A friend had two big tanks and two smaller tanks. One night we're sitting there with the lights off, except the tank lights, half baked, watching the fish, grooving on the music, and the power goes off. Sit for a few minutes waiting, then oh crap, plan B. What a buzz kill. :haha:

The Prizm's rear view mirror day/night switch mechanism had stopped working and the mirror was very wobbly.

This package was waiting for me Friday when I got home.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7394/1...2dd1ee2a22.jpg
A junkyard part from Maine, bought on eBay for $42, including shipping. Edit: actually $32, including shipping.

So Saturday I started with the mirror, because I figured it would be easy. I was right. You just snap off the trim piece that covers the screws. And unscrew it. And install the new one the same way, but in reverse. I used a putty knife to snap off the trim piece without gouging it up like a screw driver might have done.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3755/1...da26540c_c.jpg

And here's the new mirror, installed.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3826/1...6dcb6b6c_c.jpg

It's great to have a working mirror again.

Vurry nize.

But, $42?? Daaaaaaaaaayum.:eek:

ETA: After checking junkyards around here (I used a 95 Prizm, cuz I don't know whatchya got)...That's about what they go for.

Then I turned my attention to the rear door windows. Both of them were really squeaky and difficult to roll up and down. I didn't know what I was going to find, but figured it would be cleaning and lubricating.

So for anyone looking up how to fix squeaky windows on a 1996 Geo Prizm, this is how I did it:

First, unscrew the two screws holding on the armrest.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3723/1...db925c2b_z.jpg

Then, you need to remove the window crank. This isn't obvious at all unless you have the manual or otherwise know the trick. You take a rag and wedge it up under the crank, kind of tugging back and forth. This loosens a retaining clip just enough so you can pull it out with a pair of needle nose pliers or the tip of a screwdriver.

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2806/1...a9910b3e_c.jpg


This is what you're pulling out so you can get the crank handle off.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3792/1...8e36f28b_c.jpg

Then you have to get the interior door handle out of the way. Unscrew the single screw holding it in place, and then pull it towards the front of the car about half an inch. That will allow the tabs to release from the door and it will come loose.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7392/1...5fa72782_c.jpg


Use a putty knife to pop the panel off the door. Just slip the knife in the gap between the door and panel, and slide it over to where it's right next to a fastener clip and pull the panel away from the door to pop that clip free. Do that for each clip, until the panel is really loose and just being held on by the interior door handle. Twist the door handle a little and push it through the hole in the panel as you pull the panel free.

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2887/1...a79fec89_c.jpg


Pull the panel free, and you'll see the plastic water barrier covering everything.

Carefully remove it. I found that sometimes it just pulled easily free, and other times I had to cut at the adhesive with a razor blade. I cut through the plastic barrier around the two points that support the armrest, and I also cut a larger slot so I could slide it off past the interior door handle.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3665/1...4a06d10f_c.jpg

So now I had access to the inside of the door.


http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3778/1...73ac5565_c.jpg


You can't even see the gears and stuff that lifts and lowers the window. But you can see part of the channel that the window slides in. I wanted to start by cleaning this channel and then lubricating it.
So I got a small brush and swept it clean and then sprayed silicone lubricant on the brush and brushed that lubricant into the channel.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3687/1...31e3d966_c.jpg

I did the same thing with the channel way inside the door by the hinges. I couldn't take picture of that, but I could feel my way in there and clean and lubricate that channel by feel.

I stuck my phone inside the door and took a picture of the regulator.
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3789/1...47cb465e_c.jpg

The grease on the regulator had died out after 18 years, so I put a glob of grease on my finger tip and felt around for the gear and then smeared it with the grease.

Then I rolled the window down, and it was still pretty squeaky, and now I could see why. The roller on the regulator arm was all frozen on its little rusted axle. So I sprayed it like crazy with silicone spray.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5493/1...87c104bb_c.jpg


After doing this, the window rolled up and down beautifully and quietly. So it was time to put things back together. You basically just do everything in reverse, except that once you have the plastic barrier in place and are putting the interior trim panel back, there are these 4 (or actually 5) holes in the top of the trim panel.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5533/1...6b0cf278_c.jpg


Those holes are there so that the padded trim up by the window opening can attach to this trim panel. There a thin metal tabs poking out of the bottom of that padded trim piece, and you bend those tabs straight with your fingers, poke them through these holes, and then reach behind this trim panel and bend those tabs over to hold the two trim pieces together.

