ScrapHappy August 2020: #BeKindle

Kindling (noun): bits of Kindles

Earlier this week, the Snail decided to pick up her Kindle, after about two years of not picking it up. Needless to say, it didn’t want to work (can you imagine if a book didn’t work after a couple of years on the shelf?). The battery stubbornly refused to charge, as if it were sulking about being ignored for so long.

Three-ish years ago, my Kindle also gave up the ghost, for reasons that never became apparent. I bought a new battery (which did not fix the issue) and then an old Kindle off eBay whose screen had been damaged but that was, according to the description, OK otherwise. Sadly, fitting the screen off my stricken Kindle (which did appear to work) to the eBay Kindle did not improve my supply of working Kindles. My old Kindle, the new battery and the eBay Kindle all went in the “nice” scrap box, reserved for things that I cannot bring myself to completely strip for parts or throw out (so, pretty much everything then). I then acquired another working one, that I have to this day.*

Never be afraid to open these sorts of things up. The Kindle of old is easy, I used a plastic plectrum to slide along the edge to undo the plastic clips (you can use a thin-bladed screwdriver, but this tends to break some or all the clips in the process). There are invariably YouTube videos to show what to do. It’s possible that the newer Kindle (Fire and the like) are glued together to stop you doing this in which case – emoji of someone blowing a raspberry here!

Turns out, the new battery I bought all those years ago was also a “I’m going to sulk now” types, and didn’t want to charge up. I was beginning to wonder if the charging circuitry in the Snail’s Kindle might not be in a deep funk too, but lo and behold! The old battery from the eBay kindle charged and saved the day. I don’t know why that battery might work where the others failed, or indeed how long it may last now but it means that the Snail can Kindle away again so I’m happy!

In the Pink – one working Kindle

oOo

These ScrapHappy posts are curated by Kate, who provides links to other (mostly sewing) ScrapHappy bloggers at Tall Tales from Chiconia on the fifteenth of every month. I have sneaked one or two non-fabric-based ScrapHappys in when no one was looking!

Lots of other happy scrappers contribute too, so check them out:

Kate, Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan,
Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean,
Joanne, Jon (that would be me), Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie, Bekki, Pauline,
Sue L, Sunny, Kjerstin and Vera

* How I came by my replacement Kindle is mentioned here

ScrapHappy June 2020: Scrum from Scrap

When cardboard and old credit card bills are on the menu:

Take some old cardboard and paper shreddings…

 

…add the shreddings to the bed…

 

…tuck the shreddings in with a blanket of cardboard to keep it warm (and in the bed!)…

 

..throw away the bits that won’t help…

 

…plant up and wait for things to grow. Then eat. Yum!

oOo

The lovely Kate Chiconi and Gun created this idea and the people listed below have embraced it, as well as turning a blind eye to my nonsense:

Kate, Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan,
Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean,
Joanne, Jon (me), Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie, Bekki, Pauline,
Sue L, Sunny, Kjerstin and Vera

ScrapHappy February 2020: Spring has almost sprung

Rusty Connector – worst name for a sex therapist ever

The issue with not replacing stuff every time a new version comes out is that eventually entropy takes its toll and it needs mending. Sometimes, the manufacturer (as in last month’s post) makes it impossible to fix but other times…

Take our CD player remote control. Now put it back. Thank you. The batteries last so long in it that they tend to start leaking before they have actually stopped powering the device and that slight chemical spillage leads to corrosion of the battery connector. Then it does stop working by which time it is usually quite hard to clean the corrosion off.

Time to remove it completely…

The connector no longer, er, connected.

Remember that old biro you removed the spring from way back in the noughties, and then left on a shelf? Well, that has finally proved to be useful as a new battery terminal.

Once in a biro, now in a remote control: the varied life of a ScrapHappy spring.

As good as new!

And that is a quick ScrapHappy fix!

oOo

These ScrapHappy posts are curated by Kate, who provides links to other (mostly sewing) ScrapHappy bloggers at Tall Tales from Chiconia on the fifteenth of every month. I have sneaked a non-fabric-based ScrapHappy in when no one was looking!

Lots of other happy scrappers contribute too, so check them out: Kate, Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Nanette, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Debbierose, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan, Karen,
Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean, Johanna,
Joanne, Jon (me), Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie and Bekki

 

ScrapHappy January 2020: Mirror Bawl

Seven years bad luck for the courier

First off, I hope you all have a good 2020, and much ScrapHappiness!

Sorry – this ScrapHappy post is a bit angranty*!

A friend of mine is doing up a house, by which I mean he has been living in a building site for two years because doing a full-time job and renovating an old property are two largely incompatible tasks. As part of this, he bought himself a mirror to go in his bathroom, when he has actually put in the important stuff like a bath, or a wall. This mirror was a really fancy one, with LED lights around the frame and a de-mister heating pad on the glass itself.

As you can see, the first delivery was not as successful as it might have been. The company my friend bought it from did replace it and instructed him to bin the defunct one. So I offered to take that and see if I could replace the glass, as that was the only thing broken (as far as I could tell). What I discovered was that:

With the exception of the box of electronics, every single component in this mirror had been glued, with something that appeared to turn into concrete once set.

This means that replacing the glass or, indeed, the LEDs or the heater pad, is effectively impossible! And it wasn’t as if this product was manufactured just after WWII, when the world went “yay, we’re-off-rations” crazy and the throwaway society was born. This was made about six months ago, when to deny that climate change is a real thing happening now meant you were leader of a country.

Everything stuck to everything else

Like I said, a ranty post. I managed to salvage the power supplies (for the LEDs and the heater) but couldn’t remove the LEDs, the heater pad or the polycarbonate surround because of the weld-like glue the manufacturers used.

What I managed to rescue from landfill

Grr. A very angry Grr.

oOo

* Angranty (adj): Part angry, part ranty as in, er, <thinks of example> “this ScrapHappy post is a bit angranty”.

These ScrapHappy posts are curated by Kate, who provides links to other (mostly sewing) ScrapHappy bloggers at Tall Tales from Chiconia on the fifteenth of every month. I have sneaked a non-fabric-based ScrapHappy in when no one was looking!

Lots of other happy scrappers contribute too, so check them out: Kate, Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Nanette, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Debbierose, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan, Karen,
Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean, Johanna,
Joanne, Jon (me), Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie and Bekki

ScrapHappy November 2019: Nothing to see here

As the title says, no ScrapHappy news from the writinghouse this month (well, I found an M6 nut on the pavement but that is safely in a pocket somewhere awaiting the call) but do check out all these fabulous ScrapHappyers, Scrappyers, er, you know what I mean!

Kate, Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Nanette, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Debbierose, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan, Karen,
Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean, Johanna,
Joanne, Jon (me), Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie and Bekki

Here is a lovely butterfly by way of absolutely nothing:

Leopard Lacewing

These ScrapHappy posts are curated by Kate, who provides links to other (mostly sewing) ScrapHappy bloggers at Tall Tales from Chiconia on the fifteenth of every month. I have sneaked a non-fabric-based ScrapHappy in when no one was looking!

oOo