even morer DIY :p

Aye, it's got 'tweezers'
I was wondering if you ever find a squirt of light oil into the barrel helpful?

If it's sticky and crudded up, yeah, a shot of Houdini or WD-40 can help. If they're in decent shape already, though, I haven't noticed a lot of difference.

Also, thanks for reminding me: I need to order a new ejector tool for my interchangeable core pinning kit. I had a particularly well-installed (read-stuck in place from age and abuse) cap on an old interchangeable core, and the ejector tool gave up before the cap did.

okay, suckers: vacuum cleaner repairs.
an old one, but a good one:
View attachment 27207

it had/has two main failings: the wheels and the handle release button/lever. obviously, in this day and and age of EU regulations limiting vacuum cleaner power, we're not about to throw away an 1800watter.
the first wheel fell off a number of years ago and i fitted a simple bolt and nylok nut (with spacer),
View attachment 27208

there, you can see that a bit of buggering about was involved.
the second one starting acting up shortly thereafter, but would clip back on, for a while. in the end, the end of the stub axle wore away and the wheel's hub-axle-clip broke,
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i soldiered on with it, zip-tied hub and all and then, mind-bogglingly, i found a brand-new stub axle in my drawer [of many things]. don't ask, i don't know.
it being a bit of an odd thickness, comapared to a bolt, i struggled to find a suitable spacer [for where the hub-clip once was]. but, if you remember the salt and pepper grinders that my mum threw away (it's in a thread somewhere; something about hoarding or pack-ratting) and i salvaged a spring out of one of them....ta-dah!
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as for the handle release, i've tried to fix it, but it won't have it. it's an all-in-one moulded gig and not a very good idea. i've hummed and ahhed about it and shall probably just buy a new one :sad:


and i finally got around to a job that's been on the cards for years: the livingroom cabinet's lights.
as far as i was aware and going off mum's complaints about it, it was just one bulb fitting which was dicky. 'dicky' is a bit of an understatement as it was falling crumbling apart:
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that's actually not the one i'm talking about; the one i'm talking about was too far gone, once removed, to be recognizable. naturally, i'd banned mum from using the lights once i'd seen that one. and as i began removing the other fittings, they all began to crumble in my hands.
i'd been on the lookout for direct replacements, but i couldn't find any (maybe it's a search-term thing). so, when i saw that Aldi had 'warm' LED strip-lights for £12.99, i decided for the upgrade. now, i don't know if was me, but i certainly had the impression that it was two strips for £12.99, but it wasn't at the till. it was each. i nearly decided against it.
anyway, i'm glad i did it because dodgy light fittings weren't the only problem:
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yep, dad's dodgy wiring, again. it's no wonder he was paranoid about a housefire :biggrin:

oh, sod it, i may as well throw this in, too:
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tonight's thunderstorm

well, there's a thread somewhere about the ten things which annoy you the most and my ten would be 'people, people and so on'.
we've just gotten rid of most of the annoying visitors (or is it, the most annoying visitors?) who've been a great interference in my self-dealings with my HS, specifically in my DIY-ointment application, as i need to wear nappies whilst it's applied.
obviously, they've all been in the way of my wearing and then the washing of the garments. as irksome as that is, it's even more so when they, with all their 'fetch me, carry me, bring me', have caused me the need to cream-up in the first place. :frown::cursing:
and with such strickeness, i took to my bed with my FireTV Stick.

it was the first time that i'd used it up there; normally, i use in the kitchen, where i spend most of my time, but this was a time in which i couldn't sit without aggravating the badness.
and so, i watched a film and fell asleep.

when i awoke, the stick had also gone to sleep, but when i tried to awaken it, it kept rebooting itself repeatedly.
first thought was, 'overheating', although that had never happened before, and when i touched it, it was somewhat warm. i suspect that a ray of sunlight may pushed it a bit too far.
having a Google on the subject, i saw many complaints about overheating and many who'd effected a solution of their own, from drilling airholes to removing the [what is wrongly thought of as packaging] foam.
that foam intrigued me as i knew about thermally conducting plastics and such, and how the technology was rapidly developing. i Googled some more and satisfied myself that the foam was indeed heat conductive, especially once i'd opened the stick and saw some liquid associated with the placings of the foam squares.
thinking about it, now, it's probably a case of a heat-resistant foam soaked in a heat-conducting medium.

