Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Snarky Joe likes Sunday August 8th for the next Meet-Up.
Lets have it at the beer garden in Astoria because it is outdoors. They also have interesting food.
Cal
Lets have it at the beer garden in Astoria because it is outdoors. They also have interesting food.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Been busy these past two weeks trying to fix a broken 20 year old cyclotron that costs 3 1/2 million dollars.
Kinda high stress because I'm basically on the bottom of a vast inverted pyramid. Simply people don't understand that a cyclotron can break and is broken.
Then they do dumb things like interupt me when I'm trying to fix things and do my job.
An administrator will ask me if they should cancel patients. The cyclotron is still down, but they can't figure things out.
So we have a cascade of problems that started with a water leak, but the o-rings are 20 years old, and like plumbing in an old house one thing leads to another, then there are vacuum leaks on an ultra high vacuum system, and the guys helping me lack my experience and never worked on cryo systems and ultra high vacuum.
Then I'm communicating with technical support over the phone and via e-mail with a three hour time difference to people in Vancouver.
It all began July 2d and know that in Canada they have their own Independence Day around ours so it was pretty hard getting in touch, and calls were returned late in the day.
So I have been working on site and the field engineers for support are working remotely. No way is this efficient.
So I have a few new books I'm working on that are a much better design that incorporate the use of museum boxes. The 13x17 version is a really nice portfolio and about the right size to not be a burden to carry around.
I hope to bring at least the 13x17 portfolio to the August Meet-Up.
In my yard in Peekskill I have seen 4 Praying Mantis oddly of all different sizes.
Cal
Kinda high stress because I'm basically on the bottom of a vast inverted pyramid. Simply people don't understand that a cyclotron can break and is broken.
Then they do dumb things like interupt me when I'm trying to fix things and do my job.
An administrator will ask me if they should cancel patients. The cyclotron is still down, but they can't figure things out.
So we have a cascade of problems that started with a water leak, but the o-rings are 20 years old, and like plumbing in an old house one thing leads to another, then there are vacuum leaks on an ultra high vacuum system, and the guys helping me lack my experience and never worked on cryo systems and ultra high vacuum.
Then I'm communicating with technical support over the phone and via e-mail with a three hour time difference to people in Vancouver.
It all began July 2d and know that in Canada they have their own Independence Day around ours so it was pretty hard getting in touch, and calls were returned late in the day.
So I have been working on site and the field engineers for support are working remotely. No way is this efficient.
So I have a few new books I'm working on that are a much better design that incorporate the use of museum boxes. The 13x17 version is a really nice portfolio and about the right size to not be a burden to carry around.
I hope to bring at least the 13x17 portfolio to the August Meet-Up.
In my yard in Peekskill I have seen 4 Praying Mantis oddly of all different sizes.
Cal
MrFujicaman
Well-known
What you're saying is the cyclotron need to be rebuilt, but they are nickel and dimeing the process rather than manning up and just rebuilding it...
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
MFM,
A plan is in place and they have half the money in the bank. This involves two very big institutions, and the numbers have been updated. About two years ago we had our first estimate.
By the time anything gets funded I should be retired. Ha-ha.
Normally I don't have bags under my eyes, but I do now. This is the most stressed I have been in a long time.
So now I'm thinking of just paying a contractor to redo the kitchen. A lot is involved and I don't need the stress. For me probably a good deal and not a waste of money. I'd rather handle the smaller projects where I'm more comfortable.
Every once and a while the cyclotron breaks and is down a long time. A one off custom amplifier had to be built from scratch because we need a replacement. The machine was down for about 3 months.
Then we had a water leak internally on the machine, and not only part of the machine needed replacement, but also the parts needed to be built.
It is said there are only about 1000 cyclotrons in the world.
Cal
Austintatious
Well-known
"So now I'm thinking of just paying a contractor to redo the kitchen."
Be sure to vett them very well. Too many horror stories out there about jobs taking twice as long and costing twice as much. My sister just had a new group of kitchen cabinets installed, due to plumbing leaks in the walls.
It took 90 days for them to be ordered in. There are supply chain shortages on all kinds of building supplies and prices are going up daily. Add to that the cost of restaraunt food if you have no other way to prepare food while this is being done.
