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23 19

What's a favorite repair you did?

Repairing and rebuilding things is a humble and vital thing to do.

It's a habit we should all develop, rather than throwing things away and buying new stuff made in China by underpaid labor. Repairing things is satisfying.

Mom Can Fix It

"I don't want to learn to sew," Claire told me as a teen. "I'll always have you to mend my clothes."

At 18, Claire caught a white, thin, knit sweater in her jacket zipper. Aggravated, she cut it out with scissors. Instantly the hole at her chest got bigger and bigger. Machine-knit shirts are made with one long thread. Don't cut it.

"Mom can fix this," Claire told her dad. The funny thing is, I did. I had never fixed a knit shirt before. It was a fun challenge.

With a lighted magnifier and embroidery hoop to stabilize the sweater front, I found and secured the cut yarn ends with tape and white thread. This stopped unraveling. I could relax.

Then with a crochet hook, embroidery needle and tweezers, I carefully rewove the hole. Finally, I secured the yarn ends on the inside with thread where it doesn't show.
"It's perfect!" Claire exclaimed.

I don't know how to crochet. Crochet hooks are a useful tool.

Also, this dress was too long and dumpy. I shortened it. Much better!

LiterateHiker 9 July 31
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23 comments

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4

Does restoring a 1956, 25 ton 4x4 off-road crane count ? ( Yes, I have odd toys πŸ˜ƒ
One of the joys of having had parents who lived through the depression, was being taught to make everything last. My sister fixes her own vehicles, and I love to sew. So far, I have yet to run across anything I couldn't fix, given enough time ( it's taking more and more time these days πŸ˜ƒ
I'm pretty sure I've made outcasts if my offspring as I taught them the same way. My 23 year old son even darns his work socks. Apparently nobody actually knows how to do anything anymore, yet they are all considered some kind of expert.

4

Amazing. I enjoy repairing things too. My son caught that from me and even repaired his car’s transmission. It is a vital tool. One pepper told me when the economy collapses I’ll be in demand

3

Nice photo.

3

The best repair I did was the shower unit stopped giving hot water...got a quote from a plumber for an outrageous price...decided to go for it myself....went on youtube and found a tutorial for my specific problem and a link to ebay for the part required...instead of hundreds of pounds it cost me Β£12.50, around maybe $15 for the solenoid that i needed...The video tutorial was probably edited to half an hour as it took me around 2 hours to get to the faulty part and replace it...but it is still working after nearly 5 years...

3

I'm always working on my computers. I have 2 desktops and a laptop. The trick is to make them all work the same as they all 3 are Windows 10 now. I have found that many updates are not needed. Windows wants to keep you on a string because they want to sell you something. My proof is a cmd prompt activation that done once works from now on. I also have apps that shut down Windows spying and updates. No more build updates every 90 days. The operating system is finally all mine.

3

A friend gave my parents an old CD stand, but it was falling to bits. So I turned a top and bottom plus a centre shaft and fitted it together. Actually its more of a rebuild, since the metal holders are the only original bits.

@Fernapple

Well done!

3

My mom taught me how to do so many things, I'm glad for those lessons.

2

About 8 years ago the Local Water Services decided to change everyone's Water Meters, they did mine and as soon as they turned the water back my very ancient main water line from the meter decided to burst, water going to waste everywhere, no good in a drought prone region.
So, taking the initiative I rang a retired Plumber to be told by him I had 2 choices,

