What have you repaired lately?

Turns out that front loading washers vibrate a hell of a lot more than top loaders, because it's harder to balance the load.

If it's walking about the legs may need to be levelled, which is only a moderate PITA. Adjust the extendable feet as per the youtuber of your choice. If the feet are true, the machine walking should be unusual.

After two days in my crawl-space I had a really weird dream that I'ld discovered a secret passage to an unknown underground temple. Apparently I woke up saying "It's no good, we'll have to tell UNESCO".

I fixed my shower. I bought a new mixer bar but I needed what I now realise is a 15mm to 1/2" bush to fit the old with the new. Thank god for the local specialist merchant. No chance of working out what to order on the internet, but 30 seconds in the shop behind the pub and all sorted. One pound, fitting advice included.
 
If it's walking about the legs may need to be levelled, which is only a moderate PITA. Adjust the extendable feet as per the youtuber of your choice. If the feet are true, the machine walking should be unusual.

After two days in my crawl-space I had a really weird dream that I'ld discovered a secret passage to an unknown underground temple. Apparently I woke up saying "It's no good, we'll have to tell UNESCO".

I fixed my shower. I bought a new mixer bar but I needed what I now realise is a 15mm to 1/2" bush to fit the old with the new. Thank god for the local specialist merchant. No chance of working out what to order on the internet, but 30 seconds in the shop behind the pub and all sorted. One pound, fitting advice included.


I've had the machine leveled by repair techs. And I set it up on vibration dampening pads. But that didn't solve the problem completely.
 
My personality could use a little fixin' perhaps ... nah ... I like it where it is xD
 
@^%$#! I just snapped an earpiece of my glasses in two. :gripe:Lenses here aren't expensive, but frames are exorbitant. :crazyeye: Plus, they aren't available out here in the sticks. I'll have to go into Tag. :sad:
 
I'd say replace. Anything which is notably hot is a fire hazard. And trying to use that after repairing it yourself is unsafe.
I would also replace it unless you can afford to also replace whatever it is you plug into your repaired charger.

So today's job I've been putting off for a while. Because I knew it would be a beast to do. And it was.

My house has a main section which has a full basement under it. And it also has an addition which has a crawlspace under it. (Note to all, if you're going to add a room to your house, pay the price for the full basement. More than worth it in the long run.) Anyways, a number of years ago I built a laundry room in part of the addition to the house over the crawlspace. Then more recently I got a front loading washing machine. Turns out that front loading washers vibrate a hell of a lot more than top loaders, because it's harder to balance the load. So the machine can jump itself around. This is less of a problem if the machine is on a solid concrete floor. But more of a problem if it is on a wooden floor. Which this is. The machine vibrates, and the floor vibrates, and suddenly the machine is bouncing all over the damned place.

So I got down into the crawlspace, only 2 feet high, and took some 2x4s and a saw and tools and lights and everything to the spot under the washer and cut pieces of 2x4 to the length needed to hammer them into place to brace up the floor joists in the hopes that I took out all possible room for the floor to vibrate.

We'll see how it works out.
You sound like a really handy dude!


I repaired my printer. Someone who will not be named jammed the wrong printer cartridge into a slot and this bent the contact pins that communicate with the cartridge. I cleaned out the heads and re-bent the pins and it works - for now. I am under the assumption though this printer is not long for the world and will fail sooner than later, so we're not going to buy any more ink for it. One of the feed trays has already failed and I've been wanting a laser printer anyways so when it dies I won't be that put off.
 
I repaired my printer. Someone who will not be named jammed the wrong printer cartridge into a slot and this bent the contact pins that communicate with the cartridge. I cleaned out the heads and re-bent the pins and it works - for now. I am under the assumption though this printer is not long for the world and will fail sooner than later, so we're not going to buy any more ink for it. One of the feed trays has already failed and I've been wanting a laser printer anyways so when it dies I won't be that put off.
The new epson printers with the refillable ink tanks look like a good idea.
 
