LabFiles at LightningRod Labs

From my back room also is this ghost trap from the late 1980’s It goes together with the Proton Pack. There is a place to hang it on the pack. I don’t believe this was played with very much as the decals have not been applied. The instruction are there along with an advertising booklet. The box is perfect except for the one end that has been torn badly with part missing. It has been in it’s shipping carton so the color is like new. I am sure these are not many of these around in good condition like this. It is a great display item from the 1980’s. I am asking $25.00 for it but would be willing to listen to offers. What ever the postage would be would be added, or you would be welcome to pick it up.
Contact me at rodander@frontiernet.net

This has been packed in the back of my shop for 20+ years. I have decided someone else may as well have it to enjoy. The front of the box has great graphics and is in like new shape. the toy has seen little play. there is some aging and wear on the stickers. There is one broken part on the smaller toy but that could be easily repaired with the right glue. It is a clean break with no parts missing that I can see. The back of the box has damage where label’s have been pulled off.

The item is clean –no smoke smell—I think it is from late 1980’s. The box is square and nice. The picture on the box would make a great display item.
I would like to get $39.00 for it but would consider offers. Shipping would be what it actually costs. E-mail me at rodander@frontiernet.net

Too good to throw out not good enough to use

I have always been curious about how things are made. I often take things apart just to see what is inside. Above is a hard drive I took apart the other day. one of the interesting things were the magnets. they are the strongest magnets I have ever played with. The flat curved piece in the lower right of the above picture is the magnet after I pried it off the bracket in the lower right corner.
the pile of parts got pushed aside on my work space while I started another quick project. While laying my soldering iron down I tipped the cheap tin rest over. This was very annoying. The thin strong magnet came to my mind. It fit perfectly under the tin rest and held it firmly to the bench top. I just needed to fasten the magnet to the rest, so I could move it around easily.

Naturally I reached for the J B Weld. A good coating and I pushed the magnet in tight. I spotted a piece of foam and put on the bottom. That way I didn’t have to clean up the J B Weld I had over most of the bottom. It also keeps the rest from scratching the desk surface. The rest now stays firmly in one place but is also easily moved. No more tipping over when you bump the cord or Iron. A simple fun project making use of junk.

2011 passed very fast. I stayed busy but didn’t get many of my planned projects finished. Looking back I realise that it really doesn’t matter. It was a great year and I had much fun. I didn’t keep up the web site. I started many posts but never seemed to finish anything. The weather was rainy and stormy in the spring, which kept me very busy cleaning up broken trees. Then it turned dry and sunny for the rest of summer and I spent most of my time outdoors.
Below is a picture of metal car on my shop wall. It was a Birthday gift from my Son, Daughter-in-law and two Boys. They have a knack for picking gifts that this old man loves.
I spend a lot of time in my shop and it is filled with things. Every thing has a story, a memory and sometimes a use. Sometimes I just sit and look and let the good memory’s flood in. Friends and good times, long since past, come awake again.
I have always loved to tinker. At a early age I started taking things apart just to see what was inside them, and what made them work. Looking back I can see my father was very tolerant. I was encouraged to disassemble junk items rather than good stuff and allowed full access to his workshop and tools. Over time I learned to put things back together again and eventually I made my living doing just that.
You will also note the old wood wall mount telephone on the wall. I found it in Arkansas last winter when we were south. My memory identifies it as a match to the one on kitchen wall when I was a child. I was always fascinated by the old telephone with a crank on the side instead of a dial. There were 8 to 10 people on the party line. When any phone rang, all the phones rang. needles to say privacy was non-existent. No one would admit “Rubbering”, as listening in was then called. With no electricity limiting radio use, small children and lots of hard work, the diversion of “Rubbering” was understandable.
My mother was too busy to listen to the radio one morning when the phone rang. It was the local radio station’s morning quiz show. They asked a question that would have been simple had she been listening to the show. Her mind was so busy with the days work it just couldn’t move onto the question. The clocked ticked off as she stood silent by the phone. Suddenly a woman’s voice blurted out the answer and my mother was declared the winner of a small gift certificate at one of the show sponsors. My mother would have been glad to share the gift, but no one would ever admit to being the voice. I must add, that unlike today, the tone quality of the old phones was very poor. Recognising the voice for sure was impossible.
Quite a change from the wireless phone next to it. I just couldn’t resist buying that old phone even though it doesn’t work, but that is a future project.

A friend was cleaning out some of his junk and found some old car magazines. He had little interest in them so he brought them to me. I traded some old model cars for them, as I enjoy reading old magazines and looking at the pictures.
Later going through them I spotted the Vol, 1, No. 1 printed on the top. Needless to say I became a bit excited as the magazine is in near perfect condition.. This was like taking a trip back in time.The magazine is short, just 23 pages, but full of interesting pictures. Even the ads are fun to read.
I have read Hot Rod Magazine off and on for most of my life but this is a little before my time. I really didn’t get into cars till the mid 1950s, Anyway, saving them all would have been impossible.
I have no idea of its value or if many of these have survived. I would be interested if anyone could tell me more about this Magazine.
Just learned it is a reproduction done about 1987—-Oh well it is still interesting. I am still curious if it has any value.

first one

This is my old Mallory model 12RS6D power supply. It is one of the handiest things I have at my work bench. It provides either 6 volts at 10 amp or 12 volts at 6 amp.  Up to 20 Amp intermittently. What makes it even better is the voltage is variable. Adjustable from nothing to about 15 volts.  Very handy when playing with things.

