Fixit Log

Fixing and making things, what tools to get and what skills to learn, ...
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grundomatic
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Re: Fixit Log

Post by grundomatic »

Our toilet was not flushing well. DW kept asking about calling a plumber. When she put a timeframe to doing so, I got motivated. The snake I got years ago to clear shower drain was not finding a clog. Some basic googling and inspection and I figured out the siphon jet was clogged. Turned off water, flushed, then poured a gallon of vinegar down the flapper drain to attack the clog from both directions. About 5 hours later I went after it with what I think is drywall screen sandpaper (it's what the hardware store suggested years ago to attack hard water lines in the toilet), an old toothbrush, and my finger. Not an impressive fix, but it saved a bill from an expert, making this an easy ERE win. Posting here in hopes of inspiring any other fixit-timid folks like myself to at least give something a look and a try.

jacob
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Re: Fixit Log

Post by jacob »

Cam wrote:
Mon May 09, 2022 8:09 pm
I repaired a lawnmower handle for a friend of mine with my flux core welder.
I've done similar fixes on lighter duty applications with wood. Instead of welding a sleeve on top, I put a wooden dowel inside the tubes. Drill one hole (halfway through) in both tubes and fix the dowel in place with a screw through the hole into the wood. If the tube is thin (zinc or alu), you can even hammer a nail through instead w/o having to drill.

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Sclass
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Re: Fixit Log

Post by Sclass »

That was a nice welding job Cam. Particularly clean for flux core too.

Since I discarded my welder I’ve really gotten creative about using other methods to join metal. Screws, rivets, hose clamps, muffler pipe cement, Steel Stick & JB Weld and others are my goto metal joining fixes now. They are not nearly the same level of durability as a weld job but they don’t require equipment and bottle management.

Every time I think I need a welder I find some kind of new trick that is just good enough to do the job. For example I fixed the deck on my mower with a plate of steel and a dozen rivets. A weld would have been the orthodox fix method. It has gotten so cheap I’m probably going to buy an inexpensive set and put it on the shelf next to my JB Weld just so I don’t have to stress over glue.

Nice thing about flux core is there is no bottle to expire when you don’t weld often. That is my big problem with shield gas and refilling.

Cam
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Re: Fixit Log

Post by Cam »

jacob wrote:
Tue May 10, 2022 12:58 pm
I've done similar fixes on lighter duty applications with wood. Instead of welding a sleeve on top, I put a wooden dowel inside the tubes. Drill one hole (halfway through) in both tubes and fix the dowel in place with a screw through the hole into the wood. If the tube is thin (zinc or alu), you can even hammer a nail through instead w/o having to drill.
My friend is carpenter and I think he called what I did a 'scab'. It's similar except it's one piece of tubing instead of two pieces of wood. I think my friend tried the dowel method because when I cut the ends I pulled some wood out. His metal rod and pipe clamp fix was the final one before mine.

If I had smaller pipe available I could have used a metal 'dowel' and slid it inside and welded the ends. That would have looked cleaner in the end, but that doesn't matter much.
Sclass wrote:
Tue May 10, 2022 2:07 pm
That was a nice welding job Cam. Particularly clean for flux core too.

Since I discarded my welder I’ve really gotten creative about using other methods to join metal. Screws, rivets, hose clamps, muffler pipe cement, Steel Stick & JB Weld and others are my goto metal joining fixes now. They are not nearly the same level of durability as a weld job but they don’t require equipment and bottle management.

Every time I think I need a welder I find some kind of new trick that is just good enough to do the job. For example I fixed the deck on my mower with a plate of steel and a dozen rivets. A weld would have been the orthodox fix method. It has gotten so cheap I’m probably going to buy an inexpensive set and put it on the shelf next to my JB Weld just so I don’t have to stress over glue.

Nice thing about flux core is there is no bottle to expire when you don’t weld often. That is my big problem with shield gas and refilling.
Thanks!

Yes that is part of the reason I went with a wire welder for my upgrade. It can run up to 3/8" material on 240V in a single pass which is great, but it also goes right down to 1/16" steel too. It can be done with stick, but it takes some real finesse. Flux core is great because it has the benefits of stick: self shielding so can be done outside in a breeze, and no heavy gas bottles to lug around. The same downsides though too. It's harder to see the puddle through the smoke, and the fumes are nasty if not dealt with properly.

I can upgrade this machine with a spool gun for aluminum if I so choose as well, which opens up a lot of projects. That's more a potential business idea than anything, because personally I don't deal with aluminum much other than my dad's fishing boats.

