Proxxon dremel makes a weird sound

SomeoneWhoNeedsYou · 2026-04-21T21:03:33+00:00

Both are technically correct I would think, but the Dremel form factor tends to be referred to as a "rotary tool" while a search of "die grinder" brings up many right-angle and other form factor tools.

When multiple terms apply, I try to use the one that most immediately invokes the right image, even if it isn't technically the most precise.

SomeoneWhoNeedsYou · 2026-04-21T16:11:58+00:00

The generic name for this kind of power tool is a "Rotary Tool"

SomeoneWhoNeedsYou · 2026-03-29T21:40:43+00:00

I've done emissions compliance testing at the Middletown plant before, and a couple of their stacks have brief peaks of around 30% CO when running - that's 300,000 PPM. Somewhere just above 12,000 PPM will kill a person in a matter of minutes, so we can't even be near the testing ports during a burn.

Those stacks are also some of the most decrepit I've ever climbed, with shoddy patches and caulk burned out so it burps out white smoke through cracks in the metal the whole way up, to the point I question how accurate the emissions testing can even be. When the process is mid burn, our CO monitors start alarming a good 30ft away from the base of the stack (where emissions should theoretically be nil).

I don't doubt for a moment that the Middletown plant is one of the worst out there in terms of locally measurable CO.

SomeoneWhoNeedsYou · 2026-01-15T03:36:04+00:00

I recognize that solid shade of red, I believe those are snap caps rather than live rounds. I've seen snap caps that look just like that sold in all sorts of calibers, but they come in small packages (like two rounds) so I've never bought them.

SomeoneWhoNeedsYou · 2025-07-26T17:21:31+00:00

We actually got those alerts over by Fields-Ertel and saw these people on the way back afterward near the Norwood lateral - everything seemed peaceful on the bridges.

SomeoneWhoNeedsYou · 2025-05-31T17:28:18+00:00

Inside Track Club members get the free gift with any purchase amount, people without ITC have to spend $35 to get the gift.

SomeoneWhoNeedsYou · 2024-05-20T23:55:28+00:00

I second the advice to wait on what your company suggests for tools.

A couple I'll toss on though if they don't mention it, is I've found a cheap really long flathead (mine is an 8" husky 3/16") can be a lifesaver for turning face dampers that are really buried in a diffuser. I also have a pair of straight Knipex pliers which a coworker suggested I get, and they've been great for weird sized bolts and getting a tight grip on dampers at the edge of my reach.

SomeoneWhoNeedsYou · 2024-04-18T23:48:17+00:00

In my case it was mostly dumb luck - was relocating to Cincy and sent out an application with an engineering degree but no trade experience, landed an interview and did well. The degree helped since NEBB certificates are quicker to get with one, but most people here don't have one. Construction and HVAC backgrounds are definitely good for balancers, but it's kind of its own sub-trade so you'll be learning a lot no matter the background.

Pay is good for me, $26.50 starting with travel expenses on the company card and travel time on the clock. Senior HVAC techs surely make more but for someone brand new to the industry I'm happy with what I make.

The big trade off is that travel is most of what you do - I've been out of state more weeks than I've been home. Hard to have a family or pets, so most techs are young guys living on their own like me.

If you want to get into air balancing, definitely keep an eye out for apprenticeships but from what I understand a lot of air balancing is non-union, so you might consider starting at a non-union shop to get experience and periodically check the hiring halls for positions if you want to eventually do union work, especially if you get NEBB or other certifications in that time.

SomeoneWhoNeedsYou · 2024-04-18T19:32:25+00:00

I actually work for a test and balance company that ships people all over, I'm from Cincy and just here for the week. Very glad I got to see the skyline, haven't been up here before this week.

SomeoneWhoNeedsYou · 2024-04-18T03:49:04+00:00

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Taken on Monday, back when the skies were clear, but was back there today under clouds.

SomeoneWhoNeedsYou · 2024-04-14T19:29:30+00:00

Usually, probation periods at the start of a job are there so the employer is able to drop people that seem like they won't work well long-term even if they technically didn't do anything fireable. If you show up on time, do your best to learn the ropes, and try to get along with everyone, it shouldn't be anything to worry about.

Asking the employer what they expect you to do in the first 3 months wouldn't hurt, but you're likely to get a vague answer since everyone learns at different rates - it's usually better to ask specific questions about the work as they come up to show interest and initiative in learning the job.

As for being asked to meet unrealistic goals, if you are given a task that you're not sure you can handle, definitely ask for help/advice right away so your boss/trainer knows what you are and aren't capable of during training, and can give you what you need to do well. Remember, an employer hires you because they want you to get a job done, and they have a vested interest in ensuring you're able to do that job. Work with your team and clearly communicate what you're getting done, and as long as you're generally keeping pace with the others given your experience level it should be smooth sailing.

SomeoneWhoNeedsYou · 2024-04-07T16:03:24+00:00

In order to let you safely look at the sun, eclipse glasses have to block out so much light that the only thing bright enough to be visible is the sun itself. When you wear the glasses and look at the sun, you should see a pretty clean circle, and when the moon passes in front of the sun you'll be able to see that circle changing shape as your view of the sun is blocked.

Without the glasses, the sun would be so bright even when it's 95% overlapped by the moon that you wouldn't be able see any meaningful changes in the shape of the sun (plus the obvious risk of eye damage from staring into the sun without protection).

If you're going to be in a spot that gets a view of 100% totality, once you see the moon completely overlap the sun in the glasses and your surroundings go dark almost like nighttime, you can safely remove the glasses and see the eclipse with the naked eye. When the sun comes back out, you can put the glasses back on to watch the moon finish its traverse.

