Yes, we have an artwork overflow problem!
A nice easy one here. We bought a spice carousel several years ago and always kept it on the worktop. Being on the worktop, it got a lot of light, especially in the summer when the sun would shine directly on it in the late afternoon. This led to our herbs and spices getting manky. Obvious solution: put it somewhere dark, like in a cupboard. Problem: it doesn't fit. Yet.
The shelves in our cupboards are adjustable, but the pre-drilled holes for the shelf supports are spaced quite far apart. I emptied the cupboard, and took the opportunity to give it a good clean. Then I measured up and marked and drilled new holes to allow just enough height for the carousel. Put it all back together and voilà.
The battery in my wife's 2004 Mazda 6 died and had to be replaced. As a result, the radio insisted that we enter the security code before it could be used again. Problem: we didn't have the code. After a few guesses (0000, 1234, etc) it locked us out. I visited the dealership and was told that they would have to hook up some dedicated equipment and call Mazda to get it re-activated, and that it would cost about £50. This sounded like bullshit to me, so I went away and spent a while searching the various Mazda forums. Eventually I found this thread over at Mazdaforum.com. In case the forum post disappears, here are the steps with a couple of additional steps from forum member Steve G6:
1) After you see ERR on the screen, turn the ignition off and back to ACC
2) Press each of these buttons one at a time: preset 6, AM, Auto M, Seek ^ (up).
3) Input this number: 4989.
4) Press and hold Auto M and Preset 6 together.
5) The word 'GOOD' will appear on the screen indicated that the radio will work.
6) Turn the ignition off and then back to ACC
7) Reprogram new antitheft code into radio as per instruction manual.
Easy when you know how!
1) After you see ERR on the screen, turn the ignition off and back to ACC
2) Press each of these buttons one at a time: preset 6, AM, Auto M, Seek ^ (up).
3) Input this number: 4989.
4) Press and hold Auto M and Preset 6 together.
5) The word 'GOOD' will appear on the screen indicated that the radio will work.
6) Turn the ignition off and then back to ACC
7) Reprogram new antitheft code into radio as per instruction manual.
Easy when you know how!
This is a faulty MI-7 electro-mechanical timer from a Dualit 20245 toaster that my mother in law was going to throw away. The timer kept sticking, so the heating elements wouldn't turn off. If you weren't there to keep a close eye on it, your toast would be burnt to a crisp!
I had a look online and found that a replacement timer from Dualit was approx £50, whereas I could get the same part on eBay for £15. Since a new 20245 toaster costs about £120, it's definitely worth repairing!
Doing the actual replacement was fairly straightforward. Turn the unit upside down and unscrew the feet and any other screws in order to remove the bottom panel.
Make a note of which wire goes to which terminal on the back of the timer. Remove the connectors from the four terminals.
Pull off the timer knob to access the screws holding the timer onto the case. Undo the screws. Take it out.
Reassembly is the reverse of removal, but make sure you get the wires right.
It turned out that the replacement timer I bought had a slightly different design and the pins were labelled differently. I emailed Dualit customer support and they sent me PDF documents for both models of timer. Here they are:
dualit_mi-7.pdf
dualit_mi-2.pdf
I matched up the wires and got it all put back together. The other difference I found was that I needed to use machine screws instead of the original self-tappers, since the screw holes on the new timer are in metal instead of plastic.
I cleaned it up and sold it about eighteen months ago. As far as I know, it's still toasting.
This is a parabolic reflector designed to enhance the directionality of a wi-fi router or access point antenna, and to increase the signal strength in that particular direction. It's cheap and easy to make, and involves cutting and glueing, which is always fun.
My router is in the corner of my house, and there's no point illuminating my street with my wi-fi signal since I'm not using it out there. This reflector will bounce all of that signal back into my house and increase the reception. The link (below) where I got the template says it will increase gain by about 9dBi, which is pretty decent. I never got round to doing a before/after measurement, but there was a noticeable improvement. In rooms on the far side of the house where signal had been patchy before, it is now much more reliable.
