JMG

If it were available in the US today I would most likely purchase one. Unfortunately, as previously stated, they are too late to the game here as springtime has arrived, and it is time for a new mower....

Appreciate the sentiment Protoolnut, but its not really a story about tools, and I think it might be a bit out of place there... Killer clam... Best grin evar...

http://www.amazon.com/SOG-Specialty-Knives-TFSAT98-CP-Partially/dp/B0041EKQSC/ref=sr_1_2?m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1458240231&sr=1-2&keywords=sog+knives+tanto&refinements=p_6%3AATVPDKIKX0DER%2Cp_89%3ASOG+Specialty+Knives%2Cp_36%3A1253556011 SOG has a few decent folders in your price range...

Drywall/deck screw gun kit.

Well, it wasn't one of those encounters of the third kind...

Man Proto, that purple haze must be a real good batch today....

In my latest post in the Pub Talk section, I noticed that for some reason that the font from the original document I copied from had changed in the last paragraph. When I tried to edit this to correct the problem, I could find no way to change it. I even tried to delete the paragraph and copy paste a new one from the original document, but it would not change and remained as originally posted. The question is: Where is the font selector? We can change the color and size, but not the font type?

Reading the comments on a post from facebook recently, about life changing or death defying events in one’s life, I was reminded of a group of people who may have never known how close they came to being obliterated from this earth near the island of Bokoluo, on the Enewetak Atoll in April of 1978. This event happened while I was serving on a six-month temporary duty assignment while in the U.S. Army. The assignment was part of a large project to clean up radioactive debris left over from atomic tests that had been performed on the atoll during the fifties and sixties, so that the original inhabitants of the atoll might reclaim it as home. One of the first jobs that the squad I was assigned to performed, was the demolition of one of the atomic test bunkers that had housed the camera equipment for filming one of the major nuclear detonations on the atoll. The project required two separate operations to break down the bunker into manageable sized materials, and used between three to four tons of explosives for the two ops. The first charge that was set to break the bunker used in excess of five thousand pounds of TNT and shape-charges, and was reported as being the largest detonation of explosives on the atoll since the atomic tests had ended. I remember that we were all pretty stoked at the thought of getting to watch this one go off, but the day that we triggered the charge for it turned out to be one of the longest days we experienced as a team while stationed there. As this first operation had taken many days to set up, it was decided to set up the trigger for it in the morning after everything had been double checked. While my squad leader was setting the det cap for the charge, I noticed that he had only set a single cap at the end of the time fuse and I called him on it. He basically told me to screw off and that it wasn’t going to be a problem. Regulation generally requires a double cap to insure detonation, and I walked away from him shaking my head. At this point we loaded up on the LARC (Lighter, Amphibious Resupply, Cargo vehicle) and set out for the safety limit, estimated at approximately one and a half miles into the lagoon, after having triggering the time charge. There always was a sense of slow motion in our jobs on the Atoll, and riding on the LARCs was the king of slow. For those that are not familiar with this particular vehicle, it was at the time, one of the only transports available to the Army that could transition from ocean to land, over reefs and through surf, to deliver heavy equipment and personnel to their required operation sites. The LARC had a sixty-ton cargo capacity, and was powered by four diesel engines that drove either four ten-foot-tall tires on land, or twin screws while in the water. The Atomic clean-up project at Enewetak may have been the last major deployment for this type of vehicle prior to its decommission from service. On reaching our safe limit within the allotted time frame, we began waiting out the rest of the time set for safety margin, and immediately noticed another LARC crossing the chain of islands, heading in the direction of our ground zero. OK now, someone really screwed the pooch here with scheduling and communications for what turned out to be a sight-seeing tour for a group of local dignitaries. Que the Gilligan’s Island theme song. Our LARC crew spent the next hour plus, frantically attempting to contact and warn the crew of the other LARC of the imminent danger they faced, but all attempts from our crew as well as base camp communications failed. Anyone out there that might be familiar with the amount of noise those vehicles made will probably not be surprised at this. The clock was ticking down and we all now believed that we were watching dead men riding into hell. As it turns out, the other crew arrived within close proximity of our ground zero almost exactly at the estimated time for detonation. Waiting became a bit excruciating, and I am sure the blood pressure of those in charge was not at a healthy level. Needless to say, nothing happened, and time crawled slowly on, like the LARC that we all watched crawling off and away along the reefs on out of the danger area. We, however, were bound to now wait out the time for the safety margin of a failed detonation, and then move back to the island and investigate the reason for the failure. Sometime early afternoon we arrived back at the bunker to find that the single det cap that had been set, had simply failed. The time fuse had burned properly and the charge should have detonated, breaking that bunker and taking an unknown number of people with it. At this point I could not resist and commented to my squad leader; “Aren’t you glad you ignored me?”. I’ll bet you can guess what his response was. A double cap was set on the kick charge and we set off back to the safety limit. Now late in the afternoon, we were treated to a rather impressive explosion, and mini mushroom cloud with a rather large smoke ring over it, culminating more than a week’s worth of effort on our part in setting it up, but still leaving us to travel back to the site for preliminary inspection and then back to our temporary camp on one of the other nearby islands, to end one of the longest days experienced while serving on that atoll. Even today, I still wonder if the locals taking that tour, and the crew of that other LARC, were ever informed of how close they came to the great beyond. Sunset, Lojwa, September 78

Man, that has to be a real pain in the arse to have a prototype swiped from you during testing. I would be real hard on the person who was responsible for it, if it were up to me.

I bought one of the lights and really like it. I just wish that they had left the cord off of it and just used a plug connector on it and then mounted the cords on the tripod. That or made a separate model that was cordless only. The light lasts almost all day on low setting as it is.

