Wtf is a rectifier.

Transcript

Opening it up

Tonight we’re going to see what we can do about this poor heat gun. I’ve already got the external screws out. Either we’re going to take it apart and use the parts to make something cool — or we’re going to fix it.

This thing had a very complex mechanism: hot mode, cold mode, and off mode.

There’s a blue infuser. Let’s be very unintelligent and plug this in and see what we see. Probably a mistake. Nothing there. It was working and then it blew, so I’m looking through the coil to try to spot it. Oh, I think it’s right there — but I don’t actually know. It’s a pretty simple circuit. I know a little bit about electronics but I’m far from an expert, and like I said, this thing is very old.

Finding the dead part

Let’s see if I can pop the motor out. I’m pretty sure the problem is right here — I can see that it’s fried, burned right there. I think it’s probably this little black thing… is that a resistor, a capacitor, one of those things that does something? I’m fairly certain that’s our problem because it is definitely fried.

I think I can probably wire one of those back in, but I couldn’t do it tonight. I was really more just curious than anything. Let me try plugging it in one more time. If I get zapped, at least it’ll be on YouTube. I don’t smell anything. I don’t see anything. I think we’re just fried.

So what is this thing actually

Okay, so I did some research so this wasn’t a total waste of a video. This thing is called a rectifier — that black component I thought was a capacitor. It converts the AC current from my wall to DC current into the motor. It’s what powers the motor and what makes it able to do hot air, cold air, or off.

So that’s definitely the problem. I think I’ll try to get a new one and get it soldered in. Going to put this back together, set it aside, and get back to painting tomorrow — now for real.

So maybe I’ll see if I can track one of those down online, solder it back in, and try to save this thing. That’s all I’ve got for tonight. See you tomorrow when we get back to hopefully really hobbying. This has been a crazy week, but I’ve got to get Infinity stuff done. This weekend is going to be Infinity weekend.