of course, that then means that the outer case is being used as a heat radiator. and i probably should've guessed that the plastic casing wasn't an everday plastic when i got a static shock from handling it whilst i inspected it, to sort out the placings of the airholes on which i'd by then decided.

i decided against drilling the holes, for fear of dirtying the wet patches on the inside of the case, and melted through the case with a sub-1mm drill bit.
the plastic behaved somewhat differently to usual plastics during the process and the usual process of nipping-off the melted [and usually carbonized] plastic waste settled my mind that it isn't an everyday plastic and that it's there for more than just looks.
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being there 'for more than just looks' can't be said about the release pedal/lever for the previously mentioned hoover.
i got a new one, fitted it and....it wouldn't fecking release!!!! :wallbash:
here's the old one, showing the remnants of where i'd attempted a fix:
View attachment 27481

as told by the new one, there's only about a millimetre of material and play in question. totally dodgy, considering the weight and leverage of the upright part.
thankfully, it will release if i push it by hand (but it's supposed to be foot operated) and i'll be the only one using it.
i've got an idea for a proper fix, using sprung metal components (from some cavity wall fixings), but i'm not sure if it's worth the hassle, atm. we'll have to see how annoying it is in use (but at least it shouldn't be falling on me every time i use the hose to clean a crevice).

of course, it's not all excitement, glitz and glamour; much of it is mundane:

with the wintery months abeckoning, it was time to sort out the broken clip on my furry hat. have you ever tried buying one plastic buckle clip in the UK? (it's bad enough that i've just had to buy a 100 pack of fuses for the oven!)
at the :wallbash:-ingness of it, i toyed with the idea of making one from a couple of milk-carton tops, until i remembered Harry's old collar :yes:
it took a bit of finding, but:
View attachment 27545
i had to sort a new bit of strap as the original one snapped when i tested the first fitting for security :biggrin:

well, if you're going to look at it like that, look a proper tit...

so, there i was, having just cooked some pork and black-pudding sauages and, when i shut the oven door, the oven blew it's fuse, again.
we were down to the last two fuses, but the new, proper ones were on the way; and delivered the following morning, as it happens. another piece of nice happenstance was finding a service manual online, just a couple of days beforehand. and remember my concerns about the door's micro-switches? well, you should what a big deal the manual makes of them! one particular switch, the 'short switch', even has a minimum clearance specification for it's actuating arm. that clearance turns out to be less than 0.7mm; mine was at around 2mm, varying because it was wiggling about.

the 'short switch' is crucial for the triggering of the inverter which'll probably explain why a lowly powered switch (judging by it's cables) should cause a 'short' big enough to blow a 15 and quite a few 10 amp fuses, not to mention the dimming of the kitchen lights. the underlying problem, i think, lies with the use of a plastic chassis assembly for the switches; while that may be fine in just a microwave, in the combination oven it's subjected to greater heat, especially if used on convection as much as ours is.
here,
View attachment 27589
you can see the screw (A) that i fitted to secure the switch flushly, and what is supposed to be the switch tensioner (B), which has been bent back somewhat (possibly by heat).

that's on a Panasonic Inverter combination oven. i hope it's fixed, but because of the limited availability of the correct fuses and having to buy a boxful of the things, i've got 99 more fuses to go; a song cue for Nena, there :biggrin:

phew! has it been a week, already?
time flies when it's.......springtime:
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new washing machine springs!
much a precautionary measure as my aunty's newish machine snapped a spring a few weeks ago, writing off the machine and damaging her recently fitted fitted-kitchen. it was an itch that i had to scratch and the springs worked out at a good price direct from the makers (i paid for express delivery which scuppered the thriftiness of it, but hey-ho).
i gave the machine it's first try-out with two of my nappies (plus liners and quick-dry liners) which is usually a bit of an awkward load for the machine to balance (three nappies tends to be better).... and it didn't deviate from that usual. but it did behave possibly more like a new machine in that rather than a rocking about while off-balance and spinning, it had a little shuffle forwards. the noise of the motor and bearings is also more noticeable, even making me jump when it spun-up to it's full speed, especially as it's also now more responsive to speed changes.

disturbing, beforehand, was a 'rh' designation on both of the packets:
View attachment 27628

i've not found anything to say that there's a right-hand and a left-hand spring and there's no noticeable difference between the originals.

