#mechanical shaft seals

[omegagraphite]

Demystifying Mechanical Seals: A Comprehensive Guide

Welcome to our blog, where we delve into the intricate world of mechanical seals. If you've ever wondered what exactly a mechanical seal is and how it functions, you've come to the right place. In this guide, we'll break down the basics, explore the importance of mechanical seals, and shed light on Omega Seals Company's role in this crucial industry.

What is a Mechanical Seal?

Let's start with the fundamentals. A mechanical seal is a device used to prevent fluid leakage between two mating surfaces in a mechanical system. These surfaces can be rotating or stationary, and the seal is typically installed in equipment such as pumps, compressors, and agitators where the containment of fluids is essential. Mechanical seals provide a higher level of sealing compared to traditional packing seals, offering greater efficiency and reliability.

How Do Mechanical Seals Work?

Understanding the workings of a mechanical seal is key to appreciating its significance. Essentially, a mechanical seal consists of two primary components: a rotating element (typically attached to a shaft) and a stationary element (housed within the equipment). These elements are held together under mechanical pressure to create a tight seal. The seal faces, usually made of materials like carbon, ceramic, or silicon carbide, come into contact to prevent fluid leakage. Additionally, a secondary sealing mechanism, such as an elastomer O-ring, provides further protection against leakage.

Importance of Mechanical Seals:

Mechanical seals play a critical role in various industries, including oil and gas, chemical processing, pharmaceuticals, and wastewater treatment. Their ability to withstand high pressures, temperatures, and corrosive environments makes them indispensable in ensuring the safe and efficient operation of equipment. By preventing leaks and contamination, mechanical seals help maintain product quality, minimize downtime, and enhance workplace safety.

Omega Seals Company: A Leading Provider of Seal Solutions

Based in India, with a presence in Mumbai, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Brazil, Omega Seals Company is a reputable manufacturer of a diverse range of seal equipment. With a commitment to quality, innovation, and customer satisfaction, Omega Seals Company delivers reliable sealing solutions tailored to the specific needs of each industry. Whether its standard seals or custom-designed products, Omega Seals Company's expertise and experience make it a trusted partner for businesses worldwide.

Mechanical seals are essential components in various industrial applications, serving to prevent fluid leakage and ensure the efficient operation of equipment. Omega Seals Company stands out as a leading provider of high-quality seal solutions, catering to the needs of industries across the globe. With a focus on innovation and customer service, Omega Seals Company continues to uphold its reputation as a reliable partner in the field of sealing technology.

Contact us at: https://www.omegaseals.com/ | +91 9820045787 | info@omegaseals.com

[idealdieselmarine]

IMO PUMP SHAFT SEAL 190977 T025 BS1 11V original qty 10sets worldwide E-MAIL: sales@idealdieselmarine.com  

Maker: IMO PUMP original products

Name:SHAFT SEAL SETS

P/N: 190977 (T025 BS1 11V)

QTY :12pieces

We also have imo pumps and ship machinery, filters, engine helping tools, automation and general supply 

Worldwide delivery 

IDEAL DIESEL MARINE 

E-MAIL: sales@idealdieselmarine.com (Primary)

City : Bhavnagar 364001 Gujarat INDIA

website- http://idealdieselmarine.com/main.php

INDIA

[hitech-automations]

Oil seals used for? Oil seals are used to protect shafts and bearings from ingress of dirt and foreign matter and egress of oil or grease. An oil seal generally consists of an outer circular metal part and an inner flexible member that does the actual sealing and is bonded to the metal part by chemical adhesive agents. oil seal is best? Image result for INDUSTRIAL OIL SEAL Buna (Nitrile) oil seals are the most widely used elastomer in sealing. Nitrile oil seals have great resistance to petroleum oils and fuels, mineral oils and greases, hydraulic fluids, water, steam, and alcohol. seal in oil and gas industry? Mechanical Seals for the Oil Industry A mechanical seal is a device that helps join two moving or rotating parts together while preventing the leakage of fluid or gas. oil seals prevent leakage? Oil seals, also referred to as shaft seals, are widely used to prevent the leakage of medium (such as oils and grease) along a rotating shaft. This leak prevention is primarily achieved by the sealing element which can be made from a wide range of materials that are chosen according to each application. seals can leak oil? If the valve cover gasket is not the source of your oil leak, the following gaskets or seals may be likely sources: Oil drain plug seal. Oil pan gasket. Front and rear crankshaft seals. Camshaft seals – overhead cam engines. Timing cover gasket. Intake manifold end seals. Cylinder head gasket. role of a seal? Conducting insertions and extractions by sea, air or land to accomplish covert, Special Warfare/Special Operations missions. Capturing high-value enemy personnel and terrorists around the world. Collecting information and intelligence through special reconnaissance missions seals leak? Image result If there are no fluids available to lubricate, the seal runs dry which causes extra friction and heat. The seal will burn or melt and become damaged, which causes fluid leakage due to the pressure. Even a few seconds of dry running can cause heat cracks or blisters, which leads to a leaking pump shaft seal

[local-void-creature-izzy]

ReWrite AU: SA2 Basis; Dark Story

>>> 21:02 Prison Island: Within the Base.

It was deep within Prison Island, when several metal doors began closing shut, alarms loudly blaring throughout the base, it was the protocol procedure for an intruder.

There was an intruder within the base of Prison Island, as the loud speakers came alive with a soldier frantically sending out warnings. "Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert! Security breach at Gate 3! Intruder has been located in the north quadrant, and is moving in the direction of the underground base. All units prepare to engage: basic emergency battle formations. Standard battle formations initiated. Locate and stop intruder from reaching the security area."

The intruder was reaching deeper and deeper in the base, soldiers and robotic mechanics not standing a chance against the intruder.

"This is not a drill! Repeat; this is not a drill!" Came from the loud speaker again before it was cut off entirely.

More metal doors slammed shut, but the intruder simply fired his weapons at the doors, blasting them wide open, making his way through the base.

It was no other than Dr.Eggman. "Hahahahaha!! That was all too easy. Now, let's take a look at what my grandfather was working on; a top-secret military weapon. The military shut down the research because they feared it!" Eggman boasted, jumping down an elevator shaft, continuing to head deeper and deeper within the base.

From time and time again, he had been bested by Amy Rose and her companions, ruining his plans of a great and glorious empire, and world domination, but not this time. With this secret military weapon left behind by his grandfather, he cannot fail this time.

His plan of world domination will succeed this time, no matter what.

The military base kept its attempts at keeping the doctor at bay, soldiers, robotics, every security measure possible, but it was nothing compared to what Eggman had up his sleeve. It didn't take long until he reached Level 7 of the military base.

Approaching the security panel, he accessed it with ease, the panel lighting up and opening the doors to the final level. Eggman stepped through the doors once they opened up enough, approaching another terminal in the center of the room.

It showed a hologram of sorts, it had to be the secret military project! "Oh-ho! So this is the military's top-secret weapon. It's a lot smaller than I expected. Hmm, "enter user data"... ah, enter password. Password is: "MA-RI-A." Maria! Now all I have to do is to place the Chaos Emerald into this console."

Eggman pulled out the Chaos Emerald from his Egg-mobile, placing it within the console. Once it was inserted, the floor opened up to reveal another hidden level, the doctor jumped down and as he did so, a large mechanical pillar rose up from the hidden room sealed by the console.

Eggman could not help but let out a victorious laugh. "Oh-ho!"

One top of the pillar, stood a hedgehog. His fur was black with dark red highlights, blood orange eyes gazing down at the doctor beneath the pillar. "Who are you?" Questioned Eggman. "Are you a friend of Amy's here to spoil my plans?! But wait, that's impossible why would you be sealed here then-"

The mysterious hedgehog spoke. "My name is Shadow. Since you were so kind to release me, my master... I will grant you one wish in exchange for something I want."

Before Eggman could respond, another alarm began to blare through the base. "Now what?!" Exclaimed Eggman.

Shadow jumped down from the pillar, the shoes he wore were in fact air shoes, judging by how he glided with ease on the ground. "Behold the true power I possess." Shadow spoke, taking matters into his own hands as a soldier powered mechanism appeared in the room.

On its own, it would have proven a challenge for Eggman, but Shadow handled the military enemy with such ease. It took only a few simple attacks from Shadow before it exploded into bits, the doctor was thoroughly impressed.

This bought the two some time to talk. "Destroying that guard robot with such ease was spectacular! So Shadow, YOU are military's top secret weapon, but what did you mean you would grant me a wish in exchange for something you want?" Eggman asked.

The Hedgehog simply told the doctor to bring him more Chaos Emeralds, as he walked away, he told Eggman he would be waiting on the space colony ARK, within the central control room.

This surprised the doctor, judging by how he slammed both his hands down on his machine while Shadow walked away.

>>> 11:08 "Desert Area"

Within the desert, there were two arguing over the Master Emerald; Knuckles "Chaos" Echidna. The last Echidna who had a direct connection to Chaos, like his predecessor Tikal, and guardian of the Master Emerald.

And a bat named Rouge, she was a secret agent for G.U.N. who was currently working undercover. She had an infinity for all jewels and gemstones alike, the Master Emerald was no different. "Just... let it go! You just don't know when to give up, do you?" Rouge exclaimed, determined to get her hands on the Master Emerald.

The Echidna looked at her with confusion and wariness. "What're you talkin' about, that Emerald's mine! You got that? The Master Emerald contains special powers that neutralize the energy of the Chaos Emeralds; that makes it very powerful -- What the?!" Knuckles explanation of the Master Emerald was cut off by a giant mechanical claw coming down and snatching up the Master Emerald. It was Eggman.

"Wha- Thief" Rouge yelled towards the doctor.

"Look who's calling who a thief." Knuckles sarcastically said.

"I came here following the signal from the Emerald. If I'm not mistaken, this is the Master Emerald, is it not?" The doctor muttered to himself.

Now having a closer look at the emerald thief, it came to a nasty surprise for Knuckles. "It's you…Doctor Eggman…" The Echidna was at a loss for words, it had been some time since him and the others had to see or deal with Eggman. Amy even commenting the other day how quiet it had been without Eggman around, clearly she spoke too soon.

"So that's Doctor Eggman." Rouge pondered, watching the scene unfold in front of her.

"Well, I guess I can use it for something. I'll just take it with me. Farewell, Knucklehead." Eggman waved at the two below, fully prepared to take off with the Master Emerald.

"Not if I can help it!" Yelled Knuckles, as he proceeded to jump up and smash the Master Emerald into pieces. Rouge screaming in shock and disbelief at how easily Knuckles shattered the emerald.

When Knuckles touched the ground, Rouge did not hesitate to start strangling the other. "What the hell was that all about?! And look what you did to my emerald!"

Knuckles pushed her off of him before she could fully strangle him unconscious. "I did that to prevent it from being stolen, you idiot! If it's in pieces, I can restore it. And by the way, that's not YOUR Emerald" Knuckles reminded her, annoyed she was still trying to claim the Master Emerald for her own.

Eggman scratched his head, for one baffled how quickly the two forgot he was even there. And two, what was he going to do about the now shattered Master Emerald. "Hmm... doesn't matter. I'll look into it once I get back to the base."

With that said, Eggman flew away, heading back to his base, leaving the other two to continue their bickering and fighting.

