Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Just fixed the torn cushions on our garden swing and now it is looking as good new it really is amazing what a needle and thread can do.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Too true. Oddly enough I've just spent a while sewing my old work shorts which split as I was climbing up onto the side of the bath to complete the top row of tiles. It was so hot that the material stuck to my sweaty leg and ripped...

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

My laptop: HP Probook 450 G3. Failing to POST. Said the fan wasn't running. Stripped it down and the fan was trying but then stopping.

Ordered up a new one, fitted it and... exactly the same. :mad:

So I decided to take the risk and start the machine up to se if the fan would actually run once the heatsink got warm. Plugged in the keyboard and mouse. Seems then that Windows said it was "resumimg". Turns out I must have wrongly shut the thing down as when the screen came up the media player was still loaded and showing the last thing I watched on the TV plugged into the HDMI.

Anyway after a minute or two as the heat piped heatsink warmed up Lo! the fan came on for a minute and then stopped. It continued to cycle like this. I've shut the machine down and run it up several times now with no POST fail and the fan runs fine.

It was frigging Windows that had "done" something to stop the machine at POST.

Anyhow it's all back together and is running fine. Blasted Microsoft. £25 out of pocket for a fan, tool set and a load of grief because your stupid OS can't handle a sudden shutdown.

At least the tool set is a sound investment for getting things apart.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Don't ya just hate it when that happens?... ;)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Yes. It was the weirdest as it was the POST (BIOS) that was failing, not Windows boot itself so I didn't think to blame the OS.

At least posting it here might help somebody with the same issue.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

That's exactly what I feel. Sometimes there's a simple explanation which has been overlooked. At least you know your way around the laptop now anyway. :tu:

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Just replaced the handle on one of our double glazed windows. Luckily I found a suitable replacement at Toolstation for about £4 and it fitted nicely with the fixing centres exactly the same and only the spindle bar needing shortening with a hacksaw. 15 minutes and job done. :)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Our small portable barbecue: The flat bottom of the undertray where the ash gathers has rotted in the middle and there's a big hole. The rest where the legs fit in is quite sound.

Knocked out all the loose rust and from a ridiculously expensive sheet of Aluminium from B&Q cut out a disc with the tin snips. Drilled some clearance holes and then self tapped it into place on the BBQ. Job done. hopefully ready for tomorrow.

---------- Post added at 16:17 ---------- Previous post was at 14:18 ----------

Solar rock: This is the third time I've had this particular one apart and the fault is the same, one of the four original LEDs has gone almost short circuit. Well I've now changed all four for new ones over the three times it's been apart so hopefully that'll be fixed.

Doesn't bode well for the other two that were bought at the same time as it looks like a batch of dodgy Chinese LEDs or bad assembly practice. :(

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

The switch assembly on my cooker hood. Lots of bits to unscrew to get at it but it was straightforward enough and at £25 for the part, a lot cheaper than getting someone in to do it.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

The elastic waistband in a pair of the wife's leggings. More brownie points... :)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

just serviced my coleman petrol stove and my optimus 80 petrol stove all good to go

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

One of the two pathetically stupid plastic catches on the side of my old Vax wet and dry vacuum cleaner. The damned thing snapped off when a piece of wood fell onto it and I couldn't glue it back securely but managed to create a new catch using velcro superglued onto the top and bottom sections of the machine. Seems to be holding so far.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

you need this it welds the plastic back together

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Technicqll...EAAOSwa~BYU~rG

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

I've kept the broken plastic tab just in case I could find another fix. Is that the sort of stuff we used to use when making Airfix models I wonder? The trouble is there's so many types of plastic and it's hard to know what works on what. I have some really good superglue which works on most thongs but it wouldn't touch the plastic on the Vax.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

I replaced the battery in one my smoke alarms.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

this stuff makes the edges go soft for a minute or so then it welds and hardens

it's for those plastics than nothing sticks to

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

That's what the old Airfix glue did - like a weld more than a glue. Wonder if it's the same stuff. Probably worth getting a tube and experimenting.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Polystyrene cement - believe it or not, polystyrene is what airfix models are made of, it's just the hard, not blown form of the plastic. And yes, it temporarily melts the polystyrene so you effectively weld the parts together.

