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Yesterday I finished refurbishing the Cordomatic for the White, which included converting it from a 2-conductor to a 3-conductor cord. First I greased the spring and installed it back into the housing (hook the center onto the pin first, then carefully wind the spring tighter until the remaining windings are contained, then insert the little T-tab into the slot to secure. I threw a couple of rubber bands around the whole thing as insurance while I worked on the other side). Next, I threaded the new power cord through the hub of the reel and soldered the hot and neutral wires where they belonged on the ring panel, then anchored ground to the reel itself. Reinstalled the panel and hammered the tabs back down to secure. Screwed the safety clip back in place; it makes sure that if you yank the cord all the way out, you don’t end up disturbing the electronics. Ditched the rubber bands, wound the cord onto the reel, and put the reel back in the case. Before putting the washer and nut back on the spring side, I used some vice grips to wind the shaft counter-clockwise until it drew the cord back in readily when it was pulled out a bit. Carefully flipped the thing over and tightened the nut. I clipped off the extra cord, and installed a three-prong plug. Then I put that part aside to work on the connections for the fixed side, which will run power to the rest of the machine. I soldered hot and neutral to the contacts that press against the rotating rings on the reel, and ground to the cable retention clip, which tested as connected to the case according to a multimeter. I put the cover on, tightened all the nuts, and checked that ground on one side was connected to ground on the other, hot to hot, and neutral to — oops, nothing, so took it apart again, fussed with the copper prongs that press against the rotating rings, reassembled, and then everything was connected as each should be. Ta da!

Lunch and snack in there somewhere, finished up in time for a show and tell with P (he’s been working on his video rig for online teaching in the fall) and then dinner, crossword, sewing, Roswell, snack, sleep. An excellent day.

Fire and Frost continues, with an added note for an abuser doing the normal abuser thing of showing different faces to different people so he can get away with how he treats his girlfriend.