The high intensity light heating system sounds intriguing. Light, in a technical sense, is just high frequency microwaves. The heat generated by conventional microwaves is accomplished by resonating with the food so that the molecules of food become excited and give off heat. Light waves are too high in frequency for that resonance to take place unless they can tune it to some harmonic, or some thing like that. Then there is such a thing as radiant heat which allows you to fry an egg on your driveway on a hot sunny day. A magnifying glass would hasten that process dramatically. Thus, I'm thinking, if they can concentrate the radiant heat from an intense light source that happens to be a multiple of the food's resonant frequency, voila!
Pulsed heating elements on stove tops have escaped my attention up to the time you first mentioned them. It must work similar to a dimmer switch in a lighting circuit and the end result be the same. You get the light (heat) just as well from pulsing as you would from full cycle current. I should probably look into it.
Speaking of electricity ... my wife has taken to using a Rhumba robot to clean her floors. As an aside I see that Amazon is buying the company for just over one billion dollars. I know you like them and I have heard other good stories about them elsewhere. I have also heard or read a few not so good reviews. My choice would be not to bother, but then my wife is not me. The robot runs off a lithium battery that gets recharged when it sits at it's home plate. It's all automatic and for the last year it all has gone smoothly. Lately Mr Rhumba has decided not to do any more vacuuming. Cleaning and charging and all manner of cussing didn't do anything to fix its attitude. So the help forums say the battery is the most likely culprit. With great reluctance I opened up the body and found a green cube that claimed to be a lithium battery. I got all the info I needed from the battery and the Rhumba model number and found out that only Amazon sells replacement batteries. Weill, they sell 90% of them. One or two other places sell generic replacements. Since they seem to have a monopoly on Rhumba batteries, Amazon can get whatever they want for them. In this case it's $65. That's one with twice the amp/hours as the original. The original replacement would be $54. For a battery. For a stupid robot. From Amazon.
Pencil Sharpener
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Re: Pencil Sharpener
I'm really surprised those light ovens didn't wipe out the microwave oven business, but they seem to have died off quite fast.
Almost all ceramic cooktops now use the pulsed heating element design.
When I was in the Hot Foil Stamping business, my first heating elements had a rheostat type of control to set the proper temperature. But my new printing heads all used the pulsed controller. They held the temperature much better and used a lot less electric too.
I also had a capacitor driven heating head also controlled by a pulse controller. This was a very high heat head designed for use on certain items that took a super high heat, but only for a split second else you would melt what you are printing on. As hot as those heads were, the electric to run them was less than all the rest of the heated print heads I had. The only thing was, they were noisy to use those hi-heat heads. They actually squealed while on, but more like a chirp chirp chirp rate.
I've had four Rhoomba's from when they were much lower in price. But my last two units have been DeeBot units. Compared to the Rhoomba's, the DeeBot's are more like DUMBbots, hi hi. But they last longer than the Rhoomba's did.
Yeppers, our Rhoomba batteries did not last long before they needed replaced at like 60 bucks each. But we had a few other problems with wear items on the Rhoomba's also. Like the tire tread would peel off, or the rubber veined spinner with the brush would wear out prematurely.
The DeeBot has been going strong, and it came with an extra pair of outer small crevice brushes, and one spare roller unit. I have not had to replace any of those parts yet. And the wheels are solid, not a band of rubber over a plastic wheel. We have it programmed to go around the bird cage every morning around 10am and again at 7pm. Plus it is programmed to do the whole living room and fireplace room on Monday afternoon and Thursday afternoon. If we want to use it at any other time, we start it manually with the remote control.
The best Rhoomba we had was the Yellow One for homes with Pets with Long Hair. Turns out it is the same design as the one used for workshops. It is made in such a way that hair will not clog up the brushes or wheels. We liked that, but it died too.
The DumbBot brush is made in such a way you can slide an envelope opener down the slots to cut hair off, and they provided the razor device to do that with. But that's what it is, an envelope opener, hi hi.
Almost all ceramic cooktops now use the pulsed heating element design.
When I was in the Hot Foil Stamping business, my first heating elements had a rheostat type of control to set the proper temperature. But my new printing heads all used the pulsed controller. They held the temperature much better and used a lot less electric too.
I also had a capacitor driven heating head also controlled by a pulse controller. This was a very high heat head designed for use on certain items that took a super high heat, but only for a split second else you would melt what you are printing on. As hot as those heads were, the electric to run them was less than all the rest of the heated print heads I had. The only thing was, they were noisy to use those hi-heat heads. They actually squealed while on, but more like a chirp chirp chirp rate.
I've had four Rhoomba's from when they were much lower in price. But my last two units have been DeeBot units. Compared to the Rhoomba's, the DeeBot's are more like DUMBbots, hi hi. But they last longer than the Rhoomba's did.
Yeppers, our Rhoomba batteries did not last long before they needed replaced at like 60 bucks each. But we had a few other problems with wear items on the Rhoomba's also. Like the tire tread would peel off, or the rubber veined spinner with the brush would wear out prematurely.
The DeeBot has been going strong, and it came with an extra pair of outer small crevice brushes, and one spare roller unit. I have not had to replace any of those parts yet. And the wheels are solid, not a band of rubber over a plastic wheel. We have it programmed to go around the bird cage every morning around 10am and again at 7pm. Plus it is programmed to do the whole living room and fireplace room on Monday afternoon and Thursday afternoon. If we want to use it at any other time, we start it manually with the remote control.
The best Rhoomba we had was the Yellow One for homes with Pets with Long Hair. Turns out it is the same design as the one used for workshops. It is made in such a way that hair will not clog up the brushes or wheels. We liked that, but it died too.
The DumbBot brush is made in such a way you can slide an envelope opener down the slots to cut hair off, and they provided the razor device to do that with. But that's what it is, an envelope opener, hi hi.
Re: Pencil Sharpener
Roomba's come in several flavors. We got the low end i3 series that sells for $300 or $500 depending on the version. The bulk of the cost must be in the home stand that does the recharging and holds all the dust collected by the bot. The bot itself can't be more than $100, and 60 of those dollars go to the cost of the battery. In other words it's cheap by most standards and not intended to last very long. We haven't had to replace any of the rollers yet, but oddly enough when I bought the battery they suggested I also buy the spare parts kit. So between the battery and the spare parts, that would cover the cost of the robot. It's not worth it from an economical point of view, but it does save my wife some work she does not like to do. I guess that's worth something.
Gold foil printing reminds me of arc welding. It's amazing that printing or welding can be done without melting the tool that does it. I guess the gold foil is very thin so that it is easier to melt than an ingot full of gold. Regardless, it takes 1,948°F to melt gold. It's amazing you didn't burn down your whole shop with that kind of temperatures.
Gold foil printing reminds me of arc welding. It's amazing that printing or welding can be done without melting the tool that does it. I guess the gold foil is very thin so that it is easier to melt than an ingot full of gold. Regardless, it takes 1,948°F to melt gold. It's amazing you didn't burn down your whole shop with that kind of temperatures.
Re: Pencil Sharpener
Our very first Rhoomba was their introductory model, on sale for like 150 bucks. It was all self-contained, no docking station, and no wall wart, it used a 120 volt power cord like came with electric shavers, and the charger was inside the unit. No remote control either. You pressed a button on the top to make it go in a circle, or follow its internal program which pretty much covered the entire floor.
The next one we got still didn't have a docking station, but had wall wart type of charger for it. But it still worked the same way, press a button to do one room, or more than one room, or start it running in a circle. It came with a little box you set by a doorway if you didn't want it to go that way.
Then the next one did have a remote and a docking station. Didn't need the door blockers anymore with that one. But you did have to show it the limits by running the perimeter of the intended room one time while blocking it with your foot from going through a door. That one worked really great, and much longer than the others.
Then we bought the one with the puppy dog foot printed on top. It didn't have near the amount of controls the one before it had, but did have a remote, with only the circle button and room button. It would go wherever it wanted to unless you blocked it, hi hi.
