The problem with being practical

[JamPan]

So today I received my new 'heavy duty' cross cut shredder.
After messing with it for 15 minutes and putting in half the recommended load. It got a paper jam. Not just a sensible one. But jammed itself solid.
So being the tinkerer I am I started scraping at the jam, but that didn't do it, so over the last four hours I've had it completely in bits, and back together again twice as it's now clean but I've still not got the grinder to move even though the motor is running.
Why can't I just be a normal person and return it before I start messing?

Anyone else been dismantling anything recently they wish they hadn't started?

 

[KenThis]

Sorry although I love to work out how things work and fix them, I only ever try when the alternative is discarding the item anyway.
I still fail to fix most things but if/when I do fix something I feel like a God.

My only advice is to sleep on it and take another look tomorrow. I'm always amazed how well the subconscious sometimes solves problems without us having to actively think about it.

 

[Countryman]

Hell yeah!

I'm 25 miles from the nearest major shopping centre. I've dived in to a number of things rather than face that 2 hour car trip.

The trick is to reassemble precisely so that nobody can tell you looked at it when you've proven to yourself it's a dead loss!


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[Winnet]

The trick is to reassemble precisely so that nobody can tell you looked at it when you've proven to yourself it's a dead loss!


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That is a skill to behold and worthy of gaining.

I had a shredder that stopped playing ball after a jam and it turned out to be the cogs. It had plastic cogs that were driven by a metal shaft from the motor. This shaft had acted like a reamer and smoothed out a section of the plastic cog, hence no drive.

G


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[Countryman]

I thought I was bad but I work with a guy who has that great British "Garden Shed Engineer" trait.

Office laminator went wrong so we had it apart. Plastic cogs were worn and it was all I could do to stop him taking the worst away to design and manufacture replacements on his 3D printer.

We ended up reversing the motor so it ran backwards on the less worn face of the gears!

Laminator works both ways!


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[JamPan]

I think you might have something there. I'll have to see what has happened to the drive cog. I didn't consider it could have reamed itself off the motor shaft.

 

[mousey]

The rocker switch on the front electric windows in my car was not working properly. I'm not much of a DIY type so went to the garage to get a quote [something I hate as I can never bring myself to trust these people and always think they are trying to do me out of a huge amount of cash] anyway after a little head scratching and sucking through teeth = maybe 50 quid for a replacement rocker switch and a couple of hours fitting so maybe 150 quid.

Hmmmm I thought.

Took off the covering panel to get to the rocker switch myself, after a brief look found there should be two little cylindrical tabs poking out to fit into the rocker bit for it to pivot around - but these had snapped off. After a little thinking I discovered a nail would fit through the hole perfectly [with only minor adjustment ] so used one cut down to pass through both rocker switches to make both work again. Unfortunately I couldn't get a little spring back in so the rocker doesn't automatically 'spring' back to the central resting position on the switch - but hey ho saved myself some cash

 

[Zingmo]

This is what Ernesto Oroza termed "Technological disobedience" when he was chronicling the way Cubans ignored the labels that said "no user serviceable parts inside". They did it because they could not access new stuff to replace the old.
It is the way I have been since my early childhood in East Africa. I grew up believing that you should always try to fix something before you threw it away. If you fix something that has broken in normal use, then the fix needs to be better/stronger than the original was. Also, start with what you have, not what you think you need. I watched my dad replace a broken leaf spring on our car with a sapling carved to fit.

It is very much part of the bushcraft state of mind: "Can I make something to do this out of sticks?"

Unfortunately, capitalism needs us to keep buying things; so those that make and sell things make them to last only a short while. It's called planned obsolescence. If your shredder has stripped a gear, it is because it was designed to do just that. Thus, people like me end up enamored by things engineered in days gone by which were built to last; like Singer sewing machines and Primus stoves.

It can be an affliction: I can hardly get in my shed to fix things because of all the things I have collected that may come in useful! But the rewards when you succeed are not to be underestimated. There is a fierce joy in feeling you have poked capitalism in the eye and brought back to life something that was headed for the landfill.

Z

 

[JamPan]

My Bosch tumble dryer is one of those planned to fail. I bought it for £50 second hand and have repaired/ replaced three different things on it to keep it going. The dial was thin plastic, but it's had a serious upgrade now.

 

[Zingmo]

Nice one!

