Body repair with Crazy Glue - liquid bandage roundup

I tend to injure myself a lot due to my many hobbies and general poor coordination.  That means I tend to stock a lot of repair items (and keep my several med kits up to date - but that's another topic).  One of my favorite items are non-typical bandages.  From finger wraps to the Nexcare waterproof bandages (which stick like crazy once you have them on, but if there is water or oil where you put it on it won't stick at all!) to the liquid bandages, they all have their uses.

On the other hand, good old Crazy Glue has some pretty distinct advantages. 

Let's break down several alternatives for my most recent hard-to-fix problem, a split on the tip of my thumb.  When my skin gets dry and rough, I occasionally get a split on my fingers where the skin just cracks open.  It isn't a convenient place to bandage, and even if you do any movement causes the crack to flex.  Some choices:

• Bandage.  Comes off, gets wet when you wash you hands, etc.  Not too great.
• New Skin liquid bandage.  What?? No, seriously never buy that stuff.  It smells toxic and burns.  Why would I put that on my skin?  Why do they even sell that stuff anymore?
• Nexcare liquid bandage  - spray.  Too wide of a spray for this application, but great for scrapes.
• Nexcare liquid bandage - drops.  Hard to find; I got it online.  This is basically medical grade Super Glue, and works well anywhere but my hands.  My hands are too high-use I guess.  On my split, this stuff broke apart too quickly and I had to re-apply a few times a day
• Nexcare skin crack care. I haven't tried it, but it might be a good choice.
• Band-aid single use liquid bandages.  I loved the single applicator packs that I could put in med kits, but they disappeared.  The new ones require the dropper bottle, and aren't rated as well.
• Crazy Glue.  This was the winner for me this round.  I squeezed the crack together (not wanting the glue to touch my exposed lower layers of skin) and it held it with the plastic-like crustiness I expect from these kind of glues.

Of course, Crazy Glue is what I used last time because it was all I had at work.  I guess I didn't really need to waste any time with the other alternatives.

By the way, I settled on Crazy Glue rather than Super Glue, because Cody Lundin talked about using it for cracks on his feet (he doesn't wear shoes) in his book 98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your *** Alive.  I highly recommend it.  It also talks a lot about building your own survival kit, which is pretty important if you ever need it.

Disclaimer - I haven't evaluated Crazy Glue for medical safety.

Star Wars Pocketmodels are fun

Ok, this is hardly a project since most of the work has already been done by others.  These are, however, very fun and cheap as well.  I'm talking about the Star Wars Pocketmodels from Wizkids.  I'm late to the game - these were discontinued a few years ago.  However, Target and Amazon (not to mention eBay and other sources) are now unloading them cheap.  You can get the Ground Assault packs (2 model cards, dice and playing cards) for $1 at Target.  You can also pick up the classic ones (from the original trilogy) to get the ships.  I also opted to get an X-Wing pack from eBay because I was particularly interested in having an X-Wing.  There are several series, so poke around to find the right one if you are looking for something specific.

Here is what a model card looks like:

And, once you punch out the pieces and put them together they look like this:

I actually don't care about the game, I just like putting the models together and putting them on my desk.  I appreciate the quality engineering that went into them.  The pieces snap out easily, they snap together as they should, and they look sharp.  They're so much better than the tissue paper and balsa wood model plane that I broke and never finished as a kid.

Also, if for some reason you don't have the instructions, they're all online.  The community keeps these alive.

On another note, I gave a few of these to children of friends and they were entertained for hours thinking these were the coolest things ever. 

I'm going to pick up more next time I see them.  They may not have been a good deal at $4/pack, but at $1/pack they're a no-brainer.

Continued internet issues, but faster in-house speeds

Even after flashing the old router to DD-WRT, the internet issues continued.  I bought a new WRT54G2 router to replace the old WRT54G, and flashed it to DD-WRT to match the other one.  I now have two WRT54G2 wireless routers as my network (the other one is the access point).  However, the internet issues continue, and I can only conclude that it's my internet provider.  Not much chance that will be easy to fix.  Their tech support will always hold the position that it's not on their end.

