Recently in Grounded Category

Restore Zippo Ziplight Lighter Flashlight

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My dad has a special Zippo flashlight from his company's 50th anniversary. It stopped working a while ago, and after contacting Zippo, found out the Ziplights have been discontinued.


With nothing left to lose, he let me open it and try and fix it. Opening it was surprisingly easy. The two halves are not glued, melted or sealed together. They just pop open.


The two batteries inside are very skinny. Much smaller than AAA. But I figured I'd seen them somewhere before. Sure enough - there's 6 of them in a regular 9V battery.


After cleaning the contacts and replacing the batteries, it works again!


Yay!

Samsung CLP-310 Usage review

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I have had this printer for almost 4 years now. I have 2 kids in middle / high school who use it for homework, etc. Below is a running total cost of ownership. This printer has been very reliable, but I was a little surprised by how much it is costing me.


I've factored in the initial purchase cost (which I am somewhat estimating as I purchased it along with a few other goodies). That does raise the typical cost per page metric, but I figure that needs to be included as some printers are cheap and others not so much.

Also of interesting note - as of April 2013, I am STILL on the starter Magenta cartridge! (So my TCO is actually a little bit lower, as I have not put the new Magenta cartridge in).

My volumes are quite low ~ 2 pages / day. There are days where the printer sits idle, and then days when a school project gets printed a couple times as typos are noticed and corrected. I wonder how much ink would have been wasted from nozzles drying up due to idle during this time.

Blogging on the mill (treadmill this time)

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Latest winter project - a laptop stand for the treadmill.
Youtube on the tread mill
A simple frame of 2 vertical beams made from 1/8" x 1" aluminum flatbar, joined horizontally by 1/16" x 3/4" aluminum angle bars which was then attached to the top of the treadmill with a couple angle brackets.
Youtube on the tread mill