The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning
Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.
If it used to work, it can work again
The replacement metal latch handle fit perfectly and works fine.
That skinny protruding arm shouldn’t break off, but now it has a metal-to-metal sliding joint that will eventually gall. With any luck, though, it’ll outlast the van… which, admittedly, that kludged repair probably would have, too.
The endcaps of that fan motor have a crimped-in-place aluminum disk capturing a felt washer that held oil and a circular spring that presses the spherical bronze bearing in place:
Pulling all that out reveals the bearing (tilted on its side to show the spherical outer shape):
The shaft is a scant 3/16 inch in diameter, about 0.181 instead of 0.1875 inch. I have some 3/16 inch ID cartridge bearings in the heap that are a sloppy fit on the shaft, but nothing that a wrap of 2 or 3 mil shimstock and a dab of green Loctite wouldn’t cure.
A bit of doodling suggests two of these bearing holders should fit in the endcaps, stand over the spherical bearing mounts, capture the ball bearing OD, keep dust out of the balls, and perhaps have enough compliance to let the bearings self-adjust to the right fit:
The fan tries to pull the rotor out of the frame, although I think the bearings & Loctite can handle that much axial load. I must try this out on the bench and see how long it takes for the Freezer Dog to return…
It needs a trial print and some sizing adjustment, plus maybe an allowance for end play, but it’s close.
The OpenSCAD source code:
// Refrigerator Fan Bearing Support
// Ed Nisley KE4ZNU - May 2012
// Layouts
Layout = "Show"; // Show Fit Build
Gap = 5.0; // between parts in Show mode
BuildOffset = 5.0; // offset between parts on build plate
//- Extrusion parameters must match reality!
// Print with +1 shells and 3 solid layers
ThreadThick = 0.25;
ThreadWidth = 2.0 * ThreadThick;
HoleWindage = 0.2;
function IntegerMultiple(Size,Unit) = Unit * ceil(Size / Unit);
Protrusion = 0.1; // make holes end cleanly
//----------------------
// Dimensions
CapID = 32.0; // bearing endcap
CapHeight = 7.0; // ... below aluminum cap recess
SupportOD = 10.3; // spherical bearing support
SupportHeight = 3.0;
BearingOD = 12.7; // ball bearing race
BearingID = 4.68; // ... shaft dia
BearingThick = 4.0;
Ribs = 8; // number of support ribs
RibLength = 2.0; // length beyond cylinder
RibWidth = 4*ThreadWidth;
LidOD = CapID/2; // bearing retainer lid
LidThick = 2*ThreadThick;
//----------------------
// Useful routines
module PolyCyl(Dia,Height,ForceSides=0) { // based on nophead's polyholes
Sides = (ForceSides != 0) ? ForceSides : (ceil(Dia) + 2);
FixDia = Dia / cos(180/Sides);
cylinder(r=(FixDia + HoleWindage)/2,
h=Height,
$fn=Sides);
}
module ShowPegGrid(Space = 10.0,Size = 1.0) {
Range = floor(50 / Space);
for (x=[-Range:Range])
for (y=[-Range:Range])
translate([x*Space,y*Space,Size/2])
%cube(Size,center=true);
}
//-------------------
// Objects
module Retainer() {
color("Green")
difference() {
PolyCyl(LidOD,LidThick);
translate([0,0,-Protrusion])
PolyCyl(BearingID,(LidThick + 2*Protrusion),8);
}
}
module Holder() {
color("Chocolate")
difference() {
union() {
cylinder(r=(CapID - 2*RibLength)/2,h=(CapHeight + LidThick));
for (Index = [0:Ribs-1]) {
rotate(Index*360/Ribs)
translate([0,-RibWidth/2,0])
cube([CapID/2,RibWidth,CapHeight],center=false);
}
}
translate([0,0,-Protrusion])
PolyCyl(SupportOD,(CapHeight + 2*Protrusion)); // clear old support
translate([0,0,SupportHeight])
PolyCyl(BearingOD,CapHeight); // bearing pocket
translate([0,0,(SupportHeight + BearingThick)])
PolyCyl(LidOD,CapHeight); // bearing retainer
}
}
//-------------------
// Build things...
