Concrete and Gravity Can Be Your Worst Enemy.

[W1RKW]

When you're holding an expensive hard to get hi-watt ceramic Dale resistor in your hand and turn, then bump into something you have no intention of bumping into and having it knocked out of your grip and see it bounce onto a concrete floor then break into a bunch of unrepairable pieces that sucks big time.  

I was about to install a 50Kohm  100w resistor into the 813 rig when I went to turn and bumped up against the rack and out it came.  Ceramic makes a very interesting sound when it hits cement.  Wish I could have recorded it. It's a sound you want to avoid.

[N3DRB The Derb]

 

[K9PNP]

I feel your pain.  At least it wasn't a dilithium crystal; then Scotty would have a real problem getting the final powered up.

Live long and prosper.

[k4kyv]

That's the  way I felt when I lost my  grip and dropped the 8005 tube less than 12" to the carpeted wooden floor, and when I tested it, realised that I had managed to knock the filament open.

[k3zrf]

Ceramic makes a very interesting sound when it hits cement.

I remember the sound of a 1800pf vacuum variable losing its vacuum as the glass cracked when the coupler between the puller and turning shaft let go.

There was a BIG quiet following that moment

[K1JJ]

I have a shelf above the computer table where I sometimes store parts. Like a dummy, I stood a near-new 4PR-1000A and chimney on top. The shelf wasn't all that stable. A few days later I bumped the shelf and watched the tube and chimney tip over and slowly roll to the edge - it was out of my reach -  and then dropped about 6' to the tile floor. Totally smashed. To add insult to injury, it took me days to find all the little pieces of glass. It went off like a scatter bomb...


If that wasn't enuff, I decided to replace this new vacancy in my amplifier with an expensive 3CX-3000A7. I bought it new for $800.  After installation, I found one of the bypass caps attached to the homemade fil lead brackets had come loose. The only way was to use the torch to resolder it back on.  I didn't bother to remove the tube. I must have let too much heat get to the fil seal cuz after 15 seconds I heard a faint "pop".  The tube sucked in air and was ruined in an instant.

Bob, misery loves company - may you have a better day as a result of everyone's stories...

T

[WA1GFZ]

man 8005 we will be needing two of them at work someday. We have this KA 200 watt McIntosh amp we use in test. The plate of one looks really beat.

I lost a 4-1000A smoke stack once when it was sitting on  top of a rack and I bumped it

Remember that device in the old cartoons where you could pull a rope and a foot would kick you in the rear end.
Interesting on the vacuum variable. I guess it is a good idea to stake the shaft.

[k3zrf]

Interesting on the vacuum variable. I guess it is a good idea to stake the shaft.

Oddly enough the shaft was staked....I was disassembling the cap to put in the new tuner....I forgot to relax the cap before loosening the screws in the coupling.....man did I feel stupid for a long time.

Would have rather dropped that ceramic resistor 

[W9GT]

and......the sound of:  crack....ssssssssssssssssssss...after knocking the top cap (stud) of a rare 75TH against the next higher chassis in a 30K-4...OH THE PAIN! 

73,  Jack, W9GT

[KB5MD]

I bought a pair of 813's at Hamcomm in Plano, Tx. and dropped them within 30 seconds of purchase.  The three cats in  my workshop/hamshack have taught me to not place anything in a precarious position.

[N3DRB The Derb]

I forgot to relax the cap before loosening the screws in the coupling.....man did I feel stupid for a long time.

I dont have to do anything to get that feeling. Starts the second I wake up. Stops when I go to sleep.

[W1ATR]

This thread is bad karma for me. Just creamed a nice eimac 4-400 a few days ago. It's a home brew hack using the high power deck out of an old parted out Junkston Invader 2000. The deck is mounted in a smaller cabinet that's just right on the table for the slopbucket yaesu and the 1000lb invader psu sits on the floor. I wanted to swap the two tubes for another pair to test them out, so I removed the back, grounded the HV lead and removed the cap. Wiggled the tube a bit to get it out of the socket and my hand popped upwards with the tube in it and smacked the anode against the top of the enclosure.

A quick and depressing "clink,,,,ppffftttttt", and another 4-400a passed into history. I wasn't happy. 

[W1ATR]

Thru the miracle of remembering to read previous posts, I see Jack did pretty much the same anode smacking thing. Now I don't fee so bad.

[ke7trp]

Funny thread.. I just listed to a story on the air of a guy Dropping a Valiant.  He said almost all tubes smashed and the VFO knocked through the front. It was all but totaly destroyed.

I remember when an AMer told a story of Dropping an R390A down TWO flights of Concrete stairs. The thing banged down the first flight, Turned the corner, banged down the next flight was laying in a parking spot of his apt building. The sad thing is, he finally got a house and was moving it to put it into service...

The 4PR-1000 story really hurt.. What a great tube!

