My Old Lamps

I have some old style halogen lamps which use 150 watts.

Time to upgrade to LEDs.

When I disassembled lamp #1, I found a burned wire.

Might be time to check your lamps, too!

 

The other lamp wiring was OK.

New lamps are expensive.  So, high time for some maintenance.

 

First I replaced the “halogen lamp socket”. Then I added one of these LED replacement bulbs.

It is a “warm white bulb” which means it is a little dim.  That is OK when I have to get up before dawn to catch a plane or something like that.

For the other lamp I decided to add a big LED lamp fixture.

The Cloudy Bay item shown here is held together by three bolts.

I brought one bolt to the hardware store to match the M6 thread and got three real long bolts 100 mm long.  Add 25 ~ 50 mm to the existing bolt length.

Then I made three holes in the old lamp shade and bolted the new LED lamp into place.

Three new bolts and three existing nuts.

These new LEDs are cool “white which” means really bright. 

The lamp looks good whether on or off. 

This lamp is kind of like strobe lights though, giving out 120 flashes per minute.  If I wave my hand right by the light, I can see some strobing effects.

Perhaps there are some better LED lights out there, which would have more components such as capacitors to store some energy and reduce the voltage ripple inherent in the 60 cycle AC power.  A more-expensive lamp fixture might give a more steady light.

Then again I could build some rechargeable batteries into the lamp base, which would run the LEDs on direct current. Light output would be steady.

The search for a suitable replacement goes on.

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My Truck's door lock

Recently was mending my truck because the door lock wasn’t working properly. 

The problem was traced to a simple plastic part.

In order to have one of these:

Had to buy (two) of these:

[

Luckily was possible to remove the white plastic part from the new lock cylinder,

then place the white plastic part onto the old lock cylinder.

I can keep the same keys, at least for now.

 

I am sure that somebody, someplace, has a bin full of the white plastic part 21970.

The white plastic part is shown as number 21970 on a drawing which I found on

 ( web site ) (Can't find it again!  If I do, will update).

Thinking that perhaps the 1994 Mustang lock cylinder would fit, the Mustang one uses the plastic/metal clip shown in the picture, and the plastic/metal clip is available at the parts store.

Fin

Lightning

As you know, we are having a drought here in California.

Which means, any time that water falls from the sky

that makes the news.

 

Recently a big wind brought a big dust of off the construction site

and then large raindrops began falling from the sky.

 

Last time there was a  rain shower, I went outside and washed my car

in the rain

because that is all the water available for washing cars.

 

So on Tuesday, I was going outside to wash the car

in  the rain

when suddenly there was a flash and a boom.

 

They say that you can tell how far away the lightning is

by counting the seconds between the flash

and the boom.

 

This time, the boom seemed to have happened first,

because we humans can hear faster than we can see.

 

The lightning had struck a tree on the edge of the parking lot.

Very close to the building.

The lightning stripped the bark and some wood from a nearby tree.

 

Here is a close-up of the damage to the tree.

 

 

Lightning also

 

struck

 

 

 

a steel-reinforced cinder block wall.

 

 

Here is a close-up of the damage to the wall.

 

 

I did NOT go outside and wash my car that day!

 

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Cracked

A new building is going up next door.

 

The front building, which is facing south, appears to be cracked already.

 

After this happened, the erection crane was moved to the far away other side of the construction site.

 

Perhaps this was tilted up too early?  We can't really see the cracks by looking at this picture from a handy phone.

 

Not even after monkeying with the black and white color levels.

 

So I went home and got my good camera and got a good picture!  Big camera is better than small camera.

 

Fin.

My Window

          Looking out of the window, I have become accustomed to seeing some empty
                                                     train tracks.
  Imagine my surprise when I looked out the window today and saw a modern little train.

                             Folks have been building on this rail line for years and years.
                                  I had begun to wonder if it would ever be finished?
                            Then suddenly a train appeared on a beautiful spring day.
                                    This one was driving very, very slowly.
                           You can see the Styrofoam boards taped to the sides
               which would indicate if something was built too close to the tracks.

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My Yarn Indicator II

Way back during 2011 I told you a story about my 1984 Ford truck, the air conditioning system seemed to be unreliable as I told you about here.   The hot and cold control is a vacuum device which has finally stopped working today in 2015.

The original yarn indicator installation required a removal of the glove box. Here is an alternative repair technique.  Remove the vacuum hose from the vacuum motor.

You can do this without needing any tools.  In other words do not remove the glove box, only crawl down beneath the dashboard.

Add some plastic lubricant such as Tri-Flow which is guaranteed to not harm plastics.  Ordinary oil would wreck it so be sure to use the correct type of lubricant.

Start the engine then re-connect the vacuum hose from the vacuum motor.  Operate the hot-cold control a few times.  If you are lucky as I was, the control switch will have become un-stuck and the vacuum motor will obey the hot-cold control reliably once again.

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My Computer Runs Slow (Norton)

          Recently yours truly has seen his computer
                                  running slow

                        Most everybody says, "
                      Upgrade your computer.."

           As if a computer was a disposable item.

                  We see things differently.
       We see the computer as a durable white good
                              for legal reasons.

                    To make a long story short,
  you can fix your Windows XP computer like this:

          Un-Check the box for scanning other computers!
          Because this "Feature" makes your computer run
                                sooper-slow.
Fin