Use of primitive tools

me too. just recently got one of those fancy new expensive can openers (wouldn't've got the fancy kind except the cheap ones i kept buying kept breaking, was sick of buying cheap junk). i've always used a rubber spatula to get every drop of soup/chili/etc. out of the can, and the ridge left from the new pull top cans were kind of frustrating. with the new can opener it's easy, leaves a smooth ridge-less edge. i just mention this to say, leon, you're not the only one. i think it's from my grandfather having gone through the depression, something like, he was abandoned and later adopted by an abusive family, hard times, tough childhood.

b.w.

Both my Mom and Dad went through the depression, WWII rationing and working for a living. Might be more of us around than I think, but most of the people I've been privy to observing don't bother...

What does it smell like? Does it look okay? Try tasting it... seems to be a lost art nowadays. People only seem to understand expiration dates anymore. Which I don't pay a whole lot of attention to :)

For a good regular can opener look at/for "Swing-A-Way". You need to have both the upper and lower wheels geared together. Used to run around $8 for one. We have two, the older one has been in use for ~30 years or more. Still works fine, probably would be a bit easier to crank if I gave it a good clean/lube job. Only had the safety cut for a couple years, don't know how well it is going to hold up. Bought it in hopes that it would work on the crummy pull-top cans, which it does. Mom can't crank it though, turns too hard. She can use the old Swing-A-Way just fine though.

I bought a new Swing-A-Way at K-mart about a year ago. I finally had to replace my 20+ year old Swing-A-Way can opener. :)

Yes, I have. I installed TV antennas in the '60s & '70s, then became a TV broadcast engineer in the early '70s. Later, I was a CATV engineer designing headens and distribution systems. I have the proper tools and test equipment to install, aim and test TV antennas. There just isn't anything usable around here, anymore.

You're lucky.

Why not just go for the Mac Tools, or Snap on truck. Every time I bought a multi purpose tool, it proved to do nothing well. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

The UD9 is more interesting. Diesel injectors, spark plugs, gas carb, switchable compression ratio.

Rabbit ears? UHF Loop?

You live a couple miles from the transmitter site,....right?

Ive got a 14' long vhf/uhf remote location/long distance antenna up on the roof and it feeds 3 sets with cable and a remote amp.

Gunner

"Aren't cats Libertarian? They just want to be left alone. I think our dog is a Democrat, as he is always looking for a handout" Unknown Usnet Poster

Heh, heh, I'm pretty sure my dog is a liberal - he has no balls. Keyton

There was no starting them by hand though. They were the same set up as the early IH diesel tractors.....they worked but there was a better way, as Oliver proved at least in the farm tractors. Steve

Baloney, I've started a UD9 by hand a number of times and it works fine.

Gerald Miller wrote: Every time I

That has been my experience also. Anything that tries to do multiple tasks sacrifices the ability to do any one of them the best. (for example a "Shop Smith" :-) ) ...lew...

In defense of the Shopsmith it may not be the most precise or rigid machine but it handles oversized jobs very well. They can drill a large hole straight into the end of a canopy bed post and rip a full sheet of plywood accurately using the fence on the extension table. I had no trouble making panel doors and tongue&groove flooring on one.

jsw

Um, you _do_ know you need either a digital-capable TV or one of those $50 (at Wally World) converter boxes, right?

I built one of those 4-bay bowties on youtube, and it seems to work fine, but I'm only about 20 mi. from Mt. Whitney.

Isn't Florida almost flat, such that almost anything is line-of-sight?

Good Luck! Rich

I've heard of a lot of the dodges used to get antique tractors and implements running. While it is possible to hand-crank small diesels in the Under 10 HP range (Hatz has several one-lung horizontal shaft engines) anything bigger you start playing with multi-fuel, and pony engines, and compression release shifts, and lighting a big wad of newspaper in front of the air inlet in lieu of glowplugs, and other dodges old and new...

Not all that safe, not all that reliable, and while a technically inclined person could do it no problem it certainly is not something you want your wife or mother trying at 3 AM in a snowstorm.

