If you have considered using natural stone for any type of home improvement, then you may have been surprised at how many different options there are. There are various stones, colors, and surface textures from which you can choose your own unique selections. One of the other things people discover when they first start researching stone is that there is a measurement of hardness scale which shows how strong or weak a stone is.

The scale is useful because it can help determine what type of care and maintenance will be necessary for certain types of natural stones. The “weaker” or more porous the stone, the more important it is to regularly maintain it. Stronger stones need less long-term maintenance, however no natural stone is free of maintenance.

Measurement Of Hardness Scale (MOHS)

10 – Diamond

9 – Corundum

8 – Topaz

7 – Quartz

6 – Feldspar

5 – Apatite

4 – Fluorite

3 – Calcite

2 – Gypsum

1 – Talc

First developed in the 1800s, the measurement of hardness scale is a list of minerals. Stones are composed of various types of minerals and most have a “hardness” rate that is represented by the MOHS. Certain well-known and commonly used natural stones are made of the minerals in this list. For example, you can see how the strength of the two popular natural stones listed below is represented by the MOH scale.

• Granite – This is the strongest of all the natural stones. It is composed of feldspar and quartz, so it would have a 6 or 7 rate on the measurement of hardness scale. Being higher up on the scale means that the rock is less porous, therefore less likely to stain and chip. It needs less maintenance but must be cared for properly.
• Marble – Marble is known for having a beautiful, traditional “old world” look. It is also said to look “soft,” and it actually is a softer stone. Marble is mostly composed of calcite, so it typically has about a 3 rate on the MOHS. Since it is a more porous stone and generally comes in a limited number of lighter colors, there is a higher danger that the stone will get stained. This is why it must be properly sealed.

Understanding the measurement of hardness scale is useful when searching for natural stones. Now, if you see a rock label that says “hardness 2.5” you will understand what the number means. Here is another interesting note: stones with a lower MOHS rate cannot scratch stones with a rate that is higher than there own. And, being at the top of the list, diamonds cannot be scratched by another other material.

Microsoft Visio was never meant to replace computer-aided design (CAD) applications, but it does have the capability of producing precise floor plans and scale drawings. Most versions of Visio include shapes designed for scale drawings, and Visio will adjust them to the scale you are using.

Tip: It is always a good idea to include the scale of the drawing on the actual page when you’re using a scale drawing, so that other people viewing it will understand what has been used to produce it..

Changing the magnification of ordinary objects makes them easier to edit, and they can easily be shared with colleagues. There is another advantage in this approach; by drawing objects at different scales, you can show more or less detail on a standard sheet of A4 paper. For technical work such as engineering drawings and architectural plans, accuracy is essential if the drawing is going to be used as the basis for assembly or construction. The shapes on drawings like these must be placed both precisely and accurately for them to be used as a worthwhile planning tool.

Setting a drawing scale

Although it seems like stating the obvious, if you are going to create a scaled drawing you must first set of the drawing scale. This is easy to do in Visio by choosing Page Setup from the File menu. In the dialogue box that opens the drawing scale can be set from the drawing scale tab. There are several predefined scales to choose from, or you can create your own custom scale and use that instead. It is often useful to change the units of measurement of the drawing at the same time – if you’re using metric units to plan kitchen makeover, for example, you would probably want to choose millimetres at this stage, but if you were planning to lay out a car park this would probably change to metres.

Tip: the units of measurement include days and weeks – you can use these units for schedules such as timelines where for example 3 cm represents one week etc.

Choosing the right template

All versions of Visio are shipped with both US units and metric units templates. During the installation process your computer settings are checked and the appropriate templates installed – if you use both in your work, they can both be installed and the appropriate one chosen when you want to start a new drawing.

Most of the templates suitable for creating a scaled drawing belong to the Maps and Floor plans category, but the Parts and Assembly template from the Engineering category is also suitable. In Visio Professional there are templates for creating a:

• Office Layout
• Floor Plan
• Home Plan
• Plant Layout
• Electrical and Telecoms Plan
• Plumbing and Piping Plan
• Reflected Ceiling Plan
• HVAC Plan
• Security and Access Plan
• Site Plan
• Space Plan
• Parts and Assembly drawing.