I did enable the daily reboot of the router (under Administration->Keep Alive).  At least there's some sort of refresh every morning before I get up.  There are less internet hiccups, so I think I've cleaned things up a bit.

On the plus side, after switching to the new router I have drastically increased the speed to my laptop.  In DD-WRT you can do a 'Site Survey' under Status->Wireless.  It shows you what channel all of the other networks in your area are on, and I discovered that some new networks had popped up in my neighborhood since I last looked, and they were all on channel 11.  Time to move!  I have no packets with errors, and my speed in both directions is greatly improved.  I'll call that a success.

Halloween Projects

I've been busy with Halloween projects and other pursuits, so no posts recently. 

I made my version of this chainsaw for my Ash costume.  Mine was a little less realistic, but was fun to make.  I even put a fan inside the starter guard to cool off my hand.  Instead of buying one of those voice recorder chips from Radio Shack (or ripping one out of a greeting card) I just decided to use my old micro cassette voice recorder to replay some chainsaw sounds I harvested from my Left 4 Dead on my computer.
[Pics to come]

I also got a cheap shotgun toy from Dollar General that this post clued me into.  I had actually just been to Dollar General but hadn't seen the gun because it was on the top shelf.  My plan was to modify it to add a real wood stock, but I think I'll cancel that in favor of polishing the rest of the costume.  The back holster (scabbard) has enough trouble sitting right with the toy gun in it.

I need to get working on my ground fogger attachment for my fog machine.  Lots of other possibilities that I don't have time to work on.

Halloween can eat up hundreds of hours of time creating awesome gadgets and crafts for the season if you let it...

Upgrade wireless router WRT54G to DD-WRT firmware

I've meant to flash my main wireless router to the DD-WRT open source firmware for a while.  I flashed my bridge router over a year ago, immediately upon receipt.  I needed a wireless bridge, and the stock firmware didn't support it.  However, I was hesitant to take the chance with my main router because I didn't have any backup and would have to buy a new one.

However, I've been having internet issues recently.  I replaced my cable modem because I remember when the last one went out a year ago, which had the same intermittent problems.  However, repeated calls to the ISP have resulted in the firm statement that the signal seems to be fine to the modem.  That leaves the router...

Since I may need to replace the router anyway if it's bad, I might as well try the flash.

I went to dd-wrt.com to find the appropriate firmware for my router, which happened to be the Linksys WRT-54G v3.1.  The 3.1 version is good to have because it has 4MB of flash memory.  Some models have just 2MB and need to run a smaller version of the firmware.

I had already read the instructions on the DD-WRT wiki the last time that I flashed my other router -- be sure to be familiar with the warnings and instructions before hopping in.  Each router has its own quirks, and the wiki pages have lots of info, such as this one for the WRT54G series.

As for the flash itself, here is what I did.

1. Restore factory defaults with the original Linksys firmware.
2. Hard reset
3. Set your computer to a static IP of 192.168.1.8. (or to whatever subnet the router is on)
4. Log in admin page (username is blank, password = admin) and navigate to firmware upgrade page.
5. First flash: Mini-Build required for inital flashing via WEB      dd-wrt.v24_mini_generic.bin
1. "Upgrade are failed!" message appears from router.  A second one (in a different window) appears a few minutes later.
2. Lights should return to normal.  Failing to wait long enough can brick router.
6. Hard reset after the second message
1. After reset, able to access status page for DD-WRT, no problem!
7. Go to administration->firmware upgrade --> login as root:admin
1. Upgrade with dd-wrt.v24-13064_VINT_std.bin
2. Wait for completion message, which can take several minutes (same warnings as above!)
8. It automatically came to success screen, and asked for a changed password
1. Hard reset again after flash is complete
9. Should be able to access DD-WRT again, now with the latest firmware.
10. Change password and set all settings.  Back up your new settings, and you're ready to go

Hard Reset (aka 30/30/30 reset):
    * With the unit powered on, press and hold the reset button on back of unit for 30 seconds
    * Without releasing the reset button, unplug the unit and hold reset for another 30 seconds
    * Plug the unit back in STILL holding the reset button a final 30 seconds

If you don't have a router yet, there are a huge number of good routers that have been tested with DD-WRT and other alternatives (such as OpenWrt and Tomato, but I haven't tested those). 