When I first got married, I discovered that our washing machine was the same model as most of our relations had. I put the word about that I would like salvage rights on any machines that expired. Over the years I collected boxes full of spares and repaired that old machine many times until it was like Trigger's broom.

Z

 

[mrcharly]

I had an old Corsa diesel. Thermocouple went that detected heat and turned off glowplugs. Old model engine, so replacement was going to be £60

I checked specs, and the new model one was identical apart from the cable connectors. £9.

Bought the £9 new model version, files spade fittings so the leads fitted. Job done.

 

[JamPan]

So I've pulled everything to bits again and the motor has a spiral worm drive to it which stripped 1/3 of the teeth on the nylon helical cog which I hadn't pulled out to check last time. The rest of the cogs are metal, but naturally because this one is a complex double cog, they've made it so it won't last two minutes. The grinders themselves are beasts and have 10mm bolts on the ends, so I've decided to strip everything out except those and drill a hole in the side with a bit of tube so I can access the bolt head with a long socket. I've just tested it with my socket bar as a handle and it shreds paper nicely. I can also connect my drill too. Should last forever now.

 

[Nice65]

So today I received my new 'heavy duty' cross cut shredder.
After messing with it for 15 minutes and putting in half the recommended load. It got a paper jam. Not just a sensible one. But jammed itself solid.
So being the tinkerer I am I started scraping at the jam, but that didn't do it, so over the last four hours I've had it completely in bits, and back together again twice as it's now clean but I've still not got the grinder to move even though the motor is running.
Why can't I just be a normal person and return it before I start messing?

Anyone else been dismantling anything recently they wish they hadn't started?

I have, but not recently. Separating a Mini into its component parts to rebuild it all into a Mini Moke. Not my finest project, jars and jars of nuts and bolts soaking in paraffin, things I didn't recognise as Mini parts etc.

 

[Alreetmiowdmuka]

Sorry although I love to work out how things work and fix them, I only ever try when the alternative is discarding the item anyway.
I still fail to fix most things but if/when I do fix something I feel like a God.

My only advice is to sleep on it and take another look tomorrow. I'm always amazed how well the subconscious sometimes solves problems without us having to actively think about it.

Quality advice


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[Zingmo]

Should last forever now.

Excellent! I bet it will shred tin cans now as well!

Z

 

[daveO]

The other problem with being practical is the money it costs! Actually it might just be me but every job where something needs a minor repair seems to become an excuse to buy a shiny new tool. This also starts a never ending cycle of additional repairs to the tools I keep buying when they also pack in.

The one I'm currently stuck on is repairing a cheap Dremel ripoff rotary tool that I've had for about 10 years. There's a tiny spring connecting the motor to the chuck which I guess dampens the turning force. Part of the spring has sheared off and I can't find a replacement anywhere.

 

[MartiniDave]

As my 4 year old Grandson put it:

"Granddad Dave is strong at mending things"

 

[gonzo_the_great]

I find it difficult to allow something that has some useful life left, go in the bin. Because of my trait of always rooting through skips at work, I got the name 'Stig'. And nothing to do with my driving skills.
I am as ruthless as possible with clearing stuff out, when it's been hanging around for too long, but I still have lots of sheds.

When I started an engineering course at uni (sooooo long ago now)... The head of eng gave a pep talk to about 500 new students. 'Of course, you are all here, because you all are facinated on how things work and as children, you had taken all your xmas presents apart by boxing day'.
There were 490 confused faces, and about 10 of us nodding, staring at our feet, and looking like we'd just been found out. I made note of these people, as I reconed these were the people I would end up calling friends.

Also, lucky to have a father with a similar outlook. So I was tolerated as a child. (And could get help putting my presents back together on boxing day!)

 

[JamPan]

The other problem with being practical is the money it costs! Actually it might just be me but every job where something needs a minor repair seems to become an excuse to buy a shiny new tool. This also starts a never ending cycle of additional repairs to the tools I keep buying when they also pack in.

True! Any excuse for more toys! It's funny I remember as a kid going to the Saturday market being bored to death standing next to my dad for what seemed like hours as he looked at the old tool stalls. So many times he said I'd be doing the same one day, just as he'd been the same with my Grandad. I protested endlessly saying I'd never get excited by tools when I was older.

 

[Laurentius]

Ok confession time, are we really "bushcrafters" or gadget freaks, I plead the fifth.