The antenna on the right with the reflector is set to cover the ground floor. The antenna on the left is aimed at the area where my wife uses her laptop in the bedroom upstairs. There isn't enough space for a reflector there, but the signal is good enough without.
Here is the link where you can download the template and make your own.
My router is in the corner of my house, and there's no point illuminating my street with my wi-fi signal since I'm not using it out there. This reflector will bounce all of that signal back into my house and increase the reception. The link (below) where I got the template says it will increase gain by about 9dBi, which is pretty decent. I never got round to doing a before/after measurement, but there was a noticeable improvement. In rooms on the far side of the house where signal had been patchy before, it is now much more reliable.
The antenna on the right with the reflector is set to cover the ground floor. The antenna on the left is aimed at the area where my wife uses her laptop in the bedroom upstairs. There isn't enough space for a reflector there, but the signal is good enough without.
Here is the link where you can download the template and make your own.
The pull-starter on my lawn mower is attached to the engine cover, the engine cover is bolted directly to the aluminium engine block in various places. When you pull the cord to start the engine, the engine cover pulls upwards on two bolts at the front. One of the bolts was missing already, and the other mounting point eventually snapped off, making the whole thing quite wobbly and very hard to start. With my wife in the background telling me to just buy a new mower, I broke out the socket set and got to work.
Four bolts around the starter mechanism and it just lifts off. This reveals the top of the crankshaft which has the blade attached to the other end and spins clockwise when the engine is running:
This is the pull cord assembly:
When there's tension on the cord, a little tooth pops out:
This tooth engages with the protrusions at the top of the crank:
Because there are now no bolts holding the front of the cover down, the whole thing lifts up when you pull the cord and the tooth fails to engage with the top of the crank. Here's where the mouting point broke off from the engine block:
I had read that Araldite (two-part cyanoacrylate epoxy adhesive, if you don't know the brand name) can be used to bodge broken aluminium engine blocks, so I used it to stick this piece back on, and found a replacement for the other missing bolt. It seems to be holding fast, and the mower is much easier to start.
Side note - if you ever break part of an aluminium engine block, take a moment to admire the crystalline structure.
Four bolts around the starter mechanism and it just lifts off. This reveals the top of the crankshaft which has the blade attached to the other end and spins clockwise when the engine is running:
This is the pull cord assembly:
When there's tension on the cord, a little tooth pops out:
This tooth engages with the protrusions at the top of the crank:
Because there are now no bolts holding the front of the cover down, the whole thing lifts up when you pull the cord and the tooth fails to engage with the top of the crank. Here's where the mouting point broke off from the engine block:
I had read that Araldite (two-part cyanoacrylate epoxy adhesive, if you don't know the brand name) can be used to bodge broken aluminium engine blocks, so I used it to stick this piece back on, and found a replacement for the other missing bolt. It seems to be holding fast, and the mower is much easier to start.
Side note - if you ever break part of an aluminium engine block, take a moment to admire the crystalline structure.
One of our neighbours moved to a new house, and needed to get rid of a bunch of stuff. She didn't have a car so asked me if I could help take some of it down to the tip. I suggested that I stick it all in my garage and try to find homes for the various things first. That's how I ended up with a coffee table, cupboard, suitcase, two venetian blinds, two DVD players, surround sound speaker system, freeview TV tuner, folding highchair, baby play mat, plastic baby bath, metal candelabra, two large metal candlesticks, two IKEA Storm lamps, and a pair of dissassembled under-bed storage drawers. My wife sighed when she saw what I'd taken on, bless her.
Everything found new homes via Freecycle except for the cupboard - which is still in my garage, holding some of my other stuff - and the drawers - which I thought might be useful.
We had acquired a sideboard for our kitchen via Freecycle a while before, and I decided to modify one of the drawers to go under the sideboard. It had to be made narrower and shallower to fit, so I measured, marked and cut the side and front/back boards. The base is made up of small sheets of hardboard, which also had to be cut down.
There are some holes drilled in the base of the front/back panels where I guess some rods would go to support the base of the drawer. There wasn't any suitable dowel to hand but I did have some scraps of wood which I used to make some braces. They're not pretty, but they do the job (and they're invisible when the drawer is right way up).
