The story of my week

If it makes you feel any better, I'm starting to think that this describes the story of my life. I have made peace with this, and it is very liberating. I'm no longer afraid to break stuff. Because I know that even if I don't break it, eventually it will break regardless.

As for the brain cells, my best suggestion there, is a good cup of good coffee. While it wont replace them, it seems to help the surviving ones work a little better. It will probably lead to them dying sooner...

I am sorry, I did not see you boarding my boat. Welcome..big hug!

Fix one thing, break something else

This is how the Evolution is working, since billion of years, so you are part of it now :)

Hi there buckworks,

is it at all possible that you ignored one of life's prime rules...

"if it isn't broken, don't fix it."

birdbrain

That saying has always annoyed me, because it implies that there are just two possible states, broke and not-broke. The corollary is that one should never take the car in for a tune-up, but instead wait until it breaks down.

The panic is over. The problem was rooted in a copy/paste error ... I had applied an ID to the wrong element!

Which only proves that "copy and paste" is not your friend!

(Been there, done that, whew!)

"Fix one thing, break something else"

Story of my life at the moment :)

Still what is that saying, "move quickly and break things" .. seems ok

I figure if you only break one thing as a result of a fix, you're still ahead of the game- I usually break 2-3 things for each fix!

The corollary is that one should never take the car in for a tune-up, but instead wait until it breaks down.

This may be good advice. ;) I'm pretty handy no matter what it is and will take the time to fix things as they come up. My problem is I don't know when to leave well enough alone.

I was changing the oil in my car and noticed slight drip around the oil pan gasket, I had noticed some small drips on concrete before so I figure I'll take the time to fix it.. No problem really in most cases, drop the pan, new gasket and RTV silicone for a few bucks and put it back on. I break loose all the bolts, no turning back now..... the pan is about 1/2 inch too long to pull it out of the spot it's in. Google it as we all do, lucky me I only have to disassemble motor mounts and some other hardware just to remove the pan including the bolt from hell that was buried between the engine block and transmission about six inches deep. On top of that I find the reason for the leak, one pan bolt was crossthreaded from someone that had previously changed it and it can no longer be tightened... this was used car and shoddy fixes are to be expected. 5 hours later including about 2 hours dealing with the bolt from hell..... my 15 minute job is complete.

The one positive thing is I did figure out how to deal with troublesome bolts and I'll share it here. I know a lot of us have been in the position of "how the hell am I supposed to get that on" If I had magnetized wrench it probably would not have been much of a problem but I hate buying tools for one use, The solution is pretty simple, long thin screw driver, I hot glued the bolt to the end of the screw driver. It's quick and easy to reset if you need to and once you get the bolt started it's very easy to break the bond.

The solution is pretty simple, long thin screw driver, I hot glued the bolt to the end of the screw driver. It's quick and easy to reset if you need to and once you get the bolt started it's very easy to break the bond.

Thanks for that! I often come up with Way-Out-Of-The-Box solutions,
but that has never occurred to me.

In giving back:
When working with small screws and nuts, to place a nut in a difficult location, tap a folded piece of solder into the nut threads on one face. Then, by forming the solder "wire" as needed, you can position the nut while fiddling with the screw from the other side of the whatever. Once getting the screw several threads in, simply pull the solder out.

If your car is old and you notice some small oil drips try some oil conditioner before doing anything else, it will swell the seals slightly and is often enough. 2 min job. If its a rear main seal leak and it still leaks, don't worry about it. It's cheaper to keep adding oil for years than to have a mechanic fix it. Avoid long trips and save the money for your next car.

Source: Mechanic for 38 years.

Speaking of nuts - the problem with most web applications is the nut that connects the seat to the keyboard.

[edited by: Sgt_Kickaxe at 7:15 am (utc) on Jul 27, 2021]

the nut that connects the seat to the keyboard

aka PEBKAC

aka PEBKAC

yes, typically appeased by strangers with Momala level support. Very tedious.

I try and fix things correctly to the best of my ability, if it's wrong when I'm done it's not because of a lack of effort. More often than not when I do quick fixes I find myself down the road wishing I had just fixed it correctly to begin with. I knew it was going to be tight but it looked like the pan would come out. One humorous thing I came across was picture of the pan where someone had bashed the corner in to get it out. Another half inch of clearance and it was 15 minute job... If I was aware of the stripped bolt beforehand I probably would of tapped it out with pan in place as a quick fix.

