What was the last thing you repaired?

This week, a bog brush, wifes vanity case and a soffit blown out in the last fierce winds.

@tthew

Actually, put up a picture of the whole thing, I’d like to see it

Would love to but don’t have the wherewithal to post pics
Sorry

Posting pictures is easy.

Thread on posting pictures

Have I really posted an image?

Yay – eternally grateful Kayak
Clock for @tthew

A puncture on my commuter, earlier today.

Tumble Dryer.
Drum stopped turning, with a worrying buzz. Wth the door switch defeated a bit of a spin got it going.

New capacitor for about a tenner. Works a treat.
Also repaired door switch I broke ‘defeating’ it.

Currently fixing Oh’s Astra estate after a comprehensive mot fail.
New anti roll bar drop link, after stripping the front strut for a non existent faulty top mount.

New n/s rear wheel cylinder

New rear shocks

Awaiting flaring tool to replace corroded brake pipes. Should be fun

Have I really posted an image?

Yes you have, and that’s a beauty. Well worth the effort to rescue that! Not sure squirting it with GT85 is in the big boys book of horology, but I reckon that’ll run well for years now.

In the process of replacing a ‘blown’ double glazing panel in a window. Cost of £40 + my labour. Actually quite easy to do.

This home-made Telecaster I finished a few months back had a problem because I’d cut the nut slots on the 2 lower strings a bit too deep. If you’re quick, you can mix a bit of baking powder and superglue and build up the slots before it fizzes and sets on fire.

I did this yesterday, re-filed it and it’s playing (and tuning) just fine now.

Done a couple of repairs this week that pleased me. The washing machine has been throwing a check detergent error and not draining properly for months. I’ve had it apart a few times and cleaned out the easy to reach hoses, but always left one that I couldn’t work out how to remove. Finally bit the bullet and got it off. Sure enough, totally clogged up. Now it’s clear and the machine runs like new again.

I bought an office chair cheap at the start of the pandemic and the recline bit broke after a year and then one of the legs bloke last week. I was all set to take it to the tip when the wife asked if it could be repaired. Turns out the under seat parts of office chairs are pretty standard and I found a place selling the bits. A bit of measuring to check I got the right parts and now it too is as good as new. Ok, I spent £70 on parts to fix a chair that cost less than £100 new, but that’s still better than chucking it in the tip right?

20 year old Mountfield petrol mower wouldn’t start this morning, it normally starts on the third pull. Took out the spark plug and it was thick with carbon and grime so cleaned it off with a wire brush and sand paper, mower started first pull and is now running better than it has for years.

I was particularly pleased as this was the first bit of maintenance I’ve ever done on this mower, and I’ve not taken the spark plugs out of anything for about 30 years 😀

I just fixed a puncture by patching a tube. Hey! I know! nothing significant, but I think it’s the first one I’ve done in about 4 years, as all bikes are tubeless. Except the Rise Pro which turned up with big fat innertubes.

you can mix a bit of baking powder and superglue and build up the slots before it fizzes and sets on fire.

Every day really isn’t a school day any more so I’m super happy to learn that trick.  Just hope I remember it next time I need it

The big 12 ton press tools that make volvo A-pillars. Absolute **** of a job too.

Every day really isn’t a school day any more so I’m super happy to learn that trick. Just hope I remember it next time I need it

Be careful not to breathe the fumes! 💀💀💀

Garden trug with a broken handle repaired with an ancient piece of rope.

just replaced a broken spring in the wifes arm chair.

Our oven gloves, which are nowt special, were cracking on the palms where they get hot and the insulation was coming out and getting stuck to anything you touched with them. I had some bits of thick canvas spare, so decided to patch them. Frankly, I regret this now, since I used cotton thread so it doesn’t melt, and it was a nightmare to get the sewing machine set up with this and a big enough needle to get through the canvas, then in the end I only hemmed one edge on the machine and had to hand sew round the outside because it was so thick, which took forever. Still, it’s done now.

