Hey everyone, a quick note that I have received a press release from Earth911.com and I am happy to report that they have a new mobile iPhone application called “iRecycle“!  The application allows you to pretty much do everything that you can do on their website search engine with some added features.  Check it out!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 19, 2009

iPhone App Makes Local Recycling Easy and Convenient

When it comes to recycling and properly disposing of your trash, knowing is half the battle. The other half is actually getting your stuff to where it needs to go – whether it’s in a curbside collection program, a retail drop-off point or a hazardous waste event. With iRecycle, a new iPhone app from Earth911.com, you’re equipped for all stages of reducing your waste: knowing what you can recycle and where you can take it in your neighborhood.

Compatible with both iPhone and iTouch, iRecycle brings you Earth911.com’s national, comprehensive database of over 100,000 recycling and proper disposal locations for over 200 products at the touch of a button. Whether you need to recycle motor oil and CFLs in San Francisco or rechargeable batteries and paint in Washington, DC, iRecycle can connect you with real, local options.

Simply start typing what you’ve got, select your location and get instant access to the nearest recycling and proper disposal spots near you:

• Auto-complete makes searches quick and effective
• Get directions to the nearest site from your current location
• Find additional information like hours of operation, other materials accepted (maybe you can recycle all those plastic bags from under your kitchen sink), their Web site, etc.
• Check your search history to replay old search results –also functions on iTouch when an Internet connection is not available
• Call locations directly from search results if you need more information

Wherever you are, iRecycle keeps you connected to your green efforts. Even when you’re travelling or in a new city, you’ll never be without the knowledge of where to take your electronics, water bottles, car batteries, tires, eyeglasses… well, you get the point.

At Earth911.com, we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to make recycling easy. With iRecycle, you can use your powers for good – not waste. 

As we continue through Woodworkers Safety Week, many resources that were previously unknown to me.  A new one, is Earth 911.com.  This was brought to my attention by The Woodwhisperer Woodworking Video podcast, Episode 88 - Safety Q&A.  (Before I forget, keep voting for Marc in the BHG contest.   He’s still in second place and hanging strong, so don’t stop voting now!)

Anyway, Earth911 is a search engine you can use to find locations for hazardous materials disposal.  As a woodworker, you could use this to dispose of old, or dirty varnish, or any other material so it doesn’t end up in the landfill.  If you are a DiY tinkerer like I am, the search engine is of GREAT use.  One thing that comes to mind is circuit board disposal (Or any E-Waste) where they can recycle the silver and gold, but also reclaim the lead.  If you don’t know my stance on this issue, you should read this article from last year.

The absolute first thing that I used this site for was car battery disposal.  I have been accumulating these in the garage for some reason…mainly because I didn’t know of a safe way to dispose of them.  Lo and behold, the search engine turned up an unexpected result: Wal Mart.  I was a little skeptical, so I called to verify, and sure enough, they do take car batteries to recycle!

I’m gonna use this website a LOT, and I invite you to do the same.

Hello faithful readers.  In conjunction with woodworkers safety week, I am happy to present to you with an article I have been working on, and some of you have seen in rough form.  Many of us think about woodworkers safety as using the correct guards on our saws, using pushblocks when we cut or join, or using respirators when we sand.  One thing that is often overlooked is maintaining aging tools, whether they be ours, or bought second hand.  This is just as important as safety equipment itself.  A poorly maintained tool is an unsafe tool.

This time I am writing about an adventure of much peril and danger: I decided to rewire the miter saw.  Okay, maybe not THAT perilous and dangerous as I made it out to be.  The saw needed a lot of TLC, and was part of the long list of tools I inherited from my father in law.  I had been getting by using the old power cord, which, as you can see from the picture, had been taped with a different color of electrical tape every time a new crack in the insulation developed:

(Click image for full size)

Different projects around the house caused me to keep pushing back replacing the cord, because “It just worked good enough to get the job done”.  As all of you know, that’s not the mentality you should have around AC electricity and spinning blades, and I am ashamed that it crossed my mind that I was doing something that could be harmful.

