EEE PC Repair Part 2

Look what I got in the mail. I should really order things for myself more often.

The box was easily large enough to ship a full sized LCD. I reused the bubble wrap to ship my burned out Dremel in for repair.
The replacement screen, it looks exactly the same. So far so good.
All fixed up. All the screws went back into the right places, even the stickers and rubber bumpers went back. And I've even upgraded the software to boot. It's like a brand new machine.
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Don't park in the flower beds

My wife and I like to visit missions along the California coast. This sign was above one of the flowerbeds. I was really disappointed because that was where I really wanted to park.
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3D rapid prototyping options

Recently Ive been looking into options for 3D rapid prototyping. There are two main categories, additive and subtractive. Additive involves depositing a liquid material that hardens, subtractive involves cutting out of a preexisting object. A few years ago the only options were tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars, and required specialized software and knowledge to operate. Now thanks to the open hardware movement there are more options available, and for less money. Read on for my initial investigation into what is available.

Cupcake CNC 3D printer $725 basic kit $950 deluxe kit
http://www.makerbot.com/
Fireball V90 CNC router $889 basic kit $1199 deluxe assembled
http://www.probotix.com/
Lumen Labs micRo CNC router $699 micRo Premium $999 micRo Gold
http://lumenlab.com/
Versa Laser/Epilog ~$8000-$15,000 and up
http://www.epiloglaser.com/ http://www.ulsinc.com/versalaser/
Rep Rap No complete kits available
http://reprap.org/
Fab@Home $3700 fully assembled $2750 Kit (on sale)
http://fabathome.org/
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Ubuntu 9.04 is here

This is just a quick note to let you know that the newest version of Ubuntu came out yesterday. If you haven't tried Linux before, or even if you have it is worth giving it a look. It's really easy to use, you can try it out on your computer without changing anything and it's free. Seriously man, check it out.
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Yankee Tools

At work I found a hand push drill from Yankee Handyman. Unfortunately it was missing all but one drill bit, and it was bent and broken. I decided that I had to have one. I went to Rockler with my Grandpa looking for one, and it turned out that they haven't been made for a long time.
When we got back to the house my Grandpa took me out to the garage and to one of his older toolboxes. He pulled out a Yankee Handyman drill, with four bits still stored in the handle.

This beauty belonged to my great grand father. Both it and the drill from work were dirty and slightly rusty. So I decided to clean and oil them. First up was the work driver.
All it took to dissasemble the driver was unscrewing the threaded bit at the front of the handle. As you can see there was a spring inside and below that a wooden peg that the whole thing spins on. It was all covered in dirty oil so first I cleaned all of the grime off with rubbing alcohol and q-tips.
Next up I oiled all of the moving parts and threads, as well as the bit since it was bare metal and a little rusty.
One neat thing about this drill is the bit storage area. Too bad I don't have any bits to fill the other slots.
The threads on this driver only go in one direction. When you push it in the bit spins clockwise, on the way back out the bit spins counterclockwise. This probably explains the unique design of the drill bit.
Next up was cleaning my driver.
The shaft of this driver has threads in both directions. It can spin in either direction.
The driver had an amazing mechanism to allow it to spin in one direction, and then release freely in the other.

As you can see there was quite a bit of grime on the inside, and rust on the bits.
Getting inside this one was much harder. First I unscrewed the front like the other driver. Then I had to push in the switch on the ratcheting mechanism and slide down the silver cover. This got me into the ratchet. After removing three bits of metal the gears were loose. Next I had to unscrew the back, and then another bit that it screwed into. Even still I wasn't able to get the shaft out completely.
After a thorough cleaning and oiling both drivers look much nicer, and work better as well. It is much easier to get the bits in and out. With the gunk and rust cleaned off these fine tools are ready for many more years of use. MORE

Discount Tires

If you are looking for really cheap tires this is your place.
Now you know where all of those chunks of tire on the side of the road come from.
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EEE PC Repair Part 1

A while ago the screen on my EEE PC 701 was cracked.

I decided it was time to look into getting a replacement.
To find out what kind of replacement screen I needed I had to open it up.
After removing the screws from the screen I realized I would have to take the bottom plastic off as well to get to the screen.I removed the battery and six screws on the bottom. Not even close to done.
After removing the keyboard, another batch of screws and the touchpad I was in.

Sure enough on the back of the LCD there is the model number I needed to get a replacement. Since I hadn't ever ripped apart an LCD I went ahead and did so, there were several sheets of plastic, glass and the display all squeezed into that tiny case.
I ended up ordering a replacement screen off ebay for $68.67 new. I'll post an update when it comes in. MORE

Write really slowly

One day I was heading out on a trip and decided to pick up a disposable camera. At first glance it looked like any other photo desk. But this one wanted a little more from you than most.
Take a closer look at the sign on the desk. Pic after the jump
This gives a whole new meeting to one hour photo. MORE

Re-inventing the Wheel

Today I was given an air compressor at work for free. The only catch was that it didn't turn on and had a broken wheel. A quick clean of the contacts on the power switch and it turned on. Instead of replacing the wheel we decided to fix it.Five holes and five zip ties later and we had a wheel that was as good as new. Now all I have to figure out is why it doesn't automatically turn off until the safety valve blows. MORE

Best security System

Whenever I see a funny sign I try to take a picture. This is one of those pictures.

Who needs a well trained attack dog?
They didn't even bother closing the door all the way, man is that place secure. MORE

Pirates of the Power Mains

A while ago I went on a cruise down to the Caribbean. There I saw a unique solution to an everyday problem. How do you plug an American (NEMA 5-15) power plug into a non-American receptacle (L6-15)?
Simple:

You just bend the prongs. One more great solution after the jumpCut the plug off all together and just shove the wires in.And here is the rest of it. MORE