Removing stuck batteries from a 2 AA Maglite

I had recently replaced the batteries in one of my Maglite's (about a year ago), well as usual the batteries swelled up and started to leak, of course due to the crappy design of these flashlights it is near impossible to remove the batteries in this situation.

I tried dropping the flashlight open side down on to a throw rug on tile. While it did move the batteries down to the end of the battery It bent the very soft aluminum. I then tried to pry the batteries out but that just bent the flashlight the other way. 

I did some googleing and did not find much information on getting the batteries out. I did find that Maglite's attitude is "too bad for you". But I did manage to get the batteries out. Here is how:

First remove the lens assembly.

 Remove the light bulb.

 Remove the plastic part labeled "DO NOT REMOVE". It just pulls right off.

 using a thin screw driver placed in one or both of the holes you see above. Push down or if needed lightly hammer the batteries out. DO NOT hammer directly on the plastic switch. The switch assembly will push all the way through the tube. Once you get the batteries out (if you get them out). You will need to clean out the tube. Use a small file, a hone, brass bottle brush, or whatever you can find that will work. Rinse out the tube and thoroughly dry it. Check that the silver tab is clean, then push the switch assembly back in place as you see it above. Replace the part marked "DO NOT REMOVE". Install the bulb and clean it off with alcohol. Reassemble the rest of the flashlight with new batteries.

 VOILA!

Blonder Tongue FM only R-20

Got this off of the shopgoodwill auction site. It is FM only and the design is like a Granco 620U I have, but the speaker is WAY smaller and on the back of the radio.

Here it is, as I got it, quite dirty.

 

And after I recapped it, replaced the failing Selenium Rectifier with a silicon diode, and cleaned it up.

Here is the Schematic

Heathkit V-7A VTVM

Another Goodwill find. 2 VTVM's, a heatkit tube, and a Bell and Howell transistorized.

The Bell and Howell had major problems. A blown High tolerance resistor and one of the selectors was broken, so I parted it out. The Heatkit, however is fixable, it needs new capacitors and that is all.

Nikko STA-5010

This is a Nikko STA-5010 from goodwill.

This is a tricky unit to get sound out of on the goodwill test bench. I tried getting it working in store but no luck. However I took a chance for the low price and bought it. Instead of having to just get the speakers selected right, you have to do the following to get sound out of it:
hook up your speakers
Select your speakers
set the Tape selector to Source
and then! on the back of the unit change the switch that reads "Pre & Main" to "Connect".
This is very likely the reason it was still there when I got to the store, since I saw at least 2 flippers prowling the aisles.

All Lights work.
This stereo sounds great and I am not sure why it was donated. It is clean, a little dusty inside, I used deoxit on the volume control before turning it on so I am not sure if was scratchy. Oh well mine now! I will not be doing any replacing of parts on this unless it develops a problem.

Heathkit GR-11

From Shopgoodwill.com. Needed a recap, and the 17c9 tube replaced. While cleaning it with denatured alcohol I accidentally removed the Heathkit silk screening from the front.

 Picture taken before the recap.

The unit needs an antenna but gets really good reception. Speaker is a little small. I may put it in a new cabinet later and give it a better speaker. All the plastic standoffs were broken, but I found them inside the radio and epoxied them back on.

That's some mighty fine police work, Lou

Got a call this morning at 6:15am. Unknown number. I answer and a man asks to speak with ****. I'm like "there's no **** here". He says "This number does not belong to an older woman with a walker?"

Wait what?

So somehow when the police report was made they put my number for the number that was on the note. So I gave the "detective" the correct number and we will see what happens.

Old Woman is a Thief

What is this world coming to when strange old women come to your house, fish around in your mailbox and thieve your wife's rolling crate!

Oh and before she does that she leaves a note at the base of your security door with her phone number.

 

Yesterday my wife comes home and discovers the rolling crate she had recently purchased is gone.

I searched the events on the surveillance system and found the following:

If you aren't interested in watching the whole thing:
she comes up our drive way. Looks at our stuff, rings the doorbell and snoops in the mailbox.

she then snoops some more and goes around to the side of the house.

she returns and writes a note that she places in our security door in a location we would have NEVER found.

She empties the crate folds it up and puts it in a plastic bag and takes off.

Today I got home about 6:30pm Called the police non emergency line. Burned a CD of the video. The officer showed up about 7:45 he was here about 30 minutes. He asked what I wanted to do? I wanted to press charges. He watched the video and wrote up a report and said that he did not think anything would come of it. I said "that's fine, since she may be doing this to other people I wanted something on file". I gave him the note and the cd. will they call the number in the note and pursue this? probably not.

So once again... as long as it is not particularly an expensive item that gets thieved, and you do not get personally caught, crime does pay.