fixing

652 readers
1 users here now

Celebrating/talking about repairing stuff, the right to repair stuff, and the intersection of tech and solarpunk ideals.

What does it mean to use what we have, including technology, to try to build a better, more environmentally just world?

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
26
 
 

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/1744045

Step-by-step explanations how to fix a garment using Sashiko and Japanese techniques. This blog features two Sashiko techniques (one explained and one in a step-by-step video)

27
 
 

Arcade cabinets aren't very solarpunk. They were huge items, heavy particle board, plastic, metal and glass and electronics, meant to be used for a couple of years and thrown away. For most of the golden age of arcade gaming, cabs were a bespoke arrangement, each one designed custom for their specific game, so when a particular model failed to sell as well as anticipated, brand new units were often dumped in a landfill rather than repurposed.

Just the same, I want to share a blog about arcade cabinet restoration (and also arcade history etc). Here's why:

Something brushes against solarpunk, I think, in the way the collectors of arcade cabinets treat them, like the technology is a precious natural resource, discovered in old barns and garages and warehouses, carefully recovered and conserved. Still put to use, but carefully, with the intent to pass them on to the next person.

Parts are traded around, broken machines carefully fixed. Favors traded. Even cabinets destroyed by water damage or mold are often picked over for parts, for the components are part of a small and ever-dwindling supply with no modern, (or at least authentic) replacements to be had.

I think they treat this technology the way I wish everyone else would, and how I think people in solarpunk fiction, which sometimes takes place in postapocalyptic settings where society is rebuilding more carefully, might treat the working remainders of a more wasteful society.

(They're helped of course in that technology was simpler for arcade gaming's run from the 60's through the 80's. Big chunky components, simple single layer boards, something a knowledgeable person with a multimeter and soldering iron could fix. I think there are some areas (certainly not computing) where I wouldn't mind seeing a return to simpler designs. Why is there a multi layer PCB with in-built components in my blender that works the same way as my grandparents'? But we'll need more of a fixing culture for there to be any real benefit to that.)

This blog goes into the history of arcades and gaming, but it also chronicals 'raids' where collectors work together to recover recently -rediscovered, often abandoned arcade cabinets and the writer's personal arcade cabinet restoration projects.

If you like seeing old stuff fixed up, especially around both electronics and furniture, I definitely recommend this.

28
29
9
submitted 1 year ago by poVoq to c/fixing
30
15
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by JacobCoffinWrites to c/fixing
 
 

I had two basic farberware kitchen knives break in the same way. Both blades had the tang snap back inside the handle. Gluing it back in the grip didn't work, so I set them aside for a bit.

I have been fixing broken kitchen tools lately, so I decided to replace the handles for both knives.

I started by grinding a new tang into the knife blade. I had to shorten the blade of the knife to do this but my favorite kitchen knives are short, so I don't think I'll mind.

Next I turned the first handle on the lathe. I started with a piece of an oak branch I collected after a storm broke it off a tree in a local park three years ago. Several large (up to 8" diameter) branches came down, and the city took their time in cleaning it up. It was good hardwood that would have just been chipped anyways, so we decided to save them some person-hours and gas and went down with a hand saw one night, cut the branches into manageable pieces, and carried most of it home.

Once we got it home, I sealed the ends with wax and stripped the bark with a draw knife so it could dry in the basement. The slow (1 year per inch of material is what I've read) drying process seemed impractical at the time but I barely noticed it, getting distracted with other projects.

For these knives and the rubber scraper, I used the smallest of the branches we took.

I When it was ready, I removed it from the lathe, cut away the scrap on either end, sanded either end through all the same grits of sandpaper I used while it was on the lathe, and drilled/cut the slot for the tang.

The second handle took much longer to make - turns out it's harder to duplicate the dimensions of an existing piece than it is just winging it. That said, there's a noticeable difference in quality just between these two, so I'm learning as I go at least.

Like the first, I removed it from the lathe and cut away the extra material, and sanded both ends through all the grits of sandpaper I used on the piece while it was on the lathe.

I ground a matching tang into the second blade, drilled and cut the slot into the top of the second handle, and put them together for a test fit.

All in all, I was pleased with the result. The blades fit very tightly, and the handles looked and felt nice enough. The next step was to stain them.

