What I did today -instead- of Rocketry.

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It's obviously deliberate because, 1) it would be really hard to do by accident, and B) no one would put the care you clearly did into the finish on such a "failure". So the question is: Why? Does it serve a practical purpose, or is it a joke?

Totally a joke, it made me laugh. The only possible practical purpose is as an exercise to see if I could do it.
 
@boatgeek @jqavins @prfesser - I may have had a synapse - always a red-letter day for me! I wonder if those Steelcase desktops are made of linoleum?

As to the subject of the thread, I finished preppring a couple of swings for painting, painted one, filled a crack on the other. Gotta get stuff out of the workshop so I can build rockets!

Mine was a hard plastic-like surface, like Formica but glossy smooth instead of textured. I haven't seen the other stuff so I can't comment. Real linoleum might be a good substitute. It's made now under the name Marmoleum and is fantastic stuff--we have it in several places in our house. If there's a local installer, you might see if they would sell/give you remnant scraps that would otherwise be thrown away. We had a couple of desktop-sized pieces left over from one of our projects. The installer was happy to leave them with us.

Otherwise, I'd go for cutting mats and/or the drafting table covers.
 
Mine was a hard plastic-like surface, like Formica but glossy smooth instead of textured. I haven't seen the other stuff so I can't comment. Real linoleum might be a good substitute. It's made now under the name Marmoleum and is fantastic stuff--we have it in several places in our house. If there's a local installer, you might see if they would sell/give you remnant scraps that would otherwise be thrown away. We had a couple of desktop-sized pieces left over from one of our projects. The installer was happy to leave them with us.

Otherwise, I'd go for cutting mats and/or the drafting table covers.

Well, to you and Joe, it was a thought - mine is a tough plastic-like stuff that I thought could be a grade of linoluem - not as hard as Formica or Bakelite; I'm not versed with the history of plastics. Acetone dissolves it? I'm also not a very good chemist. I wonder about re-finishing...

By the way, this fell out as we were upending and manhandling the thing to get it into the workshop:
Blaw-Knox_1953_planner.jpg

Who knows how long that was in there? I wasn't even alive!
 
@boatgeek @jqavins @prfesser - I may have had a synapse - always a red-letter day for me! I wonder if those Steelcase desktops are made of linoleum?
Today's vinyl is a lot more wear-resistant than linoleum. I would follow the advice of whomever said to look for un-textured vinyl flooring scraps. Failing that, some random ideas:

---60 mil (1/16") black EPDM rubber roofing, 5x20 feet, is about $110 on Amazon. If the desk is 5' wide this would be enough for 6 or more desks. Find others who want to restore a desk, arrange to split the roofing and the cost.

---EPDM rubber "paint". Would need to be applied in thin layers, and getting the final layer flat and smooth might be a challenge.

---Tinted epoxy? The stuff made for tabletop coating is usually less expensive than adhesive or laminating epoxy. A 1 gallon kit should cover a 3' x 5' desk about 0.1" deep. Tape around the desktop as a dam, and level the desk very carefully. Surface would be pretty hard.

---Tinted HTPB + curative would give a flexible surface but would be rather more expensive than epoxy.

---Polyurethane casting resin is about as hard as epoxy but cures awfully fast, 3-5 minutes.

That's about all that comes to mind right now.

Best -- Terry
 
This is more of a "what I'm going to do today" item. A client's boat caught fire last night, and we're helping with the response. The press has reported no injuries, which is very good news. The boat also has about 10,000 lbs of ammonia on board for the refrigeration plant, and press reports say that those tanks are safely cooled as well.

https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/article249332325.html
 
I liberated a damaged glass door from work..

Tempered, about 45" x 36", penciled edge.. scrape off any glue or paint spills with a razor. Also great for cutting on (X-Acto knife) paper & thin Balsa..
 
---Tinted epoxy? The stuff made for tabletop coating is usually less expensive than adhesive or laminating epoxy. A 1 gallon kit should cover a 3' x 5' desk about 0.1" deep. Tape around the desktop as a dam, and level the desk very carefully. Surface would be pretty hard.
The aluminum edging that's part of the desk should be all the dam needed, if you don't mind gluing the edging on. That also gives you to way to get the depth exactly right.

The boat also has about 10,000 lbs of ammonia on board...
Gulp!
[A]nd press reports say that those tanks are safely cooled as well.
I hope getting that stuff safely off before something else goes wrong is a very high priority. Like, a Right Freaking Now priority.
 
Gulp! I hope getting that stuff safely off before something else goes wrong is a very high priority. Like, a Right Freaking Now priority.

Press reports* are that the firefighters have retreated to the dock and are fighting defensively to save the pier and any nearby boats that haven't been cleared out of the danger zone. In general, if there are no people on board, firefighters do not like to go on boats to fight fires. It is way too easy to get stuck because it's hard to find your way around, there are hazardous materials all over the place, and fires can move unpredictably. Crews on board will fight fires if they're at sea and there's no other option other than abandoning ship.

As far as the ammonia goes, there's no place to put it easily. A refrigeration company could take it off into bottles, likely a few hundred pounds at a time. That would require getting techs on board, craning empty bottles to them, and then craning the full bottles back off. It's a day or two process at best, and would put 5-10 lives at risk. It's better to stay back out of the potential blast radius if the ammonia tanks go up, keep the big tanks cool and hope that the ship doesn't go down from the water the fire crews are spraying on it.

There's a reason fire at sea is one of the scariest possible disasters.

* As is probably no surprise, I'm being careful to only tell you things that are in the public domain.
 
