Just Saying -- the soapbox thread

[stringsthings]

I couldn't live without my center punch. Even though it is a $2.99 Harbor Freight centerpunch, one of my better investments.

Harbor Freight is the Tayda of tools.   Only it's local.

... and reminds me of boats ... 

[thesmokingman]

my solution to enclosure marring (vise, metal chips, whatever) is blue painters tape. extra layers applied to surfaces that will meet the vise. also there are no-mar replacement vise jaws or magnetic ones will stick to the ones you have

[davent]

Unless the center punch is accurate and you're drilling a pilot hole with a good quality sharp drill bit small enough to fit inside the center punch dent. A drill press will have the same issues as a hand drill, a dull poor quality bit's going to skate across the surface until it bites in where it can.

I use an optical center punch to ensure the punch exactly hits the crosshairs of the layout.

I haven't used a vise when hand drilling or with the drill press. The right size bit and a free enclosure allows the bit to center the enclosure under it and drill perfectly on center.  i drill 1/16" pilot hole, then enlarge with 3/32" then 1/8", from there i'll use a step bit that goes from 1/8 - 1/2" in 1/32" steps.

And of course it's always advised to clamp your workpiece but with sharp bits and 1/32" steps there's pretty much no torque on the enclosure.
dave

[stringsthings]

I haven't used a vise when hand drilling or with the drill press. The right size bit and a free enclosure allows the bit to center the enclosure under it and drill perfectly on center.  i drill 1/16" pilot hole, then enlarge with 3/32" then 1/8", from there i'll use a step bit that goes from 1/8 - 1/2" in 1/32" steps.

And of course it's always advised to clamp your workpiece but with sharp bits and 1/32" steps there's pretty much no torque on the enclosure.

This and lots of practice.
If one pot/switch doesn't line up, i just step bit the hole one size larger.
Step bits are a DIY'ers best friend.

[TNblueshawk]

I have always hand drilled but I clamp. But then I don't do production and do one offs with oddball pot designs just to keep me interested. So if I'm off 1/32" it doesn't affect me too much but I am pretty much spot on as I take my time and never drill after 3 beers    I also don't do pot mounted PCB's.

[alanp]

my solution to enclosure marring (vise, metal chips, whatever) is blue painters tape. extra layers applied to surfaces that will meet the vise. also there are no-mar replacement vise jaws or magnetic ones will stick to the ones you have

Two bits of neoprene or what have you also works well. Just make sure they're reasonably clean before clamping the piece down.

[Muadzin]

Wow. Just wow. I've been watching some car vids on youtube, and, if I'm understanding rightly...

The Ford Model A had it's petrol tank placed just below the front window, where the dash goes in modern cars. This meant that Ford only needed a simple tube going down to the engine, and no fuel pump (either mechanical or electrical) needed.

Hey, kids! Who wants to drive around with a lap full of petrol!

Sure, it kept costs down during production, but you'd want to be really, really careful not to get T-boned in an accident.

Considering that until a few decades ago cars had no airbags, safety belts, safety zones, or basically any safety features whatsoever, and that many of us still don't like using them, that tank might have been the least of your worries. It's weird that we get so worked up over things that have such a statistically insignificant chance of killing us, like terrorism, or even a mad gunman killing spree, while traffic accidents, pollution, smoking and poor nutrition kills us by thousands each year after year after year. But of course those deaths never make it to the 8 o'clock news.

[stringsthings]

And isn't it grate that that the current administration is keeping us all safe and covefe .... ooops, i forgot the "not" ....

[Muadzin]

Well, are you any safer now, or less safer now then before lets say 9-11? All the anal probing at the airports, soldiers on te streets of Europe, it's basically all to make you feel good. I don't think any administration since, in the US, or Europe too for that matter, has done anything to make us actually safer. All window dressing and bureaucracy.

[EBRAddict]

Well, are you any safer now, or less safer now then before lets say 9-11? All the anal probing at the airports, soldiers on te streets of Europe, it's basically all to make you feel good. I don't think any administration since, in the US, or Europe too for that matter, has done anything to make us actually safer. All window dressing and bureaucracy.

Security theatre. Take some minimum wage temporary employees, put a TSA "badge" on their shirts, and tell them they're the vanguard of the War on Terrorism. Give local police departments APCs, high end imaging and communication equipment, fancy firearms to "fight terrorism" and watch them use the gear to further their efforts in banditry asset forfeiture. It's been a smash and grab on the taxpayer from the first day and politicians on both sides have been jostling for the prime spot at the trough.

[Frag Magnet]

Well, are you any safer now, or less safer now then before lets say 9-11? All the anal probing at the airports, soldiers on te streets of Europe, it's basically all to make you feel good. I don't think any administration since, in the US, or Europe too for that matter, has done anything to make us actually safer. All window dressing and bureaucracy.

Mostly.