Anyway, I pulled the saw apart (obviously, removing power from it first), and found this lovely Gem right inside of the casing for the handle:

(Click image for full size)

Yes, the insulation had dried, cracked, and completely removed itself from the conductive wire.  Leaving itself open to short to just about anything on the inside of the chassis.  Worse yet, this is an UNGROUNDED saw, so, the ground would have been, um, me.  Why didn’t this shock me, you ask?  The casing for the saw is plastic.  Nonetheless, if it found it’s way down to the base of the saw, the blade arbor, or anywhere else, I would have been in trouble.  Also, the insulation was cracked BEFORE the trigger on the saw, which means the saw would not have to have been in operation to electrocute me.

The fix:  I had some brand new REALLY thick computer server power cables at my disposal (These were rated higher in amperage than the saw was intended for, and came with a chemical and UV resistant outer insulation, that’s what the package said anyway).  It was a relatively minor effort to pull the old cable out and install the new one.  Here is the end result with it all closed up again:

(Click image for full size)

I think it turned out really well, and have no other hesitations about using the saw now.

Some side notes to remember when rewiring a saw (or anything motor driven):

1) Regardless of your relation to the blade where you are making the repair, remove it from the arbor.  There’s no telling how that saw might have been built, or if there are any fractured components due to stress that are willing to break at any moment.  Luckily, the motor windings were inside of the casing, and the armature unit was connected to the saw arbor.  They attached to each other by a bearing at the end of the assembly.

2) Remove the brushes that send current to the motor.  I neglected to do this before I pulled the casing off of the windings.  This caused the brushes to spring all of the way forward.  If I had not remembered they were there, I would have tried to reinstall the motor windings in the housing which would have led to  cracking them or breaking them.  Either way, they would have been ruined.  Motor brushes are generally always accessible from outside of the unit for easy replacement if they wear out.  They are always spring loaded to keep pressure on the windings.  In the past, I have broken more than my fair share of motor brushes as a welder repair technician.  I never take it easily.  We’re talking projectiles flung across the shop with choice words attached here folks.  For those of you who don’t actually know what electric motor brushes are, here’s a picture of what one looks like outside of the saw:

(Click image for full size)

Basically, they are spring loaded devices that transfer electricity from the power switch (or where ever) to the armature on the motor assembly, causing it to spin.

3) Always replace power cords with proper 3 prong cables where possible.  This was an all plastic case, so I didn’t have an option for grounding it, anywhere, but if you can, do it.  And on that note, make sure the cable is either rated for the same amperage, or higher than the cable you are replacing.  (If you suspect it was mis-wired in the past, take a gander at the motor specification plaque on the unit, and go from there)

4) This is perhaps one of the tips that goes in the book of DUH, but ALWAYS, check, and recheck, that there is no power going to the unit before servicing it.  Not only is there electrocution at risk, but spinning components that are just itching to deform something on you, or a near bystander’s body.

5) KNOW what you are doing, don’t just think you know.  If you haven’t ever worked with electricity before, or are uncomfortable around it, then don’t do it.  Have someone who is qualified do it for you, or supervise you if you are the learning type.

In conclusion, I am glad the saw is rewired properly, and, more importantly, I’m glad it didn’t injure me in the events leading up to the repair.

Hey Everyone,

This might be considered spam for some of my non woodworking readers, so please bear with me…I’m trying to help some one out who is deserving.

For those of you who don’t know, Marc Spagnuolo, The Wood Whisperer, has entered into the Better Homes and Gardens 48 Hour Challenge.  Please vote for him!  Registration is required and free.

NOTE:  Be sure it is Marc’s Ultimate BBQ cart you are voting for!  Voting started May 1st and you can vote once per day until June 12th.  Let’s help this guy out and give back some thanks for all he has done for us.

Link: BHG 48 Hour Challenge Voting

Thanks in advance!