"I despise anyone who takes jewels from me. All the world's gems are mine to keep!" Rouge exclaimed.

"Yeah, well we'll see about that, bat girl!" Knuckles responded, as now began a race between the two, of who could gather the pieces of the Master Emerald completely before the other could.

>>> 20:22 "Desert Area"

There were multiple military vehicles and soldiers in the area, as Eggman had to destroy quite a handful of them to proceed to his secret base without worry of being followed.

It was night time now, as the doctor entered his base hidden within the desert pyramid. Boasting to himself how they were idiots and would never think to check the pyramid itself for his secret base.

Once he was inside his base, he made his way to room that contained a warp device to the ARK, along with a huge high tech computer monitor and terminal. Pushing a few buttons on the terminal, the computer screen came alive with the current news broadcasting.

The news reporter on screen was struggling to not show panic as they spoke. "We interrupt this broadcast for an important newsflash. There has been a break-in at the federal-reserve bank today. Mysteriously, the only thing that was stolen was--"

"--The Chaos Emerald?!--" Eggman finished the sentence in shock and awe, that someone actually managed to steal a Chaos Emerald from such a heavily guarded place.

"--the Chaos Emerald." Continued the news reporter. "According to eyewitnesses at the scene, the suspect has yet to be identified beyond the fact it is a hedgehog. With no signs of the world renowned hero, Amy "Rascal" Rose on the scene, fear and worry grasps at the citizens hearts and minds. The suspect was seen fleeing the scene, destroying the reserve's guard robots in his path. Stay tuned for more details."

The rest of the news report cut away to show something else in the news. "Sounds like the work of Shadow!" Eggman exclaimed, as the another news report managed to record the face of Shadow in its report.

>>> Meanwhile in the City

Shadow stood high on top of a suspension bridge, overlooking the swarm of police units below. Did they really think they could stop him? "Hmph, how pathetic." He commented.

Suddenly he got a sharp pain in his head, as he looked at the flashing red lights of the police cars. A memory from fifty years ago was surfacing, as it replayed in Shadow's mind. He clutched his head, in pain.

He remembered running from G.U.N. Soldiers. How they shouted for the others to find them before they could escape.

They? Yes, that's right. Him, Maria, and…Sonic…

He didn't know what happened to the other, where Sonic went. He just grabbed Maria's hand and ran, ran through the halls of ARK as its alarms blared throughout. Both were panting from exhaustion, and panic, but they couldn't stop now, or a worse fate would await them if they were caught.

His mind went white before another memory came up. Maria was dying, she had been shot by a soldier that was chasing them, as she pushed Shadow into a capsule, shutting the glass over the Hedgehog.

She was bleeding out as she leaned against the control panel of the capsule. Shadow desperately trying to break through it, but the glass was made especially for him. "MARIA!!" He had yelled out, panic, fear, despair in his voice as tears were unknowingly falling down his face.

"Shadow…I beg you….please…." Maria spoke, putting all her remaining strength into staying conscious.

"MARIA DON'T!" Shadow begged her to not do this.

"Do it for me…For all the people…on that planet…Goodbye, Shadow the Hedgehog."

Maria pulled the lever, ejecting the capsule from the colony. The memory then faded back into a white void.

Shadow pulled himself out of his mind, looking back down at the people below. His fists clenched tight. "Maria... I still remember what I promised you... For all the people of this planet... I promise you... REVENGE!"

He jumped down from the suspension bridge and laid waste to his enemies below, no matter how many they sent his direction they stood no chance against him. He promised, he swore, he will have revenge against them all, not just for Maria, but for Sonic as well.

He cleared his own pathway through the city, standing on top of a 6ft robot labeled Big-Foot. He was about to demolish it to pieces with the soldier within, when the comms within spoke a familiar name.

Sonic.

Shadow smashed the front glass of the robot, grabbing the soldier by the neck, slowly choking him to death. "Repeat that, Sonic what?"

Scared for his life, the soldier did as he was told, in hopes Shadow would spare his life. "P-Project Sonic! H-He has awakened too-- s-same as you! H-He's in t-the city outskirts! That's all I know I swear!"

Project Sonic.

Shadow remembered, Project Sonic was created by a friend of Gerald Robotnik, the one who created him, as a counter measure to himself. A fail safe that would balance or destroy Shadow if need be.

Sonic was a hedgehog as well, but he was a bright cobalt blue with emerald green eyes in contrast to Shadow. He was given his name due to his sonic-esc capabilities. He could run at sonic speeds, nothing other than Shadow could come close to his levels in speed. He had a sonic frequency scream, it was always a hazard risk getting him to test it because of just how high and powerful the screech could get. And he could harness his energy to create attacks he labeled 'Sonic Boom' and 'Phantom Rush', needless to say the attacks could do some serious damage at his level of speeds.

When they had introduced Sonic to Shadow, they feared they would be enemies, that there would be hostility between the two, yet it was the opposite in fact.

With Maria around, the two became close, very close in fact. The word that was muttered between the scientists was 'lovers' to describe the relationship Shadow had with Sonic.

When G.U.N. had attacked all those years ago, Shadow thought he lost Sonic the same way, but it seems he wasn't the only one sent down to the planet in a capsule, just waiting to be awakened.

Shadow mentally thanked Maria for her last act of kindness. He returned his attention to the soldier, who was trying to claw out of his grasp but failing miserably. "Do not lie to me, when I ask where in the outskirts? North, South, East, or West?"

"S-South! Honest I-I swear!" The soldier answered in a panic.

"Thank you." Shadow responded, the soldier having hope in his eyes as the grip around lessened, genuinely thinking Shadow was about to spare him. The soldier barely had time to process what happened next. "Now die." Shadow crushed the soldiers neck like a twig, throwing the lifeless body aside.

Shadow pulled out the Chaos Emerald. "South…I'm coming Sonic. Chaos Control!" A green light envelopes Shadow; he is pulled across the area at an incredible speed, flying directly through the city, heading south.

Buildings blurred by as he continued heading south, the closer he got to the city's outskirts, the more he saw destroyed G.U.N. and police units. Shadow knew this wasn't his work, and judging just by how half of the destruction was cleanly cut in bits, and the other half was completely smashed flat, he knew it was the work of Sonic and his screech and energy attacks.

He sped up faster through the destruction, reaching a building that was barely standing, he stood on top of its remaining stand, over looking the destruction in it's entirety. He could feel rage, confusion, fear behind them.

Sonic must have woken up alone.

Shadow jumped down to the destroyed streets, surveilling the area for any signs of life, from the looks of it though, it seems Sonic did a number on everything as the southern outskirts were dead silent, activating his air shoes, he ran forward through the streets. If the other was in the southern outskirts, then he just had to keep going south and eventually he would run into him.

Shadow ran through the outskirts for about five minutes when he saw G.U.N. surrounding someone up ahead. He snarled at the surrounding soldiers and their robotics.

When he got closer, his heart skipped a beat.

"We have you surrounded! Don't resist!" Yelled a soldier holding a gun. He had his weapon pointed at the suspect.

The suspect in question was a cobalt blue hedgehog, who had streaks of white around his eyes and a long streak across the center of his eyes going all the way back down his center quill. He had white marks around his mouth, almost mimicking the icon used for volume sound. In contrast to Shadow who wore gold around his wrists and ankles, Sonic wore silver around his wrists, ankles, and neck. His right arm and leg were almost like water yet still completely solid, while his left arm and leg had a white streak wrapping around them in a downward spiral wrap around.

Shadow could tell Sonic had overdid it with his screech, his eyes were hazy and unfocused, a sign of using his screech one too many times in a row.

Something in the other snapped, seeing the soldiers take another step closer to Sonic. How his blood boiled with pure rage, how it consumed him, as his own appearance went from looking like a normal mobian hedgehog, to the center red streak in his quills became scales, the other red streaks hardening and spikes standing on the ends, his pupils became slits, his fangs grew, and his tail grew longer, spikes growing down it as scales became the ending point.

"YOU GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HIM!" Yelled Shadow, as he disappeared into thin air, the soldiers frantically looking around for which direction that yell came from. Shadow then reappeared in front of Sonic, keeping him away from the G.U.N. soldiers.

The soldiers panicked for a second as their leader immediately yelled to open fire, but that couldn't happen, they barely had any reaction time when--"CHAOS CONTROL!!" --a powerful surge of chaos energy shook through the ground, causing an earthquake…no it shattered the ground beneath the soldiers and they all fell into the depths, a painful descent as the Chaos Energy sent pure electrocutions throughout them and their machinery.

A terrifying display of power, as it was all consumed by a cloud of debris. When the debris cloud vanished, Shadow was catching his breath. He had used quite a bit of chaos energy in his fit of rage.

Suddenly, Shadow felt himself being hugged from behind. "This isn't a dream right…? I'm not hallucinating, right…?" Sonic asked, hesitance lacing his voice. Scared that if he let Shadow go, he would vanish into thin air.

Shadow allowed himself this moment of relief, with no soldiers in sight or no indication any more were on the way, he dropped his guard. He turned around and pulled Sonic into his arms, holding him close and tight, as Sonic practically melted into his arms, burying his face into Shadow's chest.

"I thought I lost you…" Shadow muttered into Sonic's quills.

"I thought the same, when I woke up all alone in those green fields…what happened?" Sonic asked, still not fully awake from the fifty year long nap he had been in.

Shadow pulled away from the hug, but held Sonic's hand tight within his own. "I'll explain later on the ARK. Right now we need to leave before more G.U.N. soldiers show up."

>>> 22:18 "In the Pyramid" : Desert Area

Meanwhile, back at Eggman's hidden base, Agent Rouge has snuck inside. Once she saw the coast was clear, she reached up to her ear and turned on her communicator. "This is Agent Rouge, I've located Eggman's base and will proceed to enter it now." She said, receiving a 'Roger that, keep us updated, over' in response from the G.U.N. Agent on the other line.

Taking a look at the inner entrance of the base, she noticed it was heavily locked down, the door that led to where she needed to go needed at least three keys to open. She sighed. "Hah...I hate to say it. I guess I'm going to have to find that key first."

Luckily she wasn't an expert treasure hunter for nothing, she found all three keys with ease, placing them in the doorway once she was back at the inner entrance. Once each key was in place, they automatically turned to unlock. Giving Rouge access to the innermost workings for Eggman's base.

Eventually she reached the room with the terminal that Eggman saw the news report from along with the transporter to the ARK. She approached the computer and began typing away at it, hoping to find some answers within its data base to what was going on.

"This device-- gasp -- it’s a transporter with its destination set to the ARK?! Wasn't that space colony shut down, over fifty years ago? What's he doing up there, anyway? Doesn't matter. It's my mission to find out what he's up to!" She said with determination. She typed in a few commands and then stepped inside the transporter, once she was on it, the transporter activated, sending her to its destination.

>>> 22:41 Inside the Space Colony: ARK

Rouge was not far off Eggman's trail, as the Doctor had only been on board a few minutes. He was making his way through the twists and turns of the colony. "So this is the space colony ARK. I have to locate the central control room that Shadow mentioned before he left." Eggman said to himself, he needed answers on what Shadow meant when he left that military base.

He began to make his way through the ARK, unlike before where almost every security measure at the military base attacked him, it was quite a simple walk through in the ARK. Shadow must have been responsible for that.

