See what you are doing
I attended a clinic at a
national NMRA convention
a few years back. The pre-
senter, an ophthalmologist,
as I remember, had two
suggestions for keeping our
eyesight as good as pos-
sible for as long as possible.
First, use as much light
as possible, both general
illumination and spot illu-
mination where you are
working. I have two sets of
tube fluorescents over my
work bench and a “draft-
ing” style articulated arm
lamp for point illumination.
Secondly, keep your eyes
well lubricated. When
they feel scratchy, it is
time to get up from the bench and do something else. Just
a few minutes break helps. Wash your face or some such.
Before and during work sessions, it helps to apply sterile
lubricating drops. This is the bottle I keep on my workbench.
DCC Impulses Column - 6
10: Eye drops. Take care of your
eyes. They are the only ones
you have.
10
Mount speaker/Hold your stuff
Here is another twofer!
I have talked many times
about mounting a speaker
in the shell of a diesel,
either to fire up through
the fan grills or to make an
impromptu box enclosure.
Here’s a quick way to make
the speaker fit. I’m going
to shim out a 14 x 25 mm
speaker to fit in an Atlas
S-2 HO shell. Don’t know
why you’d want to do that,
as a 16 x 35 mm speaker
fits perfectly. However,
that’s what I had on hand
to show the process.
After measuring the
width of the shell and the
speaker, I determined that
I needed to add 0.06" to
each side of the speaker. I found some 0.06 x 0.08 styrene
strips in my box. So, I’ll cut them to the length of the speaker
and glue them to the side.
I put the speaker next to the cutter blade in my NWSL chopper
and slide the fence up against the speaker, forcing the speaker
against the blade. When the fence is tightened in this position,
the distance between the blade and the fence is the same as
the length of the speaker. Two quick cuts and I now have the
styrene to affix to the side of the speaker.
11
11: To measure the length of
styrene needed to match the
speaker I simply use the speak-
er as a guide to set the stops.
MRH-Jun 2013
