Fixit Log

[Sclass]

Replaced a window pane.

Could have saved $10 if I’d cut the glass myself. I let the kid at the hardware store do it since I’d misplaced my glass cutter since last time.

So when I finished the window (33”x31”) I was out $42. Not sure what I saved over calling a window shop. I paid inflated prices for the materials since it was at the mom and pop hardware store near the house and not Home Depot. Driving half a mile instead of 7 miles is convenient. Also this place was old fashioned. The cashier helped carry the pane to my car. Made me realize there’s more to a deal than the lowest possible price.

My work is ugly but it’ll hold. I never mastered smooth glazing knife work. I think I pulled the knife too fast. By the time I figured it out I was done. I’ll forget by the time I get hit again.

[J_]

Waxing my cross country ski's on my balcony

With an hot electric iron I drip wax on the ski (left one) and thereafter I iron it into the surface of the ski (right one)


The wax, scrapers and two brushes


Scraping off the superfluous wax

idem;


Brushing to smooth the surface further

[theanimal]

I've always been really bad with phones. I drop them, lose them, drown them etc. So when I dropped my phone some 8 months ago and cracked the screen it was no big deal. It was still functional and I carried on with a broken screen. On Friday I dropped it again and the screen became like the picture below, inoperable except for the ability to make calls.



In the past I probably would have gotten a new (to me) phone, from eBay or friends/family. I did have one friend offer to give me his old phone. But instead I ordered a replacement screen with the appropriate toolkit for $45 including shipping.

The kit arrived today. I followed an excellent Youtube tutorial, which had me removing the cables connected to the home button, removing the speaker/camera/sensors and misc cables then reattaching them to the new screen.



The whole process took about 45 minutes and voila, good as new. Not very challenging at all. The most difficult thing was removing and not losing the teeny, tiny screws.

[Sclass]

Nice work.

[Quadalupe]

I have a macbook air from 2013. It still works great, but the power cords were deteriorating from years of bending, causing frayed power cables, causing my macbook air to not recharge anymore. A new charger from Apple is $85, a knock-off brand $30. I used $0.01 worth of electrical tape to fix it and it's working perfectly again!

[Chris]

I have a macbook air from 2013. It still works great, but the power cords were deteriorating from years of bending

Apple is partly to blame for this. Firstly, the power cable is very thin. I'm looking at mine now, plugged-in next to a standard USB cable... the power cable is thinner, while carrying 8x the power! Secondly, the design is poor for actually wrapping the cable, as it encourages tight winding and bending the segment of the cable where it enters the power brick. The adapter for the new models is better, with the cable carrying DC being detachable from the brick (and therefore replaceable).

Good move to avoid going with a knockoff replacement; your tape solution is probably safer than the knockoff adapter.

[Slevin]

Good move to avoid going with a knockoff replacement; your tape solution is probably safer than the knockoff adapter.

Agree with you about Apple og quality of chargers having garbage cables but how did you reach this conclusion from there? Definitely electrical tape >> buying new things but if you buy a new charger don’t get one from Apple.

A standard macbook charger is a pretty simple part, and most of those “knockoff” brands make considerably better cables than Apple. Most of the 3rd party braided and durable high quality cables cost like $5 / pop and will outlast the phone. And the charger is just going to output a wattage that is then going to be taken in by the cable, so buying a compatible modular power charger for much less money from any of the reputable 3rd party brands (anker, platinum from Best Buy, I’m not familiar with european power block brands) is gonna be a better value. And since the cords are changeable (I.e. you can also use it to charge your phone after the laptop dies or whenever you need it) and more durable, and it is basically incomparable.

Sorry for the rant but Apple makes infamously bad and single use charging cables, and with their phones these days gives out a barely usable charger (if you even get one at all).

[Sclass]

I have a little experience repairing lightning cables for iphones. I bought some cheap cables and destroyed the power distribution chip in my iPhone 6s. I never was able to fix it because multiple failures occurred on the motherboard. I looked into it a bit more and found that the official cables have regulation at the lightning plug. Because the current sourcing capacity of the iPad chargers can be higher than 2A and the inrush currents can be high during connection, it’s necessary to include some active circuits at the plug itself. The cheap cables don’t do this.

