State of repairs...

[Jon_G4MDC]

A soggy corner in one of my bedrooms turned out to be a home made plumbing stop end I made 20+ years ago.

A 15mm pipe hammered flat, folded over and soldered up.

I'm in with the electricals....a poor excuse I know. We have to live with it.

[Graham G3ZVT]

Originally Posted by turretslug

Others have multi-million pound civil engineering projects under their belt, yet shrink from fitting a 13A plug.

It became obvious on a computer networking course I attended, that the lecturer felt crimping an RJ45 to the end of a UTP patch cable was beneath his pay-grade, (not to mention his ability).

[bikerhifinut]

Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler

There is just one leetle teeny fly in their ointment....

Just wait until they refuse spares to someone they later need to sign off something of theirs......

Doesn't happen often, but it's justice of a sort.
David

Is that the voice of experience speaking?

[Refugee]

Originally Posted by Jon_G4MDC

A soggy corner in one of my bedrooms turned out to be a home made plumbing stop end I made 20+ years ago.

Bodge

[Cobaltblue]

I am curious as to who is going to pay for and store all these spares? Once the production run is finished it's almost impossible to re-manufacture it cost too much. That's if you can re-manufacture at all, you may end up having to buy obsolete parts on the grey market as we have on occasion.

Just as we tried to end a particular products life there was a flurry of orders for "future expansion", we had done all the last time buys for the spares and now suddenly had to build hundreds more units, the chips were from the 70's and this was 2004.

The injection moulds will have worn out and been recycled.

I work in industrial electronics and we have to store spares for sometimes decades it's very expensive and wasteful. we are constantly having to pay to dispose of expensive equipment that has lain rotting for a decade or more having taken valuable room and cost money to administer.

It will add to the cost of each unit where most people will just replace it anyway. (not the case in industrial)

In some cases its cheaper for us to replace the entire unit including the installation costs than store every single part.

We are constantly being asked for optics we last made in the early 1990's We stopped making them because they did not comply to the change in HA specs. But if there is a knockdown of an old unit all the optics on the same approach must look the same so they have to change all of them. Hence they they want to buy the old style unit rather than say six new ones

Don't get me wrong I would like the opportunity to OEM parts for various things especially where small plastic hinges and things have broken but its going to be expensive.

[ex 2 Base]

Talking of soggy carpets, we went to an old friend's funeral, well we saw the cortege go by. On returning home our sitting room carpet was really soggy, a radiator had leaked behind and up the wall. We both are well into our 80's and have been busy replacing all the radiators. Our house is imperial through out, modern radiators are metric dimensions, so some 1/2" to 15mm pipe work alteration were required using the gas blow lamp, under the floor and upstairs. A lot of use for the hammer drill fixing new wall brackets. As for recycling, well, its always been our way of life. Unfortunately I haven't the know how to fix a radio properly. Any local looking over the shoulder practical tuition would much appricated, before the final demise

[G6ONEDave]

Back in the late 1970s I had a customers 1950s vintage Ekco radiogram in for repair and in trying to remove the control knobs broke the glass scale. So somewhat mortified I contacted the manufacturer and asked if there was any chance that they could help me. It turned out that they still had a few in stock and although in a different background colour, they could supply one. They converted the old £sd price into decimal money and that is what I paid. I think it was less £6 including p&p! Those were the days.

[Ted Kendall]

Originally Posted by turretslug

The point is that I'd expect someone described as any sort of "engineer", chartered or otherwise, to have had the wherewithal not to have done either of those things in the first place.

Stupidity is no respecter of persons or quaifications. The story of the PhD measuring the source resistance of the mains supply with an AVO switched to ohms is surely apocryphal, but I have a nagging feeling it isn't...

[peter_scott]

The key thing is to educate people to offer items on freecycle that they can't repair. Perhaps many items are seen as too difficult or expensive to repair. I nearly fell into this trap just a week or so ago. I had a Sony Hi8 video camera that I bought new around 1990 that developed what I assumed was capacitor rot.

I got a copy of the service manual hoping to repair it but on taking it apart I came to the conclusion that I would need several ribbon cable extenders just to run the thing out of its housing. Needless to say I didn't have any extenders. I also didn't relish the prospect of replacing a surface mount electrolytic let alone many of the things nested on small complex boards.

After offering it on freecycle I was very surprised and pleased when I received interest from an oriental girl who was clearly confident that she would not be wasting her time on it.

Peter

[Peter.N.]

I have often tried the measure the resistance of the mains and in the early days of digital meters I blew up several - until I bought my Fluke 11, which was very expensive at the time but virtually bombproof.

I still use it. although the display is deteriorating you can still read it.

Peter

[Uncle Bulgaria]

Originally Posted by Ted Kendall

Stupidity is no respecter of persons or quaifications. The story of the PhD measuring the source resistance of the mains supply with an AVO switched to ohms is surely apocryphal, but I have a nagging feeling it isn't...

Quite so. Not to belittle qualifications, but most simply require a long time spent dedicating oneself to a single thing rather than insight or capability. This can breed a narrow outlook, especially when taught to pass exams rather than be curious and able to think critically.