Fixed a leak on the boiler last week too – dripping out of the hot water pressure differential switch. £3 diaphragm kit an hour carefully taking it apart, cleaning the corrosion and re-assembling with new o-rings and silicone grease, and it’s sorted.

In the process of replacing a ‘blown’ double glazing panel in a window. Cost of £40 + my labour. Actually quite easy to do.

Tell me more – I have one to replace that has cracked over winter

Oh, I need to do that with my trug…..

Car.

Threw a wobble a few weeks ago. Didn’t start first time and was running rough. Had to drive back from Wales, and had no power the way back. Not until I was home did it throw the engine MIL. Popped in the ODBC II reader, crank sensor failure. Symptom’s seemed right. Onto ebay and found a set of two (crank and cam) sensors, brand new in box Nissan ones for £45. Only difficulty was removing the crank sensor – suction alone, and position took an hour of wriggling whilst on my back, hand up between drive shafts. Both ‘old parts’ had serial numbers ending 0 and 1. New parts were 3 and 4. Hmm.

Replaced 0 with 3 and 1 with 4. Thinks about it, and my car should have had a sensor recall many years ago – never had it, so I’m guessing these two were the revised parts. Cam sensor was stiff to remove, same issue, but it was at the top of the engine and I could grip it properly.

Changed plugs too as it had come home on default settings and they were black. Car started fine but was a bit rough – reader said Cylinder 3 misfire. Ah – had the occasional misfire before on cylinder 3, so ordered a new ignition coil for £25. Fitted that and all tickety boo.

Blooming handy having an ODBCII reader just in case !

Oh, I need to do that with my trug…

Only took me about a year and a half. It was mainly still useful with one handle.
My car mending skills are no way up to yours mind!

Car battery change on the wife’s car. As usual a 5 minute job became nearly an hour as the nut on the clamp holding the battery in had stripped and was just spinning freely. Ended up having to take the whole air filter box and hoses out to then remove the battery tray, cut free the clamp and replace with some random bolts found in the bottom drawer of my toolbox.
Then a headlamp bulb replacement that is accessed from the wheelarch but even with the wheel turned fully there’s still not enough space to remove the access panel so I had to jack it up enough to drop the wheel out of the way.
2006 Smart Forfour, based on the Mistsubishi Colt so should in theory be fairly standard.

just repaired our teak garden table, the joints on the surround come unstuck after 22 yrs and needed tying together with metal straps screwed across the joints. Decided to sand and oil it as well mmmm linseed 🙂

LED downlighter. When I fitted them, I thought “all integral, no bulb to change if it goes… but it’s supposed to last 15,000 hours so should be fine”. After about 5 years, one went out, supplier no longer trading, units not available. So took it apart and realised there’s nothing to it (the driver module is separate) just 3 LEDs soldered to a board with (failed) heat conducting glue on the back to transmit to the heat sink. Only 3W total. The LEDs were available on eBay at £2.50 for 10, so identify the dead one, solder a new one, new heat conducting glue and it’s all fine.

Saturday night fun fixing punctures. Slightly trickier than a mountain bike tyre.

Last thing I repaired was the annoying issue with my LG smart TV not connecting to WiFi. Back of TV off… clean WiFi module and reseat connector… reassemble… job done! 😎😆

I seem to remember there’s new legislation forcing white goods manufacturers to make spares available, and make fixing them easier without voiding any warranty. So there’s hope yet.

There is, most of the manufacturers are screaming and shouting and whining about it…

My washing machine failed before Xmas. Unfortunately getting a replacement drum assembly was impossible (the weld between the drum and the hub that carries the drivebelt etc failed).

That was only 18 months after the dishwasher controller turned its insides into its outsides.

Apparently a model that has an easily available and cheap controller (€30, about 10 screws and 2 connectors to change it).

