Catching Up In The New Year

I really would like to post more. Maybe I’ll make that a resolution. Nah, that never works. But here are some recent pictures.

Felice wanted n electric pencil sharpener because the kids were driving her insane with pencil issues. I looked online and all the reviews of current offerings were poor. So I found one for $3.00 at Goodwill. It worked but was a bit slow and rattle-y so I took it apart.

Made in the USA.

Full of shavings in the housing.

This was the cause of all the problems, plastic (some cheap pencils are plastic coated) wrapped around the cutter bearing. Cleaned it up.

Works fine now.

I have an old battery tester (for AA, etc. batteries) that was becoming a bear to use, seemed like the probes weren’t making good contact.

How many products come with schematics anymore?
This was the problem, the lead was poorly soldered to the probe tip and the cable was corroded inside the insulation. So it needed replacement.
I mounted some banana jacks to the case.

The whole circuit is on the rotary switch.

Works fine now and can use standard test probes.

I finally whipped up a 3V voltage regulator for the Monotron fake modular synth. Now it can be powered from a 9V DC power source (I have one on my music desk for pedals and such).

Charlotte is always injuring herself playing sports to make her more healthy. She had me make a flip out key lever so she can start her van.

I try not to take free monitors in need of repair, but this Dell monitor worked but the menu buttons didn’t. The flat cable had cracked connections where it was soldered to the button panel. I scraped back the insulation and tacked on some 30 ga. wire to bridge the gaps. Easy fix!

We had a bit of ice dumped on us for the new year.

I made a cork record mat to replace the extremely slippery one that came with the MCS turntable I was gifted a while back. Records sound better with a little torque behind them.

Culling tools I never use, I decided to take apart this non-functioning wire stripper.
Made in Malta!
Sadly the rubber that springs the individual jaw teeth around the wire is decomposed. Maybe I’ll try to replace it or maybe I’ll throw it away. Not sure yet.
Put it all in a bag for later…

I made a lot of latkes (potato pancakes) over the holiday.