I can't show you any of this, because the metal tabs are hidden from view, but you can feel them, and all this bending is done by sticking your arm back behind the panel and bending those tabs. After the tabs are attached, and you have fed the door handle back through the opening, then you can snap all those yellow snap connectors back into place.

The last thing to do, other than putting all the screws back in the armrest and interior handle, is to put this window crank handle and its finicky clip back into place. I used a putty knife again.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7306/1...9ee26819_c.jpg




So that's pretty much it. The windows work perfectly again. I should have done this ages ago.

Yeah. Cheaper than new though.

That included shipping, and the seller swore that the switch lever worked and it was tight on the swivel, and of course once I had gotten him to answer those questions, other people got excited about the auction and started bidding against me.

I wish we had a local junkyard. I probably could have found one for $5 and an afternoon of walking around rows of old broken cars.

The DC area isn't known for its industrial sector or for its junkyards. Not many people here tinker with their own cars. Too rich here.

Wait! Hold that! I was just checking on something else I bought on Ebay and saw the mirror was $32 not $42.

Most junkyards won't even let you in the yard anymore, unless it's one of those yards where you remove the part you need from the donor car yourself, i.e. Pick-a-Part, PullAPart, You Pick...none of which has locations near you (DC).

finicky clip, retaining clip. AKA Jesus clip. As in Jesus where the F@##$ did it go?

That's true. Of course the biggest problem is lawyers and insurance companies dragging them to litigationville.

But even before that they got tired of people destroying good parts to get at the part they needed. Also breaking several parts leaning how to take one off intact, of course they only pay for one.

LOL!!!

Twasn't me, but the tenants of this apartment building seem to have done a little cable wiring themselves. I took the picture though. It's visible only from the bike path.

Attachment 46998
Attachment 46999

You're likely correct.

But don't discount the possibility of lazy cable installers.

Ahh No , No way , no how would any body that knew ANY thing about Installing ANY type of wire do THAT !!!

I assume they are stealing cable, but I thought signals were scrambled these days and you need a box at the set.

But if you have the wire, you can pick up a box at the cable company's office. They don't ask how you got the wire. Plus that may be an accumulation of years of DIYers.

Yeah, but, who? Perry Mason couldn't figure that shit out.

a photoblog of what i did today.....
 

Restored some slightly cloudy headlights today.

Before: The headlight has been cleaned and dried and masking tape to protect the surrounding area.

Attachment 47098



Now I'm sanding it with the coarsest of 4 sanding pads. The one marked #1 on its face. The kit provides a spray bottle of soapy water for wet sanding.

Attachment 47099



I dried it off and you can see how super scratched that first grit of sandpaper made it.

Attachment 47100



So then I sand in the other direction with number 2, and it's already looking a bit better.

Attachment 47101



On to number three and then four, always sanding perpendicular to the last time to get rid of the scratches left by the earlier grit.



And then after you go through all four grits, you switch to the abrasive polishing compound.

It was exactly like toothpaste, except without the mint smell.
Attachment 47102
After you polish for a while, you buff it out until it shines.

Then you open a sealed pad that has a damp wipe on it, and wipe the lights. Once that dries, you open a second pad that contain a kind of varnish, and spread that as evenly as you can over the lights.
Attachment 47103

And then you are done. The pictures don't do it justice. They look remarkable better. These 13 year old headlights.
Attachment 47104

Well this is from the weekend. I went to the annual Land Rover event here in Texas known as SCARR, South Central Area Rover Ralley and was one of about 200 participants with LRs of all kinds. Had a great 4 days of camping out and driving all kinds of trails. The dirt up their is really red, kind of like a Martian landscape in places with all the red dirt and rocks. My car held up really well despite smashing one of my alpine windows at the back when I got too close to a tree and the roof rack support got knocked loose and broke the glass. Had a great thunderstorm rip through camp on Friday night, it was all I could do to keep my dining fly from going airborne.

Think I will get out the pressure washer today and knock of most of the dirt and dried mud I brought back with me.

Wow. Looks like you had a blast!

thats the way a 4x4 Should look !!!!

