We (or I) need a better spanner

[Jac@stafford.net]

I forgot to add Metal Disintegration machines. This is first time I have watched on You Tube. This procedure saved several $100K prototype engine blocks in my career.

And back before that I would weld a rod to a broken bolt, and a socket head to that. I was a freaking hero ... then.

[Rafael Garcia]

In the old days, we used to clean solidified india ink technical drafting pens with an ultrasonic cleaner. The pens were immersed in liquid (water?) and the device sent sound waves through the water that broke up the dried ink and freed the very delicate metal nib inside the pen tip... just an alternative thought...

[Jac@stafford.net]

In the old days, we used to clean solidified india ink technical drafting pens with an ultrasonic cleaner.

Old days? When was that? In my old days we had ink wells in our school desks, and cheap nibs that we washed in a sink in the back room. I kid you not.

[Struan Gray]

You were lucky....

[Drew Bedo]

Red Ocher and charcoal blown through a reed . . . .

[Rafael Garcia]

Old days? When was that? In my old days we had ink wells in our school desks, and cheap nibs that we washed in a sink in the back room. I kid you not.

Old days = 1970's... you refer to times beyond the limit of old, and well into the field of ancient. Old still walks the Earth, Ancient hangs around museums.

The rapidograph-type technical pens used india ink in a refillable reservoir. The line width was determined by the diameter of a hollow metal barrel with a metal hair nib inside. Ink flowed through the barrel and capillary action kept the ink from flowing onto the surface unless the nib was pressed against the surface. If left uncapped, the india ink would solidify inside the barrel, freezing the nib in solid ink. The ultrasonic cleaners somehow broke up the cementing ink and extracted it from the inside of the barrel. If it could loosen the very thin (thinner than a hair sometimes) nib without damage I figured it may loosen any other encrusted or solidified matter...

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...h_Close-Up.jpg

[Jac@stafford.net]

Old days = 1970's... you refer to times beyond the limit of old, and well into the field of ancient. Old still walks the Earth, Ancient hangs around museums.

Yeah, I'm speaking of the Fifties. My mailing address is a cold storage drawer in a Chicago museum. Oi, Rafa, you make it so depressing!

The rapidograph-type technical pens used india ink [...]

I left drafting before the rapidograph was available, or perhaps affordable. We should be praising the virtues of india ink which preceded it's later mechanical adopters. Ya think?

[Dan Fromm]

Jac, look into Micron Pens, made by Sakura Color Products. Much less fussy than Koh-i-noor Rapidographs, nearly as good.

Rafa, I was using and cursing Rapidographs by 1964. I was dipping nibs in an inkwell and making blots in 1949. Kid, take care who you call ancient.

[Rafael Garcia]

LOL, guys! You make me feel great! OK, so I am not as old as you, but I feel like someone's been hitting me with a 2x4 when I haven't been paying attention... Anyway, the ink era ended definitely about 20 years ago. Everything's computer-drawn. We use REVIT 3D Building Integration Modeling software (BIM) and construct the buildings in the cloud before we cut plans and sections through them. Brave New World: now it takes many more people and many more thousands of dollars to do what a hand with a pencil, directed by a brain guided by the senses could do! It cost me $10,000.00 per drafting/designing station, plus salary, for my 7 man architectural firm to draw. But we are off topic now! I mentioned the ultrasonic cleaning process as an alternative to a stronger spanner or injecting penetrating solvents in the joint. I still think it makes some sense, Jac!