Soon the doctor was at the center control room, where Shadow stood in front of a terminal with a weird device hooked up to it, and…he wasn't alone. "Shadow! What's the meaning of this?!" Eggman questioned.

The two hedgehogs turned around. Shadow taking the first initiative. "I've been waiting for you Doctor." He spoke, turning around and offering his hand to the mysterious blue hedgehog, who was clearly on the defensive towards Eggman, but clearly trusted Shadow. The doctor couldn't help but wonder who he was and what he had to do with Shadow. "Allow me to introduce you to my other half, Sonic. I'm not surprised he was not in the database of your research, they corrupted all his files in the system." Shadow explained.

"Your, other half? What does that mean exactly Shadow, that doesn't explain what you meant when you left the military base." Eggman further questioned.

"It means that he's my equal. You don't need to know anymore than that. Now, I will show the glorious achievement of what the world's leading scientist - Professor Gerald has created." Shadow exclaimed.

On cue, the device behind the two hedgehogs came alive. The doctor stared in awe as the device came online. This time, the blue hedgehog known as Sonic spoke, Eggman was surprised, for a second he considered the other couldn't talk. "The ARK was the first space colony created by mankind. Not many people know that the ARK contained a top-secret research facility, where weapons of mass destruction were being created. This is one of them; a weapon capable of destroying an entire planet. Codenamed: "The Eclipse Cannon." Sonic explained.

The doctor couldn't believe his ears or eyes. "Destroying an entire planet...? Was this my grandfather's legacy?"

"But, it's been deactivated for some time now…" Shadow stated.

Shadow pulled out the chaos emerald he had stolen from the federal-reserve bank, tossing it into one of the seven slots on the device. It fit perfectly in and the device loudly hummed as the chaos energy pulsed through it, giving it more power.

"To reactivate it... large amounts of energy are necessary." Shadow explained.

Suddenly it all made sense to the doctor. "Oh, so that's why we needed the Chaos Emerald. But what about that one thing in exchange?"

"Exactly. To reactivate the machine, we need the seven Chaos Emeralds. Once you have that, then you have the ultimate power of destruction, to use as you please. And then... the world could be yours. As for your follow up question, I have no more need for that exchange, what I needed is here with me now." Shadow vaguely explained, but Eggman could tell he was referring to Sonic, with how his body language kept ensuring Sonic stayed behind him, the other seemed fine with that, not wanting to be involved in the whole ordeal, clearly he has seen some things to warrant the trust issues.

Eggman burst into a joyful laughter. "Hahahahahaha!! Sounds like a plan! I like the way you think, Shadow! I will get the Chaos Emeralds, use the machine to dominate the world and build a legacy of my own!" With this cannon, his empire can finally come into being, and no one can stop him, not even that pesky Amy Rose!

"Do you really think it will be that easy?" A new voice from above spoke, having all three look up to the ceiling. It was Rouge, who was gracefully gliding down from where she was hidden.

Once she was within listening distance, she started talking. "I've got a great idea! How about making a deal?" She suggested.

"A…deal?" Eggman questioned.

"When you grabbed that huge Emerald, you said something about a reaction; a reaction that it may have with the Master Emerald. Now, if you could just let me borrow that radar, I may be able to help you. What do you think?" Rouge elaborated, a cunning smile on her face.

But Eggman was still suspicious. "If I do... what's in it for me?"

Success, she had him right where she wanted him. "I have an idea where the other Chaos Emeralds may be. I may not look like it, but do you know that I am a treasure hunter that specializes in all kinds of jewels?"

With that said, Rouge pulled out a chaos emerald from within her coat, leaving Eggman stunned. How in the world did she snatch a chaos emerald, not knowing what to say, Eggman looked towards Shadow.

Shadow simply nodded in agreement to Rouge's terms. So with everyone in agreement, Eggman turned his attention back to Rouge. "Very well."

"Okay then, it's a deal. I don't think we've been introduced. I'm Rouge the Bat. But, you can call me Rouge." She introduced herself as her and Eggman left the central control room to discuss further details and to give Rouge access to the radar, leaving the two hedgehogs alone.

"You sure were vague with the Doctor." Sonic said to the other.

"If at any point he becomes a traitor, I don't want him having an advantage over us." Shadow responded.

Sonic was touched, leaning his head on Shadow's shoulder. "Nothing my screech can't handle -- sigh-- you're really going through with this?" Sonic asked, needing to know for certain if this is what Shadow wanted.

"I promised, that day this is what I promised. Now, I can go through knowing her last act of kindness was not in vain." Shadow said, turning to face the other, with his free hand he rested it against Sonic's cheek, watching how Sonic melted into his touch. He leaned his forehead against Sonic's, just taking in the moment, letting himself forget the outside world, only focusing on Sonic.

"Those chaos emeralds aren't going to collect themselves now, where do we begin?" Sonic asked, no matter what happens, he'll have Shadow's back.

Shadow was grateful that through it all, he still had Sonic. "Prison Island, we'll set off before noon."

>>> 11:13 "Prison Island: Coastline"

The four were now within a forest of Prison Island, Eggman was not exactly pleased about being back here after the last time.

"Having to come back isn't my idea of a vacation! How can you be sure your intelligence reports are correct? Why would the Chaos Emeralds be here on the island? Are you absolutely sure?!" Eggman heavily questioned Rouge, who had been the one to lead them back here for the chaos emeralds.

"Well, believe what you wanna believe." Was all Rouge said, shrugging her shoulders. But her confidence is what made the doctor calm down enough to think.

"Hmm, very well. Let's discuss how we are going to do this. I will go in first and distract the military troupes, allowing you to sneak in the base without being detected." The doctor began to explain, he then pointed at Shadow. "Then, Shadow will... enter the armory, where he will set the timer on these dynamite packs. Once that is in place, we will blow up the whole island before anyone has a chance to know what hit them!" He then pointed to Rouge. "Meanwhile, you will sneak into the cargo area and grab the Chaos Emeralds. That's a challenge for such a worthy treasure hunter as yourself, isn't it bat-girl?"

Rouge simply saluted with a wink towards Eggman.

"Don't think I forgot about you, Sonic." Eggman then pointed his attention to the cobalt blue hedgehog. "I have a sneaky suspicion a thorn in my side will show up and try to stop us. I want you to be on the look out for them." Eggman explained.

Sonic looked at the other with a arched eyebrow. "And this thorn in your side is??" He dragged out, emphasizing for Eggman to further elaborate who he was talking about.

"Her name is Amy "Rascal" Rose, she's a hedgehog like you, a pink one, and you could say she's the hero of this world. She's been nothing but a thorn in my side with her companions, an echidna named Knuckles, and a twin tailed fox named Tails. Your job will be to keep them from disrupting our plans before the island blows up, got it?" Eggman concluded.

Sonic just nodded.

"We only have thirteen minutes to pull this mission off, and we only get one try; so don't fail me!" With that final statement from Eggman, everyone left in separate directions.

The first step of the plan was going accordingly, the military troupes put all their attention on Eggman and his path of destruction, that the other three went completely unnoticed. Eventually Eggman had cleared out the entire port of the base.

This allowed him to regroup with Sonic, who was at the other end of take off zone of a G.U.N. battleship, Shadow and Rouge had already snuck inside, so he was left to stay watch.

>>> On the G.U.N. Battleship

"Okay, everyone ready? Shadow, Rouge, on with the show!" Eggman spoke into the comms. Just as the doctor finished his sentence, a hauntingly familiar hammer came flying towards him from behind, the only reason it didn't hit him was because Sonic reacted much quicker and kicked it away mid air.

"I knew you were behind this, Eggman!" It was her, Eggman couldn't mistake that voice anywhere, as he turned around in his Egg-Mobile. Sure enough, there was Amy, in her iconic red headband and her playing card styled dress.

"What are you doing here on a military base?!" She demanded, clearly he was up to no good as usual, but never to this extent.

"I'm the one who should be asking that question! Never mind that, I have more important matters to attend to, she's all yours Sonic, don't let me down." Eggman said, taking off in the opposite direction of the two.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?!" Amy yelled, as she tried to give chase after Eggman, but was stopped by Sonic cutting in front of her. "What the- he's so fast…" Amy whispered in awe at the blue hedgehog's speed.

"That hammer of yours in no joke, I hope you can put up a good fight." Sonic said, before taking off at his high speeds, attacking Amy from every side.

Amy was quick with her reactions, while she had trouble keeping her eyes on the blue blur, she could sense when he stopped to attack and she could then block him with her hammer. But currently that's all she could do, was block. The other was purposely trying to keep her from being able to properly dodge or attack.

It was sooner than later that he kicked her hammer out of her hands, and had his hand at her throat, prepared to stab through if she tried anything funny. "You're very impressive, only one other can block my speed attacks." He praised.

"Why?" Amy asked, panting from the constant attacks. "Why are you working with Eggman of all people? Don't you know he's the bad guy? And why don't you kill me?"

The question made Sonic hesitate, a barely visible startle came out of him. "My orders were to keep you at bay, not kill you." Sonic answered.

But that didn't answer Amy's other question. "You don't look like a bad guy, so why are you helping one?" She asked again.

"I'm not helping HIM. Don't compare me to the likes of him." Sonic spat, clearly she hit a nerve there. But if he isn't helping Eggman like he claims then who?

In his eyes, Amy could see confusion, hurt, scared even. But most of all, she could see doubt in those emerald green eyes. " --deep breath-- Why don't you help me stop him? You really look like you have a kind heart, so why not team up and defeat Eggman together?" She asked, slowly offering her hand to the other, a gentle smile on her face.

Sonic clearly didn't expect this supposed "thorn" in Eggman's side to offer him kindness and compassion. He dropped his hand from where he had it pointed at her neck, her kindness reminded him of someone familiar…her smile, it was like Maria's.

"I see why you're the hero of this world, your compassion is boundless." He said, Amy taken aback by the statement.

"I just believe everyone deserves a second chance if they are willing to try." She responded.

For a moment, Sonic considered the offer, taking her hand, but he smacked it away. Surprising the other. "Unfortunately, you may not show my equal the same compassion. I will not fall victim to your tricks and deceptions."

Sonic jumped back, and was prepared to attack, when a vehicle suddenly landed between them. It was the twin tailed fox Eggman had mentioned, Tails.

"Boy, am I glad to see you! You're timing couldn't be more perfect Tails!" Amy boistered, relief that Tails showed up in the knick of time.

The fox wore a technical visor on his left eye, along with a dark blue jacket. "You're the one that was impatient and couldn't wait for my map to load in." Tails said sarcastically. Amy letting out a nervous laugh, as she shrugged in response to Tails. "Leave him to me Amy, you go after Eggman!"

"Roger that Tails." Amy took off after that, grabbing her hammer and leaving the mysterious hedgehog to Tails.

>>> In the Security Hall

"I'm in position, doctor. Tell me when." Shadow spoke from his comms, waiting for the signal to set the timer on the explosive.

"There's been an unexpected delay on my end. There's no more time to waste. Set the timer for 15 minutes! Let's go, Rouge!" Eggman yelled from his comms, you could clearly hear him being chased by more military troupes in the background.

