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.

Tag: Repairs

If it used to work, it can work again

Windows KB967715 Doesn’t Install: Fixed

I fire up the Token Windows Laptop more or less monthly, to download data from our gaggle of Onset Computer Hobo dataloggers. As a result, the laptop gets broadsided with Windows updates from the Mother Ship and, although I look at ’em before installation to see wassup, I don’t really remember any particular update from month to month.

It seems that, in order to solve the really-disable-Autorun-dammit problem, the patch described in KB967715 must update a registry entry that’s nailed down by some other program. As a result, the patch either doesn’t install, installs-but-fails-quietly, or installs-but-fails-loudly.

It eventually percolated to the front of my dim consciousness that I’d seen all of those outcomes over the last few months…

A bit of trawling turned up the usual collection of uninformed blather, plus what seems to be the Definitive Answer direct from the Mother Ship. Go there for the details.

Update 967715 may be reoffered if the HonorAutorunSetting registry setting that is described in this article is not added to the registry hive. This issue may occur if some other program that is installed on the computer blocks the update from writing the registry entry. Such software may block the update during the installation of the update or may remove the registry entry after the computer is restarted.

(“Registry hive”? WTF?)

Basically, you download the patch as an executable file, save it somewhere convenient, reboot in Safe Mode (hold F8 down as Windows starts up, then pick Safe Mode from the menu), clickety-click on the patch program, and give it permission to have its way with your PC.

So far, it’s all good. Maybe I won’t have to remember this for another month…

Memo to Self: if all else fails, MS doesn’t charge for security-related patch assistance phone support.

2009-06-14
Digital Caliper Roller Repair

Broken caliper thumb roller mount

The thumb roller fell off my digital caliper in the heat of a project, forcing me to deploy a hot backup from the upstairs desk.

This looks like a clear-cut case of underdesign, because it broke exactly where you’d expect: at the midpoint of the arch. Having my thumb right over the spot marked X, though, meant that I had all the pieces and could, at least in principle, glue everything back together.

Glued and clamped

As with all repairs involving adhesives, the real problem is clamping the parts together while the glue cures. I clamped a stack of random plastic sheets to the back of the case to establish a plane surface behind the mount, with a small steel shim to prevent the top sheet from becoming one with the repair.

The roller shaft was about the same size as a #33 drill and the opening was about 110 mils. Some 3/32″ (actually about 96 mils) rectangular telescoping brass tubing was about the right size & shape to hold the opening in alignment. Another length of tubing kept the broken part from sliding to the left.

A dab of solvent glue (I still use Plastruct, but it’s not like it used to be before it became less toxic) on both pieces, line ’em up, apply a clamp to hold it in place, and let it cure overnight.

I have no confidence that this will stay together for very long, so I’ll probably be forced to mill a little replacement mounting doodad.

Ought to be good for a few hours of quality shop time…

Memo to Self: Don’t run the slide off the end of the body, because that rubber boot is an absolute mumble to put back in place.

2009-05-31
There’s No Undo Key in CNC

The Axis user interface for EMC2 has a manual command entry mode, wherein you can type G-Code statements and EMC2 will do exactly what you say. That’s handy for positioning to exact coordinates, but I rarely use it for actual machining, as it’s just too easy to mis-type a command and plow a trench through the clamps.

OK, on a Sherline mini-mill, you’d maybe just snap off a carbide end mill, but you get the general idea.

I was making a simple front panel from some ancient nubbly coated aluminum sheet. The LCD and power switch rectangles went swimmingly.

Then I tried to mill an oval for the test prod wires using G42.1 cutter diameter compensation. I did a trial run 1 mm above the surface, figured out how to make it do what I wanted, then punched the cutter through the sheet at the center of the oval and entered (what I thought were) the same commands by picking them from the history list.

EMC2 now handles concave corners by automagically inserting fillets, so it must run one command behind your typing. I drove the cutter to the upper-right end of the oval (no motion) so it could engage cutter comp mode, entered the G2 right endcap arc to the lower edge (cuts straight to upper right), and then did something wrong with the next command.

Epoxy-patched front panel hole

The cutter carved the endcap properly, then neatly pirouetted around the end and started chewing out an arc in the other direction. Even looking at the command trace I can’t figure out what I mistyped, but as it turns out it doesn’t matter… I was using the wrong dimensions for the hole anyway.

So it’s now patched with epoxy backed up by a small square of aluminum. When it’s done curing, I’ll manually drill a pair of holes at the right coordinates, manually file out the oval, shoot a couple of coats of paint, and it’ll be OK.

Nobody will ever know!

If I recall correctly, Joe Martin of Sherline was the first person to observe that, unlike word processing programs, CNC machines lack an Undo key…

Update: Like this…

Patched panel – rear view

The shoot-a-couple-of-coats thing did not go well: a maple seed landed on the front panel. Ah, well, it’s close enough. Here’s a trial fit; the bellyband height extenders on the sides need a dab of epoxy and a shot of paint, too, but I may never get a round ‘tuit for that.

