Comments by "ke6gwf - Ben Blackburn" (@ke6gwf) on "Spark" channel.

  1. Lots of mistakes in the script in this show, they need to have an actual mechanic with veto power over the script lol The major ones are that the grease put into the D10 near the end is actually what pressurizes the track tensioning cylinder and keeps the track tight. It has nothing to do with lubrication. It DOES reduce wear, but not because of lubrication, but because a loose track flopping and banging around wears everything out much faster, and so keeping the correct track tension leads to much longer life. The other big error was when the train motor was being replaced, and the shim was added, and the narrator said it was talking to give space for lubrication, but that's not accurate. He was setting the Backlash on the drive gear, which is how far the teeth mesh with each other. Put your hands together so your fingers mesh like gears, and try turning them. Notice how if they are too deep in, they bind and rub on the opposite side? But if they are too far out there is lots of slop and looseness, plus the load is all on the very tips. In gears, if you have them too close together they rub on each other wearing it out and creating lots of heat, and can even bottom out and jam. Too far apart and you are loading the tips of the teeth, plus every time you accelerate or decelerate that gap between the teeth let's them slam on each other. Backlash is the measurement of how far one gear will rotate without the other one moving, it's how manufacturers specify how to adjust the gears. So when he first put it together, it didn't have enough, or any backlash, so he added the shim to slightly seperate the gears and get the specified backlash reading. There! You now have more technical details than in the rest of the show script combined! Lol There were several other issues, but I didn't memorize all of them lol Oh, and the DRAMA! cut it out! You go on and on repeating yourself time and again about how every moment is so important and lost revenue, and then you cut to the most important people standing interviewing with you. I have worked on plenty of high value jobs where time was money, and I wouldn't have had time to lollygag for the camera lol I think the worst was the train lift, where you took 3 or 4 segments building up the lift not working, and not actually doing anything or even telling us what ended up being the problem, and chances are that you asked them to make the light blink and staged the whole thing lol I enjoy the subject matter, but if you aren't going to bother with technical accuracy, and are going to treat your audience like idiots, I will be careful not to watch any more from you. Which is sad, because you get into excellent locations.
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  2. You are correct in part of your correction lol The addition of grease DOES reduce wear and tear, because when you keep the track properly tensioned so it's not flopping around, it lasts MUCH longer. But yes, this application of grease is to pressurize the track tension cylinder, as opposed to lubrication.
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  3. Most likely the cable was starting to get old, insulation cracking, metal fatigue, etc. It probably had been repaired many times over the years, and just was getting tired, so replacing it was a good idea. This is a drama show, and the writers don't have a clue what the subject, but everyone understands what a broken fiber optic cable is, and that was probably the last straw.
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  4. He was talking about the dangers of it, thus the 600 v was important. The amps aren't that important, but if you care, I am sure that you can estimate the size of the wire and the length, and ballpark the capacity of the cable lol
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  5.  @ctdieselnut  you don't understand what "it's the amps that kills you" means do you? Lol I often get shocked on 12 volts working on car batteries, and there is a lot of amps there, but the voltage is barely high enough to feel, not enough to cause problems (usually... lol) But when you take the voltage high enough to start penetrating deeper into the body, then it only takes a few milliamps to stop the heart. By definition, a 600 volt power line will have plenty of amps to not only stop the heart, but barbecue it and turn you into a cloud of mist. So in this case, the ampacity of the cable is not important for lethality, because it could be a wire the size of your hair, and still kill you at 600 volts. Basically, a power line like that has essentially unlimited amps available, far above the milliamps that are needed to kill you, so it's not a question of the amp capacity, but the voltage.
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