Announcement: Building Homebrew Vacuum Tubes and Homebrew Tr

[Watson A.Name - "Watt Sun]

In article <3f772180$1_6@corp.newsgroups.com>, jcb@igs.net
mentioned...

Don Bruder wrote:


Betcha I can come up with a battery you can tear apart to get a carbon
rod from in less than 10 minutes - given 5 bucks and a town with more
than a gas station, a mom-and-pop store, and a post office, that is...
Carbon-zincs are still around, and can be had from anyplace that sells
almost any brand other than Energizer or Duracell.


Yup!! and if for some silly reason you can't find a battery, you should
be able to get carbon rods from a welding supply house. They use them as
electrodes in carbon arc welding attachments for arc welders.

Yeah, carbons from a C or D cell are not _that_ hard to find, they're
sold at the really cheap 99 cent stores, and called 'heavy duty'
instead of alkaline. But most people don't buy them anymore. Maybe
because the equipment uses AA cells, and the cheap zinc-carbon AA
cells are too low a capacity for the smaller equipment.

But the carbon rods for welding are coated with copper, I believe.
that might cause a problem.

--
@@F@r@o@m@@O@r@a@n@g@e@@C@o@u@n@t@y@,@@C@a@l@,@@w@h@e@r@e@@
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Don't be ripped off by the big book dealers. Go to the URL
that will give you a choice and save you money(up to half).
http://www.everybookstore.com You'll be glad you did!
Just when you thought you had all this figured out, the gov't
changed it: http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html
@@t@h@e@@a@f@f@l@u@e@n@t@@m@e@e@t@@t@h@e@@E@f@f@l@u@e@n@t@@

 

[Watson A.Name - "Watt Sun]

In article <vneabi1b4lcjea@corp.supernews.com>, williams@nwlink.com
mentioned...

Carbon-zincs are still around, and can be had from anyplace
that sells almost any brand other than Energizer or Duracell.

Energizer (Eveready) makes carbon-zinc batteries. Heaven knows why, but they do.
They probably never closed down the production line and still sell enough to
justify keeping it up and running.

Might be because of all the cops with their 5 D cell Maglights. They
go thru a set on a graveyard shift, almost as fast as they go thru a
dozen donuts!


--
@@F@r@o@m@@O@r@a@n@g@e@@C@o@u@n@t@y@,@@C@a@l@,@@w@h@e@r@e@@
###Got a Question about ELECTRONICS? Check HERE First:###
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My email address is whitelisted. *All* email sent to it
goes directly to the trash unless you add NOSPAM in the
Subject: line with other stuff. alondra101 <at> hotmail.com
Don't be ripped off by the big book dealers. Go to the URL
that will give you a choice and save you money(up to half).
http://www.everybookstore.com You'll be glad you did!
Just when you thought you had all this figured out, the gov't
changed it: http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html
@@t@h@e@@a@f@f@l@u@e@n@t@@m@e@e@t@@t@h@e@@E@f@f@l@u@e@n@t@@

 

[Steven Dinius]

The acid is what creates the electrochemical reaction?

No, that doesn't explain alkaline batteries...

"Fred Nachbaur" <fnachbaur@netscape.net> wrote in message
news:_mJdb.34306$H86.670238@news1.telusplanet.net...

Robert Casey wrote:
[...]
I got a C in chem 101 back in college 30 years ago, so I can't say I
know anything
about batteries. Like why do they put corrosive crap in batteries?

Because baby lotion doesn't work.

something, A. As I said, I got a C. To me, any chemical that I can't
pronounce
is cancergenous or mutenigenous or smells bad.....


LOL! I enjoyed the chem classes but hated the labs. Too messy and
stinky. And I never got the expected result, so had to fudge. Made me
feel guilty and incompetent.