It also smells great :spin: :D

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

That's the stuff. Reminds me of the good old days when all sorts of potentially lethal chemicals were readily available... :D

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Fixed a broken zip on one of the wife's rucksacks by fitting a new slider. If ever we throw out an old bag or anorak we always remove the zip sliders for use on other items. Lost count of the times I've fixed stuff like that.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Good advice on saving the slider/runner. Another tip if a zip stops zipping together is to squeeze the "tail" of the runner together with pliers as wear here often is the cause of a zip failing to knit.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

That's exactly what I did last night when Osem Jnr came home and his football jacket wouldn't zip up. It had got caught in some adjacent fabric as he did it up and had then been forced so the zip wouldn't knit together. Some pliers and silicone spray did the trick.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Little digital bedside alarm clock: Came back from Cornwall yesterday and it was flashing, usually a result of a power blip but that usually hits the microwave as well. Tried to reset the clock but it wouldn't stop flashing so I turned it off.

Powered it up today and the display was a random set of segments and the internal alarm speaker was buzzing. A-Ha! I thought: Power supply.

Changed the main capacitor (100uF 16v) with a spare from my bits and bobs and voila! Fixed. Took the opportunity to treat the time/alarm setting buttons with some cleaner as they were also a bit dodgy. Old capacitor measured as no value on my test meter.

It's over 35 years old and this sort of fault is so common in small bits of old electronics. Electrolytic capacitors dry out with age and go open or low value.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Another solar rock light: This one stopped turning off in daylight and the battery was run down. I guessed it would be the solar cell, prized it up and yes, one of the wires had corroded through as had the tail from the cell. When they made it they didn't put enough sealant on to cover all the connections.

Replaced with one of my upgrade cells (about 2.5 times output of the original) and sealed it back in place with a good dollup of clear silicon rubber sealant. A fresh high capacity AA (2500 mHr) battery in the charger and it can go out in a few hours.

There's only one left now of this type with 4 LEDs that hasn't had the upgraded cell fitted. Seeing as all the others eventually corroded through I guess its time will come.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Magsafe power adapter for my Macbook Pro. Some tactical soldering and a bit of shrink wrap.

80 quid for a replacement? Not on my watch.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

A man after my own heart. :tu:


Anyway I'm declaring my trusty DAB radio as a fix officially as it's been working without a problem for a couple of days now. :)

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...2#post35912862

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

One of the security bolts inside my front door failed with metal fatigue so just had to chisel it out from inside (it's a big, old solid wood one).

Time for a new one.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Big golfing style umbrella: I though it was getting floppy. The wire loop that retains the spokes in a plastic moulding at the top had rusted through and the spokes had come loose. I undid the canopy to get to the top and with a carfully bent piece of locking wire secured the spokes back into the ring. I bent the ends of the locking wire at rightangles and slid the inner brass part of a chop block over the ends and used the two screws to secure the wire.

Re-fitted the canopy to the outer ends of the spokes. Good as new. :)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

i recon you must be as tight as me good fix ;)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Thanks. I don't like throwing away things that for a few minutes work can be fixed. That's the way to end up at a food bank when the money runs out buying a new one.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Same here. It's not just about saving money but the pleasure you get from fixing stuff which is perfectly usable. Given all the environmental issues we're made aware of every day it puzzles me that more people don't bother to even try to fix their belongings rather than add to the huge mountain of discarded property.

My DAB radio is still working just fine and I've saved £40 as well as getting a buzz from doing something worthwhile. :)

Good morning all.....

Well the other day I got a VHS tape in the mail I ordered (AND JUSTICE FOR ALL - 1979)

The person I think rewound it with one of those crappy radioshack rewinder things WHICH ARE HORRIBLE.. (They slam the tape @ full speed when it gets rewound) - YA DONT EVER USE THAT GARBAGE!!!

The tape was off the spool so I opened the cartridge and re-attached the clear lead tape to the spool using a couple pieces of tape..... I had to put it in a different shell however as the parts in the back (1 of them) came off and it wouldnt play at all........

I took an empty one and put both spools into it.... Its not working correctly for some reason (the things in back of the spools) but thankfully its working...