Many of you heard that my birthday was ruined, but I won’t go into why.  There were, however, one or two really cool things about it.  Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you, my awesome birthday cake:

(click for full size)

So, all was not lost

Today, upon receiving an invoice from Digikey, one of my parts venues, I was slapped with a lovely surprise: Sales Tax.  I had not ordered from them in a while, but got smacked with a nice 7 dollar sales tax on my latest parts order from them! (I am used to this when ordering from Mouser, out of Ft. Worth here in Texas, and expect it).  I’m not sure what arbitrary number they were using for their calculation, but it sure wasn’t Texas sales tax!

I called their sales office, and they stated that they have started doing that for all orders, internet and otherwise.  I didn’t go into it with the sales representative, but it would seem to me that this violates a very clear cut clause in the U.S. Constitution,  the so called “Commerce Clause”, Article I, Section 8, Clause3, which states:

“The Congress shall have power . . . To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;”

To my knowledge, Digikey has no offices or corporate entities outside of Thief River Falls, Minnesota.  Also, I don’t believe that there were any Congressional Bill’s written into Law in the last year either, and certainly no Constitutional Amendment’s reversing the above stated.

This leads to a very important question: How can Digikey justify charging me Minnesota sales tax when I am a Texas resident not even close to Minnesota when my order is placed?  How about my Canadian readers?  Do they charge sales tax for you too?  I’d like to hear everyone’s thoughts on this.

Tax was the only thing keeping more of my orders going to Mouser, and if this is the case, I may have to start using them more, since the only toss-up I will have then is speed of shipping.  That being the case, I really can’t argue with getting it next-day from Ft. Worth, Texas, even at Ground rates!

Like everyone else, I have been roped into looking at Circuit City’s liquidation deals (or the lack thereof).  I walked in there with a basic need of finding a good deal on a Canon Rebel XSi for the upcoming storm chasing year.  Even with 30 percent off, it’s still what I can get it for online.  Oh well.  Those who know me will definitely remember that I am always looking for the deals and hardly ever pay close to retail for anything.  What can I say, if I wore corduroy pants I would start a fire.

What I did come across that made the trip worthwhile was their “fixture” table.  This is where they were selling off bags of screws, hardware, and the likewise from their car audio installation shop, and other general odds and ends from around the office.  For a total of ten dollars, I bought roughly a 500 count of screws in a bag used for mounting speakers in boxes ($4), a bag of 4 speaker terminals ($5, maybe that was a little high in retrospect), and an HP Jetdirect 175x with no power supply for $1.

Immediately after returning home, I opened the bag containing the print server.  To much dismay, there was a special DC input that none of the 100’s of power supply bricks in my designated cardboard box would fit.  Perhaps I would have to break down and buy a replacement…..

All prices for replacements were in the neighborhood of $27 dollars after price and shipping.  Still better than a brand new unit at $129, but you all know I wasn’t about to go out like that either!  I remembered the Jetdirect print server I took out of service a few years ago (I don’t throw anything away, and don’t think I payed one red cent for this print server, either).  It worked well, but I no longer had printers with parallel ports so it ceased to be of use.  Whatdya know….years of production apart, and a quick Google search confirms the power supply part numbers match!  Only I could be so lucky……

(Click images for full size)

Now I have a functioning USB print server, for $1.

By the way, for those of you looking to eventually take advantage of Circuit City’s liquidation prices, they change them every Thursday morning.  I’m not sure whether they make them higher or lower at this point, but I thought I would relay that piece of knowledge nonetheless.

Today, while looking through the “As seen on TV” isle at Walgreens, my wife and I purchased one of those PediPaws nail trimmers for our dogs.  Her cordless Dremel tool had gave up the magic smoke a few months ago and she had been using my variable speed model to sand the dog’s claws down after they were trimmed.  The product, as advertised, claimed to trim the nails without needing to clip them first, which caused splinters.  I was a little leary, but was $19.95, and took two C cell batteries, so we gave it a try.  In short, I am taking it back because it is one of the biggest pieces of crap I have ever seen.

