My STM8 LED clock project is also hosted here on HaD.io  My timer was also updated with the latest features from the clock project.  i.e. all the latest goodies such as NCO tolerance trimming, Daylight saving time and as part of the deal: Date, day of week, leap year.  It would be interesting to see how temperature affects the accuracy clock on the timer as it is next to a window that leaks cold air and heated by a baseboard heater with a not so accurate bang-bang thermostat.  Previously the timer was trimmed to about +/-0.6sec/day just by playing with the 16-bit divider.

I had to repair my very old Weller WESD51 soldering iron.  Let's say I am not impressed at the overall build quality.   It did last a very long time, but obviously not long enough for me.  :P

They used a trimpot for the knob and a few corners were cut in this model and making it unreliable. More details on my blog.

I replaced it with a cheap chinese pot -  I got a bag of 5 for less than $1.  It may not be the greatest quality, but at least it has some metal parts in the bushing and shaft.

A bit of improvised molten hot glue casting, I modified the existing knob for the new pot.