Your little DIY "victories"

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Last month I had cancelled the breakdown insurance on the Hotpoint washing machine after 7 years in which time I had had a new drum, new lock, new control board and a new pump fitted by the Hotpoint service guys. Last weekend the damn thing ceased to to rotate or spin the drum. The water cycle was fine, but the thing just refused to turn.

Isn't the internet a wonderful place? I suspected the carbon motor brushes were worn. So armed with the model and having confirmed the motor make, I ordered two new brushes off a spares site.

This is what the brushes look like new:

screenshottw.png



This is what mine looked like.


screenshotjki.png


Not a major job really. 13mm box spanner, philips screwdriver and a torx bit for the cover, and a replacement cable tie, and I had the motor whipped out, brushes removed and new ones in place. The most fiddly bit was getting the belt back on. I needed another pair of hands to turn the drum while I eased the belt around it.

Considering I thought it was totally borked and was looking at £250 for a new machine, £19.97 delivered and all is well. Result!

What little DIY victories have you had?
 
Victory....
Stainless Brabantia kitchen bin catch failed, shocked at 90 quid replacement bin so got a £1.50 catch from ebay.


Epic failure
Borrowed a mates chimney brushes and swept the chimney myself, long overdue.
All was well till I decided to hoover up the soot with the Dyson, the filters blocked and it blew soot all over the living room, just as SWIMBO got back from the shops.
Wrote off the Dyson as well, it was never the same after that.:facepalm::blush:
 
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My DIY victories are similar in that I've managed to repair something that would otherwise have been thrown out or cost a fortune to repair inc. a washing machine. Also, other people then thought I was some sort of genius and DIY guru, when in fact I'm not. I get by and only tackle jobs within my limitations. If I need help, I am not afraid to ask someone in the trade.
 
"If I need help, I am not afraid to ask someone in the trade."

Or here.:smashin:
I've fixed a telly,
Hacked a WDTV media streamer,
Set up an HTPC,
Built a server,
Numerous other wee tricks and tips, and gained some nice inspiration for my ongoing house refurb mostly from AVForum threads.
 
Not much of a DIY person to be honest:)

I did manage to change the strings on my guitar not long ago and also removed and replace the jack on it where you plug the lead into, that's about my limit:)
 
Similar to your story Mr Incredible, faced with a broken oven I had the choice between £60 engineer visit to diagnose the issue + cost of parts and repair or replace the double oven at great cost.

I opened it up myself, ordered a heating element for £20 and replaced it in 5 minutes. Oven all fixed :)
 
Victory....
Stainless Brabantia kitchen bin catch failed, shocked at 90 quid replacement bin so got a £1.50 catch from ebay.

...They have a 10 year gurantee don't they, maybe yours was older?

Our lid broke, filled in the online form (inc what had broken and how), printed of a free post label, posted lid, got a new one a few days later (inc redesign where mine had failed) :smashin: - and a genius way to improve products :)
 
Similar to your story Mr Incredible, faced with a broken oven I had the choice between £60 engineer visit to diagnose the issue + cost of parts and repair or replace the double oven at great cost.

I opened it up myself, ordered a heating element for £20 and replaced it in 5 minutes. Oven all fixed :)
It's not a SMEG is it? I seem to replace the element on ours more often than we have hot dinners... :D
 
Water pump (we live in low water pressure area) stopped working.

Looked at the cost of replacement - it was about £450 - ouch!.

So did some investigation and suspected the control board. Bridged the input to the output and pump ran fine.

Used fridge maganets to proove that the flow sensors were working.

So it had to be the circuit board itself.

Checked how much a new one would be - £100 - ouch!

So took the board out and took candidate components out one by one and tested them but they all worked.

So decided it must be a dry joint.

Couldn't see anything obvious so ran the soldering iron and some solder over each joint.

Put it back in and working good as new.

Sounds like a lot of faff but it was all done in just over 30 minutes.


Our lid broke, filled in the online form (inc what had broken and how), printed of a free post label, posted lid, got a new one a few days later (inc redesign where mine had failed) - and a genius way to improve products

Same here - our catch broke after a few years. Rang them and a few days later a complete new lid arrived free of charge.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
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"...They have a 10 year gurantee don't they, maybe yours was older?"

Didn't know that. :) Receipt long since lost anyways.

IG
My SMEG-ging oven has had two new main oven elements, two new internal lights, and I had to replace the hinges, its only 5 years old. SMEG gas hob is brilliant though, still looks new, and is really easy to keep nice and shiny

"more often than we have hot dinners... "...groan:D:laugh:
 
Fixed the rear washer on my Golf, after some extreme temps froze the screenwash and forced a T-piece apart and leaked screenwash all over the boot :mad:
 
Refurbishing my speakers.

