Too right there Nelson. It took the demise of my parents a couple years ago, to really drive that home.
At 54 I had a full 'Ivor Lewis'... that made me re think a few things. Whilst receiving pre-surgery Radio + Chemo there were young kids waiting for theirs. I can can only imagine how tough it must have been for them.
Every day is a gift, regardless of age.
TCD
The older I get, the more acutely I feel the necessity to try to preserve the wonderful world I was given, free of charge, just for having been born in the right place, at the right time, of the right gender, and White enough, and amazingly lucky enough to have good parents and an in-house grandmother. Nobody could have been luckier. I only hope to try to conserve some of that for my grandchildren and Godchildren. Mine and the next generation have a terrible responsibility. These are nut-cuttin' times, no lie.
- “For us, warriors are not what you think of as warriors. The warrior is not someone who fights, because no one has the right to take another life. The warrior, for us, is one who sacrifices himself for the good of others. His task is to take care of the elderly, the defenseless, those who can not provide for themselves, and above all, the children, the future of humanity.”
-- Sitting Bull
A new generation of amps, 2*80 Watt with an inside NAD Dac with all streaming and bluetooth options you could wish.
Very nice looking also.
Hans
https://www.bluesound.com/products/powernode/
Very nice looking also.
Hans
https://www.bluesound.com/products/powernode/
Attachments
As someone who, shall we say, has had a fairly fortunate incarnation as far as those things go, my biggest fault lies in the difficulty of finding a truly heart felt appreciation for that - and behaving accordingly.
Some beliefs say you must've been a pretty decent fellow to have such fortune, this time around. I wonder why innately knowing "what it's all about", "what to do" with such just didnt come along with the package? If so good before, why relearn over and over?
On a lighter note, gosh WBGO's stream sure sounds good through this collection of stuff someone else designed, built - and I merely strung together into a "system". Pretty wonderful world, in some ways; like what we get to have in audio these days!
That's a fact for sure.
I remember all the fun & enjoyment I had building & listening to my first "serious" stereo as a teenager back in the mid-'70s. It sounded really good to me at the time. I don't actually remember if I spent much time thinking about how things might change in the coming years, but it wouldn't have mattered, since I never would've anticipated much of what we have today. And no, although I do enjoy the memories of my old Shure/ Dual/ Heathkit/ Advent rig, I certainly wouldn't trade my current setup for that one; they are worlds apart.
I remember all the fun & enjoyment I had building & listening to my first "serious" stereo as a teenager back in the mid-'70s. It sounded really good to me at the time. I don't actually remember if I spent much time thinking about how things might change in the coming years, but it wouldn't have mattered, since I never would've anticipated much of what we have today. And no, although I do enjoy the memories of my old Shure/ Dual/ Heathkit/ Advent rig, I certainly wouldn't trade my current setup for that one; they are worlds apart.
I powered up my Brown & Sharpe 2 B surface grinder about 12 hours ago for the first time.
By luck the motor ran the right direction. As it is a three phase motor, had it run the wrong way I just would have had to swap two of the three power wires.
Oil stayed in the main spindle bearing cup. It is a bronze bearing and actually has a thumbscrew to adjust bearing tightness. As found the screw was set for so loose the wheel on the shaft would move when you wiggled it sideways.
Turned out the previous user had such gummed up oil in the bearings they loosened them up all the way. I used 0 weight Mobil One oil to clean out the old crap.
if you try a modern “synthetic” oil in an old engine, it can ruin it by freeing up all the old gunk and letting it find the way to jam up stuff. Here it is a precision ground double tapered shaft the is fitted with slightly adjustable bronze bearings.
The ways have been scraped flat with a DMT diamond “stone.” My guys did that using “High Spot Blue” and a precision ground 36” 1” x 2” reference bar. The bar was checked first on my small granite block.
The motor at first showed leakage on the power leads to the case. Turned out the motor was fine. The connecting fabric insulated power wires were so clogged with black crud and oil, the insulation leaked current. Changing the leads fixed that. (Thanks…)
I ended up not only using a gallon of water based paint remover cleaning it up, but for stubborn stuff, spray oven cleaner! (Lye based) The bad repaint job paint came off nicely as well as the old dried dirty oil and whatever.
Repainted everything what is now called “Machine Gray.” It used to be painted real “Battleship Gray” as after WWI they reduced the fleet size and the machine tool industry bought a lot of the surplus paint. As the original paint was lead based, sanding or wire brushing it was not a good idea. Of interest was where the original paint was left, the chemical paint strippers had no effect on it.
Who’d have thought 100 year old paint intended to stand up to salt water would be that durable!
The most money was spent on replacing the 11 foot leather belt! McMaster Carr of course carried the leather and cut a piece to length. I ordered it a bit longer than specified just to be sure. Now the belt had to be spliced after it was threaded into the machine. I used my stationary belt sander with a block of wood to taper the thickness of each end of the leather to form a 1.5” long splice. I used a drill press to put a dozen holes in the future belt for a bit of fishing line to lace the ends together. But first I planned to use Weldwood contact cement to glue the splice. However I couldn’t find a bottle of the cement in my shop! Normally there are at least two small bottles around. While looking for it I noticed my stash of C P Moyen loudspeaker cement used for reconing JBL loudspeakers. It worked great. As it should reach full strength in 24 hours that is when I will try my first grind!