I went for something a little different this time. I coated both with rustoleum black cherry stain I found on trash day, and noticed that certain parts of the wood came through much more red than the purple-brown color of the stain elsewhere. So when I did the second coat, I doubled down on that and used sedona red on the red parts and black cherry on the purple parts, all in the same coat, let them soak in, wiped them down, and let them dry.

I then touched it up with dabs of Red Oak stain and two sharpies, purple and brown.

I finished both handles with two coats of high gloss polyurethane. Once they were dry, I scored each blade on the tang near the end (I wanted a way the glue could grip it better, but found I couldn't drill through these with my metal bits and only the cutting wheel on the dremel would mark them.) They were already a tight fit, but I wanted to be sure they wouldn't slip out. Then I glued the blades in place.

I'm still very much an amateur at turning, and am learning as I go, but I've always preferred to learn by just doing a project, so getting these broken (fairly cheap) kitchen knives usable enough to return to the kitchen seemed like a good way to practice turning and finishing, and overall I'm pleased with the result.

31
32
 
 

For the last few years I've been keeping the parts of any tools or kitchen implements that break with the intent to fix them. We had a rubber scraper/rubber spatula that snapped where the plastic handle thinned to fit inside the rubber head. The actual spatula part was still good, so I turned a new handle for it.

I started with a piece of an oak branch I collected after a storm broke it off a tree in a local park three years ago. Several large (up to 8" diameter) branches came down, and the city took their time in cleaning it up. It was good hardwood that would have just been chipped anyways, so we decided to save them some person-hours and gas and went down with a hand saw one night, cut the branches into manageable pieces, and hauled most of it home.

Once we got it home, I waxed the ends and stripped the bark with a draw knife so it could dry in the basement. The slow (1 year per inch of material is what I've read) drying process seemed impractical at the time but I barely noticed it, getting distracted with other projects.

I cut a piece of one of the smaller dried lengths of oak, and turned it on the lathe until it was similar to the original in dimensions. To be honest, it's a bit more chunky than I'd prefer, but considering that the original plastic handle broke, making the replacement sturdy is probably a good idea.

Then I cut off the extra material on either end and carved it down so it would fit the head of the rubber scraper. It's not centered vertically because the scraper was the same thickness as the end of the handle, but the rectangular hole was closer to the back than the front.

This also lined that part up with the heartwood of the branch, which seems like it should help with reinforcing it.

I stained it with two coats of stain, applying the second one while the first was still wet and rubbing it down so there was no extra. The first coat was gunstock (a bright, orange stain) and the second coat was red oak (a darker brown). Then I applied high gloss polyurethane, sanded it lightly, and applied a second coat.

For no extra materials, it's back in use in our kitchen.

33
23
How to fix a book (self.fixing)
submitted 1 year ago by Warehouse to c/fixing
 
 

Originally posted here.

Before I switched to Lemmy, I noticed a lot of questions on r/bookbinding about repairing books. So; I thought I'd create a list of repair guides that, to my knowledge, follow best practices.

Please note, if a book is particularly valuable or has historical significance, you should take it to a professional. Also, if your library book is damaged, you can return it as-is and the library will handle the repair. In either case, wet books should be frozen.

That said, here's how to repair:

Loose hinges:

Cracked hinge:

Detatched hinge:

Detatched text block (recase):

Warped hard cover:

Spine replacement:

Torn paper:

Torn out piece of a page:

Loose page:

Harcover corner repair:

Wet book:

Mold:

Warped paperback spine:

Detatched paperback case:

More damage than that? Here's some more extensive repairs:

Rebind:

Paperback rebind:

Paperback to hardcover recase:

34
 
 

This is a bit simpler than some projects, and I think it would fit https://slrpnk.net/c/zerowaste just as well, but I think it’s nice to show the chance to fix even simple tools that break. I’ve got a few kitchen tools (other knives and a broken rubber scraper) that I plan to fix next.

A few years ago my grandmother threw a party, and someone dropped this knife on the floor. The handle was some kind of resin-plastic and it shattered near the top. She was going to throw it away but I said I'd make a new handle for it (it wasn't until I went looking for this picture that I realized I'd said that five years ago you guys jeez!).

I started by taking handle the rest of the way apart and breaking up some old glue, so I could separate just the blade and it's decorations from the broken plastic.

