What did you last repair?

You can have that "solar" crap.
My neighbors went for that "cheap way" of outdoor decorating and lighting, and found out what a waste of time and money it is.
It's unreliable, short-lived crap.

Back 17 years ago, I went with 12v low voltage lighting, and it's still working nicely.
You can't beat copper wire and real electricity.
 
Our new pet cat decided to smash my beloved little lxmini.

I'm not sure I'll be able to live with that dent in the driver..

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You can have that "solar" crap.
My neighbors went for that "cheap way" of outdoor decorating and lighting, and found out what a waste of time and money it is.
It's unreliable, short-lived crap.

Back 17 years ago, I went with 12v low voltage lighting, and it's still working nicely.
You can't beat copper wire and real electricity.
Use 600V instead of 12V so you can use tinsel for wire. It's cheaper. LOL

Seriously though, nothing wrong with solar - just don't use cheap garbage and realise you'll need to replace the batteries eventually. :)
 
Seriously though, nothing wrong with solar - just don't use cheap garbage and realise you'll need to replace the batteries eventually. :)
Like a $6400 industrial solution?

Or perhaps a little DIY friendly - a “real“ solar panel or two, and a 12 volt SLA. Those low volt LEDs are pretty nice and draw a lot less power than incandescent. I ran mine off a 50 VA toroid and it was plenty. Couldn’t have run very many incandescents off that. Definitely solar-friendly.
 
I never had a problem with cats messing with my stuff. They even pretty much leave my houseplants alone, except for my red dragon tree (Dracena Marginata). Those are "poisonous" to cats; in reality they're psychoactive and every kitty I've had loves to chew them until they're glassy eyed.

I've lived my whole life with cats. You have to train them. You have to give them something to do (toys) or else they'll find something to do. You have to make friends with them before you can train them. Cats aren't dogs.

But different strokes I guess. I'm the Pied Piper of cats. When I take my daily walk (doctor's orders) cats come out of the bushes and gangways to rub up against my leg. How do they know that I'm cat friendly?

In fairness, I love dogs too. I live on the corner so I get to meet all the neighborhood dogs. I look forward to it every day.
 
Like a $6400 industrial solution?

Or perhaps a little DIY friendly - a “real“ solar panel or two, and a 12 volt SLA. Those low volt LEDs are pretty nice and draw a lot less power than incandescent. I ran mine off a 50 VA toroid and it was plenty. Couldn’t have run very many incandescents off that. Definitely solar-friendly.
My garden lighting is several "Malibu" type fixures, each has a Philips LED wedge base bulb, plenty bright.
The timer/transformer is modded by me.
They had the transformer and timer always ON, the timer just controlled the 12v LV line.
I rigged it so the timer would switch on/off the transformer because it drew 50 watts unloaded.
Now, the 3watt timer is all that's a drain when lights are off.

garden-nighttime.jpg
 
Not so much repair as made.

Our kitchen units are fourteen years old and the firm that installed them has long since ceased trading.

My wife had one of her "what I thought was!" moments a few weeks ago.
She decided she'd like another cupboard next to this one, on the little "one man breakfast bar" that waws mostly used for a dumping ground.
The drawers are actually a door, as it's too shallow to have real drawers, like another unit on the other side of the kitchen.



The chances of getting anyone to make one that would match the original doors and pelmet was next to nil. So I said I'd make it myself.

It took me weeks to find a firm that could make them to the same profile and colour.

Building the cabinet myself was easy.



The only hard bit was the mitre joints on the pelmet with just a mitre block and a tenon saw, before I boxed in over the top. Fotunately, I'd redecorated the kitchen the year before so I had some spare wallpaper.



Three years ago she thought she was going to get a new kitchen when we had the boiler replaced, when we went from this.



To this.



But I managed to do a bit of "fettling" and only had to have one door made.
Thr centre part of the lower pelmet is detachable as the front of the boiler has to swing down for servicing.
The new tiled "L shaped" fillet can be removed.




I even made a slim cupboard for "those hard to find appliance instruction books."



The thought of having to pay for a new kitchen, was the inspiration!
 
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Still miffed about not being able to repair one of my Fostex bi-amped monitors. The insides appear to be glued. Maybe if I could remove the front panel, but I can dislodge it at all.

I wasn't able to repair a SS receiver either. One of the MOSFET module just blew on me after I reflowed some joints. I won't buy separate modules to attempt a repair, so this will end up as a unit for my salvaging ops.
 
This reminds me I have some work to do on our Technics Direct Drive turntable. The original tonearm wire wasn't good anymore on purchase, so I need to replace that but it seems like delicate work and I have been pushing that back a lot.

I actually have a list of around 20 mods I want to make on this unit if I remember correctly.