Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

Bah bloody humbug, I flipped a pair of speaker stands on the bay of evil back in April, sold though the Global Shipping Program to a buyer in Taiwan of all places. Now I've sold loads of things on the GSP system with no trouble, and they keep you updated with the parcels progress through their system. Yesterday I suddenly thought to myself that I hadn't heard from eBay about this parcel, so I did a trace on the parcel only discover that it was collected from the drop-off shop by the courier in the middle of the month and their system showed that they have it and its on-route.

I paid for the delivery to the GSP dept in Lichfield on the eBay PackLink system and as usual I paid the little extra to insure it for the full value, just in case. Today the courier has confirmed that as far as they are concerned, it is now lost in transit and apologised for any inconvenience, all the usual old crap.

So now I'm having to deal with PackLink to see what happens now about getting a refund.  The courier by the way was Evri, the new name for everyones favourite Hermes 

Here is my dilemma, I sold the stands for £50 plus delivery to any UK destination, the buyer paid almost £140 to eBay for the item and the shipping to him in Taiwan, assuming I get a refund for the value only of £50, is that going to mine to keep  or will that have to be passed onto eBay, who should be refunding the buyer's money in full, Will they claim any refund I get, or will they take it on the chin and pay the buyer back in full 

Thoughts?

Did you contract the shipment to EGS through your eBay dashboard? If so, contact them before you do anything.

Even though you paid for it, if you use their "discounted shipping service" from your seller dashboard they are legally the shipper, at least over here. I've had domestic shipments lost and had to have THEM deal with it, as I was not technically the consignee. They were very courteous and prompt, and I didn't lose a cent on any of 3 shipments.

mnem
Good Hunting!

[mnementh]

Hmmm... it'll be hard to cut that plastic without scarring the panel... Oh! I know!

Heat the head of the rivet with a soldering iron until it pushes through the plastic. Remove the remains of the C14, then cut rivets with dikes as I suggested above, or hold from this side with your Neji-saurus pliers and drill from the other side.

EDIT: If it's a Bakelite socket or other brittle plastic, use dikes to split the remains of the shell into pieces and remove it. Just be mindful that you choose places where you can get a purchase with your diagonal cutters, and that if you slip when it gives way, the cutters can only hit areas that will be hidden by the new socket.

mnem
 

[Cerebus]

EDIT: If it's a Bakelite socket or other brittle plastic, use dikes to split the remains of the shell into pieces and remove it. Just be mindful that you choose places where you can get a purchase with your diagonal cutters, and that if you slip when it gives way, the cutters can only hit areas that will be hidden by the new socket.

It will be, those sockets of that vintage are almost always made out of a thermoset, not a thermoplastic. It's only recently that people have been stupid enough to make them out of plastic that can melt. I think the existing fracture attests to it being a relatively brittle thermoset.

Rather than side cutters which, as you note, are one hell of a slip risk, try an automatic centre punch to break it up with. That way you can be sure that you're always directing force towards somewhere that will be covered by the replacement, in the unlikely event that it punches all the way through into the material underneath.

And with that note, as droogie Dim said "Bedways is bestways now." Nightie night.

[cyclin_al]

The rivets often end up spinning if you try drilling them out, the plastic inlet remains will probably help this happen, I usually resort to the Dremel & grind the tops off the rivets, then push them out.

David

I can confirm that the rivets are very likely to just spin as part of the steel mandrel is retained in the process of riveting. I had this issue when I replaced my car speaker recently and the only solution was to grind the head off and push them through.

If, if, you can get to the back of them you can sometimes stop them spinning by clamping the back of the rivet with Mole grips or something similar.

The ubiquitous Mole grip, in case it goes by another name in foreign parts:

Those Nejisaurus pliers from ENGINEER that we all bought would likely hold those rivets very well.  Only thing missing, is something to lock the pliers in place.

EDIT:  Dwagon beat me to it 

[mnementh]

EDIT: If it's a Bakelite socket or other brittle plastic, use dikes to split the remains of the shell into pieces and remove it. Just be mindful that you choose places where you can get a purchase with your diagonal cutters, and that if you slip when it gives way, the cutters can only hit areas that will be hidden by the new socket.

It will be, those sockets of that vintage are almost always made out of a thermoset, not a thermoplastic. It's only recently that people have been stupid enough to make them out of plastic that can melt. I think the existing fracture attests to it being a relatively brittle thermoset.