Then I started on a replacement handle. I cut this piece of pine from the trunk of our 2020 Christmas tree after it had had awhile to dry. It was the same piece I carved most of the koroks from: https://imgur.com/gallery/5zErlHt I'm still very much an amateur at turning, and made some mistakes as I went, but I learned a lot on this one, and was able to get some results I was pleased with.

I cut the top to fit the little decorative cap, drilled a line of holes for the tang of the blade, and did some test fits and adjustments.

I wanted the stain to be a reminder of the original maroon handle, so I started with gunstock (a very bright, orange-red color) and then while it was still wet, I worked in Red Oak, which is darker and more brown. This deepened it and brought out some nice detail in the grain. The red oak on its own turned the test pieces very dark brown, and wasn't as visually interesting, so I'm glad I did it this way. I followed that up with four coats of high-gloss polyurethane, with some light sanding in between. The pine was thirsty - drank up the urethane in some spots on the first coats so you wouldn't think any had been applied. Eventually I got a nice, even finish. I'm glad I finally got this done and I'm looking forward to returning it.

35
 
 

Sort of posting here with the odd hope of drawing some eyes to this space, and because, uh...I'd really be interested in if anyone that sees this may have insights into fixing up shoes and boots.

I'd make a distinct community for the subject but I have zero knowledge of the matter, and I'd post elsewhere, but their communities are more specifically focused (e.g. tech/automobiles/etc.).

Any sort of insight/advice from say, patching holes or rejoining the upper part to the bottom (blanking on the right terms here) or whathaveyou.

36
11
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by JacobCoffinWrites to c/fixing
 
 

This was a more recent project. This lathe belonged to my brother’s girlfriend’s family. They were looking to get rid of it, and knew I had a workshop, so they offered it to me. (I accepted it sight unseen, as the description was vague enough that I honestly wasn’t sure if it was for wood or metal – worst case, I didn’t have a wood lathe yet, but you don’t pass up on the chance to get a metalworking lathe for free!)

It turned out to be a pretty basic Craftsman monopole wood lathe from the 80s. Most of the discussion I’ve found about these said that they were okay at best, fine to learn on but not worth spending much money to buy when there were better designs available out there.

It had been stored somewhere damp and had gotten pretty rusty, and the risk seemed low, so I decided to make a project out of it and learn some tool restoration skills. It ran as-is, but leaving tools rusty always felt kind of disrespectful to me.

I started by disassembling it, which took some doing and a lot of PB Blaster (once WD failed). I treated a couple of the little levers with white vinegar before reading that that was bad for the steel and the galvanized coatings, so I switched to evaporust, which I like a lot. You can save the stuff and reuse it, again and again, until it stops working (and even then it’ll work as degreaser).

All the small parts I dunked in a small bucket of evaporust, but the pole I had to wrap in paper towels soaked in evaporust and then with plastic so it wouldn’t dry. This stripped most of the rust but left a blackish crud that I had to scrape away with steel wool.

On metalworking tools, it’s common to protect them by coating them in oil, but I was advised that sawdust and oil aren’t a good mix, that the grease will collect sawdust and form a kind of cement-like crust as it dries. Considering the options I saw on tool repair forums, I chose two different ways to protect the cleaned parts. The little loose levers, bolts, screws, and threaded parts I treated with cold blue (often used to touch up scratches on guns) and on the monopole I used Johnson's paste wax, which is a floor wax that a lot of woodworkers apparently swear by.

The final result was pretty nice, I think. Between the coatings and the furnace keeping the workshop nice and dry, I haven’t seen the rust return.

37
 
 

When my phone abruptly died a year ago, I stumbled into the world of degoogling and alternative ROMs for android devices while researching my options. Due to a lack of devices to try it on (so far, I’ve used each phone until it completely gave out) I haven’t messed with this yet, but I love the concept and wanted to share it here. This is just scratching the surface of options, and some of you may have more experience here, just wanted to share a resource for eking more life from devices which are no longer receiving security updates.

Ripping right from https://www.makeuseof.com/how-to-install-lineageos-on-android/ : “LineageOS is the most popular ROM for Android devices. It garners vast success due to its near-stock Android experience with no bloatware, and a clean and uncluttered interface. It provides regular security updates and bug fixes that often lack in some stock ROMs. Additionally, it gives you a higher level of customization than the stock Android firmware. Even better, this ROM supports an extensive list of devices, including older ones that no longer receive official updates.”