When you begin to add shapes from these stencils to the drawing page, the shapes will resize to match the scale of the drawing. Other drawing aids, including the grid lines and rulers will adjust to the current units to ensure that shapes are positioned precisely.

Dimensioning shapes

There are some very useful visual aids that help in placing shapes on a scaled drawing – the dimensioning shapes. These shapes – specifically the Controller Dimension shape and the Room Measure shape – automatically measure the distances they span and display them based on the units and drawing scale. There are many more dimensioning shapes available from the Building Core stencil and others – searching for them in the search box at the top of the shapes window will find over 100 shapes that can be used for displaying measurements.

I personally use the controller dimension shape frequently when creating floor plans, as it serves two purposes. Dragging the shape onto the page then attaching a controller dimension shape to it will display the dimensions of the shape, which is very useful. However, if you change the text of the controller dimension when it is glued to the shape and then click the grey arrow it will actually change the dimensions of the shape to the value you have just entered – very clever, and incredibly useful!

For additional free resources, tutorials and videos on creating Scaled Drawings in Visio visit our website at www.visio-tutorial.com.

My niece is crazy about Hannah Montana, so when she heard about the Washburn Hannah Montana ¾ scale electric guitar for sale during her usual internet surfing one late afternoon, she went even crazier and ran down to me to plead to buy her the guitar.

Buying an 8-year old girl a real electric guitar, which she has no idea how to play by the way, was a crazy idea, right? But it got me thinking, hey anything to get my niece to be interested in music, and anything to make a guitar legend of her, I’ll do, even if it means buying her a smaller-sized purple electric guitar which has star-shaped fretboard inlays. And most importantly, the words Hannah Montana is written on the body surrounded by big and small stars.

It’s practically every little girl’s dream come true. My niece has been bugging me to buy it for her, but I’m still considering it. It’s a pretty good deal for a beginner’s electric guitar. It has volume and tone control, the body is made form hardwood, and the design is pretty slick for a small-sized electric guitar, plus Washburn is a pretty reliable maker of electric guitars, so anyone who would want to splurge on more than a hundred dollars for a mini-guitar on their nieces, this is the perfect choice.

As for me, while I haven’t found anything bad about the guitar so far, I have yet to decide to splurge on my niece. I told her to learn a song first through an acoustic guitar before I buy her the electric. At least that way I’m sure at least she will be able to play one song with the Washburn Hannah Montana ¾ scale electric guitar.

The concept of using two or more types of scales in your guitar solos is not a new concept however, how effective these hybrid scales are in your solos will depend largely on your choice of scales and how appropriate they are stylistically to the music you are playing.

Classical composers have often written melodies derived for one scale with an accompaniment derived from another type of scale.

For example:

(a) The melody may be composed from notes of the “A” natural minor scale: A – B – C – D – E – F – G – A

(b) The accompaniment or counter melody may be derived from the “A” Harmonic minor scale A – B – C – D – E – F – G# – A

Notice how there is only one note difference between the two scales; however that one note gives the composer several new harmonies to work with; the result being lots of musical surprises and interesting textures for the listener.

Now over to country guitar and hybrid scales: two scales that are always good to use are the blues scale and the chromatic scale, you can mix these two into almost any musical setting and today I’m going to blend the blues scale with the Mixo-Lydian Mode for a great country blues feel.

Step one – the thinking behind my scale choices

(a) I’m after a blues feel so I’m going to go with the mode that produces the best blues flavor, the Mixo-Lydian mode, this mode produces a ‘pure’ sound that works well with dominant seventh type chords, the type of chords typically found in blues chord progressions.

You might be surprised to find that I did not go with the obvious choice the blues scale, the reason is I want to blend the blues scale with the Mixo-Lydian mode to create a musical contrast between the two scales.

Important: Too much of anything will spoil the effect; in this instance if I began with the blues scale I won’t have nowhere to go and the solo will soon become boring, however if I go with the Mixo-Lydian mode I can I introduce the blues scale and when I do it will sound even more ‘bluesy’!

My example will use the G Mixo-Lydian mode.

G Mixo-Lydian: G – A – B – C – D – E – F – G

And the G Blues scale…

By contrast the G blues scale contains the following notes:

G Blues scale: G – Bb – C – Db – D – F – G

Step two: applying to the guitar fretboard

The guitar is such a versatile instrument with multiple choices of fingering and string combination’s there are many ways we could play these scales but since I’m after a country guitar sound I’ll be looking for three things: open strings where possible and hammer-on’s and pull-off’s.