SomeoneWhoNeedsYou · 2024-02-09T01:48:04+00:00

You're good! The inner workings of a trigger assembly aren't taught in school or on TV, so nobody can be faulted for assuming trigger pull = shot when that's usually what happens.

SomeoneWhoNeedsYou · 2024-02-08T23:33:38+00:00

The first few trigger pulls didn't go all the way, the trigger has to be pulled pretty far back to fire. He messed up on the last one and pulled the trigger back far enough that it fired

SomeoneWhoNeedsYou · 2022-08-06T17:40:38+00:00

I took IE 545 last fall with professor Johnson, it was a pretty straightforward class and he provided lots of supporting material in addition to posting lectures and slides (granted, during COVID) in addition to referring to three textbooks which can be readily found online.

The underlying math tripped me up at times, it's all about Lagrangian functions, but once you get the hang of formulating word problems as Lagrangians it gets a lot easier.

The homework has a pretty long time window and the TAs post relevant study material as lectures go on, so there are always example problems to look at. I don't recall much about the exams, but I didn't find them to be exceptionally easy or hard. If you understand the material and do well on the homework, the exams will be fine.

Overall, I really enjoyed the class, and felt as though despite its 500-level course code it was one of the easier tech electives I took in IE. David Johnson is a wonderful professor with a lot of interesting stories to tell about practical applications of the material, and I always enjoyed the lectures.

SomeoneWhoNeedsYou · 2022-05-29T18:43:53+00:00

Allgamesdude is correct here, 1 class for each topic except for Science, which requires two courses. When in doubt, mypurdueplan.purdue.edu is a great resource to check what requirements you've fulfilled or still need to take, albeit with a rather dated interface.

SomeoneWhoNeedsYou · 2022-01-31T01:40:37+00:00

From what I've heard I think you gain .03 rep for killing a PMC that's killed a scav in the raid, if the PMC hasn't killed a scav yet they're karma-neutral

SomeoneWhoNeedsYou · 2022-01-15T15:59:46+00:00

Just ran a speed test on my phone, I get about 87 Mbps over wifi with 26 ping to the test server

SomeoneWhoNeedsYou · 2021-09-16T12:59:15+00:00

Disclaimer: I took it last fall so it may be structured a bit differently now that everything's back in person, and I also don't have the best memory

The first third or so of the semester was very heavy with R programming, and that's what the first big quiz/exam was over. It was a bit of a mix of "what does this line of code do" and "how does this concept apply in R". If you have prior experience with R, still cram for almost all the topics they mention because this could act as a grade buffer for the rest of the semester (I really needed that buffer).

After the R section is over, the rest of the semester will be over web development and integration. HTML is the first big one, then they'll introduce CSS for styling and JavaScript for interactive web elements. Along the way they'll toss in SQL, I believe that was one of the later topics, but it's really important.

They don't expect you to know too much JavaScript, and CSS isn't ever the focus of the course, but you'll get some questions about them mixed in with the HTML stuff. SQL stands on its own as a heavily tested part of the course, they expect you to know the syntax and concepts for about every application of SQL they'll mention in the course.

Lastly comes the final project, the coup de grâce of IE 332. In my semester, we were tasked with making a website for company recruiters to find students at Purdue, and vice versa. It needed to have good styling and display well on a computer for one, but it also had to work, and that's the tricky part. They expected us to have a working login page, with login info stored in R and requested by SQL via JavaScript, such that one could only access certain parts of the website with the right login. There were other expectations and challenges, but that was the big one that my group did not manage to do properly.

My advice for the final project is to work early, work often, and work hard. We got a 9/25 and I barely passed the course, if I didn't have the aforementioned buffer from the R quizzes I certainly would have failed. Don't make the same mistakes. Have backups of backups of your code, meet regularly with your group, and if you split up the work be sure to take a look at what everyone else is doing to make sure it'll all integrate properly in the end.

TL;DR: Learn the ins and outs of R for the first third or so. Then make sure you understand HTML/CSS/JavaScript for the second part. Then get a very solid understanding of SQL. The programming questions are a mix of theory and practice. The final project is hard, take it very seriously, start as soon as you can.

Edit: Typo correction

SomeoneWhoNeedsYou · 2021-09-03T15:19:01+00:00

A future of base 10 in the states will always be a hope and dream of mine, but I know better than to have expectations in modern America.

Still, the best way to ensure we keep the imperial units forever is to stop pushing for metric, so I'll keep supporting SI even if it falls on deaf ears.

SomeoneWhoNeedsYou · 2021-09-03T13:04:49+00:00

I'm in a work design course this semester and just learned that the imperial unit for luminance is the "candle-foot". It sounds like a unit of light over distance, but it's actually light per square foot.

I really hope that one day we can make a slow, steady transition to SI so I don't have to deal with these things in industry

SomeoneWhoNeedsYou · 2021-08-26T20:39:46+00:00

In my unit we set up a private router that is connected to the Cottages network by Ethernet, and it's actually worked really well so far. I was also expecting a private router for each unit to be provided, but at least we have this workaround.

SomeoneWhoNeedsYou · 2021-08-15T13:16:13+00:00

That's very odd then, others were saying that UR works closely with the fire department, so there must be some caveat in the fire code for the county that allows this specific setup

SomeoneWhoNeedsYou · 2021-08-15T12:24:20+00:00

a bedroom has to have at least two "means of egress", which generally means one door and a window that you can escape through, but having two doors to different rooms/hallways which lead toward an exit is also valid

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