The manufacturers making non-user-serviceable objects which encourages the general populace to consider replacement rather than repair play a large part, but I can see the problem associated with large levels of spares stock. Perhaps there could be some sort of under-the-radar legislation that might help. Tax breaks for spares-houses; plugs must be screw-fitted, or assemblies must be held together with screws to metal rather than glued plastic flanges or clips. I find the biggest barrier to any repair is the flimsiness of the casing and the difficulty of getting something apart without breaking it, when it was obviously never designed to do so.

There is an open-source effort to make mobile phones, those great waste offenders, modular. The FairPhone 2 has sold out, but its price does reflect the complexity of the object and is probably a geek status symbol too. Nice idea, though. The thought of all those rare earth metals getting thrown every handset change does sadden me.

[Refugee]

I scrapped a washing machine after the PCB blew up with at least half a dozen tracks blown off.
I could hear it running and it failed when I would have expected the pump to start.
So board and pump. The door seal was just beginning to go sticky.
The drum bearings and motor brushes were old enough that they were not far off either.
The board was £85 for a start.
The combi boiler was no problem.
The fault code was replace the circuit board. There was lots of seller refurbished boards on sale so the fault was obviously not that difficult to fix.
You have to re-relay the board to fix it and the exact relays are on the Farnell web site at a reasonable price.
No gas engineer bill for that one.

[Station X]

I guess that forum members fix things because they can, even though often it makes no economic sense, especially if you don't price in your labour.

Joe Public may not feel the same way about having say a TV repaired, he'd rather have a new one.

It appears to me that the only items routinely repaired nowadays are motor vehicles, other things with engines like lawn mowers, and white goods. These are the things which it's easiest to get spare parts for.

[Radio Wrangler]

I suppose it's a case of keeping proving to ourselves that we're not helpless cannon-fodder.

Fixing something does feel good and it blows a raspberry at the disposable everything society.

David

[ms660]

General electrical goods, cheap and cheerful, that's what the mass market has demanded over the years, we've got what we asked for.....simples.

10 year spares availability on electrical goods......and repair prices that make sense to the majority of consumers......dream on.

Lawrence.

[PsychMan]

Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler

I suppose it's a case of keeping proving to ourselves that we're not helpless cannon-fodder.

Fixing something does feel good and it blows a raspberry at the disposable everything society.

David

I like that.

While difficult to repair items frustrate me, it does present a challenge as well. I feel very proud of expensive items I have repaired that have given me years of extra service despite the odds being against me.

Time does have value, and my other half is always reminding me this. The fact I do get some enjoyment out of even "boring" repairs does encourage me to do it.

Part of me does get excited when something in our house breaks

This topic has been discussed a lot but it does come down to cost. Appliances are relatively cheap, and people with engineering skills, whether self obtained or trained, deserve and want to be paid decently.

The nature of some faults and lack of service data for some items does add a lot more time in investigation and working out how to get into something, the cost adds up and labour may have then been spent on something that is dead money as the item is beyond economic repair.

I do wish some things would either be better built, or spares available. My Ryobi lawn mower died last week, on the face it a nicely made item compared to others In its price bracket. I like their power tools. Hefty electric motor inside (1600w). Unfortunately the bottom frame on the motor that holds the bearings is made of plastic, with heat this had deformed, and eventually enough so the thermal fuse was tripping out immediately. Can I get replacement plastic? Nope. Can I get a replacement motor? Nope. To the dump it goes , after 2 summers of use. And off to B&Q I go to buy another 2 season wonder

[McMurdo]

lawn mower died last week

Someone gave me their old electric lawnmower today. 'it keeps cutting out' he said, and 'I broke the switch trigger lever, and it's held together with tape'.

It's a nice modern Qualcast machine.

Easy - I thought. Intermittent action will be a cable break. It was, and I dismantled the trigger switch to attach the new cable. No problem there. Now for the taped-together trigger. It's a qualcast, so I went to a uk trade supplier. Not listed. Went to a few online parts retailers. Not listed.

Then I found this on Amazon:

trigger handle for Qualcast, Bosch and Atco 1000W mowers. Please note that if your Qualcast is an M2E1032MRM32, this is manufactured in China for Argos who use the qualcast name under license. Spare parts are not available.

Where's me duct tape?

[AC/HL]

Originally Posted by Station X

I guess that forum members fix things because they can, even though often it makes no economic sense, especially if you don't price in your labour.

Which answers this thread concisely. We can, or at least have a fighting chance, most can't, whether they want to or not. Seeing the results of many forlorn attempts it's often as well!

[cheerfulcharlie]

If you lived in a block of flats or have a car, apparently these days you just walk away if you see smoke coming from an electrical appliance, when a simple electrical disconnection from socket in the flat or battery of a car could immediately prevent an inferno taking hold.

[Beobloke]

Originally Posted by Station X

I guess that forum members fix things because they can, even though often it makes no economic sense, especially if you don't price in your labour.

Joe Public may not feel the same way about having say a TV repaired, he'd rather have a new one.

As both an engineer and a gadget freak, I've always taken a two-step approach to broken household items:

(1) Oh no, XXXXX has broken. What a shame. Still it gave good service and it means we can buy a modern and more efficient/powerful/gadget-filled version.

Wait a few weeks after new item has arrived and is in use.....

(2) Well, what are the chances? I had a look at the old XXXXX and it turns out I was able to fix it. We can either sell it to recoup part of the cost of the new one, or keep it as a handy spare.

Win-win