"Five minutes should be plenty! Here I go!" Rouge exclaimed, having entered the secured storage room with ease. With a leap, she landed on the walkway of the storage room from where she had hidden, and began her search immediately.

Sure enough, five minutes was more than plenty, as in two minutes she had found all three chaos emeralds that had been hidden and stored away on the base. Honestly it felt too easy, and she would be correct.

As when you was just about to leave the storage room, a large military robot appeared and blocked her escape. Flying dog could be read on its side. "Looks like I'll have to get my hands dirty for this one." She said, hiding away the chaos emeralds, and prepared to fight the robot.

It was big, but it was no match for Rouge and her cunning skills, it didn't stand a chance against her

Air-born attacks and soon collapsed into a pile of rubble.

Unfortunately, sometime during the fight, the room got locked down, it was sealed tight with no way out. She couldn't die here, not when she was so close. "This is Rouge. I've got a small problem... I can't believe that I'm trapped inside this locked safe with the Chaos Emeralds! I guess I won't be able to call myself a treasure hunter anymore…" She spoke into her comm, unwillingly admitting defeat.

>>> In the White Jungle

The one that caught this first, was Shadow who had been walking back through the jungle.One of the dynamite packs that Shadow set is at "00:09:54" until its detonation. Shadow pauses, thinking of Rouge, and then he recalls how Maria was in the same situation; laying helpless against a wall, waiting for her own inevitable death to come.

"Ah... shoot. Troublemaker!" He said, turning around and heading back to the base for Rouge and the chaos emeralds.

He flew through the jungle at record speed, he was nearly back at the base when he got met with an obstacle. That pink hedgehog Eggman warned them about.

She looked up at where Shadow stood on a tree branch. "Are you that guy's friend? The one he called his equal?" She asked, but was on the defensive, prepared to attack. Just like Sonic, this guy looked like no joke but unlike Sonic, this one looked fully ready to kill without hesitation.

"You dare speak of him? Hah! You think you're worthy enough to speak of him?" Shadow spoke.

"Wow you're very egotistical for a fake hedgehog!" Amy retorted.

"Faker? I think you're the fake hedgehog around here." Shadow said, a smirk on his face.

"Well then, why don't you come down here and say it to my face!" Amy yelled.

Shadow jumped down to the ground. "If you insist." With that said, the two began to duke it out.

Shadow had to give it to Amy, she was a very skilled fighter. That hammer of hers was extremely heavy to the average person, but she wielded it like it was nothing, as she swung it with skill and grace at Shadow.

But Shadow was quicker, dodging each swing like nothing. He didn't have time for this, so with a swift kick, he knocked the hammer out of Amy's hands, before spin dashing towards her when she was distracted.

The dynamite now read 00:01:25, as Amy was caught between a rock and hard place, the two hedgehogs panting from their fight. Suddenly, Shadow's radio starts to beep. It was the doctor again. "Shadow?! What are you doing?! Get back here right now before the island blows up with you on it!"

"I'm sorry- Blows up?!" Amy exclaimed in shock. Shadow looked at her, but then jumps back and runs off. With the dynamite at 00:00:56, he makes it into the security vault where Rouge is. She looks surprised that he came, and he runs to her. He reaches his hand out to the Emeralds at he gets closer.

"Chaos Control!" He yelled.They both warp out of the vault, barely making it out before the dynamite packs - which reads 00:00:03 - blow up. The dynamite that Shadow set blow up the island, and a blast obscures all sight of the isle, covering it from end to end.

>>> ARK

Shadow stood alone in one of the many rooms of the ARK, staring at the planet below. He was reminiscing, as another memory came back to him after saving Rouge back on the island.

He remembers standing in front of this very window back then, with Maria by his side. How curious she was about the planet below. "Shadow, what do you think it's like on earth?" The conversation he had with her back then still so clear.

"The professor said his life's work was dedicated to all of those who live down there. He once told that the reason for his existence was, making people happy through the power of science." He had responded to her.

"Shadow…"

"Maria... I just don't know anything anymore... I often wonder why I was created; what my purpose if for being here. Maybe if I go down there, I... I will find the answers... maybe... ...Maria…" Was what he had said back then.

The memory faded from his mind, when he heard the metal door way open. It was Rouge and Sonic.

"Why so melancholy?" She asked Shadow. Shadow paused, he didn't say anything as the two got closer, Sonic more closer as he entwined his arms around Shadow's. Shadow returning the gesture and holding the other's hand.

Rouge chuckled. "It's cute what you two have. That was so unexpected. So unlike you, Shadow, to come and rescue me. But your ability to use the Chaos Control, certainly comes in handy." She offered in compliment to the other.

"Hmm, you know... I didn't come to save you. I came back for the Chaos Emeralds." Shadow deflected.

"Yeah, yeah. But then again, that's not the whole story, now, is it?" She questioned, trying to get one of the two to open up. But in that moment, Eggman walked into the room, stretching his arms, entering the room with a sigh.

"Everything is ready to go!" Eggman proclaimed.

Rouge was skeptical. "Are you sure? We only have six of the seven Chaos Emeralds, you know." She tried to reason with the doctor, contemplating the what if's the could occur without its full power source activated and in place.

"That's more than enough for the demonstration. So let's get this show on the road!" Sonic said, with a unreadable smile on his face, leading Shadow out of the room with him. The two walking to Eggman, and he steps out of his way, looking a tad surprised.

The two walked the hallway towards the control center room alone, giving them a moment to speak their minds. "I don't like how impatient he is. How power hungry he is, he's nothing like the Professor." Sonic said with a tch in his tone.

"Just a little more, and then we won't have to worry about it." Shadow reassured his other half, gently kissing Sonic's hand that was entwined with his.

"I really hope you know and understand what you're doing Shadow." Sonic sighed, the two entering the control center room, now they just had to wait.

>>> The Eggman Empire. "Day X 18:00"

It was nighttime in the city, when the giant television above the city came alive. Eggman has projected himself onto every television across the world.

"Bwahahahaha!! Citizens of earth, lend me your ears and listen to me very carefully... My name is Doctor Eggman, the world's greatest scientist and soon to be the world's greatest ruler. Now witness the beginning of the greatest empire of all time! Hahaha!" He proudly exclaimed.

In outer space, an asteroid cracks its lower half off, revealing a design reminiscent of Eggman's face. The 'nose' area splits apart into four stems, at the center of which is the Eclipse Cannon. The four stems begin radiating an energy net, which the Cannon launches straight through the sky at the Moon. Its side is completely torn off, and fire can be seen inside.

It sent fear into the hearts of everyone in the planet, as the last thing they heard from the projection that was being televised- "Bwahahahahaha! Bwahahahaha!!" Was Eggman's maniacal laugh, as a timer counting down from 24:00:00:00 appears on the televisions; when it times out, the Cannon will fire again, this time at earth.

>>> Back on the ARK

For such a grand display and speech,Eggman is currently hitting the terminal for the Cannon in frustration. This baffled Rouge. "Why are you so upset? Well that was really impressive. You managed to create complete havoc on the whole planet! Does this now mean we control the planet and can do as we choose?" She asked.

Shadow walked into the terminal room at that moment. "At this rate, the cannon will take too much time to charge up. If you want to unleash its full potential, you'll need all seven Chaos Emeralds." He explained.

"Where in the world have you been?!" Eggman demanded, getting a silent glare from the other.

Rouge looked around, not seeing Sonic who was normally glued to Shadow's side. She looked at Shadow. "Something happened?" She asked. Shadow caught what she was really asking, but he wasn't letting the doctor in on that conversation. "Our threats fell on deaf ears." He bluntly stated.

Rouge turned her attention back to Eggman, knowing she wasn't going to get anywhere with Shadow. "Look at you, throwing a tantrum like a little kid. How totally embarrassing."

The doctor was not having this. "Don't forget your end of the bargain, Bat-girl! What about that last Chaos Emerald?! We had a deal, right?! So where is my Emerald?" He egged on, pun not intended.

With her signature smile, she held out a newspaper in front of Eggman. "Here you go. I found this!" She said with a smug grin on her face.

Eggman was in shock. "Why didn't you show me this before?!" He grabbed the newspaper. "What's this...? "Station Square saved from a life-threatening missile attack. The city has awarded its famed prize to the boy who saved Station Square... Miles 'Tails' Prower was given the Chaos Emerald as a testament of his heroic deed at a ceremony held at city Hall." He cleared his throat. "This makes things a whole lot easier. Hurry, go back to earth and find them fast! I want that Chaos Emerald!!" The doctor leaving the room, ranting on about his big empire plans.

Rouge looked towards Shadow. "Did you get that?"

Shadow was muttering to himself though. "Soon enough... Maria…"

Rouge was a little surprised, as Shadow walked away towards the exit. She waited to be sure the other two were gone, once the coast was clear, she pulled out her radio and began talking. "This is Rouge reporting. Currently, I have not been able to confirm if Shadow is the Ultimate Life Form or not. I will continue my research on Project Shadow, and have a follow-up report very shortly. Just a reminder... don't forget about my jewels." She could have mentioned Sonic, but he wasn't on file nor part of the job description. Her mission was Project Shadow.

"A double agent? Can't say I'm surprised." A voice spoke once she shut off her radio. Rouge could have sworn the coast was clear, but then again, Sonic was the textbook definition of speed.

She looked up and saw him sitting on top of the terminal's monitor. "How much did you hear?" She asked, on the defensive if he tried anything funny.

Sonic simply tilted his head at her, those emerald green eyes staring right through her. "Enough, that I could easily tell Shadow. But frankly speaking--" He jumped down from the monitor and was now directly in front of Rouge. "-- I don't care that you're an agent. What you do isn't my business." He said nonchalantly, shrugging at the end of his sentence.

"But?" Rouge prodded on. There was a catch, there had to be a catch. There's no way Sonic was just going to leave it at that.

"But word of advice, report back anything that will have those agents chasing after him or me, you'll be the first one I target." Sonic's tone left no room for disagreement. Those eyes felt so soulless as they looked directly at Rouge's.

"Keep that in mind, and I'll play along. I'm just here for Shadow after all, what the rest of you do is not my problem." Sonic ended, and then proceeded to leave the room.

Rouge couldn't help but wonder just what was Sonic's deal.

>>> Sky Rail's vicinity

Shadow stood on top of a small pillar, walkie talkie in hand as he looked up towards the sky. He raised the comm to his head, it came alive with Rouge reporting from her side. "Shadow! They're in that blue plane, spotted at 11 o'clock!"

"Copy that, I'm in pursuit." Shadow responded, ending the communication and giving chase after the blue plane.

Shadow gave chase, until he saw the blue plane going over Eggman's base, he made a full stop and contacted Eggman on the comms. "Doctor, they're heading directly toward us. What should we do?"

"Just sit tight, I've got them on radar. There's no way they can get away! I don't know what they are planning, but I'll be sure to give them a warm welcome." The doctor was confident in his plan as he ended the communication. He just had to wait his time patiently, let those little pests think they got the upper hand.

>>> 14:58 "In the pyramid"

Eggman was honestly enjoying them find all the keys needed to access the inside of his pyramid base. None of them even questioning why the keys were so easy to find and in such interesting places. He could hear them conversing in the distance.

"Huh… That was pretty rough." That was clearly Knuckles, Eggman watched as he hunted down all three access keys.

"We did it! Let's go Amy!" Tails was cheering.

