Category: Home Ec

Things around the home & hearth

Screen Door Handle Repositioning

For unknown reasons, the handle on the porch screen door was installed less than one finger width from the frame, so I conjured a pair of plastic plates shifting it far enough to prevent finger pinches and avoid the screws for the outside handle:

Porch door handle repositioning

The original holes now have M4 threaded wood inserts and the holes in the ¼ inch acrylic have M4 heat-staked brass inserts, mostly because I had everything on hand.

This was part of a project to trim the bottom of the door to clear the porch floor boards, which evidently continued warping after they trimmed the door to fit:

Porch door trimming

That thin blue line suggests the highest part of the floor was once near the bottom of the picture, but it’s now the lowest part. The highest part is now near the hinge side near the top of the picture, firmly jamming the door in place.

Works great now!

2025-06-09
Pepper Mill: End of Life

So I finally took our pepper mill apart to see why it was having trouble grinding peppercorns:

Pepper mill wear

It was a wedding present and, nigh onto half a century later, it’s all worn out.

Its replacement surely won’t survive so long, even with ceramic innards, but I may not notice.

2025-06-05
Shower Head Hose Clamp

The new shower head’s hose dangled directly in front of the faucet knob, so I conjured a simple clamp to pull the down-going half over to the side of the stall and keep the up-going half away from the faucet:

Shower head hose clamp – installed

The black nylon M6 screw goes into a hole tapped in the plastic cap atop the aluminum extrusion; I was mildly surprised that worked as well as I hoped. It’s basically invisible from outside the shower stall.

Stipulated: laser-cut 3 mm acrylic probably isn’t the right material for the job, but it’s a quick & easy way to discover if that’s the right place to clamp the hose.

While installing those two pieces, it occurred to me the result would be much stronger if the two “jaws” overlapped and had a pair of screws holding them together, so the LightBurn layout includes that idea for the next time:

Shower Head Hose Clamp – LightBurn layout

The Hole Template simplified getting the hole dead center in the plastic cap, because drilling it required an awkward reach across the end of the vanity.

There is zero chance this will fit your shower & hose, but now you have the general idea.

2025-06-03

HQ Sixteen: Nose Ring Lights

We don’t know what the proper term might be for this part of the machine, but it looks sorta like a nose and the lights form most of a ring around it, so I’m going with “Nose Ring Lights”:

The general idea is to put more light on the quilt than the Chin Light, which looked pretty good until the COB LED strip started flickering as the LEDs failed.

Handi-Quilter sells a ring light for machines manufactured a decade later than ours, but it uses a built-in USB jack this machine lacks.

One of two (apparently) unused M4 holes on the left side of the machine frame suggested a mounting point for a 3D printed bracket:

HQ Sixteen Nose Ring Lights - solid model — HQ Sixteen Nose Ring Lights – solid model

The ramp matches the 3° (-ish) mold draft of the machine frame, which I initially ignored by angling the tab, but a tilted frame looked awful; it’s now aligned with local horizontal..

A few iterations got all the pieces & holes in their proper places:

HQ Sixteen Nose Ring lights - iterations — HQ Sixteen Nose Ring lights – iterations

The smaller (rampless) bracket has three LED strips, but a quick test showed more light would be better:

HQ Sixteen Nose Ring lights - bottom view — HQ Sixteen Nose Ring lights – bottom view

The lack of a transparent-ish cover is obviously unsuitable for a commercial product, but the key design goal is to not interfere with spreading as much light as possible across as much of the quilt as possible. The black JB Weld Plastic Bonder blobs keep the 24 VDC supply out of harm’s way, which is as good as it needs to be for now.

The bracket has three sides, because the right side of the machine has all the thread guide hardware. Putting anything over there seemed likely to interfere with either thread movement or fingers making adjustments.

Fortunately, the wider bracket doesn’t stick out too far beyond the machine frame and the doubled LED strips create a much smoother light pool:

HQ Sixteen Nose Ring lights - left front view — HQ Sixteen Nose Ring lights – left front view

Yes, the quilt is focused and the LED frame is blurred.

The larger light-emitting area reduces the shadow under the left rod (supporting the ruler foot) enough to be unobjectionable.

A 0.2 mm layer thickness transforms the smooth ramp into stair steps:

HQ Sixteen Nose Ring Lights - PrusaSlicer — HQ Sixteen Nose Ring Lights – PrusaSlicer

They’re inconspicuous after the bracket is installed.

