Fixing stuff

[PreacherBob]

I like to tinker and try to fix broken things. No, I have absolutely no training outside of YouTube videos and online written instructions.

So, I just fixed the vacuum cleaner (replaced a bad power switch) and only had one screw left over when I finished. Only one!

That's good, right?

Great work Cynthia! You’ll be rebuilding automobile engines soon enough! No worries about the screw, unless it’s the one that holds the motor in

 

[PreacherBob]

Excellent job, Cynthia! I'm also a notorious tinkerer and always take a shot a dismantling and fixing broken things, rather than trashing them. This world is filled with enough broken things that can easily be fixed!

Yep, I’m the exact opposite. I’m a notorious tinkerer who likes to take a shot dismantling perfectly good things, permanently, then hiding them from my wife

 

[Opsimath]

Man, I want a little guitar case box like that. I happen to have that sane set of files. : )

West

Edit: Oops! Wrong quote, and I don't know how to chang it. Intended to reply to LeFinPepere, #16, but yeah, West, I was thinking the same about that little guitar case!

Also congratulations on fixing your washing machine! Well done!

Many (many) moons ago before front load washers were commonplace I had a White-Westinghouse front loader. The best washer I ever had! But it got where if the load was wet, i.e., heavy, the drum wouldn't turn. I called a few repairmen in the area, starting my explanation with, "I have a White-Westinghouse front load washing machine ..." and was generally cut off right there with "We don't work on front loaders."

I had grown up with front loaders. My parents always had one. Why did no one work on them?

When I talked to my dad, 260 miles away, I told him I couldn't find anyone to fix mine. When he hung up he called the guy he bought their washing machine from, also a White-Westinghouse. The guy told my dad to have me call him. Dad called me and gave me the name and number.

So I called Dad's guy and told him no one around here would work on mine. He laughed and said that they had better learn because that was the direction washers were headed, and turns out he was sure right about that. He told me what was wrong with mine and what to do about it, giving me step by step instructions which I wrote down.

When my husband came in from work I was sitting in the middle of the living room floor with paper grocery bags spread on the floor holding washing machine parts.

Him: What are you doing?!

Me: Working on the washing machine.

Him: Have you ever done that before?!!

Me: No.

Him: What?!!!

So I showed him the bendix spring, which I had just cleaned, and told him he needed to take it outside and put plenty of that gunky thick grease he uses for the tractor on it, which he did. Then I put it all back together and the washer worked fine for many more years.

I sure miss that washer. It was way way better than every one I've had since.

 

[Opsimath]

Great work Cynthia! You’ll be rebuilding automobile engines soon enough! No worries about the screw, unless it’s the one that holds the motor in

Funny you should mention that. I think I have decided to get my 1987 Bronco running again. I keep going back and forth on it, but I decided what am I going to do, break it? It already doesn't run. Of all the vehicles I have ever driven I loved that Bronco best (full size, Eddie Bauer) and if I can just get it going enough to drive it around the farm the smile on my face will probably have to be surgically removed.

So, I bought the Haynes repair manual. Will probably get the Chilton one, too. And start the list of tools I'm going to need.

This is going to be hard.

 

[Opsimath]

Depends on - was the one screw Philips head or a flathead?
Good on you for fixing stuff.

Phillips head. Am I doomed?

 

[PreacherBob]

Phillips head. Am I doomed?

Philips head, yep. That’s the motor mounting screw…

 

[Opsimath]

Philips head, yep. That’s the motor mounting screw…

So operating the vacuum cleaner in its current condition could be dangerous and I should stay well away from it?

If so ... Darn.

 

[spoox]

My dad was notorious in our family for the "unnecessary" parts scattered on the basement floor every xmas morning, after a night of assembling bicycles, ping pong tables, aquariums, and the the rest of the "needs assembly" gifts my four sisters and I had on our xmas wish lists over the years.