Part of the problem these days is that it often costs more to fix than to buy new. That can apply to some software bugs, as much as physical items.

Attempting a repair on a vacuum cleaner resulted is the product being impossible to disassemble beyond a certain point, and then it was never going to fit back together. Many hours wasted, and a new, or even second hand machine would have been cheaper than the repair by the technician in the shop.

There are moves to make electrical items more suited to repairs, with parts being made available for longer periods. This has to be a good move as we can't keep on dumping items that aren't easily fixable. I haven't yet found out how this move is going to make repairs cost-effective, unless better repairability is part of the manufacturing process.
Example: I have a fridge with a broken light. The fix the light all it needs is to be unscrewed and a new lamp screwed in. But wait, it's not that easy as the lampholder has become dislodged and simply rotates. The lampholder is behind a cowling, and the fridge is a built-in unit with accessibility issues. It's a safety issue if I keep rotating it, so i've left it. The fridge still works fine, so i installed an LED light fitting which detects movement and turn on as you open the door.

I work at a hardware store that has a small engine shop so your talking to the choir about fixing junk. Simple example is the pull cord, on most equipment it's just three or four screws and you can get to the mechanism. On the other hand there is certain model of craftsman weed whackers where you need to take half the machine apart.. They are so cheap even if it was brand new you'd be better off just buying a new one, there is that much labor involved. Of course when you tell customers this they think you are just trying to sell them a new machine.

With a lot of appliances the problem isn't necessarily fixing it but the cost for the parts, especially anything related to circuit boards. I did have success with a TV. It was LG LED bought around 2010 that was higher end model so it was pretty expensive. It died after five years. Given the price drop and it's age it would not have been worth putting any money into it. You'd turn it on and it would display the logo and that is as far as it would get so there was some hope. I tried various tips for reflashing etc but nothing would work. I came across a forum post where someone had taken the motherboard out and baked it at 375 for 10 minutes. Nothing to lose so I tried it, spiked the ball when it came on. That part of Castaway where Tom Hanks is dancing around yelling "I have made fire!", that is exactly how I felt. LOL It's still working today and nothing more than bad solder point on the mobo.

Spare a moment of pity for the owners of farm equipment, who would dearly love to fix it themselves--who knew you would need a computer-science degree to tinker with a tractor?--but aren't allowed to.

Nothing to lose so I tried it

Yah, that’s definitely a “What have you got to lose?” fix! But how on earth did the person happen to think of doing it in the first place? (The same question has been asked about foodstuffs like tapioca that require an inordinate sequence of specific actions before they even become safe, let alone edible. How? Why? When?)

The issue with farming equipment is crazy, the cost to fix is one thing but I'm sure many farmers and other heavy equipment operators will tell you the down time is just as big an issue if not bigger. Quarter million dollar piece of equipment idled because they can't diagnose a bad sensor or whatever. I think Frontline did a show on it, they had the one farmer commenting he is now a hacker. :P It's getting pervasive throughout all industries. If you have some skills and tools the internet can provide the knowledge, that has to be cutting into their bottom line so they engineer it so you can't fix it.

There was video I recently saw on Youtube where a plastic coolant connector on Tesla battery was snapped off from a piece of debris on the road. Tesla wanted $16K insisting the only remedy was to replace the battery because the plastic piece was fully integrated into the battery. They fixed it with a $5 tap tool and a $3 brass plumbing nipple. The fix is how it should of been engineered to begin with. A $16K item should not be that easy to break, If you wanted to vandalize one these cars you could literally crawl under it with a hammer and give it one good whack..

How the guy figured out the TV fix I don't know but I would presume he has background in electronics. It makes perfect sense as to why it would work, if I understand correctly it's how they are manufactured to begin with. I would imagine a lot of failed electronics could be fixed doing same thing, problem is diagnosing it as potential fix.

I should have knocked on wood, unbelievably the TV died. I was playing the ps4 and it just went off. Turning it back on produced noises like an electrical problem and black screen. I was getting some occasional odd behaviors recently like crackling speakers and the ghost inputs to volume/channel. I did get five extra years or so, guess I'll be making my first 4k purchase, .