Cheers,
Fred
--
+--------------------------------------------+
| Music: http://www3.telus.net/dogstarmusic/ |
| Projects, Vacuum Tubes & other stuff: |
| http://www.dogstar.dantimax.dk |
+--------------------------------------------+

 

[Bill Janssen]

Don Bruder wrote:

In article <MPG.19e0bb7f84065c03989718@news.dslextreme.com>,
Watson A.Name - "Watt Sun" <alondra101@hotmail.com> wrote:

In article <T69db.5976$NX3.2166@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net>,
XpfriedrZ@mindspringX.com mentioned...
Greetings, All.

For the last three years I have been engaged in writing a book on the
topic of homebrew amplification devices, including tubes, transistors,
and electromechanical devices. I'm happy to announce that this book,
"Instruments Of Amplification" is now complete.

I invite you to visit my web site to view images of some of the projects.

http://www.mindspring.com/~pfriedr/books/ioa/ioa.htm

In the event you might be interested in a copy of the book, I do not
sell them myself. However, the web site features links to a number of
organizations that either do, or will shortly carry "Instruments Of
Amplification."

From the back cover:

Instruments of Amplification

Are you interested in building sensitive audio amplifiers from magnets,
a shoe-polish tin and a couple of carbon rods? [snip]

Shoe polish tin? Those went extinct with the advent of Reebok, Nike
and Adidas. Not to mention B-K, Converse, etc., etc.

Don't get out much, do ya? Or if you do, you don't get anywhere near
anything that resembles a decent shoe store... Walk into one of those,
and you have a hard time dodging the Kiwi shoe-polish rack. They *WANT*
you to trip over it, y'see...


And carbon rods? With most batteries being alkaline, I'd guess
they're hard to find, too.

Betcha I can come up with a battery you can tear apart to get a carbon
rod from in less than 10 minutes - given 5 bucks and a town with more
than a gas station, a mom-and-pop store, and a post office, that is...
Carbon-zincs are still around, and can be had from anyplace that sells
almost any brand other than Energizer or Duracell.

--
Don Bruder - dakidd@sonic.net <--- Preferred Email - SpamAssassinated.
Hate SPAM? See <http://www.spamassassin.org> for some seriously great info.
I will choose a path that's clear: I will choose Free Will! - N. Peart
Fly trap info pages: <http://www.sonic.net/~dakidd/Horses/FlyTrap/index.html

The last D cell I took apart did not have a Carbon rod in the center.
The D cell was made with the Zinc in the center and the Carbon was just
inside the case.

How do I determine who makes the old style with the Carbon rod?

Bill K7NOM.

 

[Watson A.Name - "Watt Sun]

In article <3F7758AE.D4398A9A@earthlink.net>,
mike.terrell@earthlink.net mentioned...

William Sommerwerck wrote:

Sometimes you can get two 9 volts for a dollar. The biggest
brands are Eveready and Panasonic but there's one place
I know in the Civic Center neighborhood here in Manhattan
that sells 16 AA batteries for like 3 dollars.

If that's a carbon-zinc AA, it's a bad value. Costco sells its house brand
(actually Toshiba) for less than 25 cents each.

16 for $3.00 is only 18.75 cents each.

But at almost any store, I can buy an 8-pack of brand name alkaline
AAs for 4 bucks, that's about $.50 each. And they have a lot higher
capacity than carbon-zincs. Someetimes they go on sale; At Fry's I
got a bunch of 4-packs of GE/Sanyo AA alkalines for $.89, about 22
cents each, so I have enough AA cells to hold me over for quite
awhile. ;-) So at least for the smaller sizes, like AA and AAA, I
don't see a reason to buy carbon-zincs.


--
@@F@r@o@m@@O@r@a@n@g@e@@C@o@u@n@t@y@,@@C@a@l@,@@w@h@e@r@e@@
###Got a Question about ELECTRONICS? Check HERE First:###
http://users.pandora.be/educypedia/electronics/databank.htm
My email address is whitelisted. *All* email sent to it
goes directly to the trash unless you add NOSPAM in the
Subject: line with other stuff. alondra101 <at> hotmail.com
Don't be ripped off by the big book dealers. Go to the URL
that will give you a choice and save you money(up to half).
http://www.everybookstore.com You'll be glad you did!
Just when you thought you had all this figured out, the gov't
changed it: http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html
@@t@h@e@@a@f@f@l@u@e@n@t@@m@e@e@t@@t@h@e@@E@f@f@l@u@e@n@t@@

 

[Watson A.Name - "Watt Sun]

In article <XFHdb.25298$dk4.795884@typhoon.sonic.net>,
dakidd@sonic.net mentioned...

