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Power adapter mayhem!

A man brought me his laptop today. The power adapter was a generic universal model from Targus, the plug was obviously burnt. Plugging it in it was loose, so it wasn’t the right size to begin with.

I took a spare I had at my desk, right voltage and enough amps, I plugged it in and his laptop powered up and worked fine. I ordered him a replacement but he was upset that it would take 3-4 days for it to arrive. He just had to have it for the weekend. So, I let him take home my spare… I figure if he decides to not return with it, I’ll keep the new one he’s already paid for.

Well, new one comes in and he picks it up and brings back my spare. Everything seemed fine til I took a closer look, he somehow had cut the wires near the power adapter. Could have been an accident. He also completely removed the ground plug on the cable… jackass. Guess I can’t be nice to some people.

2012
05/03
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Bessey 4.5 inch bench vise

I bought the Bessey 4.5 inch bench a few months ago at Lowes. Always wanted a vise, Harbor Freight was sold out of all but the tiniest vises (must’ve had a sale right before I walked in), and this was Lowe’s largest vise at the time.Crappy Bench Vise

It lasted about an hour. I clamped in a chain link and cut it with a cutoff disc. Flawless. It held a chain link for the full minute I had it clamped. For my next feat, I decided to close a cold shut. Things got crazy after this.

I noticed the paint or whatever coating on the top of the device had come off in a huge sheet while I turned the handle. There are two screws that hold little steel plates on each side of the clamp, one of those screws broke off, the steel plate shifted and took the paint with it. I continued to tighten the cold shut as it had barely begun to close before the vise initially failed. A few more turns and I noticed dust was coming out of the shaft that holds the main turning screw. The inside housing of the vise had turned to dust and the screw could no longer turn. I guess the body basically stripped out.

Before touring the country and calling myself The World’s Strongest Man I read reviews on this vise. Both Lowes.com and Amazon.com have nothing but bad reviews.  Turns out I’m not the first to break this piece of junk. Bessey has let us down.  Like  Troy-Bilt they have sold out in the name of cheap Chinese junk.

2012
04/21
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