I’m going to break up this hybrid scale into small bite size pieces that will give us a chance to perfect each section before moving on to the next.

Part 1: The notes are – G – A – Bb – B

——————-

——————-

——————-

——————-

—–0-h-1-h-2—-

–3—————-

Part 2: The notes are – D – E – F – G

——————

——————

————–0—

–0-h-2-h-3——

——————

——————

After you can play each part smoothly try joining both parts together and instantly you will have a great country sounding run. Keep playing the entire run over and over very s-l-o-w-l-y until you can play seamlessly without thinking about. Now, it’s back to slaving over that hot country guitar!

Zimbabwe has a long history of gold production stretching back many centuries and gold is by any estimate a mineral with the longest mining history of the country. The gold industry is characterised by large greenstone belts which support many small mines which are privately owned. A United Nations working paper of 1995, on gold mining in Zimbabwe, estimates over 5000 small scale gold mines. This number has increased significantly since this last study and an estimate of deposits will definitely be in excess of 10 000. The economic stagnation of the last decade has seen development efforts in the area of small scale gold mining collapse, and has further fragmented private ownership and distribution of small claim owners.

A large number of these mines have considerable potential, but are seen by the current claim holders as an unattractive investments because of the considerable capital needed. Technology does not present a real constraint; the necessary equipment and skills are available locally; and there are no legal obstacles. The current Zimbabwe mining law is probably the simplest in Africa for the acquisition of full, transferable mineral title. Rather it is the shortage of risk capital for equipment purchase and exploration, and entrepreneurial skills that inhibit the development of small-scale mining.

The traditional approach to mining of gold claims was for the title holder to prospect and peg his claims, then raise sufficient capital for the purchase of the mining equipment. If capital is hard to come by, claim holders often revert to manual methods only mining the richest veins and obtaining a very low recovery. Once the easy-to-extract gold resource close to the surface is exhausted, the claim is abandoned and in cases where this is not so, the claim becomes highly dangerous for any further workings due to hazards of the numerous adits and tunnels haphazardly chasing the vein. This short term mining method further reduces the life of mine. To quote the World Gold Analyst Special Report – Zimbabwe of 2010 (WGR), “Such methods are notoriously inefficient as they fail to take into consideration the geological setting and the potential of the whole mineral deposit. With a more systematic and objective approach they could determine not only the scope of the whole deposit, but also which techniques would serve them best for optimal exploitation of the mineral wealth.”

The greatest challenge for title holders is the motivation of finance for capital equipment for their individual gold claims. In most cases, the gold claim will not have justifiable proven reserves for an outlay that would enable the miner to be profitable and therefore not be a liability to the financier. The fact that the claims are scattered means that exploration is haphazard. No economies of scale are achieved as no individual miner requires all equipment from diamond drillers used in exploration to stamp mills or crushers used in gold recovery. This presents an unusual quandary for exploitation of the resource which is further compounded by the fact that in many cases small miners are not prepared to dispose of the ownership title as it probably represents a large portion of their net worth. Further the value that they would want for the title is also in most cases much higher than value attached by potential purchasers using available geological material. Small miners do not keep verifiable production records of gold recoveries and tonnages mined. So again the intrinsic value of the title is difficult to agree on.

A look at the mining records as contained in the World Gold Analyst Special Report – Zimbabwe of 2010 (WGR), will further confirm what we have always believed. Although gold production has been falling between 2006 to 2010 (H1), gold deliveries by custom millers as a percentage has been increasing. Gold production of the large mines will increase as they increase capacity utilisation, but the importance of this statistic is that it underlines the importance of custom milling plants in unlocking the value of these small mines. With this in mind and taking into consideration the aforementioned challenges of small scale mining, a new approach should be taken by investors.

