What have you fettled today?

[zigzag]

reading the assos shorts thread, i came up with an idea to extend the life of my shorts. i've cut a triangle of lycra and stitched it to the seams and the pad - to prevent my bum shining through.

[Mr Larrington]

Thought one of the lens-securing screws had fallen out of my reading glasses.

As a distance glasses wearer in denial, I'm not looking forward to that one.   

After stripping the threads a few pairs of glasses ago, I've taken to loctiting all the screws as soon as they come home from the optiquack.  It does seem to help.

That would first require me to locate the Loctite and then, when I can't, go and buy some more at 11:45 pip-emma.

[MattH]

I'm quite lucky in that my reading glasses needs are straightforward - so my solution is to have pairs stashed everywhere. In the car, by the bed, in my desk, in the kitchen, in the living room, all my coat pockets. Not as nice my proper optician posh ones that I normally use, but I rarely need to go looking for some when I need them.

For fettling, replaced the broken bezel spring on my divers watch. Gave everything a good clean, very light wipe of silicone lube on the bezel gasket o ring, reassemble. Nice smooth movement again, with positive clicks. Doing watch stuff is when I really miss my eyesight - having to change between different strengths of glasses to see well enough to do fine stuff like hand replacement and coarser bits (or even just finding the next tool I need).

 

[Kim]

I'm quite lucky in that my reading glasses needs are straightforward - so my solution is to have pairs stashed everywhere. In the car, by the bed, in my desk, in the kitchen, in the living room, all my coat pockets. Not as nice my proper optician posh ones that I normally use, but I rarely need to go looking for some when I need them.

This is my approach to:
a) Salbutamol inhalers
b) Steel tape measures

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Failed to retap the heatsink in my Cyo with the broken mounting tab, mostly due to the combination of only drilling out the existing threaded socket to 4.0mm, rather than 4.2mm, and the particularly cheesy grade of aluminium selected by B&M. Tossed into a bin amongst much swears just prior to impulse purchasing another dyno headlight.

[T42]

Probed the wall in our hallway with an 8mm masonry drill to find out what it's made of.  Was expecting half-timber + wattle & daub under ancestral plaster, but it turned out to be very thick plaster over hollow brick.  Slightly puzzled now: I thought it was load-bearing.  You never know what you're going to find in old houses.

Also, degreased, regreased, de-dog-haired and generally spruced up the Electric Chair.

[ElyDave]

Thought one of the lens-securing screws had fallen out of my reading glasses.

As a distance glasses wearer in denial, I'm not looking forward to that one.   

After stripping the threads a few pairs of glasses ago, I've taken to loctiting all the screws as soon as they come home from the optiquack.  It does seem to help.

I'm the opposite, need distance glasses, don't need reading glasses any more.  Cue much up and down of glasses all day as I switch from screen to "teh wurld".

[Mr Larrington]

Thought one of the lens-securing screws had fallen out of my reading glasses.

As a distance glasses wearer in denial, I'm not looking forward to that one.   

After stripping the threads a few pairs of glasses ago, I've taken to loctiting all the screws as soon as they come home from the optiquack.  It does seem to help.

I'm the opposite, need distance glasses, don't need reading glasses any more.  Cue much up and down of glasses all day as I switch from screen to "teh wurld".

It's triply complicated here.  I need the reading glasses to type on a fondleslab but can manage an arms-length-away laptop spec-free.  The Proper Computer in the Great Hall is connected to the anbaric distascope on the other side of the room, so needs distance glasses, but its keyboard is also at arms-length and thus doesn't.  I look forward to the William Gibson future in which I can throw them away and get a pair of Zeiss ones fitted like TV's Tally Isham.

[andrewc]

A wire mesh vegetable/food storage trolley.    2 wheeled uprights held together by 3 "clip on" baskets.  A 2nd set of hands would have been useful.

[Mr Larrington]

I am about to de-fettle the front garden, because I need to read the gas meter, a process also requiring multiple sets of glasses chiz.

[Mrs Pingu]

Fettled a new mudguard.
Fettled the car battery out of the car (after it died again, totally flat i.e. 6.9v, a week after we charged it up last time. Either we totally fucked it up or we have a drain).
Didn't go for a drive to look for dragonflies, chiz.

[pdm]

Fettled Number One Son's single speed bike seat post - the Seat tube diameter is 1/8 mm or so too big for the seatpost so not gripping it properly. Not having a shim the right thickness, made one out of silver foil folded over multiple times and wrapped around the seatpost - perfect fit...

[Mr Larrington]

Replacement screw fell out of reading glasses and into the bath/the furry jungle of the bathmat/my beard.  Anyway, 'tis gorn, disparu like mother's mink.  Attempted replacement of replacement screw thwarted by dropping screws on dark-coloured rag rug under table.  Arse.  Now I shall have to go to the opticians.

[robgul]

Replacement screw fell out of reading glasses and into the bath/the furry jungle of the bathmat/my beard.  Anyway, 'tis gorn, disparu like mother's mink.  Attempted replacement of replacement screw thwarted by dropping screws on dark-coloured rag rug under table.  Arse.  Now I shall have to go to the opticians.

Very thin piece of stiffish wire threaded throuh and then twisted to tie and tighten - does the job for my "driving the car" specs

Rob

[quixoticgeek]

In my on going attempt to get my life organised, today I sorted most of my SMD parts into a sample book.



I have some more parts to do, but I want to print proper labels, my hand writing is too big to fit everything on the labels.

J

[andrewc]

I had to replace a valve on my amplifier.  This involved having to lift 20kg of metal off  the rack & upend it so I could take the base off.  My back aches....

[Kim]

Replacement screw fell out of reading glasses and into the bath/the furry jungle of the bathmat/my beard.  Anyway, 'tis gorn, disparu like mother's mink.  Attempted replacement of replacement screw thwarted by dropping screws on dark-coloured rag rug under table.  Arse.  Now I shall have to go to the opticians.

Top tip: Assortments of hundreds of glasses screws are readily available for a few quid from the Bay Of Thieves or similar.  The set I bought included a pleasing variety of sizes, though obviously not the one needed for barakta's weirdo frames.

[Kim]

In my on going attempt to get my life organised, today I sorted most of my SMD parts into a sample book.

Gosh, that's organised.

My SMD passives are organised in two different ways:
1) A small but teetering pile of 5000-part reels, which like to fall on the floor and come unspooled.
2) Assortment of cut strips like the ones photographed with the component value scribbled on the back in defective biro, loose in a box.

In my defence, I have a proper set of component drawers with a full set of E24 through-hole resistors, liberated from $we_sort_parcels's skip by barakta's dad, and liberated from his tqt collection by barakta^[1] before it became collateral damage in the divorce.  They could do with some better labels though, as the ink has faded.


_{[1] This is also how I have a lifetime's supply of PCB-mount 25-pin D connectors.}

[quixoticgeek]

Gosh, that's organised.

My SMD passives are organised in two different ways:
1) A small but teetering pile of 5000-part reels, which like to fall on the floor and come unspooled.
2) Assortment of cut strips like the ones photographed with the component value scribbled on the back in defective biro, loose in a box.

In my defence, I have a proper set of component drawers with a full set of E24 through-hole resistors, liberated from $we_sort_parcels's skip by barakta's dad, and liberated from his tqt collection by barakta^[1] before it became collateral damage in the divorce.  They could do with some better labels though, as the ink has faded.


_{[1] This is also how I have a lifetime's supply of PCB-mount 25-pin D connectors.}

My E24 through holes are so old they are coming off the tape that held them together, which is making it increasingly hard to find the right ones.

I have a whole load of ESD sensitive parts that I am collecting as well, so have invested in over a dozen of these:

https://www.reichelt.nl/smd-klapdoos-transparant-deksel-37x12x15mm-esd-box-2-sw-p60402.html?&trstct=pos_7&nbc=1

They hold 10 of most small stuff just fine, and clip together to make a pleasing tray.

I also have invested in a pile of tobacco tins, some 2oz and some 1oz. Which are really useful for holding all the parts of a single project together. I'm hoping to get some wooden bits lasercut to make a nice rack for them.

I am fed up with my stuff being a mess...

J

[aidan.f]

You were sending design for EMC testing last week  - are you able to tell us what it is about? - or  what you do generally - just late night curiosity.

[quixoticgeek]

You were sending design for EMC testing last week  - are you able to tell us what it is about? - or  what you do generally - just late night curiosity.

This is just hobby electronics, today I have been designing a PCB for a continuity tester. I'm waiting on parts for a charge controller. My projects are a bit like unix scheduling, I do a bit on one, then sleep it while I work on something else, usually while waiting for components to arrive. I don't have the money to buy from fast suppliers, so I am waiting for stuff from china mostly. Which means that it can be weeks for them to arrive, and if from different suppliers, parts can arrive over a number of weeks. This is why storage of components has become important, I found myself ordering stuff and then finding I already had some. Not a problem for resisters that cos €0.002 each, but for some of the more expensive parts it is.

J

[aidan.f]

Interesting  - How did you get the EMC done on a tight budget please?

[quixoticgeek]

Interesting  - How did you get the EMC done on a tight budget please?

I have a friend who will run some tests on it. It won't get certified, but it'll tell me if there's any major disasters in the layout.

J

[MattH]

There's nothing quite like a nicely sorted collection of resistors. And mine is nothing like  Sadly in a house move my full collections of resistors ended up mixed up, and I've not had the inclination to resort, so any project involves sitting there with a  huge bag of tangled components and a meter measuring them to find what I need - I'm perfectly capable mentally of reading colour codes, but nowadays it's faster to just slap a DVM on than try to see the colours.

I was digging through my trays looking for something the other day and came across a pair of General Instrument SP0256-AL2 chips bought in the late 80s. Really must get around to finishing that project...

[quixoticgeek]

There's nothing quite like a nicely sorted collection of resistors. And mine is nothing like  Sadly in a house move my full collections of resistors ended up mixed up, and I've not had the inclination to resort, so any project involves sitting there with a  huge bag of tangled components and a meter measuring them to find what I need - I'm perfectly capable mentally of reading colour codes, but nowadays it's faster to just slap a DVM on than try to see the colours.

I was digging through my trays looking for something the other day and came across a pair of General Instrument SP0256-AL2 chips bought in the late 80s. Really must get around to finishing that project...

Glad I'm not the only one slow on projects. Tidying up I found some chips I got as samples over 15 years ago.

One of the reasons for getting this sample book and sorting out the labels is that a lot of the SMD capacitors have no markings at all. If you don't put them straight back in the correct bag, you're going to be screwed. Is this the X5R cap? or an X7R? etc... but The bags are unwieldy and take up considerable extra volume compared to the parts they contain.

I've placed an order for some parts from lcsc. I need 5 resisters of a specific value for a project. Minimum order? 100. Total cost of 100 resisters? €0.17. I'm pretty certain that 90% of that is the labour cost of the person who measures out 100 off the real and cuts them up.

J