ShowPegGrid();
if (Layout == "Show") {
Holder();
translate([0,0,(CapHeight + Gap)])
Retainer();
}
if (Layout == "Fit") {
Holder();
translate([0,0,CapHeight])
Retainer();
}
if (Layout == "Build") {
translate([(CapID/2 + BuildOffset),0,0])
Holder();
translate([-(LidOD/2 + BuildOffset),0,0])
Retainer();
}
Well, it’s a thought…
Very recently, Youtube videos (including mine) took on a Smurf aspect: blue skin tones and other weird colors. I don’t spend a lot of time watching videos, but I’m pulling together a talk and wanted to be sure my videos still worked.
At least for Youtube videos, one can turn on their HTML5 video option to avoid Flash, but that doesn’t fix the other issues.
The recommended FlashVideoReplacer plugin didn’t work for me in Xubuntu 10.10, alas.
Having installed Ubuntu 12.04 on that Lenovo box, which has an nVidia graphics chip, we find there’s an error somewhere inside the current 295.40 (and perhaps previous versions) of the proprietary nVidia driver that causes random video lockups which generally require rebooting that sucker. Of course, the default Unity desktop requires that driver for 3D operations like compositing, because the Free Software drivers don’t / can’t do 3D in hardware.
How is it that a (nominally) Open Source / Free Software OS requires proprietary drivers just to present the UI? Oh, right, 3D is glitzy and that’s what matters most in these degenerate days.
Anyhow.
The least-likely-to-fail solution seems to be disabling the nVidia driver, which enables the Nouveau driver, which does 2D just fine, which lets Unity stumble along. Reverting to 295.33 seems to work for some folks, but I have other things to do…
The plastic handle for the rear hatch snapped as I opened it to load some groceries. I slapped some tape over the opening to keep the loose parts from falling out on the way home: if you lose the parts, you’ve lost the game.
It turns out that the hatch doesn’t have an interior handle:
So we unloaded the groceries through the side doors, crawling over the middle seats. We don’t use the van all that much, but this was the height of the Vassar Farms garden setup season and we needed the back end for fenceposts, deer fencing, and suchlike.
Searching with the obvious keywords shows that this is a common problem for Toyota Sienna vans, many people experience it just a few years after buying a new van, it’s an extremely expensive dealer repair ($75-ish for the handle and $300-ish for labor half a decade ago), and that the Genuine Toyota replacement handle is made of the same plastic and tends to break the same way in short order. I ordered a metal handle from the usual eBay supplier for $20 and it should arrive shortly.
But an expedient repair is in order…
Pull the trim plates off the grab handle and dangling strap, apply a 10 mm socket to the three bolts thus exposed, work fingers under the cover near the latch near the center bottom, pull hard, and work your fingers around the cover as the dozen-or-so expanding button rivet fasterer thingies pop free with alarming sounds:
The handle / latch handle assembly fits neatly between the exterior bodywork and the interior hatch frame, where it’s barely visible. The claw-like doodad sticking up from the left should pull down on the metal (!) lever just above it, which pivots on a pin and pulls upward on a cable (the round button visible near the top of the assembly) that actually does the unlatching:
Remove the three nuts (one visible in that picture), squeeze the expanding plastic snap with pliers, and push it through the hole. Then you can loosen the bezel holding the handle assembly and the two license plate lamps:
Disconnect the lamp cable connector, push the sealing button through the hole with a screwdriver, and then you can pull the entire bezel off the hatch. That exposes the problem:
You can’t quite see the two screws that secure the handle assembly to the bezel, but they’re just inboard of the two bolts that hold it to the hatch. Undo those, remove the Jesus Clip from the long rod, slide it out, and extract the handle. That claw-like doodad snapped off the plastic handle:
Of course, it’s an engineering plastic that shrugs off ordinary solvent glue, which you wouldn’t trust for a permanent repair anyway. The general ideal is to reposition the broken part, epoxy it in place, drill a hole through it and the handle, run a long 4-40 screw through the mess, and butter it up with more epoxy.
The first step is to put the two pieces in the right alignment and secure them well enough to permit drilling. Other folks swear by cyanoacrylates, but for a job like this I invoke the mantra The Bigger the Blob, the Better the Job. Believe it or not, the broken part stands on its own amid the epoxy around its base:
Unfortunately, it tilted slightly, but not enough to matter, as the epoxy cured. I couldn’t figure out how to both hold it in position and hold it in exact alignment on the handle; maybe positioning a few clamps around it would have been better. In any event, the result was close enough.
