First trip this year - whats going to break?

[Sam Vimes]

My 'new' but used fan motor arrived yesterday and it took me about 15 minutes to test and fit it this morning and now the microwave is back working. This is what the fan looks like - the big gray block on the left is the Cavity Magnetron.



Its interesting to note comments in the last few posts that clearly identify the fact that each is aware of their own level of competence. If you're curious about levels of competence search for the Four Stages of Competence. The most dangerous could be the level of Unconcious Incompetence - basically you're not even aware that there may be things you don't know

 

[Dustydog]

I’m just an incompetent competent 😃Can’t count to 4😜

 

[audiorob]

Prepping the van discovered that the original Whale water pump had snapped off where the water tube joins the body of the pump - and as the perforated sheathing at the socket end had long since broken off thought it was time to replace! Cleaned the gunge out of the tap end filters so now up and running (at least the water is!) once again. Turned to my mate Heath Robinson and managed to cobble something together with the original so it might serve in an emergency!

 

[GaryB]

Sadly we live in a society where the art/desire to repair anything is dying. I'm 53 and always been in engineering and have been restoring classic cars as a hobby for 35 years so "fixing stuff" is in my blood. However, when my daughter and her mates come round and see what I'm up to they look on with complete disbelief, in their eyes, if there isn't a phone app for something then it cannot be done!

We've been away in the caravan three times so far this year and (touch wood) the only issue is a sticking bathroom door!

 

[otherclive]

Sadly we live in a society where the art/desire to repair anything is dying. I'm 53 and always been in engineering and have been restoring classic cars as a hobby for 35 years so "fixing stuff" is in my blood. However, when my daughter and her mates come round and see what I'm up to they look on with complete disbelief, in their eyes, if there isn't a phone app for something then it cannot be done!

We've been away in the caravan three times so far this year and (touch wood) the only issue is a sticking bathroom door!

My family and grandkids are just the same. Recently I was clearing my BIL”s workshop in Coventry and asked the family if they wanted any of his very extensive assortment of tools, fixtures, fittings etc. al in excellent condition and with dedicated storage spots. The answer was “no”. So I found charity based in Rugby who send such things to Africa. They came over with a large transit van, and we’re over the mooon with what they collected. They sort out screws, nails for carpenters packs along with chisels and saws, the electrical stuff for electricians packs, and general DIY packs too. Very impressive and I was so pleased the articles did not have to go to the HRC

 

[Bluetonic]

Sadly we live in a society where the art/desire to repair anything is dying. I'm 53 and always been in engineering and have been restoring classic cars as a hobby for 35 years so "fixing stuff" is in my blood. However, when my daughter and her mates come round and see what I'm up to they look on with complete disbelief, in their eyes, if there isn't a phone app for something then it cannot be done!

We've been away in the caravan three times so far this year and (touch wood) the only issue is a sticking bathroom door!

I agree that this is probably the norm, but my eldest daughter is currently restoring my 1965 Beetle with me when time allows, and we are also repairing her Nintendo DS fitting new screens and case.
There will be pockets of people that will carry this on, just like there are the odd one or two people that can make a wooden barrel or a spoked wheel

 

[GaryB]

I agree that this is probably the norm, but my eldest daughter is currently restoring my 1965 Beetle with me when time allows

This is my daughter, taken around 2012, the only time she ever came into the garage to help! Mind you, with the all the mess she might still be there but I can't see her...........

 

[Hutch]

My family and grandkids are just the same. Recently I was clearing my BIL”s workshop in Coventry and asked the family if they wanted any of his very extensive assortment of tools, fixtures, fittings etc. al in excellent condition and with dedicated storage spots. The answer was “no”. So I found charity based in Rugby who send such things to Africa. They came over with a large transit van, and we’re over the mooon with what they collected. They sort out screws, nails for carpenters packs along with chisels and saws, the electrical stuff for electricians packs, and general DIY packs too. Very impressive and I was so pleased the articles did not have to go to the HRC

Ask about your local" Men In Sheds" they. Are always grateful for bits and pieces.

 

[Hutch]

What's going to break, Our patience, just all cleared for getting away and now our local NHS surgery has told Mrs H, she need to redo her 24 hr heart scan. That's a day after the Kings Coronation , so that weeks gone, Believe it's another , bank holiday after that.
Doesn't any one have respect for us OAPs and trying to get away.
Get back to work you lot and Pay for my retirement.

Mr Grumpy, Woburn Sands, Static Caravan .(Not Moved since October)
Ba Humbug

 

[otherclive]

What's going to break, Our patience, just all cleared for getting away and now our local NHS surgery has told Mrs H, she need to redo her 24 hr heart scan. That's a day after the Kings Coronation , so that weeks gone, Believe it's another , bank holiday after that.
Doesn't any one have respect for us OAPs and trying to get away.
Get back to work you lot and Pay for my retirement.

