The truth is, I am not really sure. I have the fairly expensive toaster that has been around 15 years or so and it stopped working for some reason. I am going to take it apart to try and figure it out.
Our first reaction was to replace the toaster. I didn’t do any of the looking but my wife said that reviews were all over the place and generally bad. That got me wondering if I could figure out the problem. To first understand what is wrong, we have to understand how it works.
I can’t speak for all toasters, but it appears this one has got some electrical and electronic components. This one appears to lock the mechanism down with an electromagnet (white circles). When the mechanism gets to a certain depth, it triggers a switch that turns on the coils for toasting (yellow circle). Additionally, it seems that there is a temperature sensor on the side. Just guessing but either the electronics run a timer to release the magnet or the temperature sensor acts as a cutoff switch and once power is removed to the magnet, the mechanism pops up.
Our particular problem was that the mechanism did not lock down and therefore there was no toasting. After taking the cover off, I found tons of crumbs on the inside. I am speculating that a cleaning would remove obstructions from the magnet holding and the switch making a connection. So, first I set to clean it out.
From what I learned with chainsaws and other things, it is best to test it without fully re-assembling, if possible. In my case, after blowing all the crumbs out with compressed air, I plugged the toaster in and everything worked like it should. So, I diagnose the problem as crumbs interfering with the magnet. It is possible that I could have soldered a broken connection but something like a faulty switch or electronic component would probably have been too much.
After I verified it was working the way I wanted it to, I reassembled and tested again. The toaster was still working as I expected. Success, I saved $10-hundreds of dollars. We weren’t going to buy a cheap replacement.
End Your Programming Routine: Before this date, I had never seen inside of a toaster before. I have my doubts that they all operate as electronically as this one. I figured, worst case scenario we going to throw it away anyway so it was worth a try. When it comes to junk, don’t be scared to try and figure it out. You might just save yourself some money and who knows, maybe disappointment too.
Do you know why I am skeptical about all of those makeover shows on TV? It is pretty easy to make something look better but have be done poorly or improperly. There have been a number cosmetic improvements made to my house that did not have sound building practice implemented. This one is a continuation of my apartment remodel I talked about in 2020.
This leads me to my summer project. I have a major problem with my siding on the garage and it looks a lot like what lead me to a summer rebuilding the cottage. I guess we will see when I get into it.
The first problem is visible on the left. The facia is rotting to pieces. I cant claim that I didn’t know about this. In fact, I saw signs of the problem before the house was painted in 2016. They of course painted right over it and didn’t say a word. This one I cant really claim is an improper technique but a failed material since I can only assume the pair were applied at the same time and have the same exposure.
My biggest challenge with this part of the project is going to be how to attach the facia again. I can only assume that it is nailed through the decking at the edge since there are only two attachment points sticking out of the structure, at the ridge and at where it meets the side facia. This may mean a roof job as well, it wouldn’t hurt but we will see.
The far more insidious problem is the one on the right. From what I know, this garage was built in the late 1990s. The pictures we have of the house, the band of lap siding was added by the previous owner (not the one that built the garage) as an attempt to spiff up the place. They only owned the house around a year and he claimed that he got interested in airplanes so this wasn’t a flip. But let’s be honest, T1-11 was an inappropriate siding choice for a Victorian.
The construction detail problem may not be evident from the picture but I will cut to the chase. The Hardiplank was applied over the T1-11. That bead of caulk hanging down was on top of the edge. That was the single line of defense for water getting behind the lap siding. Once water got behind the siding, it was trapped.
I suppose the good news is that it lasted at least 17 years. The other good news is that this is the last place I have to deal with this problem. This detail has failed everywhere else on my house, my apartment and the garden shed. The bad news is I really don’t know the extent of the damage. So even thought I knew about this weakness I think good advice is don’t go looking for problems that you don’t want to deal with.
Also worth noting since we are talking about good practice is if that detail was sufficiently protected (as in an eve or overhang) it would have never failed. The two sides of the garage look rock solid because they don’t have the same exposure to wetness as the face that I am showing.