Front panel trial fit

It’s the long-awaited Equivalent Series Resistance meter…

2009-05-30
Halogen Spotlights: FAIL

Exposed Halogen Spotlight Bulbs

This pair of halogen outdoor spotlights has been in place for at least a decade; they don’t see much use, so the filaments haven’t burned out in all that time.

A lens fell off a few days ago, at which point I realized that it was the second lens to fall off; where the first one got to, I cannot say. I suspect they’ve never been turned on in the rain, as a single drop of water on a halogen capsule would shatter it like, uh, glass.

The right-hand bulb was evidently the first to fail, as it’s full of toasted spider silk, seed husks, and bug carapaces. The reflector aluminization doesn’t like exposure to the Great Outdoors, although it’s in surprisingly good shape for the mistreatment it’s seen.

I installed a pair of ordinary fused-glass spotlights from Ol’ Gene’s stash that Came With The House; they’ve been in the basement at least as long as those halogens have been on the side of the house. I suppose he put the good spots up there and kept the plain ones in reserve.

Maybe the “new” spots will last for another decade?

[Update: frienze reports another bulb failure…

Submitted on 2014/05/30 at 10:44
I searched for a more on topic post to stick this, but — alas! — it seems to be closed for commenting.

Before tossing out the bulb, I decided to take a few pictures.

Overview
Overview different angle
Detail of failure
Less useful detail turned the other way around

I half suspect the bulb might not actually be broken in the strict sense of the word, but I decided against actually testing that theory.

Trying to show the broken socket part is a lot harder. It doesn’t photograph well.
The broken socket
What the connector is supposed to look like (in a socket part that arrived broken just like that straight from China… and it’s not like it broke in transit; the protective top simply wasn’t there at all)
Here you can maybe see it a bit better
And here it is next to some dried garlic
]

2009-05-26
Garden Fork Repair

Mary intercepted a complete, albeit defunct, garden fork on its way to the trash and brought it home for repair. It turns out that the handle’s socket had loosened and split around the tine shank, but all the pieces were pretty much in place.

Looks like a job for JB Weld Epoxy!

Mix the epoxy with my dedicated mixing screwdriver, butter up the shank, blob the excess epoxy into the socket, shove the parts together, clean off the outside globs, and let it cure overnight.

The trick is to get enough epoxy in the socket to fill the voids and mechanically lock the shank in place. This probably won’t work for forks used by burly guys who heave rocks over the horizon, but for our simple needs it’ll do just fine.

Pitchfork repair – epoxy mix

Pitchfork repair – buttering up the shank

Every now and again it’s OK to do an easy repair without a trace of CNC…

2009-05-18
Laser Pointer Annoyances

Laser pointer battery contact

Maybe it’s just me, but all of the laser pointers I’ve bought, even the relatively spendy ones, have crappy switches and unstable battery contacts.

For example, this is the business end of a $12 (!) pen-style pointer. The battery contact was off-center and poorly secured; I pried the white plastic retainer out, bashed the spring into submission, and replaced the retainer with a length of heat-shrink tubing. It wasn’t pretty.

This pointer has an actual mechanical switch module inside, with a clicky mechanism actuated by the external button. Cheaper pointers seem to rely on bare PCB contacts bridged by the button’s base. Ugh.

Laser pointer battery orientation: positive DOWN

Memo to Self: The AAA cells fit into the housing with the positive terminal away from the laser head. The white plastic plug has a molded cross that could be mistaken for a + symbol, but it’s not.

2009-04-30
Zero-dollar Power Screwdriver Repair

I’m in the midst of cleaning up the shop after a winter of avoiding the too-cold basement. The best way I’ve found to pull this off is to pick up each object, do whatever’s needed to put it away, and move to the next object. Trying to be clever leads to paralysis, so I devote a few days to fixing up gadgets and putting tools back in their places. After a while, it gets to be rather soothing.

Broken wire in power screwdriver

Some months ago I snagged a power screwdriver from a discard pile; while it didn’t work, un-bending the battery pack connector solved that. It runs from a quartet of AA cells, which means I can use alkalines and it’ll always be ready to go. It’s not a high-torque unit, so I’m using it for case screws and similar easy tasks.

But it quickly became intermittent and finally would turn only clockwise. Onto the to-do heap it went…

Power screwdrivers consist of a battery, a motor with a planetary gear reduction transmission, and a cross-wired DPDT switch in between. Not much can go wrong and, if it turns at all, most likely the problem has something to do with the switch or wiring.

Opened it up, pulled out the motor, and, lo and behold, one of the wires has broken off the switch. As nearly as I can tell, pushing the switch that-a-way forced the solder tab down on the wire and made the connection, pushing it the other way pulled the tab off the wire.

While I had the hood up, I replaced the wires with slightly thicker and longer ones. Soldered everything back together, mushed the grease blobs back into the planetary gearing, and it works like a champ…

Now, fairly obviously, there’s absolutely no economic sense to this sort of thing, given that the driver probably cost under ten bucks, but I just can’t stand to see a perfectly good gadget wind up in the trash.

I’d love to do this sort of thing for a living, if only I could figure out how to avoid going broke while doing so. Maybe I can get me some of that my economic stimulus money that’s sloshing around these days?

2009-04-22