So what do you do with a WaldoMarto frame pool that the wind killed and you had to take a box cutter to clear out all the nasty plastic ???

You make a Garden table for your wife !!!
first you scrounge up the nuts and bolts ,
then piece it to gather ( a few speed screws to hold a few pieces to gather ) ,
then you start laying out the slats ,
nope that wont work ,
nope not enough of those pieces to make it work ,
Hey what about ,,,,,, yeah that works , cool ,
then you spend the afternoon remembering Why you DON'T weld for a Living,
Its not finished yet but ill post some pics of my nasty welding so Bruce and buster can Laugh at me

Sweet!

Not me, every time I have a project that requires welding, just about the time I get my chops back, it's done. :facepalm:

Sorry zippy, but I can't see anymore. That looks good to go to me.

I gotta learn to weld.

On Saturday morning I did some car work.

The brakes would pulsate more than I liked when stopping hard. Probably warped discs. The discs were also rusty and would rub a little bit just driving around. I had replaced the pads several months ago, and they still had plenty of life left, but I had done a half-assed job of it by not resurfacing the discs.

So rather than trying to find a shop to resurface the old discs, I spent $22 each for two new ones from Amazon. Much easier to click a few times and have them delivered than drive around looking for a shop.

The old discs:
Attachment 48333

And the new ones:
Attachment 48334
A lot of rust visible still on other stuff, but everything works well and is solid. I went through almost two cans of brake cleaner, and also lubed the sliding pins and pad retaining clips. These brakes are amazing now. No pulsating and you can stop on a dime. It's fun to slam on the brakes and see how fast the car stops now.

I also worked on a broken door handle. The old plastic cracked when a passenger opened the door with a little too much gusto.

I ordered a new door handle on Amazon for only $12. Amazon has everything.

Anyway, the old one come off by removing a screw and sliding the housing forward half an inch.
Attachment 48335
Then you remove a thick wire from a clip.
Attachment 48336
Attachment 48337

Install in reverse.
Attachment 48338
A pretty easy job if you don't leave your screw driver in direct sunlight for two hours in its little greenhouse case where it will heat up like white hot steel and burn your hand when you try to put a white hot bit into it.

Glatt - You might want to check out RockAuto, if you haven't already. They don't have the hippest website, but, they're reasonably quick, shipping-wise, and all the parts we've ever gotten from them were top quality parts. They also have a variety of brand names, and prices (some amazingly low) for most parts.

Damn, that was dangerously close to a commercial, wasn't it?

I've bought some stuff from RockAuto and they are everything you say they are. But we had a gift card for Amazon to use up.

Word.

The gas oven has been on the fritz. You could hear it the last several times we used it, cycling on and off every ten seconds or so. But there was a glow coming out from under the floor pan, so something was lit down there.

So I took the bottom floor pan of the oven off to watch the burner. It was definitely messed up. I figured it could be the igniter or the valve, or the pressure regulator. Or the control panel or the thermostat.



I did a little research and found that the igniter actually controls the valve. When the igniter heats up it starts drawing more current, and when it hits a magic number of amps, the valve opens and sends gas to the burner. So I dug out my multimeter and measured the current. I had read in one place that the magic number was 2.8 amps, an I read somewhere else that you should replace any igniter that draws fewer than 3.2 amps.

This guy was drawing 2.5 amps. So I think it's the igniter. That's good, because they are only $30 online. The valves are more like $150.

So now you know what an oven burner looks like just as the igniter is starting to fail.

I ordered one from Amazon with two-day shipping. Need to get this fixed this weekend before the holiday. It should be easy. Just remove a couple screws from the old igniter. Unplug the connecter, an swap in the new one.

well done glatt. boring pics of your success would be nice, but the actual victory is what matters most. I have every confidence in you.

Fewer than twenty minutes to install it, including putting the tools back. It works perfectly now.

Go, you Pro, you!

well done.

Well done!

Have I mentioned lately how much I freaking love the internet? First thing I did when I noticed this problem was open up our filing cabinet to pull out the owner's manual. There was NOTHING in there. Not even a parts list or schematic. Actually, that's not true. There was a circuit diagram, but no parts list. Going to the manufacturer's web page gave me a parts list but no details about how the parts work together. It could have been half a dozen faulty components causing this problem.

