fixed everything in our house whenever it broke down so she never had to call in a handyman.
When Bobbie hired me on during summer breaks in high school, all of her departments passed me around and I would do all the minor fixes that Vernon hadn't gotten to yet. But Fran and Steve from the stables wound up winning me in some sort of silent lottery. I keep everything in the stables running in tip top shape for them, freeing up Vernon for more pressing repairs around the property.
I fell in love with horses because of my exposure to them, and Steve says I am a natural and they use me as overflow when they need someone to act as a trail guide for tourists who came to ride in the mountains when they overbook. That's the job they gave Itsy too, mounted guide.
She took to riding like a fish to water, she has this permanent smile when she is riding, and her confidence is boosted tenfold. She seems to be able to interact with people so much better when she is on a horse like she pulls her strength from feeling so sure of herself when she is in the saddle.
It took Bobbie and Blake only a few minutes speaking with her before they nodded to each other and offered her the job. Somehow they knew what my girl needed and I think part of it may be that they wanted to keep us together since we seemed to work so well as a team every time they saw us together.
I smiled at the memories and looked at the mixer and grinned at my girl and pressed the big green on button as I shrugged. There was the humming of power and the oversize mixing blades in the giant stainless steel mixing bowl that came almost to my waist just sat there mocking us, doing nothing.
I signed, “It seems to be broken.”
She giggled and asked sarcastically, “You think? Good thing they have you to tell them that Captain Obvious.” She scrunched up her nose and stuck her tongue out at me.
I chuffed at her playfulness as I hit the red stop button and made an imperious shooing motion to her. She moved aside and I removed the upper cover to look at the drive belt. It was intact. I pulled it with my hand and just barely got the clutch drive pulley turning and the blade moved. It wasn't seized, so there wasn't any problem with the belt mechanism at that point. So that left the drive system, the motor, or the electronics on the ancient mixer.
These professional Kok Stjarna mixers were revolutionary for their time, the first variable speed industrial mixers that didn't require you to move the belt from different sets of stacked pulleys to adjust the speed. They had an odd hybrid combination of a pseudo transmission and variable resistance motor. That, unfortunately, meant that they were extremely complex compared to the simplicity of the manual belt systems which were akin to the drive system on a drill press.
Over the years, this type of setup was replaced with direct drive variable resistance motors, eliminating the need for a lot of the electronics and that pseudo transmission. That also had the favorable result of lowering the price and maintenance costs on the units, making them far more cost effective for bakeries and restaurants.
I popped the plug from the receptacle after I replaced the belt cover. I wiggled my eyebrows at my girl, she just grinned back, fascinated to watch me. With the power unplugged I removed another cover at the motor. I traced the motor controller cabling from the power switch and to the electronics package then leaned in to smell.
I know that sounds silly, but with electronics, you can sometimes suss out a problem area by the smell of something overheating or even a sometimes subtle burning smell indicating a problem. I got nothing. So I grabbed a mixing spoon off a nearby stainless steel counter and used the handle to jam into the motor gear and pry.
It slowly started to move just a smidgen, so the motor turned, though that didn't eliminate the possibility of the motor brushes having contact
When Bobbie hired me on during summer breaks in high school, all of her departments passed me around and I would do all the minor fixes that Vernon hadn't gotten to yet. But Fran and Steve from the stables wound up winning me in some sort of silent lottery. I keep everything in the stables running in tip top shape for them, freeing up Vernon for more pressing repairs around the property.
I fell in love with horses because of my exposure to them, and Steve says I am a natural and they use me as overflow when they need someone to act as a trail guide for tourists who came to ride in the mountains when they overbook. That's the job they gave Itsy too, mounted guide.
She took to riding like a fish to water, she has this permanent smile when she is riding, and her confidence is boosted tenfold. She seems to be able to interact with people so much better when she is on a horse like she pulls her strength from feeling so sure of herself when she is in the saddle.
It took Bobbie and Blake only a few minutes speaking with her before they nodded to each other and offered her the job. Somehow they knew what my girl needed and I think part of it may be that they wanted to keep us together since we seemed to work so well as a team every time they saw us together.
I smiled at the memories and looked at the mixer and grinned at my girl and pressed the big green on button as I shrugged. There was the humming of power and the oversize mixing blades in the giant stainless steel mixing bowl that came almost to my waist just sat there mocking us, doing nothing.
I signed, “It seems to be broken.”
She giggled and asked sarcastically, “You think? Good thing they have you to tell them that Captain Obvious.” She scrunched up her nose and stuck her tongue out at me.
I chuffed at her playfulness as I hit the red stop button and made an imperious shooing motion to her. She moved aside and I removed the upper cover to look at the drive belt. It was intact. I pulled it with my hand and just barely got the clutch drive pulley turning and the blade moved. It wasn't seized, so there wasn't any problem with the belt mechanism at that point. So that left the drive system, the motor, or the electronics on the ancient mixer.
These professional Kok Stjarna mixers were revolutionary for their time, the first variable speed industrial mixers that didn't require you to move the belt from different sets of stacked pulleys to adjust the speed. They had an odd hybrid combination of a pseudo transmission and variable resistance motor. That, unfortunately, meant that they were extremely complex compared to the simplicity of the manual belt systems which were akin to the drive system on a drill press.
Over the years, this type of setup was replaced with direct drive variable resistance motors, eliminating the need for a lot of the electronics and that pseudo transmission. That also had the favorable result of lowering the price and maintenance costs on the units, making them far more cost effective for bakeries and restaurants.
I popped the plug from the receptacle after I replaced the belt cover. I wiggled my eyebrows at my girl, she just grinned back, fascinated to watch me. With the power unplugged I removed another cover at the motor. I traced the motor controller cabling from the power switch and to the electronics package then leaned in to smell.
I know that sounds silly, but with electronics, you can sometimes suss out a problem area by the smell of something overheating or even a sometimes subtle burning smell indicating a problem. I got nothing. So I grabbed a mixing spoon off a nearby stainless steel counter and used the handle to jam into the motor gear and pry.
It slowly started to move just a smidgen, so the motor turned, though that didn't eliminate the possibility of the motor brushes having contact
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