Boomers Fix Stuff !! What have you repaired ?

[Ninga]

Wasn’t actually a repair, more just maintenance.

The workshop drinks fridge doesn’t actually have a defrost, so the ice builds up around the top fan and needs removing around once or twice a year.

Over having the fridge out of action for 24 hours whilst it melts, so I’ve developed the 2 hour fast defrost.

Unplug and wedge door open for an hour, to allow the ice to melt away from the back wall.

Plug in soldering iron, to heat up. Insert soldering iron into the centre of the ice, in a series of vertical holes, about 10mm apart, but never deep enough to touch the rear wall of the fridge.

Plastic spatula slid up the rear wall until the ice cracks into two halves.

Remove the two large ice halves, and place on the garden, to melt overnight. 

Plug the fridge back in…….and cold drinks again within hours……..

Great idea! I use a hairdryer for defrosting (a tool I’m more familiar with ).

Hope I’m not too off topic here as it’s more of an up-cycle than a fix…. 
We had an old fridge waiting for its tip day but I hate throwing things out if I think there’s a potential project. So, motor removed, flipped on its back, some leftover colorbond screwed to the sides, a timber edge and some holes drilled in the bottom and voila… a raised garden bed now growing some healthy tomatoes. 
Grant, to clarify, this fridge was beyond the hairdryer defrosting days. 

[Oldman]

Great upcycle !
My brother in law in Canada did similar for a storage unit…..but he left the door on and added a pad bolt.
He raises Rainbow trout and it was the only secure feed locker for his ponds that the bears couldn’t get into!

[T1 Terry]

Great upcycle !
My brother in law in Canada did similar for a storage unit…..but he left the door on and added a pad bolt.
He raises Rainbow trout and it was the only secure feed locker for his ponds that the bears couldn’t get into!

Also popular for chook feed, bird seed and dog food, it keeps it dry and keeps the mice out.

I converted the square box freezers into water tight storage containers for all my outboard motor bits when I was into building and modifying them. Picked the freezers up as dead units from auctions and others from the tip.
Often the compressor still worked, it was the defrost pipes around the lid seal that had failed. these could be blocked off, the tubes pinched over, folded and soldered, then LPG from a the BBQ bottle fed into the suction side of the compressor, after cutting the sealed end off the recharging tube, then slowly feeding in LPG while the compressor was running, with the bottle up the right way so only gas entered the system, not liquid, and stop when inside started to freeze and the pipe going into the compressor on the suction side started to get cold enough for the fingers to stick to it. Then just a matter of pinching the feed side tube closed and folding the end over, disconnect the hose and soler up the end of the pipe where it was folded over. These made great bait fridge/freezers, kept outside under cover, if they did still leak gas, they stopped working and they became storage boxes and replaced with ones that did work.
Had a few people keep the dead freezer and froze ice cream containers of water in the freezer that worked and put them on top of the latest fish catch to chill it down ready for the freezer or store for a few days ready for a cook up.

Grease of petroleum jelly around the top of the freezer stopped the seal from freezing to the body ad stopping the lid from being opened until it defrosted ......

T1 Terry

[Ninga]

Mark, we thought in Oz the cockies were trouble on bins but bears… wowsers!! 
Here I was thinking how innovative I was and yet discarded fridges have some very useful purposes! 
Terry, love the idea of storing chook/dog food and shouldn’t be too difficult to find another.

[T1 Terry]

