Tag: repair

August 27, 2024 – Have You Ever Wondered About Repair?

August 27, 2024 /

I have always been a connoisseur of sunglasses. When I was a junior in high school, I bought my first pair of Oakley Frog Skins with a blue iridium coating on the lenses. Unfortunately, I sat on them in the car seat within six months. I sent them in and I got my one replacement pair. I don’t remember their final demise but I think I broke them within another year and I was in college, without the funds or the desire to replace them.

In 2005, we went to Maui for my brothers wedding. Since it had been thirteen years since my last ‘expensive’ pair, I decided to treat myself to some wire framed Ray Bans. My hopes that they would be more resilient than the plastic framed Oakley’s. Fortunately, my vision has been pretty good. And, because I live in the more often gray Pacific Northwest, sunglasses season is when the weather is good. So after our trip, I left the glasses in my truck so they would be there when I wanted them.

Whether it was a manufacturing flaw or just the conditions, the polarization film is between two pieces of glass. The film started to contract between the glass looking terrible and clouding vision. I bought these Ray Ban’s at the ubiquitous Sunglasses Hut. They also have a one replacement policy within a year. So, I got another pair of Ray Bans in 2006.

I started treating them with kid gloves or at least I tried. I remember the day in 2012 that I was helping my wife to the car after a follow-up with the doctor from cancer the first time. I wasn’t wearing the glasses but they fell off my person and landed on the temple on cement. That force popped the lens out and tweaked the frame. In my attempt to bend the frame in position to hold the lens, I made it worse and worse. I could get the lens in but then looked terrible on my face. I finally gave up and they were relegated to my basket with wallet and keys.

Before repair
Before Repair. It is hard to see how bent the frames really are and the left lens is not attached to the glasses.

After giving up on them, I got another pair of Oakley’s in 2019. I told my wife that I still want to fix my Ray Bans. I was always going to… take them to a local optometrist and find out if they could fix them, mail them into a glasses repair service, not abandon them. It was while I was organizing my personal space getting ready to go back to the hospital a couple months ago that I said to myself, fix these or throw them away.

I searched ‘Ray Ban repair’ and one of those heavily advertised sites came up. They had branches in Kirkland, WA and four or five in California. They advertised $39-69 for the average repair and one day turn around service. I really just needed the frames straightened properly so I figured that this was worth the gamble. I followed the instructions and waited. Here is what happened.

After about ten days, they called me and gave me an estimate. I gave the go ahead. About five days later, they called and wanted me to pay. Unfortunately, it was Saturday and I was at a play so I had to return the call on Monday. By Thursday of the next week, I had my glasses back, good as new. The following is the breakdown of the cost.

  1. $10 Priority Mail to Kirkland.
  2. $39 for cleaning and repair
  3. $10 to replace the rubber (optional)
  4. $10 tax
  5. $10 to ship them back to me

If you are doing the math, it took about 20 calendar days and $80 to fix. That sure beats twelve years broken. I am pleased with the work and the results. I personally think that the turnaround time didn’t meet my expectations and all the added expense of shipping was quite a bit more than the ads lead me to expect. But, a broken set of sunglasses are not worth the space they have been taking all this time.

As you know, I am a believer in repair. I had asked my eye doctor about repairing old eye glasses that I had with a new prescription. They amped up the risks of broken components, no warranty, risks etc. My belief is that they are more interested in selling new glasses than actually taking care of their customers. So I never pursued fixing my glasses with them. A service that isn’t going to put the fear of god in you to ship something seems more appealing.

These glasses originally cost me around $200 so and $80 repair seems reasonable. I am not sure that they make this model anymore either. Narrower height lenses that stretch across my face are more complementary than big, round lenses. The truth is, my big regret is not doing this years earlier. In fact, at one point my wife was using the case for her sunglasses saying that I didn’t need them anymore. That was true. Nobody should take twelve years to fix something.

