Your recent repair? 2013 - 2020

[sengsational]

I installed this outlet. There's one on the other side of the wall, but there's a stud between that I had to drill through. Since the TP holder came off easily that gave me access. Took less than an hour.

The purpose of the outlet has been realized! Why didn't I do this sooner? I should probably post in blow thru dough or last Amazon buy, but this isn't the kind of pleasure one should post, is it? I mean, you guys, fine, but the ROTW, they might be offended.

 

[homestead]

Our 15yr old dryer started making squeaking noises recently. Figured one of the rollers that turns the drum was going bad. So ordered a kit on ebay that include rollers, belt & a pulley that the feeds the belt through the motor for $25. Took out the front panels and drum and replaced all the parts. Turns out the belt was severely cracked and the pulley was frozen to the shaft. So that is what was probably making the noise. Rollers were well worn too. Took about 2 hours to repair. Hopefully it will last another 15 yrs.

 

[Chuckanut]

Replaced a noisy fan in my DVR. I can barely hear it’s hum from 6 inches away. [emoji3]

 

[Doribe]

I decided to replace a fan that the DH said was sparking. Once I had to old fan taken down I found a pair of black (load) wires with a wire nut. The wires were very old and shabby and I could see places where the insulation was completely gone. My house is 110 years old and this fan has been in a bedroom since I purchased the house 26 years ago. I opened the wire nut and used heat shrink insulation to cover the load wires and reconnected the wires. The fan was attached with a jury-rigged method screwed onto an old non-functioning gas pipe. The electric box was an old style that would have to be changed for a modern fan so I gave up on a new fan. I used heat shrink insulation on the load and neutral wired to the fan and put the old fan back in. After "fixing" the fan it ran well without sparking. I told DH not to use the fan other than balance it. He Googled a procedure to balance the fan that started with turning the fan on reverse. After reversing the fan, it made a sound and did not work. Considering the wonky electric box that won't take a modern fixture, I decided we should quit while we are ahead, since we still have working light in the room. I might get brave (or stupid) and open it up and try to troubleshoot with my VOM.

 

[Souschef]

Frontier Router

Our 12 year old router from Verizon was acting up, so I called Frontier and asked them to send me a new router. A few days later the router arrived, and I tried to set it up. No Luck.
I called tech support and spent 2 hours on the phone trying various things. No Luck.
Today a tech from Frontier showed up, and I explained the problem to him. He laughed, and told me that the tech was trying to set up the router using the PPPoE protocol, but in California it is ADHC
The guy was great!! He got my router going, then helped me set up our smartphones, our readers, and last but not least, our smart TV!
Life is good!

 

[aja8888]

On DW's Inogen G3 Oxygen generator (pic below), the unit was making a rattling noise when making O2. She said she "dropped" it recently. Well, the owner and maintenance manual said not to try to disassemble the unit as it will void the warranty. So be it, but the thing is not in warranty anyway.

Having a very small star bit with a center hole (tricky fasteners on the device), I managed to take it apart. I found the tiny compressor had been jolted off its shock mounts from her dropping the unit. With some delicate maneuvering of the compressor (so small it will fit in your shirt pocket), I managed to get it back in place and secured it within the shock mounts.

So she is back in business!

 

[sdtech]

I've been remodeling our kitchen. Did everything except the quartz countertop and will have the backsplash done by a contractor.


Almost done.

 

[aja8888]

sdtech - Wow! Very Nice!!

 

[aja8888]

I'm starting my winter auto maintenance routine next week.

Thr BMW will get:

Oil leak fixed - Replace oil filter housing seal (3 hours and hard to get to)

All new engine cooling:

New Radiator
New Expansion tank
New Upper and lower hoses
New water pump
New thermostat
New serpentine belts, new idler pulleys
and a few odds and ends.


Also:

Changing transmission and differential oils
Changing Engine oil and filter

Parts arrive Tuesday/Wednesday.

The above should keep me busy for a few days.

 

[Sunset]

Took my van in for an oil change at Pep boys, as the web site said it was $55 after $20 off coupon for synthetic, and they do tire rotation for free.
So I get there and ask how much is a tire rotation as I wanted to know what's it worth.
He said free, you don't even need to buy anything.
weird...
So he writes up the order for the oil, and tells me it will be $104 ??
I explain the web site said $55, but he says my van takes more oil and the filter costs more.
He said my van takes 7 quarts, but I looked it up before and I was sure it was 6 or 6.5 quarts, so that worried me a bit.
I told him forget it, I'll take it to the dealer for $60.
Then I asked, since I'm here, can I get the free tire rotation , and they did it for free

 

[John Galt III]

Latest strategy, in the struggle against too much rain staying in my yard, is to buy a few bags of topsoil and contour the terrain to get the rain to flow onto the apron of my driveway and then into the street. I already have the rain corralled into the front yard (which is better than before, when it rose up around my heat pump), but now it collects in a low spot near the sidewalk and slowly drains down under the sidewalk, and I'm worried about what the water is doing under the sidewalk. (probably nothing, but....) If this works, it will let me avoid having to put a big ugly drain pipe across the front yard to the apron. Improving bit by bit, storm by storm.

