Red Green Where are you?

[Lucias_Clay]

I was wondering how many of you got by the cheap route. I am using a
2-3 year old Lexmark Z-11 printer that still makes beautiful copies, several months ago I pulled out my almost full black cartridge and replaced it with a color one recently I wanted to print some stuff out in black and not wanting to waste my expensive color I switched them back in doing so I broke the lip off my color cartridge and it would not stay in. So I taped it in. I didn't use Duct Tape as Red Green probably would but a small piece of gauze(medical) tape the only thing I could find at the time. But it works fine.:D

[Rick]

The only Jerry Rigging I have had to put up with
Were those done by someone else and I inherited it.

If it isn’t broke don’t fix it..

If it’s broken replace it.
If you don’t It will screw something else up.

[jabarnutcase]

Hmmmm- Lets see....I got mad a couple months ago and kicked my computer..Broke the case. Heck, nothing a little duct tape couldn't fix.
I have a paper clip jammed into the front of my CD burner...Damn drawer keeps popping out.

My speaker cones are ripped, but a little silicone once a month or so seems to keep them from rattling too much.

Other than that...Oh, wait a minute. There is the problem with my right mouse button. I click on it and the thing won't pop back up. By inserting a small screw, I am able to pull it back up quite easily now.

My case fan died six months ago, but I sawed a big hole in the side, (NOT the side with the duct tape), and a couple of old window fans seem to keep the temp under control.
The corner of my keyboard is melted from a carelessly placed cigarette, but only the Enter and Del key on the lower right corner seem to be affected..No biggie.
My proudest achievment though is how I got my mother board to work again after I broke it nearly in half....Tiny jumpers and aligator clips and a bunch of glue...The thing is still humming along!!!
The image in my monitor still seems to be pretty good during those moments when it's not arcing inside, so I'm not going to worry about that for now....I'm kind of used to the smell.

I think if anything really bad happens though, I may just need to replace the thing.

[Budfred]

jabarnutcase,

Sounds like you order your parts from Junk-R-Us!:D

I admire your ingenuity and improvisational ability. I replace things mostly because I don't have a clue about how to fix them. On the other hand, I will go with a good jerry-rig if I have a clue what I am doing.

Budfred

[jabarnutcase]

Ok....All kidding aside, I'm willing to jerry-rig a lot of stuff, but I must say...When it comes to my computer, things have to be just so or I can't stand it!!!
If something is even showing signs of acting up, sometimes I'll buy a replacement before (whatever) even dies!. In fact, if something is wrong with my computer, (or related items), I have a hard time sleeping! :D

Not a bad story though, huh? :rolleyes:

[Rick]

Same Here Jabarnutcase

Come to think of it
That C: drive on here is almost half full. Need to start looking for something a little bigger.

BTW
when you place those window fans into the hole in the side of the case
I Hope you picked up a furnace filter to place over the hole Before you let the fans run to long

[jabarnutcase]

HeHe...Thanks for the tip Rick!
The furnace filters seemed kind of expensive at the hardware store-(1.99), but my neighbor just had his furnace cleaned and gave me his old one.

I was able to brush off a lot of the soot and dirt.
It worked amazingly well.....Most of the crap that was left on it seems to have blown right through the case and stuck to the duct tape on the other side!!! :D

[pentachris]

I know this is a rather geeky tangent, but, hey, that's what After Hours is for, right? :D

Something can be jerrybuilt, or it can be jury-rigged. I guess that something could even be jury-rigged after it has been jerrybuilt.

I have always heard the term jury-rig but I'd never seen it written before. Being from the south, I figured it entirely possible that I heard "jury" when what was said was jerry. (Actually, being from the south, I've also heard a derogatory racial epithet used in front of "rig" to mean the same thing. But I digress...) In any case, I asked the Word Detective (http://www.word-detective.com/back-g2.html#juryrig) to be sure. Click for the full story.