This is the first 1981 columbia release of this movie and its the BEST and i didnt wanna lose it,been looking for it for along time!!!

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Ikea can opener. It had formed rust on the shaft the cutter wheel rotates on. PTFE spray after a clean did the trick.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

You reminder me to have a look at our 2 trusty safety can openers as they've started playing up recently, not opening the cans cleanly and sometime not at all. I gave the moving parts a quick clean, removed some gunk and so far, so good. Just opened a can perfectly. :)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Probably the ratchets that hold the spools stationary when the cassette is not loaded in the machine. Not critical to the plot if you're not jolting it about a lot.

Ya I think thats what they are....

One works but the other doesnt,im not sure what I did when I put them back in... (I tried to be careful)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

My little Samsung Tocco lite mobile. Suddenly the battery indicator kept showing almost empty even after a fresh charge.

Thought of VM repair procedure #1: Reboot

Fixed it. :)

Very nice.....

Makes us feel good being able to fix stuff ourselves :)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Fixed the fact we have no wired network connect downstairs, buy buying some powerline adapters.

I honestly didn't think they would work.

But they did, now I get 165meg+ :D

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Fixed my home network so i can map network drives.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Fixed a Windows update issue, but had to do an in place upgrade to get it working again!

I last repaired a cassette I got the other day ... It wouldnt play well,it sounded sluggish like it had gotton wet....Well first look @ the window in the cassette showed that stupid plastic sheet on both sides so I figured this was the reason......

I opened the cassette which was popped together (I easily opened it with a knife wedged in the front)

THERE WERE NO ROLLERS IN IT!!!!! -- What kind of moron put this together?? -- NO WONDER IT DIDNT PLAY WELL!!!!!!!!! (It is a 1981 album)

I just happend to have a new cassette (BLANK) that has screws so I opened it and put the tape into the new cassette and she plays fine... (DEF LEPPARD - HIGH N DRY)

Well.... The first time I played it when it got to the last song on side 1 (Bringing on the hardbreak) it was a bit sluggish and IM NOT SURE WHY.... When it played side 2 though it was fine....... On 2nd play it was fine on both sides so something must have been stuck near the end and fell out thankfully.....


Boy.... NO ROLLERS!!!!!!! -- How stupid and unresponsible to make something like this AND LET IT OUT!!!!!! (Like they didnt care that it wouldnt work well)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Bosch electric fan assisted oven - problem bulbs keeps blowing - Problem was the light fitting moves up and down and heat passes through the gap and bang. Oven extracted from cabinet unit, took back and top off the oven and tighten the bulb holder down. Replaced the bulb and glass dome - SUCCESS.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

My dads laptop would not run any windows update as it wasn't running, but a quick check of services.msc said it was.

I found out that there was a possible corrupt file and I managed to fix it.

But 86 files and 1.3GB of updates took 3-1/2 hours to do :O

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Windows 7 was it. Well done.

This morning I fixed a cassette I got......

It wouldnt play well,sounded like it got wet or was somehow being wedged in and couldnt freely move.... IT WAS HARD GETTING THIS!! -- I was tired and my eyes were hurting from overtired and I almost gave up..... The tape kept coming off the lead spool (The one on the left if looking @ side 1)

I put it into a different shell and finally got it closed w/o the tape being scrunched in the front!! (This shell has screws also thanfkully (The one I took apart easily came apart with a knife wedged in the front))

I didnt wanna lose it....... Whitesnakes first album - TROUBLE (1978)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Great album Dude111.

Last night I fixed one of my 8 track tapes :)

I just got BARRY MANILOWS first concert (1977) and there was basically NO PAD and when track 4 played,the right channel wasnt there. (I LISTEN IN MONO BUT IT STILL MAKES IT SOUND WIERD MISSING A CHANNEL)

I popped the cartridge open and put a good pad in :) (Thankfully it wasnt damaged)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Going through the solar lamps and rocks: Most still worked and just needed the batteries charged or changed, some attention with the switch cleaner and to the battery contacts, and the solar cells cleaned up with some Brasso to remove the mistiness on the surface that they develop over time.

Down to 3 rocks that need closer attention, one lamp that wont turn off in the sun and one that does nothing at all.