After it finally died is when we bought the DeeBot for about half the price of the now cheapest Rhoomba. We actually like the DumbBot better than we did the Rhoomba's because it has a huge dirt box, with an air filter pad you can wash. It will pick up birdseed, even the big chunks of gnarled peanut shells. It also does not get stuck on the edges of doggie pillows or throw rugs, usually. Sometimes it will push a doggie pillow into a corner if it doesn't climb over it, hi hi. With Rhoomba we had to make sure no electrical cords or throw rugs were left down. DumBot either goes over them and cleans them, or pushes then out of his way, like he does the doggie pillows. Debi can push a button on her Schmartz-Fone to get it started, and when the batter gets low, it will go back to its charging dock all by itself. It has a light on it to remind you to empty the dirt bin too.
Hot Foil Stamping is done using plastic films that have the foil dust on one side along with adhesive. Most of the dust is colored aluminum dust, including the gold colors, but they also have 24k , 14k, and 12k real gold too. It does melt just enough to make a nice shiny finish that looks like it was plated on.
It's not really as hot as you think it is, although if you touch a print head, you will get burned worse than touching a hot iron.
The fonts we use are made of magnesium alloys or brass. Lead fonts would melt on a high setting, although I did have some fairly large fonts that were annealed aluminum so could take the high heat, but they also wear out much quicker.
You had to set the type like in the old days, from a California Case, aka printers case, and I had like 35 different drawers of fonts, expensive inventory of fonts for sure. And sadly, the machine and all that went with it sold for only 35 bucks at auction. Heck, a single empty California Case box could be sold for 135 bucks on eBay easily.
Every have an games or toys or items made of plastic with raised letters that look like they were painted on the top of the raised letters? That too was done using hot foil stamping. But instead of letter fonts, we had these silicone pads that sat on the print head, molded to fit the curvature of the item being printed, and the foil was slid over the item, then the silicone was pressed down on it for a second or two, then the foil was lifted up to leave the printing behind on the device.
FWIW: Those rolls of ribbons used as the carrier for the metallic dust were not cheap either, especially if you are talking about real gold which was enormously priced. Even though 1 ounce of gold could cover an entire football field since it is opaque. When I did briefcases, bibles, and other things in real gold, I always pressed the foil after advancing it, twice, which is why my work always looked so good.
I would get vinyl folders like you end up getting at business meetings from large companies who wanted their Logo and other info imprinted on the covers. Having a die made to do that cost a few hundred bucks, so the order had to be a big one to use a die made especially for them.
A very huge typesetting company downtown had switched to Linotype for most of their work, and then later after computers and printing films were available, they started selling off the fonts in their warehouse for a fair price. About 20 of my fonts were purchased at that time, along with 40 California Case trays they were in for like 100 bucks a tray. That was a deal because the worth of them was more like 500 bucks used, if they were not trying to clear out there inventory.
The next one we got still didn't have a docking station, but had wall wart type of charger for it. But it still worked the same way, press a button to do one room, or more than one room, or start it running in a circle. It came with a little box you set by a doorway if you didn't want it to go that way.
Then the next one did have a remote and a docking station. Didn't need the door blockers anymore with that one. But you did have to show it the limits by running the perimeter of the intended room one time while blocking it with your foot from going through a door. That one worked really great, and much longer than the others.
Then we bought the one with the puppy dog foot printed on top. It didn't have near the amount of controls the one before it had, but did have a remote, with only the circle button and room button. It would go wherever it wanted to unless you blocked it, hi hi.
After it finally died is when we bought the DeeBot for about half the price of the now cheapest Rhoomba. We actually like the DumbBot better than we did the Rhoomba's because it has a huge dirt box, with an air filter pad you can wash. It will pick up birdseed, even the big chunks of gnarled peanut shells. It also does not get stuck on the edges of doggie pillows or throw rugs, usually. Sometimes it will push a doggie pillow into a corner if it doesn't climb over it, hi hi. With Rhoomba we had to make sure no electrical cords or throw rugs were left down. DumBot either goes over them and cleans them, or pushes then out of his way, like he does the doggie pillows. Debi can push a button on her Schmartz-Fone to get it started, and when the batter gets low, it will go back to its charging dock all by itself. It has a light on it to remind you to empty the dirt bin too.
Hot Foil Stamping is done using plastic films that have the foil dust on one side along with adhesive. Most of the dust is colored aluminum dust, including the gold colors, but they also have 24k , 14k, and 12k real gold too. It does melt just enough to make a nice shiny finish that looks like it was plated on.
It's not really as hot as you think it is, although if you touch a print head, you will get burned worse than touching a hot iron.
The fonts we use are made of magnesium alloys or brass. Lead fonts would melt on a high setting, although I did have some fairly large fonts that were annealed aluminum so could take the high heat, but they also wear out much quicker.
You had to set the type like in the old days, from a California Case, aka printers case, and I had like 35 different drawers of fonts, expensive inventory of fonts for sure. And sadly, the machine and all that went with it sold for only 35 bucks at auction. Heck, a single empty California Case box could be sold for 135 bucks on eBay easily.
Every have an games or toys or items made of plastic with raised letters that look like they were painted on the top of the raised letters? That too was done using hot foil stamping. But instead of letter fonts, we had these silicone pads that sat on the print head, molded to fit the curvature of the item being printed, and the foil was slid over the item, then the silicone was pressed down on it for a second or two, then the foil was lifted up to leave the printing behind on the device.
FWIW: Those rolls of ribbons used as the carrier for the metallic dust were not cheap either, especially if you are talking about real gold which was enormously priced. Even though 1 ounce of gold could cover an entire football field since it is opaque. When I did briefcases, bibles, and other things in real gold, I always pressed the foil after advancing it, twice, which is why my work always looked so good.
I would get vinyl folders like you end up getting at business meetings from large companies who wanted their Logo and other info imprinted on the covers. Having a die made to do that cost a few hundred bucks, so the order had to be a big one to use a die made especially for them.
A very huge typesetting company downtown had switched to Linotype for most of their work, and then later after computers and printing films were available, they started selling off the fonts in their warehouse for a fair price. About 20 of my fonts were purchased at that time, along with 40 California Case trays they were in for like 100 bucks a tray. That was a deal because the worth of them was more like 500 bucks used, if they were not trying to clear out there inventory.
Re: Pencil Sharpener
We bought a Tyson vacuum cleaner many years ago. It's an interesting concept in that the business end is a ball, something like a small bowling ball. The handle is attached to the ball in a way that you can rotate the handle left to right to quite a steep angle. This allows you to do sideways vacuuming at a distance which comes in handy when trying to vacuum under things like beds, couches, and tables. It takes some practice to get the knack of steering this thing where you intend it to go. But after the first time using it you should be an expert at it. This Tyson can do floors and rugs and will easily go over doorway thresholds and the edges of rugs. It's over powered, unfortunately, because it sucks up shag rugs and tears out the threads. Other than that it's the perfect all around vacuum cleaner. I like it, but I rarely do the vacuuming. I guess it could be a chore to vacuum, but the Tyson does a much better job than the Rhoomba. The initial cost is not greater than today's fancy Rhoombas, or just a little greater. But, there are no batteries and it's life expectancy is at least ten times longer than the robot's. The downside is that you have to walk the Tyson all over the places you want cleaned. That is not necessary with the robot. Well, I could do the same amount of vacuuming as does the Rhoomba in about 1/10th the time and burn up a few calories in the process. The Tyson does a better than Rhoomba job and lasts a lot longer for about the same price. To me the choice is a no-brainer.
I've never seen the gold foil printing process up close. Most of what I know about it is from you. It makes sense that the ribbon used for most common items would not be pure gold. I have seen those gold foil sheets, however, and that is what I was thinking of as being your main stock. At today's prices for gold I can't see how it would be affordable to do the printing so that a substitute that looks like gold would be appropriate. You probably have become accustomed to the idea but selling items at auction for next to noting can be heartbreaking. Then, too, how many people would be interested in buying a gold foil printer? I have seen California Case Trays, however, for around $60 on Etsy. Apparently they are still good for arts and crafts.
I've never seen the gold foil printing process up close. Most of what I know about it is from you. It makes sense that the ribbon used for most common items would not be pure gold. I have seen those gold foil sheets, however, and that is what I was thinking of as being your main stock. At today's prices for gold I can't see how it would be affordable to do the printing so that a substitute that looks like gold would be appropriate. You probably have become accustomed to the idea but selling items at auction for next to noting can be heartbreaking. Then, too, how many people would be interested in buying a gold foil printer? I have seen California Case Trays, however, for around $60 on Etsy. Apparently they are still good for arts and crafts.
Re: Pencil Sharpener
I've had a few big vacuum cleaners over the years, still have a couple now.