[Whyzman]

Hmmmm...Jabbar, makes for a great visual! :rolleyes:

I've a set up somewhat simillar with the duct tape, but a bit more sophisticated. I've an HVAC bud who gets me 8 inch wide duct tape. Now, I know most folks thought it only comes in 2 inch, so if the ol' ticker just skipped a beat make sure the meds are handy!

I have it set up on two wooden dowells to cover the whole in the side of mine...I lost the use of the acrylic see-through panel a while back when I needed a flat surface to lap my heatsink. Not one of my better moments as I initially lapped the acrylic panel....

It was, however, serendipitious in that it opened the door to my experimentall dust collector. I feed the duct tape from the dowel on top and backroll onto the bottom as the exposed area becomes covered with dust.

I'm with you folks, though, as I prefer to repllace rather than jerry rig. My keyboard, however, is my nemesis! the (L) key has something rather sticky on it and occasionally you see my plight when the double lls show up when they ought not. I try to avoid words with a singlle ll but that's not allways possible. :(

If anyone has any ideas on how to get the gunk off the ll key I would be gratefull!

One last tip has to do with dust cleaning with compressed air. I routinely clean my computer and heatsink with compressed air as mentioned in most computer maintenance books. Recently, someone showed me some pretty handy small cans of the stuff that work fairly well, but it's hard justifying the price. :(

One time when I was troubleshooting a friends computer that needed a good dusting I was forced to improvise since he didn't have a compressor. He did, however, have a gas powered Craftsman Leafblower. I pass this on one to Andyswork and Pete in their new venture.

It's portable and goes into a service truck quite nicely. I also found that it works great for keyboards, you'll want to anchor them down before blasting them though...good thing my neighbor is so laid back! :eek:

As allways, Whyzman

[setoguro]

I just had a fan go on my graphics card. I took an old 486 heat sink filed a grove in it for the clip and lapped it then scrounge up a fan and was back up in a day. (I did the file work at the beach with my son). I don't know that it fits into the category of jury-rigging. I get better temps with it than that crap it replaced.

As far as keyboards go I trash pick them (got 2 this weekend). We like to dump coke in them and use them for ash trays. They have a short life expectancy here so I have to have a few backups.

[Rick]

Setoguro

You just crossed the jury/jerry Rig Line into Custom Built :)
It’s A VERY thin Line

That new H/S and fan isn’t held on by Duct Tape ( Or is it ? )

After looking into a few chipset coolers
I’ve found a good / better cooler is a 486 H/S and fan attached using Arctic Silver Adhesive

[Lucias_Clay]

:rolleyes: LOL Jabber:rolleyes: You are one wild and crazy guy:rolleyes:

[deddard]

Originally posted by pentachris
I know this is a rather geeky tangent, but, hey, that's what After Hours is for, right? :D

Something can be jerrybuilt, or it can be jury-rigged. I guess that something could even be jury-rigged after it has been jerrybuilt.

I have always heard the term jury-rig but I'd never seen it written before. Being from the south, I figured it entirely possible that I heard "jury" when what was said was jerry. (Actually, being from the south, I've also heard a derogatory racial epithet used in front of "rig" to mean the same thing. But I digress...) In any case, I asked the Word Detective (http://www.word-detective.com/back-g2.html#juryrig) to be sure. Click for the full story.

Just to point out a worthless point: although the term 'jerry rigged' may be from victorian england, it is most commonly used here (UK) and is known to originate from the bible - walls of jericoh that are blown down with the sound of trumpets.

[sea69]

I too am still using my Lemark Z-11 printer.

I have drilled a hole in my cartridge and add ink as needed.

;)

[setoguro]

Well I couldn't figure out how to get the thing on with duct tape with out blocking air flow. Dental floss was an other option. I could of gone through the holes in the card next to the heat sink but I just didn't have enough and I didn't feel like going out again to get more. So in the end had to use a clip.

The real truth is my first choice was adhesive. I tried 2 computer shops trying to get some but no one had. One of the techs told me to just tie (jury-rigg) a case fan close to the chip set to keep it cool.