I would also replace it unless you can afford to also replace whatever it is you plug into your repaired charger.


You sound like a really handy dude!


I repaired my printer. Someone who will not be named jammed the wrong printer cartridge into a slot and this bent the contact pins that communicate with the cartridge. I cleaned out the heads and re-bent the pins and it works - for now. I am under the assumption though this printer is not long for the world and will fail sooner than later, so we're not going to buy any more ink for it. One of the feed trays has already failed and I've been wanting a laser printer anyways so when it dies I won't be that put off.


Sometimes it's cheaper to replace a printer than to buy ink. If you're doing a lot of text printing, then laser is a better choice in any case.
 
Today I'm affixing anti-tip devices to a lot of our furniture, and next weekend I'll be putting latches on every cabinet door. The little one is *this* close to being fully mobile. He can scoot in circles on the floor and sit up from partially reclined position. I'll have to buy him a baby cage enclosed play pen area soon.

This past week I put together a toy box and a small bookshelf, both for the baby.
 
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The front loader on the tractor wouldn't lift all the way and I was looking at ~$200-250 for that and changing the hydraulic fluid/filter, so I went on youtube to track down leads and found some guy who spent a couple minutes on a video showing the trouble could be as simple as a decoupled coupler under the foot supports, he even said its usually the bottom one of the group and bingo, the bottom coupler appeared differently than the others so I pushed the coupler collar away from the fitting and shoved it in and released the collar and it worked. The loader lifts all the way up.

thank god for youtube and people making repair videos... I might have found the problem on my own as I began the process of tracking down the possibilities but that sure saved me a hassle. How does that happen? Its a 30+ year old tractor and thats the 1st time a coupler became uncoupled enough to affect the front loader. Gremlins
 
Dead 1980s CB radio works again.
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I took the guts out of a leaking toilet and put in new insides and a new water supply hose. I was just in time, evidently, since, in addition to the leak, it turned out that one of the two bolts holding the tank on was completely rusted away. Getting the old parts out was a bit painful, but elbow grease (and a saw) prevailed.
 
The lower corner of our living room wall has been bare plaster since early last year(?), when my wife cut away a damp-damaged section of wallpaper about 3 m long and 10-15 cm up. Having repaired the dings (she'd left) in the plaster about a month back, I finally got round to re-papering it yesterday.

Didn't take nearly as long as I'd expected: I cut 20 cm strips off the leftover roll of wallpaper, and pasted them on to overlap the still-intact upper sections — not ideal, but unless you're right up close, it doesn't actually look too bad (at least, there are no gaps visible between the new strips!). Wifey was happy with my handiwork, anyway — which is, after all, the only valid measure of success ;)

All we have to do now is replace the (also damp-damaged) sections of skirting-board, to hide the bare ends/edges of the laminate flooring.

Mixed up waaay too much wallpaper-paste, though: out of a full litre (and 50 g of powder from a 200 g packet), I only needed about 100 mL of it. Didn't have any sealable containers large enough to store the remainder long-term, so it got flushed, on the assumption that since it's water-based, and water-soluble, that should be OK. So I'm hoping we won't need to call a plumber next week...
 
Friday I noticed that the clothes in the washing machine hadn't gotten washed; eventually I noticed that the cycle had started but not gotten very far. Further examination revealed that the outlet and several others, plus some lights, were dead. An extension cord let the washer finish its cycle.

Saturday I checked the outlet, during the day since the laundry-room light was one of the dead ones, and replaced it. Happily I found a new GFCI outlet in the garage so I didn't have to go to the store. The hardest part was shoving the new outlet into the box. This took more than half of the total time, thanks to a bunch of foam filling the box. Eventually I got it cleared out enough to fit everything back inside.

Now, of course, my wife is talking about all the other electrical work she wants me to do, since this was fixed so speedily. :sad:
 
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