My favorite two were Kirby and Silver King. The Kirby was an upright, and the Silver King was a canister type with more suction power than you've ever seen in your life.
But since I've done away with carpeting, I now have a Disson I think it is, plus a smaller electric unit that works great too.
I bought the smaller one for handling short quick jobs, but it works so well, that's the one our housekeeper uses all the time now.
We keep a little mechanical Fuller Sweeper by the back door to clean up tracked in stuff before it gets into the rest of the house. Quite handy keeping it by the back door. It gets used more often.
A lot of my business was printing award ribbons. And I'll tell you, nothing looks better than a hot foil stamped ribbon, even if done it plain old white. Looks a whole lot better than silk-screened, and lasts years longer too.
Unfortunately you cannot hot foil stamp on clothing or anything stretchy. Most clothing does have some poly in them which would melt under the heat also.
My favorite two were Kirby and Silver King. The Kirby was an upright, and the Silver King was a canister type with more suction power than you've ever seen in your life.
But since I've done away with carpeting, I now have a Disson I think it is, plus a smaller electric unit that works great too.
I bought the smaller one for handling short quick jobs, but it works so well, that's the one our housekeeper uses all the time now.
We keep a little mechanical Fuller Sweeper by the back door to clean up tracked in stuff before it gets into the rest of the house. Quite handy keeping it by the back door. It gets used more often.
A lot of my business was printing award ribbons. And I'll tell you, nothing looks better than a hot foil stamped ribbon, even if done it plain old white. Looks a whole lot better than silk-screened, and lasts years longer too.
Unfortunately you cannot hot foil stamp on clothing or anything stretchy. Most clothing does have some poly in them which would melt under the heat also.
Re: Pencil Sharpener
I have some very old school ideas in my head and being the flexible guy that I am, that surprises me. One of my old school values has to do with silk screened shirts. They are awful. On rare occasion I have owned one that looks great until it gets washed. The shirt washes well but the screening gets crinkled almost immediately. Some shirts take two washings to deteriorate it. The other thing about tee shirts these days is that they are made from what looks to be perforated tissue paper. The silk screened pattern is what holds them together, apparently. I have in fact gone out of my way to get all cotton heavy duty tee shirts from fancy shops. They are better but nothing like the quality of what was common last century. It's also nearly impossible to get an all cotton shirt these days. I can see the utility of blended material for dress shirts, but tees are meant to be wrinkled and loose fitting. Cotton also breathes and allows my natural cooling system (sweat) to be effective. That doesn't happen inside one of those plastic shirts.
So, I would concur with your observation that gold stamped ribbons are superior to anything else. Besides, somebody went through a lot of trouble to win that ribbon. They deserve the best.
The coolest vacuum cleaners I recall seeing were those Rainbow machines. They used water as a filter and could suck the hair right off your head. There was a time when they were sold door to door and mom got a demo of one. We didn't have any carpeting in that apartment so that the beauty of the machine went to waste in the demo. It picked up dirt from the floor all right, but the demo was to show how much you left behind in your carpeting. The only problem wit those machines was the cost. Sky high. People who had them loved them, Everybody else raised their eyebrows at them.
So, I would concur with your observation that gold stamped ribbons are superior to anything else. Besides, somebody went through a lot of trouble to win that ribbon. They deserve the best.
The coolest vacuum cleaners I recall seeing were those Rainbow machines. They used water as a filter and could suck the hair right off your head. There was a time when they were sold door to door and mom got a demo of one. We didn't have any carpeting in that apartment so that the beauty of the machine went to waste in the demo. It picked up dirt from the floor all right, but the demo was to show how much you left behind in your carpeting. The only problem wit those machines was the cost. Sky high. People who had them loved them, Everybody else raised their eyebrows at them.
Re: Pencil Sharpener
All of my dad's era bowling shirts were embroidered, by machine of course.
All of my era bowling shirts were printed with ink, probably oil based ink. They held up even after many washings.
The early silk-screened shirts used an oil based paint with lots of dryers in the paint. They held up too.
But all the silk-screening these days uses acrylic paint. Which as you know, don't hold up worth diddly squat.
They also use vinyl heat applied decals, which look great, but die quickly, and look like heck if washed.
The places that do things like company shirts, with the company logo and name above the pocket, are back to using heavy oil based inks. Debi's Ace Hardware shirts have been washed over 20 times each and that logo and name is still as sharp and crisp as the day she got the shirts. So doing it right is still possible if you can find a place that uses the right methods.
In the hot foil stamping business, we also had a special transfer strip that could be used on cloth items, like canvas bags, and normal dress shirts, but not on T-shirts. I only bought that type of transfer roll because I had a customer who wanted around forty rigid cloth bags done that would see a lot of wear and tear, they were more like bible bags with a zipper around them, but large for portfolio's. In fact, they told me exactly which transfer type to buy to do the job for them. I only used about one-fourth of the roll doing their job for them, and used some of the rest on hats for a friends business he was starting. Then after his business became profitable, he had them embroidered instead. I'm sorta glad too, because doing hats is a royal pain.
You would have loved the hi-quality double faced ribbon I used for printing quality award ribbons. However, I also had to use a normal type of ribbon for most of the orders going to places like carnival supply houses and the like. But they too bought some of the better ones as well, and many times complete with the rosette with a center printed button which I also made, but didn't advertise I did. You probably saw ads in magazines for Button-A-Minute badge making machines. Made of plastic of course. I had a real button machine made of steel with steel forming plates. The cheap plastic machines only had to snap together the cheap parts, a back with a plastic cover that held the printed paper disk. Where the machine I had used thin chromed steel on a sheet that cut the disk, and the die formed it like a dome and crimped it around the edge. You could have the steel sheet printed so there was no plastic cover to hold a paper disk. Or you could use a paper disk with a plastic cover, but that took a heater band on the machine so when you pressed the plastic over the button, when the three little arms swung in to press it under the button top, it used heat to seal it tight. I didn't advertise I could do buttons because I hated using that machine, and the time it took. But for rosette centers with a button, I had preprinted steel sheets with the numbers 1 to 5 on them, each sheet had the same number, and they were colored numbers relating to the ribbon color for the place the ribbon covered.
My first wife's mom had a Rainbow Vacuum. It didn't have as much power as my Silver King did. But she liked it, and would empty it in the toilet and then wash it out in the kitchen sink each time she used it. What she didn't like about it was you couldn't just grab it for light cleaning every day, or spot cleaning. So she bought a small Bissell upright with a hose attachment for couches.
Speaking of Demo items. My Kirby had the Demo dirt collector, which is what I used instead of the Bag on the back of the machines handle. I actually preferred that over getting the bag dirty. And I had about a thousand 5 micron filter sheets that fit it, more than I ever used when we sold the thing with all the attachments, including the shampoo head and other things.
My mom had a Filter Queen which used those expensive cone shaped filters. While my Silver King used cheap flat filters you could buy anywhere, and in any micron size you wanted. The reason it was so powerful is it had dual Surrocco style fan blades, each blade turned in an opposite direction, sorta like a jet engine, hi hi.
A lot of salesmen would show dumb things, like how it could pick up a bowling ball and stuff like that. Heck, any vacuum can do that. But not if you put that bowling ball inside a tall clear plastic tube. The Silver King could lift it all the way to the top while no other vacuum on the market at that time could. But the main thing with a vacuum is the air-flow speed. That is what sucks the sand and grit from down around the carpet fibers at the carpet backing top. It's this grit that shears off the carpet fibers. No I'm NOT selling vacuum cleaners, hi hi.
All of my era bowling shirts were printed with ink, probably oil based ink. They held up even after many washings.
The early silk-screened shirts used an oil based paint with lots of dryers in the paint. They held up too.
But all the silk-screening these days uses acrylic paint. Which as you know, don't hold up worth diddly squat.
They also use vinyl heat applied decals, which look great, but die quickly, and look like heck if washed.
The places that do things like company shirts, with the company logo and name above the pocket, are back to using heavy oil based inks. Debi's Ace Hardware shirts have been washed over 20 times each and that logo and name is still as sharp and crisp as the day she got the shirts. So doing it right is still possible if you can find a place that uses the right methods.