 

[NgineER]

Working on getting the concrete countertops in my kitchen remodel to turn out the way I (and especially my wife) want to. Lots of practicing...

 

[Boho]

The roller brush from my Aerus vacuum was rattling. It was a broken shaft in the end cap. I made a replacement end cap by sticking a piece of Paper Mate pen barrel through a hole in a rectangular piece of a plastic low voltage box and using a cable tie as a spacer. It worked great for a minute, then the pen barrel wore down too much. I had to decide between spending $20 for a whole new roller because nobody seems to sell the end cap alone, or buying an $8 UHMW-PE rod, cutting and filing it into a shaft/spacer, and screwing it to another piece of low voltage box. I chose the latter but I don't even know if it will be stiff enough when not molded in one piece.

 

[Sunset]

Took my van in for an oil change at Pep boys, as the web site said it was $55 after $20 off coupon for synthetic, and they do tire rotation for free.
So I get there and ask how much is a tire rotation as I wanted to know what's it worth.
He said free, you don't even need to buy anything.
weird...
So he writes up the order for the oil, and tells me it will be $104 ??
I explain the web site said $55, but he says my van takes more oil and the filter costs more.
He said my van takes 7 quarts, but I looked it up before and I was sure it was 6 or 6.5 quarts, so that worried me a bit.
I told him forget it, I'll take it to the dealer for $60.
Then I asked, since I'm here, can I get the free tire rotation , and they did it for free

So I checked Toyota dealers, and they were offering what amounted to $10 off the oil change, which made it $59 for full synthetic.

I went there and got that done.

 

[ls99]

few days ago pulled into garage, then the door started going up, down, up, down.......
Flipping off circuit breaker of the opener stopped it. Reset breaker... up, down.....
Remove battery from remote stopped it.
Open remote, found the leaf switch was no longer spring like, remained near closed, minor vibration would close it thus sending commands to opener.
Remove leaf switch, it was riveted in, not really practical to drill out rivets, which were soldered to foil traces. Dig through my vast collection of stuff, find a small micro switch. Solder on wires then then solder wires to where leaf switch was. Use hot glue to keep microswitch in position. Needed some mods to plastic button actuator to accomadate the taller microswitch, by using burr tool to make space.
Insert battery, test, works fine, should last a long time. It is a Genie remote.

 

[bjorn2bwild]

few days ago pulled into garage, then the door started going up, down, up, down.......
Flipping off circuit breaker of the opener stopped it. Reset breaker... up, down.....
Remove battery from remote stopped it.
Open remote, found the leaf switch was no longer spring like, remained near closed, minor vibration would close it thus sending commands to opener.
Remove leaf switch, it was riveted in, not really practical to drill out rivets, which were soldered to foil traces. Dig through my vast collection of stuff, find a small micro switch. Solder on wires then then solder wires to where leaf switch was. Use hot glue to keep microswitch in position. Needed some mods to plastic button actuator to accomadate the taller microswitch, by using burr tool to make space.
Insert battery, test, works fine, should last a long time. It is a Genie remote.

Good job. I have a few salvaged micro-momentary switches saved for such an occasion.

 

[bjorn2bwild]

Both of my small generators failed during the recent four day power outage.
On day one I fired up the 1300W Chinese made Alton to run the refrigerator, some lights, the tankless water heater, and propane fireplace fan - alternately the TV/satellite box in the evening. Started on first pull, great!
Day two it stopped suddenly and would not restart. No spark.
OK, no problem, bring out the trusty Yamaha EF1000is. After two pulls it fired up and we are back in business, super!…..for about an hour, and then that one dies too. No spark. Bummer, - It’s cold, damp, dark and I have no internet.
Next up, I turn to the 1500W power inverter and my idling truck for juice.
That gets me through to day three when there is a little sun breaking out and I can investigate the problems.
The Alton has a faulty ignition coil, no easy fix.
The Yamaha has a failed crankcase powered pulse fuel pump. The crankcase is now seriously overfilled with gas/oil mix that triggered a sensor to cut off the ignition. The solution was to drain the crankcase, fill with fresh oil, bypass the fuel pump and use the gas tank from the Alton perched on a box to gravity feed fuel to the carb. Started on first pull to finish out days 3-4. Replacement parts have been ordered.
Lesson learned - having multiple backups is prudent.

