ScrapHappy December 2021: Repair, Reuse, REVIEW

As we approach the shortest day and the turning of the year, I thought I would write a quick review of my ScrapHappy activities (and not just because, here at Chez Snail, we are more than halfway through our Solstice calendar which has a small but perfectly drinkable bottle of wine behind every door and therefore means I may not be as creative as normal).

As my regular reader will know, I am not skilled enough to start ScrapHappying with fabrics and other soft scrap, so I go for the hard ScrapHappying. Occasionally, the two overlap as they did in October and November…

Using a component from an old CFL lightbulb to fix a Bernina footpedal

Using an old piece of cable sheath to keep the feeder dog up on a Brother machine

There was a definite lamp theme by the time I used a bit of one in October. I had already repurposed an old set-top box in January to ensure the Snail’s craft light kept shining, and converted a pair of electrickery-powered lights back to good old candle power in May…

A powerless power supply, soon to be replaced with a power supply with no device to power

Electricity? Overrated…

Of course, the hugest news in the ScrapHappy Universe, and by that I mean in my head, was the rebirth of Palletgate in July…

Ah, Palletgate is dead. LONG LIVE PALLETGATE!

There was ScrapHappy component creation going on in June and August…

A very early Cyberman… or a slightly sawn-off CD player

Yummy electronic ScrapHappiness

There was a ScrapHappy makeover for the water butt stand in March…

Prototype Daleks OR a water butt standing on its own two feet (er, one stand)

Some scrapped telecom cable (retrieved from the side of the road) was used to keep the raspberries off the ground in April…

Cable and wireless? Nope, Raspberries and wire.

And there was an old scythe to restore in September…

One man and his (half of a) dog. Oh, and a scythe…

oOo

Eh voila! Another ScrapHappy year done with! I hope you all have a very ScrapHappy 2022 and, indeed, a very Happy 2022 in general! See you next year for more ScrapHappiness and maybe even a new ScrapHappy top-of-the-blog post image (maybe)!

Many other people contribute to Kate and Gun’s wonderful ScrapHappy every month – check out what they have been up to too!

 

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Jule, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, Edith
Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Debbierose, Nóilin, Viv, Karrin,
Amo and Alissa

 

 

ScrapHappy May 2021: Candle with Care

 

Lights out!

I am all for the right to repair, as my reader will know. Give me a broken thing and I will try to mend it. Give me a working thing and I’ll probably break it. Give me a decent single malt, and I’ll stop breaking stuff.

Sometimes though, things can’t be fixed because the manufacturer has inadvertently, or advertently, made them unfixable. And so it was with this pair of quite funky lamps from Mother-of-Snail. These lamps, when they worked, were touch sensitive so when you brushed them with your finger they giggled like a small child. Oh, wait, that’s me. You could cycle through “light off”, “light a bit on”, “light quite a bit on”, and “Ah! My eyes! My eyes! on”, just by touching the base. Then a power glitch one day meant you could only use the “light off” setting.

I took the pair of similarly-afflicted lamps to my workshop/office/lair/scrapheap and replaced the electronic component that was most likely to have been affected (it’s a thing called a triac, but you already knew that, didn’t you?). Sadly, that didn’t do the trick because the little custom-made silicon chip that controls the whole thing had also decided that the power glitch was a perfect excuse for a permanent holiday.

Nobody’s bolt but mine

I decided to de-evolve the lamps to candle holders. The threaded bolt that held the bulb holder into the body of the lamp was removable and so I glued a screw as shown to push the candle into. I was going to use something pointed but then realised how dangerous that might be for passing spaniels/terriers/Snails.

DIY candle holder

There are a few bits left over. There will be some electronic components that are still useable and the bulb holders are fine (although I have no use for them at all unless I build a lamp, which is unlikely). There are the little boxes that held the circuitry that might come in handy.

…and that’s what lamps are made of.

I may add some extra support (possibly by melting wax) around the base of the candle at some point.

And now, by the light of two candles, I am off to finish some lovely single malt.

Another two, and we have the basis for a very funny sketch

oOo

 

Many other people contribute to Kate and Gun’s wonderful ScrapHappy every month – check out what they have been up to too!

 

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Jule, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, Edith
Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Debbierose, Nóilin, Viv, Karrin,
Amo and Alissa

 

 

ScrapHappy January 2021: Let there be light!

Fully working bright light

First, a ScrapHappy New Year to you all!

