technical obsolesence

[w1vtp]

We use this stuff at Raytheon with great success.

http://www.stanleysupplyservices.com/product-group.aspx?id=19680&pn=470-791

That's a legit company that we have used for years.

There are applications where this is the only way we can make circuit connections

I wonder how it compares to the "Wire glue" described in the first message in this thread.

The conducting agent in one is carbon while the conducting agent in the other is silver.  Many, many many years ago I used to repair HP 382 series precision WG attenuators by replacing the resistive vane in the center rotating piece and part of the procedure was to use a silver impregnated lacquer to bond the vane to the circular WG.  That was 40+ years ago.  I'm not sure of the quality or the application of the stuff advertised on eBay as noted in the first message but this approach for electrically bonding using a silver suspension is not a new technology.

[W2PFY]

I still change my oil once a year. The used oil becomes wood gravy at the camp. don't drive over 10K a year now but when I was working doing 3-4 K a month, the service station got the job I use synthetic oil, whatever that is.

[ka3zlr]

I can understand this, I really can, these days of screw on filters coupla 4-5 Qt systems hey your done.....now my one tractor has the old style
oil filtering where you have to disassemble the canisters it, that can get a little messy if you let it, the little tractor has spin on no problem there.

I was thinking one time of putting a pressurized lubrication engine on my Troybilt Horse but this engine hasn't blown up yet, maybe some day.

I don't Trust Glues for anything but balsa wood aircraft, wood glue in wood working that's about it for me an Glue....floor gluing in construction like that.

73

Jack.

[K5UJ]

ya gotta watch those kids at the quik lube places.  they'll put the drain lug back in so tight you can't get it off. or you can but it ain't easy unless you have a pit and an air powered wrench.  on some cars like VW with the stupid aluminum pans they'll strip the threads.   I love it when I drive into those places (yes I have on rare occasion) and the kid tells me my automatic xmission fluid is okay.  I tell him that's very interesting since I have never owned an automatic and this is a 5 speed manual.

I buy cars used from people I work with and drive them in the ground.  With synthetic you only need a change every 6 months unless you do a lot of low speed driving.  cop cars and limos have to get an oil change about every week.   Old toyotas are easy.  everything is right out where you can get to it.  mine is a 97 V6.  the local Valvoline place takes the used in plastic milk jugs.  the new cars are a nightmare.  First the whole frigging engine is under some giant plastic sheet.  you can't even find anything.    i guess it doesn't matter because by the time I get another car, they will probably all be electric.  I got around 150K on mine and expect to go at least another 200K.  just keep putting in new clutches, plug the rust holes with plastic grocery bags...spend my money on ham gear, the important thing while my car becomes a train station car.   I got a friend who is a limo driver.  2 years ago he took me to O'Hare because I had to go down to memphis.  So we're riding in his Lincoln and of course it's very nice, very clean, sounds, smells, looks, and rides like a new car.  He says guess how many miles are on it.  I don't know a thing about what cars are new models but I think it can't be completely new, I'm not that dumb so I say, 50K.  He says, how about 400K.  I can't believe it but I look at the odometer and he's right.  Well, they got a garage and they maintain the crap out of those cars with everything set up for Lincoln Town Cars only, and I'll tell ya, if you really maintain a car it will indeed last.  Problem is that level of maint. is damn near a full time job.

Now cars have become like ham rigs, appliances.  And like Don said, people are scared of old boatanchor houses too.  Maybe they've seen too many horror movies set in old houses.   Everything's gotta be new New NEW!! 

Well, I thought I knew a few things about taking care of my stuff but I learned something yesterday which I am sure you all knew:   My old GE refrigerator (it's so old it doesn't defrost on its own) has its compressor down under it.  I heard the new ones all have fans on the condenser and compressor.  These guys I know told me to get a fan down there under it so it  blows on the compressor.   Will make it run a lot happier and last longer.  So I did and I have to say, that thing seems to be running differently now.  The coils don't get as hot for one thing.  I shot a temp check with my IR thermometer B4 and after. B4 180F.  After 110.   I hope I saved it for a few years.   Those IR thermometers are neat little gadgets.  They are okay because you get one and you don't have to pay a monthly fee to use it like you do with most gadgets now.   I've been playing around with it but I got it to check tube temps. 

