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| Backyard Faucet |
Turning the knob on the faucet in the back yard. I've got a sprinkler going on a tree that's got some kind of problem, and maybe a little extra water will help. Anyway, I've got the faucet dialed in to where the water is going far enough but it isn't going too far. Now I look at the knob so I can remember what position it is in, so tomorrow when I come out here again I'll know how much to turn the knob and I won't have to fiddle-fart around with it. So I look at the knob and I see that there is all kinds of stuff in the center. There's the rusty nut and the shaft it is threaded onto. Behind the knob there is a little round aluminum plate with some writing on it. But nothing stands out, and there is noting fixed to mark it against, so I'll just have to remember to turn it 7/8 of half of a turn, which is like turning the knob so the bump that is currently at the top is half way between where the bump at the bottom is now and the bump just to the left. If you look at the knob as a compass and say north is at the top, then we want to be pointing to southwest by south. If the knob had six bumps we could look at it like a clock face, but it has eight bumps, not six, so we won't.
For sprinkling the tree, 7/16 of a turn is probably good enough, but if it was a more sensitive operation, like tuning in a radio or turning the feed screw on a lathe, you're going to want something better. Radios and machine tools have dials calibrated to whatever accuracy you like*. You could get around dials for high precision equipment by gearing down the dial to the point where it was one complete turn for every hash mark on the direct drive dial. That way you don't have to look at the dial, you just count the number of turns of the dial / crank / knob.
*the phrase 'you like' is kind of loaded. If what you like is commonly available, it's no big deal, but if you want something out of the ordinary, you can have it, you just have to pay for it, and custom stuff is expensive because you not only need someone who can do the work, you also need someone who is willing. Most people are looking for steady work. It's the unusual person who will take on custom jobs. Now you could say that building contractors are always doing custom work, but their options are limited to the materials they are familiar working with.
For sprinkling the tree, 7/16 of a turn is probably good enough, but if it was a more sensitive operation, like tuning in a radio or turning the feed screw on a lathe, you're going to want something better. Radios and machine tools have dials calibrated to whatever accuracy you like*. You could get around dials for high precision equipment by gearing down the dial to the point where it was one complete turn for every hash mark on the direct drive dial. That way you don't have to look at the dial, you just count the number of turns of the dial / crank / knob.
*the phrase 'you like' is kind of loaded. If what you like is commonly available, it's no big deal, but if you want something out of the ordinary, you can have it, you just have to pay for it, and custom stuff is expensive because you not only need someone who can do the work, you also need someone who is willing. Most people are looking for steady work. It's the unusual person who will take on custom jobs. Now you could say that building contractors are always doing custom work, but their options are limited to the materials they are familiar working with.
Get it set right for the job then put a mark on the handle with paint/tape/string marking straight up. It's not rocket surgery.
ReplyDeleteP.S., not matter what you do it depends on constant water pressure.
xoxoxoBruce