[KA2QFX]

Great thread.  Reminds me of someone who recently removed a nice new 3-500Z and placed it down on the soft seat of an easy chair thinking it was as safe a place as any... until his wife dropped a box of "junk" on the chair.  POP!

Here's something I live by.  Whenever my Dad used to take apart something delicate he always handed it to me and told me to place it on the floor "over there", out of the way.  When I inquired why everything else went on the bench but that went on the floor he said, "Because nothing ever falls OFF of the floor".   That philosophy has worked for me several times when "intruders" have bumped about my workspace.


Mark

[WA1GFZ]

I was thinking about this thread  today when I had to remove the vacuum variables sitting in the linear to install the mounting plate sub deck. I decided to carry them one at a time far away so they would be safe.  Just think of tripping with two in your hands. Deck plate is now near the final position and caps in their mounting holes. I figure I will have to remove them at least a dozen more times before all the drilling and blasting is completed.

[Opcom]

Ceramic makes a very interesting sound when it hits cement.

I remember the sound of a 1800pf vacuum variable losing its vacuum as the glass cracked when the coupler between the puller and turning shaft let go.

There was a BIG quiet following that moment

I feel your pain. Mine was 2000pF/15KV. It rolled off the top of a 4 FT Symbolics 3600 computer rack I was building a 4CX5000 leenyar in. I never went back to the project, sold it to some guy from Waco. I never want to hear that breakage sound again.

I forgot to relax the cap before loosening the screws in the coupling.....man did I feel stupid for a long time.

I dont have to do anything to get that feeling. Starts the second I wake up. Stops when I go to sleep.

I thought it was just me that felt that way. Sometimes I feel half-dead during those hours instead though.

I bought a pair of 813's at Hamcomm in Plano, Tx. and dropped them within 30 seconds of purchase.  The three cats in  my workshop/hamshack have taught me to not place anything in a precarious position.

I saw that sadness -this year, right? I was not the one who made the smirky remark. Only the 18 year old cat is allowed in the shack because she's too feeble to get up on things and break them poor thing.

Also last year at hamcom, a well-whiskered fellow bought a NOS 10VP47 from me. Rather unobtanoium 10" round CRT with a very narrow, short, beautiful deep blue 400nM/1.5uS phosphor. He tripped out of sight on the diagonal curb where the trees are between 2 rows of parked cars, but I knew right away what happened. The sound was, well.. interesing, not a pop, not a boom. Something in between like in the old cartoons with Bugs Bunny popping a big paper bag behind a scattergun-wiedling Elmer Fudd, followed by tinkling noises and dejected moaning. Quite an expensive sound as well. I felt so bad for him I gave him another since I had several.

[KB2WIG]

" Here's something I live by. ........  When I inquired why everything else went on the bench but that went on the floor he said, "Because nothing ever falls OFF of the floor".   That philosophy has worked for me several times when "intruders" have bumped about my workspace. "

Yes...  but we have three cats, and they would not be happy with the intruder object.

klc

[The Slab Bacon]

Seems like everyone that's been in this game for a while has one of these stories.

Yea, I got one too. One night some years ago I was workin at the bench way into the wee hours. Half asleep, I left the door to the tube cabinet open. On the bottom shelf WAS a 204-A (big assed triode). Unbeknownst to me, with my back to it, the tube somehow rolled off of the bottom shelf and fell no more than 4" to the floor. It hit just right and went off like a friggin bomb!!     It was so loud that I almost jumped out of my own skin! It even woke my wife up and she was sleeping upstairs in the front bedroom. She came running to see if I blew the house up.

Every time I tell this story, Joe (N3IBX) goes into tears at the loss of a 204-A    


                                                        The Slab Bacon

[Carl WA1KPD]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Noqcu3O7ojg

[W3GMS]

Many years ago I bought a Collins 30K from K3DUM in Parkesburg.  Bert, WA3JYU helped me with the move.  We got the 30K down from Sam's second floor radio room without to much trouble.  When we got it to my place I was going through all the extra stuff that was included with the transmitter.  One of those items was a brand new 4-400.  As I was taking it out of its box, it slipped out of my hands a came crashing down on my concrete floor!  Needless to say that was the end of the tube.  That is the only time in my 43 year Ham career that I dropped a worthy tube like that.  You just can't be to carefull with that kind of stuff!!  Its a shame it was not a 12AX7!!  No such luck...
Joe, W3GMS 

[Carl WA1KPD]

Indoor -outdoor carpeting is your friend in the shack and work area.

[WA1GFZ]

Carl,
Our buddy was sitting on a light post along 91 this morning. Guess he expanded his hunting area. The birds that usually sit there were about 6 posts north.

[Carl WA1KPD]

You come in 91 SB right? I am coming in 91 NB. I have not seen him at all this year

[KB2WIG]

Glass, copper and gravity can be very problamatic at times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo3ohNxEGkM&feature=related

klc