There is some kind of certification process the cables have to go through by Apple…forgot what it’s called. Your good aftermarket cables should have these certifications. I suspect they do a transient test during connection to check for overshoot among other things.

So from then on I’ve repaired my old cables. And yeah, wow, what did they make that soft rubber cable from anyway? Tissue paper? It must have been selected for feel by their ID team. Because it is the lousiest stuff.

I use things like this to fix my cables. Along with these I slip a split drinking straw, a spring, split vacuum hose etc. over the cable and fill it in with hot glue.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1669452

[Chris]

Agree with you about Apple og quality of chargers having garbage cables but how did you reach this conclusion from there?
...
A standard macbook charger is a pretty simple part, and most of those “knockoff” brands make considerably better cables than Apple. Most of the 3rd party braided and durable high quality cables cost like $5 / pop and will outlast the phone. ... And since the cords are changeable (I.e. you can also use it to charge your phone after the laptop dies or whenever you need it)

I was specifically referring to the 2013 Magsafe adapter that Quadalupe is using, as I use the same. I like Anker, don't *think* they make a Magsafe 2 adapter with a detachable cable.
As far as other third-party brands, I'm wary, since most knockoff bricks tend to physically weigh less. Basic rule of thumb for power supplies: if two models have the same form factor and output the same wattage, go with the heavier one, because the lighter one is missing something: heatsink, shielding, fuses, etc.

[Slevin]

I was specifically referring to the 2013 Magsafe adapter that Quadalupe is using, as I use the same. I like Anker, don't *think* they make a Magsafe 2 adapter with a detachable cable.
As far as other third-party brands, I'm wary, since most knockoff bricks tend to physically weigh less. Basic rule of thumb for power supplies: if two models have the same form factor and output the same wattage, go with the heavier one, because the lighter one is missing something: heatsink, shielding, fuses, etc.

Agree, I don’t think they have the detachable cable MagSafe adapters.

Also, interesting point about the knockoff bricks that I hadn’t heard before, I’ll have to keep it in mind for next time.

[Sclass]

Went down the rabbit hole of MacBook fake power bricks. This was interesting. The real unit is a far more sophisticated design.

http://www.righto.com/2016/03/counterfe ... rdown.html

And

http://www.righto.com/2015/11/macbook-c ... ising.html

Better buy the real thing. The designers of the Power management on the motherboard are actually in communication with the power supply team. They actually have to work together for a high performance design like this. The aftermarket is kind of a DC power supply without a lot of thought put into the downstream requirements (transient being the most important) aside from providing a constant voltage in a specified current range.

In some power supply designs I’ve been able to reduce weight by increasing switching frequency. This is a free way to boost efficiency and do away with heavy heat sinks, heavy weight circuit boards etc. The penalty is radiated emissions violations with FCC, TUV and CE. The counterfeit people don’t care about these regulators and just stamp their logos on their wall adapter and ship it. Switching efficiency has had double digit gains over my career and it is kind of a silent revolution that has changed electronics in an unappreciated way for the better. Less heat, cheaper heat dissipation schemes, compact sizes and lower weight.

Less weight isn’t always an indication of a worse design. But, yes…in the case of these MacBook knockoffs it is. In the fake it looks like they’re dumping heat to the mains of the wall socket. While this is clever it’s unorthodox and potentially dangerous. I may be wrong but I suspect it isn’t UL approved.

[Sclass]

Fixed my leaking toilet tank. My tank developed a drip. Unbolted and replaced the little rubber seal around the bolt. Replaced the tank to pedestal seal too while I was in there.

The only clever thing to mention is how to remove the bolt. I’ve struggled with seat bolts, pedestal bolts, tank bolts over the years because they’re always rusted. This time I resolved to just destroy the bolt without even bothering to attempt unscrewing it.

Order of attack 1) bolt cutters to split the nut, 2) Dremel tool with cutoff wheel to cut off nut. Got it off in ten minutes with two types of bolt cutters. 10” and 8” (tiny Knipex Cobolt cutters). Didn’t need the Dremel.

These little cutters are extremely high leverage and the metal is unbelievably hard. They can cut a spring. Expensive but worth every penny. Blows away cheap disposable cutters made of butter metal. I’ve been using these around three years and they show no wear on the cutting jaws. Kind of a luxury but after spending a lifetime using cheap cutters I decided to invest in these.