End Your Programming Routine: Don’t be like me. If something is important, take care of it. While I wouldn’t say that the repair service delivered on value in both time and cost, I am grateful for the end result and that I could conveniently mail the glasses in and pay for them and they would be fixed. Value is a subjective metric. To me, it was a valuable service. Be prepared to wait and pay but also get what you want.

May 20, 2024 – My Brand of Frugal

May 20, 2024 /

I alluded to my frugality last week and it’s collision with other aspects of my life. Since that wasn’t the right time or place to talk about it, I dedicated an entire podcast to it. Today I talk about strategies to live a better life with less impact. I find a lot of satisfaction in successful frugality.

June 14, 2023 – What Do Kitchen Ranges and Cars Have In Common?

June 14, 2023 /

I was thinking about how to say this but the number one thing that I value is value. I know that is ill written but I think that you get what I mean. It is the reason why I have never leased a car. There are reasons to do it, but none of them actually fit into my life. Consequently, the smartest thing to do is buy a car and drive it until it doesn’t make sense anymore like too many repairs, too frequently.

On our Memorial Day fishing excursion, the tail light fell out. The plastic has become brittle and broke. I knew last fall that there was a problem, I guess I didn’t think that it would just fall out. Sometimes I don’t realize problems until they happen even though the warning signs were visible. That is called experience, now I know.

I wanted to order a new taillight since the plastic is brittle. It makes more sense than buying a used one with likely the same problem. Guess what, finding a new taillight assembly is nearly impossible on a thirteen year old car. It turns out that there is not enough market demand I guess.

At one time, I was doing work for the company that makes carbon fiber layups for the F-22. They told me that they only make enough to satisfy orders and once that order was closed, they will never make another part again. That means that the parts that exist are the only parts that will ever exist. On one hand, that kind of makes sense because how many body parts on an F-22 will ever be replaced?

Also during Memorial weekend, my wife wanted oatmeal for breakfast. Her version is boiling in milk which I hate to do. Primarily because it often burns on the bottom of the pan but I also forgot that milk has a tendency to quickly boil over. Of course I was distracted with all of the breakfast tasks and that happened. So, now I had to take the stove apart to clean up the mess.

I so happens that this range is a 1990s vintage. It has been well used and in fact there are also irreplaceable parts on it as well. Even the burner cassettes are no longer for sale. The appliance repair guy told me that they have to rebuild them because they cannot get replacement parts. Spilling milk and wort on them does not help.

Better is clearly a matter of perspective. Plastic taillight assemblies make the overall vehicle lighter and therefore more fuel efficient (maybe even safer). That is better, but it doesn’t make them more durable. I suppose electric ranges are going toward induction or instant heating as a technology. But induction doesn’t work with aluminum so no canning for me and that is not better. I would dearly like gas but that makes this change a $20,000 endeavor because we would have to run a connection. Plus, how would the climate change warriors feel about that switch?

Every since Eli Whitney pioneered interchangeable parts, it has helped productivity. It helps build things faster and more reliable and makes the cost ultimately go down. That model starts to break down when parts are no longer interchangeable because they don’t work with all things. Those of course are negatives to manufacturers. When parts become commodities then there is little margin or incentive to innovate.

As complex things age, they start to break down. This of course is a negative when you are multiple model numbers removed because most people will replace things rather than repair them. Or if you are leasing something like a car, you don’t even care because you never have anything less than current. Intellectually, I understand the landscape but it is a bitter pill to swallow when you are looking to play the value game.

A couple of things to consider here. First make sure that you are taking care of your stuff. Things like routine maintenance and cleaning go a long way to making expensive items last. Second, look to buy the most popular models. Part of my taillight problem is a limited number of Navigators were produced. Look for the non-limited edition models for longer term support.

I suppose the older I get, the more crochety I get about change. If I had never had the ability to can on my range, I would have looked for a different solution from the beginning. Ultimately, I could use a propane burner or some other mechanism if I have to but why would I compromise from the start?