To start the year, here is an easy ScrapHappy mend of an LED lamp which the Snail uses for various crafty activities. In fact, we have two of these lamps and, although they weren’t cheap, they are well made and very useful. They feature a ring of LEDs as well as a magnifier in the top, and will run from batteries or a mains adapter. The Snail uses the mains adapter for both – the batteries are housed in a detachable box which I may well use for something else one day (watch this space!).

This particular lamp started to be like me – a bit dim. This is a strange thing for LEDs to do as they aren’t like incandescent bulbs that have separate parts that can fail independently (so one of several filaments might break but the others would keep on shining). It probably meant that the power supply wasn’t doing what it was supposed to, so I started there. A quick check with my rusty voltmeter told me the truth – the supply was only half decent. It was producing a little over 3 volts rather than 6 volts to be precise.

Half the supply it was

In the last 20 years, I reckon every household has probably had about a million* mains power supplies that have long since become pointless because the device they were supposed to power has broken. Many have (shamefully) been put in landfill, but many reside to this day in old boxes at the backs of cupboards/wardrobes/sheds. Mine reside in my office/workshop/studio, liberally scattered across shelves/boxes/drawers.

Could I find one that was suitable?

Could I find one that was suitable? – SPOILER ALERT!

Yay! I could! This is the supply from an old set-top box, for receiving the Freeview digital signals (for my non-UK reader, Freeview is the UK’s contribution to the vast thousands of utterly unwatchable TV channels around the globe). We stopped using the box it powered about ten or so years ago but *I KNEW* it was worth keeping.

Of course, it didn’t have the right bit on the end of the wire so I had to chop the end of the defunct power supply and solder it onto the “new” supply. Once done, voila! LEDs that are properly bright. And perhaps a hint of a smile in the magnifier too? Perhaps…

One happy lamp

oOo

*  I checked with Twitter – it is a million.

Weekend 2 – Palletgate 4

Drilling Holes in Palletgate – that’ll teach it!

With still-aching limbs, and an extra hour in bed as we moved to GMT (proper time), I trepidly approached my other task of the weekend – the repair of (cue halloweeny-type scary music) PALLETGATE.

Ex-hurricane Gorblimey didn’t only vent its anger on the willow hedge. It also encouraged certain nails in Palletgate’s construction to make various bids for freedom, leaving the gate looking decidedly weak.

Fortunately, I had already assessed the situation and, realising that I couldn’t simply ignore it and hope it would fix itself*, I had been and purchased roofing bolts and plates (the flat metal kind rather than the good ones you eat yummy stuff off). Although the bolts and plates had come from our nearest town (Lampeter, the first town in the UK with a loyalty card scheme) I actually had to buy more bolts from my local big chain-seller of such things in Reading when I realised that the Lampeter bolts were too short (bought based on the scientific strength of “well, they look about right”).

Good job we kept the old gate!

 

Spot the slight problem

Trying to remove a screw that’s gone to pieces

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Actually, the whole operation went pretty smoothly except for the one wrinkle that you have to have (otherwise it wouldn’t be Sunday morning DIY – or any morning for that matter): one of the screws holding on one of the hinges snapped in two in the screw hole. There then followed 20 minutes of trying to remove enough wood to allow the remains of the screw to be unscrewed but not so much that the hole would be too big to fit a new screw. I couldn’t move the hinge – that would involve drilling more holes in the house and readers of Palletgate will know how keen I am not to do that.

But the DIY gods were clearly on my side (for once – I put it down to guilt on their side), and I managed to remove the remnant whilst leaving the hole usable. What’s more, thesnailofhappiness found a screw left by the plumber when he fitted a new shower the other week, a screw that was perfect for the job.

The Finishing Touches

Mr Snail Contained

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also added an extra bit to the anti-wobbly device to stop the mesh flapping around: another bit of old pallet was pressed into service for that.

I re-fitted the gate (with a certain sense of relief and a spanner) and, amazingly, the job was done. I don’t think the chickens were too impressed though.

Now I think I have earned my coffee – and it is still Sunday morning!

I thought he’d take MUCH longer than that!

oOo

* This has worked once. After I replaced the shower about 7 years ago, I replaced the bit the shower head sits on (oh, I don’t know the technical term. The shower bar thingy, you know.) This involved drilling holes through the tiles, which I looked up how to do properly. It worked like a charm- the sort of charm that means the holes you drill are perfect in every way except their location. I bodged it, and only twice did the whole thing fall off the wall. I just didn’t know how to fill the holes and I was too nervous to drill new holes because I’d probably get the locations right but shatter every tile within a half mile radius of our bathroom. So I ignored it and, sure enough, when we had a new shower replaced by a professional, he was a professional at attaching things through tiles too. I suspect I would wait longer than 7 years to have the gate fixed.