What have you fixed lately?

[Taf]

I hated having to wait up to 4 minutes for watering cans to fill, so I've just "fixed" that. A 6 litre toilet cistern on the garden wall fed from the outside tap. 2 second fills now.

[Mr K]

Some old wooden garden furniture I though I have to dispose of this year. However sanded, varnished a few new screws and voila !

Think I'll get Mrs K, to test it first though....

[Ramrod]

Originally Posted by Mr K

Some old wooden garden furniture I though I have to dispose of this year. However sanded, varnished a few new screws and voila !

Thats what I've started today. 15 year old table & 6 chairs. Sanded down one chair and half the table and applied Danish Oil. Run out of sandpaper and oil so I'm now waiting for ebay to deliver more

[Osem]

The venetian blind on our kitchen window. One of the cords had worn and broke suddenly so I had to take it down and replace it. Luckily the break was right at the bottom of the blind so I was able to reuse the old cord which is colour coded to match the slats.

[Taf]

DVD RW drive on my PC, luckily I had a spare.

I put a disk in to burn yesterday and didn't notice a very thin spacer disk was stuck to it.

They separated when the drive spun up.... and bang went the laser holder.

[richard s]

About to start on the CV joint on my old car... ruddy ball joints are a pain to separate, just broke a new £15.00 ball joint separator, oh well back to the 4ft scaffolding pole as a lever.

[heero_yuy]

Once you get the separator (or lever) up to a decent torque try hitting the part the joint goes into with two hammers on opposite sides. Helps break the cold weld of the metal.

I've had a similar problem with the lower ball joint on the front of the Metro. This slides into the hub and is held with a pinch bolt. Over the years all the muck and bullets corrode the surfaces and the thing is a devil to get out. Needs a long lever inserted where it can get purchase and then some concentrated hammer work and penetrating oil.

[Osem]

The wife's Lexon lcd watch. Took it to our usual guy who couldn't work out how to get the battery out and gave up. After about 30 mins of fiddling at home I eventually managed to remove it and replace it with the required CR2016 cell. Watch working nicely, Brownie points won...

[heero_yuy]

Solar rock light. Water had got into where the solar cell is and corroded away the connections. Fortunately I have a stock of higher power ones of roughly the same size so soldered in a new one and fixed it back with plenty of silicon sealant. Works a treat.

As time goes on I'll probably upgrade the rest of them as with the better cells and batteries they stay lit at full power all night.

[Osem]

Our mildew stained and part rotten Velux window frames. Well they've been in over 20 years and get the worst of the weather so I can't complain. It seems condensation was the main issue which caused quite a lot of black staining and small sections of one of the frames to rot away. Thankfully wood preserver treatment followed by careful filling using a 2 part pine coloured polyester based filler and sanding has done the trick. It's been a bit of a job but satisfying as working with wood usually is. Just another 2 large roof windows to go and I'm all done for a few years hopefully...

[Uncle Peter]

Some jobs on my lad's bike: Stripped, cleaned and rebalanced carbs. New plugs and coil packs.

I need to check the plugs on my car this weekend which is a bit of a pain as to get anywhere near them you need to remove the washer bottle on one side and on the other side: the battery, air box and MAF sensor.

[Osem]

The headphones socket on my Asus laptop. I lost all sound from the speakers yesterday but recalled that I'd briefly been using the headphones earlier in the day. I plugged them back in and the sound was fine so suspected something to do with the headphone socket and had a careful pock around with a piece of wire. Suddenly the sound came back.

[Osem]

Forgot to mention the Ikea rise and fall type cellular blind I fixed last week. I've never seen anything like the cord mechanism inside those damned things. It took ages to work out what the problem was even after I'd finally resorted to removing one of the other blinds and using that as a guide. Even so, trying to re-run the cord through the complex series of wheels/pulleys with so little room to play with was a real pain. I got there in the end after about 4 hours of fiddling.

Yesterday I fixed the power cable of my hedge trimmer which got snagged and tugged whilst I was cutting out hedges, causing a failed connection within the body of the trimmer. Luckily It was a simple case of opening it up and reinstating the wires in the terminal block. Looking at it, the cable clamp isn't all that secure so I reckon a lot of these machines fail for the same reason and probably get checked away by people who can't be bothered to open them up.

[rogerdraig]

iphone 4 (screen and battery) ipad 2 volume and digitizer and built from leftover parts ( bought Ariel wire and button flex ) a nokia lumia 625

i was board ( 4 weeks of chest infection and still ongoing )

[Osem]

A couple of the wife's summer dresses which need alterations. A few mins on the sewing machine sorted them out nicely.