Two of the rocks above probably need my upgraded solar cells and batteries as they are the older 2 battery types. The remaining one has had the upgrade but needs the chip changing as the leads have rotted through.

The lamps must be well over 10 years old and the plastic (ABS) is getting brittle. They did cost quite a bit at the time but are very bright and much better than the tat turned out today.

Edit: The lamp that did nothing was just flat batteries, cleaned up and working now.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

I spray my solar lights with silicon which keeps them clean, water proofs, helps stopping brittleness.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Last solar lamp: PCB needed cleaning of crud. Now turns off in the light.

Two remaining solar rocks re-worked with new, more powerful solar cells, revised electronics (single chip and choke) and more powerful batteries. All ready to go out when the sunshine comes back. :)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

The timeline.

Thankfully I was able to go back and reset it so that we weren't conquered by giant turtles in the early 1980s.

You're welcome.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Yeh, thanks for that (not!).

In the original timeline, as the leader of the Resistance (TMNT - Terrans Murdering Nefarious Testudines), we had just released a fast-acting virus which dissolved their shells and made them easy to kill, and we had just assassinated their Leadership Council (Lio, Mikiy, Doni, & Raf).

Thirty five years of millions of peoples’ hard work and sacrifice thrown away so you could try out one of your gadgets...

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

.. but that virus had a side effect, resulting in all human life mutating to look like Richard Madeley, so I saved the human race twice! (you're welcome, again!)

Anyway, how do you know what happened in a timeline that no longer exists?

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

It still exists, you just created a branch in the multiverse - anyway, how do you know the future in a timeline you thought you had erased?

btw, don’t speak ill of the Mighty Dick (all praise to Richard, Greatest Magesterial Tyrannosaurus Victorix (GMTV), and the Mother Empress Judy the Infallible).

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

I'm from the future of that timeline, not the present of that timeline - it was the transformation of 99% of the human race into Mighty Dick that prompted me to travel back to the 80s, reset the time line, then come forward to this point in the time line.
So there's currently 2 of me in this time line, so I'm pretending to be my older brother.

ermmmmm

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

My Braun 1508 electric razor: It had been getting slower and slower over the last few weeks and also the charging light kept flashing on and off instead of going properly off at the end of charging.

Turns out the NiMh battery was on its last legs. Fitted a replacement. Full speed is restored and the charge light now behaves.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

The rear wiper arm of my car wouldn't wipe a large portion of the screen. So I drilled out the seized hingepin and replaced it with a nut and bolt. A good dose of copper grease and it works perfectly now. Much cheaper than the £38 Skoda wanted for a replacement.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

One of my solar rocks wasn't doing too well: not bright and not lasting long. I suspected faulty LEDs were preventing the battery from getting a good charge and yes they measured about 800Ω (Should be 100's of KΩ) Two faulty LEDs out of the four. One I'd already done so to be sure I replaced the other three. Fresh battery and is now blindingly bright.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

My daughter said the vac "squealed then stopped". I took it apart and found a wadge of kitchen paper, a wine cork... and a telescopic radio aerial!

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Water butt that gathers rain from the utility room lean to roof had cracked at the base and was leaking. Probably the result of getting frozen solid in the winter.

I drilled a hole at each end of the crack. Standard proceedure to stop further propogation of a crack. Gouged out the crack with a small burr on my hobby drill. Roughened up the surface with some 60 grit sandpaper and then filled the crack and holes with some P38 car body filler.

Then mixed up a generous helping of P40, that's the one with glass fibres in it, and covered the whole area to at least 3" beyound the damage.

Set nice and quick in the hot sun so hopefully it's fixed for now, ready to get filled up by storm "Hector" tomorrow. :D

They're not that expensive but a fix with stuff from the cupboard is better and I don't add a plastic butt to the trash overload.

At the same time I got out the stepladder and pushed some of the slates back into place on the roof. Nail fatigue. Rollered on some strips of bituminous flashing to stop them slipping out again. Only needs to hold for a year or two as the whole thing will be demolished soon to make way for a big conservatory that will double up as the utility room at one end.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Do you have something like a 'how to' for these kinds of things? - got a load of solar lamp kind of things in the garden that we inherited when we moved house, but very few of them seem to work - if they can be fixed rather than binning.....

