Personal computing discussed
Moderators: askfranklin, renee, emkubed, Captain Ned
cheesyking wrote:I fixed my boiler after finally getting sick of years the stupid thing intermittently working.
Just a simple electric valve head that switched between the heating and hot water, cost the princely sum of £38 including shipping and took all of, quite literally, 20 seconds to replace (didn't even need any tools to do it).
<mini_rant>
Why are plumbers so rubbish? I'd had two different guys round to look at it, the first one clearly wanted to sell me a new boiler (got rid of him pretty quickly). The second one mumbled something about needing a manual and disappeared. </mini_rant>
You fixed anything that's been bugging you today?
cheesyking wrote:I fixed my boiler after finally getting sick of years the stupid thing intermittently working.
Just a simple electric valve head that switched between the heating and hot water, cost the princely sum of £38 including shipping and took all of, quite literally, 20 seconds to replace (didn't even need any tools to do it).
<mini_rant>
Why are plumbers so rubbish? I'd had two different guys round to look at it, the first one clearly wanted to sell me a new boiler (got rid of him pretty quickly). The second one mumbled something about needing a manual and disappeared. </mini_rant>
just brew it! wrote:Replaced the handles on an old (but nice enough to be worth fixing) set of cookware. 30+ years of use had caused the handles to start disintegrating at the end closest to the pot. The recent acquisition of a new stove (with larger, high-output burners) accelerated the trend, as the young 'uns are always in a hurry, crank the burners way up when they make their ramen noodles, and aren't careful about making sure the flames aren't coming up the side of the pot. The handles were getting bad enough that I was starting to worry that someone would go to pick up a pot off the stove and have the handle break off, dumping scalding hot food on their feet.
just brew it! wrote:Speaking of parts being available... this wasn't today (it was more like a couple of weeks ago), but I replaced the inside door handle mechanism on a '98 Corolla. The handle broke, requiring that you roll down the window (yes, old-school crank style windows on this car) and reach around for the outside handle to open the door. Driver side inside door handles for '98 Corollas are apparently stock items at Advance Auto locations. They're not even back in the stockroom, they're hanging out on a hook in the accessories aisle. I guess these break often enough and/or there are so many '98 Corollas still on the road that Advance Auto considers them to be a "consumable" like headlight bulbs or wiper blades!
Captain Ned wrote:Daughter has been told many times that the riveted-handle Calphalon and AllClad pots are available to her. My Nana's screwed-on bakelite-handled copper-bottomed Revere pots, though, are strictly out of bounds. Have not needed to repair them yet and given their age, doubt I will be able to when the time comes.
Captain Ned wrote:Don't forget that that vintage Corolla was also sold as a GM product under the Geo Prizm name (we had one, it had the sex appeal of a road kill, the driving habits of same, but it was unkillable) and I have no doubt that many a Rust Belt inhabitant leapt at the chance to buy Toyota reliability with a GM nameplate, thus explaining the easy availability of parts (and not getting busted by his union buddies). Hood-release latches were always the weak point on that car for me.
just brew it! wrote:Speaking of sub-zero days, I guess I need to decide in the next couple of months whether we're hanging on to it through another winter; if we are, I need to replace the struts. The gas charge in them has gotten low enough that the suspension behaves oddly once the temperature gets below about 20F.
just brew it! wrote:Edit: Cripes, with the sway bar links? Almost seems too good to be true.
sluggo wrote:Never is fishing out the sash weights in the guest bedroom windows.
just brew it! wrote:sluggo wrote:How do you even do that? Disassemble the window frame, I assume?Never is fishing out the sash weights in the guest bedroom windows.
NovusBogus wrote:I installed some spacers in a crappy office chair I'm trying to save, though it doesn't work yet so it may not count as a repair. Next step, having replaced all the mechanical stuff, is probably to design and make a new wheel base because the current one doesn't grip the cylinder properly. This is worse than an old car...
Captain Ned wrote:NovusBogus wrote:I installed some spacers in a crappy office chair I'm trying to save, though it doesn't work yet so it may not count as a repair. Next step, having replaced all the mechanical stuff, is probably to design and make a new wheel base because the current one doesn't grip the cylinder properly. This is worse than an old car...
When the gas cylinder on an office chair goes it's time for a new office chair.
Sad, but true, I've killed several.
just brew it! wrote:Yeah, I've sworn to never attempt anything requiring a spring compressor ever again. Once was more than enough, and I'm lucky to still have eyesight in both eyes.
Edit: Cripes, with the sway bar links? Almost seems too good to be true.
confusedpenguin wrote:I grew up on a cattle ranch in Idaho, and we grew up learning how to fix pretty much everything.
just brew it! wrote:Speaking of parts being available...
sluggo wrote:My house was built in 1914, so it's a rare week that I'm not fixing something. Last week was shimming the center beams so the guest bathroom door would close/open again. This weekend is adding grounded outlets in the garage. Never is fishing out the sash weights in the guest bedroom windows.