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The charred and galled remains of the old dryer bearing

I have spent a lot of time on art projects over the last few months- which is good. However, I have fallen behind on some home maintenance tasks. So, early yesterday morning I tore the dryer apart. It was oh so satisfying. It had been getting progressively noisier and was making a high-pitched squeal that had become uncomfortably loud. The guys at the appliance parts store convinced me it was the rear bearing (I thought it was the idler pulley). They were, of course, correct and I did buy the bearing replacement kit. It was a pretty easy fix and the dryer is now purring like new again.

Sometimes you really don’t feel like you own something until you take it apart.

I was hoping to finish this project in time to enter it into a local exhibit, but last-minute technical difficulties caused me to miss the deadline. I am not sure why, but the left channel blew out on one of the MP3 boards. I traced it back to a 30-pin surface-mounted headphone amp. There was not enough time to find and replace this part before the delivery deadline.

On a more positive note, I have already started a major redesign of the electrical components. I think that the end result will be a much better project.