Jay Leno has lots of videos about steam cars and steam engines... I would love to see a modern steam engine made with todays tech.
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Inside The Secret Underground Laboratory
- Thread starter Bruce Johnson
- Start date
Jay Leno has lots of videos about steam cars and steam engines... I would love to see a modern steam engine made with todays tech.
The shop I learned shop in was a modern conversion from steam power with overhead drives using big leather belts - the lathes were original and had been converted from steam to electric motors but still had the big belt wheels on them. It gives you an appreciation for how relevant the fundamentals are when you realize that the basic machine has remained unchanged for 80-100 years despite the drive power coming from a different source.
Anyone who has the chance should book a ride on a paddle wheel riverboat. Most of them you can get an up close and personal look at the pistons on either side that drive the paddle wheel.
Another place that steam power can often be seen is when one of the steam locomotives comes by your neck of the woods. You can check the websites of many of the touring steam locomotives for the rail schedule so you can go out for a viewing when they come by on local rail lines.
It seems odd to follow the Twitter accounts to keep up with them as they travel towards your location. Quite the juxtaposition between two very different eras and technologies.
Another place that steam power can often be seen is when one of the steam locomotives comes by your neck of the woods. You can check the websites of many of the touring steam locomotives for the rail schedule so you can go out for a viewing when they come by on local rail lines.
It seems odd to follow the Twitter accounts to keep up with them as they travel towards your location. Quite the juxtaposition between two very different eras and technologies.
We have a paddle boat here in Tacoma, they towed it here from the east coast and turned it into a stationary casino and it hasn't moved from the dock....ever. 
Now they have built a legit casino (I designed the foodservice spaces) and the boat has been abandoned.
Probably not what you meant by "visit a riverboat" huh?
Now they have built a legit casino (I designed the foodservice spaces) and the boat has been abandoned.
Probably not what you meant by "visit a riverboat" huh?
Yeah, it's funny to see a couple of digital electronic temperature readouts in that box company video, right next to all the old spinning belt drives. One thing that wasn't clear is if their electrical power in the building is from the grid, or if they have small generator driven from the steam system. Now that would be cool: A wood-fired boiler driving a steam engine, spinning a generator, through giant selenium rectifier, powering a CNC router! And the cutoffs from the CNC router go back into the boiler to be burned.
Just now saw the discussion about using LED tube lamps to replace fluorescents. I did that swap in the kitchen a few years back, after discovering that replacing the ballast would cost more. These work a lot better. No regrets at all. Had a little trepidation during the rewiring (household wiring is usually something I leave to professionals) but the low voltage on the new bulbs was a huge advantage.
Each bulb I got included replacement bulb mounts as well, so I could build more light fixtures for free if I want.
Each bulb I got included replacement bulb mounts as well, so I could build more light fixtures for free if I want.
We have a paddle boat here in Tacoma, they towed it here from the east coast and turned it into a stationary casino and it hasn't moved from the dock....ever.
View attachment 4466102
Now they have built a legit casino (I designed the foodservice spaces) and the boat has been abandoned.
Probably not what you meant by "visit a riverboat" huh?
No, I actually wrote "BOOK A RIDE on a paddle wheel river boat". That's not the same thing as "visiting" at all!
But mine had booze.No, I actually wrote "BOOK A RIDE on a paddle wheel river boat". That's not the same thing as "visiting" at all!
On the Illinois and Mississippi rivers the paddle boat excursions are several hours long and most have live music and dancing. Plenty of adult libation available if you so choose.But mine had booze.
I wanted to mention that we appear to have finally solved the internet problem here in the Secret Underground Lab. It's a long story, but we've been struggling for years, literally, trying to get any kind of decent fiber optic internet service run to our building. We've been on the waiting lists for Spectrum and Starlink for more than a year. Other companies refuse. Endless promises, delays, more promises, more delays....The reasons why are long and complicated. We've been surviving on an old grandfathered AT&T copper wire DSL account for as long as I've been here. It's horribly slow (like 8mbs down, 1mbs up!) and unreliable.