Another thing that you can see from the picture is that there is drywall behind the panel. Interesting… this may be a code requirement. I notice that on the inside of the garage, there is drywall on the exterior that is facing the house. I am sure that the intent of this is as a fire barrier between the two structures. However, I find it curious that the exterior wall perpendicular to the house also has it. I think what is worse is wet drywall is a sponge for water. I am concerned about structural damage.
End Your Programming Routine: Now you can see why I am not going to work on the fence. The fence needs to be done and quickly. This one also definitely needs to be done, but I can use the warmer and drier months to do it. I also want details that I would never get from a contractor like back priming all of the siding that replaces it. I want proper flashing and I want to solve this problem permanently. I hate to say it but hiring it out will get me another 17 years or less.
I come from a long line of never give up, I can do it men. It kills me to pay for something that I can do. But, it is a matter of my time and what I can do (efficiently). For years our fence has been in poor shape and inexplicably part of it fell down last week.
This is a topic that has been coming up about once a year for the last five years or so. My neighbor has done a lot of shoring up in that period. The truth is, he is the cause of much of the damage anyway as there is a lot of weight against the fence so he has a vested interest in keeping it functional. There are wires anchoring it to trees and sistered posts. This is all on his side, so I cant see it.
In fact, I had spoken to him about a month ago that we planned to replace the fence this summer. I wanted to get a rough lumber cost to see if I wanted to do the job or not. After I saw it was $6 a fence board, I was hoping it would last another year. But, now that the fence has fallen down, we need to get it repaired quickly.
We are looking at getting five bids (still waiting for the first one however). What I can say is that five different people showed up to take measurements. Almost all of them we have some kind of affiliation with. Even so, I was surprised to get attention and action so quickly. Maybe it is the season is still slow or maybe things have cooled down quickly? I can’t really say.
The heart of what I am trying to get at is that while I can do it, I cannot do everything. We have a trip planned for Spain after school is out and I have another problem (project) that I will talk about tomorrow. In addition, with all of the family activities and business travel plus we need to keep our animals in the yard as well as the neighbors animal out. Plus, the weather is not great right now anyway.
Some times I do things because I want the experience. Other times I do things because they are in my wheel house and it is cheaper and faster for me to do them. Lastly, there are times when it is far more economic for me to do them because there is no real deadline. I know myself and my commitments and things always take significantly longer than I expect because I do not spend the time I would like doing the project. There is also the opposite opinion of what would you rather do?
With the price of materials, most of the cost is going to go to that. I have a feeling that labor is going to be a relatively small portion of the bid. There is also the factor that it will probably get done in a couple of days and I think all the debris will be removed. For me, I wouldn’t be surprised if it took all summer. If I had nothing else to do, I would love to do the job and save the labor cost. But the reality is I don’t really want to spend my entire summer doing this job.
The economics of the situation says in theory, if I can pay someone less than what I can earn with the same time, then possibly you save money. There is also the potential of having to buy single use tools and even skill deficits. I can’t use those excuses nor will I have another job to do instead of building a fence. I would say it is more that we need it done sooner rather than later. The truth is the adjacent fence has been broken for at least seven years as well. It has literally been sitting on the ground for years hanging on by a nail. So, it is time.
End Your Programming Routine: Maybe it is getting older and wiser or maybe it is becoming more confident that I am having a slight mindset shift. I would never consider paying someone to do something that I could do. But, since we have paid for yard maintenance, I have come to understand that I do things that I want to do rather than out of obligation. Hiring someone to replace the fence is not because I can’t but because I want to spend my time elsewhere.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about looking for the right deals. Well a couple of those came along last week. I am keeping a strong eye out for components to build my kids their very own hi-fi systems. There are a couple more things I am looking for as well to finish off my ultimate Techno Junk lab (my office).
A few weeks ago, we were moving my mother-in-law into our small house. She thought that her TV was too big. So we swapped a 40″ TV that we had for her 55″ (?) TV. Along with that, I re-wired the area. My wife has been using a Fire Stick instead of the X-Box 360 to stream for the last six months.