Having a welder can make me a bit blind to other ways of fixing metal objects, lol. I keep hearing about JB weld but have no clue what it is or how it works. I'll definitely check other options out for when a weld just won't work.

dranudin
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Re: Fixit Log

Post by dranudin »

Hello,

I have a small fix to add to this section.
I needed an electric beard trimmer. I searched for a used one in our internet used-item marketplace (basically my country's equivalent of craig's list). I found one, with a broken battery, for free. I thought I could just use it with the electric cable attached and went to get it. Unfortunately, it also did not work with the cable attached. I decided to take it apart and see if it maybe could be repaired. I opened the trimmer leveraging the plastic connectors with a small screw driver to pop the case apart. The battery was soldered directly to the cables and thus not easily replaceable. However, the most probable error mode is a defect battery for these kind of devices.. I cut off the old battery:
Image

and tested with a new battery: Everything worked. So the problem was just a dead battery.

I bought a new rechargeable battery and soldered it in: Image
The hardest part was to make the solder stick on the back side of the battery. The front was easy.
Now it works. I probably spent more for this repair than a cheap new one would have cost me, as I needed to buy the battery (only available in two-packs) and get the soldering kit (I had to leave my old one behind when I moved last time). But I can always use a soldering iron and maybe in the futre i can find a use for the second battery.

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Sclass
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Re: Fixit Log

Post by Sclass »

Nice fix. Soldering to batteries is tough.

Here are some tips.
1. Sand the top of the battery contact to roughen it up. If the plating doesn’t wet with solder, be ready to sand through it to the next layer of plating that will take the solder.

2. Heat. Pre tin the battery contact with flux and more heat. Nasty plumbers flux paste increases your chances of getting solder to stick. Your soldering iron might be too cold. There is kind of a counter intuitive relationship between overheating a solder joint and tip heat. You don’t want to overheat a battery because there are wonderful chemicals in there that you don’t want to damage. So the trick is you use a very hot iron (high power/heat flux) to heat the surface to a high temperature quickly before the heat can penetrate into the cell. So a weak iron may actually overheat the battery because you hold it on too long. It also won’t get the terminal up to a temp high enough to get the solder to stick.

3. Oh yeah, already said it. Pre tin the battery with solder. Tin the wire. Then bring the two together. It takes a big soldering iron to heat a big terminal on a battery. Better to just melt a small corner of solder you balled on there in advance and stick a solder coated wire to it.

Good luck.

jacob
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Re: Fixit Log

Post by jacob »

I'm undergoing a minor midlife crisis. Thus I have a pressing need to relive my youth. Fortunately, my misspent youth was made out of computers rather than cars and chasing girls, so all I have to do is to take up gaming following a 20+ year hiatus. This phase of life should, therefore, be rather inexpensive and cheaply acquired via ebay rather than via car salesmen or divorce lawyers, yay!

I have started by acquiring a pair of very sexy joysticks. Unfortunately "buying used" meant dealing with some soldering. In this case re-attaching very thin wires to a mini-DIN connector.

Here comes the problem!

The electronics equipment I have on hand is intended for 1980s printed circuit boards with finger-nail sized components, but since the 2000s, electronics have shrunk to grease ant size. As such I found myself using masking tape for an improvised "third-hand" and using a virtual hot telephone pole for soldering-at-a-distance, and the relative equivalent of a garden lopper for stripping super-thin wires than only got shorter and shorter for each fail. Given my failing eye-sight, I even had to bring out my 4x watch-making loupe to see what I was doing.

In any case ... it actually worked. I did get the black wire re-attached. That's after also detaching the red and orange wires in the process and reattaching those too. Skill-wise, I got better and better as I kept breaking things. Ultimately, it worked. Still, for future problems, I would like to be better equipped to handle the increasing component miniaturization. This one felt like indoor gardening with a bobcat.

A picture of the blast zone :-P Lots of shameful plastic melting ...
Image

If it breaks again, I'd like to replace the cheap plastic connector with a metal one.

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Sclass
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Re: Fixit Log

Post by Sclass »

This soldering iron is getting popular among young makers. I haven’t used one but the young broke guys all seem to have one. That generation has only known SMT components so perhaps there is something to this.

https://hackaday.com/2017/07/24/review- ... ring-iron/

The work you’re doing on that connector can be done with a sharp tip on a cheap iron. It’s more about technique than the tool. Use a helping hands or a vise to get those parts just where you want them. Use 0.6mm solder. Clean the existing solder from the connector first using a Soldapult.