"Yeah! Let's finish this!" Amy had agreed with just as much enthusiasm.

Oh but Eggman wasn't just about to let them have their perfect victory, their surprise looks on their faces when he appeared before them was proof enough that they thought they were being sneaky. "You little thieves! Did you really think you could get out of here alive?"

He had them right where he wanted them. But of course they wouldn't go down without a fight. As Amy was quick to draw her hammer. "Come and get some, Eggman!"

"Amy wait!" Tails tried to reason with her. But she offered the other one of her reassuring smiles. "Just leave it to me! You and Knuckles get out of here!"

"This time, I'll take your lives as well as the Chaos Emerald. I call on you to destroy these pests. Come out, my servant!" Eggman called out, the ground began to shake, as from the sands in the center of the room ahead, a giant Egg Golem ascended.

"Impressive Eggman, but that's just a giant piece of rock ready for my hammer!" Amy yelled, as it looks down at her. The Egg Golem easily towers over the room.

"Now go… and squash that thorn of a hedgehog, Amy!" Eggman commanded his golem. Watching as the battle commenced. This was it, this is where he gets his final victory against Amy and her pesky friends.

Or so he thought, but Amy was smart, as she jumps at the Egg Golem's Head, and smashes her hammer on top of its head, destroying the device that was on top of it. "Ha! Home run!" She proclaimed victoriously.

It was like slow motion as the device on the Golem's head exploded once Amy had smashed it to pieces, and the Egg Golem swivels its head around several times. Amy taking her leave to catch up with her friends, leaving Eggman to deal with the fallout of his failed attempt.

"When Amy struck his head, she must have broken the restraining mechanism! Arrgh! What a piece of junk!" The doctor loudly complained as the Egg Golem's head stopped spinning in circles.

Once it stopped, the Egg Golem looks down at Eggman, and starts to reach for him. Oh this is not good. "No!" Eggman yelled.

While Eggman was dealing with the now freed Golem. The pyramid's top opens up, revealing a large rocket. An automatic voice could heard once the rocket was in place. "Green light for launch! Primary engine ignition on! Beginning lift-off countdown!" In the distance, Amy could be seen running onto the rocket. " 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Shuttle lift-off!"

And just like that, the rocket took off for its destination. The ARK.

>>> ARK: Central control room / Cannon countdown: 2 hours 7 seconds

Back on the ARK, Rouge was once again in the control room containing the eclipse cannon. She was currently talking to Eggman on the communication lines. "Hi doctor. How's it going? What! What do you mean they escaped? That's OK. I will go after them myself. Can you tell me the password for the space colony control?"

Ever the fool Eggman was, as he easily gave her the password without a thought. She quickly ended the communication once she got the information she needed. Rouge couldn't help but giggle on how predictable Eggman was. "Hmm… tricking that old doctor is just too easy! Alright, it's time to get to work. The password is "MA-RI-A". Maria… hmmm? I've heard that name somewhere before. Oh well…"

She wasn't here to debate on what names were familiar. She was her for her mission, as she began search through large groupings of data on the monitor, but being the keen treasure hunter and agent she was, she quickly found what she was sent here for. "This is it! Research Project Shadow, the Ultimate Life Form. Let's see now… What in the world is this?" She gasped, she couldn't believe here eyes, what she was reading.

"I warned you, bite off more than you can chew and you'll choke." Sonic spoke from behind Rouge, startling her in the process.

"This can't be right! Just what is Shadow, anyway?" She asked the other, needing confirmation on what she was seeing was false. It had to be false, it just didn't make any sense.

Sonic merely shrugged. "That's not any of your business now is it. You got what you came here for, don't push your luck, Agent Rouge." Sonic said, an unreadable expression on his face.

Suddenly, a warning message comes on, showing Amy, Tails, and Knuckles in a hallway in the ARK. Guess her questioning will have to wait for another time. She faced Sonic, giving him a salute with a wink, her cunning smile across her face.

"Hmmm, I guess I'll just have to take the last pieces of the Master Emerald!" She then flew off, leaving Sonic alone with the still open data files.

He approached the monitor, looking up at it and its data contents. "Ultimate Life Form huh?" He said, with an almost sad tone in his voice, as he cleared the data search and tried typing in "Project Sonic" to see if anything would come up.

All Sonic got was an error screen, saying the files he was trying to access were all corrupted, erased long ago by some unknown force. "I don't mind being hidden. This just makes things less complicated for me. The world does not need to know of Project Sonic." He said, clearing the monitor entirely, leaving it blank.

Despite what he thought he feel if he searched it, Sonic was just filled with determination. This way, he could forge his own path once this was all over. All he needed was Shadow by his side, no data books telling him what he is, and what he's supposed to be. Just him and Shadow, that's all he wanted.

>>> ARK: Central Tower- Meteor Herd

"Long time no see treasure hunter. Did you find MY Emeralds?" Rouge said, being face to face with Knuckles once again. She was honestly impressed he got this far.

"That's a good one! YOUR Emerald. Talking to you is a waste of time!" Knuckles retorted. At this point, he was done trying to talk his way with Rouge, now it's time to let their fists do the talking.

They were pretty evenly matched, their fight kept them moving throughout the area, until eventually the two were standing on crosswalks above the lava at the tower's base.

They both breathe heavily from exhaustion, then speak in unison. "Whew-! Stop fooling around, and give me back MY Emeralds!" Both were taken aback at their in sync yelling.

"What are you babbling about? You call yourself a hunter? Attacking a lady… Shame on you!" Rouge lectured, turning her head to her side at the end of it.

"What kind of lady goes around stealing gems, anyway?" Knuckles questioned.

"Those belong to me--" Rouge sentence went unfinished, as when she took a step back mid sentence, she misplaced her footing and tripped, falling off the crosswalk towards the lava. "Aahhh! Aaaaaaahhh!" She screamed.

As Rouge falls down from the platform, Knuckles grabs on to her arm. She was baffled by this. "What in the world?"

Knuckles pulls her back up, and they both look at each other for a second. But then Rouge backs up. "Keep your hands to yourself! Don't touch me!" Rouge exclaimed.

"Is that how you say thanks to someone who just saved your life?" Said Knuckles.

"Saving my life, don't think I owe you one! You just wanted to hold my hand, didn't you? That's why you saved me! You're such a creep!" Rouge retorted.

Knuckles stared at her, completely baffled. "This isn't a joke, you know! Think what you want bat girl. I was saving the Master Emerald."

Again with this, Rouge was getting annoyed with this whole thing. She sighed. "No matter what you say, it sounds crazy!" Yet despite what she said, she tossed the Emerald Shards to Knuckles.

Knuckles looked down at the Emerald Shards before looking back at Rouge. "Wha…?" The Echidna was confused.

"Fine, then just take them. They stink like echidnas do." She said.

"If that's what you thought, you should have given me them in the first place!" Knuckles said, scooping them up off the platform, and puts the Master Emerald back together.

Seeing the Master Emerald filled Knuckles with relief. "Finally!" He said, looking back up at Rouge to see her turned away when he looked at her.

"What?" She confronted.

"I'm sorry… if I hurt you." Knuckles apologized, before running off to help Amy.

Rouge looks up into the air. "We should get going." She said softly. She turned to leave, then looks back where Knuckles was, faintly smiling, before running off.

>>> In the Pyramid/Cannon Countdown: 58 minutes.

In the pyramid base's transporter room, Eggman is looking at a surveillance footage of Amy, and Tails before switching to viewing a diagram of the ARK.

"What is Rouge up to, anyway?" Eggman asked himself.

"Does it matter?" A voice came from above Eggman, it was Sonic sitting on top of the monitor.

"How did you- never mind it doesn't matter. That's not a seat you know." Eggman said.

Sonic didn't offer a response, simply pointed at the screen. Pulling Eggman's attention back to it.

The map shows two Chaos Emeralds; both the fake and the real one. "This is strange. It's showing energy readings from two separate Chaos Emeralds!" Eggman exclaimed.

"Sounds like they planned to trick you with a fake. I heard them say it mimics the actual emerald almost to a T, but it's nearly not as powerful." Sonic said, a smug tone in his voice.

Eggman was not pleased with this. "Did they really think they could trick me with that fake emerald?!"

Shadow who had silently walked into the room, was about to turn around and deal with their intruders, but was stopped by Eggman. "Wait, Shadow! I'm the one who should be telling them the end is near, not you!" With that said, Eggman left the room, leaving the two hedgehogs alone.

"When did you notice the emerald was a fake?" Shadow asked Sonic, the other jumping down from the monitor and making his way towards Shadow.

"The walls have ears, by which I mean I eavesdropped on their conversations. Didn't think they were serious about the fake emerald though." Sonic said, a nonchalant smile on his face, shrugging at the end of his sentence.

Shadow grabbed Sonic by the waist, pulling the other in and kissing him. Sonic was taken aback for a few seconds, before happily returning the kiss. "You're incredible you know that?" Shadow said first, a smirk on his face when the two separated.

"I know, but I wouldn't mind you telling me again." Sonic replied, a smile on his face. With the alone time the two had, it was enough to give each other affection without being caught by the others, so they quickly took advantage of it.

>>> Meanwhile

"Now is the time to end this long drawn-out battle, and mark myself a place in history as the ultimate genius!" Eggman exclaimed, knowing if something happened to him, he could leave it to Shadow and Sonic. He started up his Egg mobile, and began making his way to the transporter. "Hurry! The moment for attack has come! It's now, or never!" With that said, Eggman steps onto the transporter, and is sent to the ARK.

>>> ARK

At some point during their exploration, Amy and Tails got separated. "Darn it, I told him to not split up from me!" Amy said frustrated, trying to navigate the confusing layout of the ARK.

She didn't notice Eggman walking up behind her, and pointing a gun at her. "Well, well, young lady? Is there something I can help you with?" He asked.

"EGGMAN-?!" Amy exclaimed, jumping back and away from Eggman, summoning her hammer and was prepared to fight with the doctor.

"If you value your life, you will tell me where Tails and the chaos emerald are!" Eggman threatened. At that moment,Tails enters the room in the Cyclone, Eggman still having the gun pointed at Amy.

"Let's take care of business first, shall we, Tails? Hand over the Chaos Emerald, slowly, and then we'll talk about your friend go. That is to say, if you really care about her." Eggman said smugly.

"Don't listen to him Tails, it's just another one of his schemes!" Amy said, trying to plan out a strategy.

Tails didn't say anything, as he took out the emerald, Eggman gesturing to Amy with the gun to walk forward. A small circle appeared on the floor, Eggman pointed to it. "Put the Emerald down right there and back off!" He said.

"You've turned into a big-time villain, doctor!" Amy said, and when she walked over the small circle, Eggman laughs and a capsule forms and traps her inside.

"What the-?!" She gasped.

"You thought you could trick me with that fake Emerald, didn't you?" Eggman called them out of their plan.

This confused Tails, how did Eggman find out? "So… how did you know it wasn't the real one?"

"Tails!" Amy yelled, sometimes forgetting that despite Tails being a genius, he's still naive at times.

"Heh, because you just told me, fox boy!" Eggman smugly laughed, he wasn't going to be a fool and them that Sonic caught them in the act. Tails gasped.

"Now, for a little space ride! Once the capsule clears the colony, BAM!" Eggman boasted.

