Your recent repair? 2013 - 2020

[Mr._Graybeard]

On the subject of ethanol in gasoline, I recently pulled my 2-stroke Mantis-type cultivator out of storage to prep the garden. I hadn't used it in a couple of years, and quickly discovered that all the clear vinyl tubing from the fuel tank to the engine had deteriorated into a leaking mess. I can't blame it with certainty on the ethanol -- maybe mice got to them!

 

[Sunset]

On the subject of ethanol in gasoline, I recently pulled my 2-stroke Mantis-type cultivator out of storage to prep the garden. I hadn't used it in a couple of years, and quickly discovered that all the clear vinyl tubing from the fuel tank to the engine had deteriorated into a leaking mess. I can't blame it with certainty on the ethanol -- maybe mice got to them!

Yes, that's exactly what my chainsaw above suffered from, except I do blame ethanol, no way mice go inside the gas tank on mine as the cap was on but slightly loose.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

Yes, that's exactly what my chainsaw above suffered from, except I do blame ethanol, no way mice go inside the gas tank on mine as the cap was on but slightly loose.

I was kidding about the mice.

 

[Sunset]

I was kidding about the mice.

Missed that, better put down the chainsaw and Ethanol for another day

 

[harley]

On the subject of ethanol in gasoline, I recently pulled my 2-stroke Mantis-type cultivator out of storage to prep the garden. I hadn't used it in a couple of years, and quickly discovered that all the clear vinyl tubing from the fuel tank to the engine had deteriorated into a leaking mess. I can't blame it with certainty on the ethanol -- maybe mice got to them!

Since switching to ethanol gas, my 25 y.o. mantis has had the rubber pump button dissolve every other year (3 times now). However, I was recently given a Sun Joe Electric Tiller (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00V6IEVX...t=&hvlocphy=9008104&hvtargid=pla-314230551240) for an early father's day gift. It works like a champ on my small vegetable garden, and as I don't foresee doing any major tilling in the future, I think I'll retire the old girl (ie. sell it on Craigslist). No more gas problems.

 

[travelover]

The switch on my wood lathe quit switching on-off. Sawdust gets into the switch. Bought a new switch and installed. It went bad in a week. The good thing is that the lathe is always on- it won’t turn off. So I bought a power cord, light switch, and receptacle. Created a switched outlet and plugged the lathe into it. Now I just flip the light switch to turn the lathe on and off.

I use a foot switch on my (metal) lathe. Acts as a safety, too, if I keel over the lathe stops. https://www.harborfreight.com/momentary-power-foot-switch-96619.html

 

[travelover]

Since switching to ethanol gas, my 25 y.o. mantis has had the rubber pump button dissolve every other year (3 times now). However, I was recently given a Sun Joe Electric Tiller (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00V6IEVX...t=&hvlocphy=9008104&hvtargid=pla-314230551240) for an early father's day gift. It works like a champ on my small vegetable garden, and as I don't foresee doing any major tilling in the future, I think I'll retire the old girl (ie. sell it on Craigslist). No more gas problems.

I picked up a Mantis at Goodwill and all that was wrong with it was the primer pump and the fuel lines which were all brittle. A kit including a new carb was only about $10 on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019ON5PUI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


It sold fast on Craigslist.

 

[Ronstar]

I use a foot switch on my (metal) lathe. Acts as a safety, too, if I keel over the lathe stops. https://www.harborfreight.com/momentary-power-foot-switch-96619.html

Whoa - I like that! Didn’t know such a foot switch existed. Thanks for posting!

 

[ls99]

After a few months of procrastinating, shut the water off to the house, in order to dis-assemble a freezeproof water valve. The thing had not allowed water to come out of it, even when fully opened.


Removing the long stem of the valve, found the sealing washer deformed, took several good tugs to actually extract the stem from the valve body.


A trip to the local hardware store (about a mile away) and $3.87 later had a blister pack of various sizes of rubber washers. Unscrew the deformed washer, slect one that fit, mount washer, tighten screw. Install stem into valve body, shut valve.


Turn on water main, test repaired valve. Works! Elapsed time start to finish 45 mintes or so. No idea what a plumber would have charged. And no waiting around for the plumber. I am sure I can take a lady friend out for dinner on the savings. Surely a more charming time.

 

[ncbill]

U.S. & Canada stations that sell pure gasoline (no ethanol):

https://www.pure-gas.org

 

[samclem]

U.S. & Canada stations that sell pure gasoline (no ethanol):

https://www.pure-gas.org

This is a helpful starting point, thanks. Be sure to call the station before making a trip, as I've found some inaccuracies in my local area.