If used properly I believe these cutter will outlast cheap pairs. They cost about 5x as much as a cheap cutters but I don’t think one can even compare a tool that properly cuts to a tool that gets destroyed on the first cut. I recommend buying only one pair - the ones in the last photo which are he most versatile.

Kept the plumber out of my pocket again for $6.

[Slevin]

Oh you've reminded me with pictures about metal cutters of a problem I have.

I have a piece of soft sheet metal (could be tin) in my house that is used as trim (its dyed or patina'd or something to look like brass) that I had to replace a piece of, but my problem is my replacement piece is too large, and I need to trim one of the edges in a straight line that actually looks good and ends up not being super sharp (as it is the edge of a trim piece). Anyone have any ideas on how to accomplish this? I tried Nice tin snips, but the edge still ends up a little roughed up, as well as a circular saw with a metal blade (which also ends up tearing up the metal and leaving me with a non-clean cut).

[Sclass]

This is a tough one. The snips deform the edge a bit. I love aviation snips but they have a slightly serrated edge.

Just thinking is it possible to double stick tape it to a piece of wood or foam core board then cut it with your circular saw using an abrasive disk saw?

[basuragomi]

Fold the edge over with an improvised sheet brake, cut with tin snips, clamp it tight. Much safer than an exposed edge if the fitment allows for it and gives leeway for a ragged edge.

Alternatively you could attach a rotary tool with cutting disk to a sled/table and move it back and forth across the material or vice versa.

[jacob]

Anyone have any ideas on how to accomplish this? I tried Nice tin snips, but the edge still ends up a little roughed up, as well as a circular saw with a metal blade (which also ends up tearing up the metal and leaving me with a non-clean cut).

I'd clamp a piece of wood near the edge on the other side for support (maybe not necessary). Then draw file the edge.

[Ego]

Today Mr. Twofingers had this. $2.



I frequently find things like this that may or may not work. The batteries are dead and the charger was not included.

I was thinking of getting one of those cheap adjustable DC power supplies and an adapter with a variety of charging plugs. One of the amazon return sellers often has them. Something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Variable-Adjusta ... B0785KXKC1

I also have a bike with electric shifting with a dead battery and no charger. That one costs $175. I figured I could charge the battery and be able to show that it works then sell it as "charger not included", saving me from investing in chargers for broken electronics. Any reason why this would be dumb?

[Sclass]

Hah!

Nice radio. I assume it works on the 2M ham bands?

Funny I was just working on these today. I retrofitted 18650 rechargeable batteries years ago. Thought I’d use them in an emergency situation. They standby forever on these big cells. I gave up on sourcing the original NiMH batteries. The electronics are still good and the radios have good audio quality with clear voice signals. These radios must be 20 years old.

Anyhow today I pulled them out of my bag and the rubber antennas had hardened up and they shattered in my fingers. Apparently this is common when I checked spirit GT radios on eBay today. Few have the original antenna. I guess nothing lasts forever. Funny I checked the batteries and they’re still fully charged after many years of sitting on the shelf. I’m 3d printing some black plastic antenna covers right now.

Somehow the skills threads and Ukraine got me thinking about these things.

[Ego]

I researched the correct charger for the radio and found that it is 12v 5a but I thought it may be a device that can deal with lower voltage. I had another charger with the same plug but it is only 6v. I plugged it in and the radio works perfectly. The batteries show that they are charger but the radio shuts off moments after I remove the charger. So it must need new batteries. Looks like ebay has them for $16.99 f/s. At that price would it be worth the frankenbattery solution?

[Sclass]

Hey my antenna cover worked. It probably isn't that durable but it looks a lot better than the coiled spring. I guess I'll keep these radios for the zombie apocalypse.

@Ego your transceiver uses a pretty simple plug. I think it was designed to run out of a car. 12V. You just need to find a 12V wall wart and matching jack for it. I would try to convert it to 18650 and put it up on the shelf for the upcoming disaster of choice. The $16.99 battery is likely NiMH and it sucks. It'll die and won't hold a charge on the shelf. I would convert it, or sell it as "tested working needs battery".

I bet it works. Yaesu is a pretty good brand. Amazing there is a demand for those handhelds considering chinese BaoFengs can be had for $30 new with modern lithium ion batteries.