Moor Door

While the stucco is curing on my new door install, I decided to take care of a little bit of termite damage that I found while I was doing the install.

The bottom of the king stud here is probably the nastiest part, and I think it's contributing to this wall being a bit more flexible than I'd like, though the majority of it is probably due to how it was framed out, since there's no bracing at the top of the wall and the double top plate really isn't stiff enough to keep things really rigid.

Anyway, the solution to the immediate problem is to sister this chewed up lumber with some fresh new toobiefors. But, since this is a stucco wall, there's not quite enough room for a full width board in here, since the stucco application process tends to cause some bowing of the tar paper when the stucco gets squished into place.

And then there's also these nails in the way.

For whatever reason, 3-1/4" nails are standard in framing, even though that leaves a quarter inch of nail poking out the far side of a pair of 2x4s.

But it's an easy problem to solve.

Anyway, we're gonna need to put the new toobies on a diet to fit into the wall, especially around spots like this.

So we send it off for some bandsaw liposuction.

Of course I also have to work around the mudsill bolts, so a little bit of blocking on the bottom seems in order.

And thus we get to the most important part of any home improvement job: buying new tools.

This is a 21° air-powered framing nailer, and is surprisingly quite a bit lighter than it looks. Let's give it a test run on this blocking.

Yeah, it figures it would split. Ah well, it'll still do the job well enough.

Next up we'll install some metal connectors to help stiffen up the joints between the joists and the top plate and mud sill.

I'm adding them to the existing framing as well as the new stuff.

These nails don't go in with the nail gun, to be clear. You can get a metal connector nailer that will shoot nails into metal connectors like these, but they're a bit spendy for a single-tasker. You can also get a palm nailer to drive the nails for you, or you can just hammer them in manually like some kind of chump.

I hammered them in manually, and I honestly should have got the palm nailer.

Anyway, they go into the new wood too, and I'm adding them before putting the board into place since they're much easier to access before they're in the wall.

Then the other side gets some construction adhesive.

And with some creative wedging to make it conform to the existing framing, it gets nailed into place.

And then the job is done.

Well, except for going out to buy a can of termite foam and squirting it into the chewed up wood. I'm 95% sure that there isn't an active infestation here as the damage predated me moving in (the termites had also chewed on some of the shelving framing that was nailed into this wall, which I removed shortly after moving in) but the foam is cheap so I really have no reason to not do it.

Speeeeeeeeen

Continuing on with the saga of my Seiko watches, when we last left off I had replaced the batteries in both watches in the hope that this refresh would keep them from running down so frequently. The newer watch has, subsequently, returned to an acceptable level of functioning, but the old one still tends to run down to zero after a few months.

Of course this isn't entirely surprising, since I only wear the older one once a week, however I tried to address this, years ago, by storing it in an automatic watch winder when it isn't on my wrist.

Rather disappointingly, this did not solve the problem, and the reason why is pretty straightforward: the device is programmed to only rotate the watch for something like 15 seconds every hour. This rotational austerity is done in the name of not over-winding a mechanical automatic watch, since as we all know, overwinding a mechanical watch can cause the mainspring to be damaged or broken.

Except that watchmakers aren't idiots. A regular non-automatic wristwatch has a mainspring that's retained in the barrel by a hook and on the arbor by another hook, creating a positive connection to the spring at both ends, which is sufficiently strong that overpowering it will result in breaking the mainspring.

HOWEVER, automatic watches only have a hook on the arbor, and the barrel is instead smooth, with the mainspring gripping it via friction through a specially formulated sticky grease. If the watch is "overwound" then the winding action pulls the mainspring away from the inside of the barrel and this reduced pressure allows the spring to slip along, safely releasing the excess spring tension.

Never mind that my Seiko watches don't even have a mainspring. The automatic works runs a little generator that charges the battery.

But it's easier to sell people snake oil to alleviate their unfounded anxieties than it is to educate them and dispel their misunderstandings, so the result is we get an automatic watch winder that doesn't actually properly wind an automatic watch.

Now I've known this for a while and I've been mulling over ways to address it. I could replace the control board with one that's programmed more to my liking, or possibly just reprogram the control board that's already in there, but both of those options feel a bit tedious and excessive. Instead, I'm just going to install a switch to bypass the whole thing so that I can set the motor on to run constantly when I need to fully charge the watch.

And that starts with getting inside.

The winder can be optionally powered by a pair of batteries, but I run it off the wall-wart. Still, the battery compartment is one of the two main access routes to get inside the unit.

And the control board is just held in place by the nuts on the knobs and barrel jack.

The watch holder basket thing is held onto the gear motor shaft by a single screw, and another single screw holds the diagonal main plate in place. With those removed, everything comes apart.