In the hot foil stamping business, we also had a special transfer strip that could be used on cloth items, like canvas bags, and normal dress shirts, but not on T-shirts. I only bought that type of transfer roll because I had a customer who wanted around forty rigid cloth bags done that would see a lot of wear and tear, they were more like bible bags with a zipper around them, but large for portfolio's. In fact, they told me exactly which transfer type to buy to do the job for them. I only used about one-fourth of the roll doing their job for them, and used some of the rest on hats for a friends business he was starting. Then after his business became profitable, he had them embroidered instead. I'm sorta glad too, because doing hats is a royal pain.
You would have loved the hi-quality double faced ribbon I used for printing quality award ribbons. However, I also had to use a normal type of ribbon for most of the orders going to places like carnival supply houses and the like. But they too bought some of the better ones as well, and many times complete with the rosette with a center printed button which I also made, but didn't advertise I did. You probably saw ads in magazines for Button-A-Minute badge making machines. Made of plastic of course. I had a real button machine made of steel with steel forming plates. The cheap plastic machines only had to snap together the cheap parts, a back with a plastic cover that held the printed paper disk. Where the machine I had used thin chromed steel on a sheet that cut the disk, and the die formed it like a dome and crimped it around the edge. You could have the steel sheet printed so there was no plastic cover to hold a paper disk. Or you could use a paper disk with a plastic cover, but that took a heater band on the machine so when you pressed the plastic over the button, when the three little arms swung in to press it under the button top, it used heat to seal it tight. I didn't advertise I could do buttons because I hated using that machine, and the time it took. But for rosette centers with a button, I had preprinted steel sheets with the numbers 1 to 5 on them, each sheet had the same number, and they were colored numbers relating to the ribbon color for the place the ribbon covered.
My first wife's mom had a Rainbow Vacuum. It didn't have as much power as my Silver King did. But she liked it, and would empty it in the toilet and then wash it out in the kitchen sink each time she used it. What she didn't like about it was you couldn't just grab it for light cleaning every day, or spot cleaning. So she bought a small Bissell upright with a hose attachment for couches.
Speaking of Demo items. My Kirby had the Demo dirt collector, which is what I used instead of the Bag on the back of the machines handle. I actually preferred that over getting the bag dirty. And I had about a thousand 5 micron filter sheets that fit it, more than I ever used when we sold the thing with all the attachments, including the shampoo head and other things.
My mom had a Filter Queen which used those expensive cone shaped filters. While my Silver King used cheap flat filters you could buy anywhere, and in any micron size you wanted. The reason it was so powerful is it had dual Surrocco style fan blades, each blade turned in an opposite direction, sorta like a jet engine, hi hi.
A lot of salesmen would show dumb things, like how it could pick up a bowling ball and stuff like that. Heck, any vacuum can do that. But not if you put that bowling ball inside a tall clear plastic tube. The Silver King could lift it all the way to the top while no other vacuum on the market at that time could. But the main thing with a vacuum is the air-flow speed. That is what sucks the sand and grit from down around the carpet fibers at the carpet backing top. It's this grit that shears off the carpet fibers. No I'm NOT selling vacuum cleaners, hi hi.
Re: Pencil Sharpener
We received the $65 replacement battery for the Rhoomba and installed it. After letting it charge overnight my wife turned on the robot to do it's thing. This battery is twice the capacity of the old one and that should give it more run time. Since I never kept tract of it I don't know what the old run time was and can't tell if the new battery is actually lasting any longer. I did spend a few minutes watching this bot do it's job. It's got to be the most inefficient learning system I've ever seen. The bot's movements are not exactly random, but it seems to get confused easily. I don't know how it learns the floor layout, and after watching it a while I don't think it actually has a map to go by. It came into my room here and I blocked it's every move until it left. A while later it came back. I blocked it again. To my way of thinking, if it is creating a map model of the flooring it should not make a mistake and come back to visit me. I noted that it vacuums under one of the beds too. Wife never did that, but then Rhoomba is pretty short. Short and stupid.
Vacuum cleaners really are pretty bad when it comes to their ability to create a vacuum. The better description would be to call it a sucking cleaner, but that doesn't sound as nice as vacuum. The test equipment I worked with at Motorola had test jigs that were vacuum operated. We had vacuum lines run to each test station and the vacuum pump was several hundred feet away. A typical fixture would have 100 spring loaded test probes each with a resistance of 8 ounces. So that's 50 pounds of resistance that the vacuum had to pull down. Those suckers slammed down fast and hard which told me those vacuum pumps were working perfectly. One of the industrial engineers had a brilliant idea. Given we were using "vacuum" fixtures, he thought hooking them up to a common vacuum cleaner would be cheaper than running the pumps. Well, that didn't happen. So I don't know how they could lift a 16 pound bowling ball with a hand vacuum cleaner. To me it is a miracle that they even pull out the dust.
My personal choice of tee shirts would have no printing at all if I had my druthers. I got a shirt or two from Motorola for various reasons. One was for being a member of the Y2K team. That shirt was made in Saudi Arabia from broadcloth, plus it was embroidered. I still have it and it looks fairly decent, but I don't wear it a lot. I don't like being a walking billboard. There are some exceptions to that rule. I have sweatshirts, for example, from every college and high school that all my granddaughters attended. I didn't realize they used oil based ink, but some of those shirts obviously are not silk screened and still looking good. An old U of IL sweat shirt has the logo peeling off. It's not a printed or an embroidered logo and that's a shame. I'd almost prefer the silk screen to the lettering peeling off the cloth.
Vacuum cleaners really are pretty bad when it comes to their ability to create a vacuum. The better description would be to call it a sucking cleaner, but that doesn't sound as nice as vacuum. The test equipment I worked with at Motorola had test jigs that were vacuum operated. We had vacuum lines run to each test station and the vacuum pump was several hundred feet away. A typical fixture would have 100 spring loaded test probes each with a resistance of 8 ounces. So that's 50 pounds of resistance that the vacuum had to pull down. Those suckers slammed down fast and hard which told me those vacuum pumps were working perfectly. One of the industrial engineers had a brilliant idea. Given we were using "vacuum" fixtures, he thought hooking them up to a common vacuum cleaner would be cheaper than running the pumps. Well, that didn't happen. So I don't know how they could lift a 16 pound bowling ball with a hand vacuum cleaner. To me it is a miracle that they even pull out the dust.
My personal choice of tee shirts would have no printing at all if I had my druthers. I got a shirt or two from Motorola for various reasons. One was for being a member of the Y2K team. That shirt was made in Saudi Arabia from broadcloth, plus it was embroidered. I still have it and it looks fairly decent, but I don't wear it a lot. I don't like being a walking billboard. There are some exceptions to that rule. I have sweatshirts, for example, from every college and high school that all my granddaughters attended. I didn't realize they used oil based ink, but some of those shirts obviously are not silk screened and still looking good. An old U of IL sweat shirt has the logo peeling off. It's not a printed or an embroidered logo and that's a shame. I'd almost prefer the silk screen to the lettering peeling off the cloth.
Re: Pencil Sharpener
Rhoomba does have a set pattern it goes by for each setting. It runs until it bumps into something, then starts its cycle all over again. Or at least that is the way our seemed to work.
If I set it to perimeter mode, it will continually make a right, then a left when it bumps into something, and then a 30 degree turn to the right when it hits the wall again, so it does a good job of following the perimeter, when on that setting. But it will never cover the whole floor at that setting.
Now DumBot if I set it to do a circle, it makes a perfect circle that gets a little wider each lap, about 1/2 the width of the unit, but it only makes a 4 foot diameter circle then goes back to its home base.
If I set it to do the whole room, unlike the Rhoomba which ran around the room diagonally often crossing its own path many times, the DumBot goes in straight lines until it hits something, then it does an about face but about the width of the unit and heads off until it hits something else. Because of this, if you have an island in a room, like in our kitchen, it can actually get itself boxed into a space about 1/4th size of the room and can't find its way back out again. Only when the battery gets weak will it start making 30 degree turns until it can find the signal from the base station which is in another room, but once it does, it makes a bee-line for the charging base.
I've owned a couple of very powerful vacuum pumps in my lifetime. One was an old Copelmatic freezer compressor from the 1930s or 40s. It was slow to pump down something to 0.01 bars, but that's as low as professional units get down to. Or at least the thousand dollar unit they had at school when I was in high school, which was a lot of money back then.