and since i had to remove the drawer for fitting one spring, i stripped down the drawer for a good cleaning because i know that,
View attachment 27627

that's 'fabric conditioner/softener' for you: a host for bacteria. the pipe into the drum was also a bit clogged up. mum may not like it when i call it 'rancid, chemical shit', but there's no denying the evidence.
staggeringly, despite my showing her the state of the drawer, she bought some more rancid, chemical shit.

and, not such a big DIY thing, i bought a new optical drive for this PC. a few years overdue from when i replaced the motherboard and the 'old' one (i don't think it's the original, going by the manufacturing date of Nov 2005) had compatibility issues with some software due to it needing a IDE-to-SATA adapter, i think.
so, i now have the ability to read Blu-rays i've seen a few in the local charity shops, but never had a player.

what, for the week ahead???

well, the week began well:
View attachment 27681

making some ointment. 3 caps of Dettol. the process was lengthened, though, by my forgetting how much to put in and having to leave it to set to compare with the almost used stuff.

but then, i got around to fitting mum's new tap (yeah, the one bought ages ago). it went great guns until the final screwing in of the last hose...
and the bloody pipe snapped! :wallbash::cursing:
View attachment 27682

snapped at it's base, inside the main body of the tap.
and, yep, we're out of Amazon's claimed returns policy (even if that is contrary to UK consumer law. but not that i'm rich enough to fight that).
'worse' was to come with certain realizations:
the hoses, which you have to screw in, are M10 fittings, naturally tallying with approximate M10 torque levels; but the pipes into which they're screwed are M8 fittings (with their lesser M8 torque requirements) into the tap body. so, if you're now thinking, "ah, that's why", you'd be somewhat partially right because the other pipes and fittings are all in such a small space that they interfere with each other, and one's sense of tightening, as you may see from what's left:
View attachment 27683

and, intending to fix, dismantling went 'well' apart from not being able to undo the base flange because it's been screwed and glued. no, wait, it gets more ridiculous, for even though i've made a mess of the outer finish by trying to remove the flange, getting up to the point of being ready to fully finish off the finish with a blow torch and deciding to source a suitable M8 fitting hose before doing that....[pant, pant. time for a full-stop, methinks].
yeah, i couldn't find a M8 fitting hose; they're all M10. and so, with :chin:, i sought out what i thought may be regulations covering such things.
not that i found specific regulations covering sizes and threads, but i found enough to show that these taps are non-conforming to applicable standards; illegal, in other words. and as apart of all that, it also needs to have a CE mark, which it doesn't.

yep, i got suckered.

so, there you go: them cheap taps/faucets are cheap for a reason (i wonder if Amazon will stop selling them?)

If your fuse blows again I would check the wall socket (Properly of course) or the power box. I hope that your pain calms down some :/ I would give you my latest cake if I could.

Whoa, if your stove is causing your lights to dim then you have a serious electrical problem. Not only are your wires, and fuses overloaded, but so is your panelboard. You seriously have a major electrical fire just waiting to happen. Stop using your stove and get an electrician out to your house asap! It will be an expensive fix, but it will be even more expensive when your house burns down.

(And yes I know full well that the UK utilizes fewer but larger wiring from a panelboard, with individual smaller fuses at each plug- which I believe is a great engineering idea when utilized properly).

chill, Bill, i trained as a sparky...years ago...forgotten most of it, now :biggrin:
if you read the other posts, you'll see...

and so, we go on:
never in the field of human DIY has so much been owed...or refunded or who knows?:dunno:

the other night, as i shut up to shut down for the night and as i exited the kitchen with a ponder of, "should i leave the light on?", i decided not as it was nearly 4 in the morning, raining and the scumbags'd probably be on their way home, if they were out on such a damp night.
i stepped back to flick the switch, not seeing that the kitchen door had partly closed with my wafting through, and twatted my hip on the [low set] door handle :cursing:
call me what you will, but it fecking hurt!

i've caught myself loads of times on that handle, over the years, and it's just become one those things that you take for granted. mum has also caught herself many times, but with her age and thinner skin and thinner blood, it takes a greater toll (you should see the scars on her arm!)

