What did you last repair?

🙂🙂
I added a fan to the satellite receiver. The processor is running very hot and has started to fail.
 

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I don't know if this counts as a fix, more a survival skill, but HOW TO OPEN A CAN WITHOUT A CAN OPENER... 😎

Good to know: How to open a can without a can opener

You turn it upside down and rub for about 10 seconds on a concrete block. Then squeeze the sides and the top pops off. I presume the vibration loosens it.

If short of concrete blocks, out in the wild, you can use a dessert spoon as a can opener. You rub the spoon on the top to pierce the top, then force it round the rim, just like a can opener.

All looked a bit sharp and dangerous to me. But Hey. I presume we can all open bottles.
 
Hee! Now recalling all the various bent-metal can & bottle openers, "church keys" of youth.

Then came the time of removable pop-top tabs, from which my sisters & I wove many chains to drape across our bedrooms, to Mom's consternation.

Then the lawyers intervened I suppose, and the tabs became integral. No fun aloud.

These days it's plastic all the way down to the bottom of the ocean.

(Sigh.)
 
I appreciate all the kind words. I will miss my little sister very much.

With respect to the snake.... I took it out with a simple 22 cal pistol one shot one snake. Running into the snakes proved to be a common instance for me the guy from Iowa. My neighbors either were very lucky or the snakes liked my property better. I found it necessary to make a compromise and adapt to a better method of snake killing so I made some custom shot shells for the 1911 ( 45 caliber) out of 308 cases that I shortened and sized so that they would feed properly and dispense a quantity of shot. They proved to be very lethal.

I soon became best friends with 3 Border Patrol Agents who wanted some custom 40 cal shot shells so they could defend themselves when in the wild doing what they did best. Snakes aren't anyone's friend in AZ.
 
In Florida we had rattlers and water moccasins, but despite being 1/2 mile from the edge of the Everglades I rarely saw a snake in the yard.

Here in West Virginia we have several flavors of non poisonous snakes, copperheads and some venomous water snakes. Since we have a creek in the back yard, snakes are common so are rocks, so regular bullets are not an option. My neighbor who grew up here believes that the only good snake is a dead snake and he enforces that with a 20 gauge. We both have young grandkids at our houses often.

I tend to leave most snakes alone unless they are aggressive, poisonous or unknown. When one needs to be eliminated I use this, as it won't ricochet, doesn't go far, and makes less noise when fired out of an old revolver :

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I was outside one day working with a common manual T-50 staple gun when the neighbor's grandkids started screaming "snake." I was the closest adult, so I did the first thing I thought of, stapled the snake to the ground. I was barefoot so the kid's father came and put his boot to the snakes head.

I wasn't in AZ a week before I was hunting for some shot shells. My efforts didn't pay off as there weren't any shot shells to be had in 22, 9mm, or 45 cal my choice weapons.

I had to improvise and make my own. I used 308 rifle brass that I cut down and necked to 40 cal for the 45 shot shells. I used 10mm brass that I shortened slightly and necked down to 9mm. These were absolutely deadly and blew the snakes all to heck.
 
Wildcat city. Did they carbon the old .45 up?

Barrel was clean. But I didn't shoot a lot of them. Probably shot 2 dozen or so. I'd shoot 3 or 4 and then a clip of jacketed to clean the barrel. It took a little experimenting to get just the right load, length, amount of shot and the wad sorted out. Number 7 shot, 231 powder, and wads cut from a coke carton using a sharpened 40 cal case as a cutter. The shot shell was the safest for the shooter and anyone in the vicinity because anything else would ricochet. The snake however was provided with 0 chance of survival since it was peppered.
 
That's just too much like fun. Could have just bought a small shot gun.

That is something I don't own. The last shot gun I had was a 12ga side by side. The neighbors kinda frowned seeing me with a 1911 shooting snakes in the front yard. I had one neighbor tell me that I should just relocate the snakes across the street and they came to my way of thinking when their kids were almost bitten while playing in their back yard. I could only imagine what they would have done if I were walking around with a shotgun in the yard.
 
Hee! Now recalling all the various bent-metal can & bottle openers, "church keys" of youth.

Then came the time of removable pop-top tabs, from which my sisters & I wove many chains to drape across our bedrooms, to Mom's consternation.

Then the lawyers intervened I suppose, and the tabs became integral. No fun aloud.

These days it's plastic all the way down to the bottom of the ocean.

(Sigh.)

