home improvement turns into science fair projects?

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mediatechnology
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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

Post by mediatechnology »

I've never had any metal on my curb last more than 24 hours.
At our time of the month for bulk pickup we see pickups loaded higher than the cab with scrap metal anything.
It's a rolling Sanford and Sons in the back of those trucks.

You remind me of the retired cast iron plumbing I need to get out of the basement.
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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

Post by brianroth »

My wildest "on the curb" story......

Several years ago, it was the entire frame and internal wiring harness of an Ampex MM-1100. It had been a parts donor for another machine, so lots had been stripped off. Head block, motors, VU meters, PSU and audio cards and the card cages.

It lasted maybe two hours on the curb. Lotsa copper wire and aircraft grade aluminum!

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mediatechnology
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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

Post by mediatechnology »

brianroth wrote: Thu Sep 05, 2019 8:27 pm Lotsa copper wire and aircraft grade aluminum!

Bri
It's like gold.
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JR.
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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

Post by JR. »

Speaking of cast iron, in this months pile o' crap was a half dozen 25# plates... I didn't expect it but the junker took the 150# of weightlifting plates and a laundry basket of assorted trash too.

One mans trash is another man's treasure.

I still have a couple hundred pounds of aluminum extrusion from my first generation tuner package. It is black anodized but apparently that doesn't diminish the scrap value. I can probably convert that to a few dollars.

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mediatechnology
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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

Post by mediatechnology »

I still have a couple hundred pounds of aluminum extrusion from my first generation tuner package.
What's it's profile like? Anything useful to anyone else?
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JR.
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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

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mediatechnology wrote: Sat Sep 07, 2019 6:38 pm
I still have a couple hundred pounds of aluminum extrusion from my first generation tuner package.
What's it's profile like? Anything useful to anyone else?
Not in my judgement....

JR
[edit I could probably dig up a 2-d profile from when I originally designed this... This was my first generation package for my drum tuner and not even in the same time zone as my later injection molded plastic package. At the time I thought some extra heft would be considered valuable by consumers (boy was I wrong). When I first retired this package I killed a bunch of brain cells looking for a possible application. It has slots for PCB on one end and thinner slot for metal grill and even bosses for mounting speakers with self threading screws.

I am reminded of a classic Peavey mistake of designing products just to use up old inventory creating bigger piles of old inventory, so I'll pass. There is enough left over from the initial minimum push required by alcoa, that I should pursue the scrap value. I might even be able to get the local junk yard to come pick it up with their truck, but not today. First I need to figure out how many pounds I have and negotiate a fair price. [/edit]
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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

Post by JR. »

New home improvement

I took my cheesy plastic greenhouse and mounted it inside my laundry room... I had to build a shelf to get it up high enough for sunlight to come in through the window, but for chuckles I just installed some cheap LED grow lights, too.

In the picture you can see my thermostat (hanging down on the right) controlling a 60W light bulb mounted down in the bottom for heat. Thermostat markings only go down to 50 but it has knob travel lower than that
growliight.jpg
This growing season is almost over.. the large plant on the left is bell pepper, I have a thai pepper plant in there also.

Looking forward to early start next season, growing plants from seeds. 8-)

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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

Post by mediatechnology »

Looks like my south-facing basement window except for the nice LED grow lights.
Mine are the only florescent lamps remaining in the entire house.

I have some nice chip-on-board (COB) LEDs that are direct-wire to 120V.
They apparently use the Diodes Inc current regulating diodes so there's no rectifier or large filter cap required.
The hold-up is finding suitable heatsink/fan combos from salvaged from CPU coolers.
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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

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The LEDs look like they are powered from a USB cable charging PS...

I am not sure they are real... but I'm game to learn.

The sunlight, and thermostat protection from freezing means I can plant my seeds out there next season, with less drama.

I lost most of the 7 different varieties of hot peppers I raised from seeds this spring indoors then killed. :oops: Thai peppers were the only survivor from that crew.

I feel lucky about next year...

I will get this all perfect just before I drop dead from old age. :lol:

JR
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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

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This should probably be in the Entropy thread, but that has turned into a blog for everything but entropy (deterioration- failures)... :lol:
===
Last night the temps dropped down into the low-mid 30s so I got to test my 60W light bulb heater... (it worked fine as far as I can tell).

But the cheap grow lights are already knackered... This morning they were weakly flashing, when they should be off, and don't turn on. They use a cheap 5V 2A USB power supply and I suspect that is toasted. Those power supplies cost about $0.50 from alibaba in 10k quantity...

I need to rig up some way to test voltage on the USB port, or connect a common 5V supply to an USB cable. The grow lights are secured to the green house shelves so I can't just drag them inside to a computer USB.

Another possibility is a high current fault in the grow light controller, or LEDs preventing the 5V PS from staying on.

My bet is the PS. Can't believe I don't already have a spare one of those in my sundry junk collections.

JR
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