repairing things

how would you rerepair an acoustic guitar where the bridge is starting to peel away from the body of the guitar? is there a correct glue to use, does it need to be properly peeled off and glued all together?

Luthiers tend to use animal glues, IIRC. There are repair kits available online, that have a purpose-made clamp. Do check underneath to see if there are loose fittings - it might not be simply a glue issue.

THought I'd messed up my sewing machine for a while a coupl eof days ago. Wound up taking part so fi t apart that I hadn't done before.
Wound up with the handwheel getting really stiff which had me wthinking I'd damaged something nastily.
Had another go at it the next day and got it back working and it seems to be working pretty smoothly.
& now I know there is a section under the bobbin case/needleplate area that I have access to and had a lot of lint in and bent pins and things and gear wheels and things taht had a load of gunk on them.

Probably needs a service, probably has done fora while . Could do with learning how to do that .
Especially if thisicurrent situation drags out.
Have wanted to for a while anyway.

BUt now hjave 2 new pairs of trousers. & I think I need to learn to actually draft rather than just customise clones.
SDhould be doing real bespoke jeans in like one go instead of several fittngs.

& now I know there is a section under the bobbin case/needleplate area that I have access to and had a lot of lint in and bent pins and things and gear wheels and things taht had a load of gunk on them.

yes! that section! removing the gunk from that area is often the problem w/r/t sewing machine problems.

re: plax's slippers -- my thought would be to pad/patch from the inside with sturdy materials privileged over aesthetic, and then join that to the exterior to make that look nice -- could maybe do a double layer to reinforce?

Thinking about doing my first oil change -- OOH, my honda is approaching the needs service mark, OTOH I'm barely driving it so it could be a while before it actually gets there

guess that's not technically a "repair" though

i made my dad teach me when i was like 19. i like doing things myself but he tried to convince me it wasn't worth it and he was right. you have to have a place to take the oil to, also, don't you?

I used to change the oil myself, but then I bought a new car (my current VW Golf) that requires expensive synthetic oil in a weight so rare that Pep Boys didn't stock it until recently. Since buying my own oil + filter cost almost as much as paying someone else to do it, it became pointless DIYing this. I've done only the most basic of maintenance on this car myself - rotating the tires, changing the wipers, adding fluids, changing light bulbs.

I’ve never learned what the oil does, or why you need to change it.

When you have a big long shaft-like thing repeatedly sliding in & out of a receptacle sleeve, you need proper lubrication to prevent discomfort and damage.

Why does the gasoline explode but not the oil

Why they hide the bodies under my garage

Tombot explain cars to me

just put oil in your gas tank too it's fine and cool

it's all made of carbon, it's the same

I mean, right?? Why not put fullerenes in the tank

That's how I changed the oil in my first car. Enough of it would leak through the dry-rotted gaskets (from sitting in my grampa's garage too long), burning out the tail pipe. I just had to dump a quart of it in every month or so.

But yeah, I don't change the oil in my cars anymore myself either.

But I did fix these nice vertical blinds we have the other day! One of the little plastic rider/worm screw assemblies got jammed. I pulled it all apart and fixed it. Feels nice.

Mostly I appreciate that my previous house owner was a completely crazy fixer, making a giant welded cast-iron i-beam workbench I still use. He was also a dangerously incompetent electrician, but the house is still standing,

That's how you changed the oil in old "foreign" cars with two-stroke engines - just pour a small amount of oil in with the gasoline/petrol. Some small engines that power lawn mowers or chainsaws still work like that.

stevolende, dm me yr email and i will send you the best trouser draft I have ever found online. alternatively you can find it on the cutterandtailor.com forum which i highly recommend checking out regardless

sarahell, that sounds much smarter than my plan. and now that you mention it i could probably do something with a fairly large patch....

I replaced the igniter in our old clothes dryer when someone wanted $300 to fix it. My wife told me it was such a turn on, lol.

I am good at electrics but wish I could do plumbing. I don’t know if it counts as repairs but I am pretty pleased with myself for putting a sensor and timer on the hall light so it comes on when we come through the front door.

Embarrassed that I had to get a guy out to fix the dishwasher and it turned out to be a blocked waste pipe.

Not a sparky, but I’ve been doing electrical stuff for years at work ( I even had a guy working for me for a bit that sat on the committee that writes the wiring rules for Australia). I get electricity and I can stay safe with electricity, with plumbing and water I just don’t have the same intuition. I really want to put an outdoor tap on the deck on the water line that feeds the boiler, but I don’t even know where to start.

dishwashers are a lost cause often. I had a dishwasher that broke my heart repeatedly. i had to replace the same seal on it over and over again.

the rollers on the drawers had corroded, meaning the drawers no longer lined up properly and thus new seals got busted after only maybe a month of use. I eventually got rid of it. my current dishwasher is great!

