Love my grandson's attitude.

 

A couple of weeks ago, our plumbing started screeching (maybe 2KHz) whenever the cold water was running in a certain branch of the plumbing. I finally got off my butt and looked into it yesterday. The #1 cause is high water pressure. I happen to know that we have a pressure relief valve, so I looked up how to adjust it.

Easiest fix ever; at least for plumbing. Loosen the lock nut, turn the adjustment screw counter-clockwise (anti-clockwise to you Brits.). So I did that. About 1/16 rotation and the squealing stopped. Hasn’t come back.

 

our plumbing started screeching

In the mid 80's living in Connecticut, early hours of the day, something like 3:00 AM, suddenly there was a horrific screeching permeating throughout the house. Sudden wakeup from a deep sleep, the likes that can cause cardiac arrest - it was the circulator pump in our hydronic heating system. The bearings had gone dry. Woke up so suddenly and startled I almost swallowed my wisdom teeth.

HMMMmmmm. Recent repairs? Garage door opener remote: Had a weak battery so I replaced the coin cell. Upside down! Few days later when I noticed it wasn't working. Installed a new battery. Other than that I can't think of anything being repaired.

 

Repaired previously repaired driver boards for a 8KW high voltage supply. Used the old Huntron again.

 

Repaired previously repaired driver boards for a 8KW high voltage supply. Used the old Huntron again.

So, just normal stuff then. How boring.

 

So, just normal stuff then. How boring.

Boring is repairing the patio door blinds for the 100th time.

 

Boring is repairing the patio door blinds for the 100th time.
View attachment 301819

I'd say that activity qualifies into the annoying category ...

 

SWMBO Swore to scrap my favorite office chair due to it molting black specs all over the house.
After a brief search this turned up on Amazon, so far it looks like it did the job pretty good.
Really tough stuff

 

SWMBO

Someone who my brother offended?

 

Boring is repairing the patio door blinds for the 100th time.

Well, if you had fixed it right the first time . . .

ak

 

Someone who my brother offended?

Ref: TV show "Rumpole of the Bailey "
Story of a barrister practicing law at the Old Bailey, he always referred to his wife as SWMBO (she who must be obeyed.)

 

Picked up a Simpson 260 meter from Kijiji for $35. Seller said it worked a few years ago the last time he used it. I gave my last analogue meter to an apprentice when I bought my Fluke 77 decades ago.
I took it apart to replace the batteries, the old ones in it were starting to leak. After I replaced the batteries the Ohm scale would not zero. So apart it came. I found the manual for it at simpson260.com and was surprised to find out it was made in 1958 or 1959. Following the circuit through the meter I found a poor connection between the board and the threaded post where it connects to the meter. A serrated steel washer had rusted. I cleaned that up and put it back together now Rx100 and Rx10,000 would zero but Rx1 was unstable. I followed the Rx1 circuit and found a resistor that was not properly soldered to the trace on the board. This would have been a problem with it from the day it was new.


It takes five batteries. According to the manual it takes one "D" battery and four "Z"batteries. "Z" batteries must have been smaller in diameter than "AA"batteries the AA's almost fit but the rear housing will not tighten up against the front housing completely.

 

Most recent service project, for my restaurant partners place, is the temperature control for a sandwich build cooler. It is supposed to hold between 34F and 40 F, but overnight it wanders down to 22F, which freezes many things that should not freeze. The controller is CARLE brand, and of course no manual was on hand. So he called a BOZO service clown who looked at it and declared that the problem is a "burned wire" at a terminal on the controller. That wire is the compressor power feed, it seemed to be a poor job with the screw on the terminal strip left the connection running hot. Which does not explain freezing over night but working OK all day.
Examined the manual on-line and I find that the temperature controller has a mode for when the sensor fails it will go into an on/off duty cycle mode, minutes on/minutes off, to produce some average temperature. But no hint as to how to set that duty cycle.
Found the exact replacement ate the manufacturers website, $120 for a replacement plus a new probe..
Given that the service BOZO never came back, my inclination is to replace the whole set and repair this one for a spare, if it can be fixed. There is a symptom of an internal solder connection failure, but I can't take it out of service to do a slow repair and recheck.

Not a boring day or week.

 

The plastic handle on the grater broke for no reason. I like this grater it fits my Sasquatch hands.
A few minutes in the shop and its better than it was when new.

 

The plastic handle on the grater broke for no reason. I like this grater it fits my Sasquatch hands. A few minutes in the shop and its better than it was when new.

Rounded cap nuts - 1 gold star.

ak

 

Rounded cap nuts - 1 gold star.

ak

Not "Cap Nuts". They're "NyLock" or captured nuts. You can't just thread them on by hand, you need a wrench to tighten them down. They're useful in high shock and vibration applications. If not using NyLock nuts one should use a flat washer and a lock washer between the nut and the project. Flat washer against the project, lock washer against the nut.

Still, great job. Love it when something so dumb of an idea proves to be superior to the engineering design someone who's paid big bucks to create. Not saying your solution to the handle was dumb, it was dumb nobody thought to do it that way before. Well, actually it probably WAS thought of - but pu-pu'd by the bean counters who said we can make more money with a plastic handle. It's cheaper to manufacture and it will break sooner leaving the consumer to buy another.

 

The plastic handle on the grater broke for no reason. I like this grater it fits my Sasquatch hands.
A few minutes in the shop and its better than it was when new.
View attachment 302049

Put it up on Etsy. Replacement grater handle. Just $19.95!

 

Just $19.95!

"And if you act now we'll send you a second replacement handle at no charge. Just pay a separate handling fee."

And now back to our movie "The Jackson Five story, starring The Osmond Brothers".

 

Not "Cap Nuts". They're "NyLock" or captured nuts.

I know; know all about them. Learned the wrong name decades ago and it stuck.

ak

 

Now I have a broken ribbon/pcb cable in a video camera to repair. A half inchwide and about 30 conductors.
The camera was a Tandberg TTC8-02 in perfect working order, but not any more.