Just fixed the leaking hot water tap on the kitchen mixer. The cold went a few months ago. Bought replacement cartridges at the time (ceramic discs) but the serrated top (for the tap) and the body length weren't the same, so butchered it for parts. Did the same this time.
I love that seapost puller. The only concern I have with that method, (and I've seen photos of similar before - including using a fork lift truck as the jack! 😨 ) is that it risks ripping the BB shell off the bottom of the seat tube. Can't really think of a solution that could universally be applied to frames that have anything other than a round tube though.
Relatively easy to remove as friend built a seatpost removal contraption
That is insane!! (in a good way)
The last thing I fixed was my bike. The pedal somehow came off (don't ask me how because I dont know myself) and I had to fix it while on my journey.
tthewFull Member
I love that seapost puller. The only concern I have with that method, (and I’ve seen photos of similar before – including using a fork lift truck as the jack! 😨 ) is that it risks ripping the BB shell off the bottom of the seat tube.
I know, I was worried it might damage the frame but it worked well. It even came with a sacrificial BB so I wouldn't damage mine. Just had to swap it over before pulling the post out.
Just need to remember to wiggle the new seatpost every month so it doesn't seize again.
Seen loads pulled with one, never heard of a breakage.
Most recent thing was a terracotta pot that has a lot of sentimental value. Originally bought by my mum, God knows how long ago, it doesn’t have a drainage hole so probably for a succulent. Anyway, it had been put outside and Jo my partner had ‘adopted’ it as something to stub her fagends out on and drop them into. At some point, it had been kicked or knocked over and cracked in a number of places, but amazingly stayed intact. I nearly smashed it to use the pieces in the bottom of other pots, but as it had survived years outside and maltreatment, and it had the marks left where Joey had stubbed her cigs out, I couldn’t bear to part with it, and it’s a very pleasing shape. Trouble was, trying to figure out how to stick the cracks in such a way to stabilise it without actually breaking it to glue it. Then I had an idea, I watered down some PVA glue, and sucked some up into a syringe with a long, large-bore needle, and carefully let the glue soak into the cracks, letting it draw along them and allowing it to set, then adding some more. It worked really well.
The separate pieces couldn’t be pushed together, because most were still joined in places, but the adhesive filled in the gaps and once fully dried, made the whole structure really solid, it almost ‘rings’ if tapped with a fingernail. However, there were small gaps where pieces had been lost, so I got some terracotta coloured Milliput epoxy modelling putty, and filled in the spaces, and while it’s not a perfect match, I’m chuffed with how it’s turned out. It’s sitting on my coffee table, and is a handy little bowl for putting all sorts of loose odds and ends in.
Nice job CZ!
Thank you, although I can’t see the photos at the moment. I’ll restart my pad, maybe that’ll work.
Yep, turn it off, turn it back on again!
Again, thank you, I’m really happy how it turned out. I like the shape of it, it’s a perfect size for putting odds and ends in on my table, and it’s got a lot of sentimental value. I used ordinary white PVA glue, but I’ve since discovered that The Works sell clear PVA for craft use, and that might have been better. Not that it really matters, it works perfectly enough to hold it together.
Bit early to call it fixed, but,
Got this very cheap with a rattly engine, drove it til it was properly dead. Replacement (bigger) engine is coming together with a general freshening and some hotter cams, exhaust is in the post back from cerakoting, everything from the rear wheels forward is completely derusted and has a first rustproofing on with a second to come (everywhere you see brown, there was either rust or damaged paint that was going to rust, all gone now and all the sills and other hollows and inaccessible bits have been rust-killed and treated), all new suspension and bushings are waiting to go in (nothing to attach them to yet)... At this point, everything that was broken or suss has been addressed though and I reckon today is the official point where it's coming together more than it's coming apart.
Unfortunately the rear end still needs all the rust and refresh work and my driveway's too slopey to safely have the car up on 4 stands, so that's all got to wait til it's got front wheels again. It's pretty scruffy too, mazda just suck at paint frankly but that'll have to wait til next year probably.
@Northwind - I was going to ask what it is, but you’ve just mentioned Mazda, so obviously an MZ-5/Miata, (as the Americans like to call them). What are you stuffing in the front? First thought is a V6 from a Jag or big Mazda saloon.
Yah an NC mx5- sorry, should have said, they're harder to recognise without their stupid fat hampster face.