If anyone is still using a 360 for that purpose, then they will know that the support window is waning. Applications are starting to be discontinued. The forced obsolescence is another reason why I hate technology. That being said, I do like to do some racing every now and then. So, I took the X-Box down to my office.
The problem is really how to connect it to my current technology. I explored the idea of capture cards to run it through the computer. At some point, I am going to add a TV as a second monitor. But in the end, I decided that I had an open slot in my analog KVM switch. I just had to adapt the HDMI to VGA and get sound at the same time. I bought an adapter and it works pretty slick. I decided long ago the video games were a waste of life force and false achievement so the reality is that I will not use it much, but I can.
My Linux experiment kind of stalled. The reason was that I had no reason to have two computers right next to each other. The challenge with the Linux system is that it is 32 bit and using today’s software is kind of a project for each item you want to use. I thought that I might try moving it over to the loading bench where I might use it for electronic logging of load data, research or streaming while I was working.
My main setback was that I didn’t have another monitor for it since I was using the KVM originally. I have been on the lookout for a used 27″ monitor and I can shift everything down on my work setup. I struck gold on one at Goodwill for $15 last summer but haven’t found another deal like that. Well, I happened across a free 24″ monitor last week. I am not saying this is how it will stay as I still wanted a same size monitor, but really it works and the price is right.
I have had it setup for a couple of days and we will see how well it really works. I noticed streaming some music that it was sometimes choppy. I wonder if I am reaching the hardware limitations as I think there is only 2GB of RAM and the processor is from 2005. Since the computer was slated for recycling, so far there is no cost in trying out the setup.
Now that I have two turntables, I have stepped up my scanning for deals on receivers and speakers. My plan is to have a setup together by my son’s birthday in July. But, I guess I can’t control my cheapness mantra on the project. I scan Craigslist every couple of days as well as stop into second hand shops when convenient. These speakers I saw in town for $30.
The other thing I was thinking about was having a second set of speakers so that we can setup music for family events and not have to move everything. I really haven’t decided if these tower speakers I will use or I will swap out for the existing bookshelf speakers or even keep both. Ideally, I would find bookshelf speakers for my kid’s setup. Ultimately, it is going to depend on where my stereo system eventually lands.
End Your Programming Routine: I suppose that there are more harmful things in life then buying used junk. But, everybody needs some purpose in life. Mine seems to be collecting stuff that I don’t really need. That being said I guess I find it fun. It appeals to my thriftiness and sense of environmental conservation. If I can get something that should last my lifetime for 5-10% of its initial cost, it is preferable by a long way to simply purchasing new things.
Our electric range is on its last legs. We have rebuilt the cassettes, replaced circuit boards etc. Not only does the electronics randomly fritz out but parts are starting to become not available. We have been talking about replacing it because it has been loved to death.
There are two issues, it is a downdraft and therefore needs to be replaced with another of the same style (or completely remodel the kitchen) and it is built into the cabinets, so measurements are important. With that, we have been dragging our feet because it is going to be an expensive proposition.
The two eight inch burners (the big ones) have become very spotty lately. Both of them are crap shoots as to whether they will work this time or not. Sometimes, I will spend five minutes jiggling the burner until it finally works. They also sometimes cut out while cooking, this is very difficult to deal with because everything is hot for so long afterward.
I decided to order some generic replacement coils because we needed our range to prepare Easter dinner and I was tired of gambling. It turns out that this was also a gamble because the coils did not fit into the stove. I didn’t have time to return them and see if I could find something else, I went to modifying the setup so that it works.
While this was nearly an exact match of the old one, there were a couple of differences. One, the tabs where the burner plugged in was about a quarter of an inch longer than the last one. This pushed the support structure too far out. I decided to cut the support structure rather than the plug in ends. This I did with a hacksaw. I also had to grind the notch deeper after I cut off the excess.
That burner fit. The second one, I also had to cut off a quarter of an inch off the plugs. Before I did all that work, I plugged them in to make sure they work, which they did. Otherwise, I would have had to return them before modification. Now I have working burners again.
