Stuff you have fixed today

[Cobbler]

Mended a Matsui dehumidifier, I was given this about 20 years ago with the fan seized. I oiled it & off it went until today. The fan gone tight again, took the fan motor apart & the rear bearing dry as a bone, so oiled it, cleaned out the dust & off it went for another 20 years, maybe. Success!

 

[qwakers]

quad stuff this morning.

it had fuel delivery issues. it would die under load, only run at partial throttle. go from pig rich to lean one min to the next. the mixture screw kept backing itself out.

also the starter motor is knackered.

so new fuel pump, new carb, new fuel and vacuum lines and new starter.

none of which fixed the going lean issue (can you see where this is going?)

new fuel filter.

runs like a champ.

don't get me wrong, all the above needed doing. all the fuel lines had gone soft, the vacuum lines had gone hard and the pump was weak. the carb couldn't be adjusted to compensate for its wear even though it had had new jets.. etc etc.

but 99% of the fix was the filter.

 

[Windy Miller]

View attachment 470714


Rusty, seized Hacksaw was pulled from a pond.



View attachment 470715


So, I used it as a base for teaching MIS members how old tools can be saved.



Again.



View attachment 470717

French Polish on the handle. There was trace of dead worm, so it was treated.





View attachment 470718

I was issued with a hacksaw identical to that on 4th September 1978 - the day I started my apprenticeship at HM Dockyard, Catham. Still in regular use now. I have several others, but I always seem to gravitate toward the old faithful!

 

[DAPPH]

I was issued with a hacksaw identical to that on 4th September 1978 - the day I started my apprenticeship at HM Dockyard, Catham. Still in regular use now. I have several others, but I always seem to gravitate toward the old faithful!

I too did my full time tech school apprenticeship ( 66 till 69 ) bench fitting and then for anther 12 years afterwards only using them , I find there is much more control even with wrecked hand with the file handle grip than the more now common pistol grip , plus I don't ever recall skinning my knuckles on a pistol grip hacksaw unlike a pistol grip one .

 

[Jelly_Sheffield]

The lens retaining clip in my spare welding mask has slowly been rusting and fatiguing it's way out of existence for years now.

And I wanted to fit a cheap 4×5 True Colour filter instead of a fixed shade lens, as this is usually used by observers/helpers rather than me nowadays, which the clip would not have survived (way too weak to cope with the additional thickness of the ADF).

So I bent up a new clip from a length of gas welding rod...

It's far from perfect, but it works pretty well, and I still have the original clip if I want a fixed shade at some point (or as a template to make a new one).

 

[Morrisman]

My sister asked if I could pop round and screw a couple of pieces of wood to her wall, so she could put a stair gate in. Sounded simple, so I grabbed a bunch of various size screws and a couple of battery tools and went round.

3 1/2 hours later it’s done….. and I’m absolutely knackered. My diseased bod seems to get weaker by the day.

The hard part was fastening to plaster board wall. She bought some of those little spring butterfly fixings, but the plasterboard was fastened up by the blobs of cement method, meaning no room to use them, there was but a 3/4” gap.

Loads of head scratching, puffing and panting, and I went back home and got the big hammer drill, some hefty 4” screws and big rawl plugs.

The wall behind the plasterboard drilled horribly, just seemed to break up as I went into it, starting with a smaller drill and working up. But eventually I got four big plugs in, and carefully tightened down on the huge screws. Amazingly all four got a good grip, and the wood batten appears rock solid.

I slept for five hours straight last night. Not done that for months. The sleep of victory.

 

[Onoff]

I slept for five hours straight last night. Not done that for months. The sleep of victory.

There's some evidence hydrogen sulphide can be effective in treating neurological conditions.

Hydrogen Sulphide-Based Therapeutics for Neurological Conditions: Perspectives and Challenges - PMC

Central nervous system (CNS)-related conditions are currently the leading cause of disability worldwide, posing a significant burden to health systems, individuals and their families. Although the molecular mechanisms implicated in these disorders ...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Now then, if you bury plasterboard and it gets wet / comes into contact with organic matter guess what gas does it gives off? I'm thinking your breathing in all that lovely dust...

Mad? Well yes I am but maybe one day I'll be seen as one of the greats of medicine!

Gypsum is too used in Chinese medicine...

 

[Morrisman]

There's some evidence hydrogen sulphide can be effective in treating neurological conditions.

Hydrogen Sulphide-Based Therapeutics for Neurological Conditions: Perspectives and Challenges - PMC

Central nervous system (CNS)-related conditions are currently the leading cause of disability worldwide, posing a significant burden to health systems, individuals and their families. Although the molecular mechanisms implicated in these disorders ...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Now then, if you bury plasterboard and it gets wet / comes into contact with organic matter guess what gas does it gives off? I'm thinking your breathing in all that lovely dust...

Mad? Well yes I am but maybe one day I'll be seen as one of the greats of medicine!

Gypsum is too used in Chinese medicine...

Interesting, breathing plasterboard dust, coincidence, or…

We had a different view of H2s when I worked offshore.

 

[dobbslc]

Do a couple of lines of ground plasterboard dust and let us know if it helps.

 

[Morris]

Would grout injections help.

 

[Robotstar5]

My sister asked if I could pop round and screw a couple of pieces of wood to her wall, so she could put a stair gate in. Sounded simple, so I grabbed a bunch of various size screws and a couple of battery tools and went round.

3 1/2 hours later it’s done….. and I’m absolutely knackered. My diseased bod seems to get weaker by the day.