It is very old. I bought it in the 1980’s, at the auction sale of the contents of an old radio repair shop. This was at the the small neighbouring town of Olivia. I have been unable to come up with a date for manufacture, but I would guess the 1940’s at the latest. If some one could supply me  with more information on this unit, I would be appreciative.

The only complaint I have about the unit is, it is easy to forget the power on. With no light on it, you have to notice which way the toggle switch is sitting. Last week with the snow blowing outside and the wind chill below zero, (that’s about minus 18 degrees Celsius), I decided this would be a good project.

Turning the unit over, the job looked simple.

Digging in my junk (supplies) I came up with a red LED and snap in mounting ring.
I like the simplicity of the design, no bottom cover to get in the way. I can relate to the feeling, if your stupid enough to stick your fingers into the wires, that’s Darwin in action. Note the heat sinks for the rectifiers is the steel case. I like the louvers on the top of the case, had to be designed by a Street Rodder. Common sense, open bottom, louvres on top—no need for a fan.
Digging through my stuff I came up with some goodies.

In the days before computers and calculators we used things like this paper slide rule.This one was given away by the Omite Co. of Chicago.
I know that a LED has to have a resistor of the right size in series to keep from burning out. I did my calculations, but being it has been a while since doing anything like this. I did the reasonable thing and got on the Internet. Soon I had all the numbers, that left me feeling good as my calculations were right on. This old man isn’t dead yet.
Luck was with me again as I found a new resister of the right value in my stash of spare parts. See just because something hasn’t been used for 20, 30 or more years doesn’t mean you should discard it.

I wanted to be sure all would work right so I set up a quick test to check it out. All worked as planned, easier to find out you looked at something wrong at this point then after it is all assembled. This is where the various colored jumpers with alligator clips come in very handy.

Sorry about all stuff in the background, I never seem to be able to clear my bench completely.
A gentleman with a better education than me, said as he smiled, that a man’s workbench reflects his mind. I pointed out that being his workbench was seldom used and almost empty, it told a lot about his mind too.

Here we are drilling the hole for the LED. Notice how heavy the steel in the case is, no skimping here. When this power supply was built, a battery powered electric drill was unbelievable. Electric drills were bulky, heavy, expensive and only starting to become common.
Below you can see the LED from inside the case. The connections were simple solder jobs. The other picture shows the finished job. It doesn’t look much different but the red glowing LED will sure help remind me to shut the switch off.

This what winter in Minnesota sometimes looks like. I’m standing on the county blacktop road in front of my place. As you can see there is no problem with traffic for taking pictures. I think the wind was gusting to about 35 mph with the temp below zero Fahrenheit. I couldn’t say for sure if it was snowing because all the snow was moving side ways.

When I went back inside, the words of a friend Clarence Mages, came to me. “Rod even the ducks know enough to go south when it turns cold”. It wasn’t long we had the car loaded, the heat turned down, water shut off and the other details taken care of. We headed south without a plan. No schedule, no timetable, Just some cash and a credit card.

By the time we got to Arkansas it was comfortable in shirt sleves. We stopped at antique stores, junk shops and whatever caught our eye. below are pictures of a custom 49 Ford I looked at.The light was wrong for picture taking but two did turn out. He had many projects under way and some really cool customs. If you ever get to Mena AR stop at LAWRY’S USED CAR’s and check it out.

That Ford body was on a S-10, using the chassis, engine, drive train,dash, firewall, controls and much of the interior. The rear of the Ford body was extended to match the longer wheel base.
We found warm weather for a couple of days in Galveston, TX. We took a boat ride on a paddle wheel boat in the bay as the gulf was too rough. I and Donna enjoyed walking in the historic district, touring old houses and checking out the antique shops. Than as the weather cooled we headed down to South Padre Island. We had a few day of beautiful weather and enjoyed walking the beach. Our room had a balcony over looking the gulf and the sun rises were beautiful. Then the temp dropped to 28 degrees one night and the rain turned to sleet. the only bridge to the island was closed, The help couldn’t get to work in the hotel. They had 15 minuet rolling black out at random intervals, so people would get stuck in the hotel elevators at times. We had about a quarter to one half inch of ice on things, I don’t think it would have been noticed in MN. Brownsville shut everything down for two days.

Called a friend at home the morning it was 28 degrees. He told me it was 35 degrees and the sun was shinning in MN.

Yes we still walked the beach when it turned cold and the wind was gusting to 28 MPH. I was amazed the sand drifted like snow and I liked the sound of the gulf. This is a picture we took on the beach the morning after the Ice storm.

