What was the last thing you repaired?

I got all my partner’s window hinges cleaned and lubed up, and stuck new handles on them all.
She thought they were broken as a few couldn’t open for 5+ years… just needed a bit of TLC!

DrP

a puncture!

Am about to fix my lawnmower. On the last mow of the season (hopefully) the front wheel fell off. Looked like it had sheared the metal rod, but I tried to remove the other side to check and it looks the same. Think it just needs two crimp washers (£100). A job for the weekend.

EDIT: Love fixing stuff.

As much as I hate Mr Dyson I do like the fact that you can get all the bits for his Hoovers.
5 years daily use and the motor was grumbling. £250 for a new hoover or £60 for a new motor.
10 minute swap over and good to go.

Fixed a few things lately,

Broken window handle, the metal insert inside had broken off, had a spare in the garage which needed to be cut down but nice easy fix and job done.

Nan-in-laws petrol lawn mower, turns out it had been stood still for a while, needed the petrol tank draining and flushing, new spark plug, tank cleaned out and its like new.

BBQ – we have a decent sized bowl which then had wooden tray area to the side, BBQ is about 10 years old so wood had seen better days, got some treated 6×1 for about a tenner used the old pieces as a template and its come up well, now neatly stored for winter.

Sons favourite monster truck – top came off and wouldnt click in, bit of glue and bobs your mothers brother.

Dyson vacuum, dyson wanted £80 for a call out charge as its quite old, stripped it down myself found the part online which was £5 and we now have a fully working vacuum.

Its always good to have a go at fixing stuff.

Dyson vacuum, dyson wanted £80 for a call out charge as its quite old, stripped it down myself found the part online which was £5 and we now have a fully working vacuum.

Whilst the modern world with its culture of continually changing products, designed to be made cheaply, last only until a “better” version comes out, and to be thrown away rather than repaired has a lot to answer for… it has to be said that the internet has made fixing things so much easier, and in many cases possible.

Need an obscure part for a 10 year old hoover? Probably one on eBay with next day delivery.

Oven flashing an error code at you? Someone on YouTube has probably made a video explaining why and how to fix it.

Very true. A while ago I broke the hinge on our washing machine door. Searched the part number and replaced for a few quid.

My inflatable paddle board. Years of fixing punctured inner tubes came in useful.

The joys of moving house, I’ve done nothing but fix many relatively minor issues since November (aside from assembling Ikea and throwing paint about). Random example, the front door wouldn’t close because the striker plate had come loose; 30 seconds with a screwdriver. I’m coming to the conclusion that the entire place has been bodged to a high standard.

Most recently: replaced the fan in the oven (which was a prick of a job to get at); fixed the lighting in the extractor hood; fixed (there’s a theme here) my mum’s cooker and extractor fan; replaced all the locks at my OH’s daughter’s new place.

I admitted defeat on the tumble dryer and got someone to come look at it, mostly because there’s absolutely no space inside it to work. I’m glad I did, the main bearing had disintegrated, there’s no way I’d have diagnosed and fixed that. £45 all in.

The toilet in my office. Stopped flushing because the diaphram has died – £1 part and a bit of time dismantling and putting back together and all is good again.

Lady across the roads door lock, dismantled and rebuilt with some of my basement hoard of useful junk. Saved her from having to get a handyman in which from some of the bills she has had in the past is no bad thing.

Coffee grinder. This infernal machine was built with no screws and 2 ‘safety’ switches. The top one of which stopped engaging when the lid was fitted. Opening up up the machine involved 3x blind clips on one dial and 4 internal clips on the base. It’s definitly designed to be binned if anything stops working. Once in bypassing the switch was easy.

Now with the safey switch bypassed I have a machine where if I take the top off, empty the coffee beans, remove the top burr, reach right in and turn it on I might get hurt. We like living dangeriously in our household!