End Your Programming Routine: This is a place where I really can’t fight the system. I am not going to change how car parts or appliances are made. But it is also a warning sign. There will come a day when I can’t work around all of the problems. It would be better to think through what my potential options are now while I still have time to plan and react rather that after something is broken. We have a little shopping of both, I don’t really like the price ranges so I am crossing my fingers that things can hold on.

April 19, 2023 – Makita 6303H Repair

April 19, 2023 /

Good tools are good tools. I have a certain affinity for the Makita brand that goes all the way back to the early 1990s. Both my uncle and my grandfather were users of the Makita brand dating back to the 1980s after the decline of the Craftsman brand as the tool standard of Americans. My uncle told me a story that when he started as a contractor in 1985, he went through two new Craftsman sanders in a week before switching to Makita and never looking back.

When going through my father-in-law’s shed, I donated a lot of items to Habitat for Humanity. I saved a couple of the Makita tools that I thought were not ‘use off the shelf’ ready, like this drill. Sure, ultimately I think it probably cost more to repair than to purchase used. I suspect that they were ‘gifts’ from a friend as he was a retired cabinet maker that had a habit of giving tools away that he no longer saw a use. And my father-in-law was always gracious.

The amazing thing is that I think you can purchase every single part for this drill still. This includes all the plastic cowlings. My original plan was to just replace the cord, but looking at it more closely, I figured I could get away with shortening the cord. That is what freed my mind to replace the missing auxiliary handle which was the most expensive part of the whole project.

End Your Programming Routine: I now have three, corded electric 1/2″ drills, only one that I actually purchased. My ultimate thought was to repair this drill and give it to someone that might feel more of an emotional connection to it, like my son rather than risking it getting thrown away. For that reason, I didn’t mind spending some money on it as long as it was a quality item. It probably won’t ever get a lot of use now that cordless tools are so convenient. But, what would you pay to do a project with Grandpa again?

January 25, 2023 – My New Sewing Machine

January 25, 2023 /

Maybe my time reading Self-Reliance magazine is starting to rub off on me as I have been thinking about getting a sewing machine. I was thinking that if I ran across one at Goodwill for $20 or so, I would get it. After sewing my kids Boy Scout patches on by hand for years, I am kind of tired of doing it.

My mom sews, so this is nothing new to me. Growing up, there was always a fully outfitted sewing room. Mostly, I asked mom to do this because she was much better than me, but I could do it in a pinch. In fact, as part of the sixth grade survey we had 18 weeks of Home Economics where we all sewed a basic drawstring bag. What I am trying to say is that it is not that far off that I could sew something.

Recently, we cleaned out my in-laws storage unit. It was either donate, trash or keep. I think that we ended up keeping too much and throwing out too much but it was what it was. I ran across this sewing machine and decided that this was going to be mine (if none of the heirs wanted it, which they didn’t). This means that I really need to my sofa table done so that I can put this sewing machine where my stereo is currently.

Now, I am not planning on doing anything really major but it sure is handy to have around when you have three or four patches to sew on. The truth is, my boys are of the age that I am ‘letting’ them do it. If they ask for help, then I will but I am no longer just taking initiative to sew on their patches. This is something that is really their responsibility with uniform compliance. I used to feel some degree of judgement but not anymore, they are plenty capable.

When I was in grade school, my mom would sew us one shirt. We got to pick the material and it was the shirt that we would wear for school pictures. Generally speaking, that shirt first went to the county fair before school started. So, we had to wait and visit it before we got to use it.

Going to the fabric store was really painful as a child. It seemed like we were there forever and there was definitely nothing a child was interested in, except maybe the scissors isle. There was one year, I picked a fabric for my shirt that had a silver thread running through it. I think my brother picked a fabric that had a gold thread running though it. We thought it was pretty cool.

I think that my last year, I was in fourth grade. My mom made a shirt where the Millennium Falcon was embroidered on the back. This would have been right before Return of the Jedi came out. It was the peak of Star Wars mania (for me at least). Unfortunately, it took too long to complete and so the shirt went to my brother because it didn’t fit me when it was completed. It did win a blue ribbon at the county fair.

