Continuing Thread: What Are You Fix-It'ing Today?

Originally Posted by Skip Newsom

Turn signal rubber end thingie broke after only 46 years, gorilla glue held it for another year till it broke again (flashing high beams with a bit of vigor did it)

Ordered a new one, cut the remaining chunks off with a utility knife and gorilla glued the new one on. I hope it's good for another 46 years or so.

You can get those in billet, Skip. Someplace in Britain. Expensive.

[RNajarian]

I’ve added some fuses to the bridge rectifiers on my mid 80s pinball machines and have begun replacing the incandescent bulbs with LEDs. Here’s a photo of the boy doing quality assurance testing.

[Baz]

Sprayed a rust removal product this morning at a client's property......worked pretty good!

$12.77 shipped to my door (Amazon)


Before:


After:

[LEAKYSEALS951]

Some days things fall into place. Several years ago, I retired a rear rim because it was getting soooo thin from brake wear, I was afraid it would break. This saturday, I filled it up with air to see what it would look like on the bike, and KAPOWWWW!!!!!



Fortunately, I saw it coming, and had previously ordered a NEW rear rim, which showed up several hours later:

Not missing a beat, I got to rebuilding it- never mind It was a 36 hole rear rim, and I had a 32 hole hub, but that's a different story.


Ultimately, I am restoring my 1985 Schwinn MTB, It's taken me to some cool places, and will get a complete restoration- here it is in some sand at Hilton Head SC.

[Zeke]

Building a rocket stove. I don't think there's any 2 alike.

[dad911]

Gas power washer. After removing/cleaning/lubricating the unloader valve multiple times, gave up last week and ordered a replacement pump from Amazon. $70, back in business, might be pressure than new.

[SiberianDVM]

Renovating the kitchen. New rear doors to deck already installed, just finished the drywall around them yesterday, finished the painting today.

Still to go: refinishing the pine floor, installing a couple more cabinets and building a utility cabinet, installing a ceiling fan/light, and (ugh) new counter tops.

This house was built in 1939 as a low budget cottage, but it has great construction with plaster walls and ceilings, and oak flooring except in the bathroom and kitchen.

[john70t]

Office Max chair shock. Most of them are one-size-fits-all. But not this Office Max.

The big one is the standard replacement.

The old shock's lower half is retracted inside and leaking.
This "creative design" is reversed, with the bigger half on top.
The lower half is the width of a big pencil and sits on a small roller bearing
This sits inside a plastic reducer sleeve, which was breaking and had to be knocked out.

The seat also had to be removed and a hole drilled in the bracket to be able to knock the old one out the top.
I'm hoping the new one will slide in, after the crimps are ground off the inside of the tube.
Why did they have to add crimps and warp the tube?
Uggh.

[john70t]

It is so damn close..
I cut off the indented top section and smoothed out the insides with a sanding bit. Still no fit.


The tube was made too small on purpose and already paper thin.
Manual sanding was out of the question. No honing tool. Getting frustrated now.

(Danger stupid brain territory ahead.)
The inside diameter needed to be reduced!!!
I did not have a lathe or chuck to shave 1/32 from the outside of the shock (thankfully), and thinking of some way to hold it while sanding down the outside on sandpaper in a hole.
Layers of aluminum foil would hold it in place in a door hole saw...right?


That was not going to work. Bad idea.
Then I tried a few hours of using an 8" flexible paint removal disk. Back and forth.
Its was marked in a spiral with a Sharpie to show what was already done.
Shock was fully extended to disperse heat. When the back side got warm it was put on ice for a few minutes.


But eventually after a few thou I chickened out.
The best and simplest solution was to cut expansion slots in the tube.
I cut a "T" at the bottom of each to allow for a "shelf".


Three or four hose clamps will finish it off.

[Baz]

Tonight I changed out the 3 cushions on my couch for one long one. Ordered a piece of foam from Amazon - sucker is 5" thick! Had to cut off about 10" from one end - the width was perfect. I could have used the 4" thick size but I thought what the heck - another inch of thickness can't hurt - right?

