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No pictures but repaired my parents conservatory. Nearly a rebuild including a new screed floor. Managed about a 2 mm deviation over 4.5 m was happy with that.
TIG welded a bolt to the sheared remains – heat plus vice = removed fittings.
Tig welder has been on my don't need but really want tool list since I did a welding course ~ 20 years ago. I keep making do with a big old buzz box but of course no good for anything requiring "finesse".
Surfboard ding. UV torch makes it much easier to control the cure.
Non DIY proficient (ironically, aeronautics engineer) mate lost a peak retaining bolt on a spin last weekend, back to my shed after, sift through the bolt stash, found the correct size, out with the dremmel to cut to the right length, simple job, happy "customer".
And replaced the positive air chamber seals on the fox float X2 rear suspension unit on the secondhand bike I bought which hopefully will sort out the 50psi per spin pressure loss issue.
Sunday's spin will provide the answer as it only loses pressure on spins.
Now I'm no handyman but earlier this week my hot water cylinder died so I needed to get under the house to Isolate it so we could at least have cold water until such time as it can be replaced. Problem was the hinges on the inspection hatch were seized making access a problem. Fortunately they bent so I could get in.
Anyway today I bought brand new set of hinges and replaced the seized ones. Inspection hatch now works as it should.
I also completely restrung the rotary washing line. This is quite significant as I didn't break and wasn't told it was broken (i only found out when going to put laundry out to dry) and upon finding it broken I haven't waited several months to get around to fixing it.
Small fry to the stuff above, but just changed a toilet inlet valve. It failed earlier this week and I just turned the supply off and put an 'out of order ' sign on it. That wasn't deemed an adequate solution so have now got on and swapped it. Checking for leaks now.
Replaced the steering pump pulley belt on my Daihatsu 4Trak.
Simply remove the engine bash guard, loosen the pulley adjustment bolts, remove the old belt, fit the new belt, re-tension and tighten the pully before re-instating the bash guard.
Simply was obviously a typo as every bolt was sieves, every bolt head was partially rounded, the pully wouldn't move, even with the bolts fully loosened and the new belt wouldn't fit even with the pulley at the maximum adjustment. Apart from that it was simple I guess.
Small fry to the stuff above, but just changed a toilet inlet valve. It failed earlier this week and I just turned the supply off and put an ‘out of order ‘ sign on it. That wasn’t deemed an adequate solution so have now got on and swapped it. Checking for leaks now.
Mine has failed in the upstairs bog so it's only refilling on a dribble, this is proving troublesome for heavy traffic or double flush situations. So far my solution has been to put an empty 4 pint milk container beside it so it can be refilled from the bath tap but this is proving a surprisingly unpopular "solution". I'll get to it when I get to it.
Replaced the screen on a Nokia 8 the other day, let's just say my peripheral neuropathy made using tweezers on the wee connectors and screws a bit tricky!
Haha, sounds as unpopular as my mid week solution! I put a fluidmaster replacement in. £16.50 from screwfix.
Rear airsprings on my merc. YouTube tutorials should be used as a guide only. Fortunately I can see where they are wrong and sort out a solution / better way fairly easily.
Went to service the compressed Air drier for the above to fimd it fitted backwards.
Then spotted the intercooler hose not fitted correctly either and practically hanging out the intercooler, which needs a flush as it contains pcv oil.
just noticed that the radiator was cold, so looked at the boiler and pressure was too low. 5minutes on google, and figured out what needed doing so the heating is back on. Im new to boillers
currently trying to repair my car, think its a turbo problem. The last 2 nuts,very tricky to access, havent been moved for 15 years, going to try again with the impact drill
Also didnt like the white colour that my planet x fleegle bars came with, so now theyre blue, thanks to the powdercoating dept at work
Sticking caliper changed on the mazda and then a parasitic drain found on the the t4...
It's been flattening the battery... so out with the multi meter....
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Rebuilding our 215k XC90, finished the front end disassembly today - struts, control arms and driveshafts. Pretty much everything being replaced with new and the inner arches being cleaned and zinc epoxy'd before moving on to the back end then engine stuff.
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I had forgotten about this thread, and I've been busy.
Changed the engine oil seal and thus the clutch on the car (Ford 6 speed boxes weigh a lot more than mk2 Golf 5 speed ones!)
Changed the chuck on my DeWalt combi drill, turns out you need to dismantle the whole gearbox to get to a bit of the shaft you can grip in a vice, and the gearbox turned out to contain 3 sets of planetary gears and lots of other bits. Does work beautifully now though for a good clean and grease.
Sabre saw needed some love as did the SDS drill, but relatively simple machines.
