The Widlar-izer!

[Smokey]

"How do you Widlarize something? You take it over to the anvil part of the vice and you beat on it with a hammer, until it is all crunched down to tiny little pieces, so small that you don't even have to sweep it off the floor.  It sure makes you feel better.  And you know that that component will never vex you again."  ~ Bob Pease

Backstory.......
So I'm walking through Harbor Freight when I come across this..... Marked as a "2lb Engineers Hammer"
http://www.harborfreight.com/2-lb-engineers-hammer-69226.html


I think to myself.... When I think electrical engineer and hammer, one name comes to mind.... Bob Widlar!
After a bit of work, The Widlar-izer is born.  Behold it in all of it's glory.  Destined to hang on the wall next to my desk at the office, waiting patiently for the chance to destroy some uncooperative circuitry!



Next chance I get I'm going to pick up some old vacuum tubes and set The Widlar-izer lose.... just for free_electron!

[SeanB]

You need the matching anvil as well, a piece of old rail track works well there, I have an old rail shoe for that though.

[Smokey]

  That was in my garage and I couldn't wait to smash something.  I promise to use the anvil part of the vice at work when The Widlar-izer gets to it's new home.  I'll make sure to bash smaller pieces too.

[jancumps]

What did you Widlarize?

[free_electron]

You are not doing it right. The pieces are still too large...

[Smokey]

You are not doing it right. The pieces are still too large...

I know   It was my first try and I had no anvil.  Plus a picture of dust next to a hammer doesn't look as cool. 
On the other hand it would take a serious IC surgeon to get those chips back on their feet.

[Dongulus]

My avatar approves of this post.

[Smokey]

It's new home


(That partially widlar-ized board was some random board from the junk box.  Not even sure what it used to do.  But I do know what it's not going to do anymore.... Anything!)

On a side note:  It's actually really hard to get an IC smashed down to really small pieces.  They tend to go flying all over the place, so it's more of a process-
1) shield your eyes,
2) whack with hammer - chip either does nothing or explodes,
3) go collect all the pieces (that you can find),
4) repeat till desired piece size is achieved or you can't find any more pieces.

[Dave]

How will you Widlarize your Widlarizer if it falls off that shelf and smashes your computer screen? Bigger Widlarizer?

[SeanB]

You need a can to place the target in, then try not to hit the can.........

[G7PSK]

This is what you need to reduce your electronics to the right state.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=DxsXpU6HXYI#t=27

 

[free_electron]

This is what you need to reduce your electronics to the right state.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=DxsXpU6HXYI#t=27

 

pound it into submission.

this somehow reminds me of the starwars scene where they recycle robots. there's one of those battery robot upside down and they are branding his feet.

[Smokey]

HAH!  Looks like someone borrowed my idea!

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:734394

"The Widlarizer Hammer by plusalphaDesigns is licensed under the Attribution - Non-Commercial - Share Alike license. "

I don't see them giving me credit anywhere... Can I get all angry on the internet since it's pretty clearly a derivative work from my thing?

[lwatts666]

Reminds me of a manager who had a HUGE stud mount diode - the type with a long braided cable and lug attached. It hung from a hook beside his desk.

He called it 'The Rectifier'. Holding it by the braid, it was swung at uncooperative  hardware, the desk of sleeping engineers, or anything else that needed some 'help'.

Many a problem was quickly rectified under the shadow 'The Rectifier'.

[albert22]

Looks very similar to my "fine-tuning/Persuader" tool. 

[Halcyon]

Now with 800% more Widlar!

[Gribo]

This, along with my programmer's ax are my favorite tools.

[SeanB]

Reminds me I have to fix mine, the handle broke..............

Luckily a nice new meranti handle was $2, just have to do the work to fit it perfectly, and then make some new wedges to expand it properly and oil the handle nicely.

[nctnico]

Smashing stuff for just smashing stuff is cave-men behaviour!

[rrinker]

 Friend of mine used to work for a computer game company, as such they had pre-production and production versions of every video card and game system known to man. When tasked with cleaning the place out, he made sure to smash everything with a hammer before tossing it in the dumpster to prevent dumpster divers. Then he also too shots at the contents with his paintball guns. He did have a few of those old ATI video cards that were popular in servers about 15 years ago, so I asked him for one, and he sent me one. On the outside of the box, he drew a smiley face and a hammer. When I opened the box, there on top was one of said video cards, smashed with a hammer. Hiding underneath it was another one in perfect condition, but it wasn't obvious at first. HIWAFH indeed.

[calexanian]

Smashing stuff for just smashing stuff is cave-men behaviour!

Widlar Ization is not simply smashing stuff for the sake of smashing stuff. It actually had a few purposes. First to get rid of chips that were faulty to not get back into the system. Secondly it is to create a point of no return when you know fiddiling with it anymore is a waste of time and keep you from throwing more time at a lost cause.

[Smokey]

Geeze Dave...  You call that a Widlar-izer??   That's not a Widlar-izer...... THIS is a Widlar-izer!!!

I thought everything was bigger in Australia!?!?!?

[TheSteve]

They have big knives, but it seems small hammers.

[Cyberdragon]

Uh oh, Photon might say you violated the copyright of his "'ammer"

[Smokey]

Cool.  One step closer on the six degrees of AVE separation game.