I suggest buying the router that I used for my bridge, the Linksys WRT54G2.  It's a bit cheaper than the others, and has internal antennas that are about as good as the other models with antennas. There are specific instructions for that one here.  If you want to use the same one I'm describing here as my main router, you can get that one here for not that much more: Linksys WRT54GL.  Note the L in the model - they specifically made this one to bring back the larger flash memory to allow for flashing the full DD-WRT.  The other ones have less memory and therefore use a more stripped-down version of the firmware.

I'll have to wait a few days to see if I run into any more connection problems, but so far it seems that my internet connection hasn't been hiccuping.

Ergonomics - Permanently Adjusting Table Height

I intended to shorten my table/desk from the beginning of this ergonomics upgrade, but it took the longest to get to because it meant a lot of prep work.

Here are the links to the other post where I decided to do this modification and made other changes:
Ergonomics on the Cheap
Mouse placement
Mounting the Monitor to the Wall
 

Original desk height - monitor is directly above it

After cleaning off my desk, I was ready to take the table out and prep it for cutting.

Not really surgical precision, but my cutting won't be either

One side marked

Both sides marked.  Ready to go

Now it's cutting time.  I moved out to the garage for this, because it involved flying pieces of burning hot metal.  And it's not like I have lots of flammable stuff out there...

Now we're getting somewhere!

Here is the leg after the initial cut:

Cut complete

I used the other rotary bits to even out the edge and round it off (inside and outside).  I not only wanted to prevent cutting myself, I wanted to reduce the chance that the sharp edges would cut through the plastic endcap.

After cutting one leg and part of another, the cutting wheel was worn down to the nub.

I decided to try something that involved a bit less jumping around and scratching the leg (and possibly less burning embers flying around in my garage).

Plan B.  Cheap and easy (but labor intensive).

The saw was actually pretty easy to cut with once I added a groove with the rotary tool.  It was way too hot in the garage to not be sweating like crazy though.  In the end, the time was probably comparable to using the rotary tool.

Note the difference in distance between the legs, as compared with the earlier picture

Now it's time to put this back together.  After putting the endcaps back on the feet, I noticed that it wasn't as level as I'd like.  I used some ball bearings to measure - rolling around means the table isn't flat.  I think this is a little easier than using a level to detect small imbalances.

Bearings at rest means table is level

I simply added some paper to one of the end caps to adjust the height (very slightly).  The result was a level table.  Success!

Fine tuning

 Here are the final, shorter feet.

And, the complete picture.  Note the greater distance between the table and the monitor.

Final configuration - Monitor is same height, but desk is lower

In the end, this only took me about 2 hours to complete (not counting clearing off my desk).  However, the time I spent planning to get this done was over a month.

As for the ergonomics, this height is much better for me.  I'm conscious of not bending my wrists now, but having the desk at the right height makes it much easier.  I don't know why I put up with using this height for so many years without making these changes.

Update: The short link to this article is http://bit.ly/9zxPJP

Mounting the monitor to the wall

Mounting the monitor onto the wall was mostly difficult only because it was an enclosed space. I pulled the table out from the wall with enough space to get behind it, but not enough space to comfortably move. I never learn...

This post shows how I mounted my Asus 24" monitor to the wall.

I took way too long to post this, so I'm going to make this more of a pictorial with less comments.

Also check out the other posts on ergonomics on this blog:
Ergonomics on the Cheap
Mouse placement
Cutting the Table Legs

Before: monitor on stand

Above is the monitor with the original stand: not height adjustable, and it wobbles when I type hard because its much heavier than my previous monitor.  Not a big deal, I planned to mount it to the wall before I even bought it.

The new mount

The mount hardware

Additional mount hardware and instructions

As I didn't own more sophisticated hardware to check that the mount was level, I used a string with a weight.  Gravity is free!