"I'm counting on you Tails!" Amy yelled, as the capsule began to slowly descend.

"Farewell! Amy Rose!" Eggman said, and with a push of a remote control, the capsule ejects into space.

"Amy!" Tails yelled.

The capsule then exploded in space once it was far enough away from the ARK.

"Farewell Amy… My admirable adversary!" Eggman said.

"Amy!!!" Tails yelled, tears of anger falling down his cheeks, as Eggman turned around and pointed the gun at Tails.

"Now we have some unfinished business to take care of! If you give me the real Emerald, I will release you. You have my promise!" Eggman explained.

"Amy.." Tails whispered.

"Huh?" Eggman was confused.

With a new fire of determination, Tails was prepared to fight. "Amy has asked me for the first time to do something for her, I won't let her down. I won't give up!" Tails exclaimed.

>>> ARK: Central area/Cannon countdown: 21 minutes 7 seconds

A few minutes ago. From a room on the ARK, Shadow and Sonic see the capsule that Amy was launched out in explode.

"Guess she was a regular hedgehog after all." Shadow said, running his hand through Sonic's quills, as Sonic was looking out the window.

Sonic was silent, he had a bad feeling about all this. Something wasn't exactly right. "Shadow." Sonic spoke.

"Yes?" Shadow asked.

"The emeralds are unattended. Rouge is M.I.A." Was all Sonic said, but it was enough for Shadow to understand and go check the cannon, but before leaving Sonic alone in the room. "Shadow, she's a government agent." Sonic admitted, noticing the way Shadow froze for a second before walking to the control room.

Sonic simply returned to staring out the window. "I wonder, what running through out that planet would feel like..?"

>>> Central Control Room

True to Sonic's gut instinct, Rouge was walking up to the Emeralds.

"Legend has it, whenever the seven Chaos Emeralds are collected, the power creates a miracle. I have six of them. They're mine, all mine!" She proudly exclaimed.

"I don't think so." Shadow said, walking in the control room. Rouge turns to Shadow.

"Shadow?" Rouge questioned, caught off guard by Shadow's sudden appearance.

"So that was your plan from the very beginning, huh? Or was it a direct order from the President?Now I know who you are. You're that government spy, Rouge the Bat, aren't you?" Shadow caught her hook, line, and sinker.

"So you did your homework, is that it? Or did your little boyfriend rat me out? I would say that's an invasion of privacy." Rouge retorted.

"I could say the same thing about you." Shadow was quick with his replies.

But Rouge kept her cunning and calm exterior. "Hmmm! It looks like things aren't quite going your way, but since my job was done… I thought it was time to take what's mine and get out of this place." She said.

Shadow couldn't believe his ears. "You are one pathetic creature!"

"Hmmm, look who's talking? What about you?" Rouge asked, jumping down from the emeralds with a paper in hand. "Here are the results from the research project called the "Ultimate Life Form"." But on the paper in question, was not a picture of Shadow, but a different creature entirely.

"But, if this picture is of the real Ultimate Life Form named, Shadow… then exactly who or what is standing in front of me?" She begged the question.

At that moment, Eggman contacted Shadow from the walkie talkie. "This is Doctor Eggman! I have found all seven Chaos Emeralds! Shadow! Someone is trying to get to the Eclipse Cannon. There's not much time left before the cannon fires again. Can you get over there?" The doctor yelled from his end of the walkie talkie.

Shadow cut the communication, returning his attention to Rouge. "If you want to live, leave the Chaos Emeralds where they are. The fake Emerald is good enough for you!"

"Do you actually believe that you're the real Shadow?" Rouge asked, in awe shock at Shadow.

"No doubt!" Shadow knew who he was.

"Even your memories might not be real, you know?" She further questioned.

"Even if my memories are not real, it's still me, Shadow. And I will fulfill my promise to Maria, to Sonic, that's the only thing that matters to me now." Shadow then left to go deal with the intruder.

>>> Outside Space Colony ARK / Cannon countdown: 5 minutes 44 seconds

Amy was currently standing in a corridor that leads out of the ARK; Shadow walks up to her. "You never cease to surprise me pink hedgehog. I thought that the capsule you were in exploded in space." He said.

Amy chuckled. "What can I say, I'm a stubborn one." Picking up her running speed, and Shadow did the same.

"So, there's more to you than meets the eye. What are you anyway?" He asked her.

"Just a girl that loves adventuring with her friends, Amy Rose! And don't you forget it!" She happily proclaimed.

"I see. But you know, I can't let you live. Your adventuring days are coming to an end." And with that, the two began to fight once more.

>>> ARK: Central control room / Cannon countdown: 40 seconds

At the terminal for the Eclipse Cannon, Eggman walks in with the seventh Chaos Emerald. "Hahahahahaha! This completes my plan to take over the world! Now begins the glorious era of the Empire of Eggman!"

-End Dark Chapter-

[blubushie]

List of shit done to my 1968 Ford F250 Camper Special Custom Cab

17/8/23

She went to a mechanic and was worked on extensively and was there for nearly a year. Work done/replaced parts included:

Carb kit

Engine rebuilt by Jasper — insured to 100,000mi

Gasket set

Exhaust flange gasket

Hi-temp paint

Spark plugs

Air filter

Engine oil

Oil filter

Thermostat

Radiator + cap + upper & lower radiator hoses

Heater hoses

Water pump

Coolant

38" battery cable ground (negative)

Front wheel seals

Front left & right brake wheel cylinders

Radius arm bushings

King pin set front suspensions

Front & rear shock absorbers

Transmission pan gasket

Lever shaft seal

Steering coupler

Transmission mount

"Repaired" horn wiring

When prev owner picked her up he noted that the rear indicators were no longer operational and that the horn no longer worked, when previously they had done so. Additionally the steering coupler was installed incorrectly and resulted in the steering wheel having much more play than it did before. Furthermore when the steering was altered, the wheel was seated improperly, resulting in a wheel that now sits sideways instead of right-side up.

For unknown reasons prev owner never had these issues fixed, likely because he didn't trust the previous mechanic do the work...

[unofficial-sean]

You underestimate my desire for knowledge. Do it. Talk about refrigeration compressor motors.

Hello hi, sorry for the delay. I had to wait for the brain power to return to me.

So, an electric motor's job is to convert electrostatic potential energy into magnetic potential energy in order to rotate a shaft, thus making one final energy conversion from magnetic PE to kinetic energy. There is a secret fourth energy conversion, though, and that is another form of kinetic energy: heat. The heat is waste, though.

Anyways, the power available in your home is not the power generated at the source powerplant; it is just a single phase of alternating current (AC), instead of three. Electric motors running on single-phase encounter an interesting problem: they need a special winding, called a start winding, to get the motor going. It is phase shifted from the run winding (which keeps the motor running after startup). The easiest way to explain phase shift, in this context, is to think of it like the pedals on a bicycle: if the pedals weren't opposite each other (offset from each other 180 degrees), it would be very difficult to pedal. Unlike a bicycle, the phase shift in the motor isn't 180 degrees. It's less than that. About 45 degrees.

Both the start and run windings are coils of wire. The more times the wire is wound, the stronger the magnetic field it generates. The start coil has more windings than the run coil.

To help smooth power delivery and introduce the aforementioned phase shift, we need capacitors. Capacitors are just small batteries. They can hold a charge and be discharged. They also block direct current (DC), but allow AC to pass through it. It's really neat. On startup, a single-phase motor using capacitors only needs the start coil and the start capacitor briefly. If they remain in the circuit afterwards, they risk overheating and destroying themselves. So how do we automatically take the start coil and capacitor out of the circuit after startup?

One way is to use a centrifugal mechanical switch that will disconnect the start components from the circuit once the motor reaches 75% of its maximum RPM. This switch must be in the motor, though, and will create a spark when it breaks contact. This is okay for motors that are in the air, but what about the motors in a hermetically sealed refrigerant compressor? That spark would degrade the refrigerant, and that's a non-starter.

We need an RPM sensitive switch outside the compressor motor, and one way to do this is with a potential relay.

This is a diagram of a potential relay circuit with a capacitor-start, capacitor-run compressor motor.

On startup, the relay contacts, 2 and 1, are closed. Power can flow through the start winding and through both the run and start capacitors. This gives the motor a good grunt to get it going, with the start winding slightly out of phase with the run winding. Once the motor reaches 75% of its max. RPM, though, the magnets on the rotor/shaft of the motor induce a back electromotive force, or BEMF, in the start winding. The start winding becomes a voltage source in tandem with the incoming power from the outlet.

The induced AC voltage is stronger than the incoming power, and is also out of phase with it. This is demonstrated in the diagram with voltmeters 1 and 2. The induced voltage flows through the coil of the potential relay at terminals 2 and 5, and the coil generates a magnetic field which pulls the relay contacts open, breaking the connection to the start capacitor and preventing the start winding from connecting with the other side of our power supply. So long as the motor is running, the BEMF is present and keeps the relay open.

This is what the voltage looks like on an oscilloscope. CH1 is the smaller wave and it's on the common run terminal. CH2 is the larger wave and is at terminal 2 of the relay.

As we can see, the induced voltage on the start winding lags behind the line voltage by about 45 degrees and it is much stronger.

When the motor shuts off and slows down, the induced voltage disappears and the relay contacts close again. The relay sits outside the motor where sparks are acceptable.

As a cherry on top, I've drawn the current paths through the circuit to help illustrate what's happening:

^ Start condition (red). Current flow through the start winding and start + run capacitors

^ Run condition (blue). BEMF across the start winding powers the relay coil and opens the contacts.

There is a lot more going on I could talk about, but that's just the part I wanted to be autistic about. There is actually a better way to draw out this circuit that looks like this:

Sw = Start winding

Rw = Rung winding

PR = Potential relay

Sc = Start Capacitor

Rc = Run capacitor

And isn't that fascinating?

[the-wardens-torch]

FFXIVwrite 2023 - Off the Hook

((Putting most of this under a cut - content warning for some implied gore - specifically an eye injury - as well as some non-human body horror.))

FFXIVwrite 2023 - Prompt #4: Off the Hook, Entry #2

"We will put it right here. We can't hope to keep him managed by pure physical might alone. We have to hedge our bets by placing the Neurolinks in places where it will most hurt him to pull back against. His sinus cavity is quite sensitive - he will not pull as hard on a link placed here."

A tableau of colorful fabrics swept past his eye, topped by the leering face of a skull. And then his vision shifted, and he was behind the skull-faced figure, looking at its reflection in his own immense, slit-pupiled eye. It turned for a moment and reached out one immaculately gloved hand to somewhere just out of his sight. When he saw the hand again, it held a large, pointed object, maneuvering it until its blunt end touched the ground with a gentle, metallic clank. It resembled a spear, but in addition to the single sharp point at its tip, it also had another, more slender bit of metal curled off of the point in the opposite direction. Casually, he bent it into a half-circle, testing its heft and flexibility.

"Wouldn't piercing the septum through the nares like make more sense? Like farmers do with bulls? I mean, will he be of as much use to us if he's non-visual?"

The voice had come from somewhere above, but even with his curious double vision, he could not see its source.

"It doesn't need to be visual. Aethersight will guide its fury in the right direction well enough."