the offender with it's snagging, bruising and cutting nobbles:
View attachment 27712

the handles are a legacy of when times were good and money aplenty; at the time they were bought, they were quite expensive and as such, whenever the subject of replacing them came up, mum would always refuse. not today, though.
having a look online, the localest store-which-shall-remain-nameless had some of the rounded-off type of handles that i sought and the bumpf claimed 'bolt through for stability'. 'bolt through' sounded good as the door has been fettled many times and there's barely owt to screw into. alas, when i went and saw them, 'bolt through' wasn't what i thought it meant; and i'm still not sure what they meant by it as the only thing 'through' is the spindle, which we don't need as we don't have a latch or lock.
despite that, i bought two sets (one for the kitchen door and one for the porch door as they're the ones which get the most traffic). i had nipped into a shop around the corner for a look at their offerings and while they were cheaper in price, they were also cheaper in quality, but they did have a greater choice of styles. i took a few photos, just in case.
once back home, mum wasn't overly happy about the round rose style and when i showed a set from the other shop, she wanted those. so, back out into Saturday traffic (and have i mentioned that i was having a bad day with my shoulders??? it's true and the story sounds better for it. quick, get the violin).

i bought the ones she wanted, first, and then nipped 'round to return the one first ones that i'd originally bought.
a refund should be simple, shouldn't it? even the new lad should able to do it, shouldn't he? i lost count of how many times the refund was put through and with he fuss of the printer running out of paper and his putting a fresh roll in wrongly and then somebody else getting involved and the new lad buggering off, i've not got a clue how much i've been refunded, if at all. i've got a receipt which says i have, for the original cost, but i saw the card-machine report which showed about £90 of refunds!!!
i'll have to wait until Monday to find out what's happened.

and 'bolt through' was still in my head, so i bought some interscrews, although they didn't have ones which were quite long enough. luckily, the screws from the heavy-duty-cavity-wall-screw-fixings left over from the bathroom job were the same diameter and thread, but longer than what were supplied in the interscrews pack.
i had to make the handles' screwholes bigger to take the female sides and i was short of the right drill bit, but a bit of Dremelling and forcing through worked, albeit with a bit of distortion (i said they were cheap quality).
the downside of the interscrews is that the screwheads don't seat into the countersinks and so the coverplates stick out a little bit. but you could probably swing an elephant of the handles, if that takes your fancy.

View attachment 27713

oh, it's lovely. i did a few 'accidental' catch-my-arm walk-bys and it just glided off me.
the paper sticking out gives a clue as to the amount of messing about the door has had over the years; latches were the original fittings, but they were another thing to catch your arm on (not good, especially when you're coming and going with car parts for to wash in the kitchen sink) and often rattled in the wind and were ditched in favour of various other types of things. in the end, a piece of paper did the job that we needed.

the interscrew idea is a good one, but i think i made the mistake of marking-up the screwholes on the door before i'd enlarged the holes on the handle. the distortion seemed to throw it out and i had a bit of a bugger about trying to match up a couple of the interscrews.

WOAH!
nearly two weeks since my last; getting a bit near to auto-thread-closure.

not that i've been busy, or not been busy (see how that works?): fixing a quad and sorting out the shower door's seal (i'm stumped at a replacement seal on that; i think it's too old a design) and just having my niece (and partly my sister) sponging around and not allowing the privacy to get on here.
anyway, tonight i gave the blow-heater a clean and lube (it's the one beneath the table, here). it needed it, but it's now too blowy for any good heat. it'll settle.
and i thought i'd get around to fixing my old tyre inflator which had seized a few months ago (i bought a cheap replacement from Aldi, but it's not as powerful).

alas, it all went to pot:

View attachment 27960

inlet valve and it's holding pin which had fallen out (inside the pump cylinder) causing the 'seizure'; it was really just stopping the piston going through it's stroke. i reckoned it'd just pop back in....not by hand it wouldn't. so, i then reckoned on an 'interference fit' for which i would need to heat the head to expand the pin's hole. so, onto the stove it went...

View attachment 27961

it melted!!!!
i gave up at that, reckoning that it'd be too warped to be of use (not regarding all the other damage).

i feel sorry for the piston,

View attachment 27962

:sad:

nevermind, have a snow-roll:

View attachment 27963

it eventually rolled all the way down, like a snowy swiss-roll.
that was from today; we had our first snow ten days ago. can't wait for more :fingerscrossed:

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