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

I'm an electronics engineer by trade so fixing these things, is for me, relatively easy. I don't know of a guide but there's probably something up on on Youtube.

Most of these modern lamps have a single NiMh battery, a 4 pin chip, a choke (coil), the solar cell, an on/off switch and some LEDs.

Most problems I've seen relate to corrosion of the battery holder/battery contacts or trouble with the on/off switch. A good clean of the first and some switch cleaner on the second or even shorting it out with solder do the job.

The batteries can and do die but replacements are easily sourced. I usually keep a look out for when Lidl do a promotion on rechargables as then they're much cheaper than the branded ones.

Only when they get much older do problems with the LEDs and corrosion of the solar cell connections kick in. By then the plastic parts of the lamp are usually getting faded and brittle.

For testing you can use a standard 1.5v battery instead of the rechargable one.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Replaced a few planks of the garden patio set, repainted, and it's all back in use.

When it fails again. I'll just build another out of treated CLS timber.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Fan oven element. Old one blew when I was making bread a week or so ago.

New one from sparkswarehouse for £17 delivered. A few moments of electric screwdriver work to enable the oven to come forward out of the unit it's in to be able to turn off the plug behind: Always isolate before commencing any electrical work. Being only 2Kw loading,oven or grill, it runs on a standard 13A socket.

Then just more screwdriver work to take off the rear panel to remove the spade connectors. I think there's enough slack wire that you might be able to disconnect them after pulling the element forward but I like to make sure the wires are properly dressed back and nothing trapped on replacement.

All back in reverse order and jobs a goodun. :)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

I would have changed both elements, depending on the age/usage of the elements.
I don't fancy a joint cooked only on one side/over cooked depending on location of temperature sensor?

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

There is only a single element for the oven function: A circular one surrounding the fan. The other element is only the grill which I rarely use as I have a separate grill unit and has never needed replacing.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Another solar rock light flaking out early. :rolleyes:

This time a new fault: The solar cell had gone low output. Looked sound enough but only made 2ma in strong sunlight. It's the last of the cheap low output cells so I've fitted the new high output cell (140ma in strong sun) that I upgraded the others to.

A goodly load of silicon sealer to ensure that the water can't get inside and out it's gone.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

I put my solar lights in the shed last autumn and only 2 of the 8 still work, maybe there is a battery i can do something with that is cheaper than buying new, will look when i have time.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Batteries, battery contacts and switches. Give it all a good clean and if you have one put the batteries in a charger. Test after a good charge to see if they can provide power.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

I took one apart and it looks like the contact terminal is discoloured, is there anything household that i can clean them with or do i need to buy contact cleaner, if i have to buy something then it needs to be super cheap or this exercise is pointless?


For now i have just scrapped it off with a screwdriver, so i will see if it charges up with the sun.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

I've used 300 grit wet and dry sand paper on the contacts to clean them up. Takes a bit of time. More recently I have a hobby drill (like a Dremmel) with a small diamond burr does a fine job and much quicker.

A little bit of WD40 on the contacts will help keep the corrosion at bay.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

WD-40 specialist electrical contact cleaner spray I hope?


I sawed the end of a patio chair leg off (rotten) and replaced it.

Whilst sweating buckets, despite the breeze.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

I suggested ordinary WD40 for the battery contacts as it's something Snoop might have on the shelf. The contact cleaner that I have also leaves a protective coat to help stop corrosion.

With enough contact pressure the WD40 won't act as an insulator.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Fixed all of them but 1 using WD40, maybe the other just needs a good charge or a new battery. :tu:


Edit


The last 1 is also working now it has had some sun on it, happy they're all fixed without spending any monies.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Well done Snoopz.

I need a new part but have sussed why the fridge wasn't running properly:

I cleaned up the starting relay in case the contacts were faulty and temporarily shorted out the thermal cut out but it still only ran for about 5 minutes before stopping. So that ruled out compressor problems.

The last thing was to bridge the thermostat contacts and YAY! it runs.

I'll probably have to get some kind of generic part as the unit is over 35 years old so an original is likely to be unobtainable.

I think this has been developing over a long time as I thought on the odd occasion that it didn't seem very cold inside.