  1. Wait around for a week or two for a Plumber to be available, replace the main pipe and pay him/her an amount in the vicinity of 1,000 - 1,500 dollars, OR,
  2. Go to the local Plumbing Suppliers myself armed with the outside diameters of the remaining pipe, IF it is in good condition, and buy this new fangled, Government Approved "Poly-Pipe' and the connections needed and make it a DIY job.
    About 2 hours later and a cost of around $120, a bit of sweat, work mixed with a few 'choice' phrases when the damned Stillson wrenches slipped and I had a whole new piping system installed PLUS as a bonus increased water pressure as well.
    But after that 'success' came a bigger task, i.e. my best friend needed the floor of his 6'x4' trailer removed and replaced with a new sheet of steel.
    Alan is a retired 'Sparkie' (Electrician) so we do a kind 'quid pro quo' kind of system, so he helped me to cut out the rusted out trailer floor, then we placed the new floor in ( with a bit grinding to make it nice, neat and tidy fit) and within a few hours of Arc Welding he had his new floor in his trailer PLUS as an extra bonus we had re-wired the lights on the trailer, added a 'Jockey Wheel' and a new Trailer Hitch as well.
    Now i have a 6 year old Nephew who occassionally ring me and drop a 'little hint' that he too needs my services to mend something neither his Dad or Grandfather aren't quite to repair.

@Triphid

Boy, am I impressed! What a talented man you are.

"...mixed with a few 'choice' phrases when the damned Stillson wrenches slipped."

Sounds like me. πŸ™‚

@LiterateHiker LOL, you should have heard the 'mumbled ones' that erupted from my mouth last Thursday when the head of the hammer I was using came off the handle and went through the window behind me.
I'd say they would have been enough to even make the toughest of Sailors blush.

2

With stems like those, I agree. πŸ˜‰

@JeffMurray

My legs are muscular from hiking and running. Thanks.

2

I have a picture of the uncompleted project on my old computer if anyone wants to see but I no longer have my favorite repair. The completed pics are long gone unfortunately. But they live in my head and my kids mention them at times. I gave him most everything in the divorce because pissing him off meant he could finish the job of trying to kill me that my son had interrupted and stopped.

We lived in a house on stilts beside and occasionally in the Mississippi river for a while. In '08 we got flooded. We raised it and had someone gut the house through a charity. We had flood insurance and they gave us an appropriate amount to fix it except my ex drank a lot of the proceeds. We also raised it so it won't flood again using the hydraulics from a friend's skid loader but that's another story.

We did ok until it came time to create a kitchen. There wasn't enough money left to buy premade cabinets. I thought to myself, how hard can it be to make boxes with dividers in them?

So I made all of them myself with a table saw and a hand router since I didn't want adjustable shelves. I planned it out on graph paper ahead of time and made them to what I'd decided on. He put all the plumbing and water pump under the sink cabinet, and we moved in. I got more compliments on those things.

If you want to see a pic I can transfer them over and post but they were mid job. I'd never made cabinets before. Now I wouldn't mind making more again sometime!

2

A tale of a fireplace and a sledgehammer.

MizJ Level 8 July 31, 2020
2

Not really a repair, but I recently hung these baskets. I had to watch youtube videos to figure out how.

@LizBeth

Good job!

2

My computer

bobwjr Level 10 July 31, 2020

@bobwjr

Wow! Congratulations.

1

My favorite repair was to "zap" a pointer in a database to make invalid data go away. It took a week to diagnose it and formulate a repair, 3 weeks to get it approved, several meetings, and a minute to execute. I had to circulate a memo describing the whole process, and for years afterward I kept getting requests for copies of the memo. (This was before email).

1

Favorite repair?

By category:

Sewing: backpack, (had to replace a lot of the fabric)

Stained Glass: 2' x 5' 1890 Stained Glass church window (replace some glass some came and re grout)*

Concrete: Dig out, frame and poor footings for concrete window well walls were suspended without footings. Rabbits made a den under a alrge part of the the concrete so I "fixed" one side of the problem.

Electronics: Network switch: used power supply from old computer to bring campus network back on line. Lots of computer repair.

Mechanics: Water pump in car, overhaul motorcycle including rebuilding and calibrating carbs.

Plumbing: Replace hot water heater, lots of faucets and sprinkler system repair.

HVC: parents central air compressor, not engaging.