The Chin Light ran on 12 V and these strips require 24 V, so the OpenSCAD code creates a pair of endcaps for the new supply, which is of course completely different than the old supply. Setting that up must await quilt completion.

The OpenSCAD source code as a GitHub Gist:

	// HQ Sixteen Nose Ring Lights
	// Ed Nisley – KE4ZNU
	// 2025-05-23

	include <BOSL2/std.scad>

	Layout = "Show"; // [Show,Build,NosePlan,PowerCap]

	// Number of side-by-side LED strips
	Strips = 2;

	/* [Hidden] */

	HoleWindage = 0.2;
	Protrusion = 0.1;
	NumSides = 334;

	$fn=NumSides;

	ID = 0;
	OD = 1;
	LENGTH = 2;

	Gap = 5.0;

	WallThick = 5.0; // default thickness for things

	NoseRadius = 6.0; // corner roundoff

	NoseOA = [44.0,36.5]; // overall nose size
	NoseAngles = [87,87]; // front & rear inward angles wrt left side

	NoseCenters = [ // centers of circles defining the nose corners
	[NoseRadius, NoseOA.y/2 – NoseRadius],
	[NoseRadius,-(NoseOA.y/2 – NoseRadius)],
	[NoseOA.x – NoseRadius, NoseOA.y/2 – NoseRadius – (NoseOA.x – 2NoseRadius)tan(90 – NoseAngles[0])],
	[NoseOA.x – NoseRadius,-(NoseOA.y/2 – NoseRadius – (NoseOA.x – 2NoseRadius)tan(90 – NoseAngles[1]))],
	];

	LEDMargin = 1.0;
	LEDStrip = [41.5 + LEDMargin,8.0 + LEDMargin,1.8 + 0.2]; // 24 V COB LED strip unit + windage
	LEDBaseOA = [LEDStrip.x + StripsLEDStrip.y,NoseOA.y + 2Strips*LEDStrip.y,WallThick]; // LED mount

	DraftAngle = 3.0; // angle of frame wrt horizontal at right end of nose
	DraftWedge = [NoseOA.x,NoseOA.y + 2LEDStrip.y,NoseOA.xtan(DraftAngle)];

	HoleOffset = [-10.0,5.5,DraftWedge.z + 10.0]; // from left front corner of nose
	HolePosition = HoleOffset + [0,-NoseOA.y/2,WallThick]; // absolute coordinates from origin

	Screw = [4.0 + HoleWindage,9.0,2.0]; // LENGTH=button head

	Bracket = [WallThick,Screw[OD] + 4.0,HoleOffset.z + Screw[OD/2] + 2.0 + WallThick];

	Supply = [46.0,30.0,21.0]; // 24 VDC power supply
	SupplyScrewOffset = 5.0; // … M4 screw hole from end of supply case

	CapWall = 3.0;
	CapRadius = CapWall – 1.0;
	CapInset = 1.0;
	CapOA = [20.0,Supply.y + 2*CapWall,Supply.z + CapWall]; // x & y to cover existing holes

	//———-
	// Define Shapes

	//—– 2D outline of nose piece just under frame casting

	module NosePlan() {
	hull()
	for (p = NoseCenters)
	translate(p) circle(r=NoseRadius);
	}

	//—– LED mounting plate

	module Mount() {

	union() {
	difference() {
	union() {
	right(LEDBaseOA.x/2 – Strips*LEDStrip.y)
	cuboid(LEDBaseOA,rounding=WallThick/2,except=BOTTOM,anchor=BOTTOM);
	up(LEDBaseOA.z) left(-HoleOffset.x/2)
	yrot(DraftAngle)
	cuboid(DraftWedge,rounding=WallThick/2,edges="Z",anchor=LEFT+BOTTOM);
	}
	down(Protrusion)
	linear_extrude(LEDBaseOA.z + DraftWedge.z + Protrusion)
	NosePlan();
	if (Strips > 1)
	translate([HolePosition.x – Bracket.x/2,HolePosition.y – Bracket.y,-Protrusion])
	cyl(LEDBaseOA.z + 2*Protrusion,d=4.0,anchor=BOTTOM);
	}
	difference() {
	union() {
	translate([HolePosition.x,HolePosition.y,(Bracket.x/2)*sin(DraftAngle)])
	left(Bracket.x)
	cuboid(Bracket,rounding=WallThick/2,edges=LEFT,anchor=BOTTOM+LEFT);
	translate([HolePosition.x – Bracket.x/2,HolePosition.y,0]) // rounding filler
	cuboid([LEDStrip.y,Bracket.y,WallThick],anchor=BOTTOM+LEFT);
	}
	translate(HolePosition)
	xrot(180/6) xcyl(l=NoseOA.x,d=Screw[ID],$fn=6);
	}
	}
	}