Seems about level here

Mount tightened and ready

With the swing arm attached, we're getting closer

Back of the monitor - holes for the VESA mount

VESA mount plate attached

Ball joint and mount plate from below

Side view - mounted and with cables hooked in

Top view

Side view - adjusted to desired position

Now that the monitor is mounted, it's a lot more stable (only the speakers wobble if the table is shaken).  I could have mounted the mechanism a tiny bit higher to allow more adjustment, but I think it's fine where it is.


I discovered that the range of tilt was less than I had hoped, so this can't be moved low and tilted up very far.  something to keep in mind when choosing the height to mount the mechanism.

Final notes:
Tighten the ball joint bolts again after a few days to help reduce the looseness. It's hard to keep this thing from tilting, so it's best not to touch it once it's in place. Otherwise, it seems to tilt to the side and be hard to level. I suppose a more expensive mount would have better balancing, but this does pretty well.

A more expensive mount might have a better ball joint, but this one does fine.

Next
Coming soon, the modification to my desk to make it shorter.

Things forgotten - Saving words to the dictionary on an Android phone

I really need to go back through my Android phone notes again and post them.  I've already forgotten an rediscovered some good tips, like this (shamelessly stolen, I think from somewhere on this thread):

You can easily add words to your dictionary while typing by long pressing on the word from the suggestion bar over your virtual keyboard.

First type the word as you want it to show, then execute a long press on the word in the 'word suggestion bar' next to the suggested words that highlight in bold orange... this long press will automatically save it to your dictionary.

If you add a word by accident, you can remove it by going to Settings ==> Language & keyboard ==> User dictionary, scroll down to find the word you input, select it, then press Delete.

A note about scheduling

Several weeks later, I still haven't cut the legs on my desk.  And now I'll need to clear some space in the garage.  However, as I've been spending much more time at my home office, the extra height is really becoming noticeable and uncomfortable.    As usual, the myriad of projects on my plate all compete for my time and it's hard to get anything done.  This one is important though!  Hopefully I'll have a better status report soon, rather than suffering the consequences of not completing the projects related to comfort and safety!

Ergonomics update: mouse placement

A slight update to my previous post on ergonomics:  when I changed the location of my monitor (by mounting it to the wall) I moved my keyboard closer to the edge of the desk, thinking that was a good distance from my eyes to the monitor.  However, after a few weeks of unconsciously moving the mouse to the edge of the desk to match where the keyboard was, I realized that my wrist was hurting.  When the mouse is close to the edge, my wrist rests on the edge and isn't at a good angle.  Oops!  I moved the keyboard a bit further back and am conscious to keep the mouse even further from the edge, and things are much more comfortable.

I expect that the whole thing will be more comfortable when I get to shortening the desk, but I haven't finished that yet!

How to Fix a Cordless Drill Charger

The most likely – yet least opportune time – for tools to fail is in the middle of a project. My old Ryobi 12v cordless drill charger bit the dust in the middle of installing my monitor mount, but I was able to fix it without spending a dime.

The drill is less useful without charged batteries

When I popped the battery in to charge it, the light on the charger didn't come on. It didn't work for the other battery, or on another outlet. So, I busted out the multimeter and measured the batteries and the charger voltages. One battery was respectably close around 9.5v, but the other was completely dead at 0.00v. The charger itself was putting out 3v, which wouldn't do much to charge a 12v battery.
I found a replacement charger on Amazon, but the reviews were overwhelmingly negative. The weak power supply was prone to dying when charging a weak battery, so my 0v battery would probably blow it immediately. Having only a single battery wasn't desirable - they 12v batteries don't last long anyway, and many of my projects have been temporarily halted while I charge the batteries. Maybe it's time to buy an 18v cordless drill.

Of course, with nothing to lose, some other options are opened up. I keep the DC converters from old electronics that bite the dust, and I found one that was similarly rated at 15v. However, it was rated for 800mA whereas the original was 200mA. I want the extra juice to be able to charge batteries even if they're very low, but I don't want to overcharge them. I then measured the charger and found it to be almost 20v! This might have a higher risk of destroying the batteries than I had hoped, but it's the closest converter that I had available.