Next step to turn an old transformer or two into magnetic vises.
Pictures to follow.
By luck the motor ran the right direction. As it is a three phase motor, had it run the wrong way I just would have had to swap two of the three power wires.
Oil stayed in the main spindle bearing cup. It is a bronze bearing and actually has a thumbscrew to adjust bearing tightness. As found the screw was set for so loose the wheel on the shaft would move when you wiggled it sideways.
Turned out the previous user had such gummed up oil in the bearings they loosened them up all the way. I used 0 weight Mobil One oil to clean out the old crap.
if you try a modern “synthetic” oil in an old engine, it can ruin it by freeing up all the old gunk and letting it find the way to jam up stuff. Here it is a precision ground double tapered shaft the is fitted with slightly adjustable bronze bearings.
The ways have been scraped flat with a DMT diamond “stone.” My guys did that using “High Spot Blue” and a precision ground 36” 1” x 2” reference bar. The bar was checked first on my small granite block.
The motor at first showed leakage on the power leads to the case. Turned out the motor was fine. The connecting fabric insulated power wires were so clogged with black crud and oil, the insulation leaked current. Changing the leads fixed that. (Thanks…)
I ended up not only using a gallon of water based paint remover cleaning it up, but for stubborn stuff, spray oven cleaner! (Lye based) The bad repaint job paint came off nicely as well as the old dried dirty oil and whatever.
Repainted everything what is now called “Machine Gray.” It used to be painted real “Battleship Gray” as after WWI they reduced the fleet size and the machine tool industry bought a lot of the surplus paint. As the original paint was lead based, sanding or wire brushing it was not a good idea. Of interest was where the original paint was left, the chemical paint strippers had no effect on it.
Who’d have thought 100 year old paint intended to stand up to salt water would be that durable!
The most money was spent on replacing the 11 foot leather belt! McMaster Carr of course carried the leather and cut a piece to length. I ordered it a bit longer than specified just to be sure. Now the belt had to be spliced after it was threaded into the machine. I used my stationary belt sander with a block of wood to taper the thickness of each end of the leather to form a 1.5” long splice. I used a drill press to put a dozen holes in the future belt for a bit of fishing line to lace the ends together. But first I planned to use Weldwood contact cement to glue the splice. However I couldn’t find a bottle of the cement in my shop! Normally there are at least two small bottles around. While looking for it I noticed my stash of C P Moyen loudspeaker cement used for reconing JBL loudspeakers. It worked great. As it should reach full strength in 24 hours that is when I will try my first grind!
Next step to turn an old transformer or two into magnetic vises.
Pictures to follow.
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Congrats Ed! That is a beautiful machine! I love running them... I'll comment on your oil suppositions another time...lolol I need to spend more time in my machine shop, but recently it has all been about radio station IT issues...not my fave tasks...
Happy New Year!
Howie
A neighbor and high school classmate's father had a machine shop, to repair the manufacturing line of clothes-line reels he was in the business of making. S-R manufacturing, Schenectady NY. Anyway this kid made himself a belt for his trousers using a hunk of scrap leather belt from his dad's shop. I recall each end had a line of multiple wire "loops" embedded in the leather - and he secured the ends together with a brass pin. Apparently, his dad had the machine to get all those wire loops into the ends of a leather drive belt. I recall it looked very professional - each wire was spaced perfectly.
Howie,
Mobil One on older engines was a bit of a problem. It does not contain as much zinc and associated compounds that were in older oils to fill in wear spots.
It also would free up any sludge in the engines. This could be handled by a lower milage oil change for the first few times.
However when first introduced, the newly sludge free old engines without the zinc based fillers would burn or leak oil much quicker. Sometimes running out and seizing. You gotta wonder who ignored low oil pressure indications. Now there are cases of engines run on Mobil One types of oil running on empty oil and surviving due to the clearly superior lubrication of the coatings that were left
On some of the oldest and dirtiest engines, that did not have a short cycle change, the sludge could redeposit where it did damage to the low on oil engine.
So if you pay attention you can switch oils. However at first introduction some engines did bite the dust.
In my grinder the clearance in the spindle is maximum .00011” and any loose dirt is a big issue. Currently having a problem with that!
Mobil One on older engines was a bit of a problem. It does not contain as much zinc and associated compounds that were in older oils to fill in wear spots.
It also would free up any sludge in the engines. This could be handled by a lower milage oil change for the first few times.
However when first introduced, the newly sludge free old engines without the zinc based fillers would burn or leak oil much quicker. Sometimes running out and seizing. You gotta wonder who ignored low oil pressure indications. Now there are cases of engines run on Mobil One types of oil running on empty oil and surviving due to the clearly superior lubrication of the coatings that were left
On some of the oldest and dirtiest engines, that did not have a short cycle change, the sludge could redeposit where it did damage to the low on oil engine.
So if you pay attention you can switch oils. However at first introduction some engines did bite the dust.
In my grinder the clearance in the spindle is maximum .00011” and any loose dirt is a big issue. Currently having a problem with that!