Todays Project - What did you do today?

[stevec]

Good job Tom, I could do with 10 hrs of that type of work but at the rate I "peter out" it would take 5 days!
At first I wondered about "Next comes a toothbrush cleaning" but then I read further and understood.

[NevadaBlue]

Today was ugly, but productive. I took the dead mouse out of the AC/heater blower in my truck. Grrr... I had to drive to town and back with that stench going along for the ride on Tuesday. Thank goodness the blower motor was relatively easy to remove. Now to wear out the smell.

[TomG]

Good thing you didn't need the heater.

Try spraying some of that Fabreze air freshener stuff in the AC inlet. That should knock it down a bit.

Tom

[Highpower]

Finished putting together a home made "Foul-Out" unit. (A low voltage reverse-plating power supply.) They quit making them a year or so back, and I wanted to get another one - but waited too long.

   

[TomG]

Hey Willie,

I assume you are using it for bores? What do you use for an electrode? I imagine it must be a wire the length of the barrel but somehow prevented from touching the bore.

Tom

[Mayhem]

Willie - could you not just open the box up and replicate the circuitry? Shouldn't be too difficult.

[Highpower]

Tom,
Yes - using it for bore cleaning. Saves a lot of elbow grease and wear and tear on the bore by not scrubbing it to death with a bore brush. I used to think I was getting my barrels spotlessly clean with conventional methods - that is... until I bought a borescope and saw what was left behind.

The electrode is a length of stainless TIG rod with a couple of o-rings slipped over the rod. The o-rings keep the rod centered in the barrel. On the off chance that the rod accidentally contacts the barrel, there is a warning LED on the unit that signals the short - and you can correct it. The larger the bore, the larger the o-ring (O.D.) you use.

Darren,
There is nothing wrong with the original unit so there is nothing I have to repair/replace. I just wanted another one so I can run two of them at the same time. When I start cleaning after a trip to the range, I always have 4 - 6 "patients" lined up awaiting treatment.

Running two units instead of one will cut my clinic hours in half!

[SnailPowered]

So how in the world does this thing work?

[Mayhem]

Willie, I knew there was nothing wrong with your original unit. I was suggesting that you open the unit you have and copy the board. I have done this with several items where the original is either overpriced or no longer available.

[Highpower]

Darren, sorry - I misunderstood your meaning. Fortunately I didn't have to open up my original unit and reverse engineer anything, because someone has already done that and made the schematic available online. The patent on the "Foul-Out" had run out years ago and sales were slow due to cost, so they dropped it.

Elijah, it basically works as an electro-chemical plating tank. The electrode goes inside the barrel and is attached to one side of a power supply. The bore is filled with a cleaning solution (electrolyte) and the barrel is attached to the other side of the power supply.

The electrical current passing between the two dissolves any lead or copper deposits inside the barrel and transfers them to the electrode (stainless rod) in the center of the bore. When its done you just remove the lead or copper coated rod from the now clean barrel. You don't have to spend hours scrubbing the barrel with a cleaning rod and bore brush.

p.s.
I'm sure you know the guy that designed the circuit for the home made version. It was "UncleNick"!