I'm doing the boringest swap- this was a 2 litre, but they make these duratec engines in about 5 different capacities so I'm swapping it for a 2.5 litre. Very common in the states where the 2.5's common as dirt, over here it's scarce but I luckily found a really terrible mazda 6 with a crooked MOT and stole its heart. (original plan was that I had an £80 focus 2.0 engine that I was going to swap the vvt heads onto just to get it back on the road for the lowest price, but this is ironically less work and really not much more money)
It ought to start and run, on the stock ECU and map but with the bigger 2.5 injectors left in (though it'll need mapped to work right), all the induction and exhaust and accessories are compatible or nearly so it'll retain the aircon and power steering and be generall like normal, and there's only a few kilos weight difference (though, it does sit a bit higher) The main thing is that in the standard spec it's a really lazy uninspiring company car engine, wouldn't be right, but the cams and binning the balancer and some other tricks will wake it up. Should make low 200s at the wheels but also have a ton more midrange than the 2.0. TBH it's all pretty well trodden, and none of it's actually difficult except man, there's a lot of bits and I don't really remember where they all go.
Tbh it's the derusting that's going to actually matter! These are just really badly made and this one was just on the tipping point of being not worth fixing, there was probably more rust on any square foot of it than on my entire 3-years-older Subaru. Once I'm done it'll be good til the end of petrol or til I spin it into a bus full of nuns. But hey, it was cheap. I think I'm going to bring it in under the £4000 budget inc both cars, though admittedly that was supposed to include a back garden respray, and now it won't.
@Northwind - that ought to be pretty nippy with a 2.5 in the front; I’ve always been fond of the MX-5, Mazda did the right thing taking cues from Lotus and the Elan, a proper little sports car perfectly suited to narrow British roads.
Today, I fixed a little Lava Lamp I bought some years back at the Science Museum. It had got a bit cloudy, and Joey, bless her little fluffy heart, decided to fix it when I was at work - she popped the cap off and emptied it, then filled it up with ordinary tap water. Of course, there’s a bit more science to it than that, and it didn’t work, sadly. I was a bit miffed, but she was only trying to do it as a surprise for me. It’s been sat on a shelf ever since, so I thought it was about time I had a go at sorting it out. After doing some research, it turned out that what I needed was a bottle of distilled/de-ionised water* and some food colouring. I also needed some Epsom salts and some liquid soap. The easy bit is putting the water in with some food colouring in, and several drops of liquid soap.
The tricky bit is getting the salt right - I filled a shot-glass with hot water and kept adding small amounts of the Epsom salts and stirring it until it dissolved, probably about a teaspoon full. Then I put the bottle part back on the base and turned it on. Once it got hot and the wax soft, I used a large plastic straw as a pipette and kept adding the salty water, a bit at a time. At first the wax did nothing, but the more I added, the more the wax bubbled up, until by the time I’d used all of the salty water, it was working really well!
Chuffed to bits, I was hoping it might work, but it’s better than I expected.
*I used that because the water isn’t tainted with any impurities, which tap water might be. Until I put the mag sulph in, obviously, but that’s a crucial part of the process. 😁
Now I know what to do in future if the water goes a bit cloudy again.
My youngest got some overpriced Nike Goalie gloves & Nike football for their birthday, it was literally minutes after its maiden voyage to the park before the football ended up in a bush and got punctured!
I got a syringe and wide gauge needle and squirted a few ml of Stans into the ball at the needle valve, pumped it up , gave it a shake and after a few minutes of bubbling it sealed
Its held up fine for several weeks now, so Im quite pleased
I heard a bit of a clunk under the truck a few drives back so parked it on the drive. It didn't take long to spot the issue. Clue - look just in front of the rear wheel.
Nothing that a bit of duct tape can't fix. Actually I welded a plate in place and then sprayed it blue so I could see any new cracks or movement easily on the test run.
All is fine now.
Not exactly fixed, but yesterday I removed a fluorescent tube in my father-in-law's garage and am going to buy a new one tomorrow. I realised I'd never replaced one before and had no idea how to remove it (this one needed turning 90 degrees and then the pins slip out the bottom). Apparently a good idea to replace the starter motor too so I'll do that at the same time.
Also, had no idea what they were called in Spanish until I asked for one in a shop this lunchtime. (it's a 'barra' if you ever need that info).
I realised I’d never replaced one before and had no idea how to remove it (this one needed turning 90 degrees and then the pins slip out the bottom). Apparently a good idea to replace the starter motor too so I’ll do that at the same time.
Yeah I have done a few of them over the years (growing up in the 70s when they were very popular probably helped). I don't recall ever changing the starter at the same time. Also - I thought modern tubes didn't need starters? Or do they need a different base for them to work?
Ah, didn't know that - there's a space for one so I'm guessing it will need something in there. I'll ask in the local ironmongers tomorrow - they will literally know everything.
My oven. Quite fiddly but working again now 🙂
The house alarm and the cover for the boot area of my car.