The heat pump tumble dryer needed the clever bit cleaning, you can't do that everyone said. Of course you can, just needed a bit of care, patience and ultimately a hosepipe. Knocked about an hour of the typical drying time 🙂
Now repairing our house exterior, the render has failed and was trapping water into the brickwork. Once removed this has uncovered rotten wooden lintels and that the lead flashing had only been set into the render not the brickwork, so plenty more work to keep me busy 🙂
Repaired a crash-damaged Timberbell with bits of Sugru. Good as new now.
Yesterday I used gorilla glue to fix two snapped plastic sliding brackets on a Lakeland clothes horse which I had broken in a fit of stupidity a few weeks ago. Try as I might I still managed to get the stuff on my fingers!
As mentioned elsewhere the oil boiler. Turns out that heating oil pumps work better not full of dirt and rust.
Snow outside and no heating fixed for £2.25 (half a can of carb cleaner) and my time, and as snow had stopped me working on the roof I was looking for something useful to do.
Added bonus, running the burner outside of the boiler means you get to see the fire you make!
It just never ends.
This is a in progress report. Fuel lift pump on a B275 international Harvester (early 60s I think forget exact year). Ordered gasket. Remove to find stripped thread on one bolt. Heil coil kit 5/16" ordered, replacement bols (cap head for easier access).
Leak around hydraulic control for linkage and and auxiliary diversion valve. Still under investigation. Don't want to pull apart until I have bits aas I really need to use the tractor asap.
Heating oil system. The new and clear filter body showed up an air leak in the line somewhere. This turned out to be at a 6mm x 3/8" fitting which promptly stripped with fingertip pressure on the spanners. Cut the fitting off, sleeved the 6mm with some 8mm, new fitting and joy!
carbon chainstay on the wife's road bike, it been dropped on something and cracked quite nastily but not all the way though. So sanded it back "resined" in a carbon wrap seems to have done the trick and very solid. Not pretty but still to paint it.
@Klunk - unless that is carbon cloth, normal carbon wrap is just printed vinyl so not that strong. Hopefully the resin will bond with the cracked original CF though
Hardly the height of engineering but…. Couldn’t thread the screws into a kitchen cupboard handle, little bit of tinfoil in there and it’s all good.
Matches are great for that.
In the process of replacing a ‘blown’ double glazing panel in a window. Cost of £40 + my labour. Actually quite easy to do.
I read your later description, but do you have a page or video that taught you? I have millions of failed units that are all about 40 years old - so no warranty.
Has anyone tried this approach? Seems to involve fitting a breathable vent and dumping new desiccant into the void...?
https://condensation2clear.com/shop/
Mid ride I had a nasty chain drop on a technical climb.
Whipped the chainring off and used a precision rock to correct the bent tooth.
https://ibb.co/7bWxZ08
https://ibb.co/Zx8DT6t
Perfect!
Washing machine brushes, so pleased as I really thought WM was toast. Impressed with the Meile, looks designed to be fixed, very easy just fiddly getting the brush assembly back on. £13.88 from my local guy, was £43 on spares. Double win.
The boot handle on the Ibiza - it just wasn't triggering the release. Took it all apart, tested everything for continuity and worked out it was the switch. The switch is hidden - I managed to get in clean it, and voila we are back working.
40 mins work, £100+ saved for a new switch.
Bissell spot carpet cleaner - hose split just as I went to clean up a load of cat pee from the back door mat (the joys of new kitten). That was Tuesday morning. Quick google and espares had a replacement for £15. went for 7-10 day postage for £3 (next day was £10). It turned up at 11am the next day!
Then time to replace it. A quick youtube video showed a couple of screw heads hidden under a sticker. After that it was all phillips heads screws and very easy to take apart and replace the hose. So nice to work on something that has been designed to come apart and be fixed so easily.
This week I found a fixed a leak in my sleeping mat that gave me an uncomfortable night on a bikepacking trip. The finding obviously being the difficult bit, but on the plus side, it got cleaned by way of a sponge bath on both sides - obviously the leak was on the last tube I came to. Blob of Seam Grip sorted it out.
Also fixed, and in fact improved the toaster. The bit that holds the bread wasn't doing a very good job of that, being made out of the most flexible metal I've ever come across, and so bread was getting stuck down the side, and it would either not go down (which turned out to be a separate issue) or not pop back up, so I took it apart, straightened it, and reinforced it with some stainless builder's band for good measure.
The front discs/pads on my car (Nissan leaf) were a bit grindy, and the disc was badly scored..
I htink the pads had seized a bit in the caliper..