There have been some times that I have been tempted to try and build a backpack or bag. For instance, I cant find an exact range bag with the features that I want. With both of my boys shooting trap, I just don’t have enough space for everything that we need on a weekly basis in my range bag. Wouldn’t be cool if I could just sew one up? This is probably way too ambitious but it is actually possible. This is how many technical gear companies have started, see a need and fill a need.

End Your Programming Routine: As a alluded to in the first sentence, Self-Reliance magazine has three or so projects that are pretty simple, like sewing a reusable bag out of feed sacks. You know, like the kind you can buy at the grocery store. This is not really about making dresses but a tool that can really be useful. Throughout my adult life there have been many times I threw something away because it was too difficult to mend or repair appropriately. This is a step at correcting that

December 6, 2022 – It Is Good To Have Stuff

December 6, 2022 /

Have you heard that you can be owned by your stuff? As a preparedness minded person, I definitely have more stuff than I need because I have duplicates of a lot of tools and an inventory of supplies and consumables. That being said, I am also frugal when it comes to many things.

So for instance both of my vehicles have been paid off for five years. I am not looking forward to another car payment. Just looking, it seems like we will have significant payments for a reasonably new car ($800/mo). I am delaying as long as possible. But, my Lincoln Navigator is showing some problems. There is some sort of electric draw that is killing the battery overnight.

As a good preparedness person, I have a battery jumper, jumper cables, battery chargers etc. My first go to is the jumper. It requires the least amount of effort to start the car. But, my jumper is anemic. I think I looked up and it only has 300 cold cranking amps. My car battery is 700 cold cranking amps, so a true dead battery isn’t touched by the jump pack. Having dawdled around with this for a number of situations, I really need to get a bigger jump pack.

When I went to go plug this unit back in to keep the battery charged, the cord arced. Upon closer inspection, the molded plug was severed nearly in half. On closer inspection, both sides had visible wire when the cord was bend ninety degrees to the attached end.. This wasn’t sabotage, but cheap materials. I think in the cold shop, the plastic insulation on the outside of the wire cracked to the point that the wires were exposed. In the photo below, if you look carefully you can see the exposed wires on the male end of the plug.

Now what? Good luck finding a replacement cord for a no-name jump pack that is 8-10 years old. I know, I will repair it if I can. Fortunately, I found the right male/female replacement ends for a total of $7. Incidentally, while browsing for an upgraded jump pack, I found a replacement cord for $10. The advantage to my strategy (repair) is that I know these parts will fit because I have already tested them.

This is not a hard process but there are a couple of tricks. The hardest part is figuring out how to disassemble the replacement plugs. But the first thing is to keep the polarity of the plug on the right (or same) side. Some cords have a stripe down one of the wires, this one has a rib. Said another way, in this cable one wire is ribbed the other is smooth.

It doesn’t matter which side you pick but stay consistent, especially if you are only replacing one plug. The neutral on a two wire setup is the bigger of the two prongs (or holes). The neutral on the male end should end up as the neutral on the female end of the plug.

There is a saying in electrical ‘Black on Brass’. Black is the typical color of the hot wire. White is the typical color of the neutral. If there is a choice of materials, the hot wire should land on the brass connector. I don’t know this as a fact but I think that brass probably has better heat resistance and therefore resists a screw backing out better than aluminum or steel.

With these particular replacements, they came with two different colored connectors. So, I chose the ribbed wire as the neutral and connected each end to the silver side. The other side were connected to the brass terminals. That is it, the cord is repaired.

End Your Programming Routine: Since this unit has proven nearly useless as a jumper (on my vehicles), it doesn’t mean it can’t be useful. For instance, it makes a hell of a phone/tablet/computer charger. So, I am in the market for a more appropriately sized jumper but now that this is going again I am going to keep it around as two are one.