What have you fixed lately?

[heero_yuy]

Worktop fan oven/grill ( Again! ). This time the motor would stall after running for about 20mins. It's not siezed, just won't run so I guess the winding has developed a fault.

Anyhow I had a rummage in the bitsa* drawer and found a similar motor on a salvaged tangential blower. I cut a thread on the longer shaft to mount the fan and improvised some stand offs to space the motor well away from the fan duct. Works a treat.

I think the original motor had a hard life as it was mounted directly on the fan duct that runs at the same temperature as the oven interior. No wonder the bearings were shot.

*Bits of this and bits of that.

[Tinky]

Oh Heero how I could do with a handy person like you to fix the numerous small jobs needed in our new house.

[pabscars]

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

*Bits of this and bits of that.

I have one of those and I call it my **** bin, because I throw any old **** in it.

Not literally

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Tinky

Oh Heero how I could do with a handy person like you to fix the numerous small jobs needed in our new house.

Make him a cheeky offer Tinky...

[Gary L]

The camera on my iphone. I had a spare one in my iphone spares box.
the last couple of days when you start the camera app. it would just freeze and crash.

you can tell my eyes are getting bad. it took me twice as long to get the tiny screws back in on the board.

[alanbjames]

Trip Switch.

The element in kettle went and kicked out the main switch.

Back on now and need new kettle tho.

[Stop It]

Not sure if this counts as fixed but I was asked by a friend at work to do the initial install on a new HP laptop being gifted as an Xmas present.

The amount of crap that HP stuff onto these things is inexcusable. Aside from that it was pretty simples to get everything updated and ready to go. For being a very new laptop, it still had over 70 Windows 8.1 updates. Also chucked Classic Shell on to avoid the inevitable "What's this start button do" shenanigans!

Next up: My PC has started freezing every other boot when Windows 10 loads. I think it may actually be Core Temp, considering I updated it a few days ago and suddenly it freezes, but need to do some investigating.

[rhyds]

With winter fast approaching and my car's battery being rather small for its engine size and level of equipment, I've bitten the bullet and stuck a new battery in.

It's a Varta Silver (more expensive than equivalents, but it does have a much higher capacity) and I got it mail order. Took minutes to fit, and should help avoid a lack of start in the morning (on the car's part anyway...)

[Stop It]

Originally Posted by rhyds

With winter fast approaching and my car's battery being rather small for its engine size and level of equipment, I've bitten the bullet and stuck a new battery in.

It's a Varta Silver (more expensive than equivalents, but it does have a much higher capacity) and I got it mail order. Took minutes to fit, and should help avoid a lack of start in the morning (on the car's part anyway...)

Nicely done, although would an Optima not have fitted? Same company makes them (Johnson Controls), but they're generally far better and usually not that much more than the Silver range anyway.

To update my last post, yes, Core Temp hates Windows 10. It's gone, and so is my PC freezing.

[rhyds]

My mate suggested one of those, but the problem is that my car (Rover 45 1.4) has the stupidest battery positioning ever. Basically the battery is wedged between the headlamp and the gearbox mounting so you can't put anything larger than an 063 in.

The shortest Optima was about 30mm longer than the battery tray, had a lower rated capacity than the Black Varta battery coming out (not to mention the Silver one going in) and cost £132, whereas the Varta Silver was £42 (same supplier). The real killer was the optima was only covered for a year. Varta Silvers are covered for 5 years.

[Stop It]

Yikes, they should be covered for the same amount of time really all things considered.

The rated power is a bit of a red herring. A car battery is used as a starter device, so the Amp Hour rating isn't not as relevant as the Cold Cranking Amps. The CCA of Optima batteries are very high, and they generally last longer than standard Lead Acid batteries. The Amp Hour rating is more relevant for stuff like Caravan batteries, which is where Optima Yellow batteries come into play.

However, that Silver was very cheap, so I would've went for that too all things considered. As you say, sometimes the Optima's just wont fit anyway. Usually not a problem in my work's field however.

[rhyds]

This is what I stuck in: http://www.tayna.co.uk/Type-076-Vart...ery-P3131.html

52Ah, 520CCA.

This was what I compared it to:

http://www.tayna.co.uk/Optima-Yellow-Top-P3118.html

38Ah, 460CCA

I can see the advantage of AGM type batteries, but not for this particular application. The car is a £600 banger, and a Varta Silver will do fine for what I use it for.

[Stop It]

Originally Posted by rhyds

This is what I stuck in: http://www.tayna.co.uk/Type-076-Vart...ery-P3131.html

52Ah, 520CCA.

This was what I compared it to:

http://www.tayna.co.uk/Optima-Yellow-Top-P3118.html

38Ah, 460CCA

I can see the advantage of AGM type batteries, but not for this particular application. The car is a £600 banger, and a Varta Silver will do fine for what I use it for.

Ah, the Yellow Top isn't really what you need to compare it to. More comparable would be the RTR 3.7, 44aH, 730 CCA, but still lot's more money. As you said, for a £600 car it's a no brainer. Generally the machines my company sell these for are Tractors and thus it's not just the value but downtime that is taken into account and thus Optima's are generally worth it long term.

[Uncle Peter]

Just finished wiring up my Frankenstein P90 Telecaster (made from scratch apart from the neck). Sounds pretty nice.. twangy but meaty.

[heero_yuy]

Old tangential fan heater. I'd left it in the garage after doing some car work and the damp got at the elements and they fell to bits.

I happened to have some Kanthal resistance wire but only enough for one element but I was able to get two more 1KW Kanthal elements off Amazon for £2.35 delivered. Meant for making up small kilns but the perfect size and rating for this job.

element.JPG Click for full size, a bit big.

The element block has three 1KW elements, two of which are paralelled, the switches then allow for fan, 1, 2 or 3KW settings. I used the insides from some small chop blocks to terminate the wires to the original spade connectors.

Repair works a treat