The charger and power supply, along with the donor power supply

After researching batteries a bit and deciding that there the risk was acceptable, I donned safety glasses and moved to a safe area in case there was a problem. I opened up the charger case and found where the charger was connected to the circuit board. I cut those wires and clipped the donor power supply directly to the charging connectors (alligator clips are color coded incorrectly, but the connection is correct).

Testing the direct connection

Next, I tested with the “dead” battery to see if it could take a charge. I tested for about 5 seconds to make sure I was doing it right.

Quick Test

It showed a few hundredths of a volt! I began charging for longer periods and checking the voltage every few minutes. Eventually I got up past 12v. Actually, I could probably go way past 12v with this new more powerful charger, so I need to be very careful to not burn up the batteries.

Success! Over 12v

I charged the other battery and decided that the charger is good to go. I soldered the new wires to the circuit board, and even retooled the pull-stop to prevent the cord from being pulled out and ripping out of the circuit board.

New wires soldered to the circuit board

Reassembled with the pull protector in place

Reassembled - bottom view

Reassembled - top view

Now, observe the completed product – the charging light comes on again!

Charging!

The bad news is that I have to measure the batteries with a voltmeter if I charge for more than 5 minutes. The good news is that recharges happen much more quickly, and I didn't have to spend a dime to fix my old drill.

BTW a shorter version of this is available as an Instructable here.

Ergonomics on the Cheap

I don't know why I waited so long to look into the ergonomics of my home office (perhaps is the cheesiness of the ergonomics warnings at work), but when I started paying attention I decided that I needed immediate action.

For instructions, check out my how-to article on InfoBarrel on how to improve the ergonomics of your home office. Here is the detail on how I did it.

Part 1: The Chair

I've never purchased an expensive office chair, so every couple of years my chair is in poor shape and needs to be replaced. A quality chair might last longer and be worth repairing, but it's hard to make it past the sticker price. All the same, I recommend checking out a dedicated office chair store to make the comparison, at least to know what's out there.

So, after owning my current office chair for a few years, I realized that it has always been awful for my posture. The pan (the part you sit on) was way too long. Because of that, I could never sit with my feet on the ground and my back against the back of the chair at the same time. That meant my options include sitting with my feet on the ground but my back curved to reach the back, or to sit with my back on the back of the chair and my feet in some other position.

I recently removed the armrests to prevent me from leaning on my elbows as much, but the seat depth was still a problem. So, on a trip to the big-box office store, I happened to find a chair that felt comfortable. It was even cheaper on their web site, so I went for it. After a few days to let the factory-fresh chemical smell dissipate, I moved it into my office. So far, it has been comfortable, and I'm learning to sit with my back straight again.

The old chair on the left has a much larger seat. The armrests have been removed.

Price for new chair online: $99

Part 2: The Monitor

When I purchased my new 24" flat panel monitor, I needed a new arrangement. My old monitor had an adjustable height stand, but the new one did not. Even worse, the new one wobbles when I hammer on the keyboard. Time to mount to something more stable!

The new monitor with the provided stand

Obviously the larger monitor has a potential to make the office more comfortable, as I can place it a bit further from me and still see well. This one jumped out at me when I was looking for 22" monitors, and I was excited to get it since it has the same vertical size as the 19" 4:3 monitor that it was replacing. This one is very inexpensive for a 24" monitor, and mine has been performing well and has no dead pixels. Check it out here.

I've had great luck with monoprice.com for mounts, cables, and other things that seems to have outrageous markups elsewhere. I selected one that had 3-way adjustable arms, and should be installing it soon. My hope is that the mutli-part swinging arm will let me adjust the monitor to the optimal distance from me. Given that my desk is 29" deep, there is a minimum distance between myself and the wall.

Monitor mounted on the swing arm assembly

Price for monitor wall mount: under $30.

I'll post more details and pictures of the mount installation soon.

Part 3: The Desk

Knowing the right height for everything else, it's time for the desk. My work desk is 29.375", while my home desk is 28.5". Neither one seem right for my chair height – I'd prefer the desk be a few inches shorter – somewhere closer to 26" or 27".

