Craig Sawyers

You should have received one along the lines of lurk and understand head-case before posting, and don't mistake others familiarity with each other as inviting you to join in. This is NOT a conventional forum by any stretch of the imagination, and piling in with idiot messages is a sure fire way of you getting kicked out on your ass. If you want somewhere to just post rubbish, join head-fi https://www.head-fi.org/ . I suggest you pipe the fuck down, lurk for some weeks and get a feel for the place. If indeed this is the place for you - which I strongly feel it isn't.

So you joined an hour ago, and you're two pushy mails in. Did you not read and understand the welcome message?

And wearing a mask, of course! Pre-pandemic if you went into a store wearing a mask the swat team would be called

You are one seriously lucky guy. Cowboy Junkies would be right there on my list of must sees when and if they ever make it back across the pond. But like you, my main experience is with Trinity Sessions. In their current tour they are seemingly doing USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia (whole chunks of which are in hard lockdown at present). But not Europe.

It's years since I thought of eating Spam (stands for SPiced hAM). But we used to fry the stuff. Wikipedia is your friend https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_(food) . I had no idea it originated in Minnesota. Because it is such a worldwide thing, I'd cheerfully believed it originated in the UK (wrong). And frying it is definitely a thing - Spam fritters. It could be eaten with the Scottish delicacy of deep fried Mars bar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep-fried_Mars_bar now this is a truly horrible thought.

No as bad as a Maromoset on a crumpet

Churchill's parrot was a macaw, not an African Grey (or a Norwegian Blue). Here's an article about the bird, who was 114 years old a few years ago https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/local-news/having-chat-churchills-parrot-114-13642592

My Aunt Molly and her husband Ken owned an African Grey parrot. It used to speak in Ken's voice - so when Ken died, it was kind of freaky to hear this bird speaking in dead Ken's voice. It is apparently a real problem; often a bereaved person cannot cope with a bird talking in their dead partner's voice and have to sell the bird. An African Grey can live up to 80 years. About 10 years ago a reporter for our current affairs radio channel (Radio 4) tracked down Churchill's ancient African Grey, which had ended up owned by a garden center. It must have been a slow news day: "Does it speak in Churchill's voice?","Well, not really. It's very old and doesn't say much at all", "OK - but Churchill was famous for swearing - does the parrot swear?", "Never head it swear". Basically summarizing the story - Churchill's parrot fails to talk.

The small semi-detached house (ie a common wall with a neighbour) that I was born and bred in was bought by my grandfather in 1925. Any modifications my dad did himself. The only bathroom modification was removing the high level cast iron toilet cistern and replacing it with a low level one and new pan in about 1965. The original was working just fine, other than needing a combination flush - one quick pull followed by a slightly longer one. After my Dad died and my Mum came and lived locally to us (300 miles South), the new owners did extensive mods, with extensions to the side and rear. Google Earth shows that it is a pale shadow of what it was. Bigger for sure, but with big excrescences sticking out the sides. But it still has a common wall with a neighbour. When Granddad bought it, the house backed on to a large area of fields, something that was still there when I was born. Then the inevitable happened - the fields were sold to developers, and from about 1960 was filled with houses.

I've had it written into my will that my ashes are to be taken up attached to a meteorological balloon and scattered at the edge of space at more than 100k feet. So if at some time younger people get a speck of dust in your eye, maybe it's me.

We've just had our utility room done with Quick-Step, this shade https://www.quick-step.co.uk/en-gb/vinyl/alpha-vinyl-small-planks/avsp40030_canyon-oak-grey-with-saw-cuts . I've kept the spare boards! I've authorized the same outfit to continue the same shade into the hallway. That is currently in darkish wood, also Quick-Step, which has been down for more than ten years, and has really stood the test of time. The same shade as the utility room will really make it much lighter. But we're having full commercial grade put down in the hall, which in a domestic environment is guaranteed for 25 years. By which time we'll be 90 - and either living in a care home or pushing up daisies.

Yup - that is why I asked the question if it was solid wood or like Quick-Step. I must admit I hadn't realised that was a UK brand name. But they have deep pockets because they sponsor a world class pro cycling team ( https://www.deceuninck-quickstep.com/en ) I'll digress into cycling for a moment. One of that team's riders, Fabio Jakobsen, has won two of the sprint finish stages in this year's Vuelta Espana. What is even more impressive is that in Spring last year he was forced into the barriers by another cyclist in a sprint finish in the Tour of Poland. The barriers collapsed (they are not supposed to do that), and he hit his face on the barrier metalwork at nearly 50mph. The only reason he did not hit the finish gantry, which would have been certain death, is that an official was in the way, who had quite bad injuries having been hit at speed by Jakobsen. They had to reconstruct his face, with bone grafts to repair his upper and lower jaw and palate, and replace ten teeth. Cracked skull. In an induced coma for a long time. But in spite of all that he has come back to sprinting at world class level 18 months later. His face is a bit lop sided is all you can see.

If this is solid wood, and not laminate (ie like QuickStep), I can't think of an alternative to using an industrial belt sander and taking it down to remove the stain entirely. And start all over. Steve - any alternative you can think of?

I think I know who that was. And it is not someone on this list or associated with it. I mentioned the 2sk208-GR to him by email, and he told me he had previously bought 3,000 of them, before I even mailed him. By the way, TI have just introduced a low-noise n-channel JFET, the JFE150 (0.8nV/root Hz, and 1/f corner at 10Hz) https://www.ti.com/product/JFE150 . Apparently this is just the first in a series they are planning, with n-channel monolithic duals (apparently imminent), and possible p-channel versions. They are quite serious about the audio market, with a superb and growing portfolio of audio op-amps. Unlike On-Semi; don't start me on that soap box....

That is good news! Our ancient 18 year old has got to the stage that she is losing teeth - a bit like ancient humans. That sort of thing seems to completely un-faze animals. They have a bewildering ability to just get on with life.

Taken from https://aphelis.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/ASIMOV_1980_Cult_of_Ignorance.pdf

RIP the ridiculously funny Sean Lock, a British comedian, aged a very young 58 from cancer. This is "carrot in a box"

FWIW I use these https://www.te.com/commerce/DocumentDelivery/DDEController?Action=showdoc&DocId=Data+Sheet1-1773878-3_Alcoswitch_AntiVandal0517pdfEnglishENG_DS_1-1773878-3_Alcoswitch_AntiVandal_0517.pdf2213775-3 The style I use is at the top of the second page.

The Nobel prizewinner, the late and very great physicist Richard P Feynman, used to go to the local strip club with topless waitresses, drink orange juice and do theoretical physics on scraps of paper. He'd then just pile beermats and scraps of paper with maths on them in his cupboard. After he died there was a major effort to curate everything and try to piece together what on earth Feynman was working on at the strip club.

I use one of these https://baratza.com/grinder/vario/ Actually mine is a Mahlkoenig, but it seems they have discontinued it. https://www.mahlkoenig.de/products/vario-home . The 54mm ceramic burrs last for an eternity. Hundreds of coarse and fine settings. I set the fine about half way, and the coarse at 4 for Aeropress and 7 for French press when using Hoffman. An old friend used his on the very fine setting for use in his espresso machine. Every now and then I take the burrs out, and wash them to get rid of old coffee deposits, then brush out the housing with a small brush. Put the burrs back in - job done. Maybe once every 3 months if I remember to do it. Typical US supplier https://www.seattlecoffeegear.com/baratza-vario-burr-grinder-with-metal-portaholder which seems to be in your price range - just!

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

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

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

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

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