On this beautiful, sun-shiney spring day a kind-eyed lady came in with an unusual request.

“I make honey,” she informed me.  “Well, I guess technically the bees make the honey.  Anyway, I need a small fan that I can put into a honey box I made from an old meat smoking box that I have at home.  Someone told me a computer fan would be perfect.  Do you have any?”

“Indeed I do!” I answered as I popped out of my seat and grabbed my tub of used PC desktop fans and heat sinks.  I pulled out a 90mm one and handed it to her.  “That small enough?”

“It’s perfect,” she responded with a smile as she analyzed the wiring.  A look of puzzlement came across her face as she noticed the 3-pin motherboard header connection.  “But how would I plug it in?”

“Hmm…” I pondered.  “Well, I can sell you a computer with a motherboard into which you can plug that fan, and you can keep it beside your honey box…or, we can splice it up with one of the loose power adapters I have kicking around here.  One is bound to work.”

“That second option sounds more ideal,” she said with a smile.  “How much will it run.  I don’t want to break the bank.”

“I got the fan out of a recycled desktop computer, and the power adapter is from a dead router, so I tell you what:  I’ll do you $10 for the whole thing.”

“That’s wonderful!”

“Fabulous!  I’ll take your info and call you when it’s ready.”

So I noted her digits and went hunting for the right power adapter.

Now, when splicing together a fan like this, you want to check the labels for the voltage and amperage ratings.  Ideally you want to match them exactly.

As luck would have it, a nearly perfect one was sitting right on top of the pile.  Rated for 12 volts, 1 amp.  That’s far more amperage than we need, but higher amps in a rig-up like this is not going to cause any harm.

With all the necessary parts acquired, it was now time for ye old strip-and-splice!

Alas, work has not been plentiful as of late, which is unpleasant in many ways.  However it does give me the time to go that extra mile.  Usually for only $10, what you’d get from a tech is a simple splice, done by twisting the cables around each other, then covering it up with electrical tape.

But with things being as slow as they are, I decided to take the extra time to break out the soldering gear and do it proper.

So with my soldering iron, a set of helping hands, a touch of Kolophonium-based flux and a couple dabs of solder, I soldered the cables together good and strong.

“Nothing’s too good for a sweet, sweet honey box,” I figured.

Then I wrapped the exposed wires with some electrical tape and plugged it in for it’s final test.

And we have fan spin!

Ain’t electronics grand?

Thanks bunches for reading.