Wiser Miser DIY Project Thread, post your projects and repairs! (Non-Flaslight)

I’m fond of this forum because of its members and most of us are like minded. I’m sure we all have DIY projects we are proud of accomplishing let alone the money saved for doing it yourself.

I have always been the type of person that has to do things myself. Don’t care if the tool costs me as much as the bill if I would have paid someone else to do the job. I get the challenge, experience and the tool is mine. Unable to afford some things new, I find myself fixing what I got. Everything from a free not running lawnmower to an Old appliance repair and face lift. Also find myself buying used stuff, never really considering a new one. Old stuff is just made better for the most part and I have more time than money to spend.

Also been making changes to my house that could potentially save money on bills. Small stuff some would not consider worth it but it all adds up and makes a difference.

Excellent Mindset :+1:

Last project I did was fix my stove exhaust fan. It was neglected by previous owners and the fan was seized. Tried to clean the filter but it was disintegrating.

Took some time to clean, sand and repaint but it turned out pretty nice. Also got the old motor working and it kicks butt. New screen was $20 other stuff I had on hand like the paint, sandpaper and elbow grease. Had to boil the fan cage in cleaner and water to get it clean. Motor was not really take-apartable but I won in the end. Polished the shafts with 1500 grit, cleaned and oiled it up. Works and its smooth.

Fan housing reassembled and repainted.

Had several white rattle cans on hand and this Krylon PRO All Surface Enamel covers well straight over metal, dries fasst and hard.

Of course there is an LED bulb, 4W corn type with 5730 WW

All done, new filter and shined up a bit.

Yeah, i’m a “fixer” too.
Keeping stuff alive.
I also break and kill stuff though… :wink:

That’s a lovely old school exhaust fan there, vwpieces. :+1:
Worth saving.
No ball bearings in that motor?
Very nice result either way.

I was worth saving, couldn’t buy something like it today.
Has oil-lite type bushings, the hard silver ones, not bronze. Motor was riveted together too, now has bolts :wink:

Here is the best part… it has oil holes but there is no possible way to get at them as the motor in inside another cover.

Brought this Old Trash Compactor back to life too. Thing makes me giggle every time I use it. It’s powerful.
No parts are available for this model anymore.
My trash collection here isn’t cheap unless you take it to the dump station yourself, $2.50 per bag… Any size bag! I’ve had a couple I couldn’t lift.

Filled a shopvac with broken glass and trash from the inside of the housing.
This thing is belt driven to 4 screw drives at each corner. Cast aluminum squish plate that has a lot of webbing reinforcements. Didn’t work as it had limit SW bent out of whack, prolly from debris jammed in it at some point. Drawer was bulged out and wouldn’t open easily. Straightened the drawer box with some persuasion (BFH). Cleaned and oiled the bearing drawer slides, screw drives and bearings, re-tension-ed the cogged drive belt to motor. Not real happy with my button cover plate I made but its still better than the old. Sand and repaint in a more appealing, updated color, Black.

I am more selective about what gets put into it than other have been.

Start with Before…

Some paint

And back in Yer Hole! Darn thing is HEAVY!

Today’s project was to (again) repair my $30 washer I got off CL. It was cheep for a reason and I was fully aware of it shaking when I bought it, and a $5 snubber ring cured that problem.
Recently it has not been getting up to speed on the final spin and clothes are more wet than desired. I know it could use a belt so I got one on order. Learned in some vids that there could also be an issue with the transmission thrust assembly above the barrel’s drive pulley. Parts kit for this is $37, while not a bad price, I decided to have a go at it to see whats up.
Thrust washer itself wasn’t so happy. It was bent out in the center causing excessive slip, where the cam lift was too short for the transmission to hit the high speed spin. I think it was actually the brake dragging if I understand things right. Dug into my hardware stash and found a suitable washer that was slightly thicker and straight. Got the thrust bearing popped apart and repacked it with some moly EP grease and rest of the parts look fine to me. I cleaned and de-greased the big plastic pulley too.

Just ran a heavy load of bedding and it’s on Final spin now… Certainly is faster again.
Wow, Definitely More Better! Heavy Flannel sheet are pretty light. Gonna save some electric on drying time for sure.
Funny how things gradually wear over time and you don’t realize till it’s bad.

