Did you know?

[red750]

That's right. I was going to say this is probably the reason we have intermittent episodes of earth tremors.

[onetrack]

Yes, the pressure on the Australian continent as it's pushed NE is the reason we have regular earth tremors and earthquakes. The Australian continent is the fastest-moving continent on the Earth.

 

I reckon we're about due to have another decent earthquake, it's been a long time since we've had a substantial one, they seem to come about every 50-60 years.

 

The Meckering earthquake here in the West in 1968 was a pearler, it would've caused quite a few deaths and a lot more destruction if it had occurred in a more densely populated area.

 

I was driving a dozer when it hit, so I didn't feel a thing. But the brother, who was canvassing for work nearby, came back to my damsinking job just before midday (the earthquake happened just before 11:00AM), and he said he pulled into a farmhouse, and as he arrived, the water tanks on their high stands were wobbling from side to side!

 

Locally, there were reports of concrete water tanks with open tops, that had lost sizeable amounts of water, as it sloshed over the sides of the tanks under the shaking.

 

https://www.ga.gov.au/education/natural-hazards/earthquake

[old man emu]

We were lead to believe that that this is the most stable continent, and being well within its tectonic plate it is not undergoing the mountain building activity associated with collisions between plates. However, that was not always the case and the eastern side of the continent is riddled with ancient faults that have the potential to become active.

[old man emu]

In another thread I wrote about a DIY solution that could be used to remove rust from ferrous metal objects. It involved a chemical reaction in which rust, the red oxide of iron Fe2O3 is converted to  magnetite (Fe3O4), the black oxide of iron. In colloquial use, thin coatings of black oxide are often termed 'gun bluing'.  Black oxide provides minimal protection against corrosion, unless also treated with a water-displacing oil to reduce wetting and galvanic action.

[willedoo]

That must be what those water based rust converters do. They leave a black coating which they say can also act as a primer. It's good stuff, just a pity it's so expensive.

[old man emu]

24 minutes ago, willedoo said:

It's good stuff, just a pity it's so expensive.

Yeah, Evaporust is a good product, but it is expensive simply due to the overheads involved in making and marketing. The DYI stuff is just as effective, but much cheaper to produce in small quantities, since a DIYer doesn't include labour costs and all the other overheads a commercial manufacturer has to include.

 

31 minutes ago, willedoo said:

They leave a black coating which they say can also act as a primer.

That black coating is magnetite (Fe3O4). It is adversely affected by water. If you watch videos where they restore rusty stuff, you will see that they soak the blued materials in oil to protect the bluing. Often resorers will nickel plate metal parts after the oil bath treatment. (I think that's correct, without my having to go back and watch such videos to confirm.)

[old man emu]

Did you know how to pour paint from a can without making a mess?

 

 

[facthunter]

Good rust treatment often involves Phosphates.  Nev

[old man emu]

47 minutes ago, facthunter said:

Good rust treatment often involves Phosphates.  Nev

Yes, phosphate solutions are used to protect ferrous objects. They rely on the deposition of insoluble phosphate salts of zinc, or manganese and to a lesser extent iron, onto the surface to be treated. 

 

Chemical rust removal, on the other hand relies on the conversion of iron oxide to magnetite, which is not a protective agent. After the rust is removed, normal practice is to clean the surface of the back magnetite then treat it with phosphates or by electroplating with a more inert metal such as nickel or chromium.

[old man emu]

Did you know that you can't move certain eucalyptus leaves with a blower? I tried to do it this morning, but when the air went over the leaves, they stuck to the ground. I believe it is a survival mechanism. When things get hot and dry, the tree drops leaves and they form a mulch over the tree's root system. The leaves are designed to resist whatever causes Lift to be developed by wind blowing across a surface. 

 

And we all know that no one has worked out how a wing generates lift, despite Newton, Bernoulli and contemporary aerodynamicists.

