Really, starhawk -- Toaster Repair?!?!

Regarding the fuel efficiency numbers for the garbage trucks, a couple things to point out. The really low numbers are likely from when the trucks are doing their rounds--stopping every 100 feet, collecting the cans, accelerating toward the next house, lather, rinse, repeat. I can see how that consumes lots of fuel (hey, this sounds like a perfect application for a hybrid engine!). Once they're on the road, though, I imagine the mileage is much higher. Still, though, you have to keep in mind that these are very large, industrial machines, filled with a payload of compacted garbage, rather than a mostly-empty mid-size SUV. A H3 weighs about 2.2 tons. A garbage truck? 15-32 tons.

IIRC, the original (military-spec) hummer got 3-5mpg.
 
Ok... back on topic for this post...

Just put in the new cord. I don't have a proper crimper for it, so I spent about 45min with two different sets of needlenose pliers, but the cheapass Wal*Mart/GE spade connectors I got are on to stay.

Recommend that nobody else be stupid enough to buy those effing things. That is the cheapest crap I've ever seen and it does not work properly because of a VERY stupid design decision they made. But, I couldn't take 'em back -- partially because of transportation, partially because there's no other place in this town to get 'em except Ace, and Ace isn't very good around here. They'd probably be peddling similar crap.

Anyhow, new cord is on after quite some time and inventing a few new words that you can't say on TV :p

Unfortunately, the middle element is still dimly lit compared to the other two. I'll give it the toast test late tonight on my way to bed and I'll report results in the morning.
 
Report: Yeah, I'm gonna call this a non-fix. Still doesn't toast evenly. One side gets kinda toasted and the other is still warm bread :(
 
I guess it's on to replacing the heating elements, then? Heck, it might be worth checking--one or more of those elements might have jiggled loose from its connection on one end.

BTW, this thread is seriously deficient in the pictures department.
 
I'll probably take it apart over the weekend and see if there's anything loose inside. My concern is that things I take apart generally either don't get back together at all... or have parts left over that shouldn't be.

;)

I can take some pictures of the toaster if you'd like, but it's not exactly a beauty. Neither is my kitchen, so I'll have to take the pictures somewhere else!
 
If it's big enough and you can't repair it as a toaster, turn it into a mini-ITX PC or something.
 
@Dan_D: I'll take a look at that. TBH, I was thinking I'd clean it up some and sell it on the FS/T forum for $15. "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln," it's a very nice toaster. Not much to look at, but it's damn durable.

FWIW, that toaster is a minimum of 15 years old. We finished our current kitchen at about that time, and the toaster has been with us since at least the finished kitchen. Probably longer...

Particularly because it lacks a certain safety feature -- it predates the concept of a toaster where the lever on the front won't lock in the down position unless there's something in it. If you push the lever down, the toaster fires up, regardless of whether or not there's anything in it...

I'll get pics in a little bit. With it on as well as off.
 
Most entertaining thread derailment in a post related to a toaster ever, although admittedly, that is a pretty small category...

Thanks for the afternoon chuckles. Oh, and Dan, go hug a tree! ;)
 
Dan_D said:
  • Al Gore is a fucking moron. I'd never put stock in anything that comes out of his mouth. That's probably because I can only listen to so much crazy. He's like a male Nanci Pelosi. Pretty much just bat shit crazy.
  • Climate change is bullshit.
Click to expand...

Al Gore is bullshit. Climate change is not. If you meant anthropogenic climate change is bullshit...youd still be wrong.
 
nissanztt90 said:
Al Gore is bullshit. Climate change is not. If you meant anthropogenic climate change is bullshit...youd still be wrong.
Click to expand...

Not going there and you shouldn't either. We almost got a thread about a toaster soapboxed. Let's not do that.
 
@everyone: hey, can we put a little effort into not going off to random shit now? I realize that I'm responsible for a lot of this, but I think one tangent is enough. Besides, I don't have a GenMay subscription!

@Dan_D: took my spare mITX board (a P-M model, at that) and it's about an inch or so too tall. Probably just as well -- we do, after all, need a toaster in this house!

@Mohonri: your request is hereby filled. Here's pix. It's not pretty, and my camera skills are (as usual) downright painful, but these two are the best I could do. These are clickable thumbnails.

 
Dan_D said:
  • Al Gore is a fucking moron. I'd never put stock in anything that comes out of his mouth. That's probably because I can only listen to so much crazy. He's like a male Nanci Pelosi. Pretty much just bat shit crazy.
  • Climate change is bullshit.
  • As for the rest of it, recycling doesn't always make sense. Sometimes it takes more energy and resources than it's worth. Metal and paper aren't that way, but some objects are. I think plastic only sort of recently because reasonable to recycle in any capacity.
  • No walks in a big forest for me. No air conditioning.

Excelsior!



I'm looking for ManBearPig!

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Not going to touch most of the comments in that post because you decided to take the bait on a political comment and that is not what a toaster repair thread is about.