Yep, the most funny thing about the CW ops are the ones who use Flex Radios to operate CW.  Now here's someone using a computer, and all this fancy high tech software and so on, and what do they do, they use it to send dits and dahs that you could do with good old tube gear.   That's like taking one of those B1 supersonic jets and driving it to Los Angeles on highway 66 taxi the whole way.

Well, I have not had a QSO on the radio today.  does it show?  hi hi

[k4kyv]

Some of the guys who work CW don't even know the code.  They use a computer to read Morse code and a keyboard to send it.

That's a very inefficient method for communicating via radioteletype.  Plain old Baudot would work a lot better, but PSK takes up less bandwidth, more like that of CW.

I have heard it said that computers don't do well with manual Morse, especially from a bug, and that they absolutely cannot read code sent with a sideswiper.  They like code sent with an electronic keyer.  I have an electronic keyer and an expensive March R3 repulsive magnetic paddle, but I still prefer the bug and use it 99% of the time.

My old GE refrigerator was made in about 1931.  It is what is known as a Monitor Top, a real classic.  I used it for years as a beer cooler in the shack, but the compressor crapped out about 5 years ago.  I suspect the seals finally gave up the ghost; the motor runs with a different sound than before, but it doesn't cool.  I now use it as a parts storage cabinet.  I'd like to get it up and running again some day, but I'll leave the repair job to a professional who knows what he is doing and who is willing to work on it, if I can ever find someone.  The refrigerant is sulphur dioxide!  Nasty stuff.

[Opcom]

The other side of technological obsolescence is the loss of even the basic and common skills in society today. I am amazed at the percentage of people who cannot repair a lamp much less a lawnmower, change their own oil, or other necessary home skills. There ought to be a 'home ec' in high school for guys to tech them basic repair and troubleshooting of plumbing, electrical, engines, machines, a gas range, etc. Just the basics. Instead, you have folks that don't know a phillips from a flathead.

A nation of ignorant helpess people is fit only for servitude and manual labor.

I haven't changed oil in my cars for at least 15 years. I pay people to do that. I feel no remorse.

But you could if you wanted to.. I also pay someone. It's too cheap a cost not to. But if I wanted to, I could do it. 5.5 quarts of 5W30 and a filter, a metrick socket and a filter wrench or the old way, ram a screwdrver through it and spin it off.

[Opcom]

Then I describe my station and they don't have a clue what I am talking about when I say I am running a pair of triode tubes in class C.  I think they still get the "homebrew" part but that's about all, except maybe for an occasional old timer who used to run a tube type transmitter and separate receiver before he got rid of it and bought a rice box.

I am looking forward to the day the tower is done and the dipole is up, (1/2 way there now, 3 sections up, 3 deadmen in.) so you can tell me over the air about your set and I can tell about mine.

It's not at all unusual even for a family who owns their own house not to have so much as a hammer or screw driver on their premises. I have run into that problem time and again when someone would ask me to stop by and help them with some problem they have with their house or some gadget in it.

I have learned to bring my own tools when helping someone else.
[/quote]

[Ed/KB1HYS]

I think people are less and less inclinded to do any thing for themselves.  They/we are becoming programmed to dispose of things that don't work and buy NEW.  This consumer mentality is driven by the constant media bombardment that starts when we are just kids, and the fact that most new electronics are just too cheap to be economical to repair.  But this doesn't apply to larger less computerized items. As a general rule I avoid anything with a computer in it when at all possible. Why does My DRYER or WASHER need a computer?

I have found a lot of things that have been tossed are just needing a simple repair.  I got an air compressor from a guy at work, he had been quoted $250 for a new head.  I needed a tank, so I took it off his hands (free).  When I opened it up I found that a wire had come off of a spade lug in the motor enclosure (he'd been told it had siezed).  I popped the wire on and plugged it in and it ran FB.  I repaired the defective spade lug and it's still running two years later.  Recently I spotted an old chain saw at the metal recycling bin at the dump.  It wasn't seized so I took it home. It didn't run, but just cleaning and gapping the points and a little fresh gas had it roaring again. I can't count the number of items with small motors, like lawnmowers and snow blowers that just need basic maintenance to run fine and are dumped because the owner can't be bothered spending the money on maintenance for something that old...