Ah yes! The motorless go-kart my dad assembled I think for my 9th. birthday. Since I built models, I was used to following instructions.
Dad--waste of time! While he was putting it together I kept mentioning things like according to the diagrams I think this washer is supposed to g--"Hey! Who's building this thing!?". After a very long time the tubular metal vehicle was "done"--except there were quite a number
of parts left over. "Say Dad...what about thes..." "Extra Parts!"
We lived on a very steep hill in Palos Verdes and the next thing I knew after his push I was hurtling down the sidewalk and there was no braking system on the thing. Then after shooting off the sidewalk into the street and seeing a car coming toward me I realized that the steering wheel was basically an ornament as evidently those "extra" parts might have been meant to connect it to some linkage to the front wheels. I leaned desperately to one side in the hope that somehow I could will it to merely crash into an oncoming curb instead of the Roadmaster or whatever it was looming closer. I succeeded and was flung clear of my pop's handiwork onto the sidewalk and dragged the thing back home, never to go near it again. He never changed except when I was older oftentimes he would just hand things to me to figure
out if he realized instructions would need to be read.

 

[LeFinPepere]

Yes, I found it, thank you Opsimath,but it was just "a"pick, no THE pick I was looking for! (The vet usually finds it inside the dog!)
-I did edit for the 1st time, that's cool , now I have to choose save or cancel-not 100% sure what that implies- (no French politics innuendo here!)

 

[Stuball48]

Phillips head. Am I doomed?

No--that's the one I most often find staring at me before I have to "refix my fix."

 

[fronobulax]

Surely you know the phrase : "After putting it back together all unnecessary parts lay on the table:"

Never heard that one, but in Ye Olden Days when high schools taught "shop" as an introduction to vocational/technical training and skills, one project was a gasoline powered engine. The task was to disassemble it completely, clean it thoroughly and reassemble it. To pass the engine had to run after reassembly and the "bath" where the parts were soaked for cleaning had to contain no parts when it was drained

 

[Opsimath]

Never heard that one, but in Ye Olden Days when high schools taught "shop" as an introduction to vocational/technical training and skills, one project was a gasoline powered engine. The task was to disassemble it completely, clean it thoroughly and reassemble it. To pass the engine had to run after reassembly and the "bath" where the parts were soaked for cleaning had to contain no parts when it was drained

Unfortunately shop was only for boys back when I was in school. I wanted to take woodworking shop but had to settle for home-ec. Not quite the same thing.

So how did you do on your exam? Did the engine run with no "unnecessary" parts left in the soaking tub? Asking because I may need help on a Bronco project.

 

[wileypickett]

One night a flying saucer lands in the pasture of a local farm. The farmer, awakened by its flashing lights and unearthly hum, pulls on his overalls and runs out to see what's happening. Mouth agape, he watches incredulously as a door in the saucer opens and a strange extraterrestrial being emerges.

Ceremoniously placing an odd looking contraption in the farmer's hands, the alien says, "You hold in your hands a machine that can end world hunger, poverty and war, and can turn your planet into a place of abundance, where every living creature will know only peace, love and happiness. I leave it to you to decide what to do with it. Choose wisely."

The extraterrestrial disappears back into the saucer, and seconds later the saucer is gone.

Was it all a dream? No, for the farmer is still holding this potentially miraculous device in his trembling hands.

What should he do with it?

A. Take it to the president of the United States.

B. Take it to the United Nations?

C. Take it apart?

 

[Opsimath]

D. Push the activation button!

 

[gjmalcyon]

D. Push the activation button!

E. Sell it on Fleabay.

 

[spoox]

Uh...I think that's a true story! At least I'm pretty sure many years ago Art Bell had the farmer on Coast to Coast.

 

[wileypickett]

F. Correct the orientation of the truss rod cover.

(I heard that joke on *Car Talk* many years ago. I embellished it quite it bit!)

 

[davismanLV]

Art Bell! I remember him and his show Coast to Coast!!

 

[lungimsam]

Fixing stuff on your own around the house for years helps ease the blow $$$$ for when you HAVE to call a pro in.

 

[The Guilds of Grot]

That's fine for things where the technology advances quickly - like cell phones or laptops, but really, what was the last major advance in vacuum cleaner technology?

You must not have shopped for a vacuum cleaner in a long time! Ever heard of Dyson? Cordless?