Mr Grumpy, Woburn Sands, Static Caravan .(Not Moved since October)
Ba Humbug

Sorry to hear of your travails. I’ve just been bounced for travel insurance by LV because I’m awaiting a hospital appointment. I went to the opticians a couple of weeks ago for my annual eye tests and their scanner picked up something in the right eye optic nerve; not glaucoma but an “ oddity”. So they referred me for a routine ophthalmology appointment. Of the three centres RUH Bath was around 850 days. So I opted for Bristol Eye Infirmary and there’s a waiting time of 6 months to be given an appointment. LV don’t offer travel insurance to anyone awaiting an appointment, diagnostic results, or treatment. Clearly an insurer who doesn’t like risk. Why not just exclude my eyes. So now having to shop around for an insurer that does deal those awaiting hospital business. Determined to reach France this September as no holiday since 2017 due to family issues.

 

[Dustydog]

What's going to break, Our patience, just all cleared for getting away and now our local NHS surgery has told Mrs H, she need to redo her 24 hr heart scan. That's a day after the Kings Coronation , so that weeks gone, Believe it's another , bank holiday after that.
Doesn't any one have respect for us OAPs and trying to get away.
Get back to work you lot and Pay for my retirement.

Mr Grumpy, Woburn Sands, Static Caravan .(Not Moved since October)
Ba Humbug

Join the Club Hutch. Wyoming at home all polished up , carpets shampooed ready for the off I thought a week tomorrow. The lump thing , my doc wants to scan purely as a belts and braces. Lady Villa said no caravan until scan done 😢😢. Not happy

 

[Mel]

Sorry to hear of your travails. I’ve just been bounced for travel insurance by LV because I’m awaiting a hospital appointment. I went to the opticians a couple of weeks ago for my annual eye tests and their scanner picked up something in the right eye optic nerve; not glaucoma but an “ oddity”. So they referred me for a routine ophthalmology appointment. Of the three centres RUH Bath was around 850 days. So I opted for Bristol Eye Infirmary and there’s a waiting time of 6 months to be given an appointment. LV don’t offer travel insurance to anyone awaiting an appointment, diagnostic results, or treatment. Clearly an insurer who doesn’t like risk. Why not just exclude my eyes. So now having to shop around for an insurer that does deal those awaiting hospital business. Determined to reach France this September as no holiday since 2017 due to family issues.

OC, when my late brother in law needed travel insurance, (and he was already diagnosed with a life limiting condition), he went with these people.

MIA Travel Insurance - Making Insurance Accessible

Welcome to MIA, your specialist medical travel insurer. Our friendly and experienced team can provide flexible travel insurance cover for a range of pre-existing medical conditions, at competitive prices.

www.miatravelinsurance.co.uk

I really cannot comment on their price or quality as I don’t know enough about them, other than my s-in-l said they were very good.
goodluck
mel

 

[otherclive]

OC, when my late brother in law needed travel insurance, (and he was already diagnosed with a life limiting condition), he went with these people.

MIA Travel Insurance - Making Insurance Accessible

Welcome to MIA, your specialist medical travel insurer. Our friendly and experienced team can provide flexible travel insurance cover for a range of pre-existing medical conditions, at competitive prices.

www.miatravelinsurance.co.uk

I really cannot comment on their price or quality as I don’t know enough about them, other than my s-in-l said they were very good.
goodluck
mel

Mel
Thank you I will look them up and see what they can do. It’s not a big issue as we have the EH1C but of course that is limited if you need help such as repatriation etc.

 

[Buckman]

What's going to break, Our patience, just all cleared for getting away and now our local NHS surgery has told Mrs H, she need to redo her 24 hr heart scan. That's a day after the Kings Coronation , so that weeks gone, Believe it's another , bank holiday after that.
Doesn't any one have respect for us OAPs and trying to get away.
Get back to work you lot and Pay for my retirement.

Mr Grumpy, Woburn Sands, Static Caravan .(Not Moved since October)
Ba Humbug

We booked to go away for the Coronation weekend and guess what. The day after arriving on site the NHS have sent us three appointments. One for me and two for OH. My appointment and OH's appointment are almost one after the other although different departments. However her second appointment is later on in the day at a different hospital in a town that is about 14 miles away.

However as we are less than an hour's drive from the hospital, we decided to go away anyway and just travel back for the day! At least we were able to have a BBQ last night.

 

[Beachball]

We booked to go away for the Coronation weekend and guess what. The day after arriving on site the NHS have sent us three appointments. One for me and two for OH. My appointment and OH's appointment are almost one after the other although different departments. However her second appointment is later on in the day at a different hospital in a town that is about 14 miles away.

However as we are less than an hour's drive from the hospital, we decided to go away anyway and just travel back for the day! At least we were able to have a BBQ last night.