Mr. Boat, I assume teh fire is all the burnable stuff: plastics, certain chemicals, oils, fats, etc..

And that ideally, teh "metal hull" should survive teh flames, but will likely be 'tempered' (and twisted / buckled / distorted out of shape), and that is what will render this vessel 'scrap'..


(As for scrap: put this in google maps & look at 'satellite view': 22.469026969767043, 91.71941213000886 )
 
I see that I was acting on a false assumption. Since the fire is still burning then yes, I see, keeping the tanks cool is all one can do. When the fire is out (which I assumed) and it's safe enough to go inside, then I hope that getting that stuff off is in the first tier of things to do right away.
 
Mr. Boat, I assume teh fire is all the burnable stuff: plastics, certain chemicals, oils, fats, etc..

And that ideally, teh "metal hull" should survive teh flames, but will likely be 'tempered' (and twisted / buckled / distorted out of shape), and that is what will render this vessel 'scrap'..


(As for scrap: put this in google maps & look at 'satellite view': 22.469026969767043, 91.71941213000886 )

I talked a little more about fires on ships in the Bonhomme Richard thread (https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/uss-bonhomme-richard-on-fire-at-naval-base-san-diego.160534/), but yes, there's lots of flammable and toxic stuff on board boats. Any steel the fire touches will need to be replaced as well, either because it loses temper or because it's buckled too far out of true. When you see flames over most of the length of a ship, the best you can hope for is that it doesn't put the fire out by sinking. It will almost certainly be a total loss with that much fire damage. You would just like to be able to take it for scrap in a more orderly way.

I see that I was acting on a false assumption. Since the fire is still burning then yes, I see, keeping the tanks cool is all one can do. When the fire is out (which I assumed) and it's safe enough to go inside, then I hope that getting that stuff off is in the first tier of things to do right away.

They'll definitely want to get the ammonia and fuel off as soon as they can once the fire's out. That is likely a project for the weekend if we're lucky.
 
Finished the laundry reno. Completed sealing around the bench to the wall with RTV. All done now (thank goodness). Changed out the old trough and cabinet for a new modern-style base cabinet and kitchen-style sink with drainer. Patched wall and floor tiles where necessary, updated tapware to nice ceramic insert ones, new laminate benchtop. Also had to replace and paint a piece of architrave on the window. Our washing machine died after 19 years so we got a new one, thus prompting the sprucing up of the room. I think the old laundry trough is going out of fashion, hence the change to the sink style.

And mowed the lawn.
 
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I hadn’t realized there was Friday shuttle service to Hoth.

That is the SE part of Lake Michigan. The blue ice is even more spectacular further North by the Mackinac Bridge. That's too far for me to go in one day though. These beaches are only two hours away and still a sight to see in the Winter.
 
Tool maintenance! Cheap forstner bits are cheap. I had this one that wouldn't cut a hole, take a look at this malformed tip. After a bit of time with files and a diamond hone, it cuts alright.

P2200755.JPG

"Before" hole on the right, "after" hole on the left:

P2200757.JPG

I must be twisted, I really like sanding and sharpening tools.
 
A while back I read a book, The Secret Life of Dust, and it estimated that there are between 13 and 30 billion tonnes of dust in the atmosphere. A significant amount of that had accreted in my garage so I had to sweep and vacuum to get is back to a reasonable state.

Moved some furniture for my daughter from where she picked it up at a garage sale.

Also did a zoom meeting for my God-son's 21st birthday. Great to catch up with him and his family in Canada and elsewhere around the world.
 
A while back I read a book, The Secret Life of Dust, and it estimated that there are between 13 and 30 billion tonnes of dust in the atmosphere.

sounds like another"Failure of the Creator":eek:

My wife is going to drive me down about 1 1/2 hrs Southwest into South Carolina this afternoon to buy another set of Mirage M3si speakers just like the ones I have, so that I'll be in the middle of 4 of them, which will be killer for the Quadraphonic recordings that they are putting out on Blu-ray discs now. I'm selling my big Definitive Technology BP2000 towers to the same guy that bought my last set (he was blown away by my demo with him being in the middle of the 4 of them, he grabbed his arm and said "goosebumps").
 
My wife is going to drive me down about 1 1/2 hrs Southwest into South Carolina this afternoon to buy another set of Mirage M3si speakers just like the ones I have, so that I'll be in the middle of 4 of them, which will be killer for the Quadraphonic recordings that they are putting out on Blu-ray discs now. I'm selling my big Definitive Technology BP2000 towers to the same guy that bought my last set (he was blown away by my demo with him being in the middle of the 4 of them, he grabbed his arm and said "goosebumps").
Sitting in the middle of four of those Mirages should be... very nice.

Listening to a *good* set of full-range speakers for the first time is a perspective-altering experience. In my case it makes me keenly aware of how inadequate my own speakers are, but unfortunately I'm not in a position to upgrade right now. :(
 
Listening to a *good* set of full-range speakers for the first time is a perspective-altering experience.

"Contentment is Destroyed by Comparison" is the old saying I use. Only after listening to a speaker system that you can FEEL, instead of just listening to, do you realize how good speakers can be. Being a musician all my life and playing in all kinds of groups, I want to be surrounded/immersed in the sound, not just have 2 polite small speakers up in the front of the room. You know, the kind you can be brought into the room blindfolded, and point right to where the speakers are? You need to be enveloped to try and give a 3-D effect with a good bottom end too. "It's all about that BASS";)

Can you tell how excited I get about Hi-Fi?:)
 
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