No problems here. Just closed the browser and signed back in without any issues.

This is link is for a pdf of the actual article from the American Legion Magazine, for anyone who is interested or is willing to forward a copy to their congressional representative or senator; https://lookaside.fbsbx.com/file/American%20Legion%20_Invisible%20Bullets_.pdf?token=AWwyTk_YYWkxVCb_clR1oSKUjbvScNJiqPT9lx6Fk45JCow12Qb6leYkM7W5ZwG-8pKfo9i5ip84NVw10Xg_WVpe0Rsx_M26FlrTm0uLh6s7dXcn8-fWKy3poxXQOM7BOaHR3kJFYD2Pb4Sx4A4HjuVXZqqhM3lmwm7C62KywwIwMw Night flight of the mail chopper.

I have found some good information about welding on this site in the past: http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/ Spent a lot of time there when I was learning tig.

Something like this? http://www.grizzly.com/products/10-Drum-Sander/G0716

If you do replace it, you might try a gravity cup gun. Those are my personal preference when doing critical detail work. For volume furniture finishing with lacquer I use a pressure pot, and with catalyzed finishes a mixing pressure pot. Airless units I normally reserve for large volume areas.

My experience with cup guns not drawing material properly has almost always been a restricted vent or the fluid tip not being correctly seated. Once in a blue moon the gasket around the plunge shaft not being compressed properly could cause an issue also.

Is the vent hole in the top of the cup blocked?

Difficult question for me as well, as I like a wide variety of music too. But one of my favorite artists is Joe Satriani. Awesome guitarist.

Eric; The auto link issue isn't a real problem. It just seems to me that it might be a minor bug in the code. I hope that they expand some of the functionality for the chat area in a future release. Thanks for the info.

Fortunately Chris, as of yet, I am not one of the vets that has been afflicted with any of the related major issues. I have had some comparatively minor problems that I believe were caused by that particular tour, but the VA does not share my opinion on the matter. I was listed as partially disabled by the VA for other service related injuries, and have general access to VA treatments, but any mention of exposure related issues is generally rejected due to, and I quote, "not being identified by the medical community at large as being caused by exposure to any form of radiation". I do feel the weight of the matter though, as the estimates for those that have passed on from related problems is a higher than normal percentage. Thanks Stercorarius, for spreading the word. As a group, through social media, only a bit over three hundred of the estimated eight thousand who served on that tour have been located, and attempts to get the government to supply a list of those service members, has not been successful. Working at changing the laws, is our best bet to help any of those that remain unidentified. Sunset, Sep 78, Lojwa, Enewetak Atoll.

In 1978 I was sent on a six month temporary duty assignment by the US Army to aid in the atomic clean-up effort in the Marshall Islands. Over the three year period that this project was in effect, thousands of veterans, along with civilian contractors were exposed to hazardous waste as well as other types of hazards in an attempt to clean up the Enewetak atoll so that the original people who had been displaced by the nuclear testing conducted there could return, and once again claim it as home. While the intentions of those that oversaw this project may have been good at heart, the truth is that at the time they still did not know enough about the overall effects of even short term exposure to the radiological contaminants that those of us tasked with removing them would be subjected to. Protective gear was in short supply and most of us generally performed our jobs without even a dust mask. We have begun comparing the work as to having been shot by invisible bullets while performing our duty to our country. The following is taken from a current article in the American Legion magazine: http://www.legion.org/magazine/231267/toxic-paradise The article mentions some current proposed legislation (HR 3870) aimed at helping some the vets that are experiencing issues related to serving on this project, to get some well deserved assistance from our government. The government currently does not class us as being atomic veterans, even though we were exposed to radiation as part of our service, and denies many vets and their families needed medical and monetary aid. It is currently estimated that there is an 80% chance that your congressional representative would not even know about this proposal if you were to ask them to support it. So, if you have the chance or opportunity, please ask them to do so. Thank-you. Lojwa base camp at low tide, Aug 1978. Population 600 plus, no women.

Eric; While you are messing around with the chat function, I was wondering if you could look into a minor issue with auto links in the chat window. Currently, the auto link function only works if only the full link is posted to a line and then entered. If any text other than the link itself is added to the line then the auto link fails to activate.

Is there a way to set the chat to open in a pop up window? Or possibly to split the browser so it stays open while surfing the forums?

I have both the xbu02z and the xru07z, blower and trimmer. I picked up both of them this past fall and quite like them. I recommend using 5ah batteries in them as 4ah batteries seem to be a bit short on useful run time. I used the blower for moving leaves around in the fall and for clearing snow off of my drive and sidewalks over the last two months and it has been an excellent tool for those purposes. The trimmer was only used two or three times before winter set in, but it performed well and has a nice balance when in use. The one thing that I wish, though, is instead of two speeds, that they had given it a variable speed like on the blower. It would have made the transition from gas power to battery power a wee bit less noticeable. The trimmer is a good choice for small and medium size yards with the current power packs available for it, but not something that seems to be designed to run all day, and I can't wait for the 6ah packs to hit the market so I can test the difference in run time. Power on it isn't an issue, just overall run time. If you are on the Makita platform and purchase these two, I highly doubt that you will be disappointed with them. They will be great additions to your collection. I also recommend the dual battery charger as it will recharge both batteries in the same amount of time as two separate chargers will.

I would be more concerned with getting the proper draw for the exhaust pipe from the heater than moving the gas pipe. Where you planning on moving the exit point for it to closer to the new location, or leaving it where it is? When building your new wall, how much leeway do you plan to have in case any item in the new space needs complete replacement, and will the new wall interfere with that possibility? Lastly, if the water heater is the only item still on the gas supply, why not consider an electric replacement and eliminate the exhaust issue?