I'll rig a temporary manual switch. I do have a spare digital temperature controller so I might configure that as a thermostat.

More money saved. :)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Fixed myself something to eat :-D

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

I had to get the quick commissioning manual for the temperature contoller to know how to set it up as the 7-segment display "messages" are a bit cryptic.

I have it set as on/off with +/- 0.4C limits. Setpoint is 5C. Works a treat and the fridge is nice and cold. Might even be the fix as thermostats are expensive and digital control is more precise.

A friend asked me to look at a digital time switch as it had stopped switching the lamp he has it on.

Electronics looks fine but the front switch seemed very slack. On test it didn't switch at all. Prised out the rocker and the tube on the bottom of the rocker had broken off inside so the spring wasn't pressing properly on the contact strip to give the "toggle" action and contact pressure to close the circuit.

Some super-glue reinforced with Araldite effected a fix.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

We had an old rickety wooden shelving unit in the garage I was about to chuck. But took it apart in the back garden, realigned the legs, screwed it back up and it's just like new.:)



My next project was to give a corner of our garden a make over. Before and after photos. :):):)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Nice work Tinky. :tu:

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Not too bad for a 75 year old woman heero :):):)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

You're as young as the man you feel!

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Oh don't say that Mr LM he's 82!

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Maybe start feeling a younger man then? :)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

My new repair on the water butt (Polythene coated with mastic placed inside) seems to be holding. The cloudbursts yesterday have filled it to the brim. No leak. The pressure is forcing some of the mastic to ooze out of the crack sealing it still better. :)

Congrats on everyones repairs :)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Tee hee.... 'butt'

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

You'll be having a field day MLM when I have to fix a Portsmouth valve. :D

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Painted the wall in the conservatory, the white paint was just too stark.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

My Akai GXC38D (dolby) HiFi cassette deck. Pinch wheel had gone all naff quite a few years ago and I've only now got round to fixing it up. Probably more for nostalgic reasons as most of the music is now on the PC / ext HDD but there are few live broadcast concerts on tape.

Got a replacement wheel that was almost identical and with some fettling will fit.

Old wheel on the left, replacement in carrier on the right:

https://www.cableforum.uk/board/atta...5&d=1534513933

Reassembled into the deck. Applied power at reduced voltage (90V) to allow the capacitors in the circuits to "re-form" This is a vital step as just plugging into full mains will probably blow the lot as it's not been powered for 15+ years

VU meters were reading full scale so I treated all the switches to switch cleaner. Fixed that. Volts up to 150 and still fine. Bought up to 200 and tried a cassette. Clean audio on the headphone output. :)

Left the deck to soak at 150V It'll need this for several hours to be sure the capacitors are OK.

Deck on soak:

https://www.cableforum.uk/board/atta...6&d=1534513968

I won't case it up until I've run it throuh the HiFi amp to check for wow and flutter as the belts are not quite flat having been standing and may need replacing. Still looks promising.

Attachment 27515Attachment 27516

Congrats,she look nice!!!!!!!!


Tonight I fixed the scale in our kitchen used to measure food and such.... I had mac and cheese tonight and when I pressed the bubton to turn it on nothing happend... I checked the batteries and they were in ok... I tried NEW batteries and still nothing...... I couldnt understand it as it worked last night when I made mac and cheese!!

I was mad so I slammed it on the counter 4 or 5 times.... Whadda ya know,it worked perfectly :D

Its interesting how that seems to work often!!

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Some clever people around here, my latest fix, new bolt for the shed door. :)

Thats a good thing also!!

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Mac & Cheese 2 nights in a row? no wonder the scales broke :D

I had to fix my Macbook Pro 2012, the 500GB hard Drive was getting so so slow and causing the system to keep freezing. So I bought a new 500GB SSD to replace it with. So fast now and next month will be doubling the RAM to 8GB for an extra boost.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Some minor bugs on a [private] torrenting site. :)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

I had a dog that used to be owned by a blacksmith, when I got him home first thing he did was make a bolt for the door

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

That’s a riveting story, that hinges on us believing you are nuts...

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

That's a pretty ruff comment

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Gawd don't hold back now just cut to the bone with your comments .