"I even had a guy working for me for a bit that sat on the committee that writes the wiring rules for Australia"

as an ex-sparkie I've met plenty of these reg-worm types who can accurately quote amendment 1 section 274 blah blah.. but they are basically incapable of doing the most basic electrical installation work! You are right about plumbing though, it's much harder than it looks.

I was hearing a few stories about people's attempts at attaching bidet hoses on podcasts a couple of weeks ago. People thinking they would be able to do it withouit hassle and then finding the attachments didn't seal properly or something similar.

Would be a good skill to have though. Plumbing like. Always useful.

there is no amount of pro-tips/online guides that is a substitute for the skills you attain doing the same shit every day.

I've worked at a few companies that had a mechanical side as well as electric but never talked seriously with plumbers. It took me years to realise you turn both the taps off where the silver flexi pipe connects the boiler with the water main when you need to add water because of low pressure fault. I'd just turn the secondary tap off where it connects to the boiler so it was slowly adding extra pressure to the boiler! I'm a fucking idiot though.

I remember having a big existential crisis about calling a plumber to seat a toilet - I’d done it once or twice but always fucked up the wax ring in the process and I didn’t want to worry about it leaking. But it’s such a straightforward thing that I felt like a sucker hiring someone to do it for me.

The plumber was a youngish guy and we talked for a while and it was cool - he told that he’d installed hundreds of toilets and me paying $100 for the peace of mind was totally worth it, and that he had no idea how to do my job and had no shame about that. It made me much more comfortable deciding what I was comfortable with and what I wanted to entrust to experts.

I'm shit around the house but primed and painted the box around the gas meter and laid some matting (all in the porch) and goddamn I feel good. Also bought myself a laplander saw with no real idea what I'm going to do with it.

My old man was a gas fitter and plumber, the father-in-law was all manner of shit: made ship's lanterns, fitted out gas tanks, carpet fitter. I'm generally in awe of tradesmen.

Currently fixing not being pissed.

Also listening to Outfit by the Drive By Truckers and weeping about being shit with a paintbrush.

if you ever wanted to bang some extra sockets in a stud wall with fast fix boxes your laplander saw is your friend. When I was in the game we called them "pad saws" but there is a lot of different names for that particular tool.

Yes! Also great for fiddly jobs in the garden (like dealing with rhododendron in tight spaces, I've found). The thing is so pretty and compact.

i need to re-affix one of the metal struts to my little library stepladder (with just one i think i am asking too much of it when it clamber into it)

a professional carpenter and refurbisher who i know a little -- but have somewhat fallen out with via unrelated ambient internet beef -- said i should drill out the hole the old screw was in, completely fill it with broken-off matchsticks and superglue them, then allow to dry. this would hold any new screws fine.

however the old screws are lost and he replacements i have seem too long for the drilled-out hole as is. i've tried screwing them further into the unscrewed original wood at the bottom of the hole, but it just seems too hard to be screwed into, even using an electric drill and phillips head bit, or even just to drill further into this wood :(

might fuck around tomorrow and drill out all the match sticks and glue, then try and drill out more of the old hard wood with a larger bit, then refill with matches and superglue -- then (eventually) screw into this

I wonder if I can replace the screen glass on my 2010 MacBook Pro ... judging from YouTube videos, it's a pain in the ass to do, but the replacement glass is pretty cheap

I would attempt many fewer DIY repairs if not for YouTube

i know, there is no way i ever would have started disassembling my laptop for repairs if it wasn't for youtube

fyi i have been watching The Repair Shop on iPlayer and crying at the stories

xp my job includes repairing laptops and I'd be stuck without Youtube teardowns.

i've just spent about an hour with bf repairing brazilian figurines that have been in pieces for over a decade. Now I'm going to figure out why my bread won't rise!

I broke the pressure cooker last night; I left the inner lid off and it overheated. After some poking around I assumed the thermal fuse had gone (as it should) bought a multimeter to confirm and a replacement fuse. Now it works again. I was pretty pissed at myself for breaking it in the first place but I’m pleased I could fix it.

Ico Letting salt and sugar get too close to the yeast before it starts working can prevent it fully rising. I remember having to put it in a different part of the bread machine when setting up a loaf.