The dishwasher. It stopped mid-cycle, googled the error code which identified a lack of incoming water. More googling said that the most likely suspect was the solenoid valve that controls the incoming water.
A bit of dismantling later, I had the valve disconnected from the internal electrics - it's one of those where the solenoid is integrated into the water supply pipe. I knocked together a mains test cable from the box of useful electrical bits in the garage, which confirmed the solenoid was knackered.
For bonus satisfaction points I found a local independent parts guy who had a replacement in stock at a good price, he even delivered it for free the same day.
Air con pipe in my Alfa. The crimping around the rubber pipe, where it connects to the aluminium solid pipe, was showing signs of splitting but there was no evidence of leaking (unlike another one I had to replace recently, at huge cost).
I made up a clamping block to reinforce the crimping, thus:
Tow bar wirinng on the T4 camper. What a pain. Can't even feel the bilb release tabs let alone see them. Crappy chocolate blocks every where. Done now.
Laid a carpet this morning.
Rebuilt two kitchen cabinets Weds. All reinforeced with solid wood. Good job I have a circular saw.
Roland UA25 sound card with a faulty USB socket
Our Renault Scenic handbrake switch (contact cleaner) and the heater blower fan (replaced resistor pack).
Still to fix are the rear windows (I think the motors are blown) and the poor radio reception
Stripped the rust and paint off my XC90 subframe in preparation for zinc coating then new bushes.
[url= https://i.ibb.co/w0429Wn/IMG-5622.jp g" target="_blank">https://i.ibb.co/w0429Wn/IMG-5622.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= https://imgbb.com/ ]upload[/url]
Really satisfying home fix today. Mrs Scape stood on the floor by the kitchen door and said it felt spongey. Lifted the lino, sorry, "bespoke vinyl floorcovering" and found a layer of ply that was clearly flaky, then under that the chipboard floorboard had blown and disintegrated.
Happy few minutes lifting it all away, dreading to discover some sort of leak, but no, it looked like it was just from wet boots, dogs and a bit of rain over the sill.
A couple of leftover fence palings, a layer of hardboard, then a piece of ply cut from a figure 11 target board and all was fixed. I even got to repurpose a leftover box of cable clips as I couldn't find any appropriate nails to tack down the hardboard.
Mrs Scape takes the piss because I hoard lumps of leftover timber but it really paid off today!
This week I repaired both the kids walking boots which have fallen appart due to 10 days of soaking scout camp in the uk and several rocky walks out here in the Picos. Not only that, I repaired my own keen sandals which brok (TBF these are about 12 yrs old) And I had to go into a Spanish diy place and get the right adhesive and whittle a stick for adhesive application. All holding up so far.
Also – I thought modern tubes didn’t need starters? Or do they need a different base for them to work?
If you’re replacing a regular fluorescent tube with an LED tube, which is what you really ought to be doing, then you replace the old starter with a dummy, otherwise the light won’t work, it has to have something there to make sure the circuit is complete.
I’ve had an LED tube in my kitchen overhead fitting for a few years, although I’ve got a series of spotlights and under-cabinet lights that I use, if I do need it, the fact that it comes on instantly without that irritating ‘bink, bink, bink…’ and the light is a clean white without that ghastly greenish tinge. Plus there’s no starter to fail causing the light to start flickering and flashing on and off.
I didn’t have a photo of the little lava lamp when I posted about it, so here it is lava-ing happily away 😁
my audi aircon has never worked, but the heaters not much good either.
One of the air flaps packed up, so couldnt get cool air in the car. Theres 5 of these motor/flaps, one is impossible to get at. It wasnt that one though, so the glove box came out, and i took the motor off, and took it apart. You have to hold a plastic clip open with one hand, open the next clip with the other hand, while holding it and opening the next clip with another hand.
the gear was stuck but freed easily. The motor worked, the pot resistance was good, it was put back together and didnt work again
i stripped it right down,sprayed all the plastic gear with silicon oil and reassembled it. The gear was sticking in one place, and i couldnt see why I triple checked everything, sprayed it some more and put it back together and back in the car and reset the values and tested it with the software.
Its still making some clicking noises, but the car is a lot cooler,and hopefully wont go wrong again, fingers crossed. If it does i shall disconnect it and keep the flap open
My brand new warranty replacement paddleboard. Walking it through a gate, misjudged it and tapped some barbed wire with the tail. 😭
Patch on but it's spoiled the new look for sure.
My mini lathe. The white plastic things in the foreground are the high speed / low speed gears. I stripped a couple of teeth off one. To fix it you need to completely dismantle the lathe to remove the headstock, press out the spindle, press out the layshaft and reverse. I don't have a press so I bought 2 pieces of steel plate and used 12mm studding to make a press. A bearing puller and new Thor aluminium / nylon faced 2lb hammer completed the job.
