Craig Sawyers

I use illuminated latching anti-vandal switches on all my gear. The interesting thing is that although the LED connections have a + and a - moulded in, the LED is bidirectional, and illuminates equally whichever way it is connected. At least with the ones I use. Blue LED of course. I also set the current on all front panel LEDs to be very low, so they don't intrude when listening in the dark.

My shop at the moment is 18.5C (65F) and 67% humidity on the meter I leave in there. But it is only 8:20 am here. I used to have a dehumidifier, and the bucket used to fill up daily - but it had no real effect one way or the other on the not-really-a-problem rust. Since it was just cluttering up my already small shop, I just got rid of it. It is so compact that in order to put long planks through the bandsaw, I have to open the garage door, and put height-adjustable roller supports outside. Needs must and all that.

Ah - OK. I've only ever changed planes at O'Hare, and haven't poked my head outside. Sounds like I missed an experience! Yeah - sounds like you need aircon in there. A dehumidifier is usually a waste of time unless it is industrial grade.

My shop is in the garage, with very poor sealing around the up and over door (and hence a battle with spiders!). But curiously, even given that the UK is permanently wet, I have no problems with rust. But I am rather paranoid about wiping tools (hand and machine) with either rust preventative or Camellia Oil.

Absolutely zero Steve. I made the mistake of watching a US guy on a remote channel maybe 10 years or more ago, and it started with "First set up your spindle moulder...". Yeah, like we've all got one of those in our home shop. The main inspiration is DVD's and You Tube channels of David Charlesworth https://www.davidcharlesworth.co.uk/ and Rob Cosman - mainly users of hand tools, and usually sponsored by Lie Nielsen etc. And of course the books of Krenov, the Zen master of fine furniture making. I used to be a real follower of David Savage, who alas went to cancer https://finefurnituremaker.com/news-blog/david-binnington-savage-1949-2019/ , and learnt to hammer veneer in hide glue and French polish by practicing his super instructional DVDs. They seem to have stopped selling their entire range of DVDs alas.

You are a cycling animal, Nate! There is no way I could live at those power levels.

Battery Park Beach, 1977. Totally surreal.

It isn't just our guy either. There have been three other athletes have failed performance drugs tests at the Tokyo Olympics. And there is discussion underway to remove weightlifting entirely for Paris because of years of systemic performance drug use. And it goes right back. There was a short period when Chinese distance runners were cleaning up and setting unheard of records. The coach put it down to herbal tea. Yeah. And then they all retired in their mid 20's. And even further back, there was a Czech woman runner called Kratochvilova https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarmila_Kratochvílová who I swear looked like a bloke. God knows what she was given by her coach, but her 800 metre record has stood since 1983 - the best women runners in the world have not got within a second of her time in the intervening 38 years. The other drug fuelled (allegedly) woman at the same time from East Germany was Marita Koch, who's 400m world record still stands. So in a real sense it has ever been thus. As soon as a drug can be tested for, new wonder dope comes along which cannot be found. All that is before we even think of drug fueled cycling. And it wasn't just Lance Armstrong - they were all at it. And in the early days of the Tour de France they used to take puffs of ether to numb the pain, and strychnine - or anything going to help on 400km stages on dirt roads. Chloroform was also used, and horse dope. Then they got onto Amphetamines. The British rider Tom Simpson died on the upper slopes of Mont Ventoux in the 1967 Tour though amphetamines and dehydration. His last words were "Put me back on my bike".

Finished coat rack, with wall fixings hidden underneath the outside hangers

The first runner in our silver medal GB 4x100m sprint team, Ujah, has tested positive for two banned performance enhancement substances. The whole team loses their silver medals, and forfeits any other benefits such as appearance money. That will be a lifetime ban for the fucker - and that is absolutely right. The question I want to be asked, is what did GB sport, and the British Olympic Association fail to do? Surely they test athletes on a regular basis as part of the selection process? I am so fucking angry. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/58205602

We're kind of lucky in that regard. The smart systems at Barclaycard Visa spot potentially fraudulent activity within seconds, and either phone or text you to confirm a number of transactions. I gave one Visa lady pause for thought when she called to verify transactions. There is a company that sells high end navigation gear called Shaven Raspberry https://shavenraspberry.com/ . Of course with a name like that it could be anything, and the Visa lady clearly thought the worst "and a transaction for X from, er, Shaven, er, er" "Raspberry" I said. The relief when she got onto asking the next transaction was obvious!