This was less than ideal. Obviously, I didn’t want to spend a hour modifying these burners when they were supposed to fit in the first place. However, I was tired of the old ones stopping while I was trying to use them. Was it worth the effort, probably. Was it worth the cost savings, probably not. An hour of my time more than paid for the difference between generics vs Whirlpool/Jenn air burners.
End Your Programming Routine: People forget that there is also a cost in returning items. For me, the return point is almost half an hour away. I am generally an OEM guy for these reasons, it is cheaper in the long run. My logic was that I didn’t want to invest in something that was going away. But, what is the cost of not being able to cook? Certainly a few meals out would recover that anyway.
When I worked in environmental chemistry. We has an entire lab filled with instruments that used scientific grade gas 24/7 whether we were running tests or not. We had an entire bank of cylinders because we wanted redundancy and not to come in on the weekends.
A leak meant lost analysis time, wasted money and potentially even a compromised sample. They weren’t common but they did happen. When we changed cylinders we did them three at a time. Leaks are serious business in chemical manufacturing but they are something the regular person should know about as well.
What is driving this today? This is triggered by my keg testing. One of the simplest, cheapest and best ways is to do this is use a soap solution. Of course, the this is only works when the piping is under pressure. The good news is that vacuum lines are pretty rare.
When new plumbing is installed, the system is first sealed and pressurized. The system is left overnight and pressure loss is measured overnight. Any amount of loss is clearly a leak. What happens next? You have to find the leak.
The first place to check is all of the fittings or joints. Ninety-nine percent of the time, a leak is sourced from a poor connection. Glued in joints have to be cut and replaced. Screwed in fittings may have too much tape or not enough or are not supposed to have any thread sealant. Compression fittings may be tightened to much or not enough depending on whether they have rubber o-rings or not. Ferrule type fittings sometimes the ferrule is not seated properly. Those have to be replaced.
There are gas detectors for propane or natural gas. Liquids are often observable as drips. As I said above, my go to is a soap solution. The one in the picture below I purchased because I wanted some kind of applicator so I didn’t make a mess all over the place. You can look up recipes online but essentially is is a very dilute soap and water solution. Escaping gas forces bubbles to form at the location of the leak.
To use, open the bottle. It has an applicator brush like PVC cement. You simply wipe the solution around the fitting or suspected area of a leak and look for bubbles. I wanted to check all of the fittings around the regulator and gas lines because I was unsure as to the viability of all the gaskets and O-rings. Turns out that I didn’t find any leaks.
End Your Programming Routine: Leaks can be expensive. But more so than that they are inconvenient. Gas suppliers are open Monday through Friday, 8-5. Imagine that you are in the middle of your party and you lose your CO2. That would be a bummer. It would probably be a good idea to get a second tank for that reason. But again, this is still an experiment at this stage. If I decide to make a full commitment, then I will definitely get a second tank.
My kids have been into music for a little while now. Recently, they have shown a big interest in vinyl. In fact, the record player I talked about a few months ago was spotted by my son at a second hand store. They have been talking about having their own hi-fi setups in their rooms. During Spring Break, we stopped into a local record shop and one of my son’s bought a record. My other son bought a record at a second hand store.
One of my sons has a periodic appointment. If I get the chance, I slink away to the local Goodwill while I am killing time. There is a lot of junk but there is also some really good deals on vintage audio equipment. In this era of sound bars and Bluetooth speakers, quality equipment is passé. I have seen many of stereo receiver for $15-$25, literally pennies on the dollar versus original cost.
I have my eyes open for some alternate speakers and since I don’t really need them, I am being very choosy. When I see the right deal, I will eventually buy them. I have lately been thinking that since my kids are interested, that I could build them their own systems, one piece at a time. I saw this turntable marked at $12 so I thought it was worth a chance.
The last time I hesitated, I missed out on a Technics turntable that only needed a stylus (needle). It was pricey at $100, but I have seen many of them for sale at at least double the cost, depending on the model. So, I grabbed this one when I saw it. Goodwill does a minimal amount of testing. They make sure the device at least powers on. I figured that the price was pretty low risk if it didn’t work.