A new approach would be to set up what we loosely term “hubs of excellence”. These hubs are fully capitalised resource centres for gold miners in any region where they are established. They do more than simply transporting and crushing ore for small mines. They are a one-stop shop for title holders wishing to unlock the underlying value of the gold mines that they are literally sitting on. The hub will have all capital equipment required-from exploration to gold recovery, and also provide a full boutique of services such as mine engineers, geologists and geological intelligence that small miners can not afford to employ individually. The hub can have cyanidation farms of similar technology to leach tailings. Due to their size, they are better motivators of capital. Profitability is enhanced due to the economies of production and fuller utilisation of all mining equipment. The fact that the title is not bought out-right also means that the model saves money that would have ordinarily been used for purchase of reserves. The hub will assist miners in transportation of ores for crushing, geological sampling, and advice in terms of mine structure and best methods of attacking the reef. The hub will also lease out to the miners any equipment that they would need to enable production. This will be done at no upfront cost but rather on a pre agreed contractual basis with miners paying tributes and royalties to the hub after gold recovery when ores are crushed. Pre feasibility studies will be conducted before contractual arrangements to ensure that gold recovered will be sufficient to cover royalties. Undoubtedly, miners also face challenges when attempting to market their gold. In many cases falling victim to unscrupulous individuals involved in the industry. Hubs can purchase any excess gold from miners in the surrounding areas and due to the collective volumes of gold purchases it will be in a better position to command more competitive commodity prices.

Hubs will also maintain production and ore delivery histories including gold recovered of all mines in the area. Over time such information will be used to consolidate small mine clusters in a particular area with the objective of developing exploration and geological intelligence of that area and graduating it into a medium size mine. Title holders in such areas can then be offered separate Joint Venture agreements or out-right buy-outs. In fact such consolidation is what led to one of the countries big mines. Jumbo mine now owned by Metallon Gold was actually part a cluster of small mines of which Jumbo mine was the most prominent. Over time, the clusters were consolidated and now Jumbo has left its once humble beginnings behind.

Our approach is that the Hub is what needs to be capitalised. Quite simply our approach is this, the hub is actually not just a milling plant.No. It is a gold mine with out-sourced labour.

Research can be used companies of any scale to build a strong foundation, understand their product, know their market segments. A Market research company guarantees them these benefits.

Helping companies with how they conduct business:

A startup is smaller in scale and enters their market with the intention of positioning themselves as a unique name with a unique product or service. So, naturally they want to cater to a niche market. A good amount of research can be used to help build a product and get it out to that market. They can even determine why consumers may not want to purchase that product.

With relevant data, they can identify their target segments in a market. You see, start-ups know that a type of problem or need exists and that they can solve it. They are even aware that the service or products that they have will benefit people, but they aren’t sure who those people are. Research shows them exactly who it is that they need to cater to.

Big companies need to adhere to a product development phase that is much slower. Competitors can easily surpass them in the time that it takes to perfect a product. This reduces the differentiation that the company could have used to get ahead.

Research can help bridge this gap. They can use exclusive market research reports to evaluate where they stand in a market. With this viewpoint, they can understand how fast their product iterations need to be, if any. They can even focus on what’s more important to them and what needs changing, like pricing, derivative product offerings or if the product requires redesign.

Big companies and start-ups benefit from research in this way:

The main reason are the risks of loss. Startups always need to revise their product offering several times. It’s because they launch a product immediately, usually without the prerequisite research to define a particular set of customers. They don’t want to invest in understanding who their customer is, as it’s assumed that they already have buyers.

The general thought is that capital will be better utilized in building or developing the product and not business plans.

Bigger corporations do have plenty of capital, but don’t have the time to gather individual customer feedback, expert opinions – they use market research for that. They’ve also got a much bigger, commercial level market too and research agencies are the feasible approach.

To set long-term goals, prevent cash overspending and actually sell a product in the market, companies need to have plans – detailed plans, which can only be developed once they have the right data.

Unlike start-ups, they are focused on improving a product and price points and not on proving how many consumers they have for their respective products. Only detailed data, collected and assessed using precise parameters, enables them to do that.

Having the right market research partner can prevent costly mistakes or the failure of startups. It’s the tool that’s required for getting that game-changing business strategy that could make all the difference.

If you have decided to start reloading your own ammunition for your pistol or rifle you’ve made a wise and cost-efficient choice that might just turn into a satisfying new hobby you will enjoy for many years to come.

The following list details just some of the materials and equipment you need to start reloading.

Reloading Press

Reloading presses come in three types for various types of reloading needs.

• Single stage: Generally considered the best type of reloading press for those starting out or with limited experience, a single stage loading press requires few adjustments and is the least expensive of the three kinds of presses.