 

[Winemaker]

Two reairs/rebuilds here

1. I had received a 10 gallon whiskey barrel from local distillery about 2 years ago. After aging 2 batches of scotch ale, fermenting 2 batches of barrel fermented Chardonnay, and aging another 6 batches of red blend 'mad scientist' wines, I became weary of the charred flavor of the barrel. (whiskey barrels are charred, wine barrels are toasted). I pulled the hoop nails knocked the hoops off, sanded the staves with my standing sander, and again with a belt sander. I put the barrel staves back together, built a small oak fire then toasted the inside of the barrel. I had to take it apart again to install both heads, boiled a few gallons of water to put inside barrel, put bung in, and stood the barrel on one end, and put more boiled water on the top of the barrel to swell the outside head. After a half hour, you flip the barrel, and repeat the hot water treatment. Then I filled the barrel full and let it set for a few hours, checking for leaks. Well, it must have been beginner's luck, as there were no leaks. I, added some sanitizer, then let it sit over night, again, no leaks. I drained the barrel and refilled with a Cab/Merlot/Petite Syrah blend. So, I can now add "half fast" cooper to my resume, after 4 days of hard but enjoyable work. I saved about $600 instead of buying a new barrel.

2. The 07 Trailblazer will get sent off for a transmission rebuild after 100,000 miles on it. I expect to blow $3000 on it. Easy come, easy go.

 

[Jerry1]

Hoping for a non-repair. Very hot her these past couple days. The air conditioner is putting off a musty odor. I was going to try to clean it myself, but when I opened up the unit, the A-frame coil looked fine and I did not feel good about spraying it because the drip pan would not catch all the dripping from the cleaning and I didn’t want to make matters worse.

Then, yesterday, the air was not able to keep up with the heat. It was about 95 outside and I had my temp set at 76. During the hot part of the day, the house was only getting to 80. So the air, wasn’t cutting it. I don’t know if that was too much to ask of it, but the company will be here Wednesday to look at it. Wish me luck.

 

[Walt34]

In the "nothing is ever simple" category:

When we got home from the gym there was a package on the front porch from Amazon containing, among other things, a new doorbell switch to replace the one that was crumbling from ozone or cosmic rays or something. This should be easy, right? Two screws, two wires, put it all back together and done, right? What could be easier?

Wrong. The instant I pull the switch away from the wall one of the wires breaks off within 1/4" of the wall and the skinflint &^*(# who installed it didn't leave but 1/4" of slack wire within the wall to pull more wire out, and that only with constant tugging on it with a pair of needle-nose pliers. So I get out my soldering iron (the little one for small stuff) and draft DW to hold the pliers while I scrape away a little insulation and solder the broken-off wire back on. TA DA, it works!

To my complete astonishment, the screw holes on the old switch and the new one are exactly the same distance apart so I didn't have to drill new screw holes.

 

[REWahoo]

To my complete astonishment, the screw holes on the old switch and the new one are exactly the same distance apart so I didn't have to drill new screw holes.

Congratulations on not having to do anything to screw it up.

 

[jimbee]

I noticed a groaning sound at the rear right side of my car when applying the brakes. Pulled the wheel and caliper, found the inside brake pad was in a couple of pieces. The rotor was in good shape, so I installed and burnished a set of rear brakes pads, and the noise stopped. Inspected the front brakes, and they look fine.

 

[Sunset]

Pulled out our generator, which I never used in the 8 years we have it.
Checked, and yes I did put oil in it.
See the plugs, there are 3 different sockets
We only need the regular socket.
Made a trip to the store to find an adapter to adapt the RV socket to regular one, so we will have 2 sockets.
Will bring power strips to plug into each as only going to be charging cell phones and cordless drills.
So we are going to take it on a trip where we need electricity to charge cell phones/laptop/drill batteries.

 

[Breedlove]

Treating the yard for pests , went to HD picked up Bug B Gone treated the foundation . Picked up some flex seal, tomorrow I will seal around the bottom of our House . I have closed cell foam on the inside and I cauked the building originally . But the cauking dried out so I am going to try flex seal tomorrow .

 

[Sunset]

Of course Chicago is getting a heat wave, over 95 today.
I went and installed a toilet for an elderly relative, and when we returned home, we noticed the house was warm.
Yep, figured out the A/C is not working
So it's 90 in the house.
The outside unit makes a hum when on, and the fan does not turn. Searching suggests it's the capacitor. Looks pretty easy to fix.
However buying one might be hard, HD and Menards don't seem to have one.
Grainger has lots, and I'm hoping I can buy and pick up.
I have to see the actual size (specs) of mine before I buy, so that will be in the morning.

