[Harp-L] Seydel rotary tuning tool sucked into vacuum cleaner

[David Payne <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've got one of those Seydel rotary tuning tools that I've been using to tune for years. It's basically a hand-held device that you plug into the wall, which is awesome. I hate cordless tools, because they are such a pain in the rear, batteries going dead on me and whatnot. 
But, after all these years of dutiful service, an one errant, fatal sweep of a vacuum cleaner, the wires got sucked up into the vacuum and tore the wire out of its DC power supply (the thing at the other end that plugs in). 
They cost $70 and this one had been a faithful tool, I'd gotten probably more than a thousand hours of use out of it... So I took apart the power supply and tried to solder it back onto the circuit board, but it wouldn't work. I looked for the short on the board and could not find it. 

The tool itself, minus its power supply, is bascially a motor and a switch. Finally, I realized I had this Radio Shack 12-volt power supply, smaller than the big ones they had back in the 1970s and 80s, but the kind that you put on a desk and run radios from. I just stripped the end of the wires and put them in the spring-clip terminals on the back. 

At first, the tuning tool ran and would not turn off, unless i shut off power to it. Then I had the bright idea of reversing polarity. Works like a charm now. 
 
David Payne
www.elkriverharmonicas.com
www.hetrickharmonica.com