We live on tank water and the pump has been not restarting quite often lately. Thursday was stinky hot here in Mannum so we decided to have the day off. The water pump decided that sounded like a good idea too   Removed the whole assembly, took the fan cover off and the motor was very stiff to turn. Unbolted the pump body and then the motor spun freely ...... contacted the parts people in Murray Bridge "we will have to do some homework to find what parts are available, why don't you bring it in for us to repair .... yeah, right, no water for a few weeks, not really a solution. Carefully scraped out all the dirt build up on the faces where the impeller spun, bolted the pump end back on, spins ok now   Turned the tank taps on to flush out anything from that part till the water ran clean, pulled the non return valve apart and scraped the rubbish out of it and reassembled that part to the tank supply pipe, turned the tank taps on and the pump on, a lump of broken plastic came out, that might have been part of the not restarting problem. Connected the house pipe, turned the pump on, spun free, turned off and back on, but very little water flow .... seems the plastic bit was important.
Ring the Murray Bridge parts supplier again, how much for a replacement pump, gave them all the numbers ..... NLA, great   Rang around all the other places that might have a pump, Mt Barker had one the next size up .... $570 + GST.
 Called in past the Murray Bridge supplier, yeah that model is NLA but we do have just the pump in plastic   $440 or $570 for the complete pump with flow switch .... $440 sounded better, so they get the box from the store room, it is a complete motor and pump assembly, just no pressure switch, "it will be Monday or Tuesday before the workshop can fit the flow switch from your pump to this pump and it would be around the same price as a new complete pump"     I'll change the switch over myself thanks ..... "If you bring back the pump next week we can rebuild it for you so you have a spare with the original cast iron body   I'll just order the parts and rebuild it myself .... Not a happy chappy now, the pump was now $440 + GST .....then I told them the Mount Barker store had a complete pump but the next size up, I might be better off getting that ....... the replacement pump suddenly dropped from $440 + GST to $400 including    Took it home, swapped over the flow switch over and away it went. The major difference between the 2 pumps, the replacement has a plastic pump body and made in PRC, the original was made in France   Not quite as much water pressure now, but at least it's enough for a shower 

T1 Terry

[Melissa]

We have it so easy on town water.

[T1 Terry]

We have it so easy on town water.

Yes and no, we don't get excess water charges, or even water used charges, but we still have to pay the fee for the pipe running past the front of the house. The water supply along our road is a trickle feed so we would have to feed that into a tank and then pump from that. We only turn the mains supply on if we haven't had rain for over 6 mths, that is how long the water in our rain water tanks lasts.
The water to flush the toilet we pump from the river and that also waters the garden ..... well it will, when I can get the boat out there and find the foot valve that I'm guessing is now buried in mud .....

T1 Terry

[wirrah]

We have it so easy on town water.

Sometimes I'd prefer that especially having come from suburban Sydney. Being on tank water ourselves the positives are that it's 100% free of charge. But that is balanced by the electricity used when turning on a tap. And the occassional maintenance although it's been many years since there was a pump issue (I shouldn't have said that - it will probably fail now)

But the best bit is that Maitland town water tastes awful so we don't have to put up with that

[Grantus]

We have it so easy on town water.

It is nice to be able to have a shower, flush the toilet or wash the dishes, during a power outage, with town water.

But nothing nicer than charcoal filtered rain water, for drinking and showering under.

Although we don’t have any water bills, we are using electricity each time we turn a tap on, along with an air blower running 24-7, in the enviro cycle waste water treatment tank, so the costs are probably similar……..just less pump maintenance issues.

[T1 Terry]

Here is one a bit simpler but a problem suffered quite often.
The eyelet in the synthetic leather work pants belt finally pull out, probably the result of living in a good paddock for so long :lol:
I really like this belt, but it wasn't tight enough to hold my pants around the hips and the area any higher was no longer the correct shape . If I had just punched another hole, it would have torn out in no time, so the fix was a 5mm rivnut that the buckle tang fitted through, 8mm flat washer each side of the belt for reinforcing and a 6mm flat washer to lock the outside washer in place. 
The process, 8mm washer over the 5mm rivnut and place in the spot for the new hole, tap over the rivnut so it cuts through the leather, inserted from the inside of the belt, the second 8mm flat washer on the outside, crush the rivnut in the vice, the rivnut collar wasn't enough for both washers and the belt thickness, so a small socket that fitted over the rivnut, the 6mm washer over the end of the rivnut but too tight to fit, press into place with the socket and squashed in the vice. The 6mm washer goes concaved and holds the 8mm washer against the outside of the belt.
 The tang in the buckle now fits neat through the 5mm rivnut hole and the two x 8mm washers supply enough areas to stop it pulling through the leather ..... I have two cloth type Aldi belts that were favourites that will get this fix applied to them next   

T1 Terry