Fixing Things Without Trying

[badbluesplayer]

Last year I fixed two things by letting them go.  My wife calls me lazy.  I call it management savvy.

The first thing I did was  leave some old finish nails in my pocket and wash them in the machine and they got into the discharge pump.  I tried to get them out but only so much.  I took the tub out, put a magnet down there.  There was at least one down in there that I couldn't get.  The discharge pump would grind away on that sucker the whole discharge cycle every time.  You could hear the racket in the whole house.  My wife giving me the side eye for a year.  Then, finally, one day...  No more racket.  Boom - fixed.  I bragged for a week.  Well, I'm still bragging.

Then there's my electrical problem.  One day, half of one of the circuits in my house went kaflooie.  No volts at the receptacles and outlets but 120v back at the board.  All kinds of WTF going on.  Like 23 VAC on the neutral in a couple places.  And then like 23 VAC, the same thing, on the unused leg of a three way switch.  Like, where TF is that coming from?  And there wasn't even 120V anywhere near that.  Anyway, one day my wife flips one of the switches and all the stuff comes on.  I flipped the same switch a thousand times and it didn't come on.  Musta been a bad switch or something.  I was laughing and bragging about fixing that problem and then my wife reminded me that it was her that fixed it.

Anyway, good luck fixing your stuff.  I got lucky.

[Karloff]

[tx-ogre]

 

[Murph]

Some of the intricacies surrounding electrical circuits can be shocking.

[Karloff]

18 hours ago, tx-ogre said:

 

Red Green is great

[sparquelito]

I'm fairly handy myself, but I know my limitations.

Skill                                 Grade

Carpenter: B
I can design and build fences, stairs, and decks.
But the fine furniture building, with beautiful finished edges and gorgeous presentation is beyond me.

Plumber: C+
I'm very handy at it, but I cannot weld/sweat copper pipes.

Auto mechanic:  B -
I can do most everything under the hood except drop an engine and rebuild it.

Motorcycle mechanic:  B+
I can do just about everything, but I am more willing to pay somebody else to do the deep and dirty stuff anymore.

Electronics:  B-
I'm a great troubleshooter, and I can repair or replace most things.
But my knowledge of electrical theory is very much journeyman grade.

Roofing: C-
I can do most of it, and have, but my fear of heights compels me to pay somebody else, pretty much all the time anymore.

Gutters and downspouts: A
I'm good at this, though I really don't have much passion for it anymore.

Painting interiors and exteriors:  B+
I'm slow but steady, and I tape a clean edge.

Lawn work and landscaping: B+
Though I admit I am slowing down a bit. With age comes aches and pains.

Home appliance repair and replacement: A
I don't need much help troubleshooting or in moving the old stuff out and installing the new stuff.

Bricklaying: F
Replacing auto glass: F
Automotive paint and customizing: F
Putting up with other people's bull$#1t:  F-

Like I said.
I know my limitations.

🤔
 

[sparquelito]

But to the topic of fixing things without trying, I must confess that I am rarely lucky in that regard.

Truth be told, I have often broken things in the process of trying to fix them or make them better.

And then there's a lot of cussing going on.


🤨

[Sgt. Pepper]

On 1/10/2024 at 4:34 PM, badbluesplayer said:

Then there's my electrical problem.  One day, half of one of the circuits in my house went kaflooie.  No volts at the receptacles and outlets but 120v back at the board.  All kinds of WTF going on.  Like 23 VAC on the neutral in a couple places.  And then like 23 VAC, the same thing, on the unused leg of a three way switch.  Like, where TF is that coming from?  And there wasn't even 120V anywhere near that.  Anyway, one day my wife flips one of the switches and all the stuff comes on.  I flipped the same switch a thousand times and it didn't come on.  Musta been a bad switch or something.  I was laughing and bragging about fixing that problem and then my wife reminded me that it was her that fixed it.

I used to try that at work. Just ignoring the problem. Then I got yelled at by my Chief to go fix it. 

A switch must not have moved from one contact to the other. 23 volts on the neutral is no muy bueno. When you have voltage on your neutral, it means the load is not balanced, and the neutral is sharing the load with another hot wire.

Edited January 12 by Sgt. Pepper

[gearbasher]

I remember as a kid, when my electric trains would  stop running, my father would say: "give them a rest". So, I stopped trying to get them to run and the next day they would work fine.

 

[merciful-evans]

17 hours ago, gearbasher said:

I remember as a kid, when my electric trains would  stop running, my father would say: "give them a rest". So, I stopped trying to get them to run and the next day they would work fine.

 

 

Yeah, British Rail is bit like that too.

[fortyearspickn]

For a few years, my Lionel would stop.  I couldn't figure out why.  When I got older, and not inclined to run the train ad nauseam around the Christmas tree - my father finally told me the reason they stopped -  tinsel falling across the track shorted out the  current going to the locomotive.    First, it was Santa Clause, the tinsel was the final straw !