 

[Sunset]

So my capacitor is the normal dual run 35/5 370 Volt type.

It's totally blown, all bulged up on top. The part is cheap ranging from $9 - $12 depending upon location.
EXCEPT it is Sunday and places are closed, and searching HD,Lowes,Menards, online shows no results.

One HVAC website that claimed will sell parts wholesale but no warranty was open , so I tell him what I want, and he said he could sell it to me for $150
I told him I'd wait until Monday, he laughed, said he only had a few and he figured he could sell them at this price due to the heat.

 

[bjorn2bwild]

The outside unit makes a hum when on, and the fan does not turn. Searching suggests it's the capacitor. Looks pretty easy to fix.

If the compressor is running (hum noise), sometimes the fan can be manually spun with a stick to get it started. Of course this has to be done each time it is run, but it can get you through til Monday if it works.


P.S. The low side of the blade is the leading edge, spin in that direction.

 

[Cobra9777]

TL; DR Repaired slow leak in cast iron drain pipe with epoxy putty. It's holding for now.

We have a 50 year-old 2-story house with 4" cast iron drain pipes throughout. Two upstairs baths feed into a vertical pipe in the wall of the downstairs master bath. We are currently remodeling the master and all studs are exposed.

I hired a contractor to remove an old cast iron tub in the master. They beat the crap out of it with a sledge hammer until there were two pieces that could be removed. The vibration must have knocked something loose in the rusty old cast iron drain pipes in the ceiling because one of the horizontal sections started leaking slowly when water runs in one of the upstairs baths.

Unfortunately, the leak was in an adjacent room, about 18 inches from the master bath. It was leaking onto the drywall ceiling in that room. However, because the ceiling is removed in the master, I could see the leak area by sticking my head up into the ceiling space. This was not easy to do.

I used my cell phone camera to sort-of blindly shoot some video so I could pinpoint the exact location of the leak. I then used some steel-reinforced epoxy putty to seal the leak. This involved some trial and error. I had to do this by feel as I couldn't actually fit my arm and my head into this space at the same time.

Anyway, after two days of periodic testing, there is no more leak. I sure hope this holds. If not, we'll have to remove some drywall in the ceiling of the adjacent room to expose the leaking pipe. But even then, I'm not sure what we would do. I'm afraid that trying to cut or replace a section of that rusty old pipe might create more upstream leaks in areas that are not accessible, which would be a disaster.

 

[John Galt III]

So my capacitor is the normal dual run 35/5 370 Volt type.

It's totally blown, all bulged up on top. The part is cheap ranging from $9 - $12 depending upon location.
EXCEPT it is Sunday and places are closed, and searching HD,Lowes,Menards, online shows no results.

One HVAC website that claimed will sell parts wholesale but no warranty was open , so I tell him what I want, and he said he could sell it to me for $150
I told him I'd wait until Monday, he laughed, said he only had a few and he figured he could sell them at this price due to the heat.

Wow, what a ***mbag the wholesaler is.

 

[FIREd]

Not exactly repairs but this morning I checked the tire pressure on our cars and reset the TPMS. I had noticed that our mpg average had decreased recently on DW’s car (I track it pretty rigorously, more for fun than anything else). The tire pressure was 5psi below recommended for the 4 tires. That car was at the dealership for a routine service a few weeks ago so they must have adjusted the tire pressure lower but I have no idea why.

Inside the house, I recently changed all the power outlets and switches. I also changed the hardware on all the doors (knobs, hinges, door stops, locks, etc...). While I changed the hinges, I also corrected some misalignment problems (some doors did not latch anymore, and some were sagging and sticky).

 

[Philliefan33]

We just finished putting new slings on our deck furniture.

When he pulled it out of the shed this Spring, DH noticed that the fabrics was fragile due to age and sun exposure. I confirmed that in early May when I shifted my weight while sitting in one of the chairs and busted right through. Thank goodness it was me and not one of our guests; we all had a good laugh at my expense.

The set is from Lowes, at least ten years old. We certainly got our money’s worth. But the frames are still in very good shape so it seemed a waste to just throw them out. A local shop wanted $80 each to repair. For that amount of money I’d just buy new. So I did some searching on YouTube and gained confidence, then found the right fabric online.

We bought Sunbrella outdoor fabric, 60’ of new spline, and outdoor thread. Total cost of materials was less than $100. I used my sewing skills to put together the new seats and backs while DH worked on tearing the old stuff off. After some trial and error we found a good technique to get everything back together.

The photos are before/during/after. b