In article <slrnbnef5v.b3p.sven@gordsven.com>,
sven@gordsven.com (Sven Franklyn Weil) wrote:

In article <3F77381F.1090501@ix.netcom.com>, Robert Casey wrote:
I thought carbon zincs were banned by the EPA. Too much trash or

Nah....go to your local 99 cent store. They sell four-packs of D cells and
C-cells for a dollar. Ditto AA cells and occasionally AAAs.

Sometimes you can get two 9 volts for a dollar. The biggest brands are
Eveready and Panasonic but there's one place I know in the Civic Center
neighborhood here in Manhattan that sells 16 AA batteries for like 3
dollars.

Some sort of Duracell knockoff. Same sleeving design as
Duracell but with a name like Enercell or Plenticell or Duvacell.

Found some of those out here in California just the other day -
"Superdeer" is the name on mine. They look exactly like a Duracell,
complete with a fake "tester" gizmo printed on the side, except for the
"Superdeer" name, and a stylized deer head up in the "copper" part of
the label. These may be the most bizarre batteries I've ever met... If
you grab 'em too hard, you can literally squish them with your fingers -
Almost like the can is made of tinfoil or something. For what it's
worth, I've had a pair of them tucked into my MP3 discman player for
three days now (probably 20 hours worth of run-time so far) and they're
still going strong, which is pretty impressive to me. Especially for the
price! That "squishability" leaves me wondering a bit, but... <shrug> If
it takes making them squishy to get 20+ hours of relatively heavy use
out of a 30-something cent pair of batteries, I'll live with it.

The alkalines are supposed to have a steel case to seal in the juice.
If yours don't have a sealed case, they could easily leak. So watch
out for that. You wouldn't want a couple hundred dollar device ruined
by battery juice. Change the batteries as soon as they get low.

[snip]

--
@@F@r@o@m@@O@r@a@n@g@e@@C@o@u@n@t@y@,@@C@a@l@,@@w@h@e@r@e@@
###Got a Question about ELECTRONICS? Check HERE First:###
http://users.pandora.be/educypedia/electronics/databank.htm
My email address is whitelisted. *All* email sent to it
goes directly to the trash unless you add NOSPAM in the
Subject: line with other stuff. alondra101 <at> hotmail.com
Don't be ripped off by the big book dealers. Go to the URL
that will give you a choice and save you money(up to half).
http://www.everybookstore.com You'll be glad you did!
Just when you thought you had all this figured out, the gov't
changed it: http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html
@@t@h@e@@a@f@f@l@u@e@n@t@@m@e@e@t@@t@h@e@@E@f@f@l@u@e@n@t@@

 

[Sven Franklyn Weil]

In article <MPG.19e1088d51aa1ddb98972a@news.dslextreme.com>, Watson A.Name
- "Watt Sun" wrote:

But at almost any store, I can buy an 8-pack of brand name alkaline
AAs for 4 bucks, that's about $.50 each. And they have a lot higher

Correct. And I buy a 10-pack of re-badged Varta AA cells at Ikea for
2$ US.

You gotta keep something in mind about New Yorkers. We're cheap when it
comes to household goods. That is why we have a dollar store on every
block (almost). We have a huge supermarket where all the groceries on the
bottom floor are one dollar. There are discount-closeout stores galore
here with prices that would make Walmart cry. We have clothing stores
like Conway's where a pair of slacks may only set you back 5 or $10.00.

The average person can't distinguish between a carbon zinc battery and an
alkaline. They will just see a package of batteries that will only set
them back one dollar and "what the heck".

The fact that the batteries look like Duracells probably helps. I don't
understand how come Duracell hasn't put a stop to this. I hope they
don't. Their batteries are overpriced.