Feeling slightly impressed as I managed to fix a whistling toilet cistern (admittedly the fix was to replace the part, but I managed to stop the water/drain the cistern/replace the part all without spilling a drop of water or flooding the house. The fix was very simple but have also checked the pipes and they aren’t leaking either so a decent job at the fix.
Also managed to replace the transformer to the bathroom lights and those are now working – transformer was hidden amongst the roof insulation and was a pain to get at and rewire the new one, I’ve pulled one of the lights attachments out so I’m going to need a longer ladder to get inside the roof space so I can reconnect it all.
Both jobs turned out to be very straightforward, the toilet took me 3 weeks to get round to fixing as I reckoned I could dismantle the existing part and replace a diaphragm – turned out it was properly sealed so not possible. The bathroom lights were about 2 years as I couldn’t locate the transformer (despite lifting and moving the insulation!) – Gas man was in to install a new boiler and whilst he was up there he discovered the transformer, so I was able to get it replaced after he’d left…annoyingly he took his ladder so I can’t get in the loft space easily, but I’ll get that sorted at the weekend.
Plenty stuff is dead simple to do when you get round to doing it…I just need to get stuck in rather than doing all the thinking but none of the doing.

A lawnmower, The dead mans handle was buggering up (its 20+years old) so I removed it and fitted a simple on/off switch.

The conservatory roof.

Used to leak. Had been badly made in the first place (with an undersized roof panel) and was relying on an external rubber seal which had long since failed to do the job it was never really intended to do – a thorough well done and slow hand clap to the original installer.

The roof panel now has the necessary lip formed on it with the might of some outdoor sealant. Bodge-tastic… but dry.

Good news for fans of not having buckets to catch drips indoors.

£10 and two hours.

… it has to be said that the internet has made fixing things so much easier, and in many cases possible.

Yep, I diagnosed a burnt out element in our cooker – ordered and fitted new part within 24 hours.
Wife is slightly annoyed though. I think she wanted a new oven 😆

@BillMC – nice door! How much for double glazing windows??

I think you lot in this thread are going to appreciate this new feature, which I’m intending will be an ongoing series:

https://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/back-from-the-dead-maxle-rescue-and-rebuild/

I discovered that if you have an annoying hissing leaky PCL compressed air line quick release you can unscrew the collar, flip over a little rubber seal, screw the collar up again… good as new. I’d have never have guessed they unscrew – the flats for a spanner are barely perceptible.

Wish I’d known that twenty years ago and countless air-line couplers ago.

Wife is slightly annoyed though. I think she wanted a new oven

Consider it a part-work. You’re 3% of your way to a new oven.

Can’t claim it’s a finished project yet but I’m part way through a complete strip down and repair of a Meddings Driltru pillar drill from about 1965.

Twrch- dunno, I was paid with an elephantine bar tab.

The last thing which I fixed that was the remote control car of my son. I fixed its door with the help of some nuts or fixing glue and also followed some tricks.

kitbashed 2 old hedge cutters into one working one. Very satisfying, even had a little bit of a fire to liven it up.

Not so much fixing but this week has been mostly about rehashing old furniture into a new house. Highlight of that was getting confused while rebuilding an old rackmount unit my brother built about 20 years ago, extending it and widening it for my 3d printer (the printer’s been in it for a while but it was always a bit too small) Turned out half of the old contiboard was imperial, and the shelf unit and ikea cd tower that were giving their lives for the shelves and back extensions were all slightly different metric sizes, talk about a pain in the bum, and the plexiglass door turned out to be the wrong size too. Looks horrendous but it worked out well. Certainly easier than dismantling and rebuilding the 40 year old MFI wardrobes that my dad had apparently assembled with an axe.

Broken main pivot bolt on my wife’s trek remedy. Couldn’t get a part from trek in time for our holiday so found a semi suitable fine pitch bolt at a specialists and added a couple of extra threads with a die. It wasn’t elegant or light weight, but it saved the holiday.
Correct alloy bolt has since been purchased and installed.

