mending things

If you have read my other blogs about GU10 mains voltage halogen lighting, you will know that I have mostly replaced these bulbs with LED equivalents. they cost more, but last longer, are cooler and use a fraction of the energy. a halogen bulb is typically either 35 or 50 watts. most LED bulbs are 3 watts. While the bulbs in my house are predominantly GU10 mains halogens, I do have a couple of MR16 bulbs. These are a different type of halogen that operate from a 12volt supply. I should mention at this point that I don't have any dimmer switches in my house. Now some mains voltage GU10 LED bulbs are dimable (always check first). MR16 bulbs have two pin connectors rather than the lugs found on GU10 bulbs. GU10's use a push and twist method of connecting to the socket. the MR16 simply push in place with metal clips also gripping the edge of the bin base. They use a separate power supply , either a transformer (old type ) or a switch mode power supply(newer) to convert 250v ...

I've got a Dyson DC14 vacuum cleaner. See my other posting on general servicing. of late I've noticed that the beater function often does not engage. The beater is the rotating bar of brushes that agitates the carpet. Most upright vacuum cleaners have this feature. on the Dyson it is enabled by rotating a large purple dial on the front left of the suction assembly. The idea is that you disable it for vacuming hard floors, but enable it for carpets. Even turning it forward did not always engage the beater/brush bar. I decided to take the cleaner apart to see what might be the problem. First I needed to remove the lower plate. This is held in place by 3 twist fastenings which can be undone with a coin. Once the plate is removed you can see the brush beater bar. You can see that the beater brush device gets en-wrapped with hair, string and anything that is long and thin. I routinely run a sharp knife along the edge to cut through all the hair and string to easily remo...

Things have moved on since my previous blog regarding GU10 halogen bulbs. To recap, 10 years ago we had our house extended and rewired. We had 40 recessed halogen light fittings installed, the type which runs from 240V main voltage (GU10) not the 12v system (MR16). While the light is good, and the reliability of the bulbs has improved, they still use a lot of electricity (50 or 35 watt types) and get very hot. In my previous blog I explored the options which were available including first generation LED bulbs and Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL) in the GU10 size. That was two years ago , and at that time LED bulbs were not up to the job and CFL's , typically Megaman variety seemed the best alternative. These consumed only 11 watts and give pretty good light from a few minutes after turn on. I posted a few follow-ups as I tried a few next generation LED bulbs and this post picks up at that point. In my utility room I had 4 of the Megaman brand CFL GU10 bulbs and these seemed to be t...

Pallets are all around. I see them as I drive about. In yards, loading bays and car parks. I have collected some, with the approval of the site owners, nay, with the enthusiastic approval of the site owners. There is a lot you can do with pallets. You can build compost enclosures. Here is one from my garden - 6 pallets and 12 cable ties and you have a really good compost bin. You can cut up pallets for firewood. Breaking them apart is hard, a circular saw is the best way I have found. Only use untreated or unpainted pallets for firewood as burning the other sort will give off various toxic substances . Pallets range in size and construction but most have rectangular blocks in the corners , middle and centre positions to take the weight. These burn especially well, though on some they are made from compressed wood chips and unsuitable for burning. the pallet plank wood is soft wood and burns very well but rather quickly. Sometimes it's worth taking 4 or 5 pieces and nailing the...

So sometimes I fail to fix things, and it is only fair to document those occasions too. I am very fond of the stories of Sherlock Holmes. In the short story "The Adventure of the Yellow Face", set at Norbury, Staffordshire. Holmes gets the case completely wrong. Later Holmes says: " Watson, if it should ever strike you that I am getting a little overconfident in my powers, or giving less pains to a case than it deserves, kindly whisper 'Norbury' in my ear, and I shall be infinitely obliged to you. " For me, that whisper goes ' nano ' A few weeks ago I opened the washing machine and out tumbled my sons iPod nano, with the recently washed clothes. It had been in his shirt pocket and not been noticed. So.... consulting the web the general consensus was that slow drying stood the best chance of resurrecting the device. Some advocated keeping the iPod in a bag of dry rice. I just placed it inside our airing cupboard and left it for a week. I then pl...

Well the trusty old Dell Dimension 2350 is still going strong. I decided to replace the power supply with a more efficient one. If you've read my earlier Dell post you will know that the original Dell PSU started to fail some years ago and was replaced with a gold Sweex Brand 400 watt supply, which has worked well. I decided to replace the Sweex with a 400Watt AKASA AK-P040FG8 which is 80plus rated . This means it is more energy efficient. The Sweex was fine, but I didn't really do much research when I bought it, and I had another project in need of the Sweex , so it seemed like a good idea to upgrade the one in the Dell to a more energy efficient design. My Son had also seen the occasional lock up of the PC while running games and iTunes simultaneously, and I thought this might be due to PSU demand. However before replacing it I wanted to do some tests of standing and peak power consumption of the PC with both the Sweex and Akasa power supplies. I plugged the PC into an en...

Having been interested in music and audio equipment since the late 70's, I hate to see old speakers go to waste, especially when they classic British vintage designs like Wharfedale, Leak, ,Mission,Celestion etc. I subscribe to freecycle and sometimes I see old speakers come up on there, usually because they are damaged in some way. I'm no expert on this, but have managed to cheaply get some pairs back to working and presentable state. It's actually not that hard. If certain collectable brands ever came up (i.e Tannoy, Lowther) I know enough not to attempt this kind of "get you home" repair and would consult the experts. The speakers described here are high quality models from the 70's/80's that were produced in large numbers, and while very good, they are not that valuable. The Leaks The first pair I got from freecycle were a pair of 70's vintage Leak 2020 sandwich speakers. The term sandwich refers to the technology that Harold Leak used...