The CZn batteries work fine in almost any application from CD players to
radios to calcs. I wouldn't use them in smoke detectors though.

However, I still don't understand why, in all their cheapness...my fellow
New Yorkers are willing to pay $2,000 for a studio flat with a bathtub in
the kitchen.



--
Sven Weil
New York City, U.S.A.

 

[--exray--]

Watson A.Name - Watt Sun wrote:

But at almost any store, I can buy an 8-pack of brand name alkaline
AAs for 4 bucks, that's about $.50 each. And they have a lot higher
capacity than carbon-zincs. Someetimes they go on sale; At Fry's I
got a bunch of 4-packs of GE/Sanyo AA alkalines for $.89, about 22
cents each, so I have enough AA cells to hold me over for quite
awhile. ;-) So at least for the smaller sizes, like AA and AAA, I
don't see a reason to buy carbon-zincs.


Wow, I wish we had stores like that out here in the backwater. I have

to mail order the Mouser GP AA alkalines at 40 cents or pay retail
locally which is typically 2/$2.99 and I've got two kids that eat 'em
like candy.
-Bill M

 

[Don Bruder]

In article <MPG.19e10b4de179c37c98972c@news.dslextreme.com>,
Watson A.Name - "Watt Sun" <alondra101@hotmail.com> wrote:

In article <XFHdb.25298$dk4.795884@typhoon.sonic.net>,
dakidd@sonic.net mentioned...
In article <slrnbnef5v.b3p.sven@gordsven.com>,
sven@gordsven.com (Sven Franklyn Weil) wrote:

<trimmage>

Some sort of Duracell knockoff. Same sleeving design as
Duracell but with a name like Enercell or Plenticell or Duvacell.

Found some of those out here in California just the other day -
"Superdeer" is the name on mine. They look exactly like a Duracell,
complete with a fake "tester" gizmo printed on the side, except for the
"Superdeer" name, and a stylized deer head up in the "copper" part of
the label. These may be the most bizarre batteries I've ever met... If
you grab 'em too hard, you can literally squish them with your fingers -
Almost like the can is made of tinfoil or something. For what it's
worth, I've had a pair of them tucked into my MP3 discman player for
three days now (probably 20 hours worth of run-time so far) and they're
still going strong, which is pretty impressive to me. Especially for the
price! That "squishability" leaves me wondering a bit, but... <shrug> If
it takes making them squishy to get 20+ hours of relatively heavy use
out of a 30-something cent pair of batteries, I'll live with it.

The alkalines are supposed to have a steel case to seal in the juice.
If yours don't have a sealed case, they could easily leak. So watch
out for that. You wouldn't want a couple hundred dollar device ruined
by battery juice. Change the batteries as soon as they get low.

I'm definitely keeping an eye on 'em, if only because they're an
unfamiliar beast. But so far (now close to 24 hours of run-time on 'em)
I'm not even seeing the "low battery" indication that this unit puts up.
Whatever these things are, they're doing pretty good. My nice fresh set
of NiCds only makes it through about 15-18 hours on a charge before the
unit starts complaining about low batteries. Whatever these batteries
are (no indication on either battery or package) I don't think they're
alkalines. They don't have the "heft" of an alkaline, even though they
seem to be holding a charge like an alkaline would. <shrug> Beats the
bejeebers outta me. At least I didn't totally waste my 3 bucks!

--
Don Bruder - dakidd@sonic.net <--- Preferred Email - SpamAssassinated.
Hate SPAM? See <http://www.spamassassin.org> for some seriously great info.
I will choose a path that's clear: I will choose Free Will! - N. Peart
Fly trap info pages: <http://www.sonic.net/~dakidd/Horses/FlyTrap/index.html>

 

[Watson A.Name - "Watt Sun]

In article <3F775EE2.5030101@ix.netcom.com>, wa2ise@ix.netcom.com
mentioned...
[snip]

As I said, I got a C. To me, any chemical that I can't
pronounce
is cancergenous or mutenigenous or smells bad.....

