Historic Repair or Replace?
Growing-up with parents who were reared in the WWII 'make-do-and-mend' mindset [and who never managed to break this poverty-zeitgeist despite owning our house and driving round in a Humber Super Snipe] I have an instinctive rejection of not-having-the-best.
Yet, a few years back, when the plastic handle broke-off the lid of my "Haden" jug-kettle, I did a rework. The intention being that it would be a workround until I could get to the shops to buy a new kettle.
The doorknob I used is a solid-brass Victorian example. It had a thread which I couldn't work out so I re-tapped it to take a 10mm coarse-metric stainless-steel bolt, and used a chromed 4-point screw/nut to blank the other hole.
I'm happy to have prolonged the life of this kettle - it's a good'un - I descale it every couple of weeks by emptying all the water out and powering it up: the scale 'pings' from the heated baseplate then whrn it switches-off i take it to the tap and flood it with cold water which flakes-off more limescale.
How much longer will it last? I'm happy to have used a part 100+ years older than this kettle to have given it a new life.
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