Desks are commonly available between 28" and 30", so I'm somewhat out of luck there. I looked at adjustable desks and tables, but they are generally over $1000, most likely because big companies buy them to avoid work strain lawsuits. Cheaper alternatives such as adjustable height folding tables get awful reviews about slamming down to the lowest height setting – hardly desirable given that I will use this for my daily work and may put things such as computer peripherals and books on the table.

My plan is to take the dremel to my table and remove 2" of the legs. If successful, that will give me a 26.5" height. I'm not very worried about the table, as it's a 72"w x 29"d x 28.5"h folding table and hardly an heirloom. However, if I can fix it for just a few hours of my time, I won't have to shell out a lot of money for a desk I only like a little.

The table leg - lower part is straight and can be shortened

Expected price to modify desk: $0

Conclusion

With just a few hours of my time and less than $130, I upgraded my home office to be much more comfortable.

More posts coming soon with details of the monitor mount and the table leg modifications.

Update:
Monitor Mount
Table Modification

Twitter Updates

On ongoing project of mine is finding a way to share information.  In addition to this blog, I have an InfoBarrel account and a Twitter account.  Check them out here:
http://twitter.com/PrjJourneyman

http://www.infobarrel.com/Users/projectjourneyman

I plan to put more of the how-to instructions on InfoBarrel and the details of how I performed a project here, but I will cross-link to make sure readers can find both posts.

Mounting a Glass Cable Shelf for a Projector

It took me several years to get around to mounting my projector properly, because I wanted to make it perfect. Also, I was hesitant to go into the attic to drop the mount from the ceiling. I went from using a TV as a stand (it's hilarious to see people puzzle out why the couch was facing *away* from the TV) to using a cheap shelf as a stand. The problem was that the projector needed to be higher, and I wanted to free up the space below for storing other things.

Before - the projector sat on a cheap standing shelf

I planned to drop a mount (professional or home-made) from the ceiling for years but procrastinated because it would be a lot of work and I wasn't even sure there was structural support at the top of the arch.

By the way, there's a lot of support over at http://www.avsforum.com for choosing and setting up projectors, as well as selecting or even building your own mounts. Search around there.

I also don't like the look of L-bracket shelves. They look cheap. I was frustrated at the lack of good options, but a co-worker finally convinced me to look into a suspended shelf, and that's exactly what I needed. That also provided the push to actually start this project, which is coincidentally the most important part.

Cost was a factor, but finding a suspended shelf deep enough for the projector was the biggest hurdle. I finally figured it out – buy the cables and the shelf separately. There are lots of options for "cable shelf brackets" but I've ordered from here before (and this was one of the cheapest options) http://www.stacksandstacks.com/cable-shelf-brackets.

So, to get this going I needed measurements:

• Width of the projector, and of the opening the shelf was going into
• Depth of the projector, including space for cables
• Weight of the projector (minimal – under 8lbs)
• Optimal height for the projector

I found that I needed about 15" of depth to give room for the cables, which fit perfectly within the 16" maximum depth of the shelf kit. You can go any width, so I went with 22" to leave room for the projector between the cables, and a few inches on the sides. I put the height exactly where I would have put the mount from the ceiling, so that the top of the image is near the ceiling and the projector pointed straight ahead without an angle adjustment.

The expensive part was the glass. You could do wood with the kit but I like the look of glass. I needed something deeper than most pre-made glass shelves, so I got this and got a custom glass piece cut. That came out just over $50 for the 15" by 22" cut since I got 1/2" glass. I suggest calling them first and getting quotes (and maybe even seeing if they sell the cable kit too). I think the spacers provided with the cable package would make 3/8" glass fit snugly in the brackets.

If you found a different kit that handled 3/16", you'd find places online that would ship the glass. With the 3/8" and 1/2" sizes the weight makes the shipping cost prohibitive and you are best off buying local. I researched the load that each thickness could carry with the width of the support cables, and all of them could handle well over the weight of the projector.

Installation was pretty simple with a drill and screwdriver (plus pencil and measuring tape of course).