The War on Terror has done a pretty good job of disrupting the kind of terrorist networks/funding that can pull off big attacks (whether it's been worth the cost or not is another question entirely). Additionally, there are certain law enforcement reforms (at least in the US anyway) which have been very good at breaking up terrorist attacks before they can be executed. The FBI, for instance, has gotten extremely good at selling fake explosives to would-be terrorists.

But, yeah, 99.99% of what we see is, as EBRAddict put it, pure security theater.

[TNblueshawk]

Well, are you any safer now, or less safer now then before lets say 9-11? All the anal probing at the airports, soldiers on te streets of Europe, it's basically all to make you feel good. I don't think any administration since, in the US, or Europe too for that matter, has done anything to make us actually safer. All window dressing and bureaucracy.

Mostly.

The War on Terror has done a pretty good job of disrupting the kind of terrorist networks/funding that can pull off big attacks (whether it's been worth the cost or not is another question entirely). Additionally, there are certain law enforcement reforms (at least in the US anyway) which have been very good at breaking up terrorist attacks before they can be executed. The FBI, for instance, has gotten extremely good at selling fake explosives to would-be terrorists.

But, yeah, 99.99% of what we see is, as EBRAddict put it, pure security theater.

I agree with John. My take is what we actually see is mostly window dressing. What we don't see is absolutely not.

I guess the question for every American is what if all this stopped just one incident? Is it worth it? Now ask that question if your family is on the plane.

[TNblueshawk]

Well, are you any safer now, or less safer now then before lets say 9-11? All the anal probing at the airports, soldiers on te streets of Europe, it's basically all to make you feel good. I don't think any administration since, in the US, or Europe too for that matter, has done anything to make us actually safer. All window dressing and bureaucracy.

Mostly.

The War on Terror has done a pretty good job of disrupting the kind of terrorist networks/funding that can pull off big attacks (whether it's been worth the cost or not is another question entirely). Additionally, there are certain law enforcement reforms (at least in the US anyway) which have been very good at breaking up terrorist attacks before they can be executed. The FBI, for instance, has gotten extremely good at selling fake explosives to would-be terrorists.

But, yeah, 99.99% of what we see is, as EBRAddict put it, pure security theater.

I agree with John. My take is what we actually see is mostly window dressing. What we don't see is absolutely not.

I guess the question for every American is what if all this stopped just one incident? Is it worth it? Now ask that question if your family is on the plane that was the one incident that got through.

[alanp]

The War on Terror has done a pretty good job of disrupting the kind of terrorist networks/funding that can pull off big attacks (whether it's been worth the cost or not is another question entirely). Additionally, there are certain law enforcement reforms (at least in the US anyway) which have been very good at breaking up terrorist attacks before they can be executed. The FBI, for instance, has gotten extremely good at selling fake explosives to would-be terrorists.

But, yeah, 99.99% of what we see is, as EBRAddict put it, pure security theater.

Since the airport security was... altered, let's say (I don't want to get into effectiveness), the true nutters have changed to either "lone wolf" attacks, where they fill some useful idiot's head with nonsense and then send him out with no knowledge of any planned attacks on their part, or the European style attacks we've seen, where a truck is stolen, and driven into large gatherings of people -- what can we do, ban trucks? Put bollards up, everywhere?

[Muadzin]

Mostly.

The War on Terror has done a pretty good job of disrupting the kind of terrorist networks/funding that can pull off big attacks (whether it's been worth the cost or not is another question entirely). Additionally, there are certain law enforcement reforms (at least in the US anyway) which have been very good at breaking up terrorist attacks before they can be executed. The FBI, for instance, has gotten extremely good at selling fake explosives to would-be terrorists.

But, yeah, 99.99% of what we see is, as EBRAddict put it, pure security theater.

Personally I think the war on terror has achieved the complete opposite. There is more terrorist activity now. And its uncontrollable right now. The big network may have been smashed, but it just went local, creating a giant Al Qaida brand, which has now been joined with the more trendy ISIS brand. The war also got sidetracked into doing stupid stuff, like invading Iraq and toppling one secular Arab regime after the other, leading to the chaos that gave rise to the rival and far more deadly ISIS brand. Almost the entire Sahara is now an Al Qaida no go zone, ISIS is popping up in Afghanistan, the Taliban are doing more then just holding their own. And the worst of all, like alanp said, you don't even need a network any more. Any lone wolf, radicalized by watching propaganda online can turn deadly. That Arab young man you see on the street by the bus stop? He can now be a suicide bomber. Or pull a knife. Or drive his car into people. Or her, as when it comes to terrorism, suddenly they don't discriminate any more.

Yeah, the big attacks will probably not happen. But those are like plane accidents. They don't happen that often, and the chances of being caught in one are like being hit by lightning, not that high. The lone wolf attack, that's more like car accidents, far more likely to happen, far more random. So, I'd say, the war on terror has failed. Abysmally.