In counterpoint to the thread “What did I repair today”, I started a new thread. I’d guess there’s a lot of breaks as well as repairs.

The break I had today wasn’t an electronic one. I had been working on a plaster mold for a couple of months. This morning when trying to separate its halves, suddenly the mold gave way and an errant hand or two crushed about 1/2 of the remainder

 

I managed to destroy a Li-ion battery tester. Some short circuit somewhere caused a bright spark, and a sharp crack sound from the circuit board and it is now completely dead.
The only damage I can see is a small dot in the middle of the uC on the board. Unless I reverse engineer the board and write new firmware I cannot repair it.

 

Someone can't read the instructions.

 

Flat tire on my Ranger. I couldn’t lower the spare hoist. Couple of other Ranger owners tried with no luck. I crawled underneath and cut the cable with a Zip disk, then removed the hoist, only to discover that we’d been using the wrong end of the handle to crank the hoist. Duh.

 

A few weeks ago I designed and printed on my 3D printer a disk with seven pegs that fit over the fan on Baldor motors with a 1" hex protrusion that will fit in a socket to turn motors with a drill. I found today it will also work with the brake motors (larger fan than I designed it for), but in my excitement it fell to the floor and broke a peg off. Since we can't power the equipment as we are building it I had to come up with something better than turning the fan by hand... just have a few details to work out yet I guess.

 

Smoked the main remote (in a shed away from the house) DC disconnect testing some new solar panels. It's DC rated but looks like one of the contacts was bend causing it to overheat as the return pole to the left still looks fine. This is why you don't go cheap on safety equipment. Everything was safely contained in the metal box but smoke. I was pushing the limit of 30A per pole. So the next one will get 60A rated.





It's rated for DC and has UL, most of the cheap Chinese versions are not and don't have UL. Time to order another one but this time don't parallel inputs (the total was less than the rated pole current of 30A) on one pole, even for testing.

 

It always surprises me that even a lowly 9 volt “transistor” battery has enough energy to immediately damage ICs, even if the battery’s connector momentarily touches the battery backwards.
Ask me how I know.

 

Forgot the arc shield pictures.


I wonder why it must be in place?

Anyone know what type of plastic they use? I'd like to get some (clear if possible) for some DIY spark shields over interconnect rails.

EDIT:
I found this but it's only in black.
https://www.ensingerplastics.com/en/shapes/pa66-tecamid-66-gf30-black
Natural would be better as I would like to see status LEDS behind the shield.

 

Have the new replacement.

 

Three days ago, the last glass of a continuous series of 14 in the last 5 months.

Essential tremor, quite an experience.

 

Breaking down one of old servers.


This will be donated to G.W.
Will drill and sledgehammer sanitize the drives.

 

 

Another GW donation. A old backup server.

The GT-750 has to worth at least $1

Clean it up a bit and remove the drives for later execution.

Power up one last time.


Drives still spin-up.



Put the drive carriers back into the cage and it's ready to go bye.

 

Anyone know how to pull the other two valves on this pressure washer pump head?

They seem corroded in place.



I've currently got them soaking in WD-40.

 

And it looks like the hold-down boss for that loose valve is shot. I'm thinking the whole pump needs replacement.

 

@killivolt,

What part did you like? That the boss is shot, or that I need to replace the pump?

Advice is welcome, please.

 

I thought replace the pump.

 

I thought replace the pump.

As usual, it all boils down to the price of a new pump vs the time spent trying to repair the old one.

 

As usual, it all boils down to the price of a new pump vs the time spent trying to repair the old one.

A new pump is only $50 to $80, and I'd usually hire someone to install it for me.

But, first, I wanted to see if I had the mechanical aptitude to repair the old one on my own.

 

I wanted to see if I had the mechanical aptitude to repair the old one on my own.

Most probably you do have the aptitude needed for the task. But do you have the appropriate tools for it? ... Removing rusted and stuck parts can be a humongous pita if one doesn't have the right equipment.