When I was kid in the early 70s, I watched people pull off the tab, drop the tab in the can and proceed to drink the soda or beer. Maybe if they we looking out for themselves, they would drop the tab on the ground to get stepped on. Lawyers had to get things changed due to the people I grew up with.
 
Got a 2 1/2 year old Philips UHD 55" TV from a guy, who wanted to throw it away, as it changed channels on it's own. They are a kind of i-anything family, I suppose even their espresso maker is an i-coffee from Apple.
I asked him about the last software update on the Phillips and he insisted, it would do it by it's self. He's one of the guy's who know better, always, so I just took it with me.
At home I connected the TV and first thing it did was to ask for an update. He never connected an internet cable to the TV, because his i-devices do anything wireless. So the poor machine could not run updates.
15 minutes later I had 2 updates on the TV and since then it worked perfectly. Even as I dislike Phillips (terrible to repair) the picture is fantastic, even on regular and HD material. Even has this Ambi-Light, which lights up the wall behind the TV.
I'm just a great repair guy, or what do you think? Not even had to heat up the soldering iron to fix it. Just used the remote...
 
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Last week bought an 2012 Onkyo TX-NR414 HDMI 7-channel AVR from ebay, defective, for around 22US$ including P&P. That is the last Onky AVR series before they started extreme cost cutting and merged with Pioneer.
The AVR worked, but had no sound. Loudspeaker relay's not working.

Opened it up, cleaned it with compressed air and a paint brush. Put some no clean liquid flux around the DTS processor on the top HDMI board. Covered sensitive parts ( x-tal oscillator) near it with some aluminum and heated the chip with an air soldering station (cheap eBay 35$).
Checked for temperature during that process with an infrared thermometer, until it had about to 270°C (500°F) on the outside and solder joints around it started to melt. Took about 5 minutes careful heating to get it there, as it is a very thick PCB. Have in mind there are parts on the underside of the PCB, too. Kept it at that temperature for maybe 10 seconds. After 15 minutes of cool down, it now works like new. Added a small heat sink, which is glued on top of the DTS chip.
I did not even remove the HDMI board from the chassis.

For an old timer like me, these are funny new ways to repair stuff.

PS I have the TX-NR 818 the 616 and now the 414 for the bedroom TV. The two larger ones have Audyssey, which is (was) a great sound improver.
 
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Even as I dislike Phillips (terrible to repair) the picture is fantastic, even on regular and HD material. Even has this Ambi-Light, which lights up the wall behind the TV.
I'm just a great repair guy, or what do you think? Not even had to heat up the soldering iron to fix it. Just used the remote...


I think you have Common Sense.
Something terribly lacking in society today.


By the way, I hate Philips TV's too, had plenty come in the repair shop over the years.
My choice at home is the Panasonic Viera, I rarely ever saw them come in the shop for service, so it's natural that I chose that brand.
Purchased it in May 2014....... still perfect today.
 
there weren't any shot shells to be had in 22.

Even as a kid in Florida (1960's) we could get "rat shot" shells in .22, and .38. They were on the shelf at K-Mart.

That's just too much like fun. Could have just bought a small shot gun.

That is something I don't own. I had one neighbor tell me that I should just relocate the snakes across the street and they came to my way of thinking when their kids were almost bitten while playing in their back yard.

I have three, a .410, a 20 gauge and a 12 gauge. It's just easier to use an old revolver when your target is a snake or rat. Technically it is illegal here to "discharge a firearm within 100 yards of an occupied building" but my neighbor has been blasting snakes since long before I lived here. I was out here during a snowy winter day while the house was being built when I discovered evidence that led me to believe that Bambi died of lead poising behind my shed and was dragged away by a quad bike. I followed the trail to the culprit to get a cut of the meat.

I live in between two of Sherri's relatives, with a total of 5 acres between the three families. We also have at least 20 grandkids and cousins from ages 2 months to 16.

When I was kid in the early 70s, I watched people pull off the tab, drop the tab in the can and proceed to drink the soda or beer. Maybe if they we looking out for themselves, they would drop the tab on the ground to get stepped on.

Growing up as a barefoot kid in Miami taught me to look out for those things as they were everywhere. Where would Jimmy Buffett be today if they didn't exist. The Margaritaville empire was built on the song, which started out by stepping on a "pop top."

I blew out my flip flop
Stepped on a pop top
Cut my heel, had to cruise on back home
But there's booze in the blender......
 
It is indeed a non-linked section of belt with the properly sized teeth. I pulled it tight, cut to fit, and then used a generous dab of 5 minute epoxy that adhered each to the aluminum platter with no space to spare between. One order of belt did both machines with a sizeable section to spare.