Machinist

I recently acquired an old electro-cautery unit. Think it is from 1910s or 1920s. Has a big old multi tapped torodial transformer running to a couple of connectors/poles. It is by F. Geiger of Philadelphia. Wood case is labeled 110V. 60 CY. and 4V. 100A. Seriously old school cool and a little horrifying.

Insulation on power cord was brittle as was insulation from secondary to pole. Both have been replaced. I used crimp connections on the primary wires (didn't measure gauge but it's on the order of 20 AWG). I was in a hurry to test and will eventually solder it properly. I added a switch to the new power cord.

It works with output voltage varying from 0.1V to 4V. It gets a woodburning tip glowing orange at setting 4 (2 volts or so). Should make a great woodburner and be useful if I ever need to interrogate someone.

There isn't really a way to ground it and the screw on the control knob is electrically connected to the secondary. I have a gfci adapter that I could plug it into. Basically, if the transformer shorts, 110V could be exposed on the face.

There are two holes on the face plate, the power cord is running through the largest and the other is empty. It may have had a foot pedal.

I want to add a RGB indicator light for voltage level using the small hole. It's a little tricky to tell when the tap is lined up and you're getting voltage. A green - yellow -red fade and maybe white for NC. I have a spare Arduino Nano clone, but am not sure what circuit to rectify the AC with for the ADC. Maybe an Op amp follower? Power supply would be a 110-5v usb charger board. I would prefer to avoid a dual rail supply or higher than 5v.

Thoughts and suggestions appreciated!

My son is about ready for his first printer. His school is running Cetus MK3 printers, he has a class using them, and his teacher has recommended this printer. He also has an educational seat of Fusion 360.

I'm proficient with Mastercam and hand written/modified G-code. I can help him with CAD no problem. Alignment, assembly, adjustment, and backlash are second nature for me. Have a little better than layman's understanding of printers. (Lusted over the Markforged printer that could do continuous carbon fiber.)

Eventually, will be building my own shop and hope my son might work with me. Hope to include printing, especially in metal.

I've seen some of the flap about Bambu and them closing up the software tool chain. I would like to avoid that sort of thing, for now, openness is better.

Top of my budget is around $500, with $200 probably being better.

Usable prints for tooling/spacers/repairs would be a bonus as would being able to print UV resistant plastic.

My goal for him is to get gud at modelling and get a feel for computer controlled movement. Another goal, harder to describe, is him finding the joy in mechanical tinkering and producing an idea made physical.

Thank you much! What do?

Any of y'all got a tracker that is following which portions of Project 2025 have actually been enacted? Something like the chump lawsuit tracking? Not finding anything with a search.

Found this broken piece in the creek bank. Southwest Pennsylvania. Farmhouse was built in 1922. Coalmining country.

Would have been about 18" in diameter. There is a rough coating in the glaze on the inside and outside of the bowl section. Abrasive enough that I figure it served a mechanical purpose. There are three grooves on the rim that aren't symmetrical to each other.

There might be a makers mark in the center of the glaze inside but I can't make it out. There is also a light blue/green stain on the bottom that might be a mark.

Any ideas?

The electric PTO clutch on my 1969 mini tractor is dead and discontinued.

Original winding is aluminum 18 gauge. Manufacturer specs were 2.88ohms, 237 turns. The manufacturer specs didn't quite physically match what I found when I took apart the old clutch. If I understand this correctly, the 2.88ohms is the most important part and will pull 4.17 amps.

I just attempted a coil with 18 gauge copper magnet wire. I made it to the max dimensions I can get in the housing with a scramble wind. I'm getting 1.2 ohms, which would pull 10 amps or so. Not good.

Was able to get 187 feet given the resistance.

If I go with 20 gauge copper, assuming I can get 235 feet (1.26 * 187) and I should get 2.319 ohms. Probably get a little more than 235 feet and get the resistance up a little more.

What does this do to the strength of the magnetic field?

Would I be better off putting a power resistor in series with my 18 gauge coil?

Any advice greatly appreciated!

So, I found this stone mantel behind the garage of the 100 year old house we just bought. It was mostly buried in the dirt. Fits our mantel perfect. Some sort of green stone. Was painted black at some point. I'm trying to strip the paint and want to refinish the stone. Area is southeast of Pittsburgh. Father of the man who built the house was an Italian stonemason that immigrated.

Don't think it's slate, has a tight grain and rings when you knock on it.

What kind of stone is this?

Cishet male. In no way do I mean offense or have I tried to take advantage of lower functioning individuals, that's just sick. Best I can figure, I'm a typical. Maybe I'm a little crazy; but who isn't.

During a discussion about my son's neurodivergency, I realized I have a 'type' of woman. (Son is technically stepson, but he's my boy.) I tend to be attracted to high functioning women that are on the spectrum.

I've been in four relationships with divergent women, three serious and two extended friends with benefits. I've been in two serious relationships with typical women. Many flings with typical women. Figure that's pretty statistically unlikely.

In my experience, divergent women tend to have a refreshing openness in communication. Painfully honest. Direct. They have some weird stuff that can be alternately cute and irritating. When sleeping they either don't like to snuggle or like being an octopus. (My preference is octopus but my wife only tolerates some side contact.) They like to discuss instead of argue. Sexually adventurous and willing to work for satisfaction. They prefer precision in statements. I find myself writing in an extended way that I don't engage in with other people and try and pay attention to grammar and punctuation. Pretty sure this doesn't apply to all women on the spectrum, just my 'type'.

I dunno, just a strange realization, especially at this stage of life. It's not a fetish, just something that has occurred.

Like this is hitting me real hard. I can feel the sadness and the fight. They're good boys and and don't deserve what's coming down. They have some good religion. I'd like to be like these men. We fight for the ones we love.

I would really appreciate it if someone would double check me. Sorry for the screenshot. Either the Lemmy code button isn't great or I'm just dum at formatting.

This has local *arr servers available and traceroute shows me going through the VPN.

The largest blue blotch is the ip address of a mullvad vpn server.

Rpi4, Raspberry Pi OS lite.

Mullvad VPN. IPv6 has been nuked. Using Wireguard through wg-quick.

wg2 originates from a .conf file from Mullvad with IPv6 stripped.

Do these UFW settings look right?

Circuit is for controlling the fan on a Raspberry Pi, just on/off according to temp, no PWM. Not sure about the diode as it has a .7V drop and it's a tiny brushless DC motor. No markings on the fan so I measured the current with a multimeter when hooking it up to a USB charger. Circuit was adapted from here using what I have on hand.

Suggestions? Any advice is greatly appreciated!

*EDIT: Confirmed, this circuit works on a Raspberry Pi 4. Base was wired to GPIO 17 and manually tested using commands:

raspi-gpio set 17 op dh

raspi-gpio set 17 op dl

I didn't use a breadboard, just hack-n-slash with the wires coming out of the fan, the leads on the thru hole components, a jumper connected to gpio 17 as a socket for the base/resistor lead, and heat shrink tubing for insulation. Folded it up as I closed the housing. Case combo including heatsinks and fan here.