I like #fixing things and have since I was a kid.
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I like #fixing things and have since I was a kid. Friends and relatives give me #broken things, I mostly try to give them back #working things. It's fun, it can be a challenge, and sometimes you learn something new, which is exciting.
I #volunteer at my local #Repair Cafe. It started up a year or so ago, and I joined it when I heard about it a few months later. Now I get to fix things in "real time", no advance planning, and an audience! Well, 90% of the time it's fine.
Over the years I've heard numerous comments from people that "Oh, I'd like to be able to fix things" or "I don't know how to do that" or the more direct question "How do you learn to fix stuff?"
There isn't a big "secret" to it. It's simple.
1. Take something that's broken, and take it apart.
2. Look at the bits and see if you can guess at why it isn't doing what it's supposed to be doing, or why it is doing something that it shouldn't.
3. If you have an idea from (2), try fixing it. Maybe it's "lube this" or "un-jam that" or "that hidden fuse looks burnt".
4. Put it back together. Even if you didn't find anything to try fixing it. You learn a lot from this.(You can repeat 2 and 3 multiple times if you want.)
At the end of this, you either have a working thing, or a broken thing. If it's working, congratulations, you fixed your first thing!
And if it's broken, well, it was already broken. Nothing lost. No need to feel ashamed or embarrassed or like you failed.
1/2
@cazabon Welcome to the world of #fixing things. For me it started as "well I I've fixed a few of my own things", to "I once fixed my grandfather's clock" to "you know about clocks", to "you're the clock man".
Learned things and done things I wouldn't have dreamed of a few years ago. Still learning which is what I like.
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Of course, you need to be sensible when you're first starting out. Don't mess with #dangerous things. You don't start repairing hydraulic systems or mains-voltage gear or machines that can take your arm off if you sneeze wrong.
Start with simple stuff, and basic safety precautions.
You can try #electrical stuff, as long as you unplug it and short any big capacitors (large cylindrical things) it has, in case they don't have a bleed resistor on them.
Even better is to start with something that plugs in with an external low-voltage plugpack - it's much harder to kill yourself with a tower fan that runs from 24 VDC than one that runs directly off the mains.
Maybe do a brief web search on the device if you're not sure about it, just to see if there are warnings about working on it.
Surprising (in some sense) things to avoid working on:
Microwave oven. This is the object in your house that is trying hardest to kill you. High frequency, high-voltage AC will kill you dead if you get it across your body.
Old-fashioned CRT (TV/monitor) tubes. Very high voltages, and frequently hold a charge for a long time.
Gas-powered equipment. You can't "unplug" them, and there's always a chance there's enough gas hidden in the carburetor or the removed spark plug wire bumps into the plug that it could puff to life if you turn the crankshaft. One revolution is enough to maim or kill you.
Have fun!
2/2
#danger #DangerWillRobinson #DIY #fixit #DarwinAward #NaturalSelection
@cazabon I like to work with 5V, 0.12A cooling fans. Or RJ45 cables. Highest voltage item I’ve worked directly on is a 20A GFCI outlet and I checked about a dozen times that I’d correctly shut off the associated breaker (including testing with a non-contact voltage pen) before touching it.
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@cazabon Welcome to the world of #fixing things. For me it started as "well I I've fixed a few of my own things", to "I once fixed my grandfather's clock" to "you know about clocks", to "you're the clock man".
Learned things and done things I wouldn't have dreamed of a few years ago. Still learning which is what I like.
Well, I've been doing it for close to half a century, so it's not really new to me ...
Clocks! I'm fascinated by them, still know very little. Though I did take a brief look at a mantel pendulum clock at the last cafe. Learning, learning...
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@cazabon I like to work with 5V, 0.12A cooling fans. Or RJ45 cables. Highest voltage item I’ve worked directly on is a 20A GFCI outlet and I checked about a dozen times that I’d correctly shut off the associated breaker (including testing with a non-contact voltage pen) before touching it.
Being safe is good! Triple-checking is also good. There's also the habit of sticking one hand in your jeans back pocket before poking around in electrical panels or boxes, because that makes it near impossible to get a hand-to-hand shock across the heart. You keep it there until you absolutely need two hands for something, and then you re-check it for being live before doing that.
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Being safe is good! Triple-checking is also good. There's also the habit of sticking one hand in your jeans back pocket before poking around in electrical panels or boxes, because that makes it near impossible to get a hand-to-hand shock across the heart. You keep it there until you absolutely need two hands for something, and then you re-check it for being live before doing that.
@cazabon Ooh, that’s a really cool trick I hadn’t heard of before! Thanks!
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I like #fixing things and have since I was a kid. Friends and relatives give me #broken things, I mostly try to give them back #working things. It's fun, it can be a challenge, and sometimes you learn something new, which is exciting.
I #volunteer at my local #Repair Cafe. It started up a year or so ago, and I joined it when I heard about it a few months later. Now I get to fix things in "real time", no advance planning, and an audience! Well, 90% of the time it's fine.
Over the years I've heard numerous comments from people that "Oh, I'd like to be able to fix things" or "I don't know how to do that" or the more direct question "How do you learn to fix stuff?"
There isn't a big "secret" to it. It's simple.
1. Take something that's broken, and take it apart.
2. Look at the bits and see if you can guess at why it isn't doing what it's supposed to be doing, or why it is doing something that it shouldn't.
3. If you have an idea from (2), try fixing it. Maybe it's "lube this" or "un-jam that" or "that hidden fuse looks burnt".