It turns out, this one also needed a new stylus. I bought a replacement at $22 and then I went for the real test. Setting it up, I found out that the other problem was two of the four rubber feet were missing and the remaining are rotten (bad rubber). That is why I have the clippers wedged underneath the table. I am planning on getting some replacement feet in the $10-$20 range and this old turntable will be back in business.
It played great. I put on Tom Petty and my son’s records and everything was perfect. I suppose all in, this will be a $50 purchase but a vintage player in today’s dollars is a way better than anything I can buy new at the same price.
End Your Programming Routine: I suppose I am in now on building individual stereo setups. This player won’t work without an amplifier. I need a receiver and some bookshelf speakers. Those are both much easier to find than a good turntable. Now, I am in the market for a third turntable as well.
This saying was an inside joke for a number of years. What it really meant was that Friday was a day that higher ups were gone and the workers were stuck in the muck. Really, it was someone else’s fun day, not mine. But, since we have had a number of weeks of heavy stuff on Fridays, I am going to stay light today.
What then shall we talk about? How about tool repair? You can find ax, hammer, maul, sledge, hatchet, etc heads at garage sales, second hand stores and even free. This is where this one came from. My son hauled it home from some job that he had. He proceeded to pour vinegar on it and there it set for months.
I didn’t know this but apparently, vinegar is a good rust remover. The problem is, the surface needs to be treated to it doesn’t re-rust. That is where it is at again, very rusty. I may someday spend some time with a wire wheel or something and try to paint it or even wax it but for now, I just put a new handle on it.
The first step is to select the appropriate replacement handle. This splitting maul required a round head to fit properly. This is also the right handle for the sledge hammer. The options are wood and fiberglass. I like fiberglass in a lot of cases, I think that they weather better if you are going to leave tools out in the elements (not really recommended, but it happens). The attachment is slower, using epoxy which needs to cure. Wood is quicker, cheaper and traditional.
Once the tool head is seated on the handle, you then drive the wood wedge into the handle. This wedge forces the handle tight to the tool head. Note: most sledges and mauls leave the tip of the handle out from the top of tool head. I am not totally sure of why, but I suspect that it lets the head slip a little when splitting. Also note that the wedge is oversized and must be trimmed or split in order to be hammered in correctly.
I chose to trim the excess off. I don’t have any at the moment, but I like to pour epoxy in the hole. I feel like it make a better bond of the tool head to the handle. I have observed older handles eventually wearing to where the head comes off again. This technique helps last longer I feel. Finally, hammer the steel wedge perpendicular to the wooden wedge. This will help lock all the pieces together.
Now, I have another working splitting maul. Lets talk about the economics of the situation. I paid $13 for the replacement handle. I checked a couple of sources (box stores) and I found handles running $20. I also checked the cost of a replacement. The cheapest one I saw was near $40. A comparable model with hickory (or ash) handle was $67.
I already have a maul, why would I want another one, especially if I rarely use it? Remember two is one and one is none. But also, I have come around to having duplicate yard tools because I can have more than one person doing work, if needed. At least for me, it gets the tool head off the floor and makes a useful tool. I think the $13 was also worth the cost of the topic as well.
End Your Programming Routine: Let’s be honest, I probably didn’t need another splitting maul. In fact, I gave away one when I was cleaning up my father-in-law’s estate last summer. But, I was stuck with this one since my son brought it home. I will probably hold onto it and give it to him when it is time. Knowing how to fix tools is an important skill if you ever live rurally and it can save you time and/or money.
I had a busy weekend. It seems like I always have 20 things to get done in 10 items worth of time. At least, we didn’t have anything scheduled so I was free to spend the majority of my time on stuff that needed to get done. Something that has been bugging me for several years was that our deep freezer needed to be defrosted.
After last summer, we cleaned out my in-laws freezer (20 cubic ft, which was completely full) I could barely fit the contents in our freezer. It was not like it was particularly full, but the usable space was probably reduced by at least a third due to ice buildup. This wasn’t new news to me, It just put it in perspective that something needed to be done.