Here is the $30 Washer and $10 Dryer, Yeah $10… Dryer has been flawless, go figure. Spent more on a 4 pin dryer plug, duct hose and the SS water hoses than I did for the pair. Both are Maytag and I have no brand loyalty cause I know darn well they are no different than any others. Parts I have been ordering are whirlpool part numbers.

Bearing before cleaning and repack

Belt replacement is a 2 minute job once it arrives.

Wow, never had a dryer load finish the same time as a wash cycle. Auto-dry sensing cycle…
Did another load of bath towels to give it a good test and my heavy sheets load was done drying 5min before the washer stopped. Never had that happen before on any washer/dryer. My thrust washer setting musta kicked it into turbo spin.
Definitely happy with the result. Guess it don’t need a new belt just yet.

Guess I should give credit to my learner vid on the Maytag thrust bearing

I replaced my garage door spring and rollers, purchased the correct size on Amazon, along with the tool to tighten the spring and followed these videos

For the spring

For the rollers

It went pretty easy and saved approximately $300 :partying_face:

That’s pretty cool Alex. Wind up springs are a PITA, dual winders just plain #$&“!;#:.

Did ya go with plastic or metal rollers?

I only have 1 spring and with the right tools it was a piece of cake.

I used the plastic ones since they are more quiet than the metal ones, they were also easy to replace without bending the rail, so I don’t mind changing them again when the need arise. As a note, I marked the exact position of each hinge of the door with a permanent marker to make sure I installed them back exactly where they were originally.

Repairing some kitchen cabinet doors and hinges. Too many to replace them all and I can’t find them with matching hole space width on outside.
100 pack of Stainless 1/8X1.5in roll pins was $4.50 shipped

Couple months ago… Getting ready for winter project.
Insulated garage door under house and re-adjusted the scrapers on outside. Took (2) 4X8 sheets of 1/2in coated foam board ($25). Pre-made insulation kits are about $60+ and not foil on one side plastic on the other like what I used. Made a huge difference in the kitchen above.

Our Samsung washing machine just stopped draining so I did the usual checks looking for bloçkagesand cleaned filter .Did not help so I had a technician come out .So this guy just played around with the controls and then said the pump must be replaced but no stock because agents are closed over Christmas break.
Well I got the BLF A6 out and had a closer look there was a hair clip stuck in the pump came out no problem.Took all of 2 minutes and all good working as before.

None of your google images work.

For me, some of your google images work, but most do not.

The stator went out on my old Yamaha 4 wheeler I use to have. Wouldn’t charge the battery. So instead of buying a stator I bungy corded a big battery operated jump start box on the rear rack. Drilled two holes in the rear plastic fender. Installed eye bolts in them and used a torch to solder some big thick wires from the bottom of those bolts to the 4 wheeler battery. Then connected the pinchers of the jump box to the top side of those eye bolts. It worked. I just plugged in the AC adapter for the jump box when it started getting low.

The gear on the starter for my riding mower finally wore down and needed to be replace. Took the top of the engine off and just wrapped a rope around it and now I just pull start it. It’s not really much fun pull starting a 16 horse Briggs but it saved me $18 on a gear. I just leave it running in the shade when I need to get a refill on my water or use the head. Downside? The wife won’t pull start the mower to mow when I am away for the day and she gets bored. That might be a blessing. Last time she attempted to mow she high sided the mower on one of the PVC stacks sticking up from our septic system.

My BBQ pit modifications are legendary in my circle of friends and family. I didn’t say they were in anyway safe or well done.

Thanks for the heads up on pics.
Hope it all works now.

Baseboard convection efficiency…

Not efficient… :person_facepalming:

More better efficiencies… :+1:

Still had a few hot water copper finned baseboard heaters that have not been cleaned. This one in my foyer was BAD. Dirty high traffic area too. And Yes that is Genuine Asbestos Tile, and I am keeping it. First vacuumed out what I could with a brush head on vacuum, and blew out the remaining crud with portable compressed air tank. Makes a mess but worth the cleanup time for the convection efficiency restored to heaters. Boiler Should have shorter run times now.

Been finding some cool old stuff in the heaters too.
Big red marble is Wood and assorted other marbles, Yes I am complete now. :smiley:
Hotel Statler was demolished in 1990.
Skeleton key with #2, haven’t found the door it fits … yet.
Crass Teaberry Soda bottle cap, Has cork seal intact
Monogrammed Silver plated condiment tongs.
Neat old piece of red glass, no idea what from… Lantern??