strike and maintain a 110 Amp, 30 Volt welding arc for an average workday? Say, stick welding 30 to 45 lbs of 1/8" 11018? I bet those panels would be pretty darn big to support just one welder.

Reply to
TinLizziedl

TinLizziedl wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.west.earthlink.net:

And you STILL couldn't weld after nightfall...

Once the sun sets the electricty stops.

Reply to
Eregon

I do not see why we could not, in principle, have big electric vehicles, like electric pickup trucks. Why not?

With a couple of matteries and a charger system, they would not need to be very big.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus15573

sorry, batteries

Reply to
Ignoramus15573

We have had big electric vehicles for a *long* time - diesel-electric trains, electric trains with remote power (rail or catenary), the big quary dump trucks are diesel electric as well. What we don't have is batteries worth a damn for big applications.

Reply to
Pete C.

(...)

Indeed.

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--Winston

Reply to
Winston

The time ratio gets pretty ugly very quickly. A standard 120 portable MIG welder draws around 2400 watts. A moderate solar panel (36" square) puts out 45 watts in direct sunlight (and aimed at the sun)

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you would need an hour of charging to weld for 1 minute.

Reply to
RoyJ

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