Instant repair

I've a Flymo Gardenvac, it is quite ancient, and I’ve already replaced the motor about eight years ago. Over time the piece of thin plastic trim around the "business end" had become pretty battered and today it came off. The plastic from which the vac is made is quite brittle, probably exacerbated over time by the sun. I had visions of more damage occurring with bits getting knocked off as the end does tend to get banged against the path now and again when I'm using it.
So I needed a "quick fix." A look around my shed revealed a length of old washing machine filler-hose. So I cut some off and then ran a Stanley knife down the length. I forced this over the lip of the machine and fixed it in position with three self-tapping screws. Ten minutes work and "job done," I've now a "cushioned" end to the vac, so it won't get damaged if I bang it on the path or patio. Should do me few more years yet.

I may have mentioned on another thread that I had a good clear-out of the shed the other day, then put most of the stuff back. Two washing machine hoses were among the things I took out and put back.
A complete vindication of "the things as men, we do."

 

Well done Doghouse - a man after my own heart. I bet you don't borrow money at 2000% interest rate either. :D

 

Well done. My dad once told me that the best mechanics are farmers, I guess this sometimes extends to gardeners too. His logic, and I can see his point, is that nature won't wait for new machines to arrive, or for old ones to be sent off for lengthy repairs, so if you want the job done to nature's demanding schedule, you have to be able to improvise when things bust.

 

This reminds me of some footage I saw on the TV a while ago, out in the bush in Australia..one of those huge lorries where the wheels are 6-8 ft tall had a puncture. How do you fix that? Get a helicopter to act as a jack of course, and change the wheel! Very resourcefull.

Steve...

 

The best one I saw was a TV documentary about the Indian railways.
A steam locomotive of a train became partially derailed at a set of points. The driver the guard and the fireman got it back on the rails using an eight foot crowbar and short bursts on the throttle.

 

Of course there's sometimes an element of "bloodymindedness" about it isn't there?
You can spend quite a bit of time attempting to repair something when you can actually afford to replace it, but that's not the point. It's about "trying to not letting it beat it beat you."

 

I might have mentioned this on another thread. We did have flashing white fairylights on the pergola next to the koi pool for a couple of years, they were only turned on at Christmas. I managed to cut the wires whilst pruning the wisteria this summer. My "mitigating circumstances" are that the foliage was very thick and I didn't notice the green wires.

Anyway trying to re connect the right six wires to the ends of the other six wires and every combination had to be connected at the same time, proved nigh-on impossible. I did manage to get half of them working, but I gave it up as a bad job and bought some red ones (for a change as I said to my wife).

I remember shortly after we were married we inherited some pre-war lights, we had them a few years, but then one, then another bulb went, which I wasn't able to replace. So I shortened the length of the string. These were arranged in series, so wouldn't work with a bulb missing, so every time a bulb was removed its voltage had to be shared by the rest, so they'd be a bit brighter, not particularly noticeable as they were the traditional big thick glass ones, featuring bells, santas, Christmas trees, parcels etc., but this obviously led to further failures and ultimately become a fire risk, so sadly they got binned.