The other vacuum pump I had was designed to quickly suck down a cars AC system, so it sucked really fast at first, then changed how it was sucking to a smaller diameter piston, and it too could get down to around 0.05 bars. Anything lower than that and it would suck the AC hoses flat, hi hi.
I had a flat steel plate that a large glass dome sat on I bought from some place like Edmund Scientific. It was about 1/3 the size of the one we had at school. Also at school we had a freeze-drying machine that we loved to play with. We did a watermelon in it once, and all that was left was powder as far as the red insides went, and the rind was like styrofoam.
I actually found a few good uses for my vacuum pump at home on things I made or did.
I used to play tennis back then and added a valve to the can I had that held like six tennis balls, and I would draw that down only as far as 0.50 then shut the valve. That way the tennis balls never went flat in storage from season to season.
The cans you buy them in I think are only sucked down to 0.80 if that far. And if you suck them down too far, they may split when you open the can, and/or go flat right away.
Lots of phun things you can do playing around with a vacuum pump.
I also used my vacuum cleaner as a vacuum pump with a plastic bag to suck the old stale air out of my pillows on the bed, on living room cushions and the like. And the kids stuffed toys when they were little, along with a little air freshener in the bag.
I never really did wear anything with advertising on it, except around the house. Except for my own businesses of course. All of my Dickies work shirts I had my Handymenders Logo on the pocket unless it had a flap on the pocket, then it was above the pocket. And the jackets I bought for everyone in the florist while I was manager. They had the FTD Logo Patch on the front breast pocket, and the employee's name embroidered on the lower right hand pocket top.
After I repainted the back or working area of the shop from dusty mint green to a bright golden yellow, I made curtains for the high small windows from a sisal material made to look like burlap. The lower hem of each curtain had G.F.D. embroidered on the lowest hem, and our company logo embroidered in the center of each panel too.
They were in a lighter than forest green with the embroidery in yellow/gold so it fairly well matched the walls. Made the place look much nicer back there for sure. New paint, new curtains, etc. I even got gung-ho and put Formica on all the tabletops where the designers worked and made a new wire holding rack for each work station. We used a lot of wire in the flower business.
If I set it to perimeter mode, it will continually make a right, then a left when it bumps into something, and then a 30 degree turn to the right when it hits the wall again, so it does a good job of following the perimeter, when on that setting. But it will never cover the whole floor at that setting.
Now DumBot if I set it to do a circle, it makes a perfect circle that gets a little wider each lap, about 1/2 the width of the unit, but it only makes a 4 foot diameter circle then goes back to its home base.
If I set it to do the whole room, unlike the Rhoomba which ran around the room diagonally often crossing its own path many times, the DumBot goes in straight lines until it hits something, then it does an about face but about the width of the unit and heads off until it hits something else. Because of this, if you have an island in a room, like in our kitchen, it can actually get itself boxed into a space about 1/4th size of the room and can't find its way back out again. Only when the battery gets weak will it start making 30 degree turns until it can find the signal from the base station which is in another room, but once it does, it makes a bee-line for the charging base.
I've owned a couple of very powerful vacuum pumps in my lifetime. One was an old Copelmatic freezer compressor from the 1930s or 40s. It was slow to pump down something to 0.01 bars, but that's as low as professional units get down to. Or at least the thousand dollar unit they had at school when I was in high school, which was a lot of money back then.
The other vacuum pump I had was designed to quickly suck down a cars AC system, so it sucked really fast at first, then changed how it was sucking to a smaller diameter piston, and it too could get down to around 0.05 bars. Anything lower than that and it would suck the AC hoses flat, hi hi.
I had a flat steel plate that a large glass dome sat on I bought from some place like Edmund Scientific. It was about 1/3 the size of the one we had at school. Also at school we had a freeze-drying machine that we loved to play with. We did a watermelon in it once, and all that was left was powder as far as the red insides went, and the rind was like styrofoam.
I actually found a few good uses for my vacuum pump at home on things I made or did.
I used to play tennis back then and added a valve to the can I had that held like six tennis balls, and I would draw that down only as far as 0.50 then shut the valve. That way the tennis balls never went flat in storage from season to season.
The cans you buy them in I think are only sucked down to 0.80 if that far. And if you suck them down too far, they may split when you open the can, and/or go flat right away.
Lots of phun things you can do playing around with a vacuum pump.
I also used my vacuum cleaner as a vacuum pump with a plastic bag to suck the old stale air out of my pillows on the bed, on living room cushions and the like. And the kids stuffed toys when they were little, along with a little air freshener in the bag.
I never really did wear anything with advertising on it, except around the house. Except for my own businesses of course. All of my Dickies work shirts I had my Handymenders Logo on the pocket unless it had a flap on the pocket, then it was above the pocket. And the jackets I bought for everyone in the florist while I was manager. They had the FTD Logo Patch on the front breast pocket, and the employee's name embroidered on the lower right hand pocket top.
After I repainted the back or working area of the shop from dusty mint green to a bright golden yellow, I made curtains for the high small windows from a sisal material made to look like burlap. The lower hem of each curtain had G.F.D. embroidered on the lowest hem, and our company logo embroidered in the center of each panel too.
They were in a lighter than forest green with the embroidery in yellow/gold so it fairly well matched the walls. Made the place look much nicer back there for sure. New paint, new curtains, etc. I even got gung-ho and put Formica on all the tabletops where the designers worked and made a new wire holding rack for each work station. We used a lot of wire in the flower business.
Re: Pencil Sharpener
You made some great improvements for your employees in the floral business. One of the things I learned while testing cell phones for Motorola was that there are psychological factors that make the voice in the phone sound better or worse. The temperature, the humidity, and the color of the environment all changed how people perceived the sound in the same phone. My first real job was with Motorola in one of their Chicago factories. It was one of the very few factories that were air conditioned at the time. It must have been expenses as all get out back in the sixties trying to cool down a factory, but then wave solder machines were not yet invented at that time. Motorola justified the cost by pointing out how productivity increased when people felt comfortable. They kept things as clean as possible and did a lot of painting of walls and pipes, but I don't recall any of it being aesthetically pleasing. In your case green is said to be the most comforting color, but yellow gets people motivated. I think going from dark paint to light pain created a positive working environment for your workforce. The cost of the paint must have been insignificant compared to the increased productivity it enabled.
Our Rhoomba is stupid because it apparently is the bottom of the line as far as products go. The pattern followed is parallel sweeps across a surface, much of the time. At some point when it reaches an obstruction, such as the edge of a throw rug, it will do that 30 degree turn and continue it's parallel sweeps. If that route also has an obstruction then Rhoomba has no clue. That's why it came to visit me twice. It got confused in the room next to mine and thought I would be glad to see it again. Our machine can't do anything but vacuum. It doesn't do circles or perimeters or much of anything else but organized randomness. As is the case with your machine, our Rhoomba is very good at finding it's home when it's juice is running out. I guess it's not TOO dumb for that.
The only time I dealt with vacuum in my personal affairs was when tuning up some of those old Plymouths I owned. The choke was vacuum actuated if I recall correctly and there was a way to adjust it. Odd as it sounds I ran across that old vacuum meter down in the basement a few weeks ago. Also found a tach and dwell meter I forgot about. I don't even remember the last time I tried to tune up an engine. Wouldn't even attempt it on the 2009 Saturn. It's not easy to find the engine underneath all that other garbage they have under the hood.
Our Rhoomba is stupid because it apparently is the bottom of the line as far as products go. The pattern followed is parallel sweeps across a surface, much of the time. At some point when it reaches an obstruction, such as the edge of a throw rug, it will do that 30 degree turn and continue it's parallel sweeps. If that route also has an obstruction then Rhoomba has no clue. That's why it came to visit me twice. It got confused in the room next to mine and thought I would be glad to see it again. Our machine can't do anything but vacuum. It doesn't do circles or perimeters or much of anything else but organized randomness. As is the case with your machine, our Rhoomba is very good at finding it's home when it's juice is running out. I guess it's not TOO dumb for that.
The only time I dealt with vacuum in my personal affairs was when tuning up some of those old Plymouths I owned. The choke was vacuum actuated if I recall correctly and there was a way to adjust it. Odd as it sounds I ran across that old vacuum meter down in the basement a few weeks ago. Also found a tach and dwell meter I forgot about. I don't even remember the last time I tried to tune up an engine. Wouldn't even attempt it on the 2009 Saturn. It's not easy to find the engine underneath all that other garbage they have under the hood.