For me, the security updates are the big thing. With the threat landscape online, I think the way most of use use smart phones, security updates are a critical requirement. Companies don’t really have any motivation to continue supporting legacy devices, though. Long-term support costs them resources and person-hours while providing an alternative to buying their brand new products instead. Some corps offer guarantees that they’ll support security updates for X years as a feature, but after that, they’re more or less incentivized to stop updates as soon as possible. Similar to planned obsolescence, though perhaps a little less underhanded.

To me, LineageOS and other community-based nonprofit alternatives represent a very solarpunk rejection of fast fashion, planned obsolescence, and tech as a quickly-disposable product. Thanks to various Linux distros, I’ve been able to keep computers limping along long after they lost OS support from Microsoft, Apple, or Google, so having a similar resource for phones and tablets is excellent.

38
15
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by JacobCoffinWrites to c/fixing
 
 

Hi! I’m Jacob, it looks like I’m going to be taking over as mod for this community. It looks like the original intent was to celebrate/talk about repairing stuff/the right to repair stuff, and perhaps the intersection of tech and solarpunk ideals and how to mix them. I’m a big believer in using what we have, including technology, to try to build a better, more environmentally just world (never been one to let the perfect be the enemy of the good). I like fixing things and making them last long past any planned obsolescence or sane expectation of the lifespan of a product.

I thought by way of introduction, I’d share an old project. When my grandfather died, I inherited many of his tools. This drill press belonged to my great grandfather. If I’ve got my understanding of the characteristics right, (three-prong feed lever, this specific chuck) it dates to 1951.

My great grandfather had a… casual relationship with electricity.

Everything still worked great but the wiring worried me. The original cord was non-polarized, not grounded, and the white (red?) wire's insulation had crumbled away basically anywhere I could see it. Great-Grampa had added in a light switch, by slicing back the insulation and cutting one wire, which worked but was unsafe. (Shocks aside, imagine trying to grab that in an emergency, when a piece has gotten away from you and is spinning, or when you’ve got an article of clothing caught in the works).

Luckily the motor's internal wires' insulation looked just fine. The motor has the old fabric-insulated wires, which, ironically, seem to have held up much better than the rubber stuff. I'm glad I didn't have to do anything with the motor internals, a couple rebuild videos have shown me they're a fun mix of overbuilt and delicate from age.

My goal was to overbuild everything, so I rated everything for the motor's power needs and added a grounding wire, weatherproof box, and a tool-grade switch intended for various Powertec power tools.

I had to modify the switch box to fit the new switch, and painted it to match the drill press. I like this because I can slap it into the off position without looking at it.

I love this machine. It’s big, bulky, and weighs a ton, but it’s on its fourth generation of users and I don’t doubt it’ll continue. I love the simplicity of it, the exposed and easily-replaceable belts and motor. I love how easy it is to maintain and fix.

About a year after I finished working on this, I read the book Ecotopia. The book is from the 1970s but it had a section dedicated to the Right to Repair in a society where most tools and appliances are designed with a similar ethos. From “Ecotopian Television and its Wares”:

“Objects that are available in stores seem rather old fashioned. I have seen few Ecotopian-made appliances that would not look pretty primitive on American TV. One excuse I’ve heard is that they are designed for easy repair by users. At any rate they lack the streamlining we’re used to – parts stick out at odd angles, bolts and other fasteners are plainly visible, and sometimes parts are even made of wood. I have, however, observed that Ecotopians do repair their own things. In fact there are no repair shops on the streets. A curious corollary is that guarantees don’t seem to exist at all. People take it for granted that manufactured items will be sturdy, durable, and self-fixable – which of course means they are also relatively unsophisticated compared to ours. This state of affairs has not been achieved easily; I have heard many funny stories about ridiculous designs produced in the early days, lawsuits against their manufacturers, and other tribulations. One law now in effect requires that pilot models of new devices must be given to a public panel of ten ordinary people (‘consumers’ is not a term used in polite conversation here). Only if they all find they can fix likely breakdowns with ordinary tools is manufacture permitted.”

While reading the vintage machinery forums, I came across a more succinct quote: 'These old tools don't break, they're just missing parts.'

I think that's a really nice way of looking at it.

39
 
 

The event will consist of workshops and panels on regeneration and ReFi to foster the movement forward, and a hackathon to ideate and build SolarPunk tech in the Crypto Commons Hub!

  • A cyber-physical permaculture garden
  • A plastic recycling machine
  • Solar panels