Be sure to vett them very well. Too many horror stories out there about jobs taking twice as long and costing twice as much. My sister just had a new group of kitchen cabinets installed, due to plumbing leaks in the walls.
It took 90 days for them to be ordered in. There are supply chain shortages on all kinds of building supplies and prices are going up daily. Add to that the cost of restaraunt food if you have no other way to prepare food while this is being done.
Prest_400
Multiformat
Quite interestingly I live in the town where the cyclotrons were first used here in Sweden. GE also has a facility here, quite unassumingly small.
They advertise a light cyclotron "the size of a washing machine and weighing just 6 tons" oh well! TBH the science behind it is quite fascinating.
Good luck with the fixing, and well, almost the last peoject prior retirement so just a home stretch.
Summer had me visiting family and other priorities so anything house related got a lower budget and more "minimalistic" approach. Also best for the kitchen project.
Enviado desde mi Redmi Note 9 Pro mediante Tapatalk
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Austin,
Thanks for all the warnings.
I have observed pressure treated lumber prices have declined, but there are forest fires in British Columbia and in the Pacific Northwest that I believe will cause lumber to spike again.
To redo our kitchen we have to have a radiator moved. The forensics on the floor are two layers of linoleum with a ceramic tile floor on top, but the subflooring someone put down is only 3/8 inch (???) and all this has to be removed. Sadly and unfortunately I believe underneath all this is the original quartersawn heart pine floor.
Our cabinets are Home Depo specials made of maple that we intend to recycle. Maple butcher block counter tops.
"Maggie" factor is new appliances, even though the stuff we have is pretty fresh and functional. Oh-well.
I'm not a GC so if fast is needed then oh-well.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Jorde,
My cyclotron is 50 tonnes.
Things are looking evil. Canada has some pretty restrictive travel limitations that are just a little shy of a lockdown. All kinds of testing required, 3-day quarentine in an airport hotel...
No lockdown, but outside travel is a new hell.
The physics are the same as an electric motor that spin an armature. Timing of magnetic fiilds to accelerate atoms instead of spinning an armature.
Basically cyclotrons are pretty simple.
Cal
Range-rover
Mentor
Wait for a White sale in Bloomingdales for great prices on appliances.
MrFujicaman
Well-known
Save the Home Depot cabinets for your darkroom.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Bob,
A white sale is on linens.
Also "Maggie" wants these boutique stove, fridge and dishwasher.
The radiator replacement likely will be a Mitsubishi heat pump powered HVAC unit, either wall mount or floor mount. This way I can somewhat create central air for the first floor.
The hallway has doorways to the living room and kitchen. I have the original vintage door for the kitchen, but this door happens to be the same size as the livingroom doorway.
The idea just came to me. Also for heating I can use the solar array to my advantage to supplement my heating. This is also a workaround the limitation of heat-pumps in that they loose efficiency at temperature extreams like in heat waves and when polar vortexes happen.
Interesting to note that Philly has had a climate that resembles Atlanta. I think the humidity of Philly is now in New York. Global warming is real.
BTW I'm busy at work. Problems still cascade. Blown 200 amp fuse yesterday. Had to replace a Kapton insulator on the vacuum tube. Learned one part has a six week lead time. Oh-well.
Cal
Phil_F_NM
Camera hacker
This is why I want to move up to Newfoundland or some colder place in the north Atlantic like the Shetland archipelago. In all reality, Maine is probably where I'll end up.
Phil Forrest
Dan
Let's Sway
A dirty little secret I learned from the Rangers in Acadia many years ago is that Maine has some of the worst air quality in the US. Apparently, all the crap blows in from the west and causes code red days (which is what I experienced).
But the humidity is lower!
Phil_F_NM
Camera hacker
Here in Philly, we've had more days of NWS air quality alerts than not since May this year, so Maine can't be worse. Right now the fires in the west are causing Philly and NYC to have bad air days. Good thing the pandemic is keeping me indoors...
Humidity and I are enemies.
If it wasn't constantly on fire or washing into the Pacific Ocean, I'd move to central California. I just don't want to deal with a near-constant threat of fire then flood/landslide. I don't want to move back to New Mexico or anywhere away from a large body of water, Salt Lake City doesn't count. I love Colorado, but really only want to visit. It certainly isn't immune from wildfires.
Phil Forrest
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Phil,
The problem I see is that to live or to sustain life one needs a supply of water.