That’s a 1980s connector and it was assembled with 1980s tech by hand by some third world child.

Soldapult

Image

Helping hands

Image

rref
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Re: Fixit Log

Post by rref »

Sclass wrote:
Mon Jun 06, 2022 12:36 pm
Clean the existing solder from the connector first using a Soldapult.
Or if you have small enough chisel tip, then use the appropriate size solder wick (perhaps Chemtronics 60-3-10 or 60-2-10). This technique will require some practice runs - learning how to avoid soldering the wick unto the subject, not melting the plastic, how to wrap the wick around the tip to increase heat transfer etc.

rref
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Re: Fixit Log

Post by rref »

jacob wrote:
Mon Jun 06, 2022 11:47 am
and the relative equivalent of a garden lopper for stripping super-thin wires than only got shorter and shorter for each fail. Given my failing eye-sight, I even had to bring out my 4x watch-making loupe to see what I was doing.
The leveling up alternatives could be an automatic wire stripper and using a magnifying lamp or a cheap USB microscope.

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Sclass
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Re: Fixit Log

Post by Sclass »

@rref good tip on solderwick. I love that stuff. Cheap and good for small fixes.

Fixed my toilet. The lever broke. I have three like this so I decided instead of replacing the lever assembly I'd just 3D print the small plastic part that failed. I figured the other two toilets will eventually fail the same way. The plastic was designed too thin. It cracks at the threaded portion. I designed one with a thicker foundation.

Saved a couple of dollars, but really the big save is two perfectly good metal parts in the assembly from going to the landfill. I mean why replace a perfectly good chrome handle when it's just the plastic insert that broke? It's really sad when it's cheaper or easier to do the wrong thing. Perhaps others will find the part on Thingiverse and save their levers too.

I have gotten in the habit of looking for fixes there. If something broke for me it probably has broken for somebody else and maybe they posted a 3D model that fixes it. We all need a cheap 3D printer and access to free upgraded fix parts online. Just download, print and fix. No engineering required. This is a sustainability prop.

Western toilet with side mount flush handle. Here is the Thing on Thingiverse.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5404705

Image

New part.

Image

Installed.

Image

dranudin
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Re: Fixit Log

Post by dranudin »

@sclass
That is a very nice fix! I did something similar about ten years ago. The flush lever of our toilet broke and at that time spare parts where not available online. I designed the spare part with a 3d cad program (with thicker wall size) and had it print in plastic (probably PA or maybe ABS - something strong) by shapeways. It cost me about 25€, so this is a good alternative if you do not own a printer. The spare part was available in the shapeways marketplace as well (with a 1usd markup fee that went to me). I sold it about two or three times. I like to think that my part helped two or three families to not have to scrap and replace their toilets. After some time the producer of the original part offered the original spare part in its online shop making my fix obsolete.. Unfortunately, they also closed my shop due to inactivity, otherwise I could link the part here..

EDIT: found a link to the original part: https://cdn.hornbach.de/data/shop/D04/0 ... 050021.jpg it looks like a metal lever but its just cheap plastic with a chromium finish. So after some timd they break at at the corners. On my part i made sure to round all the edges and corners to lower the stress concentrations...

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Sclass
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Re: Fixit Log

Post by Sclass »

Very interesting valve. Got me interested in Hornbach toilets…those are really different from what we usually see in the US.

I can see this type of fix working out economically if the replacement part is very expensive.

Mine was cheap.

I’m really enjoying the 3d printing repair parts model where you download the repair part online and you print and fix some appliance thus giving it more life. I believe this is the future. Ship electrons not physical parts.

Many of the public libraries in my area offer inexpensive or free printing services.

Our manufacturing society is motivated by economics. It’s all set up to optimize profits rather than conserve energy and materials. Sad. Even the engineer who designed the flush handle must made decisions to make the plastic part thin and weak.