• Turret: With turret reloading presses, users can load up to a couple of hundred rounds per hour and allows you to mount multiple dies on the press. An extra hole to mount a powder measure to increase production rates is available on some turret presses. This time-saving machine is ideal for people who want to reload larger batches of ammunition than a single stage press will accommodate.

• Progressive: Ideal for high volume reloading, progressive presses can turn out up to 500 rounds an hour. Most progressive presses need additional set up and maintenance time to properly operate smoothly and safely. Multiple die stations hold dies and powder measures for easy access.

Reloading Manuals

Never reload your ammunition without consulting a reloading manual. Manuals are the recipe books needed to provide exactly what and how much of ingredient to use for your specific reloading application. Bullet types, powder type, and charge amounts for each configuration are listed with all of the reloading supplies you need.

Reloading Dies

Reloading dies are a critical component in the process of precision ammunition reloading. There are a wide variety of dies on the market for any kind of pistol or rifle. Whether you are shooting for precision, versatility, or quantity, make sure you are getting the right reloading die for the application.

Powder Scale

There are electric and traditional balance scales available to accurately measure the amount of powder you need for each reload. Balance scales are easier to calibrate and more suited for beginners. Electronic scales can quicken the process of reloading, but run the risk of electronic interference and are more expensive to purchase and repair.

Calipers

Calipers measure the brass to match your specifications and used to adjust the reloading die to get the bullet to your desired length. Calipers come in a wide variety of quality and price.

Reloading Starter Kits

A reloading starter kit is exactly what it sounds like. If you are just starting to reload your own ammunition or have limited experience, purchasing a starter kit will make sure you have the reloading supplies you need to start saving money immediately. You can replace or supplement specific components of parts or gear as you get more comfortable and have a better understanding of how it works and what works best for you.

Have you seen the industrial walls and ceilings of your company?

Many of businessmen because of their tough routine just ignore this step without noticing that their company needs to be perfect with some fresh coats. Poor looking walls, peeling flakes from walls and ceilings give a poor impression to the viewers about your company and you. Well, you know nothing about painting industrial area, all you need to do is just hire an industrial painter. First, see if your company is ready for industrial wall or floor painting?

For this purpose, you need to choose a well-trained staff that is capable of handling your most challenging projects. Industrial painters’ priority is to satisfy their clients.

An industrial painter is the one who can paint from facility walls and ceilings to tanks, equipment, and confined space work efficiently.

Certain facts make a painter an industrial painter in a true sense because it needs a lot of effort and skills to be an industrial painter and deal with painting projects on a large scale with hard work.

Expertise: A good industrial painter is specialized in his business like not all the painters are experts of dealing with projects on a large scale like an industrial painting. Expertise makes a painter great and skillful.

Active and punctual: punctual and quick painter will not create disruptions to your daily work. He will ensure that you can continue your daily work while he is providing you his best painting job. He will try to minimize hurdles from your way and make everything perfect on time.

Licensed: Hire licensed painters because there always guarantee their work and experience. They cannot run away leaving the project uncompleted.

Cleanliness: It is an important characteristic that a painter must build himself it makes him efficient and unique. A neat and clean painter will perform a neat and clean job like him.

Contract: A great industrial painter will be agreed on a written treaty about his work, warranty, timelines, and estimates. This step makes a painter’s job more authentic.

Trouble dealer: An industrial painter must deal with all the problems and troubles in during the process of painting industrial areas like harsh walls, rough walls, holes in the walls, seepage, and peeling walls.

Budget: Experienced and professionals will never agree to work for a low price as their professional works demand more than a little. It also depends on services, if someone is providing high-quality services he will charge more comparatively. A painter providing lower quality work will be agreed for a lower price.

Reviews: Good reviews increase the demands of an industrial painter. People used to check online remarks as it is the best way to know how trustworthy a painter is and what kind of services he is providing.

Hardworking: A painter is always a hardworking painter because industrial painting needs more techniques, time and effort than any other painting like a residential painting.

Thank you.

If you ask whether I can make money by completing market research surveys then the answer is undoubtedly yes, actually making money through surveys is like shooting fish in a barrel! However, like many guys, you would also be intrigued to learn first how this lucrative job opportunity came to pass, for a general knowledge. Large-scale companies make money by selling their products and services, and to get “a fee” for what their customers look for. These big companies must utilize a strategy to seamlessly survey their target audiences.