Alex doesn’t like it either:

(click image for full size)

Taking it out of the box, I quickly noticed that it’s a cheap knock off of the Dremel rotary tool with a bigger sanding disk attachment and a plastic “guard”, or “gauge” that the nail to be trimmed slides in to.  I also quickly realized that it’s a cheap plastic case with the kind of DC motor you find in really bottom end toy cars at Radio Shack.

Moving on, I put a fresh set of C cell batteries in it and turned it on.  Seemed to be working.  We tried it on one of Alex’s nails and the tool immediately pulled his nail in between the guard and the rotating sander, stopping the motor.  Can you see where this might cause harm to a  small dog, especially if it rips a nail off altogether?  We thought maybe it was because he was so small, that he may not have been the target audience for the tool, so we tried it on Teddy, who is a 20 pound Lhasa Aapso.  Teddy had recently had a bath, and had his nails cut, but they still hadn’t been filed down because of the non working Dremel tool.  As soon as we put one of his nails in, the motor completely bogged down.  If this was the case just trying to sand the edge off of a nail, I seriously doubt it would be up to the job of completely trimming a dogs toe nail.  Now before you say anything, my wife has groomed dogs professionally for ten years, and I seriously don’t think this is a case of us not knowing what we are doing.  In fact, I would definitely call her an expert.

Save yourself some trouble for both you and your pets and pass this inferior tool by.  The appealing price does not outweigh it’s uselessness, nor does it make your pet getting hurt a justifiable alternative.  Get a dremel tool with a sanding disk, or, have the vet trim them.  I think I will exchange this for one of those “Pro Caulk” tools and see if that is worth it!

Addition:  I just found out that Amazon sells an actual Dremel “Pet Nail Grooming Rotary Tool” for $21.84 with Super Saver (Free) shipping.  That seems like a deal to me.

Recently, I wrote about my hard drive crashing.  In fact, I am sure it was the last thing you heard from me.

I was able to get back up and running with a drive I salvaged out of an old HP laptop (circa 2001).  It hummed like a jet engine, but was sufficient until my new drive came in from Newegg.

So, what to do with all of the configured software on the jet engine drive?  Since I never had used Norton Ghost for drive copy before, I decided to give it a test run.  Previously, I’ve used Ghost images in a lab environment to reimage desktops after classes to ensure viruses, etc weren’t on there, and to start them out with a clean slate for the incoming class.

When the new drive came in from Newegg, I attempted to use Ghost 14 to do a direct drive copy to my USB attached hard drive with the blank hard drive from the hard drive in the laptop, humming like a jet engine.  First of all, Ghost still doesn’t recognize USB storage devices in recovery mode, which means I would have to do the hard drive copy within the operating system.  After I did the drive copy from within Windows, I switched the hard drive out.  Upon booting up, I got one of those nice “I/O error: cannot read drive” errors, or something to that effect.  Epic fail.  I really didn’t feel like figuring out why that was happening, and as an end user, I shouldn’t have to.

I took the Ghost disk out and frisbee’d it across the room (my backup copy of course).  I popped in MHDD and erased the hard drive from block 0 and restored the default MBR.

At this point, I popped in Helix, it mounted BOTH the internal drive, and USB hard drive upon startup.

After the LiveCD OS came online, I opened a command shell and ran the command:

“dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/hda”

20 minutes later, I booted out of Helix, and booted into Windows on the new hard drive.

Norton Ghost might be good for preimaging things and setting them aside, but for notebook drive to drive copy, it sucks.  And for free, Helix does the job just fine.

One word of advice for Symantec: Get with the program or ALL of your software will suck.  Oh wait, too late.

Just a quick note…my hard drive gave out the other day in my Thinkpad laptop that I use for just about everything.  Heard the platters slamming into the side of the Hard Drive case from across the house.  Oops.

I am back online, limping along, using a notebook drive I ripped out of my friend Scott’s old HP.  It’s a REALLY loud Travelstar drive (Sounds like it’s spinning up for a launch), but I am making due for the time being, and waiting on my new one from Newegg.  Headache meds in hand, I bid you adieu.

Be back soon!

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