I think the last thing I fixed was a leaky kettle my late partner had thrown out. It’s a Morphy Richards, a sort of rounded cone shape with a semi-circular handle, and it has a rather delightful rising and falling whistle. There’s a clear plastic ‘window’ at the back to show the water level, and that had been leaking for some time, so being a rather unsentimental soul, it went out the back to join her old broken sewing machine and other random bits I need to take to the recycling centre. She’d had the kettle for ages, and I really liked it, so a couple of months after I lost her, I thought I’d try to fix it, just because it was something of hers that had a practical purpose, and was an attractive item in its own right.
It was a bugger to dismantle, because I had to undo screws inside the kettle where I couldn’t actually see what I was doing, or really feel, either. Eventually I got it apart and soaked all the internal bits and the level indicator in white vinegar to remove the limescale that had built up. The indicator was basically two bits of plastic bonded together with a flange, and small tubes that went through silicon gaskets into the kettle to allow water into the indicator. The plastic flange around the edge had aged and started to fracture, hence the leaking. I looked online for a spare, but couldn’t find one, so I had an idea and hunted down a tube of modelling glue, the stuff for aircraft kits, and tried that, reason being it works by melting the plastic and welds the joint. I put plenty on, let it set, then put a bit more on, left it for a couple of days, then reassembled it, with clear silicone caulk in the recess and all round the edge, wiped smooth, managed, after a significant amount of profanity, to get the sodding screws back into place, (at least, when I inevitably dropped them, they couldn’t disappear under the fridge, only into the kettle). After letting everything set for a couple of days, I filled it with water and turned it on.
To my absolute delight, it boiled, it whistled properly, and four months on, it hasn’t leaked!
So chuffed, I just wish I’d thought about fixing it while she was still with me, but every time it whistles it reminds me of Joey.
Looks like this, but it’s stainless steel rather than coloured. A bit of a copy of an Alessi kettle.

@countzero
Best one yet

My old MagicShine light was sitting in my box of stuff to fix/do something with with, which badly needed a clear out. The cable had snapped internally by one of the connectors, which made it randomly go off at the slightest bump.

After a bit of searching, I found an extension cable with the proprietary plug on it online. Dismantled and soldered the new cable in whilst recovering from the worst hangover I’ve had in years this afternoon.

Shame, because it was a great day for riding, but at least I made something out of it.

So chuffed, I just wish I’d thought about fixing it while she was still with me, but every time it whistles it reminds me of Joey

Brilliant, CZ. Every time I see you post I think about your loss, and I hope the kettle is helping you to cope.

A puncture here too, although this was on the bike that’s attached to the turbo. How? HOW?????

Heat build up.

again Bravo CZ.great read.

Our dryer yesterday. It’s a fairly small 3kg load one, but just works, and lives in the porch. Made a grinding sound earlier in the week, and upon removing the washing, the drum was loose at the back. Hmm bearing. Opened it up and the axel and bearing had disintegrated. New kit was £8 with £7 for 24h delivery.

Easy to do, but putting the casing back on wa a fiddle as the casing is the structural rigidity, so it was easy to knock the front of the drum off the rollers. Managed to knock a spade connector off which resulted in no heat, so pulled to bits again and checked the connections. All working. Saved buying a new dryer.

I have just disassembled, cleaned and reassembled, with a new flame/overheat sensor, an Eberspacher D4 diesel heater. It was easy to do, the most difficult part was un-mounting it from the underside of the Motorhome where it has been, untouched for 10 years. It would be way easier to do if it could be serviced in-situ, but the mounting is all about saving internal space.

Must admit I skipped over your post CountZero – saw a picture of a kettle, thought “he’s repaired a kettle, well done, I’ve tried in the past and failed”. But having read it properly, it’s a bit dusty in here. Makes you think about the value we place on things, or not, too doesn’t it.

Wednesday morning the tumble dryer was making a horrible whining, screeching noise. The drum wasn’t turning either. A break in the rain I managed to get it out of the utility porch, no room to work in there, and have a look. I was expecting bearings or drive belt, maybe even the motor.

Turns out it was the foam sponge sealing ring around the front of the drum / casing had come unstuck and bunched up at one point. Pulled that debris out and it’s working fine.

It’s a 15 year old AEG Lavatherm that up until now has never missed a beat. I wasn’t looking forward to the expense of replacing it.

This thread proves that the old fashioned repair and mend attitude of old isn’t quite dead. Also the availability of spares open to those that have a mind to do it has allowed me to keep certain things running that others I know would have just bought a new thing and thrown something repairable away.

Just yesterday I had to replace the heating element in the washing machine

I’m looking forwards to replacing my worn front discs on my car. Until yesterday I had a dry garage to work in. Now I have an alfresco garage thanks to Storm Eunice.

A handmade incense burner/box that was badly finished, badly painted, and cracked. It was a shop – second but I made it better than new with a Swiss Champ, acrylic paints, and some Gorilla Glue. Then it became a gift.

Before that was patching the holed sills on the P-mobile. But we don’t talk about that since it failed to pass muster @ MOT 😳