The cut edges of the boards were much paler than the faces, so I used some wood stain to try to mask it. The colour's not quite right, but it's much less obvious than it was.
Some of the original casters were damaged but between the two drawer "kits" I was able to put together a set of four casters.
So there you go, the finished article:
Everything found new homes via Freecycle except for the cupboard - which is still in my garage, holding some of my other stuff - and the drawers - which I thought might be useful.
We had acquired a sideboard for our kitchen via Freecycle a while before, and I decided to modify one of the drawers to go under the sideboard. It had to be made narrower and shallower to fit, so I measured, marked and cut the side and front/back boards. The base is made up of small sheets of hardboard, which also had to be cut down.
There are some holes drilled in the base of the front/back panels where I guess some rods would go to support the base of the drawer. There wasn't any suitable dowel to hand but I did have some scraps of wood which I used to make some braces. They're not pretty, but they do the job (and they're invisible when the drawer is right way up).
The cut edges of the boards were much paler than the faces, so I used some wood stain to try to mask it. The colour's not quite right, but it's much less obvious than it was.
Some of the original casters were damaged but between the two drawer "kits" I was able to put together a set of four casters.
So there you go, the finished article:
When we moved into our house, the cupboard under the sink in the kitchen didn't have a shelf inside. We decided to keep our cleaning equipment and supplies in there and, after a while, we accumulated so much stuff that it started to overflow into other cupboards. Around this time, the supermarket near where I worked was being refurbished and they were throwing out a load of stuff, including most of a kitchen. I grabbed a few pieces of useful-looking wood and brought them home. One of them was a cupboard shelf that was exactly the right size for our cupboard.
Being under the sink, there are pipes and things in the way. My friend Rich kindly lent me his jigsaw so I could do some fancy cutting. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures before or during the process, so you'll have to make do with the "after" shots:
The trickiest part was taking the cupboard apart so that I could put the shelf in. I had to remove the strut in the middle, which had screws at the bottom:
and at the top:
I then had to remove the board in front of the sink, and the drawer (though luckily not the drawer runners). It fit first time (a rarity for me) and the extra space was quickly filled up:
Being under the sink, there are pipes and things in the way. My friend Rich kindly lent me his jigsaw so I could do some fancy cutting. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures before or during the process, so you'll have to make do with the "after" shots:
The trickiest part was taking the cupboard apart so that I could put the shelf in. I had to remove the strut in the middle, which had screws at the bottom:
and at the top:
I then had to remove the board in front of the sink, and the drawer (though luckily not the drawer runners). It fit first time (a rarity for me) and the extra space was quickly filled up:
These were acquired more than ten years ago with a portable CD player and they have been used with various cassette players, CD players, minidisc players, and MP3 players over the years. One of the wires broke near the plug meaning sound only came from one of the speakers. Buying and soldering on a new plug was a possibility, but an easier option was to cut the end off a spare stereo jack-to-jack lead from my box of cables and replace the whole cable. Nice straightforward job. The trickiest part was tying strain relief knots in the exact same place in each cable so that the cable ends were the same length.
So, uhhh, we broke our bed. All the nails holding one of the battens popped out. It was a self-assembly job but the bit that broke was pre-built in the factory, so I don't think my construction skills are to blame.
The loose batten was eventually encouraged to come right off, the nails were hammered out, then my glamorous assistant held it onto the side of the frame while I drilled guide holes and then screwed it down with self-tapping screws. I drilled and screwed the other batten down as well (the one which hadn't fallen off) just in case. The battens at each end that the spine is attached to are already held on by some fairly sturdy screws so that should be OK.
The loose batten was eventually encouraged to come right off, the nails were hammered out, then my glamorous assistant held it onto the side of the frame while I drilled guide holes and then screwed it down with self-tapping screws. I drilled and screwed the other batten down as well (the one which hadn't fallen off) just in case. The battens at each end that the spine is attached to are already held on by some fairly sturdy screws so that should be OK.