	//—– Endcap for power supply

	module EndCap() {

	difference() {
	cuboid(CapOA,rounding=CapRadius,except=BOTTOM,anchor=LEFT+BOTTOM);
	right(CapOA.x – CapWall) down(Protrusion)
	cuboid(Supply + [0,0,Protrusion],anchor=RIGHT+BOTTOM);
	right(CapInset + SupplyScrewOffset)
	zcyl(l=2*CapOA.z,d=Screw[ID],$fn=6,anchor=BOTTOM);
	}

	}


	//———-
	// Build things

	if (Layout == "NosePlan") {
	NosePlan();
	}

	if (Layout == "PowerCap") {
	EndCap();
	}

	if (Layout == "Show") {
	Mount();

	ctr = 80;
	ofs = Supply.x/2 – CapInset;
	left(ctr – ofs)
	EndCap();
	left(ctr + ofs)
	xflip()
	EndCap();
	color("Silver",0.6)
	left (ctr)
	cuboid(Supply,anchor=BOTTOM);
	}

	if (Layout == "Build") {
	Mount();
	back((LEDBaseOA.y + CapOA.y)/2 + Gap) right(Gap) up(CapOA.z) zflip()
	EndCap();
	back((LEDBaseOA.y + CapOA.y)/2 + Gap) left(Gap) zrot(180) up(CapOA.z) zflip()
	EndCap();
	}

view raw HQ Sixteen Nose Ring Lights.scad hosted with ❤ by GitHub

2025-05-30

HQ Sixteen: Chin Light Failure

The COB LED module I stuck under the HQ Sixteen’s chin worked well at first:

HQ Sixteen Chin Light – results

Last month it began to flicker and I eventually caught it in the act:

HQ Sixteen Chin Light – first failure

That’s taken with the phone’s selfie camera from the quilt’s viewpoint, which is much too close for the camera’s focus, but you get the general idea.

Pulling it off, putting it on the bench, applying 12 V, and letting it heat up produced this:

HQ Sixteen Chin Light – hot failure

That’s with the voltage backed off to 8 V to avoid burning out the exposure.

Letting it cool a bit:

HQ Sixteen Chin Light – cool failure

You may recall I stuck the aluminum backing plate to the HQ Sixteen’s case aluminum body with some heatsink tape and the thing ran just warm to the touch, so I suspect the initial failure had little-or-nothing to do with overheating and a lot to do with buying stuff from eBay.

That suspicion is supported by having two more of those in the drawer with their failed chips circled.

So a better design is in order …

2025-05-29
Sears Humidifier: Lid Hinge Re-repair

The longsuffering Sears Humidifier that Came With The House once again has functioning hinges:

Sears Humidifier – lid hinge gluing setup

That’s the gluing “fixture” with enough steel piled on the lid to keep it from moving and machinist vises pushing / holding the hinge fragments in place.

I used the same technique as before, with duct tape aligning the loose pieces and JB Plastic Bonder sticking them together:

Sears Humidifier – right hinge outboard

The other side of that hinge shows the broken section at the end of the molded void:

Sears Humidifier – right hinge inboard

The other hinge has a 3D printed replacement end:

Sears Humidifier – left hinge inboard

The other side shows there’s not much of the original hinge left:

Sears Humidifier – left hinge outboard

I very carefully installed the lid on the newly cleaned humidifier in the Basement Shop, where it flips up and down like anything.

At the start of this year’s humidification season, I will very carefully carry the lid up the basement stairs to the Sewing Room and we’ll see how long it survives in actual use.

2025-05-28
Lamp Socket Adapter: Weld Failure

The basement came with several LED bulbs screwed into old-school ceramic sockets with pull-chain switches. This adapter had an LED bulb in its socket and another LED fixture plugged into an outlet:

Lamp socket adapter – failed weld

The fixture began flickering some days ago, which I attributed to a problem with its power supply. When both the bulb and the fixture went dark, I had enough of a clue to locate the real cause.

The scorched plastic near the discolored weld nugget on the threaded shell suggests something ran overly hot in there for a while.

Peeling the aluminum shell off reveals the problem:

Lamp socket adapter – detail

Looks to me like the weld started out weak and gradually fell apart as the socket heated / cooled in use, with increasing resistance producing more heat every time.

The LED lamp + fixture added up to 100 W, so about 1 A is all it takes.

2025-05-26