[red750]

[onetrack]

Re the phosphate treatment, whenever I acid bath an item in citric acid, I pull it out of the bath, and pressure wash it - and if it's not 100% clean, it goes back in for a few more days, then gets pulled out and pressure washed again.

Then, as soon as I've finished pressure washing, I make up a solution of about 3-5% phosphoric acid in a spray bottle, and spray the item all over with the phosphoric spray, wetting it thoroughly all over, then letting it dry. Warm days helps in this process.

 

The standard Ranex phosphoric acid you get from Bunnings is 32%, so you add about 10-15% of Ranex by volume to a 500ml spray bottle and this solution works just fine.

I use old spray bottles from laundry sprays, and throw them out, and get another one, when it stops working properly. The adjustable tip for a fine spray works good.

 

Edited September 22 by onetrack

[old man emu]

1 minute ago, onetrack said:

I acid bath an item in citric acid,

How many grams of citric acid per litre of water is your solution?

[onetrack]

Around about 2%-5% seems to work best for me, but a bit of trial and error will soon sort out what works for you. It's important to use good quality water - rainwater is best, much tap water is highly mineralised, and this can seriously affect acid bath results.

Ensure the solution is kept covered with a sheet of board or metal, you need to keep sunlight away from citric acid, as it decomposes it rapidly - and the board or metal sheet keeps evaporation to a minimum.

Citric acid is best obtained from a chemical supplier, it comes from them much cheaper, and in more suitable quantities, such 1, 2, 5 and 25kg bags - rather than buying it in small quantities at exorbitant prices from the likes of soap-making suppliers or retailers.

 

Edited September 22 by onetrack

[facthunter]

Neither chrome or nickel are good at rust protection. Zinc gives a galvanic protection for Ferrous metals. Cadmium used to be used a lot but is CARCINOGENIC. and generally prohibited these days. In Aircraft work it replaced by a Zinc-nickel combo.. Surface treatment of Magnesium which is extremely corrosive is complex using chromic acid.. I use a lot of etch primers of good quality on metals. It's not helpful to be thick and soft as a hard surface over it will chip easily..   Nev

[red750]

Did You Know? The History of the Middle Finger...
Well, now...,.. here's something I never knew before, and now that I know it, I feel compelled to share with my intelligent friends in the hopes that they too, will feel blessed in having gained more knowledge. History is way more fun when you know more fun facts about it, don’t you agree?
Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore they would be incapable of fighting in the future. This famous English longbow was made of the native English Yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as 'plucking the yew' (or 'pluck yew'), Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset and began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated French, saying, See, we can still pluck yew!
Over the decades Americans have since changed up the words , the 'pluck yew' is now "f**K you" and the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute! It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows used with the longbow that the symbolic gesture is known as 'giving the bird.' And yew thought yew knew every plucking thing.
Credit Goes To The Respective Owner

 

 

[spacesailor]

Then Churchill changed the single ' middle' finger to .

A two finger salute. 

so he didn't drop his cigar .

spacesailor

[Jerry_Atrick]

As usual, Americans have to Americanise everything. The potential myth of the English waving their two fingers is because the French were alleged to have cut off both fingers and not one. The middle finger goes way back in time

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16916263

[facthunter]

I would have thought the first finger was the strongest one. It's the one you usually use to  oppose the thumb which enables US to pick up things and operate scissors, hold brushes pens etc. Nev

[Marty_d]

First AND middle to draw the bow, one either side of the arrow nock.

[nomadpete]

17 minutes ago, facthunter said:

I would have thought the first finger was the strongest one. It's the one you usually use to  oppose the thumb which enables US to pick up things and operate scissors, hold brushes pens etc. Nev

Or to hold a backstabbing knife. Look how far we have ad-Vanced since we came down out of the trees.

[facthunter]

 Some went further. Into the swamps.  Regarding the stabbing if was reported that at Head Office they are so confused that they are running around stabbing each other in the Chest. Nev