Never enough time

The Junk Drawer is for those Off Topical discussions where we can ask questions of the community that we feel might have the ability to help out.

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TomB
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Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2008 7:49 pm
Location: Southern VT

Re: Never enough time

Post by TomB »

I have recessed ceiling lights and I replaced them with dim-able LED bulbs. In Vt that is an automatic as the state somehow subsidizes LED bulbs so they cost less than incandescent bulbs. They worked fine gave perfect colored light but the dimmer stopped working. The lights would be either full on, dim and flashing or off. I figured I must need LED dimmers but local HW store did not know anything about special dimmers. The lights were left full on or off for a couple of years. Then while buying a new light fixture from Home Depot I read in the instructions a list of dimmers that would work with it. The next time I was in NY I bought two and upon arriving home and spinning a screw driver some I had two circuits that dimmed nicely.
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steamin10
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Re: Never enough time

Post by steamin10 »

At Mantards I asked and bought 4 led bulbs that fit into a 4 foot fixture for fluorescent. They did not light. So much for employee knowledge. Now I dunno what to do with these bulbs.

The Edison base LEDs are working famously and give good light as advertised. Now if they last better than the culry lights I will be happy.
Big Dave, former Millwright, Electrician, Environmental conditioning, and back yard Fixxit guy. Now retired, persuing boats, trains, and broken relics.
We have enough youth, how about a fountain of Smart. My computer beat me at chess, but not kickboxing
It is not getting caught in the rain, its learning to dance in it. People saying good morning, should have to prove it.
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warmstrong1955
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Re: Never enough time

Post by warmstrong1955 »

There are several types of LED tubes.
The ones I looked at:
1: Direct replacements. You just' plug & play', as they use the existing wiring & ballasts.
2: Single end powered, ballast bypass. Small amount of rewiring required.
3: Dual end powered, ballast bypass. Same as option 2, and requires a bit of rewiring.

You should be able to check the box, and/or the Mantardians, and see what you got.
FYI....I went with option 3.
For 1: No ballasts to mess with, and even cheapy 8-dollar Walmart fixtures can be converted. Ballasts are just a noisy additional pain.
And 2: More connections. 2 pins on one end are line, and shunted internally in the tube, and the opposite two pins are neutral, and also shunted. Even a cheap fixture, or a good one not quite in straight or rotated correctly, so long as one pin on each end contacts the tombstone, you have light.

Let there be light!

;)
Today's solutions are tomorrow's problems.
spro
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Re: Never enough time

Post by spro »

Good electrical stuff. Btw Idler pulleys are not the same. Something to look at. I don't expect them to be cast iron but a reasonable lip and mounting be securely straight under tension. The idler shifts and the belt rubs the lip presenting a knife edge to the belt. It will flip and cut $40. away in the process.
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steamin10
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Location: NW Indiana. Close to Lake Michigan S. tip

Re: Never enough time

Post by steamin10 »

The pulleys on these are built up spot welded sheet steel with a multipoint star drive punched out of the center. they are held to the shaft with a hefty washer based nut, but they will spin on impact and strip the star. The pulleys are cheap, but fail often with rough use.

The spindles are a pain as they cannot be reused. As mentioned before they corrode the mounting bolts into the aluminum casitng and break freely when stressed. Impacts with heavy objects break the ears off and you lose the belt. Either way, a new spindle is the fix for much headache and cash.

I FOUGHT THE LAWN, AND THE LAWN WON, I FOUGHT THE LAWN AND THE LAWN WON. (musical interlude).
Big Dave, former Millwright, Electrician, Environmental conditioning, and back yard Fixxit guy. Now retired, persuing boats, trains, and broken relics.
We have enough youth, how about a fountain of Smart. My computer beat me at chess, but not kickboxing
It is not getting caught in the rain, its learning to dance in it. People saying good morning, should have to prove it.
spro
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Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:04 pm
Location: mid atlantic

Re: Never enough time

Post by spro »

I hate to be redundant about this. The same cheap pulleys were used on the main drive. The main pulley of the vertical crankshaft. All the belts which slip over time impart wear at that main pulley. It no longer has the same belt profile and can't grip the same. The belts are tightened to avoid it but that puts extreme stress on all the bearings. The main thing is the belt is smokin hot and the lower crank bearing is super hot. The worn pulley is imparting another profile of wear to the new belt which travels to others.
Apparently you had enough torque to tear out the cloverleaf or star pattern but there has to be a better way to deal with this.
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steamin10
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Re: Never enough time

Post by steamin10 »

Understood about the belt profiles. Lawn machines cheat in that they allow out of line conditions and actually depend on them to run with all the drifting of the mower deck. Pulley and belt wear allow a deeper bite into the reaches of the pulley until the belt flips over, and that roll does them in. Such conditions are never allowed in Industrial applications.

I believe these machines are designed to fail as light duty home junk. If you take these things to the limit they will drive you nuts with failures, they are just built too light. That why zero turn mowers are more in demand now as they are sturdier than the home crapsman lawn machine, by far. Usually much higher horse power too. My first lawn tractor was a wheel horse of 8 hP. I thought it was the best with cast iron front axle and shaft drive to the gearboxes. Just one little short belt that was so easy to replace, and cheep too. Now so many years later I wore out a diesel mower deck, and am faced with thousands of dollars for like- in- kind replacement. NOT!
I bought goats. They run by themselves. No belts to tighten either. (LOL).
Big Dave, former Millwright, Electrician, Environmental conditioning, and back yard Fixxit guy. Now retired, persuing boats, trains, and broken relics.
We have enough youth, how about a fountain of Smart. My computer beat me at chess, but not kickboxing
It is not getting caught in the rain, its learning to dance in it. People saying good morning, should have to prove it.
RMinMN
Posts: 102
Joined: Tue Jan 02, 2018 8:50 am

Re: Never enough time

Post by RMinMN »

steamin10 wrote: Wed Oct 03, 2018 12:22 pm Understood about the belt profiles. Lawn machines cheat in that they allow out of line conditions and actually depend on them to run with all the drifting of the mower deck. Pulley and belt wear allow a deeper bite into the reaches of the pulley until the belt flips over, and that roll does them in. Such conditions are never allowed in Industrial applications.

I believe these machines are designed to fail as light duty home junk. If you take these things to the limit they will drive you nuts with failures, they are just built too light. That why zero turn mowers are more in demand now as they are sturdier than the home crapsman lawn machine, by far. Usually much higher horse power too. My first lawn tractor was a wheel horse of 8 hP. I thought it was the best with cast iron front axle and shaft drive to the gearboxes. Just one little short belt that was so easy to replace, and cheep too. Now so many years later I wore out a diesel mower deck, and am faced with thousands of dollars for like- in- kind replacement. NOT!
I bought goats. They run by themselves. No belts to tighten either. (LOL).
Without belts, how do the goats keep their pants on?

We consumers demand cheaper mowers so the companies do what they can to make them cheaper. We then get a cheap mower but have to replace it sooner, thereby defeating the cheap mower idea. The other option is to be a machinist and replace the failing component with something of quality.
John Hasler
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Re: Never enough time

Post by John Hasler »

RMinMN writes:
Without belts, how do the goats keep their pants on?

Suspenders, of course.
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NP317
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Re: Never enough time

Post by NP317 »

John Hasler wrote: Thu Oct 04, 2018 7:22 am RMinMN writes:
Without belts, how do the goats keep their pants on?

Suspenders, of course.
Thanks.
The suspense was killing me.
~RN
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