I noticed the flush parts were downloaded a couple of times on Thingiverse. Hope they helped somebody.

horsewoman
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Re: Fixit Log

Post by horsewoman »

Those are really really old-fashioned toilets! They were the norm in Germany when I was a kid in the 80s, but I haven't seen such a lever in ages :lol:

dranudin
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Re: Fixit Log

Post by dranudin »

horsewoman wrote:
Wed Jun 08, 2022 1:12 pm
Those are really really old-fashioned toilets! They were the norm in Germany when I was a kid in the 80s, but I haven't seen such a lever in ages :lol:
That's why it was not easy to get parts :D. Basically it is a technology from the 60s. The company producing these was "DAL" and is now part of "Grohe". Hornbach is just a hardware store.
They don't do these anymore because the high pressure released with this kind of valve is not good for the pipes..

horsewoman
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Re: Fixit Log

Post by horsewoman »

I remember very well in primary school pressing the lever with all my might to flush the toilet. Those levers needed some serious hand strength.
Methinks you are a German as well! Hornbach is the worst store ever here at our Bavarian town, the employees actively run away and hide if a customer is in sight. One actually rolled his eyes when I asked a (very reasonable, at least in my mind) question.

Scott 2
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Re: Fixit Log

Post by Scott 2 »

Our pocket door started dragging on the ground, probably a few years ago now. We've been living with the problem, lifting the low end to slide it.

When this happened about 10 years ago, we paid a handyman to fix it. This time, we looked into a pocket door wrench. But, they are all 3/8". The nut on our pocket door is 5/16". I was able to find a super thin open 5/16" wrench on Amazon. With that tool, adjusting the nut took about 5 fiddly minutes. Now the door slides with one finger. It's not perfect, due to the straight wrench limiting access.

Good lessons on the downsides of using non-standard, cheap hardware. The price is paid years down the road. While this worked, having the right tool would have been much easier. Maybe it'd be possible to bend the slim wrench, to match the angles of a typical pocket door wrench. Maybe I'd break the slim wrench.

Good access to the sliders requires removing multiple pieces of trim. Stupid design.

Married2aSwabian
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Re: Fixit Log

Post by Married2aSwabian »

The AC on our 2007 Honda CRV stopped working during a drive to Chicago last week … in 97 degree heat. Bad timing, but that’s when compressors fail, right? It’s happened before - 7 years and about 80,000 miles ago. Dealership replaced it that time for $1000. Also installed a low quality Sanden compressor. After watching a couple of YouTube videos, decided to tackle it myself. Denso compressor cost $500. $190 for local shop to evacuate, and then leak test and recharge the system after complete. It took about 4-5 hours total. Probably saved $600-$700. We could live without the AC, but the pulley bearing was shot, s.t. It was making a horrible racket! Nice and quiet and cool now. I’d say it was easier than doing a brake job on this vehicle.
Last edited by Married2aSwabian on Fri Jul 01, 2022 5:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

Married2aSwabian
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Re: Fixit Log

Post by Married2aSwabian »

Here are before and after pics:

Image

Image

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Sclass
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Re: Fixit Log

Post by Sclass »

Great fix! You saved a pile of money.

Next time (hope there isn’t a next time) it’s best to search for the compressor under the Sanden part rather than the part for a CR-V. For example you have a 38800-RZY-014RM compressor according to the CR-V parts manual. What you want to buy is a Sanden TRSE09. The difference is a few hundred dollars for the same thing. Before removing a part I try really hard to read every OEM part number off it with a dental mirror and checking those out.

Honda makes a lot of money marking up some parts. On other parts it goes the other way, Honda negotiates a price with the supplier that’s really low and kills the supplier on the replacement part. But, even there they have the liberty to mark it up at the counter.

A friend of mine works a parts counter at BMW and he has the leeway to mark parts up by up to 200%. That’s right. They’ll get a water pump for $50 and sell it as a replacement on a repair job and mark it up to $150 because some idiot with an overheating BMW in their service bay doesn’t know any better. The beauty is he gets a sales bonus on the markup. He’s classified as a salesman at the dealership and gets commissions based on the markups he can stick to customers. He says the prices are all over the place depending if he’s dealing with an informed independent mechanic or a typical uniformed BMW driver. It’s sounds crazy but when you buy an OEM part from a dealer you MUST ask “is that the best you can do?” Even on a service estimate you need to question the “parts” charge with the service associate. There is a reason a ton of internet retailers are selling the same parts for up to 50% off the dealer parts price. This guy brags to me that he makes $300k a year at the parts counter with a high school education. No automotive tech training. His skill is knowing just what he can get away with as far as pricing goes. If he gouges hard he’s financially rewarded and gets a pat on the back from the dealership for making them more profit.

Be very careful when buying OEM parts at the dealership counter.

Anyhow good job on buying a real Sanden. The Chinese clones are not worth the time it takes to put them in. I run custom Sanden retrofits in my classic cars. They’re the best.

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