California even gets water from as far away as Canada, the Colorado River gets drained into California, and basically without all this imported water California would have a lot more desert.
Over half our fresh produce comes from California, that's 3000 miles away, and it blows my mind how that is economically feasible or sustainable.
The forest fires are in British Columbia and Oregon as they suffer dry conditions.
When I lived in New Mexico, when Ronald Ray-Gun was President, there was a threat of wildfires in the Santa Fe National Forest where I lived.
Then we have a sich-E-A-tion in Chicago with too little water and too much water at the same time.
They say in one report that Toronto within a decade will have the climate of NYC, and that Maple trees might become extinct in Canada because they can't propagate fast enough to overcome global warming to establish themselves fast enough to keep ahead of the pace of global warming.
Already hardwood trees in Pennsylvania are starting to disappear as southern pines advance northerly.
I don't think or believe there is any safe haven. Global warming for me is real, and it seems apparent that so far the northeast at least has a more stable water supply, even though when it rains it pours and there is a danger of flash flooding.
Back to my solar panels, heat pump, and oil heat: it seems heat pumps loose their efficiency at the extremes, so having oil as a backup for polar vortex events is good insurance. Having solar and battery backup makes sense because severe weather is increasing. I expect the power grid to deteriorate further with increased demand.
Heat stroke for old people can be fatal. For my retirement I building out a life support system it seems. Never thought I would go down the survivalist path, but here I am. With "Maggie" heat-stroke is a real danger.
Also being a lazy-slacker along with saving mucho money for enhanced gratification seems to be a good plan. Glad I bought a modest tiny house with low taxes.
For me the Hudson River, while not the ocean, is not so bad a compromise.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Last Friday I found a guitar in the garbage. It is a 19 inch scale single pickup version of a "Strat."
Earlier this year I almost bought a small electric guitar like this for my 7 year old grand kid, but "Maggie" thought that Juliet was too young and the gift too generous.
The garbage guitar is missing the high "E" string and one of the six inline tuners is missing a knob. Stew Mac offers replacements, but I have been too busy at work trying to fix the cyclotron.
I'm testing the RF right now. Don't want to say its fixed untill I'm kinda certain.
My lazy-slacker idea of using an extention cord to bypass the time-out (limit 2 hours) of the control system was a pretty creative idea, in a lazy-slacker kinda way.
Looks like the vacuum leak is actually water from the water leak from the 20 year old broken o-ring.
When working on the target changer perhaps me, or possibly my boss, or possibly another guy helping, destroyed a lead screw by bending it. So now a replacement has been ordered that costs $4.7K, but it looks like the lead time might be six weeks. Oh-well...
One of my bosses wants the machine to die so my hospital can walk away. My big-big boss is on vacation. Don't know if he knows about the sich-E-A tion.
The other hospital just wants nuclides, and they don't seem to understand the old machine is broken.
If we need a field service visit, an almost lockdown of travel restrictions, and a waiting list lay ahead. Oh-well. Perhaps I will retire before the machine is running again, or maybe my hospital will cut their losses.
Kinda remote that I would get laid-off, but that also is a possibility, but then again I more likely would be absorbed and given some task to keep employment.
Then comes my artistic delusional fan-TAA-C, the offer me a package to retire early, keep paying my health insurance til the end of 2021, and I basically retire earlier than expected.
Know that to collect my pension it take three months of advance notice for timing, but in January I'll be 64 and was planning on using my 403B to do mucho home improvements over the one year before I clooect my one pension and sign up for Medi Care at age 65.
THe RF seems stable and has been on for an hour. Tripped once, but did not recover. One more test, and then another e-mail to Vancouver.
Also know that "Maggie" asked about central air. The Heat Pump seems like a good solution. The radiator instead of being moved will get replaced.
Cal
Earlier this year I almost bought a small electric guitar like this for my 7 year old grand kid, but "Maggie" thought that Juliet was too young and the gift too generous.
The garbage guitar is missing the high "E" string and one of the six inline tuners is missing a knob. Stew Mac offers replacements, but I have been too busy at work trying to fix the cyclotron.
I'm testing the RF right now. Don't want to say its fixed untill I'm kinda certain.
My lazy-slacker idea of using an extention cord to bypass the time-out (limit 2 hours) of the control system was a pretty creative idea, in a lazy-slacker kinda way.
