Recommendations for a spring-loader center punch

[Robert Green]

The water is not conductive enough to dead short a car battery. Eventually it would go dead but not instantly.

Why the horn? Because the people who related the experience couldn't SEE the cars. Odds are other electrical anomalies were going on, but those are visual. Sound travels around corners and through walls. Light does not. =================================================

I think Larry's got the right answer. This wasn't a recent flood, but it was a serious one where the storm surge flooded the entire city to well over the tops of the cars. Older cars were wired differently and even the mildly conductive storm surge water (and it's got plenty of salt, dissolved bits of metal and all sorts of contaminants) would set off the horns. The way my (admittedly fractured) memory recalls, they said "the water was rising silently but very quickly when suddenly a chorus of car horns began to sound, only to be drowned out as the cars then submerged completely." It's weird enough to have stuck in my mind as in "who would have thought?"

Back in the 60's and 70's car horn relays used to stick ON a lot more than they seem to these days. That seems to indicate a major rethinking in the way horns are wired. It was the same program where four kids survived a 50 mile trip in an attic that floated away in the storm surge after it became detached from the house. The flooding was pretty serious. Can't remember the hurricane, but I want to say Diane. Probably wrong. That memory's not clear at all.

-- Bobby G.

[Robert Green]

When I need to kill someone bathing and a heater's handy, I'll get back to you. (-:

Damnit, SOMEONE must have weighed in on this before:

One can be killed by dropping an electrical appliance into a bath full of water. confirmed

I suppose all the hubbub about GFCI's is a tacit admission that it's easier to get electrocuted in the bathroom than most other rooms in the house. Especially if James Bond is prowling around.

A keyboard is designed to deal with being face up to dirty fingers. Other electronics don't seem to swim as well. I have a dead Nikon somewhere that didn't take to swim. A Black and Decker trickle charger blew out in the rain (I didn't see that it had tiny ventilation hole cleverly offset to be almost invisible). Stuff drowns. It's a fact of life. Some stuff drowns better than others.

-- Bobby G.

[Robert Green]

The difference is the amount of force brought to bear on a small surface area of the glass. It's why these punches, with a tiny foot print can do what a baseball bat might not. That bead on the end of the baton is the key. It concentrates the force to a very small surface area and POP. It's also why trying to kick them out from the inside with rubber-soled shoes often fails. Not enough force applied to a small enough area. A tire iron pops out a car window pretty nicely because it has a hard metal end with a small contact footprint. Good for inducing "battered skull" syndrome, too. (-:

-- Bobby G.

[Tekkie®]

Robert Green posted for all of us...

Are you in the Emergency Services? If not STAY AWAY! An alternative is to make me the sole beneficiary of your insurance.

NOAA slogan: Don't drown, turn around.

You will ONLY involve MORE EMS personnel in saving your sorry butt.

[Robert Green]

I'd prefer not to have to escape from either one. This year a lot of people seem to have gotten caught in flash floods, often dying because they failed to abandon their car in the first few moments. Of course, there's the risk of being swept away. What's the drill when you're caught in your car in rapidly rising water and your rope's in the trunk?

You mean that the literally dozens of movies I've seen that trick in are all frauds? Say it isn't so!

Reminds me of "Seahunt" with Lloyd Bridges. Probably not as many knife fights in real life, though.

-- Bobby G.

[aemeijers]

He wasn't talking about playing rescue man, he was talking about saving his own ass if he happens to end up parked in a canal unexpectedly.

[micky]

BTW IIRC the keyboard was supposed to be top down in the dish washer.

One keyboard was like any oher to me, and replacement new ones were 2 dollars at hamfests, until I got used to using 8 of the special keys on the "multimedia" keyboard.

[Robert Green]

I know the feeling, I collect keyboards with enlarged "L" shaped Enter keys and elongated backspace keys. Once you get used to certain features, especially in things like keyboards, it's hard to use something different.

I bought Keytronics Lifetime (dirty fu&ing liars!) keyboards because they had a good feel and good longevity and those two keys in the right places. They didn't survive (more accurately had more keys go bad) after a distilled water cleanout. That treatment was tried after paying to ship them back for repair only to be told "biological matter in keyboard - warranty voided." Show me one keyboard on earth that doesn't have skin cells and human hair lodged it in. Or worse.

It's all in the design. Keyboards are also simple circuits. The more low voltage IC's on a running circuit board, the more damage I think immersion can do. Keyboards are being washed when off. They might not fare so well with current running through them when they contact water and don't from what I recall of drowned keyboards at our company. And that was back when Compaq had the balls to charge over $100 per replacement keyboard. For that sin, they were consumed by the hideous monster, HP, who is now puking up their half-digested corpse.

And who says there's no justice in the world?

-- Bobby G.

[Tony Miklos]

This is the first I heard of washing keyboards in the dishwasher. Now all I need is a dishwasher!

[Steve B]

"Robert Green" wrote

Because of a broken thumb long ago, and wrist overuse, I can only use the v shaped keyboards. The others, and the laptops particularly feel like I have my wrists bound together with a tight zip tie. Currently, I am using a Microsoft that I have had forever, and it is about to go into the dishwasher. I just sit down, and my fingers automatically go to the right place. Plus, there's a division between the keys, in the center. Makes some typos almost impossible.

Steve

[Robert Green]

I agree regarding laptop keyboards. They almost all suck - some just more than others.

I hope that yours survives the immersion. Some do, some don't.

-- Bobby G.

[Robert Green]

Many problems with keyboards can be solved/prevented by holding them upside and blowing them out with compressed air. I don't have a dishwasher, either, but I have two air compressors. (-:

-- Bobby G.

[Robert Green]

Thanks for explaining that. I had no idea WTF Tekkie was so fired up about so I just let it slide. It sounds like even if I were to come upon someone trapped in their car, I'd better wait until EMS gets there, even if the passengers would have drowned/burned by then. Sheesh.

-- Bobby G.