The skull-faced man raised the shaft of metal as if aiming a harpoon… And, somehow, he was able to watch in horrified silence as it began to dig into the flesh of his eye. After a fulm or two, it started to bend back outward, scything through the nasal cavities behind it until it punctured the other eye from beneath as if stitching beads to cloth. As the pointed end protruded, the other end bent back to meet it with a dull mechanical click, sealing it in a ring.

"We're going to add more though, right?"

"Does he still feel pain? Should we administer a nerve block?"

"No. Stop anthropomorphizing it! Its foolish and bad science."

He did not know how he was able to see all of it happen even after his eyes were reduced to shreds of flesh and jellied paste, or why his awareness of it came from above. It made him realize that he should be howling in agony, and howl he did… although the only sounds that reached his hearing were the idle bits of chatter from the skull-faced man and his cronies. He could still see them, crawling around his motionless body like corpse beetles, seeking any vulnerable flesh between the armored scales of his hide. He could neither tell them apart nor hear which was speaking at any given time. All except the brightly colored man with the skull face.

"I'd like it if we were hurting him, personally."

"Should we put a link through his member too? Do dragons even have members?"

Laughter.

He howled again ineffectually. None could hear him, not even himself. And through the confused, free-floating satellite of his vision, he saw the skull-faced man again. This time he sat back in a chair, his face unchanged amidst the laughter of his colleagues. He was looking at something he held in his cupped hands, something red and softly pulsating light. He forgot the pain of his eye as he watched it, feeling like this amorphous thing was somehow even more important than his eyes had been. A deafening heartbeat sound began to rise above the laughter, pulsating in time with the creature's light.

The skull-faced man's shoulders began to shake as a laughter of even more riotous volume emanated from his expressionless face. After a moment, the spark seemed to be coalescing into something. But before he could discern the details of it, the skullfaced man closed his hands on it with a crackling squelch.

Then the only sound he heard was his own screaming.

"Fal! Fal! Falerin~! Relax… Please open your eyes."

His head spun, as if all the points of vision he had just seen through had merged into a whirlpool that he now stood at the edge of, blinded by vertigo as he tried to right himself.

The red light, which he now recognized as his aetherial insect companion Ruby, returned to his view before anything else, and he gasped with relief upon seeing that she was whole again in her bee form and had not been crushed in the skull-faced monster's grip. He recognized now that he was in his bad at his Free Company house, under the soft light of his morbol lamp.

"It's just a dream you're having. Everything's all right in the waking world."

"Is that?" He raised his head and found himself looking into the concerned face of his best friend.

"Reo!" he said, throwing his arms around her. The effort of speaking made him cough, and he realized his throat was raw.

"Gods, was I really screaming?" He let his shoulders slump and looked back at her apologetically. She wore a look of genuine worry, and her tousled hair and nightgown told him that he'd probably gotten her out of her bed.

"You could hear me all the way down the hall? I'm so sorry… Just… Yeah, a nightmare is all. I'm.. off the hook now." he said, burying his face in his hands.

((Gotta stop this one so I can get to dinner and bed on time. Dream logic, amirite? Thanks @adeat for letting me borrow Reonora Aesthete! Fal's probably gonna ask her what she thinks of the dream later too.))

[thetistaboveall]

Replacing The Man

ack Korvos is an evil, manipulative and sick ass bastard who delves deep into the minds of other to wreck them.

I heard about his latest effort to break a few more lives to add to his list of people’s lives he has designs.

He takes over a new corporation with intent to fire all of the employees and reset how the corporation work.

“Mr Korvos? Your ten o’clock is here “

“Get in here now”

“What are you doing?”

“Put that down”

“No!”

“Boom”

“Fuck you!”

“Mwahahahahaha”

“You will pay for all you have done bitch”

The alarm goes off blaring loudly with the red color swirling over this building causing the employees to freak out.

Everyone is in a sea of loss running around screaming out like a lunatic chicken running without a head.

I laugh feeling myself at the sight of his first building imploding from within every of his business follows the same.

“You see this Jack, you life is crumbling and you can’t stop it.”

“I own you now for life, and there is no way of turning back.”

“I hate you! I hate you”

“Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! “

“Shut up already”

“Start the protocol immediately on a full wave.”

“Watch as the shields block the building “

“The floors filled with my mind altering drug”

“Mwahahahahaha! Time to fix you “

The elevator rolls up opening behind him two guards walk our picking him up by his arms and legs.

Lifting him up they drag him onto the shaft in a huff, I join him as they press a button on the wall and then descends into the basement.

They shaft shoots down to the main floor to a car they throw him into the back and my butt slips into the passenger seat as we are driving off.

“Hahahahahahahahaha”

“My plan is going into fruition”

“We are so hyped boss”

“Zip it! Speak when you are spoken too”

“We are here sir”

“Carry him inside placing him into the silver pod, lock the doors and seal him in”

“Excellent! Commence the process”

“Almost complete”

“Perfection”

The machine swirls on out of control he spun in to action swiftly throwing him into one chamber to another.

The machine stops cold as the door pulls up revealing to the empty space in the door slot.

The mechanical belt reels him out to face me head on his entire corporal body is now an android for my use.

“You have a new purpose to serve me.”

“Yes Master”

“You will serve only me”

“Yes Master”

“You are my puppet”

“With pleasure “

“Instruct me”

“I have uploaded a new restructuring your life and business.”

“I will get to work Master Lawrence “

The end

[seabreeze2022]

Bahamas 2023. Pre departure. We leave March 5 to the Bahamas

Lots of work before we go play in the Bahamas. In January we took the boat 10 miles north to a marina in Key Largo. The primary goal was to replace a Dripless Shaft Seal as preventive maintenance. This can only be done out of the water. The bottom paint was holding up pretty well. But now was the time to go ahead and redo the bottom paint. Previous paint was an ablative paint colored black. We used the same brand of ablative paint but changed the color to blue this time. Changing color helps you tell how far you might be sanding or how much paint has been scrubbed off over the years.

Nancy cleaned and waxed the hull once the bottom paint was done.

Due to tides we spent two nights at anchor waiting to get into the marina. I used this time to periodically spray PB Blaster on the rusty bolts holding the prop shaft to the transmission.

Here I have decoupled the prop shaft in preparation of removing the old Dripless shaft seal.

Nancy shines up the prop.

The boat has a new bottom paint and is shined and ready to splash.

We spent two nights on the anchor. Yoga on the foredeck in the morning.

The big addition this year for cruising the Bahamas is a water maker. We bought a Schenker 30 Zen water maker. It should make 30 liters an hour, or 7.9 gallons an hour. We were very frugal with our water usage last year. But our hygiene suffered, and the boat would not get salt washed off unless it rained. It was getting pretty crusty. You will never get a watermaker to be cost effective. But it will allow you to cruise in places where water is not available. Getting older this will save some wear and tear on us. “Jugging water” is strenuous and can be dangerous during the transfer from dinghy to boat.

Checking the dinghy engine which has not been run since last year in the Bahamas. It does run but is rough. Changed spark plugs but that did not fix the issue. Next thing to check is the carburetor. Starting with the easiest and least invasive, then digging deeper. After tearing down the carburetor multiple times and putting it back together before testing. I got it down to 20 minutes start to finish. It seems to be working but until we use it for a day locally, I will not have any confidence in it.

I needed professional help getting the electrical lines run for the watermaker. My mechanic Marcel finished that up Sunday February 26. By that evening I had lowered the actual watermaker down the hatch and laid it in place. Very little remains to be done now. Until we test run the watermaker and check for leaks the boat is completely in disarray. To access the bilge area for the intake and waterpump the aft cabin mattress has to be pulled out into the main cabin. Once we pressure test the watermaker and put the mattresses back, then we can start doing the final provisioning of the boat.

The Schenke Zen 30 is bolted down and pressure test on March 1. Now we can put the mattresses back into the aft cabin. Which allows us to start moving around the cabin and putting in all the provisions.

Nancy is drinking the out put from the watermaker. Our little multimeter tester shows great water. Nancy does the ultimate taste test, and the lagoon water passes the test. Absolutely amazing that we can turn yucky harbor saltwater into fresh drinking water.

While we are getting ready to leave March 4 (Saturday), Nancy’s relatives are dealing with a blizzard in Fargo N.D.. This time of year we are in the middle of “Spring Low tides”, we could not leave if we wanted too since the channel depth is so low.

A local friend and his wife, left a few days earlier in their Catamaran but a navigation component failed. So they had their replacement AIS shipped to our house on Wednesday. We will try and meet up with them south of Georgetown Exuma a week or so after we leave.

Saturday morning at daybreak on the 4 th, we navigated out the channel at our house. Very leisurely sail 5 miles at 3 kts. where we anchored on the back side of Tavernier Key.

While at anchor I set the “Jack lines” in place. Our Jack line is a web belt 3/4” wide rated to 4,200 breaking strength. It runs from the very back of the boat to the very front of the boat down both sides. If we have to go on deck ANY time when it is dark while underway. We tether ourselves to the boat. If we are underway and seas are rough we will also tether ourselves, via the jack lines to the boat. Nancy has an Inflatable Life Jacket and a Kong tether. Since I will be the one to handle any problems on deck. I wear a foam life Jacket that served me will in Water Tribe events. It has 2 knifes, flares, signal mirror, VHF radio, whistle, multiple lights, strobe and a Personal Locator Beacon. I wear a Kong tether and a sailing harness under the life jacket. If sailing at night we both tether into short jacklines that I installed in the cockpit.

Alarm is set for 0400, we will depart the anchorage and head perpendicular to the reef. Hopefully avoiding all of the lobster trap buoys and lines. Once we hit 250’ depth we will be clear of all traps. Then we will head for South Riding Rock. So about 70 miles across the Gulf Stream on a rumb line of 078 degrees. It would be nice cross on to the Bahama Bank during daylight but not mandatory.

Seas are predicted to be 1 foot with a 10 sec. period between them. Which makes for a calm crossing but not great for sailing. I assume we will motorsail the majority of the way. Another 56 miles puts us at the mouth of North West Channel. Great place to anchor Monday night. Then a quick 20 mile run to Morgan Wells, Andros Island Tuesday.

After clearing customs we will work on getting a Wi-Fi hot spot device and can then pick up internet. Till then don’t expect to get any updates until Wednesday at the earliest.

SV Sea Breeze, Tavernier Key, Florida Keys.

[htonl-writes]

Notes on The Mandalorian Chapter 12: The Siege

i can’t believe i forgot to put this up after i posted beroya ch14, but here it is now :)

The Grogu-in-the-walls scene! I’d forgotten when this happened

What exactly is Din trying to get Grogu to fix? Why can’t it wait until Nevarro?

That’s like a 5-foot tunnel...

“But don’t let them touch” - Grogu perks up

It’s asking rather a lot of Grogu’s working memory to put the red wire “where the blue wire was in the board”

“They’re oppositely charged” WHAT is reversing a circuit accomplishing

Grogu got ELECTROCUTED

Aw damn I should have watched this sooner - Din wasn’t already planning to stop by Nevarro???

Chin reveal 👀

Hissing sound effect like a breaking seal when Din lifts his helmet - WHAT are the mechanics of helmet seals? If they’re airtight Din shouldn’t have been drowning last episode

Grogu’s reaction to Din’s question is curiosity, not recognition

How did forge ash get on the outside of the door to leave that Mythosaur skull outline?

