Good as any, Better than most

Monday, February 08, 2010

Mine Chapter 3, Part three

She was out of tears, out of sound, rocking back and forth.

The world washed to black, to white, to everything.  The sound of a thousand silences crashed into a million tornadoes.  She heard nothing, heard everything, saw nothing, saw everything.

She knew it was her brother holding her.  She knew father was nearby, looking down at the broken body.  She knew every murmur, whisper, breath of everyone near.  This was her entire world, her whole existence, every blink, every creak, every noise recognized.

Onieda knew it was hers no longer.  Her brothers arms around her gave no comfort, no closeness.

Different.

Outsider.

Freak.

The eyes of her father, that had held nothing but warmth, were now cold, never again to heat.  His stiff posture, rigid, arm held toward Humphrey immobile. 

She knew then, she must leave.  There was nothing but pain left here, in the land that had nestled her in comfort, love and safety.

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Cut Cut Cut

I’m not emo.

I just have a functional table saw.

Working on 220v.  New switch.  Cuts like butter, passes the nickel test. 

Man, that was satisfying. Like so few of my purchases are.

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

My auction addiction

I like buying big ticket items on the auction block.  I’m not even sure why I enjoy it, since every time I buy one, I get the shaft while someone else walks away with the mine.

My latest purchase was a table saw.

Granted, I think I did fairly well on the $10 bench grinder, and the 8 levels for $15 (2 - 4’, 4 - 2’ ), and even the small folding table for $1.

But I spent $200 on a table saw, without knowing whether or not it even turned on.  Or what brand it was.  Or if there were even still parts around.

All I knew is that it had a cast iron top, a blade, and a bunch of fence jigs.

It turns out that it’s an American Machine and Tool saw, which is no longer made.  The company doesn’t have any information on it, and no parts are sold any longer.  The reviews I’ve found online have been decent, and it seems like it’ll be an OK saw.

However.

When I got it home and unloaded (thanks to one of my coworkers who I probably addicted to auctions now), we first plugged it in to the extension cord I had handily near the saw.

BZZZZZ goes the saw.  POP goes the breaker.

So I try it in a circuit that’s on a different fuse, without the extension cord.  WRR----POP.  This time, the blade spins, but the breaker blows.

The motor draws 16A on 110.  The only breaker I have in the garage is 15A.  Everything else is Olde Timey screw in fuses of the 20A and 15A variety.  I don’t have any extra 20A OTSIFs. 

Well, at least it spins.

The next day, DW and I head to town for some home improvement shopping, and dinner and a movie with friends.  I pick up some fuses, and decide that I want to wire the saw up for 220V, so that I’ll only need an 8A circuit.  It shouldn’t be a big deal, the garage already has 2 outlets with 220 wired, so I should be able to work of those.  I pick up an end that looks right, and is the only one Home Depot stocks in that layout.  Then we go eat some pizza, and see Avatar.

The next morning, I put my new end on some Romex (which is long enough for me to put my tablesaw somewhere on Alpha Centari), and head back out to the garage.  I start taking the switch off, so I can wire in the new power cord, and pull it away from the saw.  Opening it up, out falls a few chunks of plastic, and all the springs.

Fabulous.  The switch is a 2 button (Green ON button, Red OFF button) that works with this sliding metal plate and some springs.  Pushing the ON button locks the plate in place and the contacts down.  Pushing the OFF button is a little wedge that moves the plate and releases the contacts.  Only, the metal plate is missing its mount point on one side, and the Off button’s metal wedge is loose and flopping around because it’s plastic broke off too!

After cursing some fair amount, I get the pieces back into shape and the switch sort of functional (and not shorting out, this is probably the key that I didn’t think off at the time), and wire in the power.

I walk across the garage, and try to the plug it in.  The plug doesn’t fit the receptacle.  It doesn’t even come close.  It’s the right layout, but the plug is much too large for the outlet.  In disgust, I shut off all the power to the garage (which involves a trip back into the house to throw the garage’s breaker), and pull that outlet out.  And decide to take care of it after work the next day.

The next day was yesterday.  I did some research, and it turns out that my outlet is a historical throwback known as a NEMA 10-20.  The plug I bought is a NEMA 10-50.  Simple enough.  However, that last bit, the 20 and 50, indicates the rated amps of the plug.  I can’t just throw a 10-50 outlet in place of the 10-20, as the next owner will probably burn the place down or blow fuses out left and right.

Luckily, we have a pile of NEMA L6-20 plugs here at work (we replaced them all with 30A), so I just need an L6-20 receptacle.  Over lunch my coworker and I head to the HD to see what I can find to damage my wallet, and I pick up a l6-20R for $15 and a cheapo 110/220v circuit tester to make sure I don’t electrocute myself.  Later in the day, I order a new paddle switch from Grizzly for the saw.

Last night, I get home and put in the receptacle, and turn power back on.  Everything lights up like it’s supposed to, and the circuit tests 110 where it should, and 220 where it should.  Realizing that I have a new switch on the way, I’m going to have to wait to wire it in.  However, I do have some new 20A fuses, so I figure it can’t hurt to give the saw one more try on 110.  I wire up the power cord, and while making sure nothing is shorted out, plug it in to the 20A circuit.

Then I push the On switch.

And wouldn’t you know it, the saw starts.

And runs.

And doesn’t blow the fuse.

And keeps running.

And shuts off when I gingerly push in the stop button (so as not to short it out).

VICTORY!

Well, it’ll be victory when I get the new switch.  And I still think I’m going to switch it over to 220V, at least to keep the amp draw down.

Oh, and the blade? I think it’s a good deal.