Recent content by jrmichler

Search dashpots in McMaster-Carr. Dashpots are designed to slow something down for a soft landing. You will need some sort of bracket on your adaptor plate and another bracket on the fixed part of the assembly. If you sketch something up, and provide the drop distance and moving mass, we can...

I am slightly color blind, to the point where I can just barely pass an FAA 2nd class flight physical. That vision deficiency has been constant since my first flight physical over 50 years ago. I can only see PF hyperlinks when I have previous knowledge of their existence, and know exactly...

Yes. A reciprocating air compressor, like a steam engine, has a piston moving up and down in a cylinder. Air compressors need an air compressor head on the cylinder. An air compressor head has a pair of reed valves. One valve lets air in on the piston down stroke, the other valve lets the...

Some thoughts: When working on a difficult problem, I try for a mental state of relaxed alertness. When I start slipping away from that state, I stop, take a deep breath, slouch down, and exhale slowly. That usually gets me going again, although sometimes I need to do it two or three times...

Three consecutive photos of the neighbor's house. The first photo is from 2003. That house was originally built some time before 1984, probably in the 1950's or 1960's. The previous owners never built big fires, while the new owners built a big fire in the fireplace. No surprise what...

Due to liability concerns, we cannot help you. This needs at least a qualified electrician, and possibly an electrical engineer. This thread is closed.

How much faster? Is it 0.1%, 1%, or 10%? And how much forming was being done at each station? Does the paper say anything about the effect of scrubbing when the material being formed wraps around the forming rolls? One roll will tend to hold the material back, the opposite roll will tend...

1) What is RAS? 2) How does the APC work? Does it sense pressure, water level, flow, or what? 3) The APC photo shows two different cables and what appears to be some sort of connector. What are the inputs and outputs to each of those? 4) Where is the APC connected in the piping diagram...

Saw this on a business trip to Kentucky some years ago.

This little robin was the last one to leave the nest. An hour after this photo was taken this morning, it was gone. I put up the nesting platform to stop robins from building nests in that gutter. I take the nest down after the new birds leave. Sometimes another bird will come along and...

Four little guys running around the back yard this morning. No mom in sight. We regularly have does drop their fawns on our property, generally near the upper left in this photo. Adult deer walk through our yard, while the fawns bound around and act like a bunch of very active three year...

This is the secret to proper operation of a septic system. Feed it human waste, pump it every three years or so, and keep out anything that kills bacteria. A septic pumper told me that he could tell when somebody was on antibiotics because of the effect on the contents of the septic tank...

Attitude. A positive attitude. Something like: "That was good experience, but now it's time to do something different." And always live on less money than I made. That meant that I had a cash cushion so that I could afford to start a business or go to grad school. And I missed a couple: I...

Sometimes, you just need to try something to find if you really like it. And be willing to change if you don't like it. My first professional job was as a mechanical engineer in a paper mill. It was an excellent job for 9 years, then I grew out of it. It was time to change. I then tried...

Just came back from the hardware store, getting ready to turn down my driveway, and look what's in the way. I need a dash cam with a better camera.