Cold Fusion Now : New Podcast with Alan Smith interview by Ruby carat

Chasing meshuganons, a bold undertaking

No, I do not think that using a radio is a good idea.

A better idea would be to reserve a few square meters in Alan's new headquarters and set up an experiment according to the outlines that Alan sketched in the interview.

When we add the last layer of shielding and the Geiger counter runs havoc we kan start looking for the meshuganons. (But at first we remove some of the shielding! )

Quote from JedRothwell

Umm . . . Rule 34?

According to Rule 34 Alan needs to retrofit DRO:s, (Digital Read Out).

If he for the time being is short on money he can ask Santa to bring them next Christmas.

Or perhaps it is better to ask the Machine Tool Fairy?

Can, you don't have a gamma counter? Turn your phone into one: https://www.aliexpress.com/ite…b1672f7&priceBeautifyAB=0

A radio is mostly sensitive to electromagnetic radiation within limited wave length ranges.

But in principle it is also sensitive to other influences that interferes with the operation of the solid state components that are part of the receiver chain, especially where the low level signals are handled. E.g. temperature increase will cause white noise. Penetrating radiation can also cause noise but it would probably be impossible to detect it with the normal background that is always present in an amplifier / radio. Some of the white noise that you can see on an analogue TV with antenna when there is no transmission is due to cosmic radiation, much of it from the sun. And maybe you can even hear the sun hissing at you.

I don't follow you. What do you mean by activated materials within the radio? LENR batteries? Neutron activated transistors? Terrorist nuclear bomb transistor radio? And why would it be of interest to speculate about radioactive materials in a radio?

Aha, I get it, it is radioactive!

Quote from Alan Smith

My colleague Martin and I learnt to do precision machining before DRO's were invented. Micrometer, dial gauge and calipers are our weapons of choice. Actually Martin considers DRO's to be rather effete.

And you probably learnt writing nice documents using a Remington typewriter. It could still be done this way, but nobody does because there are many advantages with modern writing equipment.

When it comes to milling machines and lathes some obvious advantages of digital position indicators are:

- High accuracy

- Easy to read position

- Easy to set zero point

- Backlash independent

- No need to keep track of (Number of turns of handwheel) x (Full scale of handwheel) + (Reading on handwheel)

At least your new milling machine has a depth DRO, maybe this will wet you appetite!

Here is a picture of my old but still going strong Blomqvist lathe, made in Sweden but modelled after a South Bend design:

The lathe had no left-right coordinate (no scale on the handwheel) so I modified a digital caliper for this purpose, works very well.

It is easily detachable and as it turned out, it can also be used as a depth indicator on my small drill press stand.

https://www.southbendlathe.com/company/historical-photos

See Manufacturing, last picture!

Nice furniture and a nice garden too!

Actually, a friend of mine has a similar Myford lathe. He used to have my Blomqvist, but it was dropped during transport. A sharp edge on the table cut the lifting strap. Various parts of the lathe were cracked here and bent there.

Instead of reparing the Blomqvist he bought a Myford Super 7. It worked fine, but he could not get used to the imperial graduations so he bought a DRO kit and asked me to help him install it. The operation was successful and as a reward I suddenly found myself to be owner of a pallet filled with various cast iron parts with green flaking paint, some of them broken. But in the end, it was fixable and the lathe came with a full set of feed rate cog wheels, a sturdy four jaw chuck, some collets and chuck for them.