 

[Sunset]

My car automobile saga continues, as when I was at the Dealer, they did a load test on the battery (not requested) and told me it failed, battery was 4 yrs old.

I told them I didn't want to replace it as I had no issues. (I also had a battery I bought late last year for free in the kitchen).

So while I had been waiting for warm weather, this convinced me to change out the battery with my new one.
So I did, and nearly had a heart attack, for when I started up the Van, it started right away, then displayed message "Check Power Steering, Battery Failure" or something like that, then the car shut off.
I had that panicky feeling, and even wondered did I hook it up backwards ??
I checked the posts, and all was fine.
Turned the key on part-way and looked at the screen, no bad news , started the van, it started, no messages.
Turned on the radio - it didn't lose any stations, so I guess I didn't need to write them down.
I drove it around the block, and all is fine.

Then I put my 4 yr old battery in DW's car as she had a 7yr 4 month old battery in hers that has completely died about 4 times (due to long absences).

 

[sdtech]

Laying Floor

Continuing saga of remodeling home. Just about finished laying engineered hardwood on the next room. Can't say enough good things about the DeWalt battery powered floor staple gun and knee pads.

 

[aja8888]

My car automobile saga continues, as when I was at the Dealer, they did a load test on the battery (not requested) and told me it failed, battery was 4 yrs old.

I told them I didn't want to replace it as I had no issues. (I also had a battery I bought late last year for free in the kitchen).

So while I had been waiting for warm weather, this convinced me to change out the battery with my new one.
So I did, and nearly had a heart attack, for when I started up the Van, it started right away, then displayed message "Check Power Steering, Battery Failure" or something like that, then the car shut off.
I had that panicky feeling, and even wondered did I hook it up backwards ??
I checked the posts, and all was fine.
Turned the key on part-way and looked at the screen, no bad news , started the van, it started, no messages.
Turned on the radio - it didn't lose any stations, so I guess I didn't need to write them down.
I drove it around the block, and all is fine.

Then I put my 4 yr old battery in DW's car as she had a 7yr 4 month old battery in hers that has completely died about 4 times (due to long absences).

Last summer, I did an experiment with my 3 year old car battery. First place said that the load test failed. I moved on to three more auto parts stores that test batteries for free. Two of them said it passed and the third said it failed. I put the battery back in the SUV (last July) and it's still starting the car.

Go figure......

 

[NW-Bound]

Replaced the worn-out battery in my smartphone.

A Youtube video shows how easy it is to pry off the back cover. It took me 15 minutes. Once I finally had the back cover off, discovered that it was because it was glued onto the phone body with double-sided sticky tape on one of its 4 sides. Arghhh!

At one point, I told my wife that this might just be the day I had to go get a new phone at Costco because I ruined this one.

The phone was put back together, and I am waiting to see how long the new battery will last. The original battery was so worn, it could barely last through the night when the phone was not plugged in.

 

[aja8888]

Replaced the worn-out battery in my smartphone.

A Youtube video shows how easy it is to pry off the back cover. It took me 15 minutes. Once I finally had the back cover off, discovered that it was because it was glued onto the phone body with double-sided sticky tape on one of its 4 sides. Arghhh!

At one point, I told my wife that this might just be the day I had to go get a new phone at Costco because I ruined this one.

The phone was put back together, and I am waiting to see how long the new battery will last. The original battery was so worn, it could barely last through the night when the phone was not plugged in.

For a guy that is building his own solar system, changing a cell phone battery should have been "duck soup".

 

[NW-Bound]

... changing a cell phone battery should have been "duck soup".

Not when they glued the darn thing shut!

 

[Jerry1]

Last summer, I did an experiment with my 3 year old car battery. First place said that the load test failed. I moved on to three more auto parts stores that test batteries for free. Two of them said it passed and the third said it failed. I put the battery back in the SUV (last July) and it's still starting the car.

Go figure......

What I’ve found is that they last a long time as long as you’re using them every day. Like when you drive 15+ minutes to work each day. That charges the battery and the engine stays loose. Then, you stress the battery by going on vacation or get a really bad cold snap and they give out on you. I look at batteries like tires, change them before you need to or they’ll burn you when you need them. SIL tried to get me to get a battery jumper battery. I said that by the time I need it, it will be dead. May as well get a new battery more often.

 

[Boho]

The roller brush from my Aerus vacuum...broken shaft in the end cap...$8 UHMW-PE rod, cutting and filing it into a shaft/spacer...

That lasted twice as long as the Paper Mate pen. It looks like there was some twisting of the UHMW-PE, not just wear. I'm going to Home Depot to look for a nylon bolt that I can file into a shaft.

BTW, UHMW-PE isn't hard to file. It was so easy that I'm thinking it could have worn out spinning in a metal hole for a couple of minutes, but I'm hoping it was a strength issue that nylon will fix.