The hard part was fastening to plaster board wall. She bought some of those little spring butterfly fixings, but the plasterboard was fastened up by the blobs of cement method, meaning no room to use them, there was but a 3/4” gap.

Loads of head scratching, puffing and panting, and I went back home and got the big hammer drill, some hefty 4” screws and big rawl plugs.

The wall behind the plasterboard drilled horribly, just seemed to break up as I went into it, starting with a smaller drill and working up. But eventually I got four big plugs in, and carefully tightened down on the huge screws. Amazingly all four got a good grip, and the wood batten appears rock solid.

I slept for five hours straight last night. Not done that for months. The sleep of victory.

I keep a handful of these in my fasteners box for plasterboard.

 

[minimutly]

Fixed grandkids 50cc quad bike yesterday, carb was greened up, exhaust box broken off bracket and pipe. All back together, set up and running lovely, just before the rain started. Happy grandson, especially when I removed the throttle limit screw.

 

[Robotstar5]

Fixed grandkids 50cc quad bike yesterday, carb was greened up, exhaust box broken off bracket and pipe. All back together, set up and running lovely, just before the rain started. Happy grandson, especially when I removed the throttle limit screw.

We had similar when I used to help a mate run mini-bikes at country fairs, anything with a gearshift would be put in first gear and the shifter removed and those without had the throttlestop screwed down, come the end of the show we would "de-restrict" them for a quick razz round before loading them on the van, we would get a few kids come running back to have a go on the faster bikes

 

[Morrisman]

I keep a handful of these in my fasteners box for plasterboard.

They might have worked, but the wood I needed to attach to the wall was a good 1 1/2” thick, so probably not enough thread in the screw.

 

[qwakers]

these are worth keeping around for stuff like that..

Plasterboard Fixings Red 18mm - Pack of 25 GP1825

Simple and speedy, the slim gripping wings and outer collar work together to provide a strong, secure anchor. Just drill, tap, turn.

www.macdonaldplumbingsupplies.com

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

They might have worked, but the wood I needed to attach to the wall was a good 1 1/2” thick, so probably not enough thread in the screw.

Screwfix twin screws do fit.
Do it all the time.

 

[DAPPH]

My sister asked if I could pop round and screw a couple of pieces of wood to her wall, so she could put a stair gate in. Sounded simple, so I grabbed a bunch of various size screws and a couple of battery tools and went round.

3 1/2 hours later it’s done….. and I’m absolutely knackered. My diseased bod seems to get weaker by the day.

The hard part was fastening to plaster board wall. She bought some of those little spring butterfly fixings, but the plasterboard was fastened up by the blobs of cement method, meaning no room to use them, there was but a 3/4” gap.

Loads of head scratching, puffing and panting, and I went back home and got the big hammer drill, some hefty 4” screws and big rawl plugs.

The wall behind the plasterboard drilled horribly, just seemed to break up as I went into it, starting with a smaller drill and working up. But eventually I got four big plugs in, and carefully tightened down on the huge screws. Amazingly all four got a good grip, and the wood batten appears rock solid.

I slept for five hours straight last night. Not done that for months. The sleep of victory.

Spot and dab plaster board is evil , I found rubber Rawlnuts with the screws are ideal for such jobs but are not cheap . so are hammer fit window frame fixers or chemical anchors with gauze top hats to contain the resin fill .

In 1981 the gas board monkey's fitted our four Baxi Bermuda balanced flue heaters through a plaster board inner skin , vapour barriertjhen across the 70 mm void then into brick that skinned the outside of the home . They used copper tube to make the sleeves to reach through the board & void .

Lovely job two weeks later the brick skin had split in every brick where they had used steel Rawl Bolt anchors in the brick

 

[ajlelectronics]

Thought I had blown this expensive display up! Finally got it working, possibly a dry joint being the culprit.

 

[Dcal]

Today I fixed a small leak on the washing machine.

Simple repair, just needed to tighten the inlet pipe.
How and ever, the machine is 900mm above the floor and there isn't much room.

It seemed a good idea at the time (30 years ago) but now I'm older and weaker, it's getting more difficult to drag it out to get access to the back.
However there are some advantages to being a hoarder and I bought a lifting table on here from @Dozzer (many thanks) and I did think at the time it would be useful for this very purpose. (Amongst many other)

Not easy to get a proper photo but you should get the idea. The table didn't extend to the height I needed, so a pallet and some 4 x 2 was pressed into service to increase the working height.

To make it easier to slide the machine out, I added some galv sheet.

It still didn't want to slide so the real hoarding came into play and I remember I had some small bridge bearings that I saved from the skip with no real thought as to why.

With a couple of small square plates, to spread the loads from the feet, they worked a treat and the machine slide out easily. I had to reposition the bearings a couple of times but it was all very straightforward to move.

I was then able to lower and move the machine to get full access.

Then, just reverse the procedure to get it back in and job jobbed.

 

[Blue Chips]

Spouse found a nice old gauge for me for a few bucks whilst browsing in an antique shop. She knows I like vintage/antique industrial items, and this also bore the name of a local company. The glass was missing, and it looked pretty rough, but I was optimistic that it would clean up...and I have a hard time turning down any new additions to my growing pile of old metal stuff.

It turned out to be an easy fix. Cleaning the face, touching up the hands, polishing the brass, and cutting a new 'glass' from some polycarbonate sheet took a total of an hour and 15 minutes.