Stuff you have fixed today

[rtcosic]

Fixed the toilet seat.
An expensive one with soft close hinges.
Stainless steel screw sheared off flush with the edge of the seat - it's coated MDF.

To my astonishment, I managed to unscrew the broken piece with the aid of tweezers and the point of a scriber.
Rummage in the 'might be useful one-day' set of drawers yielded my dwindling stockpile of stainless steel screws.
The screw fits in a recess in the hinge so the head diameter is as important as the shank.
Of course, I had many with the right diameter head but too small shank.
Almost as many with the right diameter shank and too large head.

So Hill Billy lathe time - screw shank in the pillar drill and file to the head - fixed.

Only took 45 minutes of faff - I was irrationally chuffed!

 

[rtcosic]

6x6" oak beam off cuts for bench legs made the Dewalt cough a bit!

Got any more of those wee offcuts?
I could do with building a barn.

 

[bricol]

Got any more of those wee offcuts?
I could do with building a barn.

I think we need to club together to get him a working tape measure, if those are the off-cuts . . .

 

[Luggsey]

My little bench is complete save for a coat of varnish to seal it up.
Knackered now and my Dewalt is as blunt as a soft bannana after that oak....

 

[rtcosic]

SWL?

 

[bigegg]

SWL?

'lots'

 

[Luggsey]

SWL?

Anderson shelter.

 

[Luggsey]

Got any more of those wee offcuts?
I could do with building a barn.

Ok if you are 4' tall I suppose?
We fitted oak beams to hold up the porch on the house and these are the off cuts with shakes. You can't see the shakes as I hid them round the back!

 

[rtcosic]

Anderson shelter.

They were only rated for conventional HE.

I don't mind the shakes. At 6x6 I doubt they will weaken it very much.

Um.... just how big is this 'Porch' of which you speak?

 

[Luggsey]

They were only rated for conventional HE.

I don't mind the shakes. At 6x6 I doubt they will weaken it very much.

Um.... just how big is this 'Porch' of which you speak?

It's a bit wet out there but I pulled this off the security camera. The front of the house is a porch like an American house. My idea, I wanna sit on a rocking chair with a pipe and a shotgun and scare people off!

 

[nickk]

With the benefit of a new strip of conveyor belting,I drilled holes to bolt with m10 to the blade,quickly forged a point on a piece of 10 round,this ensures m10 bolts insert easily,kids were most amused and eager.

 

[chrisbeee]

One step forward, two steps back...
I spent all day on this( Thursday) last week, teaching my son the joys of working outside in the cold. His Swingarm, on his bike needed swopping over, i found a replacement, and swopped them over, only to find, the chain adjuster bolts seized solid.

 

[chrisbeee]

I have ordered this kit, and going to try and fix the least broken one..

 

[123hotchef]

weld the broken one!

 

[chrisbeee]

weld the broken one!

I dont have the kit to weld that up. I did get in touch with a chap, that welds and manufactures for a living, and the quote he gave me, was twice the price of the replacement

 

[Dcal]

Today I "fixed" a mate's tractor.

Some clampit had wired the flashing beacon directly from the battery without even an inline fuse.
I don’t know why, because there was power to the switch from the correct fuse.

The only saving grace was they used bell wire and it burnt out before lighting the whole thing.
He was very lucky it wasn’t a total loss.
Needs a new roof lining, a bit of loom, the heater controls, radio and lots and lots of plastic.
I have everything working again so he can use it until he gets the bits to repair it properly.
Inside the cab is not an nice place to be now, so he might even get it sorted.

 

[Barking Mat]

Today I had a dripping TRV, which looks like a typo for a water leak on a Blackpool sports car, but strangely enough, not this time
I could turn this into another long-winded missive full of double entendres and naff similes, but since it's nippier in here than a Barbara Windsor film I'll keep it short (it's always this short when it's cold) and merely relate the facts in a straightforward, non-pontificative and unelaborated fashion, to wit:

I was in me bedroom, see (...and now I have Welsh accent in my head ) installing a cloth sheathing to the Continental quilt (there's lovely) when I chanced to notice a wisp of steam, from the general direction of the carpet, isnit?
Now you can call me a devout traditionalist but I don't subscribe to the Lawrence Llewellyn-Bowen school of over-blown, pompous and faddy floor coverings like parquet veneer, rush mats and elephant hide, and try as I might I really couldn't remember buying a wool/polyester blend carpet whose USP was that it steamed of its own volition.
Closer inspection revealed, unsurprisingly, that the central heating was losing water.
Well blow me, I said, but got no response from the full-size poster of Kimberley Nixon clad only in welding mask, TIG gauntlets and gold stilettos. I say Kimberley Nixon, she has a mole in the same place as her so it must be.
Closer inspection still identified the culprit: a Drayton TRV4. Unscrewing the thermal cartridge (that's the knobby bit on the top for you central heating engineers) showed that water was escaping past the gland seal.
Off I went to the Screwfix website where I was edified to discover that they don't sell replacement seals, only complete new TRVs at £30 a pop.
Thirty quid, I muttered, I've got rid of wives for less. So I turned to the Duck for inspiration (other search engines are available) and found that Drayton offer a plastic valve setting tool and pair of new seals for £18. Eighteen quid? May as well buy a new valve for 30!
Then I had a vague recollection that somewhere in the boxes, bags, punnets and duckets around the place I have a spare TRV4. When I fitted... erm, got a Corgi-registered installer to fit... my new combi in 2005 I removed the old radiator from the bathroom and replaced it with a heated towel rail fed from the boiler. As best practice suggests, I used two lockshields instead of a TRV, hence the spare.
A good ransack ensued, and then I went and looked for the TRV
Drayton in their clever-dickiness designed the TRV4 to have its gland seal replaced without the need to drain the heating so I thought: Aha! There was a crap 1980s band if ever there was one... and then conceived a cunning plan. At this point you'd expect me to go all Blackadder so I won't. I merely removed the gland seal from the spare valve, reasoning that as it's done 15 years less work than the leaky one, it should be a simple swap. It was.
I turned the heating back on.
Ballcocks, I expostulated, as the bloody thing began dripping worse than a grandmother at a Take That concert.
Right then, what are the chances that if I swap the seals back and then change the whole valve, it'll stop the leak? Hmm, I have half an hour before I need to taxi my mother to her sister's.
Out to the garage, grab a length of Tricoflex, soften it in a kettle of water until it'll push onto the drain stub. Open the cock and let water drain. Spanners, tape, valve swapped, refill system. Wahey, no leak from the TRV!
Drive mother. Come back.
House like a bloody fridge. Climb in loft, boiler flashing more lights than an armed response unit on the way to Asda for some Krispy Kremes. Pressure gauge on the stop.
Bleed off the pressure, reset boiler, it tries to light but then trips out again. Repeat until p1553d off and with hands by now colder than a penguin's scrotum.
Lacking a penguin, warm hands on own scrotum.
Find manual. Delete crap joke about Fawlty Towers.
Flow switch? Whaddya mean flow switch? It was working fine two hours ago, how can the flow switch have died?!
Fanny about with flow switch plunger.
Remember that I was supposed to collect mother from her sister's.
Poke screwdriver in flow switch, boiler lights. Halleflippinglujah.
Collect mother. Remind her that she lives somewhere else. Take her there. Come home.
House colder than Ice Station Zebra. Climb in loft. Find screwdriver has fallen out of flow switch.
Notice that flow switch plunger now has more resistance. Rush off to Ladbrokes to place bet that system had airlock.
Refit flow switch. Heating fires up. TRV still not leaking.
Feel smug, especially with £30 saving. Celebrate with cold beer and bowl of ice cream.

You need to take up writing, that was beautiful, and very funny.

 

[Fraserb]

Today I "fixed" a mate's tractor.

View attachment 274743

View attachment 274744

Some clampit had wired the flashing beacon directly from the battery without even an inline fuse.
I don’t know why, because there was power to the switch from the correct fuse.

The only saving grace was they used bell wire and it burnt out before lighting the whole thing.
He was very lucky it wasn’t a total loss.
Needs a new roof lining, a bit of loom, the heater controls, radio and lots and lots of plastic.
I have everything working again so he can use it until he gets the bits to repair it properly.
Inside the cab is not an nice place to be now, so he might even get it sorted.

It makes you wonder about some folk right enough, our new tractors we just get the dealer to add any wires we need for radios or light bars, saves a lot of grief down the line.

 

[dobbslc]

Fixed this telescopic paint roller frame after my boy broke it painting his room, it went all floppy!
Bit of a bodge but it works!

 

[Cobbler]

That looks like one we had, after a lot of use the roller frame fell apart, I cut the handle off a cheap roller & welded it to the original frame. It gave another lease of life for a while.