I hope your appointments goes satisfactory and you can still enjoy your break away this weekend

 

[Sam Vimes]

I’m just an incompetent competent 😃Can’t count to 4😜

You have been promoted to Conscious Incompetence since you know you can't get above 3.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Sadly we live in a society where the art/desire to repair anything is dying. ...

It's multi path problem:.

Products are generally becoming more complicated, to meet customer demands, and to meet tighter regulation and legislation. Many products are being miniaturised, which makes handling components more difficult without specialised tools which are often beyond the scope of DIYers. More products are being designed to be manufactured but not dismantable without damaging them. With many products there is marketing push to be able to call them "Digital" becasue the public have been brian washed into thinking Digital is better.

Its only in recent decades we have become more aware of how wasteful we have been as a throw away society and how protectionist some companies have become about the products they make. The right to repair may change some of this, but in the UK the legal right to repair only covers a very limited scope of products.

But we also do have a skills gap. The oldest generations still alive may well remember the post WW2 period where make do and mend was still a way of life, but with the push to get more people through university, it has tended to polarise more recent generations to focus on a small area or engineering, and that means an electronics graduate for example is less likely to have transferable knowledge and skills to other area's

Government has enacted an increasing amount of legislation which has been protectionist in nature, making it illegal to under take some types of work unless you have recognised evidence of competence in the field.

 

[Dustydog]

The Right to Repair Act is interesting and probably well founded but imo without any foundation or dare I say consideration for DIY .

It says:
Does the UK have a right to repair law?

The new law means that manufacturers now have to make repair information and spare parts available for repairs for up to ten years for certain new white goods and televisions. It aligns Great Britain with the EU and Northern Ireland, where the same legislation came into effect in March 2021.

Great stuff! Not in a million years would I attempt a TV repair. White goods within reason. So washing machine drum bearings cannot be replaced without removing everything , all electronics etc and then the drum because the bearings are so fitted the entire drum with new bearings need renewing. That may change? For now just buy a new machine. The good news most caravan items are more user friendly but not for the uninitiated. The Truma Ultrastore water heater is a good example. Replacing a faulty element is on paper easy but then may lead you into gas issues, 12v and 230 v iSue’s. Seems to me there needs to be a fail safe guide somewhere and whilst I am all for diy repairs maybe it could lead to a disaster in the wrong hands.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Years ago I purchased a Philips HDR & DVD recorder Pre freeview. Whilst it worked it was brilliant for its time, but eventually the DVD recorder began to fail. I traced the failure to the actual DVD drive, which looked exactly and fixed like a 5.25inch Computer drive in its caddy.

I contacted Philips to see I I could get a replacement DVD drive, and the curt answer was "no" becasue it was a service department job only to replace. I asked why, and eventually got an answer - becasue it has a class 1 laser.

The caddy completely encloses the drive so there is no possibility of laser energy leaving the caddy! They would not budge.

I tried a computer DVD recorder, but it didn't work, philips must have used a bespoke software.

It's a shame, becasue it was great for transferring videos to DVD from the video camera I had.

 

[Buckman]

Anyone remember the good old days when you could access the car engine and actually do repairs and even a minor tune up i.e. spark plugs, timing etc?

 

[otherclive]

Anyone remember the good old days when you could access the car engine and actually do repairs and even a minor tune up i.e. spark plugs, timing etc?

When I opened the bonnet on my Mk2 Cortina I could virtually get in alongside the engine. Doddle to work on. Major expense though was Cataloy….my weekend hobby and could get quite high on it. ☹️

 

[Dustydog]

In the boot , points , condenser, 4 new Champion N9Y, feeler gauges, spanner’s , sockets, wrenches screw drivers, pliers , Circlip pliers, tapes, gunge sealants, self tappers, spare assorted nuts. Almost as good as the caravan🤪

 

[Hutch]

You have been promoted to Conscious Incompetence since you know you can't get above 3.

I know he can't be promoted, I have seen him trying to set up his Satellite TV disc.

 

[Hutch]

Well Had the Wonderful NHS, invitation for another Covid Jab, due to my low immune system, so another week away in the van gone as it was for a Tuesday.
Well got there, only to find the lovely nurse to tell me as I am on only 5 mg of Predisnilone, a Steroid, which lowers my immune system, is not enough to require me to have the spring Jab.
Fine by me, It wasted my time, but also the Nurses time, 6 months ago it was ok, to have the Jag. .
Just call me Mr Meldrew. 😂🥴

 

[GaryB]

I know he can't be promoted, I have seen him trying to set up his Satellite TV disc.

I bought a satellite system from Aldi 11 years ago, despite reading the instructions many times it’s beyond me and it’s sat (unused) in the shed ever since! In my defence I don’t watch much TV so the drive to understand it’s set up wasn’t particularly high anyway…..

Back on cars, as well as restoring them I also enjoy tracking down unused spare parts in bizarre locations. My latest score is a bumper over rider for my 1964 Triumph 2000, it came from an ex-Triumph dealer in California!