I love my Audiotechnica ATH-M40fs headphones - I really do - but, after a couple of years, the coating on the pads starts to flake off and I end up with bits of black stuff in my hair and in my ears. I called my local A-T service centre to order the replacement parts, and the guy dictated the instructions off the top of his head. Very impressive. First, the old earpads come off:
Get a spudger or small flat-blade screwdriver into the gap around the edge of the earpiece and use it to pull the edge of the pad out. Work this all the way round and then slip the pad off the earpiece. We'll fit the new earpads last - first we have to pretty much strip the headphones to get at the headband pad. Remove the screws and lift up the driver:
Make a note of which wires go into which part of the distribution block:
Then loosen the screws in the block and remove the driver part altogether:
You do need to remove both earpads if you're replacing those, but you only have to fully disassemble one side of the headphones to get the headband pad off. I got a bit overexcited and did the whole thing before I realised that it was unnecessary. Here are the pics of the other side for reference. Apart from the wiring, the two sides are identical.
Now pop one side of the earpiece hanger out of its hole in the earpiece, then do the other side. There will be enough flex in the plastic to do this fairly easily. Thread the cable back out through the hole:
Now we need to remove the hanger mechanism (from one side only). This is to give enough access to slide the headband pad off. So remove all the screws, take the mechanism apart and thread the cable out, making a note of exactly how it's routed to help you put it back together later:
I don't have any pics of this last bit, but I've done this twice now and it takes me about an hour just to take the old pad off and fit the new one. It's probably quicker to use scissors and carefully cut the old pad off, but be VERY careful not to damage the cable. Once you've got the old pad off, you need to put the new pad back on. It's a tight fit and you need to make sure the cable stays in the right place as you do it. Stick with it, you'll get there eventually. Once you've got the new pad fitted and you're happy that it's even, reassemble the hanger mechanism, threading the cable carefully through, and gradually work your way back down til you have the drivers connected and screwed in.
Now comes the final tricky part - fitting the new earpads. Locate the edge of the pad in the groove around the cup, then use a spudger or similar to gradually stretch and work the edge of the pad until it all slips into the groove. Take care not to slip and cut or damage the pad.
All done! Put them on and crank up some tunes!
Get a spudger or small flat-blade screwdriver into the gap around the edge of the earpiece and use it to pull the edge of the pad out. Work this all the way round and then slip the pad off the earpiece. We'll fit the new earpads last - first we have to pretty much strip the headphones to get at the headband pad. Remove the screws and lift up the driver:
Make a note of which wires go into which part of the distribution block:
Then loosen the screws in the block and remove the driver part altogether:
You do need to remove both earpads if you're replacing those, but you only have to fully disassemble one side of the headphones to get the headband pad off. I got a bit overexcited and did the whole thing before I realised that it was unnecessary. Here are the pics of the other side for reference. Apart from the wiring, the two sides are identical.
Now pop one side of the earpiece hanger out of its hole in the earpiece, then do the other side. There will be enough flex in the plastic to do this fairly easily. Thread the cable back out through the hole:
Now we need to remove the hanger mechanism (from one side only). This is to give enough access to slide the headband pad off. So remove all the screws, take the mechanism apart and thread the cable out, making a note of exactly how it's routed to help you put it back together later:
I don't have any pics of this last bit, but I've done this twice now and it takes me about an hour just to take the old pad off and fit the new one. It's probably quicker to use scissors and carefully cut the old pad off, but be VERY careful not to damage the cable. Once you've got the old pad off, you need to put the new pad back on. It's a tight fit and you need to make sure the cable stays in the right place as you do it. Stick with it, you'll get there eventually. Once you've got the new pad fitted and you're happy that it's even, reassemble the hanger mechanism, threading the cable carefully through, and gradually work your way back down til you have the drivers connected and screwed in.
Now comes the final tricky part - fitting the new earpads. Locate the edge of the pad in the groove around the cup, then use a spudger or similar to gradually stretch and work the edge of the pad until it all slips into the groove. Take care not to slip and cut or damage the pad.
All done! Put them on and crank up some tunes!
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