2020 POTD Thread Archive

[Nogoingback]

That came out really well! How much was the blade?
I'll answer that ~ $10 for the 6", ~ $15 for the 9". That's pretty cheap.

Any special precautions? Hearing protection advised? I have some 1/4" stuff to cut that's just bigger than my HF 4x6 bandsaw can handle. How do you start the cut? At 8 TPI thats 2 teeth for 1/4". Is it grabby?

I always use ear protection in the shop if I'm making any noise at all, but yes, it was noisy. Getting it started took a little care because it jumped around a bit until the cut was established. LOTS of vibration though: I had to stop a couple of times to give my upper hand a break. I clamped the stock to the edge of the table saw and pulled the saw towards me,
and had no problem. Not a fast cut, just sort of slow and steady.

Edit: I also found that by playing with cutting speed, I found that I could improve cut efficiency quite a bit. Too
fast and it didn't cut well at all.

 

[Nogoingback]

Well it took few days. We did found couple of bullet shells, from a AK47 probably, but we wore very lucky not a single stone, only sandy soil and clay. But the cat worked, and we started to work at 5 AM the guy keep digging till he reached the max depth on his machine but only on the side near the door, the other side we hit clay, so down we went with my hammer drill, pick and a shovel and we dealt with the clay by hand. That is unusual, the guys running diggers will get what they can with a machine and you deal with the rest. Perhaps he feel bad for dragging the job and me doing so many repairs on his machine. And he changed me only his cost for fuel and other expenses. I helped him load the machine and we said goodby, but few minutes later he got back on foot. It started to drizzle a bit as he was leaving and he chose to go from the back road which is dirt and he managed to slip off the road, near tip the truck and machine. I got down there i got in the truck, he in the mini digger and we plow a new road, made a real mess but got him on the road. What a journey just to dig a hole in my garage.

Congratulation on getting the pit dug out. The guy with the Cat should have payed you instead. I don't want to ask why you have AK47 rounds under your house...

 

[pontiac428]

@pontiac428 not to argue with your experience, but, according to Specific Gravity of gasses,

It's cool, Wobbly. Specific gravity plays a very, very small part. Smaller than even the Adiabatic lapse rate. What you would use to determine the behavior of gas in the death-pit scenario is called Fick's Law of Diffusion. That will tell you what speed the gas will move in the atmosphere. And Dalton's law says the gases aren't going to work against one another to reach equilibrium. These are the principles I was applying. The death pit of argon just isn't a convincing reality. If argon were on par with a hazard such as ethylene oxide, it would come with the same labeling HER=5, which is potential insta-death. Instead, Argon is placarded with a demure HER=0. It's not recognized as a risk.

 

[WobblyHand]

Argon is a simple asphyxiant and an inert gas. The MSDS simply states that "this product may displace oxygen and cause rapid suffocation." Ethylene oxide is very different, it has multiple hazards, which you are plainly aware of. It's unstable, poisonous and flammable. As such they are labeled and handled differently. Nonetheless, rapid suffocation is a hazard. Death via either gas isn't desirable.

There are natural death pits with CO2, of volcanic origin. At Mammoth Lake (I think in the 90's) there was a large tree die off due to CO2 coming from the ground. In Italy, there are places where CO2 comes up from the ground making a life free zone in low areas. There are records of both animal fatalities and human ones in that region. Fatalities seem to occur every decade or two. These are different than a slow leak from a tank. Slow leaks of asphyxiants into low areas is the hazard. Many times it's a non-issue and sometimes it's a big issue. From what I understand Lake Nyos in Cameroon periodically burps up CO2 dissolved in the water. In 1986 this occured in the evening and 2000 people suffocated in their sleep. The layer of CO2 was estimated to be 20 ft thick and swept into the villages and countryside. The flow rate was far faster than diffusion.

Whether argon can do this from a simple small slow leak, probably not. But safety isn't always about the most probable stuff that happens. You and I both know what can happen if a tank falls and breaks the neck. That is not a probable event. But I'm sure both of us use safety chains for our tanks! That's because if it does happen, there will be a lot of damage or death. This is the reason we use chains.

You and I have different perspectives and that's fine. We all deal with some level of hazards in our lives. Stuff that you do might seem hazardous to me and vice versa. As long as we are aware of the hazards and their relative magnitudes and act accordingly it's all good. It seems we are basically agreeing on the big picture, only differing by our estimates of risk. It's cool.

 

[Jim F]

A little help for old eyes.
Added a DI mount to measure cross slide travel, the little dials on the SB 9C are hard to read, and it takes out the .010" backlash.
Only drawback, if it is one, I am .150" from touching at the farthest out position.

 

[Tim9]

I only mentioned the argon because I remember reading a newspaper article of a death. I believe it was a tank car of a train. Might have been welders repairing something but not sure of specifics because it was a while ago. problem with Argon is you won’t smell it.
But, it was definitely argon and someone died. This discussion of argon then resurfaced when a boat builder of YouTube fame insisted on mounting his big 300cf argon tank below deck on a steel hulled boat. Another commentator even mentioned that Coast Guard Regs restricted any welding tanks below deck.
Anyway....it’s the little dumb stuff which gets you. The dumb stuff gets you.....
Thats a saying I remember from an old drug dealer. It’s always the dumb stuff that gets you busted.
Like the incandescent drop light bulb while pulling a gas tank from a vehicle. Gas hits the bulb..... Boom !
Dumb stuff.....but deadly in any case.

 

[francist]

Only drawback, if it is one, I am .150" from touching at the farthest out position.

I hope I’m not misunderstanding the 0.150” shortfall, but if it’s a question of reach and not travel on the indicator you can get extension tips for a few dollars from the usual suppliers. I have a few different types and lengths that I change back and forth as needed.

-frank

 

[Jim F]

It

I hope I’m not misunderstanding the 0.150” shortfall, but if it’s a question of reach and not travel on the indicator you can get extension tips for a few dollars from the usual suppliers. I have a few different types and lengths that I change back and forth as needed.

-frank

It is reach, and I doubt I will ever be turning anything that large.

 

[francist]

That’s what I keep saying, .... and why I keep having to buy bigger and bigger micrometers

 

[GoceKU]

I don't want to ask why you have AK47 rounds under your house...

I'm not a gun guy, so they are not my. They are probably left from 2 world war or there is a firing range near me, so some soldier may have been target practicing on their way there.