What have you fixed lately?

[Taf]

Originally Posted by Uncle Peter

The switch in the button unit on my wireless doorbell. Well for now at least as judging by the poor quality of the "switch" hardware it's highly likely to fail again after a few uses.

Our postie always manages to press the button so hard that it jams in.....

[Uncle Peter]

Originally Posted by Taf

Our postie always manages to press the button so hard that it jams in.....

I think that's what's happened, been abused by sausage fingers

Not jammed in but it's loosened the metal tabs that push through the circuit board and fold over to secure the thin metal contact membrane.

[techguyone]

I think our postie air knocks then goes away, leaving a 'can't deliver ' note

[pip08456]

Originally Posted by techguyone

I think our postie air knocks then goes away, leaving a 'can't deliver ' note

You got the same postie as me????

[Theodoric]

The slideable shelf thingy that the keyboard sits on on my PC workstation. Despite being years old and looking like it has been attacked by something nasty the workstation is perfectly satisfactory, except for the sliding shelf bit. This fell onto the floor, yet again, the other day. After screwing one of the sliders back on I twisted various metal bits with a pair of pliers until it grudgingly agreed to slide back and forth.

[techguyone]

fixed flat tyre on a non self propelled wheelchair,which is harder than it sounds as the wheels are like 10 inches round and there's barely any clearance to get to the valve, valve stem was stuck as it would only let air out and not in, once I got the tube free of the wheel I could remove the stem and tighten, then pop it back in and pump it up, all was good.

[heero_yuy]

Foil head on my Braun series 3 electric razor: One of the foils suddenly kept jumping out in use. Seems a small plastic guide peg had snapped. I drilled a hole using a 1.4mm hobby drill (Lidl's version of the Dremmel) at the place the peg had been and superglued in a large piece of plastic covered wire from a giant paperclip. Trimmed to the same length as the existing pegs using side cutters. Works a treat.

Saved a bomb as these foil heads are stupid money.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

Foil head on my Braun series 3 electric razor: One of the foils suddenly kept jumping out in use. Seems a small plastic guide peg had snapped. I drilled a hole using a 1.4mm hobby drill (Lidl's version of the Dremmel) at the place the peg had been and superglued in a large piece of plastic covered wire from a giant paperclip. Trimmed to the same length as the existing pegs using side cutters. Works a treat.

Saved a bomb as these foil heads are stupid money.

Arise Sir Thrifty of Thrifty Towers!

[rogerdraig]

just rebuilt from left over parts plus new screen samsung s4 working well and nearly finished ipad 2 but digitizer is unstuck on one corner gorilla glue and clamp about to be used lol

[Taf]

Glued a pair of my daughter's boots that started to fall apart.

[rhyds]

My Zanussi built in Electric Oven and Grill.

After using the grill for the first time in ages the other day, the RCD for the house suddenly tripped. This was very odd, as the oven itself wasn't actually turned on at the time (only the clock was showing). The only way I could stop it happening was to switch off the oven isolator switch on the wall. Once everything cooled down, the oven would work again without tripping the RCD, but only if it wasn't warmed up, as soon as it did, it tripped everything again. A couple of electrician friends mentioned it was probably a neutral to earth fault in one of the elements, so I decided to apply the process of elimination, and disconnected each element in turn to see which one caused the issue.

In the end it turned out to be the grill element, and I was luckily able to order a brand new Zanussi part for about £40. I would have got one from Ebay but it seems Zanussi/Electrolux had changed the design of the element (the original had a hinge, the new one didn't) and it was very hard to find one on ebay that was listed as fitting my oven.

It all came apart and went back together surprisingly easily this afternoon, and I can now use my oven again!

[heero_yuy]

Well done. Neutral to earth faults can be real buggers to find.

[rhyds]

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

Well done. Neutral to earth faults can be real buggers to find.

It was a very odd one, as the grill element only failed once it warmed up, and would fail even if you didn't power it up, as the heat from the oven cavity was enough to cause it to short. The way I managed it in the end was to disconnect each of the 3 elements (main/fan element, bottom element, grill element) in turn (And using tape on the connectors to avoid them shorting out), power up the oven and warm it up to operating temperature and see if it could get there without tripping.

[heero_yuy]

It's the physical movement of the internal heating coil vs the sheath of the element. They're insulated by a packing of magnesium oxide. It probably happened by the heat / cool cycles of the actual oven. Usually it's the actual heated element that fails. I don't have an RCD in my house so when the element goes in the oven it's pyrotechnics time.

[rhyds]

My house only has the one RCD in the consumer unit. Great for keeping me from becoming extra crispy, but if it goes it trips everything.