As a packrat,I finally realized that I'd have to clean out some
old electronic junk.I had a AM-FM radio with a phonograph on
top.It had a rod from the front panel to the inside to start the
phonograph that fell out of the slot position inside.It would 
be a problem trying to get inside by taking out the motherboard
or phone mechanism.The case was plastic so I used a soldering 
iron to melt a 3" x 4" opening in the side and was able to get
the rod back.It had a 4" x 6" antenna coil on the side facing the
VCR at the right and was picking up a lot of noise on AM with
the VCR OFF.I placed a sheet of steel,grounded by clip leads to
the air conditioning vent, between the radio and VCR .It helped 
a lot but only on loud local stations. .This is working now.
 I wondered if grounding the B - from the motherboard after
the line transformmer would be better.

I took apart another radio phonograph with too many defects
and unsoldered some of the caps for spares.Most were blue
and I figured that the stripe on the side pointed to + terminal.
 Then I took apart a Realistic radio that had a short (an IC got 
hot).Most of the caps were gray.Must be another manufacturer.
Both boards had one yellow cap ( Elecam-50 volt-1.0 mf/4.7 mf).
Both had the stripe marked as negative (-).I wonder why
they use that. I had problem trying to save switches with multi 
solder connections so I just cut them out of the board for now
with a pair of diagonal pliers..

I took apart an audio tape cassette drive and was amazed at 
all the moving parts and springs.It's a wonder it worked.
I took off the 2 hubs that rotate the tapes .One had a gear
at the bottom so I took a 4" x 1" O.D. dowel and used a thin
nail and Epoxy to fasten it to the end of the dowel.
Now I have a new tool for hand rotating a tape cassette for 
testing and removing the slack .I would hold one spool between
my fingers and used the tool to turn the other spool until
I felt it tighten up.I wonder what causes the slack,maybe
one hub in the drive is not synchronized with the other?.

Whenever I take apart electronics,for repairs,ie a belt,I would
write down HOW I took it apart and save it in a compartment.
No sense in inventing the wheel each time.
I do the same on an electrical or plumbing repair (wired tags).
 
I have a shortwave radio with a directional antenna on top without
a cassette.I was trying to connect the earphone socket to a radio
with a cassette recorder thru the microphone jack.It didn't work.
I now realize that the plugs were different.I'll have to make an
adapter if I can find a microphone plug in my junk pile.
 
I still use 3 1/2" diskettes for saving a lot of my backups.
I use the paper sleeves feom the old 5 1/4" floppies and can 
write on the exposed part of the envelope as an index.
I have some disks with a lot of old DOS programs that are 10 years 
old and still work.After working with CDs from the local library,
with the beating they take (scratches,cracks) I feel that putting 
ALL my software on ONE disk is too risky,even in duplicate.

I asked our local mailman why the small,rear end drive,right-hand 
steering wheel, mail truck had chains on after a light snowfall.
He said that at the end of a delivery,the rear end would be too
light to go up some slippery hills.The front wheels are closer
than the back so you have to make 4 tracks throught the snow.

When I shovel snow,I first spray the warm shovel with silicone 
oil or frying pan cooking oil to make the wet snow slide off.

Friends have given me 2 battery operated drills with one battery
pack.After charging,I keep the packs in the refrigerator because
of infrequent use.Although I have to wait a little for the pack
to warm up,it holds the charge longer.

When I'm out exercising my arthritis,I often see flattened plastic
returnable bottles.So I take off the label using "Ethyl acetate"
on a Q-tip ,running it along the glued portion.I save the label
and the co-ordinated color ring and glue it another non-return
bottle.The distributors keep the nickel deposit so the stores 
don't care.My wife donates the money to the church Food bank.
I also collect aluminum cans.Now you get $42 per 100 lbs.flattened
cans.Last year I gave $61 to the church Cub Scouts and this year
$33 to the Food bank.


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