Becoming aware of their targeted audiences’ needs directs to the fact that these companies can actually customize their services and products. At the crossroads, users easily come in. Considering the targeted market that these companies attach a special significance to, they desperately need your feedback about their business’ services and products. Analyzing the info end to end, help them to optimize their services and products and evince ways how these can be marketed effectively. At this point, you have a bang-up opportunity to make the most of paid market research surveys and make a decent amount of money.

In yesteryears, volunteers were looked for but over the past few years, market research is being conducted online because of the rise of the internet. These days, large-scale companies particularly pay the individuals who are interested in filling out their surveys. Many pay cash while others also offer prizes after you have completed their online survey forms. Scout online to search these survey companies and when you find out a few reliable names, register with them. You can get paid a decent amount by carrying out market research surveys this way.

This lure does not come so easily or without making any efforts. If you take a look at most websites, you will find some advertisements in the page that lure to offer you payment for taking online surveys, but some of them merely end up with an attempt to sell the products, rather than taking to a company’s website to fill out form. You will have to become aware of the thing and in time be aware of how to filtrate out the fakes of the real ones.

However, as you have sorted out the real ones, you just have to fill out a form, attempt the survey questionnaire questions, and you are done. So making money through online surveys is not something out of the ordinary but it is practically an easy thing.

This article is about the pros and cons of the different model train scales. Information is given about reasons to choose a certain scale. Areas to consider are available space, use of accessories, and availability of equipment. When starting your model railroad you should consider what you are most interested in.

For example do you want detailed model train scenery, would you like your layout to showcase several scenic locations, do you like operating accessories, and how much space do you have available? There are so many possibilities and variations. Your model railroad can run the gamut from having a simple one train setup, or a complex one with many operating accessories and multiple trains that highlight different scenery locations or anything in between.

Features of the O scale

The most popular scales are O, HO, N and G. The O scale is the scale that became most popular by the Lionel train company. It represents a size of 1/48 of the prototype it is modeled after. The O scale is kind of an intermediate size. Many interesting layouts can be done on 4’x6′ or 4’x8′ bench work. Why choose HO? The HO scale is 1/87 of the prototype and is about half the size of the O scale. This size has become very popular since you can have about twice the layout in the same size as an O scale layout. The trains have excellent detail and there are many accessories available.

What about the N scale?

N scale model trains are becoming more and more popular because of their small size. This scale is 1/160 of the prototype. This makes it about half the size of the HO scale. The N scale came into prominence in the 1960’s. A key feature of this scale is that a very diverse layout can be built with different scenic layouts in a much smaller space. For example you can have your train go from the Great Outdoors with mountains; tunnels and rivers, then pass through low-lying farm lands with corn fields, farm houses, and small country towns to the big city with factories and switching terminals all on a 4’x6′ or 4’x8′ table top

What is G scale?

The G scale model trains are often called Garden trains. This is because of their size they are well suited to be set up in a garden and used outdoors. They are 1/22 of the actual size. These trains were first introduced in Germany around 1881. They continue to be popular in Europe and the US. Because of their size they are more durable than the smaller scales. This feature makes them popular with parents and children since they will stand up better to rougher use. When picking a scale to use for your model railroad you need to consider many factors.

You need to know the size of the area that you will set up your trains in. Who will be using them most? How elaborate do you want your layout to be and how realistic? Do you just want a simple circle to go around an outside garden or do you want an elaborate setup with all kinds of different scenery and accessories. For example, are you interested in creating detailed scenery with multiple scenic settings you will need a large amount of space or a smaller scale? For a simple one train setup almost any scale will do.

Do you want to have the adults and kids enjoy the trains outside? Then the G scale is for you. If you want many operating accessories with remote controlled bridges, automatic crossing gates, and all sorts of operating freight cars such as dumping log and coal carriers, then you should look at the O scale with its large diversity of this type of equipment. This is part of the fun of model railroading. There are so many possibilities.

To learn more about this great hobby, just click on the resource link below. Trainman Neil has been a model train enthusiast for over 30 years. You can visit his website to learn all about the many aspects of model railroading and what makes it so appealing to so many people.