Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Our postie always manages to press the button so hard that it jams in..... :(

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

I think that's what's happened, been abused by sausage fingers :(

Not jammed in but it's loosened the metal tabs that push through the circuit board and fold over to secure the thin metal contact membrane.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

I think our postie air knocks then goes away, leaving a 'can't deliver ' note

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

You got the same postie as me????

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

The slideable shelf thingy that the keyboard sits on on my PC workstation. Despite being years old and looking like it has been attacked by something nasty the workstation is perfectly satisfactory, except for the sliding shelf bit. This fell onto the floor, yet again, the other day. After screwing one of the sliders back on I twisted various metal bits with a pair of pliers until it grudgingly agreed to slide back and forth.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

fixed flat tyre on a non self propelled wheelchair,which is harder than it sounds as the wheels are like 10 inches round and there's barely any clearance to get to the valve, valve stem was stuck as it would only let air out and not in, once I got the tube free of the wheel I could remove the stem and tighten, then pop it back in and pump it up, all was good.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Foil head on my Braun series 3 electric razor: One of the foils suddenly kept jumping out in use. Seems a small plastic guide peg had snapped. I drilled a hole using a 1.4mm hobby drill (Lidl's version of the Dremmel) at the place the peg had been and superglued in a large piece of plastic covered wire from a giant paperclip. Trimmed to the same length as the existing pegs using side cutters. Works a treat.

Saved a bomb as these foil heads are stupid money. :)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Arise Sir Thrifty of Thrifty Towers! :nworthy:

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

just rebuilt from left over parts plus new screen samsung s4 working well ;) and nearly finished ipad 2 but digitizer is unstuck on one corner :( gorilla glue and clamp about to be used lol

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Glued a pair of my daughter's boots that started to fall apart.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

My Zanussi built in Electric Oven and Grill.

After using the grill for the first time in ages the other day, the RCD for the house suddenly tripped. This was very odd, as the oven itself wasn't actually turned on at the time (only the clock was showing). The only way I could stop it happening was to switch off the oven isolator switch on the wall. Once everything cooled down, the oven would work again without tripping the RCD, but only if it wasn't warmed up, as soon as it did, it tripped everything again. A couple of electrician friends mentioned it was probably a neutral to earth fault in one of the elements, so I decided to apply the process of elimination, and disconnected each element in turn to see which one caused the issue.

In the end it turned out to be the grill element, and I was luckily able to order a brand new Zanussi part for about £40. I would have got one from Ebay but it seems Zanussi/Electrolux had changed the design of the element (the original had a hinge, the new one didn't) and it was very hard to find one on ebay that was listed as fitting my oven.

It all came apart and went back together surprisingly easily this afternoon, and I can now use my oven again!

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Well done. Neutral to earth faults can be real buggers to find.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

It was a very odd one, as the grill element only failed once it warmed up, and would fail even if you didn't power it up, as the heat from the oven cavity was enough to cause it to short. The way I managed it in the end was to disconnect each of the 3 elements (main/fan element, bottom element, grill element) in turn (And using tape on the connectors to avoid them shorting out), power up the oven and warm it up to operating temperature and see if it could get there without tripping.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

It's the physical movement of the internal heating coil vs the sheath of the element. They're insulated by a packing of magnesium oxide. It probably happened by the heat / cool cycles of the actual oven. Usually it's the actual heated element that fails. I don't have an RCD in my house so when the element goes in the oven it's pyrotechnics time. :D

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

My house only has the one RCD in the consumer unit. Great for keeping me from becoming extra crispy, but if it goes it trips everything.