Rather than side cutters which, as you note, are one hell of a slip risk, try an automatic centre punch to break it up with. That way you can be sure that you're always directing force towards somewhere that will be covered by the replacement, in the unlikely event that it punches all the way through into the material underneath.

And with that note, as droogie Dim said "Bedways is bestways now." Nightie night.

That's a good idea... but if mansaxel has luck anything like mine, the random fracture from the punch will leave a nub under each rivet, both of which will be perfectly shaped to be as hard to remove without scarring the panel as possible. 

One might be able to crudely direct the fracture such that it bisects the rivet using dikes... I've done similar enough times successfully to know it is possible. But not reliably, fer sherr.

EDIT: That reminds me... I've had good luck fixing Bakelite with CA, as long as the break is still clean before gluing. The shifter knob on grand-dad's F150 was one such repair... held up for years with him and over a decade of me driving it.   Mans, it might be worth a try before you take on a battle to the death with the thing...

mnem
*heeds Hypnos' siren call* 

[Zoli]

...
does anybody know if the TL866 eprom burner can erase / read / program M48T59Y battery buffered NVRAMs ? I need to test sumthang ...

Thnx

It's in the device list(under ST); the buttons are active, that's all I can tell.

[bd139]

Right the time has come. All planets aligned, minor gods in agreement and Murphy appears to be on holiday. Weirdly and suspiciously earlier than scheduled. Disappearing for a bit almost immediately after returning. Shovelling of boxes and crap begins. See you on the other side, or on this side again if it goes to shit for the Nth time 

Will be on discord still at weekends but not on the forum until sorted.

[BU508A]

Right the time has come. All planets aligned, minor gods in agreement and Murphy appears to be on holiday. Weirdly and suspiciously earlier than scheduled. Disappearing for a bit almost immediately after returning. Shovelling of boxes and crap begins. See you on the other side, or on this side again if it goes to shit for the Nth time 

Will be on discord still at weekends but not on the forum until sorted.

Take care and I wish you all the luck you can get.
I hope, it will go smooth without any hassle.

Cannot wait for all the stories, though. 

[med6753]

Cannot wait for all the stories, though. 

Stories and BD go hand in hand. 

[mansaxel]

Right the time has come. All planets aligned, minor gods in agreement and Murphy appears to be on holiday. Weirdly and suspiciously earlier than scheduled. Disappearing for a bit almost immediately after returning. Shovelling of boxes and crap begins. See you on the other side, or on this side again if it goes to shit for the Nth time 

Will be on discord still at weekends but not on the forum until sorted.

Good luck! Moving out of entrenchment is always interesting... We'll eagerly be awaiting you and the stories.

[med6753]

After a week or so on low dose insulin the results are positive. My fasting blood sugar has decreased an average 20mg/dL from 150mg/dl to 130mg/dL. But that's still not enough. It should be 120mg/dL or less and ideally around 100mg/dL. So I'll be contacting my doc early next week and suggest I up the dose. Currently only injecting 10 units and there's lots room on the pen to up the dose significantly. But it's something I won't do on my own without doctor's OK. The good news it that it's working and I'm sure I'll get to an acceptable and consistent level.

Saskia, I wasn't able to get to the PO yesterday but I will get the connectors mailed out today.   

[Saskia]

Knowing bd139 from all of those stories and chats he will most likely get involved with a bat shit crazy redhead, find out that she is deeply involved in orgon energy (https://tinyrituals.co/blogs/tiny-rituals/orgone-energy-everything-you-need-to-know) (no, I don't subscribe to that  ... ) and ...

just rattling yer chain, but you know that much 

Good luck to you.

[dl6lr]

Now with pics:

As the IEC sockets frame is still riveted, I would sand the rivets down and push them inside. Replace IEC and use screws to avoid similar issue if the connector breaks again.

[med6753]

Knowing bd139 from all of those stories and chats he will most likely get involved with a bat shit crazy redhead, find out that she is deeply involved in orgon energy (https://tinyrituals.co/blogs/tiny-rituals/orgone-energy-everything-you-need-to-know) (no, I don't subscribe to that  ... ) and ...

just rattling yer chain, but you know that much 

Good luck to you.

They don't need that voodoo stuff. They will trap you with these lies.

(Have the scars to prove it.  )

[tggzzz]

Right the time has come. All planets aligned, minor gods in agreement and Murphy appears to be on holiday. Weirdly and suspiciously earlier than scheduled. Disappearing for a bit almost immediately after returning. Shovelling of boxes and crap begins. See you on the other side, or on this side again if it goes to shit for the Nth time 

Will be on discord still at weekends but not on the forum until sorted.