In that case, if you want to ruin your day, read the label on the
stuff you wash your hands with or put on your hair, or worse yet, what
you eat!


--
@@F@r@o@m@@O@r@a@n@g@e@@C@o@u@n@t@y@,@@C@a@l@,@@w@h@e@r@e@@
###Got a Question about ELECTRONICS? Check HERE First:###
http://users.pandora.be/educypedia/electronics/databank.htm
My email address is whitelisted. *All* email sent to it
goes directly to the trash unless you add NOSPAM in the
Subject: line with other stuff. alondra101 <at> hotmail.com
Don't be ripped off by the big book dealers. Go to the URL
that will give you a choice and save you money(up to half).
http://www.everybookstore.com You'll be glad you did!
Just when you thought you had all this figured out, the gov't
changed it: http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html
@@t@h@e@@a@f@f@l@u@e@n@t@@m@e@e@t@@t@h@e@@E@f@f@l@u@e@n@t@@

 

[Steven Dinius]

"Watson A.Name - Watt Sun" <alondra101@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.19e10f3ae468b4ce98972e@news.dslextreme.com...

In article <3F775EE2.5030101@ix.netcom.com>, wa2ise@ix.netcom.com
mentioned...
[snip]

As I said, I got a C. To me, any chemical that I can't
pronounce
is cancergenous or mutenigenous or smells bad.....

In that case, if you want to ruin your day, read the label on the
stuff you wash your hands with or put on your hair, or worse yet, what
you eat!

I like pronouncing all those names! It's like the Bible or a foreign lingo.
I use my ((((RADIO)))) voice, of course :~)

--
@@F@r@o@m@@O@r@a@n@g@e@@C@o@u@n@t@y@,@@C@a@l@,@@w@h@e@r@e@@
###Got a Question about ELECTRONICS? Check HERE First:###
http://users.pandora.be/educypedia/electronics/databank.htm
My email address is whitelisted. *All* email sent to it
goes directly to the trash unless you add NOSPAM in the
Subject: line with other stuff. alondra101 <at> hotmail.com
Don't be ripped off by the big book dealers. Go to the URL
that will give you a choice and save you money(up to half).
http://www.everybookstore.com You'll be glad you did!
Just when you thought you had all this figured out, the gov't
changed it: http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html
@@t@h@e@@a@f@f@l@u@e@n@t@@m@e@e@t@@t@h@e@@E@f@f@l@u@e@n@t@@

 

[Robert Casey]

Yeah, carbons from a C or D cell are not _that_ hard to find, they're
sold at the really cheap 99 cent stores, and called 'heavy duty'
instead of alkaline. But most people don't buy them anymore. Maybe
because the equipment uses AA cells, and the cheap zinc-carbon AA
cells are too low a capacity for the smaller equipment.

But the carbon rods for welding are coated with copper, I believe.
that might cause a problem.



How about the "lead" (graphite) in pencils? Or is that an unusable form of

carbon? Diamond might not work either...

 

[Robert Casey]

Fred Nachbaur wrote:

Robert Casey wrote:

[...]

I got a C in chem 101 back in college 30 years ago, so I can't say I
know anything
about batteries. Like why do they put corrosive crap in batteries?


Because baby lotion doesn't work.

And I thought it was the battery operated equipment manufacturers paying

off the
battery makers to make batteries leak and ruin said equipment, making
consumers
run out and buy new equipment.... ;-)

Once my father told me a battery I had was about to explode. I tossed
it out
into the backyard and dove for cover.....

 

[Steven Dinius]

"Steven Dinius" <10kc@fmtc.com> wrote in message
news:vnesesa0uovbcf@corp.supernews.com...

"Watson A.Name - Watt Sun" <alondra101@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.19e10f3ae468b4ce98972e@news.dslextreme.com...
In article <3F775EE2.5030101@ix.netcom.com>, wa2ise@ix.netcom.com
mentioned...
[snip]
In that case, if you want to ruin your day, read the label on the
stuff you wash your hands with or put on your hair, or worse yet, what
you eat!