The Veritas (and Lie Nielsen) shooting planes are superb bits of kit - but not cheap for sure! But no half way decent manual hand tool (or machine tool) is cheap. Lie Nielsen's production has ground to a virtual standstill though as a result of Covid. They have started some manufacture again, but have left off manufacturing their lower sales volume products - like the scraping planes and shooting plane. In my early days of woodworking I made the mistake of buying Record planes - and the soles were like bananas. I tried in vain to flatten them, hours of work - and then they would move again! At least Clifton, Veritas and Lie Nielsen planes are already flat to high tolerance and stay flat. The other great planes are the Chinese Quangsheng. Their hand planes are all bedrock design. I have some of their block planes, basically identical knock off of Lie Nielsen ones but half the price - but they are also great. Thick A2 or equivalent Chinese grade blades that hold a superb edge. I'm looking forward to a shooting plane from them!

Forgot to mention - one of the key things to getting shavings that thin are (1) An excellent plane - I use Clifton hand planes, patterned on the old bedrock design where you can change the mouth without removing the blade. And (2) An excellent blade. I use Ron Hock blades and chip breakers. These take a razor edge, and keep it for much longer than a regular plane blade. I can't remember whether I chose high carbon or A2. Given how long they hold an edge I think they are A2. https://www.flinn-garlick-saws.co.uk/acatalog/HAND-PLANES.html http://www.hocktools.com/products/bp.html although I see that, like so many things now, quite a few are out of stock.

If you test parts into hard avalanche breakdown at large numbers of mA, you can permanently change their characteristics. Generally if you want to check if the breakdown voltage corresponds to datasheet values you need to limit breakdown current to the tens of microamps region. For example check the static characteristics in the original Toshiba datasheet of the 2SK246, where the breakdown voltage at each characteristic curve is limited to about 100uA.

OK that works, while keeping the nice pale appearance of ash. Several coats of sanding sealer, then several coats of wax polish.

Darn - they are all in the shop vac bag now

Ash plank, finished entirely with hand tools (planes and scraper). Well, not quite true, I dimensioned it using machine tools (radial saw and planer/thicknesser), and then moved to hand tools. Second pic is paper thin plane shavings from the process. This thing, once it has a coat or two of something to be determined, is a coat rack!

Marmite on a crumpet? That is just weird. The only way to eat marmite is on buttered white toast. I'm salivating at the thought - yum yum. Toasted crumpets should be butter and jam - black cherry is my fave.

Yup. Me neither. To put that sub 2 hour exhibition marathon into context - that is equivalent 102 laps of a running track at 70 seconds a lap. I'm a lifetime runner, but even when I was less than half the age I am now, I could just beat 70 seconds on a single lap and then be on my knees.

Kipchoge just won the mens Olympic marathon by 1 minute 20 seconds in 2h8m38s. He put in a 5k split of just over 14 minutes and ripped the legs off everyone else. When he finished he looked as if he had been for a Saturday morning jog. But in nearly 30C and 80% humidity. For anyone who has not come across this guy, in 2018 with pacemakers he did an exhibition marathon in Vienna and went inside 2 hours. First human to average faster than 4m35s a mile for 26.2 miles!

I've bought from NAC for shipping to the UK. They have no minimum order charge, unlike my supplier in the UK (Micross) who without warning imposed a UKP200 minimum order charge (plus shipping plus VAT). Happy I was not, and let them know, vociferously. Buying Linear Systems parts from NAC was straightforward, with very reasonable shipping to the UK, and with very nice personal service. Five star.

Alternatively Plus of course algebra is an Arabic term, from Al Jebr meaning to unite broken parts.

When Simone Biles lost the ability to orientate in 3 dimensions, I compared it to opera singers who forget how to sing (they do). They, like Biles, have to go back to basics and work through the problem. There was a shot of her in training during recent days - and trying to do a landing from the parallel bars - and landing on her face. But she worked it out enough to do a superb beam exercise, and got a probably the best bronze medal for overcoming adversity. Hats off to the woman!

Happy birthday!

Stars orbiting around our supermassive black hole, Sagittarius-A. http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~ghezgroup/gc/animations.html