Re: Pencil Sharpener
Rooms painted in pastel blues are ideal for summer months, because they make you feel cooler.
Rooms painted in pastel medium greens are ideal for winter months, because they make you feel warmer.
And as you said, a bright non-pastel color like a subdued yellow keeps folks motivated and productive.
And Ironically, the reds and blacks you see in many Spanish restaurants are said to be dismal as far as working there.
I think I mentioned a long time ago, when I worked at MRTC, every six months they changed the decor of our drafting room.
In the winter they hung this huge round hood up from the ceiling, built a round brick fireplace in the center of the room, and lined our desks around it like spokes of a wheel. Except for the bill of materials guy who didn't want moved from his nice little corner. They also hung big heavy drapes from floor to ceiling over each of the tall windows. They also put down the same goldish/green wall to wall carpeting as well. It really made the place feel homey and comfortable.
In the spring they tore it all out down to bare terrazzo floors, took down the curtains and put up these light blue shades over the windows with a split down the middle that held them open about 2 feet at the bottom. Lined our desks all up so each desk was by a window on the outside row, and the desks next to us were staggered half way down the row. This kept you from talking to the person at the desk next to you too, hi hi. Summer is always when we were the busiest too.
We had the docking station for the last Rhoomba in the hallway, so sometimes it would run out of juice before it found it there.
But DumBot seems to remember where he is in a room, and if you start it from the docking station and not carry it to the middle of the room, it will always find its way back again. I think it follows a better cleaning pattern when started from the docking station also. Doesn't seem to make so many backtracks over areas where it already cleaned.
But you know the spinning brushes that clean along the baseboards. When it hits something like bird seeds, it sends them sailing back across the room, which is why when started from the docking station, it seems to do the perimeter first and then work toward the center of the room.
We got to use one of the scrubbing units for 30 days when they first came out, or right before they came out to the public. It did do a good job of cleaning the kitchen and bathroom floors, provided you swept up first, and picked up the things that normally sit on the bathroom floor and set them in the shower or tub out of the way. It did a great job, even in the corners on the model we had, but the final production model didn't have the corners attachment on it, so we didn't buy one. The only place it missed was a 3 inch wide space behind the toilet, which is also out of sight as well. But it did get around the pipe for the supply line to the tank really well too. The cleaner it used was fairly expensive, which was another reason we didn't buy one of those.
I did let it go on the laminate floors a couple of times, even though they said not to use it on those. But I figured, I used some scrap laminate pieces outside in the weather as a bird feeding station, and it has held up now for a decade or longer.
But I guess some are made cheaply and water could cause them to swell up at the seams.
As far as I know, you can't Tune-Up these computer controlled engines anymore. They tune themselves up on-the-fly.
Change the oil, and change the plugs every so often, and that's about all you can do with them.
Now you can reprogram the chips in them if you have the equipment to do that, which most racing enthusiasts have handy.
Rooms painted in pastel medium greens are ideal for winter months, because they make you feel warmer.
And as you said, a bright non-pastel color like a subdued yellow keeps folks motivated and productive.
And Ironically, the reds and blacks you see in many Spanish restaurants are said to be dismal as far as working there.
I think I mentioned a long time ago, when I worked at MRTC, every six months they changed the decor of our drafting room.
In the winter they hung this huge round hood up from the ceiling, built a round brick fireplace in the center of the room, and lined our desks around it like spokes of a wheel. Except for the bill of materials guy who didn't want moved from his nice little corner. They also hung big heavy drapes from floor to ceiling over each of the tall windows. They also put down the same goldish/green wall to wall carpeting as well. It really made the place feel homey and comfortable.
In the spring they tore it all out down to bare terrazzo floors, took down the curtains and put up these light blue shades over the windows with a split down the middle that held them open about 2 feet at the bottom. Lined our desks all up so each desk was by a window on the outside row, and the desks next to us were staggered half way down the row. This kept you from talking to the person at the desk next to you too, hi hi. Summer is always when we were the busiest too.
We had the docking station for the last Rhoomba in the hallway, so sometimes it would run out of juice before it found it there.
But DumBot seems to remember where he is in a room, and if you start it from the docking station and not carry it to the middle of the room, it will always find its way back again. I think it follows a better cleaning pattern when started from the docking station also. Doesn't seem to make so many backtracks over areas where it already cleaned.
But you know the spinning brushes that clean along the baseboards. When it hits something like bird seeds, it sends them sailing back across the room, which is why when started from the docking station, it seems to do the perimeter first and then work toward the center of the room.
We got to use one of the scrubbing units for 30 days when they first came out, or right before they came out to the public. It did do a good job of cleaning the kitchen and bathroom floors, provided you swept up first, and picked up the things that normally sit on the bathroom floor and set them in the shower or tub out of the way. It did a great job, even in the corners on the model we had, but the final production model didn't have the corners attachment on it, so we didn't buy one. The only place it missed was a 3 inch wide space behind the toilet, which is also out of sight as well. But it did get around the pipe for the supply line to the tank really well too. The cleaner it used was fairly expensive, which was another reason we didn't buy one of those.
I did let it go on the laminate floors a couple of times, even though they said not to use it on those. But I figured, I used some scrap laminate pieces outside in the weather as a bird feeding station, and it has held up now for a decade or longer.
But I guess some are made cheaply and water could cause them to swell up at the seams.
As far as I know, you can't Tune-Up these computer controlled engines anymore. They tune themselves up on-the-fly.
Change the oil, and change the plugs every so often, and that's about all you can do with them.
Now you can reprogram the chips in them if you have the equipment to do that, which most racing enthusiasts have handy.
Re: Pencil Sharpener
Yellow paint has some mystical qualities about it. Each can of paint you purchase has a note telling you approximately how many square feet of coverage you could expect. They don't go into detail regarding the technique used to measure that coverage but the calculations seem to be consistent on all cans of paint. When we first moved into this house one of the basement walls did not have wall board on it. I had somebody install it along with some electric wiring and I did the mudding and painting. When I went to buy the paint I decided on yellow. Basements are always dingy and I figured yellow would brighten up things a bit. The clerk asked me how many square feet I was painting and I knew at the time and two quarts would do the job well. He said I should buy one extra can because yellow paint in particular never goes as far as any other color. I was astounded. I mean what difference does color make? It's all made the same way except for the color. So I bought only two cans and expected to have some left over. Well, I was short on paint for the last two feet of the wall, which today remains unpainted. LOL I don't know what it is about yellow paint, but apparently it does not work like the rest of the colors.
When cars switched to fuel injection systems that are computer controlled that was the end of conventional tune ups. Oddly enough only mechanics had the equipment necessary to do tune ups afterward. I guess fuel injection is a better way to burn the gasoline and that was the justification for going that route. Fuel economy might have also been improved. I think all the onboard computer does is monitor the timing and the ignition system. It just sets the timing to suit the circumstances. Oh maybe it changes the flow of the fuel too, but that isn't part of the tuning process. In any case it's not easy to get hold of a shop manual now either. Maybe those racing dudes have all that stuff. I gave up on tuning my cars many years ago and have not regretted it. They say to have a new car tuned after 100,000 miles. I don't think I ever kept a single care for that many miles.
When cars switched to fuel injection systems that are computer controlled that was the end of conventional tune ups. Oddly enough only mechanics had the equipment necessary to do tune ups afterward. I guess fuel injection is a better way to burn the gasoline and that was the justification for going that route. Fuel economy might have also been improved. I think all the onboard computer does is monitor the timing and the ignition system. It just sets the timing to suit the circumstances. Oh maybe it changes the flow of the fuel too, but that isn't part of the tuning process. In any case it's not easy to get hold of a shop manual now either. Maybe those racing dudes have all that stuff. I gave up on tuning my cars many years ago and have not regretted it. They say to have a new car tuned after 100,000 miles. I don't think I ever kept a single care for that many miles.
Re: Pencil Sharpener
I learned that the hard way also. I knew how much paint it took to paint a primed concrete block wall, especially one that was not only primed, but already had a coat of paint on it. But when I changed to that golden/yellow color, it took me two more gallons that I had calculated based on the charts I always kept handy. It would have come out cheaper for me to buy a 5-gallon bucket. Which, by the way, whenever I buy paint, I always buy it in 5-gallon buckets ever since. I usually bought the same eggshell color for almost all the houses I did, so if I popped a new bucket to get only a quart out of it, I had it for the next job.