Of course, that doesn’t apply if your machines serial number ends with 7 or 9, in which case they were manufactured in a 3rd party facility, and the insides bear no resemblance to any other model in the range, or anyone elses range either and no spare parts are available, anywhere.
(I’m guessing the internals were from a manufacturer who usually only manufactures for their own local market. So i could have found a controller but it’d have taken 8 weeks to be posted and attracted a 500% import tax and cost £100 in shipping.)

So that’s a couple of repair failures.

The deck lights are working now though.

Just completed the repair of all the verges and fascia boards round the roof of our house, 13 lengths, 32 corbels, about 40m of cast iron guttering and Christ knows how many brackets ground, refurbed and painted. Taken 13 months in between other jobs.

Nearest I’ve got to a before and after comparator but before the commander in chief decided she wanted MOAR CORBELS.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Q3zuWssrc27rKFcb8

@stevet1 It’s really easy. Just get a decorators multi-tool and you can prise off the 45 degree angle which hold the glass unit in place. Then measure the glass – LxWxD and thickness of each pane.

Order the unit and when it arrives, cut the old one out by slicing through the neoprene seal and buy some kind of sticky neoprene gasket to refit it. I added a couple of screws and glue to hold the panel in place but that is it.

Repairing/restoring this Georgian bay window panelling.
It’s the second bay I’ve done in the house, having done the first almost exactly a year ago.

Ripped out by the builders.

I can’t believe the brickwork in some of these old houses. It’s more like dry stone walling! Nothing was flat, nothing was square… Ughhh 😂

Lined, panelled and trimmed

This is on the left of the house what I done a year ago after painting.
Looks rad now it’s got curtains etc.

Spent a chunk of time on Saturday fixing the rattly steering on a mobility scooter that my dad was given for free. Turns out they just use a threaded bike headset so no special parts required.
He had his first outing on it to the vintage vehicle rally at Carlisle Airport yesterday and got on pretty well with it 🙂
Next project will probably be acquiring and modifying a wee trailer to carry it as it’s a heavy wee sod to lift into the boot of my car 😆

Repair? Restore?

Pool spent 8 weeks without power…

It was fairly simple to pump it out, chlorine wash and now refill, but satisfying compared to the $2000 quote for the work.

Replaced every stupid alu nipple on my rear wheel with brass ones (several had cracked). Used a bit of Lego to help true

Nice tool! I have a similar non-Lego version.

next thing seems to be the electric shower which has developed an intermittant, ‘keeps running’ fault. suspect limescale build up in a valve somewhere 🙁

It’s really not a problem that family and friends give me their broken Gaggias:

It means that when mine stops working there will be a part I can salvage to get it going again, and at the same time, inspires me to finally fix them all, like I’ve been promising for ages but never had the time.

There was somebody on this forum who wanted one. Maybe in a week or two…

The bottom of the garage door. Was/is pretty knackered so marine ply to the rescue. Not finished yet but the routing has ruined me. Front on it all lines up.

On a much less grand note I did a neat bit of sewing (third repair) on my Brisker gloves a week or so back. They’ll last at least another year.

my beerlingo stopped dead on the first corner.
I got recovered 500yards, the recovery guy said it could be cambelt slipped, so that was the first thing to check. That all lined up
Fusebox/es next, the 20A fuse for the ECU etc was blown. With a new fuse it started, but I got 5 yards and it blew. So with a few packs of fuses I tried disconnecting things one by one, removing the ECU, testing wires etc. I’m useless at electrics but the thought of driving along and losing the steering and brakes suddenly was too scary for me to try driving again without finding the real problem
Eventually I took out the battery box,there was the main ECU cable/s, rubbing against the battery tray,had worn through the wiring. Abit of tape and a connector, and its back to normal.

Took me a couple of lovely weekends searching the web for wiring diagrams, and trying different things. Couldnt have got to work if the neighbour hadnt lent me his car