What Did You Buy Today?

Aukai said:
8 bucks well spent. What's the wall thickness?
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It’s 3/32” wall.
Would make a heck of a custom exhaust silencer can for a moto :D


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gr8legs said:
Several years ago whilst at my semi-local tool supplier (Winks Hardware in Portland - a wonderful old-fashioned hardware store) I saw in their showcase a dial caliper that had divisions in 1/64" fractions. Instant sale. Fractional inches! For instance: instantly figure out what dril size I have from a grab bag assortment! instead of converting mils to fractions in my brain box or consulting a wall chart!! (No, I have not memorized all 64ths of an inch values!) Lots of other potential uses. What could be cooler?

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But after the initial thrill wore off I had the same problem in that the dial caliper, although it did have 1/64" divisions only labeled every 1/16" and I still had to figure out where I was if between major divisions.

So, recently perusing the world-wide web mall (eBay) a listing for digital caliper: Inch / Metric / Fractional showed up. Probably been around for ages but I just noticed them - ` and I quickly hit the 'Buy It Now' button.

Item just arrived, a Fowler Instruments plastic digital caliper with Inch / Metric / Fractions. Direct readout down to 64ths! Way cool.
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Of course I never get just one of something so I also ordered from another seller a stainless version of a Fowler digital caliper that does the same thing. The plastic one seems very well made and I'm sure the metal version will last forever. I have had a Fowler caliper for 20+ years and other than occasionally replacing the battery it has been absolutely bulletproof.

And also, a note about Fowler customer support: When I was reading the eBay listings there was a bit of ambiguity in the resolution specifications. A phone call to Fowler's toll free customer support line got exactly the answer I needed to proceed from someone who had English as a first language. Although obviously the caliper came from Asia their customer support is USA and first rate.

Naturally, YMMV and all that but I'm a happy camper!

Stu
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Stu,
I just had a flashback...

About 1987 I was 23 years old working for Tektronix as an R&D engineer. We had a bad vibration problem with a plasma etcher--the mechanical vacuum pump and roots blower was vibrating the vacuum chamber and causing metrology issues. We diagnosed the problem to a bellows that collapsed too much to be an effective vibration isolator. We needed springs of the right size and stiffness to hold the bellows apart and let them do their vibration isolation magic. There was no WWW back then, and figuring out the right solution from catalogs was not very promising. It was then that I learned from our tech about Winks.

We drove Wink's old location (in Old Town as I recall, or maybe just in NW but before they moved to their new location?), went down in the basement with a salesman. There were rows and rows of bins of more hardware than I'd ever seen in my life. The lasting memory was reaching for a spring in a bin and being snapped at that I was, under no circumstances, to touch anything. I'm sure because they learned the hard way that hardware is easily misplaced back into the wrong bin.

Anyway, a formative experience.

But I digress...

Back to buying cool stuff!

Evan
 
ACHiPo said:
We drove Wink's old location (in Old Town as I recall, or maybe just in NW but before they moved to their new location?),
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Yeah, I started going to Winks when I worked for Tek also but only rarely job related to my position as a marketing staff engineer. They moved to a location in the near-in southeast part of PDX on Stark Street and a much smaller facility so a lot of the amazing inventory had to be downsized. Sad but they are still the premiere hardware store in Portland and apparently still going strong even with the Interwebs competition. I hope.

Nice to see another Tekkie here!

Stu
 
Scored this grinder stand for $30. Brand new, never used.
And $15 for like-new 4” drill press vise that I’m going to turn into a ring roller.

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DavidR8 said:
Scored this grinder stand for $30.
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I've had the same stand supporting my disc sander for a looong time. I kept thinking that I would weld the thing together, but to my shock and surprise, it's never gone wobbly on me after all that time. Good score!
 
pontiac428 said:
I've had the same stand supporting my disc sander for a looong time. I kept thinking that I would weld the thing together, but to my shock and surprise, it's never gone wobbly on me after all that time. Good score!
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I’ve been wondering how to deal with my belt sander because I’d like to roll it to the overhead door when grinding. A trio of locking casters should do the trick.

Edit: even just carrying the thing the ten feet would be fine :)
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DavidR8 said:
I’ve been wondering how to deal with my belt sander because I’d like to roll it to the overhead door when grinding. A trio of locking casters should do the trick.

Edit: even just carrying the thing the ten feet would be fine :)
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Oh, no- don't use casters. That's not just a no, it's a hell no. If a locked caster swivels around on you (like they always do) you might just feed your hands to the rotating belt. No, you want a steady, solid pedestal for your belt sander. Pull it into position by grabbing the heavy part and dragging it on two of its legs. Set it up so one leg points straight towards the operator, then put your foot on that leg while running your sander to keep it from walking away. Casters have their place, but this application ain't one of them!
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I have a tendency to agree with not using the locking casters, but that being said, I have used them. Generally, two swivel and two stationary all with locks. But a retractable pedal foot is much better.

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Today i stopped by the tool/ flea market there was some machinist tools but they all are in very bad condition. First thing i found was guards for a bench grinder 2$ bought them. Couple of day ago i did broke my 27mm socket, so i bought me a new one 5$ last thing i bought was a solar light bulb 4$, i carry them in every car the onboad solar panels seam to keep them charged when i need them.
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