But I did the same thing after I moved down here, and although there might be a gallon of paint left, in the long run it came out much cheaper for me. I buy ceiling white for ceilings, and semi-gloss white for trim, and an off-white for walls. Plus I normally use a bright gloss yellow for accent areas, like the ledge here in my office, but not windowsills which are semi-gloss white.
I have torn down and rebuilt many engines in the '60s and '70s, usually to beef them up a considerable amount in the process.
But I wouldn't touch one today. I take my cars to the shop when they need worked on. No exceptions. Well, except for some minor things like recharging an AC unit. But now with my health so bad, it seems every little thing I used to be able to do, I can't anymore, so it costs me.
But I did the same thing after I moved down here, and although there might be a gallon of paint left, in the long run it came out much cheaper for me. I buy ceiling white for ceilings, and semi-gloss white for trim, and an off-white for walls. Plus I normally use a bright gloss yellow for accent areas, like the ledge here in my office, but not windowsills which are semi-gloss white.
I have torn down and rebuilt many engines in the '60s and '70s, usually to beef them up a considerable amount in the process.
But I wouldn't touch one today. I take my cars to the shop when they need worked on. No exceptions. Well, except for some minor things like recharging an AC unit. But now with my health so bad, it seems every little thing I used to be able to do, I can't anymore, so it costs me.
Re: Pencil Sharpener
I learned that the hard way also. I knew how much paint it took to paint a primed concrete block wall, especially one that was not only primed, but already had a coat of paint on it. But when I changed to that golden/yellow color, it took me two more gallons that I had calculated based on the charts I always kept handy. It would have come out cheaper for me to buy a 5-gallon bucket. Which, by the way, whenever I buy paint, I always buy it in 5-gallon buckets ever since. I usually bought the same eggshell color for almost all the houses I did, so if I popped a new bucket to get only a quart out of it, I had it for the next job.
But I did the same thing after I moved down here, and although there might be a gallon of paint left, in the long run it came out much cheaper for me. I buy ceiling white for ceilings, and semi-gloss white for trim, and an off-white for walls. Plus I normally use a bright gloss yellow for accent areas, like the ledge here in my office, but not windowsills which are semi-gloss white.
I have torn down and rebuilt many engines in the '60s and '70s, usually to beef them up a considerable amount in the process.
But I wouldn't touch one today. I take my cars to the shop when they need worked on. No exceptions. Well, except for some minor things like recharging an AC unit. But now with my health so bad, it seems every little thing I used to be able to do, I can't anymore, so it costs me.
But I did the same thing after I moved down here, and although there might be a gallon of paint left, in the long run it came out much cheaper for me. I buy ceiling white for ceilings, and semi-gloss white for trim, and an off-white for walls. Plus I normally use a bright gloss yellow for accent areas, like the ledge here in my office, but not windowsills which are semi-gloss white.
I have torn down and rebuilt many engines in the '60s and '70s, usually to beef them up a considerable amount in the process.
But I wouldn't touch one today. I take my cars to the shop when they need worked on. No exceptions. Well, except for some minor things like recharging an AC unit. But now with my health so bad, it seems every little thing I used to be able to do, I can't anymore, so it costs me.
Re: Pencil Sharpener
If I were painting cinder blocks I would not expect the same coverage as I'd get on a flat gypsum wall. All those nooks and crannies add to the surface area more than you would imagine. Most of the painting I did was regular home maintenance and applying some customized colors. Some had to be created using those spectrometers they have to match colors. Those machines are great because they will match faded and dirty wall colors very closely. LOL Even when doing more than one room I've never had a need for more than a couple gallons. The 5 gallon bucket might be cheaper per gallon, but I'd have more waste that I would usable paint. I do like those buckets, however. Apparently they can be purchased empty too. 
The building contractor for the house I live in now certainly must have done what you describe. That is he bought bulk quantities of three kinds of paint. The ceiling and trim are white, but the walls are a neutral tan color. He used flat paint on the walls which might look good when you are trying to sell a house but it's a terrible finish in a kitchen, for example. After about a year of ugly spots on the walls I bought a can of semi-gloss, or maybe it was egg shell, and repainted the walls around the work area in the kitchen. No more spots. Well, I guess it's just an illusion to be honest. The grease and fluids from cooking still splatter and get on the walls, but now I can't see them. It's been six years and it still looks pretty good. Not sure how much longer we can go, however.
I rebuilt the engine in our first '49 Chevy with the help of my uncle who actually knew how to do such things. It was an inline six and back in the days before anti-pollution, which made everything easy to access. I still have the torque wrench I bought for that job. Never had an occasion to use it since. It's still bright and shinny like the day I bought it. I wonder what became of that old Chevy ...
The building contractor for the house I live in now certainly must have done what you describe. That is he bought bulk quantities of three kinds of paint. The ceiling and trim are white, but the walls are a neutral tan color. He used flat paint on the walls which might look good when you are trying to sell a house but it's a terrible finish in a kitchen, for example. After about a year of ugly spots on the walls I bought a can of semi-gloss, or maybe it was egg shell, and repainted the walls around the work area in the kitchen. No more spots. Well, I guess it's just an illusion to be honest. The grease and fluids from cooking still splatter and get on the walls, but now I can't see them. It's been six years and it still looks pretty good. Not sure how much longer we can go, however.
I rebuilt the engine in our first '49 Chevy with the help of my uncle who actually knew how to do such things. It was an inline six and back in the days before anti-pollution, which made everything easy to access. I still have the torque wrench I bought for that job. Never had an occasion to use it since. It's still bright and shinny like the day I bought it. I wonder what became of that old Chevy ...
Re: Pencil Sharpener
I don't believe I just lost my entire post while typing. Apparently I hit ALT-X. That dumps me out for sure. But this time I got back this message, but not the long one I just finished. Drat. I had a LOT of valuable info in it too.
I talked about painting blocks, cinder, cement, and haydite.
I talked about drywall and paint buckets and what I did with them, some I sold, some I left in folks basements.
And I bragged about buying tile for baths and kitchens for 1/3rd less than they charge at stores.
I also bragged about all the work I did to my 1946 Ford Deluxe when I was only 15, including how I installed a new ceiling cover, since all the cloth in it had dry rotted away long before I got that car.
Oh, well. Why hitting back didn't bring me back like it just did. But dumped me into the log-in screen. Grrr.
Glad I saved this one, I had to log back in to post it!
I talked about painting blocks, cinder, cement, and haydite.
I talked about drywall and paint buckets and what I did with them, some I sold, some I left in folks basements.
And I bragged about buying tile for baths and kitchens for 1/3rd less than they charge at stores.
I also bragged about all the work I did to my 1946 Ford Deluxe when I was only 15, including how I installed a new ceiling cover, since all the cloth in it had dry rotted away long before I got that car.
Oh, well. Why hitting back didn't bring me back like it just did. But dumped me into the log-in screen. Grrr.
Glad I saved this one, I had to log back in to post it!
Re: Pencil Sharpener
I opened my Google Chrome browser with its preset tabs. The index page of this website is one of the tabs. I am not logged in on that browser so that I see the generic index page. Then I pressed alt+X which brought me to ... the login page. My Mozilla based browser does not respond that way. The fix for all that is to save the page you are editing using the [Save draft] button at the bottom of the editing window. It is a PITA, but it does save everything and lets you continue on from there. Alternately you could use a Mozilla browser to view this website. The alt+X shortcut has no effect therein. I just did it a few times to make sure. 
Mozilla has a different history system than does Chrome. While I can't prove it, it seems to update the screen in cache frequently. In fact I believe the update is in real time. Recalling an accidentally deleted text message box by pressing the back arrow sometimes works. But there are times when I've seen it not work. The sure way of retrieving that lost text box is to close the Mozilla browser. Then open it and go to the History drop down menu and select "Restore previous session." Like magic the text box and all the text being edited reappears. If Chrome has a similar option to restore a previous session, you might want to try that the next time you need to recover. Otherwise some other browser would be highly recommended.
I know what kind of detail you can get into in spite of you claiming your memory is bad. LOL Most of the time I learn something new when you expound upon a subject, even those subjects upon which we disagree. I've probably told you this before, but I'll say it again. Don't hesitate to ramble on with your thoughts. I often find them entertaining if not actually informative.