But you are wrong regarding paper recycling. Paper recycling is not beneficial. Recycling paper hurts the environment more than it helps it due to the chemical requirements to break it down. We do better just letting paper biodegrade and planting more trees while cutting more down and processing them. Plastics and metals are the only things that need to be recycled. Everything else can just be left to degrade and landfills can create energy to power our fuel grid by burning the gases emitted by that action. A popular method of harnessing that power is anaerobic digestion.To be honest we have plenty of trees in North America and the quantity of trees is not even an issue here. China is the one polluting more than the rest of the world combined(excluding India where data is not fully accurate). The problem isn't the USA to be honest. Taking care of the environment doesn't mean climate science even has to be taken into consideration. Not putting harmful things into the water supply has an obvious immediate effect. Try drinking a petroleum distillate if you don't believe me and you will see I am right after a hospital visit. Careful though, going to the hospital is awfully expensive in the USA.(That was a joke, nobody should try that. This is the obligatory bullshit warning label required because our society believes you can sue for anything.) I could care less about the politics of washed up politicians like Al Gore. He is much like John Edwards without the sex life. Climate science is not politics, it's a science. Anyone thinking they are educated enough to weigh in on climate science better have at the very least a Master's degree in an at least a vaguely related scientific field. I am an engineer working on my Masters degree and I realize that climate science takes additional education/peer reviewed information to fully grasp beyond data presented by the "popular sources" that can be easily bought with advertisement money.

That being said, starhawk should just use a $7.99 toaster from the freedom hating Mao-Mart and throw away the old Betty Crocker toaster. If you feel bad about its environmental impact then just think of it as set to do its damage when it was created, rather than when you threw it away. One toaster doesn't make a difference in the grand scheme of things anyway, so don't worry.
 
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@DaedalusHelios: I will ask you to read the first part of my most recent post (the one right above yours). I am specifically referring to the line starting with "@everyone".

Then I will ask you to assume that the last place this toaster is headed is the landfill. If it goes to the local collection center, it will be placed in the 'swap shop' (a small shed for stuff that anyone can take, free of charge) with a note on it in both English and Spanish, so that someone else can make use of it.

...and $8 toasters scare me. I don't know why we bought one of those (mentioned earlier in the thread). It was a bad idea. It will probably go in the 'swap shop' as well, and then I'll head off to Mal-Mart to get something hopefully a little less likely to die on the first slice of toast.

...all of that said: thank you for the lesson in paper recycling, but this is no longer the place for that discussion, per the referenced post.
 
i feel it is absolutely necessary to mention that Al Gore is not a credible source of information. Taking his advice on saving the planet will likely lead to something like this



2012_apocalypse_oxcgn.jpg
 
starhawk said:
...and $8 toasters scare me. I don't know why we bought one of those (mentioned earlier in the thread). It was a bad idea. It will probably go in the 'swap shop' as well, and then I'll head off to Mal-Mart to get something hopefully a little less likely to die on the first slice of toast.

...all of that said: thank you for the lesson in paper recycling, but this is no longer the place for that discussion, per the referenced post.
Click to expand...

I use a $8 toaster. It works fine. Toasters are actually quite simple. More cost doesn't always mean more value.

All a toaster really needs is a case, rheostat, resistive element, wire, wall socket connector, and a mica insulator. The spring mechanism with a switch is more a matter of convenience.

That being said, I have used a butane torch to toast bread many times. :D
 
Quick non-update... haven't gotten around to pulling the damn thing apart yet.

Sometime next week, maybe.
 
Just curious... this is slightly off topic...

I have one of those stupid motion detector lights that has gone bad with a buzzing relay inside. I haven't gotten around to pulling it apart because, having sat on a pine tree in my yard for most of the last three years (at least) it has the requisite pound or two of pine sap and bird shit all over it. Is there a good chemical (other than goo gone which I don't have) to get that junk off? (Would paint thinner work? The housing is cheapass plastic. No idea what kind, though.)
 
Not worth salvaging IMO. You'd spend less time getting a part time job to pay for a new one, than trying to remove a bunch of sap.
 
Looks like that motion-detector lamp has a problem I can't fix.

There's copper showing through the green coating on its PCB. I'd say that's pretty much a terminal condition. Time for a new light!

I'll frck with the toaster this weekend if I can make myself remember AT ALL.
 
Sorry to revive such an old thread here, but...

Noticed the other day that the extension cord that goes between toaster and wall (passing behind our refrigerator on its way) was switching the toaster off when I bent it a certain way. Could that be part of the problem as well?
 
It certainly could be causing a problem. See what happens when you plug the toaster directly into an outlet.
 
Plugged it into an outlet directly, no change :(

BTW, when it cuts off, there's a gigantic blue flash from the back of the toaster. It's contained inside completely...

...but is that normal?
 
The flash is normal. The toaster is drawing a lot of current, and when the switch disconnects, the inductance of the toaster causes a brief arc.
 
You should maybe try to create a better toaster from scrap? More ambitious and perhaps you would learn more from a mission like that? You could design one that toasts faster with twin fans blowing across an element ducted to the camber where the toast is held, suspended in the center of the chamber. I think I have compact fans that would work for something like that. I live a city or two over from you in the "college city" greensboro.
 
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