The freshly installed glass shelf

And here's the shelf with the projector (it looks cleaner than it should, since the cables and entertainment center aren't in there yet).

The initial placement - success!

BTW that's a Panasonic PT-AE700U projector. I bought it because the lens allows zoom from 1.0 to 1.2, which gave me the range needed to make it not be far too large (and spread thin) on the wall 17 feet away. I swear that projectors are designed for people in apartments or tiny homes.

Soon after I installed the shelf, I put an entertainment center to fill the space below which helped with storage quite a bit.  The cables are fairly inconspicuous - I cable tied them together into a single cord that goes over the side and behind the entertainment center below.

This project wasn't really that difficult once I was on the right path.

Quick update - How to Choose a Martial Arts School

I posted an article on InfoBarrel about how to select and evaluate a Martial Arts school. I think I may post random how-to write-ups there and see how that community shares information (there are so many options...).

Check it out here: http://www.infobarrel.com/How_to_Choose_a_Martial_Arts_School_to_Train_At

I've been studying Kung Fu for over three years, so I figure I'd share some of the lessons I learned in seeking out a studio. There are some things you don't know to look for until you've seen them.

Camera Repair – No Success

I learned that one thing I'm not good at is repairing modern electronics as compact and as complicated as a digital camera.

I could probably handle swapping out the LCD for an equivalent one (but beware that each model uses a slightly different one, even in the same line from the same manufacturer). Unfortunately, my most recent two problems involved the lens. The one that went into the pool a few years ago doesn't count as a repair candidate (although see my post on waterproof containers here for how to keep your camera safe).

On many (if not most) digital cameras, the lens automatically extends when you turn it on. If that lens gets jammed, the camera is very unhappy.

First repair attempt

A while ago my Canon SD700IS somehow managed to open itself in the camera case, causing it to jam. When powering it on or off, it would try to open or close the lens, but give up after a few moments stating "Lens error, restart camera". Not too helpful, as restarting repeats the process. I found information online, and thought I could disassemble it and repair the physical problem with the lens. It did NOT go so well. After many steps unwrapping this complicated beast, I realized that I would never get it back together. The lens mechanism was at the very center of the camera, and I couldn't dissasemble it to fix it. So much for that one.

Here's an "after" picture. I must have forgotten a piece when reassembling...

The good news is that I salvaged a few micro-screws to repair a Kodak camera that was falling apart with the panels falling off. I also had some neat parts to inspect and play with – reminds me of when I was a kid and dissasembled things (permanently) to see how they worked. Not very practical though.

This seems familiar...

The next problem camera was with the newest camera, the SD780IS. It's a fantastic camera – compact, very quick to take pictures, very high resolution (photo and video). Everything went great, until a gust of wind blew it over from where it was perched for a timed photo. It landed on the extended lens mechanism... and I got the same lens message. Deja Vu from the first camera. Frustrating, because it won't let you use it as a media server if the lens doesn't work (the camera can connect to a TV, even with an HDMI cable, to show pictures and video).

Knowing the low chances of me successfully fixing it, I sent that camera in to Canon. The online repair form quoted zero dollars to fix it (after I selected what was wrong). Worth a shot even if they really don't think the warranty covers it, as I'd like to have that camera working again. A few days later I got the notice that they received the camera. The revised estimate was $129.88. What? That's almost the price of a new one (curently $168 on Amazon). For an extra $40, I'd prefer having a new one – with new cables, battery, etc. I think they're trying to be clear – they don't want to see these things again after they leave the factory. They're disposable, and it's time to buy a new one.

Well yes, I'm going to buy the same one again. It was a pretty sweet little camera, and performs so much better than my SD1200IS (which is still great, except by comparison). I've been checking around, and I don't ususally find it cheaper than on Amazon.  Check here for the latest price on the SD780IS.

It's sleek, fast, and will soon be mine again.

In summary, while there are thousands of pages with info on fixing various camera models, it might be a better investment to just buy a new one. Cameras are a tool, and tools get damaged when you use them. Better than having a tool in perfect condition because you never used it for the purpose you bought it for, right?