What is your next machine?

What is your next machine? Choose up to three:

  • Milling machine

  • Lathe

  • Saw

  • Press, punch, bender, or forming machine

  • Drill or boring machine

  • Compressor

  • Furnace, Kiln, or Forge

  • Grinding machine

  • Blaster or tumbler

  • Welder or plasma machine

  • CNC

  • 3D printer, laser engraver, or other micro CNC

  • Wachuko's choice

  • Shaper!

Results are only viewable after voting.
None of these will stop a direct hit. If Thor wants to smack your computer, there isn't much you can do about it. I've seen lightning vaporize coax cables. I've seen it vaporize 6" every few feet inside coax cables with no apparent damage to the jacket. It goes where it wants to. The best chance you have to stop it is to give it a good path to ground away from equipment/people/pets etc.

The hits we had summers in a row weren't direct hits. But they were darn close. To my best guess damage was capacitive/inductive coupling. That is, it didn't generate differential surge on the AC line it generated a huge common mode surge. This would have appeared on the AC lines AND Ground, ethernet, and antenna wire lines. The long cabling involved in the installation give multiple paths for common mode on the individual cables. Since the paths were different, they were of different potential. When they finally met in the computers and power supplies for equipment, the difference between those common mode voltages was enough to blow things. That's where the damage happened.

None of the surge suppressors or isolation transformers I know of are any good at common mode spikes like THAT. If the common mode spike doesn't have a loop to dissipate power in, it's a lot harder for it to do damage. So that's why the fiber now. Since moving towards fiber, lightning hasn't shown itself to be a problem anymore.

So, my next machine...will be yet another computer for data logging! lol
 
matthewsx said:
Will you be keeping them home in the US?

Every family has their own challenges. I've been taking care of my mom, in my home since 2001. Our father died in the house I'm living in now, I bought it from the estate which is a whole different story.

Still trying to get my mom home after surgery, I won't go into what that will take here but I can say it's not something I can do by myself.

The only other thing I have to add here, is if you are in the US and over 65 think carefully before you select a "Medicare Advantage" insurance plan. The "advantage" may not be for you.

Sorry for getting off topic, we can start another thread to discuss aging and caregiving issues if anyone likes.

John
Click to expand...
Medicare Advantage is total garbage.
 
Lightening is amazing stuff, but how it works is fairly simple.

First, it is basic electrical stuff.

To generate electricity, you move a conductor through a magnetic field.

Second, for every electrical current flow, there is a magnetic field around it.

These 2 things are important.

Imagine a radio tower or conductive tree that gets hit.

It takes about 5000 volts to jump a spark plug gap, how much to go the miles into the air?

The short period current flow can be thousands of amps.

Remember, current flow creates magnetic field, wire moving in field creates electricity...

Back to the tower...

Imagine a giant doughnut, falling down the tower as it it is being placed on it.

That doughnut is the magnetic field created by the strike.

Given the strike is a huge pulse of energy, the field grows very large, very fast, then collapses.

This creates a moving field, any conductive material within this field gets electrically hot.

Even a fork left on a table.

The loop of USB cable between the laptop and mouse, neither ate connected to ac power, just sitting on the table.

Motorola R56 halow standards have grounding to direct these currents towards the grounds, point of entry protection needs to be able to trip the main, or if equipment based, trip the breaker to the equipment but still remain on the line to keep voltage low.

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk
 
Flitzer said:
Medicare Advantage is total garbage.
Click to expand...
Just had to get a referral today for my mom to get her ears cleaned out. This is an office she's been to many times but now they're asking for another referral just because....

Can't wait to get her off it. Not to be political but everyone has a body and needs healthcare, it sucks to see the industry it's become. My grandfather was a doctor and worked out of an office at his home. If you couldn't pay he would figure out something, my mom thought they were rich with so many people helping out around the house....

Don't get me wrong, my daughter is a biomedical engineer and we've made great strides in what can be done, just wish the outcomes reflected it.

John
 
I can't subscribe to the idea that age is an important factor.

I'm curently 84, just sold my machines, gettng ready to sell house and car, I've moved to Holland and started up a wood shop. I'm reunited with my childehood sweatheart after 63 years of absolute seperation. (And writing on a computer that spell checks for Dutch. If it doesn't know the word it underlines it in red).

We're going to be happy for the rest of our lives, no matter how long that is.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top