I like pronouncing all those names! It's like the Bible or a foreign
lingo.
I use my ((((RADIO)))) voice, of course :~)

besides, my girlfriend likes the way it stinks nice!

@@F@r@o@m@@O@r@a@n@g@e@@C@o@u@n@t@y@,@@C@a@l@,@@w@h@e@r@e@@
###Got a Question about ELECTRONICS? Check HERE First:###
http://users.pandora.be/educypedia/electronics/databank.htm
My email address is whitelisted. *All* email sent to it
goes directly to the trash unless you add NOSPAM in the
Subject: line with other stuff. alondra101 <at> hotmail.com
Don't be ripped off by the big book dealers. Go to the URL
that will give you a choice and save you money(up to half).
http://www.everybookstore.com You'll be glad you did!
Just when you thought you had all this figured out, the gov't
changed it: http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html
@@t@h@e@@a@f@f@l@u@e@n@t@@m@e@e@t@@t@h@e@@E@f@f@l@u@e@n@t@@

 

[Fred Nachbaur]

Robert Casey wrote:

Yeah, carbons from a C or D cell are not _that_ hard to find, they're
sold at the really cheap 99 cent stores, and called 'heavy duty'
instead of alkaline. But most people don't buy them anymore. Maybe
because the equipment uses AA cells, and the cheap zinc-carbon AA
cells are too low a capacity for the smaller equipment.

But the carbon rods for welding are coated with copper, I believe.
that might cause a problem.



How about the "lead" (graphite) in pencils? Or is that an unusable form of
carbon? Diamond might not work either...

The really soft ones (#1, f'rinstance) might be ok. The harder ones have
progressively higher resistance, due to the higher clay content.

I once used a hard pencil lead as a "starter" arc electrode on a Jacob's
ladder. The built-in resistance seemed to help the arc to start, while
not "hogging" it once started.

Cheers,
Fred
--
+--------------------------------------------+
| Music: http://www3.telus.net/dogstarmusic/ |
| Projects, Vacuum Tubes & other stuff: |
| http://www.dogstar.dantimax.dk |
+--------------------------------------------+

 

[Tim Williams]

"Fred Nachbaur" <fnachbaur@netscape.net> wrote in message
news:SSKdb.34339$H86.676569@news1.telusplanet.net...

The really soft ones (#1, f'rinstance) might be ok. The harder ones have
progressively higher resistance, due to the higher clay content.

I once used a hard pencil lead as a "starter" arc electrode on a Jacob's
ladder. The built-in resistance seemed to help the arc to start, while
not "hogging" it once started.

Works great for welding too ;-)
http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/guest_timwelder.html

Tim

--
In the immortal words of Ned Flanders: "No foot longs!"
Website @ http://webpages.charter.net/dawill/tmoranwms

 

[Fred Nachbaur]

Tim Williams wrote:

"Fred Nachbaur" <fnachbaur@netscape.net> wrote in message
news:SSKdb.34339$H86.676569@news1.telusplanet.net...

The really soft ones (#1, f'rinstance) might be ok. The harder ones have
progressively higher resistance, due to the higher clay content.

I once used a hard pencil lead as a "starter" arc electrode on a Jacob's
ladder. The built-in resistance seemed to help the arc to start, while
not "hogging" it once started.


Works great for welding too ;-)
http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/guest_timwelder.html

Cool! You truly are a madman!
In the immortal words of Chevy Chase, "I *LIKE* it!"

Cheers,
Fred
--
+--------------------------------------------+
| Music: http://www3.telus.net/dogstarmusic/ |
| Projects: http://dogstar.dantimax.dk |
+--------------------------------------------+

 

[Don Bruder]

In article <3F777705.2030305@ix.netcom.com>,
Robert Casey <wa2ise@ix.netcom.com> wrote:

Yeah, carbons from a C or D cell are not _that_ hard to find, they're
sold at the really cheap 99 cent stores, and called 'heavy duty'
instead of alkaline. But most people don't buy them anymore. Maybe
because the equipment uses AA cells, and the cheap zinc-carbon AA
cells are too low a capacity for the smaller equipment.

