Second, third or more lease of life.

[artie]

OR saved from the skip.

Few things give me greater pleasure than fixing an old tool or appliance. The more cheaply the more pleasure.

Recently my roughly 10 yo water distiller failed. Swmbo said "You got 10 years out of it, that's not bad."

But I had a little tinker, and with a £5 Thermal safety Switch of ebay it came back to life and is working perfectly.

My ancient Salter blender decided it didn't want to play ball any more so after a little tinkering, I discovered that removing some surplus gubbins left it working well, only problem was start up was a little aggressive.

So a £2.15 soft starter from Aliexpress made it perfect.

My old Bosch vacuum with power take off died again. I had repaired the motor at least twice before but not this time.
A £6.85 motor from ebay and a home made slightly thicker rubber seal saw it working better than I can recall.

Bonus, I was able to remove the brushes from the defunct bosch motor and modify them to fit an old parkside vacuum and put life back into it.

I could have bought a new one for £35 but there would be no fun in that.

Anyone else feel the same.

 

[Distinterior]

I find it hugely satisfying to bring tools/ machinery/ appliances back from the brink, so to speak.
SWMBO usually just says " I'll just order another one"...and I always say " Not until I've taken it apart and looked it over you wont..."

When I see old wood in a skip, I turn into Stig of the Dump.....

 

[JSW]

When I see old wood in a skip, I turn into Stig of the Dump.....

I swear I'm going to have an accident driving one of these days, barest hint of a skip and I instantly rubberneck to eyeball what may be potentially in there

 

[Tris]

How many here grew up with the wombles and bagpuss on TV? No wonder we tend to fix anything

 

[deema]

I was a Clangers fan, and never stopped clanging about…… Soup dragon anyone?

 

[Sideways]

Love the soup dragon

 

[artie]

This weeks thrills came from fitting a £2.99 spring to the spigot on my old fermentation urn, making it function as new.

Fitting a £7.30 from Amazon switch to the boot release of SWMBOs Kia Rio, returning it to perfect working order.

 

[Ozi]

My lawnmower is repaired with wing bolts from a car I crash tested. Just used the last of some rubber sheet left over from a fire engine water tank modification to make an outsize tap washer - I love this sort of thing.

 

[monster]

Samsung washing M/C - about 10 years old but still looks like new and worked fine until it didn't!

Electrical problem, so had a google and found a few mentions of dry solder joints. Took the main pcb out and simply laid the soldering iron over each soldered component joint. Popped it back in and its worked perfectly ever since - and that was about 3 years ago! So zero cost fix on this one.

 

[Lard]

I love this thread!

Took apart the still working (but seized) 40yr old 'tankmaster' oil tank valve. We moved in some 13yrs ago and I've constantly looked at it and wished it had a sight-tube......had to ring the manufacturer for some info and was advised to replace it simply because "it's had a good life"......nonsense! got it in bits, determined how it was supposed to work and it's now completely fine, has new seals and I possesses a sight tube....marvellous!

 

[Thingybob]

As a kid in the 50s my dad was always fixing things around the house I think it came from shortages in the war every ones dad did the same and it just rubbed off with me love tinkering and finding how things work and fixing them lost art to the throw away society now

 

[HappyHacker]

I loaned my 2nd best lawn mower to a "friend" to cut the village green. He decided that another overgrown area needed cutting. He was videoed cutting this area in a white cloud of smoke comparable to a WW1 destroyer laying a smoke screen. He brought it back with oil leaking from the carb!

While taking stuff to the local tip, sorry recycling centre, I spotted another lawn mower, identical apart from the name, for sale. I have had it running the man said but it needs tidying up! Only £30.00

Testing when I got it home:
No spark - the bar which needs to be held in to enable it to start did not disengage the microswitch which earthed the magneto - replacing the bowden cable with the one from the smoke screen generator (SSG) fixed that. But still no spark, the cable from the micro switch to the magneto was frayed and earthed, replaced it with the SSG cable - it sparks. So unless the man had managed to get it running as a diesel he had not managed to get it running.

The carb had been removed and not refitted properly and the little bar that operated the choke was missing, not knowing what else had been done to it I replaced it with the working one off the SSG.
Rubbed the rust off the flywheel, reset the coil gap and once I had remembered that I needed to hold the bar in to operate the microswitch it worked.

Noticed that someone had added two large bolts of different lengths to the blade boss to replace the two alloy lugs that always appear to be broken off, removed those as the friction of the blade bolted to the boss with the central bolt is enough and the little lugs are a safety feature.

Now I have a lawn mower of the same 2008 year as the SSG and in far better condition.

My only problem is that going to the tip I usually buy stuff and don't find the time to fettle properly. I have three pairs of cast iron seat ends that need new wood bitts and painting but they have not so far reached the top of the priority list.

Now I just need to take the remnants of the SSG to the tip

 

[okeydokey]

My tip doesn't sell stuff it's gathered together and I think a contractor gets the lot
Mid Sussex

 

[imageel]

wrt tips and lawnmowers I once picked up an ex-council 24" verge jobby, it had a cracked ally sump which I fixed after a thorough clean with RTV...
It even had the tow hooks for the ride-on bit and it certainly pulled well up slopes when I lived in hilly High Wycombe

 

[Chris152]

My tip doesn't sell stuff it's gathered together and I think a contractor gets the lot
Mid Sussex

Last time we were at our local tip, my lad spotted a lovely set of King Dick Imperial spanners in their original case placed on one side. He wanted to ask, but sent me instead - the fella in charge said to just help ourselves. I don't think that's the general policy, but they knew they were too good to recycle and they didn't want them, so they were happy for him to take the lot. Made our day!

 

[Mel769]

My old Mum has a fridge Feezer; Hoover branded and it's been fine for 20 years +. My Mums wisdom is when the food/packaging in the fridge remains damp; the fridge is caput. Anyway after taking a look at it, seems obvious to me that the door seals are on their way out, they gone misshapen around the corners and is a bit gappy. It could be fixed with new seals; but no " I need a new fridge freezer". Sometimes you cant win; sad really as my mums part of the make-do-and-mend generation but it seems a futile argument.

 

[artie]

Our local tip attendant was fired for taking stuff home.

 

[TRITON]

Found a Queen Anne small table in a skip with one of the legs broken off. Nice find, but for the missing leg.
So got into the skip, dug down and all around and found the missing leg. which has been duly repaired, repolished French, and a bit of guilding on the top edge carving. I really need to guild the carving on the legs, but after 20 years of not getting round to that, i reckon its probably not going to get done. Lazy bu66er that I am

It's become part of my living room for so long I don't think I could ever sell it.

Also found a snowboard cycling home from work one day and a dyson hoover in the street near me which i took home, switched it on- worked, but no suction. Took the main bits off and found a large dusting cloth jammed in the tube. Removed that and it worked great for the next 5 years before i put it out for the next person to claim and use

 

[kinverkid]

This isn't really a 'fixed it' story, but a bargain all the same. Since having Neuropathy in the feet and fingertips, I find it difficult to hand-sew my leather projects. So, my sister gave/lent me her Singer Heavy Duty sewing machine. A couple of weeks ago, I picked one up from a car boot. It was a tenner because the seller/dealer could hear a motor turning but the foot wouldn't move. I thought, for a tenner, if I can't get it working, it would pay me to have it repaired. Got it home and found that it was set to 'bobbin winding mode'. I set it back to sewing mode and it works perfectly. I'm happy and my sister can have her machine back. By the way, it sells for around £180 to £200 used on eBay.