Grab the handle in the drill press, align the claw vertically, face it with an end mill to let a twist drill start properly, and drill right down the middle:
Flip it over, use the same drill to align the bore, and mill a counterbore for the screw head:
That may not be strictly necessary, but there’s not much clearance between the handle and the rest of the frippery in the assembly. Reduce the diameter of the screw head to fit the counterbore, do the same for the nut that’ll go on the other end:
Butter up the counterbore with epoxy, slide the screw in place, secure with the nut, and butter up that end, too. Reassemble everything and you can see how far off-center the claw is:
You can just barely make out the epoxy blob covering the nut below the claw, but it still engages the metal lever that will pull the cable:
Reassemble everything in reverse order and it works fine. I left the interior trim cover off, pending installing the metal replacement handle, and discovered that the brake lights spill plenty of light inside the van after dark.
Memo to Self: The fixtures are the hardest part of any adhesive repair. Get those right and the rest is easy!
As part of replacing that frostproof faucet, I had recourse to some tools & hardware that Came With the House: the previous owner had a well-stocked supply of stuff and we bought the place “with contents.”
This box of assorted washers, screws, and tools has already been more than a lifetime supply for one person:
I already had a faucet seat reamer that came in handy in our previous houses and now I have two:
The threaded shaft isn’t nearly long enough for a frostproof faucet, but it’s a standard thread and I have enough all-thread rod to cobble up something. When I get around to fixing the other outdoor faucets, I’ll give that a try.
Although I didn’t need a handle puller to dismantle the old valve (this is a staged photo op), it’s been vital elsewhere:
Ya gotta have stuff…
Simply replacing the old frostproof faucet with a new one required:
Not appealing at all.
So I picked up a $8 quarter-turn ball valve faucet with a 1/2 inch copper pipe sweat fitting, plus a 1/2 inch male NPT adapter. I have plenty of 1/2 inch copper pipe on the rack and, as it turned out, a few of the adapters. One key advantage: I could cut the pipe to make the length come out right.
Unfortunately, the frostproof valve emerges on the interior wall above the top shelf of a built-in rack in a far corner of the Basement Laboratory Storage Wing, an arm’s length away where you (well, I) can’t get any leverage. The absolute last thing I wanted was to crack a solder joint, tear the pipe loose, or wreck the 1/2 inch female NPT fitting on the pipe: I had no idea how firmly the valve was stuck in the fitting.
Based on the new valves I’d seen, I assumed there were no fins or doodads that would prevent the whole valve body from rotating in the as-yet-undisturbed cement holding it in place.
So I attached the medium pipe wrench to the fitting, laid in some cribbing atop the shelf to support a bottle jack over the wrench handle, and pumped the jack just enough to take up the slack. The jack transfers torque from the wrench to the floor joist overhead, the cement in the foundation wall constrains the valve body from moving laterally, and I was going to be really careful to not shove the valve while turning it.
Positioning a dog dish (yes, one of those) to catch most of the water, plus an assortment of scrap towels to catch the rest, produced this arrangement:
Retiring to the garage with the large pipe wrench, I was delighted to find all that preparation let me simply turn the valve body with no drama. Mary monitored the process from inside to make sure nothing surprising happened, the valve broke free from the fitting without too much effort, and after two turns I could spin it loose by hand… whew!
Incidentally, a pair of amateur radio HTs simplified communication through the foundation wall. We were about four feet apart, but unaided voice communication didn’t work at all. I’m not much for just talking on the radio, but ham radio makes a great adjunct to other activities.
With the valve body loose, I chiseled the mortar out of both ends and found the central body hadn’t been cemented in place: the whole thing pulled straight out into the garage.
Screw the adapter into the interior pipe, stick the pipe into the adapter from the garage, measure to the outside wall surface, add 1/4 inch, clamp the pipe in the bench vise, and solder the ball valve to the pipe:
Then solder the NPT adapter on the other end:
I love the smell of molten projects, even late in the day… and it’s much easier to sweat good solder joints on the bench than working left-handed, tucked away in a far corner, up under the floor joists, standing on a short ladder, leaning far off to one side.
Wait for it to cool, stick the assembly through the garage wall with some masking tape to keep grit out of the threads and pipe, wrap a few layers of PTFE tape around the male adapter, ease them together, tighten until the valve handle is directly on top, turn the water back on, verify no leaks: that’s enough for one day.
The next day I drilled / sawed backer boards from some random paneling that came with the house and stuck them in place with generous beads of acrylic caulk. Looks a bit odd (the tape holds the sides in alignment and came off a day later), but it should hold the pipe in a fixed position and keep the critters out of the basement just as well as the cement:
And that’s that!
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 