There's not a ton of room in the bottom of the case, but I should be able to fit the switch here beside the basket where it'll be easily accessible from above.

Though the main plate is a little thick compared to the barrel size of this switch, so I'll need to carve out some space on the back side.

First up is drilling the hole.

Which worked pretty well, despite going through a layer of fabric on top.

And it's clear to see that we won't be able to get the retaining nut onto the switch without a bit more work on the backside.

But a little work with a 3/4 spade bit (which I had to run in my cordless drill because it's a cheap bit and not anywhere near straight) makes a nice little pocket for it to sit down inside.

And now we've got enough threads showing to secure the switch in place.

The nut and the anti-rotation washer go on just as planned.

And now it's time to solder. These two contacts on the programming header connect to the ground plane and the power input jack, so they make a convenient spot to tap into.

And then the switch gets soldered up to select between either the normal PCB connection or the direct power connection.

Then all that's left to do is pack everything back in the case like it was before.

So now whenever my watch is getting low on charge, I can just flip the switch to have the motor run constantly (and faster than normal too, since the new connection bypasses the 3.3v regulator) and leave it for an hour or two to make absolutely sure that the battery gets completely topped off.

Step 2: Install The Rest Of The Fucking Door

When we last left off, the door into my car hole was looking a little bit like this.

Functionally installed, but lacking a bit in terms of aesthetics and weathertightness.

As you might expect, this blog instalment is once again a bit on the lengthy side, so click through to read on.

Ekcs Dee

 So once again I found myself sifting through the underbelly of eBay looking for bargains that might pique my interest, and I came upon a Korg Minilogue XD synthesizer with my four favourite words "for parts or repair" attached. A few months ago I had actually found another one of them, also in inoperable condition, but ended up losing that auction. This one, though, had an issue that promised to be more easy to solve (some non-functional keys rather than the whole synth showing no signs of life) and was actually cheaper, so I went ahead and bought it.

The diagnosis of the issue was rather straightforward though it ended up requiring a slightly more involved fix than I had initially assumed. You can watch the adventure in this video here:

Anyway, the repair was a success, even with the unexpected twist that happened along the way, and the synth is now up and running and basically as good as new.

I decided to swap it in place of my Yamaha Reface CS. This isn't because the Minilogue XD is necessarily any better than the CS, but rather because the CS has built-in speakers and batteries, and thus it makes sense to use it as a portable couch-synth rather than just tying it down to one spot on my synth desk.

I Think I'm Turning Japanese

Or at least it would appear that way according to what I just ordered.

This is the Hakko FR-301, obviously, and there's really no reason I bought the Japanese version; they do make a basically identical American version with english packaging and documentation and a 3-prong plug. And it's also $100 more expensive for some reason.

I suppose I should explain what this is: it's a desoldering gun. To desolder a component, you generally need to heat up the solder past its melting point, then somehow physically remove the liquid solder from the joint. You can wick it away with solder wick, or suck it away with a separate solder sucker, but this tool combines both the solder sucking and the heating in one single tool.

It's also, somewhat inconveniently, designed to run on 100VAC, since it's the Japanese version. So we're going to need to do a little bit of tweaking.

The back cover and solder jar come off quite easily without tools, and then there's 4 screws on the case and 2 on the nozzle that need to come out.

Is it scandalous to see it this naked? Anyway, 2 screws on the PCB and 2 more on the power cord strain relief need to be removed to free up the main PCB.

What we're looking for is the 10Ω resistor that runs in line with the vacuum pump motor, which needs to be swapped out with a pair of 300Ω resistors to get it running the correct speed at 120v.

And yes, I now have 48 spare 300Ω 1W resistors that I'm sure I will find a use for... eventually.

Anyway, to remove the 10Ω resistor we can just use the desoldering gun to... oh, wait.

Right, we gotta do this old school.

This is, quite frankly, a giant pain in the ass thanks to the use of lead-free solder. But I managed.

Thankfully soldering in the two new resistors is pretty easy. Remember to space them off the board so that they don't cook the PCB when they warm up.

And don't forget to clean off the flux when you're done.

Curiously the trimmed leads from these new resistors are magnetic, apparently having been made from tinned iron wire, rather than something like, I dunno, copper?

Given that these resistors are THAT cheap, it's probably not a bad idea to check to see if they're even in spec.

Ok, that's actually not too bad. And since I have a 4-wire meter, I can also check to see how much resistance is coming from the iron component leads themselves.

You really need a 4-wire setup for this as otherwise the resistance from the test leads and the contact resistance from where you connect to the component you're testing will overwhelm the low resistance you're trying to measure.

2mΩ ain't half bad, I guess the iron wire does the job if it's thick enough.

Anyway, assembly is the reverse of disassembly.

And we're ready to suck some solder!