Cheers.. Looks like a handy site to know about.
.. and now.. because it's late... I'll ramble on for a bit....
I had to fix my washing machine repeatedly this year. The first problem was a frighteningly loud noise during the spin cycle that was caused by the concrete block on the top of the drum rattling madly because after 6 years the rubber bushings around the bolts had worn away to nothing. I made some new bushings on the drill press from some rubber sheet I had kicking around. That sorted things out for about 3 months
3 months later, the noise came back...but louder...and the drum was sitting at a funny angle... I checked on my earlier repair and my bushings were still fine, so I thought it really was dead this time and ordered a new washer. The new machine was 6 weeks for delivery.. so I thought I'd better see what I could do to get the old one through the next six weeks... I took the front off the machine and found that the concrete block which lives under the drum had detached itself (complete with it's bolts) and was lying on the floor... The plastic outer drum had chunks missing where the bolts had worked free...and the front half of the outer drum doesn't seem to be availabe for love nor money (even from ukwhitegoods I see). For about 30 seconds, I was stumped...
A friend of mine owns an injection moulding company, and a while ago he gave me 1/2kilo of a low-temperature plastic called Polymorph - You can melt it in a cup of boiling water, and shape and mould it with your hands.. but when it cools down, it's tough as nylon.
I drilled a few holes through the old mounting points to give the Polymorph some corners to squeeze around and get stuck into.. clamped the concrete block to the front... squeezed as much polymorph as I could into the holes... and then stuck the bolts back in. After 20 mins it had all cooled down so I took the clamps off, tightened the bolts by 1/2 turn, put the front back on the machine and put a wash on.... Problem once again fixed.
Now.. I didn't have a high degree of confidence in this repair.. I figured it might last for 1 wash.. or maybe 1 week... and I was determined not to have a working machine by the time the new one arrived, so I set to washing everything I could find to try and break the machine... Washed everything in the house... and a rug... and a duvet... and .. and.. and... after 6 weeks, the thing was still purring along smoothly when the new machine arrived. So.. I now have a perfectly working washing machine sitting in my garage gathering dust.
Is there a point to my story... well.. just about.... Every washing machine repair guy virtually hung up on us when we said 'Hotpoint'... they all said that the machines were disposable.. and the plastic drums were crap... and the were probably right.... But plastic can be repaired too... Fixing the mounting points on my plastic drum took me about 45 mins using just a No.2 Phillips screwdriver, a kettle full of boiling water, and about 150g of Polymorph (£2 worth).. I didn't even have to slide the machine out from under the counter top - When you washing machine starts making so much noise you're afraid to go into the kitchen then perhaps you'll remember this story when the washer guy says it's time for the skip.
P.S. Anyone want to buy a perfectly working Hotpoint WMA63S - It's got 1600 spin speed and fancy digital controls. Complete with hoses, manuals and even a spare motor. I'll even do a 28-day money-back guarantee.. if it breaks, I'll have it for spares and you can have your money back.