Looks like the vacuum leak is actually water from the water leak from the 20 year old broken o-ring.
When working on the target changer perhaps me, or possibly my boss, or possibly another guy helping, destroyed a lead screw by bending it. So now a replacement has been ordered that costs $4.7K, but it looks like the lead time might be six weeks. Oh-well...
One of my bosses wants the machine to die so my hospital can walk away. My big-big boss is on vacation. Don't know if he knows about the sich-E-A tion.
The other hospital just wants nuclides, and they don't seem to understand the old machine is broken.
If we need a field service visit, an almost lockdown of travel restrictions, and a waiting list lay ahead. Oh-well. Perhaps I will retire before the machine is running again, or maybe my hospital will cut their losses.
Kinda remote that I would get laid-off, but that also is a possibility, but then again I more likely would be absorbed and given some task to keep employment.
Then comes my artistic delusional fan-TAA-C, the offer me a package to retire early, keep paying my health insurance til the end of 2021, and I basically retire earlier than expected.
Know that to collect my pension it take three months of advance notice for timing, but in January I'll be 64 and was planning on using my 403B to do mucho home improvements over the one year before I clooect my one pension and sign up for Medi Care at age 65.
THe RF seems stable and has been on for an hour. Tripped once, but did not recover. One more test, and then another e-mail to Vancouver.
Also know that "Maggie" asked about central air. The Heat Pump seems like a good solution. The radiator instead of being moved will get replaced.
Cal
MrFujicaman
Well-known
Cal, when we first remodeled my little house here in NE Alabama, I put my foot down with my dad and replaced the POS oil furnace with a heat pump with gas heat back up (forced air). I quickly found out that the heat pump didn't work worth a crap below 40F. After the heat pump had to have the very costly reversing valve replaced, I had them rig it so that it was an AC only unit.
From what I've seen, a heat pump doesn't work well north of Florida...
From what I've seen, a heat pump doesn't work well north of Florida...
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
MFM,
Devil Christian says that Mitsubishi Heat Pumps seems to be the best and they cornered the market. Also they seem to be very-very popular for both commercial and residential use here in New York.
Know that Devil Christian is an architect as well as a being a clever devil. He has a lot of experience using these on projects.
"Happy woman:happy man," they say. I would be happy-happy to be able to have central AC, and if the heating was only good to when the temperature was 40 and above it still would be a win for me. I would burn oil at some crossover point. Also a third advantage would be that I would have a backup system.
Cal
Range-rover
Mentor
Nope I work there, and it was on houseware stuff as well.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
I got an e-mail blast from my friend John Kreidler who is the Leica "S" and SL specialist.
In his post, "Freedom To Focus" he explains why using M-lenses on the SL is better for him than a rangefinder due to being able to move the focus patch and for focus accuracy.
He also mentions the SL2S as being better for low light conditions, but the resolution of the SL2 gives him the medium format look he pursues.
His go to lens is the 75/1.2 Noctilux.
So my spin on this is I love my 58/1.2 Noct-Nikkor on my SL. The SL2S would be nice to have as an upgrade, due to the bigger buffer, user interface, but the biggest asset would be IBIS.
I get it that for low light it is not how many pixels, but how big are your pixels. Anyways my 6 year old SL is still a great camera.
John and I have similar thinking. BTW John got Leica to lend me a 24-90 zoom to cover NYC Fashion Week. I was suppose to only borrow the lens for two weeks, but I held onto it for three.
Cal
In his post, "Freedom To Focus" he explains why using M-lenses on the SL is better for him than a rangefinder due to being able to move the focus patch and for focus accuracy.
He also mentions the SL2S as being better for low light conditions, but the resolution of the SL2 gives him the medium format look he pursues.
His go to lens is the 75/1.2 Noctilux.
So my spin on this is I love my 58/1.2 Noct-Nikkor on my SL. The SL2S would be nice to have as an upgrade, due to the bigger buffer, user interface, but the biggest asset would be IBIS.
I get it that for low light it is not how many pixels, but how big are your pixels. Anyways my 6 year old SL is still a great camera.
John and I have similar thinking. BTW John got Leica to lend me a 24-90 zoom to cover NYC Fashion Week. I was suppose to only borrow the lens for two weeks, but I held onto it for three.
Cal