4. Put it back together. Even if you didn't find anything to try fixing it. You learn a lot from this.(You can repeat 2 and 3 multiple times if you want.)
At the end of this, you either have a working thing, or a broken thing. If it's working, congratulations, you fixed your first thing!
And if it's broken, well, it was already broken. Nothing lost. No need to feel ashamed or embarrassed or like you failed.
1/2
@cazabon *takes machine apart puts it back together, notices extra part that was not put back in, yet machine now works: should I open it again? 🫣*
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@cazabon *takes machine apart puts it back together, notices extra part that was not put back in, yet machine now works: should I open it again? 🫣*
This is indeed a mysterious process that I've experienced myself. I think it's related to the missing socks.
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This is indeed a mysterious process that I've experienced myself. I think it's related to the missing socks.
@cazabon indeed! perhaps there's a tinkerer god that takes socks and gives out random parts
-
Of course, you need to be sensible when you're first starting out. Don't mess with #dangerous things. You don't start repairing hydraulic systems or mains-voltage gear or machines that can take your arm off if you sneeze wrong.
Start with simple stuff, and basic safety precautions.
You can try #electrical stuff, as long as you unplug it and short any big capacitors (large cylindrical things) it has, in case they don't have a bleed resistor on them.
Even better is to start with something that plugs in with an external low-voltage plugpack - it's much harder to kill yourself with a tower fan that runs from 24 VDC than one that runs directly off the mains.
Maybe do a brief web search on the device if you're not sure about it, just to see if there are warnings about working on it.
Surprising (in some sense) things to avoid working on:
Microwave oven. This is the object in your house that is trying hardest to kill you. High frequency, high-voltage AC will kill you dead if you get it across your body.
Old-fashioned CRT (TV/monitor) tubes. Very high voltages, and frequently hold a charge for a long time.
Gas-powered equipment. You can't "unplug" them, and there's always a chance there's enough gas hidden in the carburetor or the removed spark plug wire bumps into the plug that it could puff to life if you turn the crankshaft. One revolution is enough to maim or kill you.
Have fun!
2/2
#danger #DangerWillRobinson #DIY #fixit #DarwinAward #NaturalSelection
@cazabon There's a lot you can learn to be sure, and a lot of valuable knowledge - but the biggest step is to appreciate that stuff *can* be fixed and you can actually work it out. Repair cafes are such a great idea.
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@cazabon indeed! perhaps there's a tinkerer god that takes socks and gives out random parts
@ncrav @cazabon i did exactly this with an old 1950s record player recently
But it almost worked... the arm did not come down straight onto the record. about 100 moving parts!! One spring left over... hmm. No good manuals / diagrams I could find.
I had one blurry picture that I could just see the edge of a spring I forgot to put back on. It worked!
Be brave. Take stuff apart and learn. Take pictures! Happy tinkerer for 50 years...
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@cazabon *takes machine apart puts it back together, notices extra part that was not put back in, yet machine now works: should I open it again? 🫣*
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I like #fixing things and have since I was a kid. Friends and relatives give me #broken things, I mostly try to give them back #working things. It's fun, it can be a challenge, and sometimes you learn something new, which is exciting.
I #volunteer at my local #Repair Cafe. It started up a year or so ago, and I joined it when I heard about it a few months later. Now I get to fix things in "real time", no advance planning, and an audience! Well, 90% of the time it's fine.
Over the years I've heard numerous comments from people that "Oh, I'd like to be able to fix things" or "I don't know how to do that" or the more direct question "How do you learn to fix stuff?"
There isn't a big "secret" to it. It's simple.
1. Take something that's broken, and take it apart.
2. Look at the bits and see if you can guess at why it isn't doing what it's supposed to be doing, or why it is doing something that it shouldn't.
3. If you have an idea from (2), try fixing it. Maybe it's "lube this" or "un-jam that" or "that hidden fuse looks burnt".
4. Put it back together. Even if you didn't find anything to try fixing it. You learn a lot from this.(You can repeat 2 and 3 multiple times if you want.)
At the end of this, you either have a working thing, or a broken thing. If it's working, congratulations, you fixed your first thing!
And if it's broken, well, it was already broken. Nothing lost. No need to feel ashamed or embarrassed or like you failed.
1/2
@cazabon So many things these days fail at stage 1 - there's no completely obvious way to take it apart no-destructively. Probably you have to apply force somewhere, but, if you can't find a manual or YouTube video, how much force and where? So stage 0 is to ask the punter "do you mind if I destroy it trying to take it apart?"
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@cazabon So many things these days fail at stage 1 - there's no completely obvious way to take it apart no-destructively. Probably you have to apply force somewhere, but, if you can't find a manual or YouTube video, how much force and where? So stage 0 is to ask the punter "do you mind if I destroy it trying to take it apart?"
Yes, this is always a risk, and a challenge. You quickly learn to guess how something is held together - where the hidden screws are, or where the clips are along that circumferential seam, or when something is just snap-apart.
Newer stuff, particularly consumer electronics, can be very frustrating. The cases can be clipped together so tightly that it takes *forever* to finally get it apart, futzing with your spudger for an hour.
Even worse is that some things are now designed to be assembled with what I call one-way clips. There's literally no way to use a spudger to open the clips from the outside; one it's clipped together, the only way to get it apart is by force or cutting, breaking the clips, at least on one side. And now you have to figure out how to hold it together again.
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@cazabon *takes machine apart puts it back together, notices extra part that was not put back in, yet machine now works: should I open it again? 🫣*