After wandering around for a bit we headed over to Jay, Florida. Donna’s brother Gene and sister Doreen live in that aria. Her brother has been fighting cancer. We wanted to see how he was doing. As the picture shows he looks great.
Back home again the weather looks about the same as when we left.
We had a great time but it is good to be home again

The Old Apple

We are having an old fashioned winter. So I have been spending most of my spare time in the lab where it is nice and warm. My wife wanted the old Apple out of the house as it had been taking up storage space for years. Looking at it again brought back fond memories. I just had to set it up again to see if it would still run. I couldn’t bear to pack it up and hide it away. It was an amazing machine in it’s day.

The year we acquired it, my son Jeremy was in Jr High and was very interested in computers. We had an  Apple II my sister had sold me. He put a lot of hours in on that old machine. The Principle of his school took me aside and told me I really needed to buy a  new Apple GS  for Jeremy. He said it would be an investment in Jeremy’s future.

My son had been talking about how great a machine the GS was, as he had limited access to one in school. I checked on price and was told a little better than two grand. That was a lot of money for the family at that time. Farming hadn’t been going well, I was working part time and had started a small retailing business.

I told Jeremy that if gross receipts exceeded X amount for the coming season we would buy the new GS. What followed was a fabulous summer vending, our sales were well ahead of the year before. I say our sales, because Jeremy was very active in the business. He was a master salesman.

Needless to say we picked that Apple GS up in Willmar that fall. Complete with a color Monitor, extra memory, a 5.25 inch floppy disc drive (remember those), a 3.5 inch disc drive, and  a dot matrix printer. With the tax it was over 3,000 bucks.

We both put in a lot of time on that machine, it was a world ahead of the Apple II. I even started doing books for the business on it. It was a good buy for the time. We put lots of hours on it, so the price per hour wasn’t bad. He even took it to college his first year  but times were changing fast. My son got a Mac lap top and the GS stayed home in my office.

After college my son worked in the computer world, Anderson Enterprises kept growing.  Machines  came out that had hard drives, Internet access ,were faster, bigger and much cheaper. So we moved on.

The GS seems primitive now. Back then it was state of the art. The first home computer with graphic operating system and a mouse. Windows copied much from Apple.

I set it up so my grand kids can see this antique work and play a game or two. I like to look at it too.

This was from my wife she also took all the pictures

Hi,

We were blessed with plentiful rain in the summer and we are blessed
with plentiful snow this winter. What a difference a season makes!
Hope you enjoy seeing the difference.

The 10 inches today was beautiful and very fluffy, it was also much
warmer today, up in the 20’s.

Have a wonderful Holiday Season.

Donna

Down she goes

The end of an era, after standing for over 75 years (maybe 85) the corn silo came down. My Father and Grandfather had it built for the storage of corn silage by the Svea Silo Co. of Svea, Minnesota. It was constructed of pre-stressed concrete blocks called staves. One edge was concave and the opposed edge was convex. They would be set together and steel bands were tightened around the structure to hold it together. A coat of cement was painted on the inside to make it air tight.

This old photo shows the barn and silo and the last of Dad’s work horses. This probably dates from early 1940’s. Sadly not many photos were taken of farm operations and fewer survived.

Green corn was chopped, stalk and all, into inch long pieces and blown into the silo from the top. Many tons of this would pack down into the structure and ferment, thereby preserving the nutrients in the corn.
Back then Dad milked 12 cows or so. The 14 by 36 foot silo was enough to take care of the animals all winter. We would dig it out by hand and carry it to the cows in a bushel basket twice a day.
Dad sold his cows in the early 60’s and the silo went unused. The small family farm was no longer financially viable and by the 70’s it became apparent it never would be again.

The unused barn was disassembled for lumber salvage in the 1970’s and it’s cement floor and foundations buried in the early 90’s. At that time the cost of disposal of the silo far exceeded the gain the additional crop land would return. This year, the higher corn prices, plus the danger of the structure collapsing into a growing crop and the difficulty of the larger farm machinery manoeuvring around the structure, made us move forward.

The traditional way of taking a silo down was to take the steel bands off the bottom. Then take a sledge hammer, break the cement staves out till it starts to fall, then run like hell. I just didn’t like that part about running. My son, Jeremy, came up with the idea of shooting the staves out with a high power rifle. When the crop was out we gathered some spectators and the fun began.

Here we are getting ready.

I’m on the left, next is an old friend, Dan Pederson, My sister Margaret (or Peg as I always knew her). Ronna and Dave Gravgard in background.

Jeremy showing his AR15 rifle.

Here is Jeremy with a fresh load of ammunition. Good thing he brought plenty along. It would take many shots to break through. Notice how the staves are shot out more than half way around and the silo is still standing.

When it went, it went fast and it fell in a different direction than I would have guessed. I’m glad I was clear.

The concrete has gone for recycling. I separated the iron and got it out of the field. next spring I will sell it for scrap Iron, unless I can find someone who needs 5/8 inch steel rod.
I hired a large hoe to bury the foundation. He wasn’t sure when he would get there and I didn’t need to be there. So I just figured I would  listen for him and get some pictures. I was working in my shop when I heard him. He was done and loading up again before I walked down to him, so I failed get pictures. The land has been returned to a level field again. In a few years know one will remember it was ever there.