LabFiles at LightningRod Labs

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.

I was poking around in the old garage and found this container of old grease. I think it is quite old because of the label “hard oil” instead of the word grease being used. I tried searching for the Kunz oil co. of Mpls. without much luck. Maybe I’ll find something with a little more time invested. If any one has any information on the age of this can I would appreciate hearing from you.

Some time back I showed pictures of a railing I made for my son’s garage. In my usual fashion, I sped ahead without checking the building code for the spacing of uprights.   We were unable to use it because of this . I set the thing aside in my shop, wondering what to do with it. My wife, Donna spotted it while she was doing her gardens. Being clever and artistic she came up with a neat use for it.

The picture above shows her west garden which is one of many. This one is secluded behind the house and was carved from the brush.  I think they look interesting and attractive there. Hopefully they will cause the deer to detour around the garden.  As the spring progresses and the flowers grow, the garden will look even more beautiful.

This is me on my  loader tractor. I would have a hard time getting along without it. It is an antique, believe it or not. Manufactured in 1959, the year I graduated from high school. I purchased it for $1100  on an auction sale in the 1970’s when I bought dad’s farm. That same year my wife went to an auction in the neighborhood that had listed a heavy duty loader. With advice from a cousin, my wife joined the bidding. Now we we were newly back in the area and only the relatives and a few neighbors new Donna. When she called out her bid everyone turned and looked to see who this attractive young lady was. A woman bidding on a tractor loader was in itself unusual. The sale of the item was forgotten as they asked each other who was this stranger. You could here the whispers, “oh dat must be George Anderson’s  Daughter-in-law, ya sure, she next to Pete Peterson an dat would be her cousin den”. The Auctioneer knew it was over, called sold for $220 to the young Lady. The men turned there attention back to the sale, with more than one regretting they had been distracted.  I rebuilt the mount to fit the 340 and the result is a loader much stronger than the tractor.

Time takes it toll on everything, no big deal just buy some new parts, simple. You Bet, not on a 1959 tractor.  No longer available, a problem Hot Roders and car restorers run into all the time.  Making the pipe was the easy part. Rule’s tire in Willmar was able to bent me a copy.The result is below, I had to tweak the pipe a bit by heating it with my old acetylene torch. Yaa, I know The power bender does a nicer job. Normally you have the unit your working on, next to the bender so its easy to do.  I’m ten miles from town and I didn’t want to run back and forth or haul the tractor.

The problem came with the muffler. No one had one on hand that would fit. ordering was a possibility.Searching the parts books for dimensions and pipe size is a pain in the butt. Plus that all takes time. I wanted to use the tractor, so the thought of a straight pipe entered my mind. Not a good idea, I  knew my hearing was already bad enough.

In the corner of the shed I spotted an old muffler from a motorcycle. I knew I had a cool solution. With a little hack saw work and my gas welder, I fabricated up a tolerable system.  [[edit from jeremy:  the muffler is half of a 4-into-2 Supertrapp system from a 1984 VF750F Interceptor]]

View the pictures below I know the tractor needs new paint, that with some work it would be pretty again, buts that’s down the road. With summer coming that means cruises and fun so getting the red convertible ready is first.

In the mean time you don’t often see custom exhaust like this on a tractor.

I must brag a bit. Here is my son Jeremy and my grandsons Thorwald and Gunnar on the stump of the old Ash tree we took out of the flower bed just south of the house. It is early march but the weather was very nice. My son and Thor were just here for the day but Gunnar stayed for a couple of days .

I like this picture of Thor. He mastered his fear of heights and climbed up (and down) onto the loft in my pole barn.  I showed him how to make sure his hold was secure on the steps, move one hand or one foot at a time, and keep your weight close to the latter. Don’t be ashamed of fear  because it makes you careful, just don’t let it paralyse you. Think before your every move and all will be fine. Living in the Big City the Boys don’t have the opportunity to climb and explore like I did growing up on the farm in the 40’s and 50’s. Life was a continuous adventure with minimal supervision. I survived the cuts and bruises and gained confidence and respect for danger.

Here is Gunnar all ready to drive Grandpa’s garden tractor. He has the hearing protection on and note the smile. Gunnar loves to be with Grandpa in the garages and shop on the farm. He does think that Grandpa should either fix or get rid of the rusty junk that he has accumulated in the corners. Below is a young man taking driving very  seriously.

Recently my trusty old belt of 20 some years wore out. I priced belts in several  clothing store’s and about went into shock. Forty dollars for a plain strip of leather B.S. Even the discount stores were over priced. Now I admit I needed to be able to change buckles easily as I prefer my own buckle. That should have lowered the price as I didn’t need a buckle. Instead it lowered selection greatly.

Fate smiled on me as I was walking through a Flee Market in Mobile Alabama last February.  Off to the back of his display were the two belts shown below. Inquiring, the vendor pointed out that both had problems. One was missing the buckle and the other had a blemish in the leather. I looked them over while trying hard to show disappointment in my face. This was somewhat difficult as these belts were perfect for what I needed. I pointed out that because he was such a pleasant fellow I would help him out by taking these useless items off his hands and pay him a couple of dollars. He pointed out he had paid dearly for these new belts and that they were of premium leather. After several minutes of discussion we arrived at a compromise of less than five dollars for the two.

Above are the belts and my favourite buckle. As you can see the belts  are too long and have no way to attach the buckle. I determined the belt length I needed by slipping the buckle on the belt and holding the belt around me. Than I clamped the belt as you can see in the next picture. On the work bench are  some snaps that I had purchased in the late 1980’s for fixing leather jackets. Next I used my trusty sharpie and a small ruler to mark the spot.  Note the awl I used to center punch the spot for drilling. It is made from  a worn out Philips screwdriver, the large handle make it great to handle. I used a freshly sharpened metal bit for drilling the holes.

Below I crimp the snaps in place note I installed the first snap before I made the hole for the second snap. That way alignment is guaranteed. I use a piece of quarter inch scrap steel  that is 1.25 by 6 inches to protect the desk top that I use for a work bench. The snaps are riveted in with a special punch so the protection is needed. all that’s left, is to mark  and cut the extra off.

The finished product

Not a big deal of a project but I have a new work belt for a couple of bucks and some fun. I did this all a month ago but spring came early so I did not get around to finishing this till now.

No, I didn’t win the Bull Riding buckle in some long ago competition, when I was young and tough. I’ll admit I have spun a few late night stories to acquaintance’s, they were ment solely for entertainment. The truth is I acquired a lot of  them back when I was selling on the circuit. The thing that always  got me in trouble was, “how much would they be if I took them all”. If you feel a need for a few ( or several), get in touch with me. all are serial numbered, limited edition, vintage 1980’s.