[K5UJ]

I'll have to remember that about computers and bugs.  I'll start using my old war surplus lightning bug all the time    See how many keyboard ops I work.

Don, the old Monitors have sulfer dioxide (and some have something else equally dangerous) and I've read that refrigerant is bad news if you get it on you, inhale the vapor, very dangerous.   I remember it can cause blindness among other things.

I'm not sure if it can be recharged with something else or not but you are right--you have to get someone who knows how to safely get the s.d. out of it if it hasn't slowly leaked out, and safely dispose of it.   So, there are a few things a professional has to do    I saw a Monitor restored and working up in Wisconsin a few months ago in this guy's garage.  they are beautiful to look at when they are fixed up like new.


People can't be bothered to learn about real life because they're blowing all their time and money on gadgets like the iPhone and video games.  They're too busy tweeting each other or whatever you do with those things.   So learning about how to fix something doesn't happen.

I guess it's not all bad--people who are buying new stuff all the time keep the economy from completely crashing.  And I want suckers to buy new cars so I have a supply of used ones.   One time I bought a new car, went into debt, made a car payment for 3 or 4 years...never again.  I can't believe how much money people blow on these things that require a monthly fee to keep them working:  cell phones, iPhone, TiVo, GM OnStar, pagers, satellite radio, cable TV...there are probably things I have forgotten or don't know about but I bet some folks spend two or three hundred bucks every month on these gadgets that ought to be going into savings.

I hope my washing machine and dryer never have to be replaced because I've heard all of the new ones spew out RFI.
The other thing is that with everything containing a microchip the stuff is all so complicated you often can't even do a simple thing without having to read a manual that's big enough to be a college class text book.  There are cell phones out there that do so many things you could fill a three semester hour class lecturing on the cell phone for a term.  I decided several years ago I did not want to piss my life away on gadgets--you can spend hours with this dinky little thing putting in all this data and then loose it, or step on it, drop it in a toilet, or in about 2 years it is obsolete.  Life is too short as it is.  It infuriates me when some appliance that used to just have an on-off switch and maybe a speed control--you could plug it in and use it in two seconds--now has so many buttons, and a menu, and you have to set this and that, program it, read this manual, just to use it.

Ham rigs now are like this--you have some guy spend thousands of dollars on some plastic radio and all he wants is to have a qso with someone so 90% of what the rig can do never gets used.   And of course when it breaks they can't do anything with it, and maybe the chips are no longer made...this is part of why I started getting interested in older vacuum tube gear.
You don't need all this stuff a rig can do now to just have a QSO with someone.  A lot of plastic radios have a "scan" function.  Who the hell uses that?  I have never heard of anyone using it.

[The Slab Bacon]

I think people are less and less inclinded to do any thing for themselves.  They/we are becoming programmed to dispose of things that don't work and buy NEW.  This consumer mentality is driven by the constant media bombardment that starts when we are just kids, and the fact that most new electronics are just too cheap to be economical to repair.  But this doesn't apply to larger less computerized items. As a general rule I avoid anything with a computer in it when at all possible. Why does My DRYER or WASHER need a computer?

I have found a lot of things that have been tossed are just needing a simple repair.  I got an air compressor from a guy at work, he had been quoted $250 for a new head.  I needed a tank, so I took it off his hands (free).  When I opened it up I found that a wire had come off of a spade lug in the motor enclosure (he'd been told it had siezed).  I popped the wire on and plugged it in and it ran FB.  I repaired the defective spade lug and it's still running two years later.  Recently I spotted an old chain saw at the metal recycling bin at the dump.  It wasn't seized so I took it home. It didn't run, but just cleaning and gapping the points and a little fresh gas had it roaring again. I can't count the number of items with small motors, like lawnmowers and snow blowers that just need basic maintenance to run fine and are dumped because the owner can't be bothered spending the money on maintenance for something that old...

AMEN, BROTHER ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !  Been there, done that many, many times!

However, Working 50+ hours a week + commute, basically only leaves me the weekends to get anything done for myself. So, Therefore, the time that I save by not changing my oil myself gives me more time to do things like that. (AND NOT TO MENTION APPEASE THE WAR DEPT!!)    

[WQ9E]

As for the quick change oil places, I remember when I was picking up my then new '91 GMC pickup from the dealer they had a six month old vehicle in for a new engine after the local quick lube locked it up checking for an oil leak without refilling the oil first.