Handy man: Replace drive gears and springs in garage door.

Instruments: Drilled pinned and glued an oboe that was snapped in half.

Structural: Use oak RR tie to redesign room by removing a load bearing wall.

Most Dangerous: Used transformers from dead (tube type) televisions and chains of high voltage diodes, capacitors to replace dead transformer and vacuum tube in antique studio strobes. One day while running the 3kv strobes (with huge oil capacitors) one of the old coaxial cables developed a crack between the inner and outer conductors. The explosion was like an m-80, and cut the cable and moved the ends far from each other.

This list is highly abridged.

  • aside from stained glass, no training on any skill involved for repairs.

@NoMagicCookie

WOW! You are amazing.

I am gobsmacked that you repaired an oboe that snapped in half. Both of my sisters played oboe.

@LiterateHiker Thanks, that was a fun project. A HS kid got angry and snapped the school oboe in half. Just Gluing it did not work so I set up a two jigs for the drill press and used a tiny drill bits to drill a dozen holes in each half. (tricky as the tolerance was very fine). I cut a dozen pieces of brass wire, and inserted them into one side then after successfully aligning them, used an epoxy to bring it back to life. Worked great.

1

I try to fix things and if it doesn't work it goes in the bin.

1

Being self-suffient is one of my strengths. I have remodeled three houses that I designed myself. I love the creative process watching old outdated houses get a boost.
Its nice to not need to pay someone to do things 😊

1

I love DIY, productive during the pandemic too. New floors, 2 new custom interior doors, refinished a dresser...

Probably my fondest memory of a repair was easy and a bit silly. I managed a hi behavior group home for a long time. A kid who was hard to connect with had lost his temper and tore the head off his favorite stuffed animal, a Fred Flintstone doll. It was an easy fix to zip tie and bolt the head back on .

The kid bear hugged me so hard, I staggered a bit. He and I always had a connection after that.

LOL, another funny story about the same kid. He loved foreign news for some odd reason, even if he didn't know the language. He became more outspoken and articulate over time, but one time watching a Japanese newscast he turned to us and spewed out a bunch of gobblygook then said "beautiful weather all week" and busted out laughing. Still facebook friends with that dude.

@educatedredneck

Love your story. How sweet! Good for you.

1

mine is on-going. Its a remodel.

redhog Level 7 July 31, 2020
1

My house was all beige. I hate beige; it's boring, ugly, and looks like dirty white. I did a lot of my own renovations. The ugliest room was the master bath. The shower was ,multiple shades of beige with a light cocoa colored toilet. Now the shower is this tile mosaic, cutting curves in tile is a bitch!

MizJ Level 8 July 31, 2020
1

When recently fixing a favourite nightly, whose plastic clasp had broken, i found traces of another little job i did on it, which I'd forgotten all about πŸ™‚ it’s one of my favourites.

1

Gorgeous picture of you,such a beautiful smile ,nice legs too lol I love repairing things to it is a challenge ,it is easy to throw things away and go buy new or used,but like to take a shot at it first,just repaired my BBQ this week , There is a welded on rail on the inside that holds the burner covers which are under the grill plates ,So i took it apart,cleaned the whole burner box first,which i do every year anyways and chiseled what was left of the welded on rail ,I found a piece of angle iron in my garage cut it to the right length ,drilled two holes in the ends so a self a sheet metal screw would go thru and the drilled a couple of small pilot holes in the burner box and the screw the angle iron in place ,the burner covers went back in perfectly,, accomplised with no money spent .It feels good once you have accomplished a repair no matter how small or large ,I find it is a mental challenge to find out what all the bits and pieces you will need to make it work and then how you will physical get it all back together

0

I repaired and practically rebuilt my 28 year old clothes dryer with a $25.00 repair kit from the internet .I viewed instructions from a YouTube video .Old appliances are worth fixing because they are better built that the new crap they sell now.There are very few things in my house I can not fix.

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