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

[porsche930dude]

Finished up my shed my buddy was cleaning out and gave me the windows so i put the on the one side to block the wind. Also working on a tractor the mag stopped clicking the weights were rusted up. I had gotten it running for the guy before covid but he only ran it a bit since then and now wants to sell it so I have to get it running again. It should run now with a better battery I think im going to put a 12v one on it. a dead 6v aint workin out

[Jolly Amaranto]

The fuel pump on a 4 cylinder, air cooled Duetz gen set blew out its diaphragm and diesel fuel was blowing into the crank case. This is under a railroad passenger car that I help maintain at a tourist railroad.

[JeremyD]

Soft spots on the deck by the vent and rod holder. That was on the dance card this weekend.


Replaced with Divinycell and epoxy glassed in

[HobieMarty]

Many years ago I painted the SHO's brake calipers red. My son wants to paint them black so I got a wire brush set for my drill from Harbor Freight, black friday sale at $3.99, and we started removing the old red paint. Easy peasy.

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[Robert Coats]

Casa Coats is getting closer to move-in after our fire last year. Today, I was in the kitchen, working on connecting the natural gas supply line to the cooktop. I don't have a great history with most homeowner plumbing jobs, this one seemed mostly easy. Had to cut a bit of cabinet away to get clearance for the pipe, fit the regulator and connect the flexible line to the valve. I was almost done tightening a fitting into the regulator and slipped, snapping off the corner of the (pot metal?) regulator.

(rant=on)
So yeah, another plumbing project that got sideways. I can butcher wood and keep smoke from leaking out of electrical stuff, but plumbing?

After today, I'm so tempted to sell off all my plumbing tools and pay a professional in the future.
(rant=off)

[911 Rod]

Snowmobiling is so much fun!

[911 Rod]

Rebuilding hubs

[HobieMarty]

One caliper done.

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[McLovin]

Fridge/freezer have slowly been losing cooling.
12 years old, with custom panels that match the cabinets so not too easy to replace these days.
Most likely suspect is a slow Freon (R134a), but paid $65 for a fridge guy to come look at it, in case maybe it’s an easy part problem (like maybe an expansion valve or something).
He confirmed it is low on freon. He said there’s nothing he can do to fix it, and the only thing to do is buy a new fridge.
For reasons I don’t understand, there’s no charge port on a fridge. Seems like you have to cut and braze in a charge port, or use a device that clamps onto the line and pierces it.
Anyways, long story short, used the $5 piercing device, my car AC gauge set, and a can of R134a/sealant and it’s cooling normal again.

[Scott Douglas]

When our fridge was brand new, it quit working about two weeks after we got it. I wanted a new one to replace it since the system is 'closed' from the factory. Repair guy said it'll be good as new once he was done recharging it with a port he put into the system.
It's been working ever since, which is about 20+ years now, at least.

[Evans, Marv]

Originally Posted by McLovin

Fridge/freezer have slowly been losing cooling.
12 years old, with custom panels that match the cabinets so not too easy to replace these days.
Most likely suspect is a slow Freon (R134a), but paid $65 for a fridge guy to come look at it, in case maybe it’s an easy part problem (like maybe an expansion valve or something).
He confirmed it is low on freon. He said there’s nothing he can do to fix it, and the only thing to do is buy a new fridge.
For reasons I don’t understand, there’s no charge port on a fridge. Seems like you have to cut and braze in a charge port, or use a device that clamps onto the line and pierces it.
Anyways, long story short, used the $5 piercing device, my car AC gauge set, and a can of R134a/sealant and it’s cooling normal again.

Great show of Pelican ingenuity.

[Scott Douglas]

My wife asked what I had planned for today. When ever she does that I know she has something she wants me to do. This morning, besides wrapping Xmas presents for the grandkids, she asked if I could figure out a way to keep her plastic rulers from flipping over and falling on the floor when the block they sit in flips over due to being unbalanced.
So, with the help of a friend who has wood working tools, I came up with new blocks. Bigger, broader and lots more stable than the originals. I bought my friend two new saw blades for his radial arm saw since his smoked when doing a cross cut on the oak piece of wood I got at Lowes. A little sanding and done.

[mthomas58]

Made a track saw jig for my circular saw to perform long rip and cross cuts without the use of clamps and straight edges which always seem to get in the way of the saw. Just line up the saw kerf on the jig using the sight holes with the desired cut line. I need to add some non skid tape to the bottom to keep it in place.

[rsrguy]

A buddy is importing this 18 from Canada. Its a ceconite dope cover job done about 10 or 15 years ago. The PO used rollers and brushes so the surface has lots of..... "character". The new custodian spent about a week wet sanding before he said enough, the most important thing is we removed and sanded the edges of the painted on canook reg numbers. Today we prepped and shot it with ranthane which is the approved urethane for use over buterate dope. It won't be perfect but it's a huge improvement.... still has some patina. Stripes next week.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by mthomas58

Made a track saw jig for my circular saw to perform long rip and cross cuts without the use of clamps and straight edges which always seem to get in the way of the saw. Just line up the saw kerf on the jig using the sight holes with the desired cut line. I need to add some non skid tape to the bottom to keep it in place.

Festools will get no money from you! Very nicely done. And I'm always impressed how you finish your jigs with paint! The jigs I make are total slap-dash affairs that barely do the job, but they do do the job. Salut!

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by rsrguy

A buddy is importing this 18 from Canada. Its a ceconite dope cover job done about 10 or 15 years ago. The PO used rollers and brushes so the surface has lots of..... "character". The new custodian spent about a week wet sanding before he said enough, the most important thing is we removed and sanded the edges of the painted on canook reg numbers. Today we prepped and shot it with ranthane which is the approved urethane for use over buterate dope. It won't be perfect but it's a huge improvement.... still has some patina. Stripes next week.

I love your airplane posts, and your paint posts. (My dad owned a 1940-something TeeCraft, and later in life he built a SkyRaider ultralight). I always wished for a shop big enough to paint a car. Or a plane.

Is weight a consideration on a bird like this?

[rsrguy]

Thanks for the kind words. I don’t personally feel weight is a major factor. I had another buddy's plane once that had a poorly applied coat on top of the wings... was able to remove the whole coat with a razor scraper. It was fairly thick, maybe two and a half cross coats. I swept it all up and it ( and the dust on the floor) ended up being less than a pound and a half. From my perspective, the paint on planes isn't a place to shave weight, it's easier to see big results elsewhere. On the fabric bush planes the huge weight savings are better achieved using oratex, a newer covering system made in Germany.... can eliminate as much as a third on covering alone!

[herr_oberst]

My winter Gore Tex cycling boots have holes in the cuffs where the soft booty meets the shoe. This is all integral; therefore, a weak link. The boots are otherwise perfectly good, they stay warm and dry except for that one trouble spot and the replacements for these are 300 bucks....

Like Roger Daltrey tells Pete in'Magic Bus' - "Too Much!"

So, like the good tightwad I am, I made a paper template, transferred that pattern to some thin closed cell I had laying around, and used shoe goo to assemble the parts. Time will tell if the repair holds or holds up.
I've got a plan B if I can't get a few more thousand miles out of these.





This is where the cold and wet happens on both boots.


Time will tell. Not too ghetto, right?

[Baz]

I can't even see your repairs, Herr Oberst......nice work!

[herr_oberst]

Thanks, Baz; I'll probably end up putting a bead of shoe goo around all 4 edges (for safety!) and no matter how carefully I apply it, it won't have any place to hide; but function has to be paramount. Cold, wet feet = no bueno.