Which of the seven deadly sins most closely matches you, as visualised in the classic house moving movie "The Chain"? Hopefully not Mr & Mrs Thorn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chain_(1984_film)

[Ice-Tea]

If your laptop was made in the last 6 years, I'd suggest putting it on fleaBay as "upgraded FW, now won't boot", then sit back and and watch the feeding frenzy. They goin' cray-cray.

mnem
 

Exactly what I decided.. After I pull the SSD.

Holy Moly. Listed for 10 minutes, 2 people already PM'ing me to buy it now.

[Specmaster]

Right the time has come. All planets aligned, minor gods in agreement and Murphy appears to be on holiday. Weirdly and suspiciously earlier than scheduled. Disappearing for a bit almost immediately after returning. Shovelling of boxes and crap begins. See you on the other side, or on this side again if it goes to shit for the Nth time 

Will be on discord still at weekends but not on the forum until sorted.

Good luck, fingers crossed that it is problem free for you. 

[mansaxel]

The rivets often end up spinning if you try drilling them out, the plastic inlet remains will probably help this happen, I usually resort to the Dremel & grind the tops off the rivets, then push them out.

David

Helpful, thanks.

Now with pics:

Seller replied. Will do refund according to repair costs. I like that attitude.

[Brumby]

Knowing bd139 from all of those stories and chats he will most likely get involved with a bat shit crazy redhead....

Came across this image - and guess who I thought about...

[Ice-Tea]

Knowing bd139 from all of those stories and chats he will most likely get involved with a bat shit crazy redhead....

Came across this image - and guess who I thought about...

How do you know my wife? 

[nixiefreqq]

The rivets often end up spinning if you try drilling them out, the plastic inlet remains will probably help this happen, I usually resort to the Dremel & grind the tops off the rivets, then push them out.

David

I can confirm that the rivets are very likely to just spin as part of the steel mandrel is retained in the process of riveting. I had this issue when I replaced my car speaker recently and the only solution was to grind the head off and push them through.

If, if, you can get to the back of them you can sometimes stop them spinning by clamping the back of the rivet with Mole grips or something similar.

The ubiquitous Mole grip, in case it goes by another name in foreign parts:

"Mole grip"?   

did you make that up?

them there are properly called "vise grips".

and please don't start that vise vs vice bullshit again!

i hereby direct and decree that this be the last and final word on the subject. 



 

[tggzzz]

The rivets often end up spinning if you try drilling them out, the plastic inlet remains will probably help this happen, I usually resort to the Dremel & grind the tops off the rivets, then push them out.

David

I can confirm that the rivets are very likely to just spin as part of the steel mandrel is retained in the process of riveting. I had this issue when I replaced my car speaker recently and the only solution was to grind the head off and push them through.

If, if, you can get to the back of them you can sometimes stop them spinning by clamping the back of the rivet with Mole grips or something similar.

The ubiquitous Mole grip, in case it goes by another name in foreign parts:

"Mole grip"?   

did you make that up?

them there are properly called "vise grips".

and please don't start that vise vs vice bullshit again!

i hereby direct and decree that this be the last and final word on the subject. 

Not made up, but quite correct.

And that's more correct than your last sentence.

[Robert763]

Mole grip references
www.screwfix.com/c/tools/pliers-cutters/cat831008?plierscuttersproducttype=locking_pliers
www.stanleytools.co.uk/products/sub5/Products/HAND+TOOLS/Pliers+_+Snips/Pliers/Mole+grip+pliers
It's a British thing. The original UK maker was  M K Mole and Son.

[m k]

The rivets often end up spinning if you try drilling them out, the plastic inlet remains will probably help this happen, I usually resort to the Dremel & grind the tops off the rivets, then push them out.

David

Helpful, thanks.

Now with pics:

Is there room for small end cutters?

[Cerebus]

Right the time has come. All planets aligned, minor gods in agreement and Murphy appears to be on holiday. Weirdly and suspiciously earlier than scheduled. Disappearing for a bit almost immediately after returning. Shovelling of boxes and crap begins. See you on the other side, or on this side again if it goes to shit for the Nth time 

Will be on discord still at weekends but not on the forum until sorted.

Bon chance mon ami. Try not to fall in the river. BTW, you didn't say which borough your new luxury riverside apartment was in i.e. quite how much more central you really are moving to.