My '08 Cadillac CTS would be the easiest vehicle I ever owned to change the oil in if it weren't for having to remove the sound/air flow shield under the engine to reach the drain plug.  The filter is a drop in cartridge changed from the top and it requires synthetic oil which is supposed to be good for 20-25K but I am not comfortable with anything over 10K.   I changed it 7,000 miles ago and the oil life monitor still shows 72% life remaining.

I still change my own oil so that I know it gets done properly and while the oil is draining I can check for other issues.  I also know the correct oil goes in and I can prefill the filters.  This weekend the pickup is due for an oil change and it is time to replace the spin on transmission filter and while I am getting dirty with oil the tractor has enough hours on it from mowing that it is due also.  I much prefer spending a few minutes to do the change myself instead of waiting and wondering at a quick change or the dealership (which would have put gas engine rated oil in my diesel engine during the first "free" change if I hadn't been watching).

[w4bfs]

I think this thread has won the "Shanghaied Thread Award" .... fun

[John Holotko]

Gentlemen... speaking of oil changes reminds me of the tme, many moons ago, when my dad brought the family car to have some work done. Now, normally he changed the oil himself but, since they were offering a great price on oil changes he decided to let them do it...just this once.  ell, as it turned out, they drained the oil, changed the filter, but forgot to put fresh oil in it. The engine siezed halfway home. The garage was owned by 3 partners and fortunately one of them decided to replace the engine with a rebuilt. The other owners wanted just to give him book value for the care, which, in the case of that particular car wasn't much at all. The verdict ? If you get your oil changed make sure they don;t forget to replace the oil they removed. That is all...

[k4kyv]

I blew up a lawn mower exactly that way, a couple of years ago.

The worst I have ever did with a car was to forget to replace the oil drain plug, and have all 4 or 5 quarts of fresh new oil to drain out on the concrete.

[KB2WIG]

 " I think this thread has won the "Shanghaied Thread Award"  "

We once had one go fer about 20 pages.

By the way, anyone have on of these?


klc

[ka3zlr]

I don't have one but I know a ham who does an he likes it

His name is Bob KB3IN I helped him move an I took that down for him..

73

Jack.

[w1vtp]

<snip>

My old GE refrigerator was made in about 1931.  It is what is known as a Monitor Top, a real classic.  I used it for years as a beer cooler in the shack, but the compressor crapped out about 5 years ago.  I suspect the seals finally gave up the ghost; the motor runs with a different sound than before, but it doesn't cool.  I now use it as a parts storage cabinet.  I'd like to get it up and running again some day, but I'll leave the repair job to a professional who knows what he is doing and who is willing to work on it, if I can ever find someone.  The refrigerant is sulphur dioxide!  Nasty stuff.

Don

You might be interested in this:

http://www.antiqueappliances.com/monitor_top_refrigerators.htm

The monitors also used methyl formate - dunno if that's any better or not -- nasty-wise   I knew some people who had one of those 'friges into the '60's.  They finally had to replace it.

Al

[Opcom]

sulfur dioxide turns into sulfuric acid on contact with water, so when it enters the lungs it converts to sulfuric acid upon the moist surfaces. 100PPM is considered immediately dangerous. I think there is a gas mask of some kind that can be worn while working on the fridge but I would not care to work on it myself without many precautions. I know a guy that can, but I don't think he will any more. Not for what that fridge is worth. Can you gut the top section and go back with a different system?

[The Slab Bacon]

SO2 + normal atmospheric humidity = acid rain!

[John Holotko]

Ammonia was also used as a refrigerant in the old days... And Methyl Chloride.

[K5UJ]

Ammonia was also used as a refrigerant in the old days... And Methyl Chloride.

All that stuff is nasty. 

[k4kyv]

You might be interested in this:

http://www.antiqueappliances.com/monitor_top_refrigerators.htm

That's mine (the single door model).

[Opcom]

the guy has one like that in a farmhouse, runs perfectly. Personally, I'd be afraid it would leak during the night and that would be the end.

[KB2WIG]

Personally, I'd be afraid it would leak during the night and that would be the end.

R123 ain't no walk in the park either.......

http://www.refrigerants.com/msds/nri-r123.pdf


klc

[W2PFY]

and this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur_dioxide#As_a_refrigerant