But the carbon rods for welding are coated with copper, I believe.
that might cause a problem.



How about the "lead" (graphite) in pencils? Or is that an unusable form of
carbon? Diamond might not work either...

That's almost certainly useless for the purpose. It's mostly clay (or
plastic, these days) impregnated with graphite.

Now the core of a charcoal pencil *MIGHT* be suitable, but I'm sure some
experimenting would be needed to find out for certain.

--
Don Bruder - dakidd@sonic.net <--- Preferred Email - SpamAssassinated.
Hate SPAM? See <http://www.spamassassin.org> for some seriously great info.
I will choose a path that's clear: I will choose Free Will! - N. Peart
Fly trap info pages: <http://www.sonic.net/~dakidd/Horses/FlyTrap/index.html>

 

[Don Bruder]

In article <vnev3mmqsrdf88@corp.supernews.com>,
"Tim Williams" <tmoranwms@charter.net> wrote:

"Fred Nachbaur" <fnachbaur@netscape.net> wrote in message
news:SSKdb.34339$H86.676569@news1.telusplanet.net...
The really soft ones (#1, f'rinstance) might be ok. The harder ones have
progressively higher resistance, due to the higher clay content.

I once used a hard pencil lead as a "starter" arc electrode on a Jacob's
ladder. The built-in resistance seemed to help the arc to start, while
not "hogging" it once started.

Works great for welding too ;-)
http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/guest_timwelder.html

Ooh! Ooh!! OOOOH!!!!!!! Yummy yummy yummy site!

T'heck with the welder, sez I... I've got easy, no-cost, on access to
industrial-grade gas, mig, tig, and "plain old arc" welding gear - Don't
get me wrong, that little unit is seriously spiffy, I've just got no use
at all for "homebrewed" when I've got "the real deal" sitting here
already. But what's got *ME* creaming my jeans is all the homebrew
furnaces and ideas for making metal flow like water that are just one
level up that URL...

Oh, boy... I'm gonna burn some bandwidth on this site, lemme tell ya
what! Got probably half a ton (maybe more? And growing by four bales
worth per day.) of baling wire laying around that I've been trying to
figure out a way to turn into bar stock without paying a foundry a
fortune to melt and pour for me... I think you may have just found me
the solution I need!

--
Don Bruder - dakidd@sonic.net <--- Preferred Email - SpamAssassinated.
Hate SPAM? See <http://www.spamassassin.org> for some seriously great info.
I will choose a path that's clear: I will choose Free Will! - N. Peart
Fly trap info pages: <http://www.sonic.net/~dakidd/Horses/FlyTrap/index.html>

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

--exray-- wrote:

Watson A.Name - Watt Sun wrote:

But at almost any store, I can buy an 8-pack of brand name alkaline
AAs for 4 bucks, that's about $.50 each. And they have a lot higher
capacity than carbon-zincs. Someetimes they go on sale; At Fry's I
got a bunch of 4-packs of GE/Sanyo AA alkalines for $.89, about 22
cents each, so I have enough AA cells to hold me over for quite
awhile. ;-) So at least for the smaller sizes, like AA and AAA, I
don't see a reason to buy carbon-zincs.


Wow, I wish we had stores like that out here in the backwater. I have
to mail order the Mouser GP AA alkalines at 40 cents or pay retail
locally which is typically 2/$2.99 and I've got two kids that eat 'em
like candy.
-Bill M

Is there anyone who repairs pagers? the one local company removed a AA
cell from just about every unit that came in for repair, and most were
new, where the storefronts replaced it to test a bad pager before
shipping it off for repair. one of the ones here had a couple hundred
setting there to throw out, because they had more than they could use.
Unfortunately, that place closed, or moved, because someone else is in
the building now. There is a big outfit that dos cell phones and pagers,
and they remove all the old battery packs before they repair them, and
ship the cell phones with new battery packs. I will see if I can talk
them out of some used rechargeable packs. Maybe we could use the good
ones to build some rechargeable "B" batteries?
--


Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida