Miniature Christmas Light repairs

This is a Public Service Announcement:

Feeling Broke

I'm feeling quite a bit poorer than I have in a while.  Part of that is due to Christmas, and all the gifts that need to be purchased and shipped.  That part I'm used to.

Exploring modern ruins - Power Plants

A couple of guys poke around in an abandoned coal-fired power plant.

The guy in the video below seems to believe that he is exploring an abandoned nuclear plant.  It's just a plain old coal-burner.  Other than the misinformed narrative, it's a pretty cool vid.

It's kind of sad to see this, even though these are inefficient and obsolete power stations.  A lot of the equipment, although old and obsolete, is identifiable.

First Blood - The original Rambo Movie

I watched the original Rambo movie "First Blood" in 1982 at a mall cinema in Saratoga Springs, NY.

Heart Rate Monitor - Updated

I bought a heart rate monitor for home use recently.  I won it from an online auction for $8.00.

Trending....

...Body weight

One hundred thousand!

One hundred thousand (100,000) page views.  Not too bad in 12 years, hahahahahaha.

Thanks to all who have come here to visit and maybe learn.  Thanks also to those who take time to comment.  Peace to you all.

Homemade Landmine

No, I'm not talking about military stuff or IEDs.  This landmine is actually useful!

First snow this season

Snow started while I was at work yesterday.  I was a little surprised that it was able to stick - not to mention accumulate a couple of inches!

Music to help move a workout along...

Looking for suggestions for uptempo music.  Most classic rock doesn't cut it with the tempo, along with country.

Some of the stuff I currently listen to for cardio and weight training (in no particular order):

Useful weightlifting accessories

I just got back to lifting again, after a two year break.  Yes, I got needlessly fat, and I'm trying to fix that now :)

Moving the old truck

A while back, we became "owners" of my wife's grandpa's old farm truck.  Actually since the title is somewhat in limbo, we aren't the owners.  We are just the people who have to store it.

Prepping...

 

Quick pics

A couple of quick shots I took recently that I thought were cool...

Cleaning up the property

I had five or six red fir trees die over this past winter.  They never fell over, so a couple of weeks ago, I and some friends felled them.  That left me to do the clean-up.

Blogging sunset on the way home

Photos after the break.

There is an explanation of why I have a break that opens the rest of the post.  This blog was being copied by bots, and the page views were going elsewhere.    My content may not be great, but it is MY content.  Forcing viewers to click a link seems to have chased the bots off - at least for now.

A quick interlude from blogging about... Stuff

We are well and truly blessed, and we should always remember that.

You have to grow old...

...but you don't have to behave that way.  Mark doing his thing in his late 50's. (click to enlarge)

Awesome Youtube Channels

I'm a pretty big fan of YouTube, even if I'm not a big fan of the parent company.  The reason that I'm a YouTube fan is because of the people who provide the content for YouTube.   I thought it would be a good idea to give them a shout out, because I've learned so much from them.

Heating the house

I want to talk a bit about home heating.  I'm not an expert, but I've done a little research into it, and thought it would be good to share what I've learned.  I have a similar post about home cooling here.

Bow Hunting

I'm not a bow hunter, and I don't intend to start bow hunting.  However, I am a firm believer in being resilient to adverse situations.

Overhauling the cat tree

A couple of years ago, we were about to have guests over, and I realized how awful the cat tree looked.  We quickly purchased a second cat tree, and vowed to replace the carpet and rope on the previous one at some point.

Back Yard Landscaping - four days of moving dirt and finished! *Updated*

We've had a difficult landscaping situation out back since we moved into this house.  The walkways were gravel, weeds, and stones.  It has been an ongoing battle keeping up with the weeds.

Several really good videos explaining electrical circuits

I mentioned in a previous post that I might be doing some posts on fundamentals of electronics.

Ongoing Backyard Landscaping

I took care of a fairly minor project today.  I didn't have a lot of time or I would have accomplished quite a bit more.  Even though it was pretty minor task, I still got pretty hot and sweaty.

Instrumental Music

I'm a pretty big fan of most musical styles.  I keep my player on random shuffle and it played a couple of instrumental tunes on my way in to work this morning.  Thought I would share some of the instrumental stuff I keep in the playlist.  There's quite a bit of variety.  Some you will recognize, and hopefully there is some music that you've never heard before that you enjoy.  Take a quick listen if it's something you aren't familiar with.

More Deck Maintenance - and a few other repairs

The other post about staining the deck is here:  However a lot more work was needed.

Mobile tunes

Man I really love modern technology! 

Staining the Deck

Staining the deck is an annual or biennial (every other year) chore that I really don't care much for.

Rain!

How I single-handedly caused it to rain for the first time in months

More toys!

The GW Instek multimeters that I purchased through an online auction finally arrived.  They work perfectly, with no funky voltage readings or anything alarming like the Fluke 8000A meters showed.

Backyard Landscaping

We've been in this house for over six years now.  I've wanted to work on the back yard for a long time, but other issues have been more pressing, and the household budget is always a consideration!

This past week we finally got serious about it.

Fluke 8000A Refurbishment - a DMM follow-up

The previous post about the arrival and dissection of the two Fluke meters, and digital multimeters (DMMs) in general, is here:

Craft Brewers... or are they?

I saw this graphic on the internet recently, and thought it was important enough to share.  The Craft Beer you think you have been drinking might just be a "Crafty" corporate beer.

The big dogs in the brewing industry have been buying up smaller independent breweries.  The big players have been losing market share (and profits) to small brewers who are willing to brew great original beer.   Sales of swill beer have been spiraling downwards, and something had to be done to compensate for the loss in sales... so the mega brewing companies have been buying out the craft brewers - and then cheapening the product to improve profit margins on their new purchase.

They have also been buying distribution networks and excluding craft beers from distribution, while continuing to carry their own brand.  Sometimes I get the sense that large business doesn't really enjoy or want healthy competition.

General Radio 1192 Frequency Counter - Updated

For a very long time, I've had an itch to own something - anything! - that has a Nixie display.  Maybe you know what a Nixie display is...  or maybe you've seen one, but didn't know what it was called.  They look like this:

An Old School Digital Multimeter (DMM) - Updated

For those not aware, I'm getting up there in age.  But right now I'd like to talk about multimeters.  Specifically Digital Multimeters, sometimes abbreviated as DMMs.  And yes - my age and multimeters are related to one another.

Old-Time Capacitor Tear-down

I had a couple of the original electrolytic capacitors from the Eico 950B remaining on the bench after replacing them with more modern capacitors.

It's important to replace these older capacitors, because they can either partially short, overloading your circuit with excess current, or completely short, potentially causing a fire.

Zenith K526W Update #3 - Final

Prior posts about this radio are linked below:
Initial Inspection
Capacitor replacement
Successful Power-up

It's completed, and it works.  The tuning cord finally arrived, and I was able to string it properly.  Now I can listen to conspiracy radio and Spanish radio!

Hot Water - not!

No, I'm not in trouble... at least no more so than usual.

Heathkit V-7 Vacuum Tube Voltmeter

I bought this cute little guy for $10.  It's a vacuum tube voltmeter.  It can measure AC and DC voltages up to 1500 Volts, and can also measure resistance.

Eico 950B Capacitor Tester - and bridge circuit explained

I mentioned earlier that I had purchased a Capacitor Tester from an online auction, in this post.

Zenith K526W - Update #2

The vacuum tubes finally arrived.  According to the seller, all of the vacuum tubes tested good.  I've no reason to doubt that.  Tubes fail less frequently than the power cord or capacitors.  If anything, a failed capacitor usually takes out a tube.

The Kiluea Eruption of 2018 and the Puna Power Plant

I intend to update this post quite a bit, but for now I'm just going to put up this cool Google Maps link showing the lava flow around the Puna Geothermal Power Plant, also known as the Puna Geothermal Venture (PGV)

Zenith K526W - Update

The original post on the Zenith is Here:

Tektronix Oscilloscope, Model 2465A - *Updated*

Bit by bit, I'm slowly getting there.

Summer Soltsice at 48 degrees North Latitude

Dawn begins early.  This was taken at 3:45 AM.  There was noticeable faint light on the horizon at 3:00 AM.  However it wasn't until 45 minutes later that I was sure that it wasn't sky-glow from a nearby town.

Black and Decker Drill Model 100

I came into a large quantity of tools recently, when a family member with Alzheimer's ended up being placed in a care facility.   I'd much prefer that he had all his tools and mental faculties instead.  However, since I have this enormous stash of stuff that's been neglected and abused, I thought it would be wise to sort through it and determine if any of it was usable.

Zenith K526W - Purchase and Initial Inspection

I recently purchased my first repair project from a local Craigslist ad.

Gathering the gear for the new hobby

I'll need to buy some test equipment if I'm going to attempt repairs on electronic devices. So I've begun working on that.

New Hobby

I recently mentioned in a post that I might be picking up a new hobby that should have good synergy with my woodworking hobby.

A quick springtime ride

Below are a few pictures I took of the bike while on a ride yesterday. 

Supplemental Shop Lighting

The roll-up door in the shop is opened by an industrial type chain-drive opener.  Although it's industrial, it still has a standard socket for a light bulb.  Unfortunately, like most modern fixtures, the light bulb socket is only rated for 60 Watts.

Synchronous Generators - an overview of construction and operation

I've posted quite a bit about other aspects of power plants - posts about gas turbines, steam turbines, the steam cycle, nuclear reactors, and done a few posts about different or interesting places where I've worked in the past.

Oddly enough, I've never posted about electrical generators before, except for historical electrical progress and small household emergency generators.  It seems a bit odd that I've overlooked this for so many years, because the entire reason power plants are built is to spin the generator!  The machines we will be discussing are actually an alternators, because the output is alternating current.  In the business, we tend to use the term "generator" more often than "alternator", so please bear that in mind while reading.

Annual fire extinguisher training

This is actually pretty fun, even though I lost part of a day off to attend.

Stihl Chainsaw Repair - Model MS362 - *UPDATED*

Late last year I was dropping and limbing a few trees, when I noticed that the chainsaw wasn't using any bar oil.  I stopped using the saw, and shortly afterwards heavy snow fell.  The trees I had felled were buried in snow all winter long - so there was no clean-up.

Minor shop improvements...

I had a little bit of extra material remaining from the big cabinet project, so...

Spring Vacation 2018, Part 2

Part 1 is here:

I did not complete the big project I was working on during vacation in March.  It was a little discouraging.  I was uncertain about my skills building and hanging the doors on the new cabinets, so I held back from doing that.

The Berkely Pit - an unfolding environmental nightmare

I don't suppose many people are aware of the Berkely Pit.  If they live anywhere in the Northwest US, they should be aware of it, and they should be knowledgeable about it.

The past weekend...

...was cut short, as I was called in to work one day.  That left me with 48 hours off, the beginning 7 hours of which I had to sleep.  I got off work at 6:00 AM and trudged off to bed.  That left me with half of Saturday.  Church took half of Sunday.  The weekend was brief.

Tire Changin'

Yesterday I took the winter tires off my little Subaru commuter car.  I have to say this:  That car is a monster on snow and ice with those studded and siped tires.  When you have a Subaru with all wheel drive and four studded tires you really have to mess up to get stuck or lose control.  Yeah it's a little light and may get dragged around in ruts a little, but it always goes forward!

That said, it gets pretty crappy mileage for as tiny as it is, due to the AWD drivetrain.  I get about 24 MPG with the winter tires, and about 27 with the summer tires - or maybe the engine has to run a richer fuel mixture when it's cold...  I don't care.  It gets me to work reliably in all kinds of god-awful weather, so for that reason alone, I love the Subie.

Spring "Vacation" 2018 - shop cabinets!

I'm just coming off a Spring "vacation".  Once again, the word "vacation" is in quotes, because we never traveled anywhere.  Furthermore, there was quite a bit of daily grind during this time off work.  Which is not to say that it wasn't enjoyable - just that a lot of it was routine activities, and some of it was a bit tedious.

The part of vacation that I really enjoyed was something I did as a shop improvement.  I've had a clutter issue on the work bench that I've wanted to address for quite a while.  This was the perfect opportunity, because it was snowing during most of this year's spring vacation.  The snow made any outdoor activities - such as limbing and burning fallen trees - unattractive.

Token post

This is to let any regular readers know that I'm still alive and interested in the stuff this blog is about.  We just had a very busy Christmas/Winter season, and have had some difficult pet issues to deal with.  Also I have been busy re-discovering a very enjoyable bit of knowledge that captured my interest back when I was a much younger man. 

My Navy and subsequent career took me away from that area of interest, but I'm probably going to take it back up as a hobby, and perhaps even as a side business.  It should have a reasonably good synergy with my hobby of wood working.  Hope you are interested and stay tuned!