Prosthetic faces AND a conversation with no real lines... acting

Cara is going to be responsible for introducing an invasive species

Din must have called ahead

Greef could be a good target for Grogu speaking actual words

The school used to be the cantina! - is there a new cantina?

Teacher is a protocol droid - lesson is on trade routes

Unsure if Greef is being overbearing again or if Din has separation anxiety

Greef just assumes Din will do whatever he asks

Baby-sized desk already present?

Grogu wants cookie - other kid not sure how to deal w/him

This lesson is incoherent actually. Designed to give tidbits to fans, useless to teach anything.

“Still can’t see outta my left eye” it’s been weeks to months - carbonite sickness is no joke

Why mention the black market if all you want is the Imps gone?

Should I have Din demand payment? Do the repairs count?

How long does Mythrol’s species live?

“Lava tide”???

Pointing out the transport so it doesn’t come out of nowhere

They’re literally alone, why not shoot him

What data did Greef just steal? - oh, no, it was the keycard equivalent

What is this “heat shaft” for, anyway

Gotta love putting a time limit on exploration

Why purge the drives when the base is about to self-destruct?

Would it be useful to do a Dinterlude here?

Din leaves through the heat shaft

Cara and Greef are genuinely just not very nice people, huh

Half of this episode is useless for my purposes

So Din flew back, grabbed Grogu, and his repairs were done already?

Grogu retained the full sleeve of cookies

Rollercoaster time for babies

Why did they have 3 sets of binocs

Laundry time for baby barfers

“Gram” as slang for hologram

Wasn’t Cara already a New Republic marshal?

“You will be well-rewarded in the new era” - wonder if the mechanic is a believer

[wthydraulic]

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[qocsuing]

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Contamination Control: In industries such as pharmaceuticals and food processing, contamination control is paramount. Vacuum pump seals help in preventing cross-contamination and ensure the purity of the process environment.

Maintaining Vacuum Pump Seals Regular maintenance and inspection of vacuum pump seals are essential to ensure their longevity and performance. Some maintenance tips include:

Routine Inspections: Regularly check seals for wear and tear, and replace them as necessary to prevent leaks.

Proper Installation: Ensure that seals are installed correctly to avoid damage and ensure an effective seal.

Lubrication: Use appropriate lubricants to reduce friction and wear on seals, especially in high-speed applications.

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8 Key Precision Machining Components You Should Know for Maximum Efficiency 

Precision machining is an integral part of many industries, from automotive to aerospace, medical devices, and electronics. It involves creating high-precision components with exact specifications to ensure quality and performance. Whether you're looking to enhance the performance of your products or improve your manufacturing process, understanding the key precision machining parts can help boost efficiency and reliability.  

In this blog, we’ll explore eight important machining components and their role in achieving maximum efficiency. 

1. CNC Machined Components 

CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machining is one of the most advanced techniques used to produce precision machined components. CNC machines use computer software to control machine tools, allowing for high precision and repeatability in manufacturing. These components are used across many industries because they provide tight tolerances and superior accuracy. The flexibility of CNC machining allows manufacturers to create complex geometries with high precision. 

2. Shafts and Spindles 

Shafts and spindles are essential machining components used to transfer power in machines. Shafts typically serve as the main rotating parts in mechanical systems, while spindles hold and rotate the tools in CNC machines. Both types of components must be highly accurate and durable, as they often experience significant mechanical stress during operation. Precision in these components is crucial to ensure smooth operation and long-lasting performance. 

3. Gears and Gear Assemblies 

Gears are used in countless mechanical devices, from simple machines to complex machinery. In precision machining, machining components like gears are manufactured to very tight tolerances, allowing them to mesh smoothly and efficiently. The quality of the gear teeth, material, and alignment are all critical factors in the performance of the gear system. Precision gear reduces wear and tear, ensuring that machinery operates smoothly and efficiently over time. 

4. Bearings 

Bearings are used to reduce friction and support rotating parts in machines. In precision machining parts, bearings must be manufactured to exact specifications to ensure they function as intended. By reducing wear and energy loss, high-quality bearings contribute to increased machine efficiency. Whether ball bearings, roller bearings, or other specialized types, their precision ensures that machines run with minimal downtime and increased reliability. 

5. Valve Bodies and Components 

In a system, valves are used to regulate the flow of gases or liquids. The machining components that make up the valve assembly, such as valve bodies, seats, and actuators, must be precision machined for proper sealing and efficient operation. In industries like oil and gas or pharmaceuticals, a small defect in a valve component can lead to major issues like leaks or system failure. Ensuring the precise machining of these parts is essential for safety and efficiency. 

6. Fasteners and Fastening Components 

While often overlooked, fasteners play an important role in maintaining the integrity of mechanical systems. Precision machined components like screws, bolts, nuts, and washers must be manufactured with high accuracy to ensure a secure fit and proper functionality. These parts are vital for maintaining assembly tolerances and preventing loosening or failure during operation. 

7. Molds and Die Components 

Molds and dies are essential for the mass production of components in industries like plastics and metal forming. In precision machining, machining components such as mold cavities and die sets are crafted to extremely tight tolerances. Any slight deviation from the design can result in defects or inefficiencies in the final product. High-quality molds and dies ensure that products are consistently produced with the desired shape and specifications. 

8. Electrical Contact Components 

Electrical contact components, such as connectors, terminals, and switches, are crucial in electronic devices. These precision machining parts must be designed and manufactured with extreme accuracy to ensure proper electrical conductivity and durability. Precision in these components ensures that electrical devices function efficiently and safely without interruptions, making them indispensable in the manufacturing of everything from consumer electronics to critical medical equipment. 

Conclusion: Enhance Efficiency with Precision Machining 

The precision machining parts discussed in this blog all play vital roles in ensuring the smooth and efficient operation of mechanical systems and machines. From gears and bearings to electrical contact components and valve bodies, each of these machining components must meet strict standards to deliver high performance, durability, and precision. 

By understanding the importance of these components and ensuring they are manufactured with the highest degree of accuracy, industries can optimize their manufacturing processes and reduce costly errors and downtime. 

If you are looking for high-quality precision machined components for your next project, partnering with professionals who specialize in precision machining can ensure that you receive the best components for maximum efficiency and performance. Arek Solutions are committed to providing high-quality machining services tailored to your needs. Contact right away for reliable and precise machining solutions to help take your manufacturing process to the next level. 

[uae-valves]

Lug Butterfly Valve Supplier in UAE

Lug Butterfly Valve Supplier in UAE UAE Valve is a trusted Lug Butterfly Valve supplier in UAE, offering high-quality valves designed for reliable flow control and isolation in various industrial applications. These valves are conventional designs which are small in size, light in weight and very easy to install and disassemble, therefore they are suitable for situations which involve frequent replacement. These valves are available in two ranges of on-off and throttling services and are provided with a flanged housing having threaded bolts to be fitted between the pipes. The Lug Butterfly Valve from UAE Valve is designed to last while offering maximum efficiency even under intense working conditions, making it one of the most preferred Lug Butterfly Valve suppliers in UAE.. Working Mechanism Lug butterfly valves work through movement of a disc within the valve body for the purpose of regulation of flow of fluids. It is engaged with a shaft which is rotated by using a handle or actuator in most cases. Lug-style design – Since the end of the valve is shaped using lugs, it is free for placement between two planes using bolts to ensure that the removal and replacement of the valve does not affect the overall system of the pipe. These valves provide high closure and low pressure loss features to well fit into different industries. They are also more portable than other types of valves because their structure is normally small and they are easy to operate, especially in systems where space is a limited factor. Key Design Features ● Lug-Style Design: Enables the pipe fitters to install and remove without an interconnection of the pipelines and preferred when frequent maintenance is necessary. ● Compact and Lightweight: Compact design of the device as well as material and shape that facilitate its handling and installation. ● Tight Shutoff: It gives a positive seal to prevent leakage whilst it can be either used to open and shut off functions or used to regulate the flow of the media within reasonable rate. ● Durable Construction: Constructed out of high grade composite materials to endure the harshest of conditions in their long service life. ● Low Maintenance: Reliability which is majorly enhanced by the fact that many things do not move thus they do not need to be repaired or replaced very often. As a reliable Lug Butterfly Valve supplier in UAE, UAE Valve is committed towards offering valves that are manufactured with high pressure and temperature in mind to deliver high performance in various industries.. Advantages ● Acoustic coupling is very easy to connect and disconnect with the help of the lug-style design. ● Small and most of the time, lighter thus does not consume a lot of space in the pipeline. ● Controlling the flow in a dependable way and at the same time ensuring that the pressure drop is as low as possible. ● This product has low maintenance as it is constructed in a simple manner by the use of few materials. ● Close orifice for leakage free operation Tight shutoff to ensure that power fluid does not leak. ● More suited for different for uses in industrial processes Industries Served ● Oil and Gas ● Water Treatment Plants ● Chemical Processing ● HVAC Systems ● Power Generation ● Marine Industry Description:

Body: Carbon Steel, Cast Iron, Ductile Iron

Nominal Diameter: DN40 to DN300

Nominal Pressure: PN10 to PN40, Class150

End Connections: Lug

Operation: Lever Operated, Gear Operated, Electric Actuated, Pneumatic Actuated

Class: 150/PN16

Disc: Carbon Steel, Ductile Iron, SS304, SS316

Size: 1 1/2", 10", 12", 14", 16", 18", 2 1/2", 2", 20", 22", 24", 28", 3", 32", 4" Lug Butterfly Valves provide excellent flow control, ease of maintenance and miniature design which makes them suitable for industries where valves are frequently replaced or serviced.. For more information, visit: https://www.uaevalves.com/product-category/lug-butterfly-valve/

[garagepartsdepot]

Garage Door End Bearings: Essential for Smooth and Stable Operation

Garage door end bearings are small but essential components in the torsion spring system of sectional garage doors. Positioned on either end of the torsion shaft, these bearings support and stabilize the shaft, ensuring it rotates smoothly when the door is raised or lowered. By minimizing friction during operation, end bearings help reduce wear on other parts, contributing to a quieter, more reliable door system over time.

Types of End Bearings

There are several types of end bearings, including steel, sealed, and nylon versions, each offering different levels of durability and smoothness. Sealed end bearings are especially popular because they prevent dust, dirt, and moisture from entering, thereby extending the lifespan of the bearing and reducing maintenance needs. Nylon bearings are quieter and corrosion-resistant, making them suitable for areas with high humidity.

Benefits of High-Quality End Bearings

Garage door end bearings provide high quality consistent support and help distribute the door’s weight evenly across the shaft. This even weight distribution is crucial for doors with heavy-duty springs or larger garage doors, as it prevents the door from wobbling and reduces strain on the springs, cables, and other mechanisms. Over time, this balance minimizes wear on components and helps prevent costly repairs.

Installation and Maintenance

Due to the tension in torsion systems, replacing or installing end bearings is best left to professionals. A certified technician can ensure proper installation, increasing the door’s lifespan and preventing potential issues caused by misalignment. Regular inspection of end bearings is also recommended, as catching early signs of wear can prevent major repairs.

With durable, well-maintained end bearings, homeowners can expect smoother, safer, and more efficient operation from their garage doors.