Joby Gorillapod Tripod Return Policy

Monday, 19 March 2012

A few weeks ago, when i was using my DIY - polarizing filter and DIY - ND filter i broke my new Joby Gorillapod tripod. It was really cold and as i was shutting the tripod, the plastic leg snapped.

So i emailed Joby Gorillapod, told them what happened, included my Amazon order information and the picture above. They responded that day saying that they would send me a replacement. Three days later a brand new Gorillapod tripod showed up in the mail. It was great.
I actually didn't think they were going to send me a new one so i tried fixing the old tripod the day before the new one arrived.

Just gluing the plastic legs wouldn't work so i inserted the two ends in a piece of PVC tubing and then sealed it with some J.B. Weld epoxy. It didn't look so good but it worked.

Now i guess i have two mini tripods.

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Pontiac HUD

Monday, 24 October 2011

Over a year ago the Heads Up Display (HUD) on my 2005 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP broke. Well the HUD didn't break, the spring holding the mirror came loose. The spring had actually pulled through the plastic.

When this happened last year i looked online and saw that it was a common problem, several people had written about it happening. The reason i didn't fix it then, was because in order to fix the spring i had to remove my whole dashboard. So i just printed off step-by-step instruction on how to do it.

Last month in October i went over to Katie and John's for the weekend and John helped me fix it.
I was a little worried at first to remove almost my whole dashboard but most of it wasn't that bad. Everything either popped off or was attached by just a few screws. Also having instructions helped out a lot, there's no way i could have done it without them.
This is the actual HUD taken apart.
It's a little hard to see but we used epoxy to attach a metal washer. That's where the spring would be attached.
Once the epoxy hardened we were half way done, we just had to put it all back together again.
Now it works just fine.

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Happy 40th Birthday

Wednesday, 25 May 2011

This October my 1972 Honda CB500 motorcycle will be 40 years old. It is 4-cylinder and 50 horse power that gets around 45-55 miles per gallon. I've had it for 11 years. When i first got it, it had 12,062 miles. Today it's at 21,595 miles.
Here's what it looked like when i first got it in 1999. It had a big old seat and tall mirrors. Other than the exhaust it was pretty much original.
Since then i've learned a lot from working on it. Usually the process is: something breaks, i try to fix it, i make it worse, i try fixing it several more times before i realize what i'm doing wrong then fix it properly.
This is probably the furthest i've had it taken apart. Over the years i've replaced a few things: brakes, tires, oil filter, screws and bolts, chain and sprockets hand grips, jets for the carburetors (I had them apart and took 6 tries to get them back together before i realized i had the overflow needle upside down) throttle cable which broke in Arizona and lots more.
I wrapped the exhaust. This is my idea of form and function working perfectly. The exhaust works better because it stays cooler and i think it looks better too.
I made a new seat. It's thinner then the old one and a little bit harder, but it's easier to ride and the center of gravity is lower which helps.
Mackinaw Bridge
The 45th parallel near Traverse City. This was on the same trip to Mackinaw. I rode around the outer edge of Michigan, about 900 miles in 4 days.
The biggest thing i've ever done is my 2,600 mile, 13 day ride from Arizona to Michigan.
Continental Divide somewhere in New Mexico.
Camping on Thanksgiving by Foss Lake Oklahoma at sunset.
Just outside of Phoenix Arizona.
Riding through the Petrified Forest.
I don't remember where this was. Maybe Texas?
This is a picture of every state border i crossed on my ride from Arizona. The only 2 i missed were Arizona and Ohio. The Ohio border is on a bridge, over a river, in 4 lanes of traffic, i didn't stop. For that entire trip the only thing that went wrong with the bike was the throttle cable breaking as we unloaded it from the truck. It's quite amazing that a 40 year old motorcycle rode 2,600 miles (most of that at 7,000rpm) without any problems. And still today it's running great.

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Broken Laptop

Tuesday, 5 April 2011

A while back my dad gave me his old laptop. The screen had a bunch of lines across it, so the monitor on it was basically useless. But i had it connected to my tv so i didn't need the monitor.

But i thought i'd try and fix it the other day, hoping i didn't make it any worse. Using this guide, i saw that if i just removed a few things i could get to the monitor plug/cable. So i took out the screws and removed the keyboard and cover.


I looked at the cable. It seemed ok, maybe a little pinched at the hinge point but nothing obvious.
I then unplugged it, used the old nintendo technique of blowing air into it, which really does nothing, then firmly plugged it back in. While the keyboard was still off i put the battery back in and turned it on. That seemed to fix it. I guess it was just a loose connection with one of the pins.

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iMac G3

While driving over a month back i noticed this computer by the side of the road. It looked like it was fairly new so i threw it in my trunk. Ya i took a computer out of the trash.

I started reading about it and learned that it was an iMac G3 and they stopped making them in 2003. On ebay, when they work, they are only worth about $300.

I plugged it in and amazingly, nothing happened! I kind of figured that since it was in the trash. So i went about trying to fix it.

The short version of the story is I didn't fix it. These iMac's are impossible to work on. It took probably 2 hours of me removing screws and trying not to break plastic before i could even look inside of the thing.


My only hope was a fuse i saw on the motherboard that might have blown. I checked it but it was fine. So i said forget it, there's no way i'm going to get this to work so i started taking everything apart. That took another hour or so.

I realized why they probably threw it out. It's one of those things where the broken part might only cost a few dollars but the cost to pay someone to fix it might be a few hundred dollars.

I ended up throwing most of it out but i did get the 80Gb hard drive, DVD drive, 2 small speakers and 2 ram cards. I'm using the hard drive in the new computer i built.

But if anyone asks for your help in fixing a Mac, just tell them to throw it out, it isn't worth it.

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So you want to own a house?

Friday, 12 February 2010

All winter when my furnace kicks on the water from the humidifier overflows. It drains to the sump and the pump has to turn on constantly. So yet again, on another boring weekday at home i decided to rig up this ghetto hose drain. It runs along the wall and drains to the sink. I'm almost sure it's not the correct way to solve the problem, but it seems to be working great. Oh and the white duct tape was only going to be temporary but will probably be there for years to come.

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