[JUAN DOS]

Is it jury-rigging or Improvisational Design?
My shop, basement, & attic are stuffed with items awaiting a second life.
Today (trash day) I acquired these gems. 1) A two drawer file cabinet dented side but good quality. 2) a 4' length of 4" PVC pipe. 3) an AT server case, sans drives.

I always engineer projects utilizing items I have on hand.

The wife's PC needed a facelift, so I used a salvaged kickplate from an office-building door, and made the case front shown here. The engine turn pattern was self-applied. The ugly swap bay is hidden behind the piano hinged upper door. The hinge was salvaged from an old boat. Total cost $1.80 for six 8-32 chrome acorn nuts. Am looking for a 1 carat diamond to glue in front of the floppy LED, but pickings have been slim lately.




Back when we drove our own junk to the dump, the truck never returned empty.
Now, every week it is like Xmas for me, with gifts kindly offered curbside.

[sea69]

I like the front, but don't like the red.

perhaps black?

;)

[JUAN DOS]

sea,
Twas the choice of the operator. She calls it "Scarlet". Not sure if she is referencing the ornery Ms.Ohara, or her scarlet & grey college colors. Definitely the former when she cannot find a lost file.

[steveo]

This isn't really computer related. I had to replace a bearing on the swather pickup reel (that's the big reel that sits on the front of the swather and hovers above the table where the knives are that cut the crop). One welder and 4hrs later I had it apart/fixed and put back together. After the welder left I noticed that the center coupling that tied the long reel slats together was cracked. I showed it to my bro-in-law and he decieded to weld it back together. Of course he can't weld. Next morning I take the swather out and ten minutes into the crop the entire reel is flying apart in all directions. The weld failed and the pto takes no prisoners. What started as a little scab weld turned into a ten hour job for me and 500 bucks wasted.

[integral]

We recently retired a coffee brewer, one of those with a built in hot plate a water reservoir and a basket for the grounds, well when it was pretty new it lost the thermal fuse for the hot plate, I managed to get hat reattached and we ran it for a few more months (this was a $80 -$90 pot, heck if I'll let it die easy) when it lost the main power connection to the circiut board, (ie it totally quit working) I reconnected those, got er going again. Sometime later it quit one more time, those same connections fried again, this time there was a major hole burned clear through the circiut board, but visusal inspection revealed no circiut damage, I ran a wire through the new hole in the circuit board, soldered it back on and fired up the pot. Ran that way for the next 10yr. Finally had to retire it when the metalic grounds basket developed a crack and they no longer sell that style of basket.

Course I am a techincian by trade so such fixes are what I do for a living, (only on +$500k fab tools!)

[Ben2002]

When I was a poor student I aquired a 3.2 GB hard disk that was 'faulty' because the 3 chips on it got *very* warm when it was powered on. I sawed an old 386 heatsink to size and stuck it on. Never have I had a problem with it after that.

Ben

[Fruss Tray Ted]

I am a jeri-rigger from way back. I'm not talking coat hanger and beer cans for muffler repairs either. (Been there, done that. :) )

I have an 8 inch powered ice auger that proved too small for the traps I use (large reels). Purchased a 10 blade, made a template out of paper for the bottom plate, transferred the marks to some heavy sheet metal, now I am making 10 inch holes in the ice. That was 10+ years ago.

Case 2:
I have a microwave oven that the solenoid magnet is too weak to lift the switch to engage it to run. It works fine if the travel is shorter. One paper clip later and that oven has worked now for MORE than 10 years.

Custom racks in my pick-up, unique collapsible ice shack, go-round for a power supply on an old pc,,, A friend has said to me many times that I should consider a patenting some of these things.

Here at gadgets-R-us, we don't make the things you use. We make the things you use... better. :D

[Budfred]

I know this is an old thread, but this is major Red Green behavior:

http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/tech/scanner.html

Budfred

[Rick]

I Like that .. COOL..
Now I know what to do with that old Scanjet