VaxCave

14 days old…

Recently, the drive belt in our clothes dryer broke. We originally thought that the dryer had simply died. After all, it is probably 20 years old and it wouldn’t be a surprise if that was the case. Unfortunately, getting a new washer or dryer is not as simple as picking out a new one. Getting them into the basement would involve completely disassembling the appliance, taking it down the stairs, and then reassembling it in the basement. The stairs are too narrow to get anything larger than 21 inches wide downstairs. It appears that they got the originals down an outer access door, then put a room over top of the access door.

Taking apart a dryer is not easy. Thankfully, the previous owner of our home had left us the documentation for the dryer. The documentation included a parts list and a rudimentary assembly guide. This helped in disassembling the dryer. It seems that these things are put together so that they have maximized the complexity of changing the drive belt. You’d think I could just swing a door open, remove 4 screws and put the new belt on. What really had to happen was that I ended up taking off the top control panel, the backplate, the top of the dryer, and the front of the dryer. This require disconnecting (and carefully documenting via camera phone pictures) all the electronics for the dryer. I wasn’t thrilled about this endeavor.

I had to look up a diagram on Google for the proper belt path. The info that Sears sent with the belt was less than optimal. Thankfully I got it the belt in the right places. After replacing the belt, putting it back together was fairly easy. I will test it tonight to make sure that it doesn’t burst into flesh-searing flames.

Bambi finally had her puppies!

Independence Day in Oakmont, PA

With some family visiting it seemed like a good idea to go see some fireworks on Independence Day. I decided this might be a good chance to work on some shutter speed exercises. I’m still figuring out some of the shutter speed and aperture combos, but I think I’m getting there. This picture turned out pretty good.