I remember the giddy feeling of walking through my house and checking off the things I had made serious, appliance-saving repairs to: dryer (replaced frayed internal wire), washing machine (replaced faulty control board, and stator motor for the spin), fridge (replaced thermal sensors and fans in the freezer), stove (replaced jets, thermal cutoffs, elements, etc.), stereo amplifier (power supply and signal caps), plasma TV (main power board), plus pretty much every computer in the house ...

Turns out I wasn't giving my bread enough time to rise

It's all looking beautiful now

to revisit the saga of my little library stepladder i am having to busk recharging the battery of my black and decker with the only mains lead i can find in the flat that fits (i have no idea if it's the correct one)

i guess the worst that can happen is that i have to buy a new battery which is probably good sense anyway, i've had the drill like 15-odd years minimum without ever recharging it afaicr

(did it once have a lead? i'm guessing yes. is this its actual real lead: i think no, the conversion factor is not what the internet tells me i need tho who tf kno if this matters that much)

Dryer in new house sounded like an artillery barrage. I’ve never attempted an appliance repair before but decided fuck it. From what I saw online it was pretty clearly the roller, so I ordered a new set as well as a tool I had never been aware of before — snap ring pliers. About $45. Watched YouTube videos. Disassembling the drier wasn’t all that hard but the bolts for the roller axles were rusted on and it took a lot of different approaches before I found a way to break them off (I basically attached pliers to a socket wrench so I could get more torque). Getting the belt back on was also confusing (the pattern of my pulley and motor shaft didn’t match the videos and getting the “zig zag” was tricky). Putting it back together was also harder than taking it apart. But after 3-4 hours and having filth permanently tattooed into my skin, we have a normal, not too loud dryer and I probably saved us a few hundred bucks. And it was kind of fun.

I feel ready to take on a lot of handyman stuff now, much of which I think will be easier than the dryer.

The fuse has gone on the microwave, the 5000v fuse.

Search on Google and it links to a video that looks easy enough but it links halfway through the video and skips the bit about discharging the capacitor containing said lethal voltages.

Anyway, I have new fuses and it's been unplugged for 3 weeks and they reckon it discharges itself within a week so...

to remove all doubt you can get one of those twin probe capacitor discharge units for about £20, but you could probably get a new microwave for the same price these days!

I replaced a wall socket the other week, shit was easy

snap toggles?? jesus. what?? that is not what i imagined they were

i used to call them, that is, rawl plugs, screw sinks before i moved to the uk; no doubt this was wrong in some way

they are the best wall hardware unless you are working truly tiny bolts, or there is no cavity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC1ZuxuZ2PU

Back to the sink disposer - one thing to be careful when installing these is that unless you don't have a nearby dishwasher, you'll need to remove the dishwasher inlet plug from the disposal before connecting the dishwasher drain hose. I've known of many people who installed a new disposal and thought everything was fine until they first ran the dishwasher, after which their sink cabinet and floor under the dishwasher was flooded. Conversely, if you don't have a dishwasher, you must leave the inlet plug in place or else there will be a hole for water to leak from the sink drain into the cabinet below.

two year old sofa, heard a twang and the seat started to sag. do i

a) open it up and see if i can fix it? means doing things i cannot undo, like cutting the bottom out of it, but which you won't see unless you are under said sofa

b) just phone argos and get it replaced under the 10 year guarantee it claims? this will be faff and they don't have an exact replacement.

Iirc there is often a lattice of braces and staples and stuff across the bottom, and if one of them snaps loose that can cause the sag. Sometimes it just has to be pulled/squished back into place and reattached, which admittedly can be a little tricky. If it's something internal ... I dunno, that sounds too invasive to DIY, and often not cost effective enough to pay for, esp. if it's under warranty.

yeah, i fully expect to just see those wavy springs stretched across the base. but will i be able to reattach easily? and the base is sealed, albeit just by a bit of cheaper fabric on the bottom, completely invisible from the top. but...

warranty usually only covers manufacturing faults. but i'd say not being able to function as a sofa after only two years is a fault. (it's actually holding up ok, it's just a bit saggy. i could just sit on the other, non-saggy side, but it's less lined up with the tv)

warranty, if you open it up i'm guessing you're voiding the warranty too

and that trickling sound in the kitchen is the fridge spontaenously defrosting. not having the best day for appliances.

(did i not quite shut the door? is it the ambient temperature? is it fucked? i turned the thermostat up a bit and the pump came on so it does seem to still be working but...)