Suddenly, a new solution has popped up! Verizon's 5G Home Internet Service. It's a full high-speed internet connection that operates through the cell phone towers. No stinkin' cables have to be run to the building! No installation! No visits from Technicians! It's a little white cube that they ship to you. Plug into power; it talks to the local cell phone tower and connects to the internet. It broadcasts WiFi around it, and has two Ethernet ports. An instant internet modem providing continuous service. Wow.
And it's cheap! Zero cost for the hardware, zero startup cost, $60/month for the service, no contract. That's about half the monthly price of any of the fiber optic services, and most of them have real high startup costs.
They are a little vague about the speed, but they claim it will do 100mbs/25mbs in most places, and can do up to 300mbs down. That's in the range of what Spectrum and Starlink are claiming. It does depend on the quality of cell phone reception in your area. How close you are to towers that have been brought up to the 5G standard.
Here in the Secret Underground Lab, we have a cell tower barely a block away, and we've always had good cell reception. Even down in our concrete basement.
The box came through on Friday, and we set it up and got it running over the weekend. Very simple installation. I'm connected by Wi-Fi to it through two of my computers. I'm seeing test speeds of 80-100mbs/20-30mbs, which is pretty darn good. Especially as compared the the AT&T service! Through his phone, Scott got it to do almost 300mbs down once. So it looks like it's capable of those speeds. And that's all through Wi-Fi. Coming up, we're going to be connecting the ethernet cables to it, which reach out to the far ends of the building. See what it can do.
We did find that the cube is sensitive to position, in order to get good reception from the cell tower. Best reception so far is right against a window, in the direction toward the tower. In the middle of my shop, surrounded by concrete and below ground level, it would barely connect. No big surprise. For now, it's happy in my spray booth, sitting on top of the vent fan box, looking out the window. We'll probably experiment with putting it outside the window too.
So far, it's been completely reliable and is meeting our needs at a reasonable price. If no other issues show up, we'll probably cancel Spectrum and Starlink.
Suddenly, a new solution has popped up! Verizon's 5G Home Internet Service. It's a full high-speed internet connection that operates through the cell phone towers. No stinkin' cables have to be run to the building! No installation! No visits from Technicians! It's a little white cube that they ship to you. Plug into power; it talks to the local cell phone tower and connects to the internet. It broadcasts WiFi around it, and has two Ethernet ports. An instant internet modem providing continuous service. Wow.
And it's cheap! Zero cost for the hardware, zero startup cost, $60/month for the service, no contract. That's about half the monthly price of any of the fiber optic services, and most of them have real high startup costs.
They are a little vague about the speed, but they claim it will do 100mbs/25mbs in most places, and can do up to 300mbs down. That's in the range of what Spectrum and Starlink are claiming. It does depend on the quality of cell phone reception in your area. How close you are to towers that have been brought up to the 5G standard.
Here in the Secret Underground Lab, we have a cell tower barely a block away, and we've always had good cell reception. Even down in our concrete basement.
The box came through on Friday, and we set it up and got it running over the weekend. Very simple installation. I'm connected by Wi-Fi to it through two of my computers. I'm seeing test speeds of 80-100mbs/20-30mbs, which is pretty darn good. Especially as compared the the AT&T service! Through his phone, Scott got it to do almost 300mbs down once. So it looks like it's capable of those speeds. And that's all through Wi-Fi. Coming up, we're going to be connecting the ethernet cables to it, which reach out to the far ends of the building. See what it can do.
We did find that the cube is sensitive to position, in order to get good reception from the cell tower. Best reception so far is right against a window, in the direction toward the tower. In the middle of my shop, surrounded by concrete and below ground level, it would barely connect. No big surprise. For now, it's happy in my spray booth, sitting on top of the vent fan box, looking out the window. We'll probably experiment with putting it outside the window too.
So far, it's been completely reliable and is meeting our needs at a reasonable price. If no other issues show up, we'll probably cancel Spectrum and Starlink.
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I hear you...we have a cabin in San Bern that I fought to get internet hooked up...they sent me the modem and when a tech came to hook up he said there were no open lines and he could not connect me so I cancelled the service. Well next day it started working....been working 2 yrs now with no provider or bill. It's slow but I'm not going to complain...
Yeah, it lets me broadcast bass engineering principles to the masses and implant them in minds like yours.
Your plan to take over the world is nearly complete.
The real question is what kind of router jig you're going to build for it.
