All is not High Technology and Electronic Wizardry. Sometimes more mundane projects go under the knife to be revived.
First up was SLW's Dirt Devil "Stick-Vac". It had stopped working due to the little cloth filter being completely clogged, and the roller brush being jammed with "stuff". Cleaned all the bits and pieces, put it back together, and it works as intended.
This one can have the roller brush and long handle removed, and used as a "Dust Buster". It's great to use on the stairs.
#2 and #3 items are some very solid, all hardwood bar stools she bought at the local "arc Thrift Store". The first one she brought home was made so well I had her go back and get it's mate. Some goober had used wallboard screws to try and reattach the legs to the top. Needless to say, they sure held well, but weren't put in properly, so the top and legs weren't square, and they wobbled horribly. Took me two hours to get the drywall screws out (one had the head break off, GRRRR!) so I could clean up all the mating surfaces and put it back together. A few squirts of good wood glue, and some clamping time, and they were back in fine shape, with no wobbles when on the floor.
I always leave things clamped overnight to let the glue really set up.
Not bad for $25 and some "free" labor/materials.
Cheap chinesium stools like this are $40~$50 each, and are made from softwood, or particle board. These are American Made, solid hardwood (looks like a baseball bat, so maybe ash?), and are now good for another 25 years or so.
Been lightly snowing sine around noon, and there's maybe 1/2" on the "snow table" in the backyard, but 6~8" is expected overnight. I fueled the snowblower, and gave the maw another coating of Ariens "Sno-Jet" so the snow won't stick, and I'm ready for tomorrow.
And since I've got the bench clear now, I brought a Yaesu G-5500 Azimuth/Elevation antenna rotator in from the garage so I can (finally!) get it all checked out and packed up for BillB, if he still wants it.....
Sometimes the best projects we can do to induce pride is those fixits that make Damsel or SLW happy. Nice work.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bob. The stools were easy, the stick-vac, not so much. I couldn't figure out how to get the roller brush apart without breaking the plastic parts, so I had to sit there and pick out all the string, hear, carpet threads, etc from the brush.
DeleteA very narrow and very sharp X-acto blade is what you need for that. Slice/cut the strands and use a pair of forceps or shop tweezers to yank out what you can get, then repeat.
DeleteAnd, of course, once you've done it, you know how deep you can cut before hitting something vital.
Yep, that's what I do with the roller brushes even if they're out of the machine.
DeleteBeen doing it that way since I was a kid and got tired of my Mom griping about getting the stuff off the roller. Brought up an X-Acto knife with a good old #11 blade, and hacked the stuff out.
It is amazing what people are throwing out... sigh
ReplyDeleteYeah, and the way they try to "fix" things. I mean drywall screws to fix it?
DeleteOh well, One Man's Trash Is Another's Treasure, I guess....
I bought two of those in kit form, for my moms place when she divorced my Dad when I was sixteen. Somehow they ended up at my house, 49 years later. Good hardwood of some kind.
ReplyDeleteYep, they don't make 'em like this anymore. Or when you do find new ones like this, they're $150 each!
DeleteSnowblower day tomorrow. Used my snow rake this afternoon and tomorrow will clean off some of my neighbors cars.
ReplyDeleteYep, all ready to go here. My son hasn't received a dispatch yet for tomorrow, so he'll probably be here to help.
DeleteLooks like about 4" on the snow table, and it's still lightly snowing. The NWS has scaled back the snowfall to approx 4", and the weather radar doesn't show any more coming in.
Hope the snow isn't too deep. We avoided it here in South Central Texas this year. The La Nina has us, and you too, way behind on rainfall. The "drought.gov" website shows The Southwest in bad shape.
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking about that rotator the other day. I am in no big hurry as I have lots of projects around here that need doing before the heat of summer sets in. And, I have some medical stuff I have to get done.
It was about half what was forecast, and less than I thought we'd get.
DeleteHad about 4" of dry, fluffy stuff, and my son cleared it with a shovel in about 20 minutes. Wasn't even worth getting the snowblower out!