The New Hotness

A pair of antique collectible Cordomatic reels get occasional use in the Basement Laboratory:

The extension cord reel didn’t latch reliably when needed, so …

There’s an obvious screw on the other side and a non-obvious screw hidden in the obvious place:

The electrical contacts were in good shape, although I smeared the grease around the rings just to make it seem like I did something:

The ratchet pawls hide under a riveted cover:

The duct tape shows I’d been in there once before, likely for the same problem, and had already drilled out the rivets.

Alas, I forgot to take a picture after removing the cover, but the general idea is to put just a dot of oil on the pivots (which, as you’d expect, are the rivets), wiggle everything around, and reassemble in reverse order.

It’ll surely work long enough that I can forget I was in there twice before …