(i've been here 25 years and the fridge was here when i moved in, and already had blue insulation tape holding the drawer on so...)

is it a samsung fridge?

i have never noticed what make it is until now - Ignis.

two year old sofa, heard a twang and the seat started to sag

I was standing on my sofa washing a window and this happened... it's a cheap sofa (think it was originally from Urban Outfitters) so I've just decided to live with it... I put another cushion in the crumpled pit. Let me know if you have luck with the repair, I have no warranty so nothing to lose

If the sofa has loose seat cushions, put a wide board or some slats down?

ignis... seems like an italian brand. surprised it's been running that long then :)

Jaq, the cushions are built in, not separate... I don't think there's much I can do

Yeah, that's beyond diy and into full rebuild/reupholster territory

don't get me started on modern sofas, they are weak plywood shit. My son is big, heavy, strong and autistic so he can wreck £600 of modern sofa in a relatively short time. The replacement I got was some old strong shit from a British Heart Foundation 2nd hand furniture shop. It was a dowdy looking old thing that nobody was going to buy. The price was £25 and the delivery charge was 60 odd quid. It doesn't matter how shit it looks because those stretch sofa covers are a cheap way of making them look better. And least the legs won't go after a year because the supporting parts of the sofa are made from timber.

I even did some due diligence on the £600 sofa and contacted the manufacturer to ask about weight/strength specs and obviously they fed a load of bs. The legs went after a year, the arms were going next when it was sitting low and flat on the floor for another 6 months like a katatsu

there's parts of my sofa that probably aren't even plywood, more like thick cardboard

the sofa and divan bed industries are a fucking disgrace, the prices they charge for such inferior shit is a scam.

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/5590962

i wanted one as close to the old one as possible - the wide, flat arms were good for using a mouse on - but the arms on this are slightly too high and the back slightly too low. also quite a bit narrower.

I went through about 4 swivel chairs in rapid succession a few years back. Wasted hundreds of pounds on inferior shit. Then I picked up an old swivel chair that looked at least 20+ years old from a charity shop for £15. The back panel needed screwing on and it wouldn't win any design awards, but most importantly it is indestructible!

i had a quick look and the bottom of the sofa is just stapled on, i reckon i can undo it to take a look and redo it invisibly if i don't like what i see.

lol, i turned the sofa over and there was a spring sticking out the bottom like you'd see in carry-on films. factory repair it is, although that throws up various logistic questions.

I got an F05 Hotpoint fault on my washing machine. I looked it up and it indicates a drainage issue. It made some horrendous noise yesterday so something was up. It was half way through a cycle when it went into fault mode so there was a lot of water to empty out before I could check the pump. I tilted the machine back and wedged a Chambers Dictionary underneath it and used the dog bowl as a drainage bucket. Fuck yeah, an elastic zip tag from a jacket was stuck in the pump wheel - a lame achievement but it's good. I'm just happy because I don't need to buy a new washing machine or pay some grunt to fix it!

Diagnosing any fault code in 2025 is a worthy repair!

my fridge freezer is on the way out and is already long past the standard obsolescence age the crappy ones tend to last these days. I have got a new one paid for and ordered, meaning if any other appliances go wrong then at the moment I don't have the money to replace them for at least a month. So it was just a huge relief that it was only a minor washing machine fault. Phew!

Texas one signature away from passing right to repair bill
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/09/texas-right-to-repair-bill-is-a-signature-away-from-becoming-law/

my dishwasher was slowly filling with water and was still doing it even after i'd thoroughly cleaned the filter, checked the impeller motor for blockages etc. i watched a couple of youtube videos about this and got a sinking feeling as they all involved replacing the oulet valve, which meant ordering a part, turning off the water supply, changing the part etc.. so i go on the bosch website to walk through the steps for a callout, to see how much it would cost, and they have a checklist of questions which are NOT in the troubleshooting section of the user manual, including the seemingly inocuous "have you reset the dishwasher?" so i look at the steps to "reset" the dishwasher, it's basically pressing a few buttons, turning it off and on again, and.... voila, problem solved !??

I saw a Hotpoint service repair van slowly driving past the front of my house and was thinking about the time I nearly called them out over a warp in the supply hose. If the fault is your own stupid fault they charge you an absolute fortune.

I am adding this one as a lesson for others. Occasionally *some* things in the bottom rack of the dishwasher would not be cleaned, at all. It was as though the impeller arm was not rotating and only cleaning the things directly above. I took the arm out and cleaned it on multiple occasions, span it round in the bottom to check there was nothing inside blocking it. Obviously the easiest way to do this is either with the dishwasher empty or the bottom drawer open. Obviously when the dishwasher is actually running the bottom drawer is closed and full of stuff. I can't even remember how I finally figured out that certain small plates, if put in the middle of the rack, would protrude through the bottom enough to stop the arm spinning, but it took me far too long.

Put your phone in there in a clear plastic bag and press record.

Getting a gopro did cross my mind...