That's the time you need something roughly as simple as driving a modern car, or someone is going to get hurt.

It needs to be all hooked up and ready to go, and easily done following a short checklist.

And shutdown is the same in the reverse.

A fully automatic start and transfer switch would be ideal, but you can't turn a housewife into a competent field engineer. So you have to pick one that doesn't involve Technical Stuff like swinging a dead chicken over the engine (Counterclockwise only!) to get started.

-->--

The UD9 is ~50 HP, and indeed has the multi fuel and dual compression ratio. Pretty neat really since there are no glow plugs and if you were to bypass the diesel shutoff solenoid you don't need any electrical power to get it started.

Seems safe and reliable on the UD9. As for the later issue, anything short of a "start" button on the wall in the house tends to be a problem there.

On Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:56:33 -0500, the infamous Gerald Miller scrawled the following:

I was talking about receiving knives as a kid. We all wanted the super duper Swiss job but soon found out that they were hard as hell to use with all that other crap in the way. My current pocket knife is the mini Swiss, with a single blade, screwdriver/nailfile, scissors, toothpick, and tweezers. $10 at Target. Since I keep a 600 grit diamond paddle in the truck and a 600 grit 2x6" diamond plate at home, it's always sharp in under a minute after I've used it for awhile.

My Leatherman is extremely hard to open, so I keep it in the truck where I have other tools to use to pry the damned thing open. ;) It didn't prove nearly as invaluable to me as I had imagined. Kinda like the Swiss Army knife experience I had 30 years earlier.

I'm surprise I didn't get any feedback whatsoever about using all the blades on the knife the day you got it. Was I alone in doing that? I'd find that extremely hard to believe. We're a curious lot here and

-not- doing that would seem to go against the grain.

-- Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of 'crackpot' than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that seem important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost. -- Thomas J. Watson

Hmm ... while I used someone else's Leatherman, when I went to a knife store which had them, they also had the Gerber, and after examining them both, I got the Gerber.

Reason? The pliers body slides out of the handles, instead of the handles unfolding around it and presenting semi-sharp edges to the hand trying to close the pliers to grip something. *And*, if you hold it just right, a flick of the wrist and the pliers extend -- one handed

-- to position for use.

The "hold it just right" involves letting the handles rest flat on the fingers, and bring the thumb down on the other side of both handles so the thumb extrudes a bit between the handles and thus separates them slightly. Then flick the wrist, and the head of the pliers slides out and locks in position. You can also close it one-handed, pressing the two buttons with thumb and index finger while the back of the jaws rests against the heel of your hand, hten pull in and the head slides back into place.

To get the knife blades, screwdriver blades, or file out, you do need both hands however, but often I simply need the pliers and am in a position where I only have one hand to devote to the task of opening the pliers.

Also -- the design means that the part which you grip while closing it on some workpiece is a flat stainless steel with nicely rounded edges, instead of two semi-sharp edges. A lot more comfortable to use seriously.

The ones which I have include a cylindrical adaptor which slides over the square shank of the Phillips bit, and accepts 1/4" hex screwdriver bits, of which six (along with the adaptor) are stored in a rubber carrier in a secondary pouch on the belt case.

We all do it -- so why discuss it? :-)

Amen!

Hmm ... what do you find wrong with the needle nosed version? That is what I am using, and I find it quite useful for what I need. (I've even fixed a chain-mail bra -- in situ -- at a SF con(vention). The ring joining the two cups was opening up under the strain. No, I don't know her name or phone number -- my wife was with me. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

It was an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, stainless steel chainmail bikini That she wore for the first time today. (With thanks to: Andrew Mac Rob et al)

Gunner Asch wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

How about

after seeing your comment i went back and re-looked and you're right. glad we can agree on something. very cute and nice curvy feminine figure, nice junk in da trunk. i just posted the url of the pic but this is the flickr page... there's another pic of her there. (there is SOME bit of metalworking content there.) too bad i'd just be a creepy old man to her.

the title of this song comes to mind.

b.w.