I have a piece of fabric over it and tucked under the sides as a cover. Not sure how this will end up but gotta be better than the old worn out cushions that kept shifting on me.

[Baz]

Then earlier today they set the top (remaining) half of the spiral staircase for the remodel project next door.

I'm always interested in a project when a crane is involved.





I was wondering if they made a breathalyzer for these things because the neighbor lady is a lush and that's pretty high up for someone who is a little tippy!

[Zeke]

Funny, I'm machining some Delrin swivel chair inserts for the MCM dealer I work for. He also brought in a halogen lamp that I tested months ago but he had the wrong bulb. New bulb and still no light so he brought it back. Still showed 123 v at the pins but also showed 123 v when sliding the inline dimmer. I cut out the dimmer and light goes on.

That's a new one to me. Dimmer on order to match the pair.

[oldE]

Reassembled the Kuhn drum mower yesterday. New blades and a quick test :it cuts like new. Time to put it away until next summer.

Best
Les

[Racerbvd]

My 21 year old Trane AC went out at the house, hoped it would be something simple. like the motor, that I cam replace, sadly, the compressor is bad, so time for a complete unit. Man the cost has gone up since I replaced mine 21 years ago.

[mattdavis11]

I just had a family member deliver and install an a/c unit in our home. House never had a/c, so he did it all. He lives in Orlando, bought all the stuff there, and hauled it and the family to Texas for a week. It was around $5K for all of it.

Today, I'm removing a transmission throttle (kickdown) cable from the old Camry transmission, and will install it in the replacement. The dismantler tried to cut through and ruined the cable on the replacement. Off comes the pan, valve body, etc...

[Baz]

Originally Posted by Racerbvd

My 21 year old Trane AC went out at the house, hoped it would be something simple. like the motor, that I cam replace, sadly, the compressor is bad, so time for a complete unit. Man the cost has gone up since I replaced mine 21 years ago.

Around here complete systems are going for around $6K. That's for a 2.5 ton - including outside and inside.

[Racerbvd]

Replaced the shocks on the old 2500 Suburban.

[john70t]

The 7yo Delta had stopped rotating and the based cracked and leaking. Garbage.
The new is taller for comparison.
Need at the very least 15" plus 6+" height for about all of them.


*Spray function is good for washing food in a strainer. Must be sure the pull hose is clear of all pipes underneath and lines straight.

*Only one center nut. This one was lacking screw-in plates for the other two holes and will flex with my cheap sink basin. I shimmed up a board underneath under the back shelf as a brace.

*Also used silicone sealant around the base and was careful to make sure the very thin base washer (which wanted to pop out) was kept in place. Had to pull on the hose to make sure everything stayed seated while tightening the nut from underneath. The nut was small and oblong to slip over the hose fittings and didn't wand to thread easily.

*The red hose was hooked to the hot water pipe but the function was still reversed from the dots on the handle. Oh well.

[Scott Douglas]

Porch light quit working last month so I got busy and found the exact same fixture at HD. Didn't want to have to mess with the flagstone to put the new one in, so a win for me.
Old one had burned up wires, probably from the heat of leaving it on all night with a big bulb in it. New bulb is LED and runs cool, puts out just as much light as the old 100 watter, but cost more than the fixture.
Also rebuilt the side yard gate. The wife hated the termites-holding-hands look of the old one which we put in some 30-odd years ago. At first I just replaced the gate, but she wanted the adjoining boards done too. That involved the neigbhors gate/hinges etc and I really didn't want to go there. After some thought, and getting the impetus to change the back boards from the neighbor (not a fix it type guy) I took it all on. Was able to replace the back boards without having to re-hang the neighbors gate too.
All in all it turned out OK, IMO.

[Ayles]

Exhaust fan in my kitchen. It has never worked and always suspected it might have been blowing instead of sucking. I was up cleaning the vent and decided to see how far I could take it apart.... about 5 min before my wife was to start cooking. I noticed that the flap was not opening when the fan was turned on. I took the motor to my work bench and plugged it and finally confirmed it was indeed blowing in the wrong direction! Probably been like this since a remodel was done in the 80s...

Fortunately the motors are easily sourced that spin in either direction and one is on the way from amazon.