The worst time to defrost the freezer is when it is full. The second worst time to do it is in the summer, unless it is completely empty, then of course it is the best time. I was giving it some time to get emptied out, but I also wanted to get it done before it was warm. Not too warm, because I needed to transfer everything to coolers while I executed the process.
We bought this freezer for $50 in 2005. In fact, we used the U-Haul that we were moving stuff from the storage unit to our house to pick it up. So, it has been plugged in since that time and this is the first time I have ever defrosted it. There have been a few times over the years that the door wasn’t shut which is what started the ice growth in the first place.
Can I be honest? This is probably the best $50 ever invested. The amount of money we have saved by buying beef at $2 / pound when the going rate was $4 for hamburger, we have literally saved thousands of dollars and ate like kings. There is hardly a day that the door is not opened. Additionally, we have frozen berries on sheets and temporarily housed stuff for others. For me, a freezer is a must have.
We have to talk about the science of freezing for a minute. When ice melts, we know it turns into water. That water is 32 degrees (or a hair higher). In effect, it insulates the remaining ice as long as it is in contact, considering the outside temperature is 55 degrees. Why is this important? It means that the first step in defrosting is physical removal of as much ice as possible. Not only is this less total mass to melt, but it translates to speeding up the time dramatically.
That seems straight forward. I used a hammer and a wide putty knife to try and get under the ice that is caked in the coils. You need to be very careful not to damage the coil or you will have a ruined freezer. In my case I had ice above and below the shelves so I tried to chisel in the putty knife and lift.
Your best friend in defrosting is actually the ambient temperature. This is partially why I waited until spring was showing to do this. The other tool I used was a heat gun. This worked really well in melting small spots and places frozen around the tubing but it was slow. Literally, all of the freezer was dripping and melting while I concentrated on a small area with the heat gun.
You want to get all the water out. That will just re-freeze and begin the whole cycle over. So, I washed the dried blood out (that was from putting a whole fresh beef head in the freezer last year) and the sticky who knows what. Then I took a dry towel and absorbed any drops I could find.
All told, this probably took 12 hours to do. I did leave for four hours in the middle to attend the gun show. While I was gone, the ice was melting away just sitting there. I also took the opportunity to clean the outside and sweep all the junk from behind and under the freezer. For some reason, there was a lot of dog food. In fact, I even found dog food in the freezer. I am not sure how that got there, but I suspect the kids had something to do with it.
It doesn’t look like that much ice in the picture. This made being able to stack two pounds of burger to now being able to stack four pounds. Granted, it wasn’t that bad on every shelf but the top shelf I had already removed all of the top ice before I took the picture. In that case, I could only stack one whole chicken high. The other added problem was that the surface was not level and stuff had a tendency to slide or fall out if not precariously organized.
My mom used to defrost the freezer once every couple of years. We tended to fill it and then empty it growing up. In my case, inventory is constantly ebbing and flowing which makes it harder. One more tip, we didn’t have a heat gun so she would use the blower exhaust from the vacuum. It doesn’t get nearly as hot, but it does push a lot of volume of air. Finally, be prepared for water everywhere. Have towels and catch basins available. I did it in the garage, so the wet wasn’t a problem but a finished floor would have been a disaster.
End Your Programming Routine: I am happy this is done and I am glad that I spent my time on it. I can see everything and I have a lot more room. Like I said, this is something I have been wanting to do for years. Maybe I won’t wait so long next time (or maybe I wont have kids that don’t close the door properly). And, everything was still rock solid in my coolers when I went to put it away – no extra mess.
I had a good weekend. This was the first time I had Martin Luther King Jr day off since 1997. The weather was OK so consequently, I got some pruning and yard work done. I also got some work in the shop done, this was one of the projects I worked on.
About a week ago, I talked about my son’s bicycle problems. I communicated with the factory, and they weren’t going to touch this problem with a five foot pole (as I suspected). So, I went ahead and bypassed the factory switch. Here’s how it was done.
End Your Programming Routine: The repair took a little over an hour, the video slowed me down quite a bit. Then I have spent another hour editing this to get it where it is, so this is it for today. Keep looking for ways to reject the status quo in your life. Fix that battery.
Recent Comments