Along the way I found out just how badly the lathe had been assembled.
The white plastic bits have been replaced with steel ones, all the bearings replaced with brand name ones (including angular contact bearings for the spindle, top tip, check which way round they go before fitting them to avoid having to do the job twice). If something breaks now it's likely to be the motor pulley or belt, they're much easier to replace.
Replaced the wheels on a Samsonite suitcase, the wheels were ok except that the rubber bit on the outside had fallen off one of them.
Found some new ones on Amazon which were a bit too large, so just filed the rubber down, taking 2mm off the diameter.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53132499620_ef834c4220_w.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53132499620_ef834c4220_w.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2oX8X2E ]Samsonite suitcase wheels[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
Does refurbishing my troll count? I have been fitting new hir to the bald ones and making them new clothes
Fixed a mailbox for a neighbour and got a feel good vibe out of all proportion to the scale of the job.
We live on a remote bridleway out in the cuds with just 3 houses, the nearest a couple of hundred metres from me. The elderly lady who lives there lost her husband last year. She has no family, few friends and doesn't drive. We keep an eye out for her and help where we can.
She asked me to take a look at the wooden homemade box as it was starting to come apart. Her old fella had made it and she didn't want to replace it as it reminded her so much of him. It was clear it had real sentimental value. The steel mesh bottom was falling out, the lid was rotten, hinges rusted up and the wood was split in several places. Only took me an hour or so to fix and a couple more for the varnish on a new lid to dry and some wood glue to go off.
She was absolutely made up and a little tearful when I dropped it off. I thought I was in an episode of the Repair Shop! Properly chuffed to have made someone's day with such a simple thing.
;__ez.queue.addFile('/porpoiseant/jellyfish.js', '/porpoiseant/jellyfish.js?a=a&cb=5&shcb=34', false, [], true, false, false, false);__ez.queue.addFile('/tardisrocinante/vitals.js', '/tardisrocinante/vitals.js?gcb=5&cb=3', false, ['/detroitchicago/minneapolis.js'], true, false, true, false);__ez.queue.addFile('/beardeddragon/drake.js', '/beardeddragon/drake.js?gcb=5&cb=4', false, [], true, false, true, false);)
;__ez.queue.addFile('/porpoiseant/jellyfish.js', '/porpoiseant/jellyfish.js?a=a&cb=5&shcb=34', false, [], true, false, false, false);__ez.queue.addFile('/tardisrocinante/vitals.js', '/tardisrocinante/vitals.js?gcb=5&cb=3', false, ['/detroitchicago/minneapolis.js'], true, false, true, false);__ez.queue.addFile('/beardeddragon/drake.js', '/beardeddragon/drake.js?gcb=5&cb=4', false, [], true, false, true, false);)
Melted the handle on my Wusthof chef’s nice. Filed off the melted bit and then smoothed it with some wet and dry.
A nice one at work today.
Rayburn Heatmaster range cooker. I had changed the consumer unit, when turned back on, the range was dead. Rang up the Technical Helpline, no idea was their response, probably a PCB failure. Rang up the chap who services it, he had no idea too, but said take the display pcb off to check the connection on the back. Took it off, all was good, then notice a CR2032 battery on the PCB. Hmm, I’ve had similar before where the back up battery is dead, and the item won't work. Changed the battery, and all working again. Very relieved with that, as the householder was looking at me as the one who broke her range cooker.
The key from one of the works vans. The switches that lock and unlock it had come apart and we thought a £300 bill was due. Fortunately all the pieces of the microswitch assembly were still within the key body. Some delicate tweezer work re-assembled both switches. The the caps of 4 presta valves were trimmed to provide new plipper buttons taped over the microswitches. A new battery and the key functioned almost like new.
Our inflatable kayak.
It's only been out 10 times in 4years (COVID+ 3 year old+ pregnant wife)
Found leak one on a seam, patched it thinking it would not hold.
Deflated the next day.
This evening it's been quiet enough to listen for leaks.
Found a second big fat hole in an easy to patch place.
Patch glued on, hopefully it will stay inflated tomorrow 😊
Our outdoor table got smashed when the verandah roof fell on it. We put it to one side and we’re getting a new one made. The timber for the new one will need a bit longer to dry so I thought I would take a look and see what was needed to repair it. Turned out to be really simple. The only part that couldn’t just be glued was a corner ‘wedge.’ So this afternoon I remade that and put it back together. Rushed a bit when fitting it and didn’t pre-drill the first screw which caused a slight split, but it should be ok.
Fair enough 😆
The plumbers have put all the stormwater pipes underneath the ‘lawn’ but we’re not really lawn people so it doesn’t really look any different!