But going to two different appliance web forums and a separate appliance repair page gave me a great explanation of how the oven works and what measurements I had to take to see if the part was faulty or not.

20 years ago, I would have had to replace parts randomly or hire a repairman to probably replace parts randomly. But today I could ID the problem with certainty and order the damn part with expedited shipping for a fraction of the cost of a repairman and exponentially less than a new oven.

I love you, Internet.

I concur.

This could go in the Interesting links to share thread, but it is relevant here and now. I do the same thing as you described for lots of home and car repairs, and I've found this site (there are others like it) invaluable. Sometimes it's not actually broken, I just need to look up how something is "supposed" to work. Enjoy.

http://www.manualsonline.com/

Really? Good for you glatt. I jsut come here - via the internet - and ask you guys & gals. I assume you all go to other sites - via the internet - then reply with logical solutions sounding all smart & shit. :right:

It's so damn easy to find good info on the net I've given up saving links for that kind of stuff.

We had to put some money into our furnace last week... No fun!

We noticed we had hardly any heat, it would cut on and run and for a minute or 2 it was warm and then ran cold. Our furnace is a high end Trane model we put in about 8 years ago and winters here in Houston don't really put a big demand on it. Technician came out and tried changing out the sensor (kind of like a thermocouple) but that didn't fix it and the voltage from the circuit board was wrong which led him to suspect a bad board. He quoted $650 to replace the board. I looked on line and found some parts places would sell the board for $400 but it's a newer design so it has a new wiring harness and someone with the knowledge to transfer the 30 or so wires to the new board only made sense.

Not happy about the money spent but sometimes it's unavoidable. :thepain:

The really frustrating thing is that we were told the unit had a 10 year warranty when we got it but later found out that it is a 5 year warranty unless the consumer goes to the trouble of registering it with Trane, then it gets a 10 year warranty. We used a different company to install the system from the repair company I use now so it's not their fault. But I don't remember the original installers telling us to register it, I think they either forgot or just failed to tell us because we would have done that for sure if we had know.

That's just ridiculous. A furnace should last more than 8 years, and if they are using cheap components in their circuit board to save literally a couple bucks per unit, they deserve to have their name dragged through the mud.

Did you get to keep the old circuit board? Was there anything obvious wrong with it, like bulging capacitors?

We have a 70 year old furnace, and I keep thinking I should get a new one that's more energy efficient, but if this is the kind of crap you can get today, then forget it.

I was inspired to order some cheap LED rolls and a transformer from China through ebay. I got these LEDs, and this power supply.

What does it mean that this power supply is a "switching" power supply? I ordered the stuff on Jan 3, and it arrived from China on Jan 13th. Very impressive for free shipping.

At first I was confused when trying to figure out what the brown, blue, and yellow/green wires were for. But with a little Google, I found out brown is hot, blue is neutral, and yellow/green is ground. Then I dug through my junk piles and found an old iMac power cord, and cut it open to wire to the power supply. It also used brown, blue, and yellow/green, so it was easier than I expected to wire it up. I had ordered a 45 watt power supply, and wanted to see if it would drive both rolls of LEDs wired in parallel. It did!

So here are some pictures. This shows both rolls lit up:
Attachment 50095
And for this one, I unwound one of the rolls a little and aimed at the counter so I can get a sense of the color and brightness. I like it. Not blue at all. A little whiter than the halogen hockey pucks under the cabinets now, but not obnoxiously so. And the brightness is good. This was taken with the ceiling lights turned off.
Attachment 50094
I'm going to use the existing halogen hockey puck wiring. They were wired years ago by an electrician who put switched outlets under the sink, and plugged the halogen power supplies into those outlets. I can just plug my new power supply into those same outlets and use the existing wiring to the halogens.

One thing I noticed is that after a couple minutes of being plugged in, the rolls of LEDs started to get a bit warm. I guess it's the cheap quality with the black resistors after every third LED on the strip. They were only $9 after all. I unplugged the power supply when I noticed the heat. I didn't want to melt the double sticky tape on the back of the strips. I am hoping that once the LEDs are installed, the heat won't be too bad because the strips will be unrolled and the heat not so concentrated. One of the reasons I wanted the LEDs instead of the halogens is that the halogens get hot and can melt forgotten chocolate chips on the bottom shelf of the corner pantry cabinet.