They're wonderful, French isobarik speakers from 1988 - Pierre Etienne Leon ML2, using Focal drivers.

Best speakers I've ever heard, but ugly black monoliths.

Bearing in mind the drivers are no longer made, it was with beating heart that I wielded an allan key and never before used soldering iron to remove them.

I carefully drilled out the plastic grill holder things and ordered some new ones from Wilmslow Audio, together with replacement capacitors.

In the meantime, I sanded off all the black paint down to bare wood and applied several coats of bees wax with light oak stain.

Removed old capacitors and replaced with new ones. (Soldering is nowhere near as difficult as I thought). Fitted new grill holder things.

Replaced drivers.

Did have a slight rattle from one speaker, but it was because one of the new capacitors needed to be held clear of the case. Now I know what that plasticky, gunky stuff is for.

Job, done - one of the greates achievements of my life :laugh:
 
Fitted a flush two way switch yesterday, and into a lath a plaster wall.

My wiring diagram was innacurate so I wired it up incorrectly. Thankfully, I had taken lots of pictures just in case. Phew. :smashin:
 
Got so annoyed that my TNT (French for digital terrestrial tv) box gave up the ghost at 13 months with a 12 month guarantee that I whipped out the soldering iron and replaced the capacitors. I was so pleased and so surprised how easy it was, that I started a thread on AVF about it!

This thread, even: http://www.avforums.com/forums/freeview/830971-fixing-problems-philips-freeview-stb.html

Nearly 5000 hits and still going.

I also learned that EU law says there is a two year guarantee on the box. A bit too late now, but next time someone tells me 12 months and no more, I'll have them!!!
 
I'm good with mechanical stuff, I can rebuild motorbikes no problem.
I'm not bad with basic DIY, I can paint/hammer/glue/assemble etc.
But I'm normally pretty hopeless with electrical items.
Recently though, with the help of a web guide, I took apart a SKY HD box and replaced the hard drive for a bigger/better one.
Buoyed by that, I then decided to upgrade the fans as well.:thumbsup:
 
I whipped out the soldering iron

You know that bit in Terminator, when the 'policeman terminator' ends up in a big molten pool on the floor?
That's the sort of mess I'd leave if I touched a soldering iron, I'm sure of it.
 
Soldering (talking electrical and electronic rather than metal work) is actually pretty easy.

It's a funny old skill - people that don't know how to do it can make a mess, and gaze in awe at those who can do neat jobs in a fraction of the time.

But the reality is that there isn't much skill/art in it. Just a correct process and procedure to follow.

I reckon given no more than 30 minutes I can have someone who have never soldered before to be able to produce confident and effective work.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
You know that bit in Terminator, when the 'policeman terminator' ends up in a big molten pool on the floor?
That's the sort of mess I'd leave if I touched a soldering iron, I'm sure of it.

I was really surprised how easy it was. I touched the solder holding the capacitors to the pcb with the iron and when it melted, pulled out the old caps, leaving most of the solder behind. I then slipped the new caps in (making sure they were the right way round) and then touched the soldering iron to the remaining solder so that it melted onto the wire. It took a little dexterity (but not much) to get both legs to melt at once, but that was it.

When you think about it though, practically everything is massed produced these days, with speed of production being the lynchpin. Consequently, there is very little that is actually difficult to repair. The main problem is that there is so much mystique about it all that we get wary about it. But most jobs are so simple. How often does a repair person spend more that 20 minutes at your house doing a job? His only advantage is he/she isn't phazed and they have the right tools.
 
In the days when you had to fit your own plugs to stuff, my ex FIL used to solder the wires into the plugs.
A little part of me used to be impressed.
Another little bit of me thought......dick. :D
 
I fixed a jammed paper shredder at work.

The replacement my boss brought works fine now.
 
I did exactly the same replacement brush job that Mr I did :smashin:

Also decided that after a year of dripping I should take a closer look at the bathrom taps. Found a pretty obvious flow control valve underneath the sink so turned it off, wrenched open the taps and replaced the washer inside before putting back together and opening the flow valve again. Job done, even if it was a year overdue!

Oh and the classic Intempo RDI fix that has it's own thread here too :thumbsup:
 
My PS3 (3 years old) stopped reading any sort of disc (DVD, Blu-Ray or game) so I searched the 'net for possible reasons and bought a new laser assy for £24 from from Fleabay.

Following instructions on Youtube I carefully stripped the machine and replaced said item.

Machine re-assembled and tested - Bingo it worked!

I strutted around for hours feeling all warm inside having repaired something and am now telling my friends this wonderful tale of masculine endeavour:smashin:
 
My whirlpool side by side fridge freezer.
Probaly easy for the leccy experts but mine went down just befor xmas and got a new cicuit board delivered from Italy at short notice and fitted it my self and its still working hurrah, Hero
 

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