Mozilla has a different history system than does Chrome. While I can't prove it, it seems to update the screen in cache frequently. In fact I believe the update is in real time. Recalling an accidentally deleted text message box by pressing the back arrow sometimes works. But there are times when I've seen it not work. The sure way of retrieving that lost text box is to close the Mozilla browser. Then open it and go to the History drop down menu and select "Restore previous session." Like magic the text box and all the text being edited reappears. If Chrome has a similar option to restore a previous session, you might want to try that the next time you need to recover. Otherwise some other browser would be highly recommended.
I know what kind of detail you can get into in spite of you claiming your memory is bad. LOL Most of the time I learn something new when you expound upon a subject, even those subjects upon which we disagree. I've probably told you this before, but I'll say it again. Don't hesitate to ramble on with your thoughts. I often find them entertaining if not actually informative.
Last edited by yogi on 17 Aug 2022, 22:59, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Pencil Sharpener
Using the restore previous session only works if I wasn't booted out so I have to log-in again.
That's one of the things I try also.
Before they added the WinDoze Keys on keyboards, some of my keyboards just had a blank space there, and some others had a Command Key on the left side, and a Function Key on the right side. And all the keys in line with the space bar were harder to press down, at least on a couple of keyboards I had. Like they had a stronger spring under them, same with the caps lock key it too was harder to press down.
Speaking of keyboards, Debi's son buys expensive keyboards for his home system, he's always been a hard core gamer with those on-line interactive shoot-em-up games. In any case, he bought a new very expensive keyboard and hated it so much, after a week of fighting with it, he sent it back to the company. Rather than send his money back, they sent him a nearly identical keyboard and he tried it likes it better than his old keyboard. It has something to do with how they made the keys, but that's all I know about it, other than he don't like keys that pop back at you when typing. Now that is something I've never hit before, hi hi.
I know about Mozilla's history records, for the farming game I play, I used to jump over and use FireFox when I was collecting gifts, so I could go into the history and upload them all to a gifting website in one click, hi hi. Can't do that on Google Chrome.
We have a doctor here at UT Hospital that is trying something new for his older patients with failing memories.
There are sometimes when they need to know something and can't remember it, and using hypnosis has not worked for them.
So this doc came up with an idea. He will sit them down in a room and simply play the favorite songs from the era of the thing they are trying to remember. Hearing those old songs is a real boon to jogging folks memory banks. Many old folks down here are talking about him and what he has been doing, bringing back old memories they had long since forgotten, and the memories they had of certain people they thought they would never forget. He's having amazing success too.
That's one of the things I try also.
Before they added the WinDoze Keys on keyboards, some of my keyboards just had a blank space there, and some others had a Command Key on the left side, and a Function Key on the right side. And all the keys in line with the space bar were harder to press down, at least on a couple of keyboards I had. Like they had a stronger spring under them, same with the caps lock key it too was harder to press down.
Speaking of keyboards, Debi's son buys expensive keyboards for his home system, he's always been a hard core gamer with those on-line interactive shoot-em-up games. In any case, he bought a new very expensive keyboard and hated it so much, after a week of fighting with it, he sent it back to the company. Rather than send his money back, they sent him a nearly identical keyboard and he tried it likes it better than his old keyboard. It has something to do with how they made the keys, but that's all I know about it, other than he don't like keys that pop back at you when typing. Now that is something I've never hit before, hi hi.
I know about Mozilla's history records, for the farming game I play, I used to jump over and use FireFox when I was collecting gifts, so I could go into the history and upload them all to a gifting website in one click, hi hi. Can't do that on Google Chrome.
We have a doctor here at UT Hospital that is trying something new for his older patients with failing memories.
There are sometimes when they need to know something and can't remember it, and using hypnosis has not worked for them.
So this doc came up with an idea. He will sit them down in a room and simply play the favorite songs from the era of the thing they are trying to remember. Hearing those old songs is a real boon to jogging folks memory banks. Many old folks down here are talking about him and what he has been doing, bringing back old memories they had long since forgotten, and the memories they had of certain people they thought they would never forget. He's having amazing success too.
Re: Pencil Sharpener
I seldom have the problem you have where you are logged out of the website. I have, however, lost the edit page more than a few times. There are several different ways to lose all that editing and different recovery methods may be required depending on the situation. I have not had a need to recover a session very often, but when I did it worked perfectly every time. I use Google Chrome when I log into this site as administrator. All the admin tweaks are done that way and searching spam databases when a new member applies. I don't do a lot of typing in Chrome and in fact don't like to use it unless absolutely necessary. If you think Windows is a pile of spyware, you ain't looked into Chrome very closely. Google beats Microsoft by a mile in that case.
I too have switched to buying gamer mechanical keyboards. The first ones I bought were built with MX stitches for the keys and in my experience they were the very best. It took me a while to discover which color (and sensitivity) suits my fingers, which was an expensive endeavor. But, I now know MX Brown is the way for me to go. MX, however, being mechanical is fixed in it's response. I was experimenting one time and used a keyboard with the red switches. Just resting my fingers on the home row cause multiple instances of characters to appear. I don't know why a gamer would appreciate that, but when I sold it they snatched it up very quickly. I could hardly type one sentence without multiple typos using that keyboard. Then I found a gaming keyboard that was advertised as having programmable sensitivity for each individual key. These were not MX switches and the only mechanical part in the switch is the return spring. They say 10 million cycles would not be unusual. The keys sensitivity is indeed programmable, but not in the sense I was hoping for. The touch is the same no matter how the keys are programmed. However, the depth of the trip point for the contact to close can be programmed in ten steps. So I have the home row programmed to trip about mid range. My heavy fingers do not trigger any typos that way. The rests of the keys are programmed for 20% travel before closure. Thus the number row only needs a light touch to activate which in my case is great because I'm stretching my fingers for that row. I don't have to stretch as far now. Be that all as it may, I am only slightly disappointed that the key resistance is not programmable. Only the closure trip point is.
Your story about the doctor playing music to revive memories is not new to me. I might have even read about him, but probably not. I have read about the psychological effects of music. Music does in fact calm the beasts. It's not must an old wife's tale. Music can be therapeutic and calming, or as was the case in the movie Jaws it can intensify the feeling of fear. It would not surprise me one bit that playing era music would bring back memories of that era. That's how the brain works, by association. The music is associated with what was going on in your consciousness and stored for future reference, along with a lot of other keys for that event. So reproducing the environment would cause the brain to bring up all the appropriate associations. Yeah, makes sense to me.
I too have switched to buying gamer mechanical keyboards. The first ones I bought were built with MX stitches for the keys and in my experience they were the very best. It took me a while to discover which color (and sensitivity) suits my fingers, which was an expensive endeavor. But, I now know MX Brown is the way for me to go. MX, however, being mechanical is fixed in it's response. I was experimenting one time and used a keyboard with the red switches. Just resting my fingers on the home row cause multiple instances of characters to appear. I don't know why a gamer would appreciate that, but when I sold it they snatched it up very quickly. I could hardly type one sentence without multiple typos using that keyboard. Then I found a gaming keyboard that was advertised as having programmable sensitivity for each individual key. These were not MX switches and the only mechanical part in the switch is the return spring. They say 10 million cycles would not be unusual. The keys sensitivity is indeed programmable, but not in the sense I was hoping for. The touch is the same no matter how the keys are programmed. However, the depth of the trip point for the contact to close can be programmed in ten steps. So I have the home row programmed to trip about mid range. My heavy fingers do not trigger any typos that way. The rests of the keys are programmed for 20% travel before closure. Thus the number row only needs a light touch to activate which in my case is great because I'm stretching my fingers for that row. I don't have to stretch as far now. Be that all as it may, I am only slightly disappointed that the key resistance is not programmable. Only the closure trip point is.
Your story about the doctor playing music to revive memories is not new to me. I might have even read about him, but probably not. I have read about the psychological effects of music. Music does in fact calm the beasts. It's not must an old wife's tale. Music can be therapeutic and calming, or as was the case in the movie Jaws it can intensify the feeling of fear. It would not surprise me one bit that playing era music would bring back memories of that era. That's how the brain works, by association. The music is associated with what was going on in your consciousness and stored for future reference, along with a lot of other keys for that event. So reproducing the environment would cause the brain to bring up all the appropriate associations. Yeah, makes sense to me.