So this weekend, I'll have some time to install these permanently. I'll make sure to update the thread with better pictures that show before and after shots with identical white balance and exposure settings.

What is this "forgotten chocolate chips" of which you speak? :speechls:

The power supply is sufficient to power both rolls(600 LEDs). Therefore you can cut them up into as many strips as you want, observing the groups of three, and power them with that one power supply, yes?

Yes. But with one caveat. The rolls say they can't be wired in series with another roll, only in parallel. So you'd have to be careful to not exceed the length of one roll with any one cut up strip. Not sure if I worded that correctly, but I bet you understand.

Clear as a bell. At 12 VDC, a whole roll (300) draws 24 watts, about 2 amps. In series it would bump the amperage up more than the designer is comfortable with.

To answer the other question asked:

A switching power supply is one in which the incoming AC voltage is first converted into DC, then fed to a series of MOSFET switching transistors translate the DC into high freq AC which is then fed into a transformer with the output being returned to DC in more useful voltages.

The advantage of a Switched Mode Power Supply is that is is much more eficient and more versatile, able to provide either AC or DC outputs depending on the circuit involved. It is necessarily more complicted but has far less hysteresis and parasitic power loss than a comparable linear power supply and generates less heat.

That's as simple as I can put it without going all TW.

Thanks Pamela. I've been working on this much of this weekend, and it's taking a lot longer than I excepted. I'm a novice at soldering, and didn't realize how much there is in this. Over a hundred solder joints, and all those tiny wire pieces to cut and strip and twist. I'm improving though.

OK, so I made this pile of LED strips, and it took exactly 100 solder joints to do it. That's the most soldering I've ever done.
Attachment 50145

This was the first joint I soldered. Sad. I know.
Attachment 50146

And this was one of the last. I feel like I got better.
Attachment 50147

I locked the exposure and white balance of the camera and took a before shot with halogens.
Attachment 50148

And and after shot with LEDs.
Attachment 50149

The LEDs are much brighter, use a quarter of the power, and are slightly more white. But still on the warm side of white, not cool blue at all.

Great job. I really need something like that over my sink and counters, but I'll not try.

Much better glatt! I used an led set up for the chickens this winter.

That design I'd describe as, glatten-for-punishment. :haha:
It looks like you could have used 20% to 30% less and still had plenty of light, but you really don't know what it will look like until you've done a couple.
Good job, Sir, you've earned a degree in kitchen lighting.

It doesn't have to be quite so bright, but it's not too bright. I think I can wire a special LED dimmer after the transformer if we decide it's too bright, but for now it's good.

I like it that the light is so diffuse now and even. Plus the sink has always been too dark. And now it's nicely lit.

All that rosin makes me shudder. DOD 2000 and all. Get me some trichlorethene, stat! Nah, really, that stuff was poison, but we practically bathed in it during my early years working for a defense contractor.

But really, glatt, you're talented and handy! :) Good work.

That stuff was so nasty.

It's been really dry, and we just set the humidifier up in the bedroom, but really it needed to be in the living room. The problem is that ALL the outlets are behind furniture and in use, so there is no place to plug the humidifier in.

So I was pondering that, and getting more annoyed that every time we want to plug something in in the living room we run in to this problem. Dammit. We need another outlet in there.

So I looked around and decided that the best place is right under the thermostat. And the bonus is that the thermostat wires are already leading into that wall cavity.

So I dug around in my junk piles and found everything that I needed. Cut a hole in the wall that worked out perfectly. Right in the middle of the stud bay. Fished a wire up from the basement alongside the thermostat wires, and called to my son to grab it.

That's when he got interested. He had done an apprentice day with a real electrician and actually learned a lot. So I let him do all the work of wiring the outlet up. I double checked that he put the right colors on the right screws and that they were tight, but he did everything else himself.
Attachment 50259

Then I went down in the unfinished basement and tied it in to a very seldomly used circuit in my shop. That took about 2 hours because I needed one big wire nut that I didn't have, and had to go to the store and pay my 22 cents to get it. I had to rewire a switch, a switched outlet, and install a junction box, but it was all pretty easy since it's unfinished down there.
Attachment 50260
And now we have a humidifier going! It looks like that outlet just belongs and has always been there.

This could be in the proud parent thread. Or the what's making you happy thread. But it's here.

Fuckin' A. An outlet.