So swapped them over:
I'm still alive, so they work I guess!
DrP
Put a new handle in an axe today. Been keeping some lengths of ash for these jobs. Split to near thickness with another axe, finished with a pocket knife. Bit of oak in the end as a wedge. jobs done. Bit quicker than one I did for a maul years ago when all I had handy was the maul head.
Also fitted a new bog seat.
Pair of Fox Defend trousers for my mate. Wore the arse through.
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The turned an awkward rip into a phone pocket in my pair of Troy Lee Skyline trousers.
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Managed to fix a GaN charger, that has a slide-in adapter for U.K. three-pin sockets. I knocked it out of an extension lead, and one of the pins that carry current came out of the adapter. I thought they were moulded in, but they’re a press-fit, and I thought impossible to put back. The manufacturer was non-responsive, so I thought it was fubared, then I had an idea. I’ve got a tiny little vice that I bought at a country fair some years back, screwed to a block of wood, so I wondered if the adapter would fit into the vice jaws, so I could try to press the pin back in.
It did, and after some very careful closing of the vice jaws, and a very loud click, it was back in place and working! Big sigh of relief, I used the charger a lot, because it has two USB-A sockets, and two 100w USB-C sockets. You can see how the adapter allows the thing to be used with American sockets, with two fold-out pins, which slot into the U.K. adapter when they’re folded into the body. A neat bit of design, just not up to being maltreated!
I’ve got that hyper juice (albeit has another name ).
Really handy bit of kit.
some 2007 fox talas rlc 140 with a 25p o-ring after being turned down by tftuned :/
replaced the carb on my ancient ride on lawn mower, it started first time and is now back to full working order. I am now feeling very manly and successful!
Washing machine brushes, so pleased as I really thought WM was toast
Snap, did ours last week too. Very nearly bought a new machine with next day delivery as repair appointments were a week away. Then I thought to check the brushes. Zanussi spares would only recommend an entire motor, even though it looked like they sold the exact brushes required. Apparently the specific motor fitted can vary, hence they are non-committal on which brushes you need.
Local parts shop had the exact parts needed for £25.
Delonghi KG79 Coffee Grinder.
Apparently a common issue: Blue light doesn't glow and the motor runs for a second then stops.
Thread on coffeeforums.co.uk: Link
Swapped the yellow capacitor thingy on the circuit board and the magic was unbroken.
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Replaced the window regulator in the offside rear door on my BMW 3 series after it failed the other weekend. £8 for a trim removal kit and £40 for the new part. Surprisingly easy to do even if I did it watching a YouTube video showing me how.
A 2 part repair. A Mk1 Cotic Soul that had a seat post proper stuck. That took about 2 days of sawing, filing and hammering to get it out. I've now put an NX Eagle set up on it. And my Atera Strada rack with longer straps to take a 2.6 x 29 tyre.
And removable arms to make mounting the bikes a bit less impossible.
Fixed a mitre saw with blade guide not retracting correctly.
Currently in the process of repairing a tractor loader, took a few hours of heat and beat with the aid of a hydraulic jack on side to remove two 20mm pins that hold a hydraulic cylinder in place.
Next job will be to overhaul the cylinder I think. Then fun of attaching and plumbing it in. The joys of vintage tractors.
Today. Fixed sticking throttle on petrol brush cutter, made a new guard and sharpened the blade. Stripped and rebuilt a SRAM Rival hydro lever, stripped, painted, mended and reassembled a cast iron hose reel, tightening all the joints in the hose as well and managed to reduce our surplus stock of ice cream. Did nowt this morning though.
Removed a stuck seatpost from my P7.
Relatively easy to remove as friend built a seatpost removal contraption as his seatpost was stuck last year.
It would be a right bigger to remove without this.
Wife noticed some of the radiators were on when the hot water only was running. Not ideal in the heat. Fortunately its a Honeywell 3 way valve so took a punt on a new genuine synchron motor. Only £23.99 from Screwfix but twice the 'copies'. Easy fit and all working. Looking at the old motor, we'd obviously had another many many years ago (beyond my memory but must have been in first few years of having the house - been here 28 years) as the Honeywell OEM Synchron has orange wires, this old one had blue like the replacement.
Relatively easy to remove as friend built a seatpost removal contraption as his seatpost was stuck last year.
That is very cool! I bought something similar to remove a stuck mouthpiece from my son's trumpet.
I performed surgery on a Croc to close a pulled through where the rivet for the rear strap had ripped. Probably the same texture as sewing a wound closed. Seems to be holding OK. Needed better thread and clinical hooked needles really, but nice result and I'm ready for field wounds now.