Mend it and make do

[DCBassman]

That reminds me, I have a pretty old Roberts radio I found dumped at the side of the road while cycling a while back. I always meant to get batteries and see if it works and if not why not but had set it to one side and forgotten about it.

Definitely worth a go, particularly as you given it plenty of time to dry out! And there may be a well-known common fault that's easy to fix.

 

[PaulB]

Definitely worth a go, particularly as you given it plenty of time to dry out! And there may be a well-known common fault that's easy to fix.

No, disagree. It will be so old, that if you do get it to work, it'll be all the Rubettes, Sparks, Peters and Lee, stuff like that.

 

[Randomnerd]

I’ll see all your mends, and raise you a mended mend. Black gaffa over grey duct. Walling safety bifocals‘ early 2020 mend mended in 2021. Have that, menders.
(okay, they no longer fold, but this is mending, not science.)

 

[MontyVeda]

No, disagree. It will be so old, that if you do get it to work, it'll be all the Rubettes, Sparks, Peters and Lee, stuff like that.

Nowt wrong with Sparks... unless they're the sort that fly out of the radio when he plugs it in.

 

[bruce1530]

Today’s repair involved a bike, and rivets!

OK - while that sounds interesting at first, it was just sticking a couple of pop rivets into a mudguard, where it had come loose from the bracket.

And today’s lesson: If you have a cheap tool handy, and a good one further away, take the time and go get the good one..... it’ll be quicker in the long run.

 

[tyred]

I’ll see all your mends, and raise you a mended mend. Black gaffa over grey duct. Walling safety bifocals‘ early 2020 mend mended in 2021. Have that, menders.
(okay, they no longer fold, but this is mending, not science.)
View attachment 578978

Hi Jack, how's Vera keeping nowadays?

 

[tyred]

For some reason the battery kept popping out of place in backup tail lamp so I stuck it in place with masking tape

 

[Chris S]

That reminds me, I have a pretty old Roberts radio I found dumped at the side of the road while cycling a while back. I always meant to get batteries and see if it works and if not why not but had set it to one side and forgotten about it.

From what I remember they only take one battery. It's about the same size as half a house brick.

 

[Drago]

Ive a 70's soviet era Vega radio that works. I think they were made in Ukraine.

 

[tyred]

Ive a 70's soviet era Vega radio that works. I think they were made in Ukraine.

I like Soviet stuff, often a bit agricultural but does what it says on the tin.

I have a lot of experience and respect for Zetor tractors and Zenit cameras and I regularly use a Soviet made roadster.

I fancy buying a Lada Riva or Skoda Estelle at some point.

I also own a Czechoslovakian made vacuum cleaner which dates from 1978. When the starter capacitor exploded I ordered a replacement from a company in Prague. Part cost 78c, postage cost €5!

 

[Drago]

I've gone off the Gruinard in recent years, since a certain national ballot their reporting became petty and petulant. Nevertheless, this is a well written article that might interest the mend it and make doers.

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...ng-planned-obsolescence-is-killing-the-planet

 

[Randomnerd]

I've gone off the Gruinard in recent years, since a certain national ballot their reporting became petty and petulant. Nevertheless, this is a well written article that might interest the mend it and make doers.

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...ng-planned-obsolescence-is-killing-the-planet

Yebbut...

Most people are welded to convenience and price.

Here is a direct example from my bench today. Round ash poles and other bits as a byproduct from spoon carving, itself a by product of woodland management can go to be made kitchen clips. What do I have to have for a pair? Well, would £3 sound okay? Fiddly things take me, say fifteen minutes each... not counting the ones which split or aren’t up to snuff for aesthetic reasons. I will paint them orange for another pound! Or go get a bag of fish-choking, poisonous plastic for tuppence a piece.

All this demands a bottom up as well as top down drive. Getting people to change from easy / cheap to anywhere else - except for the groaning middle classes all reusing their own beard clippings as the stuffing for scatter cushions knitted from woven yak hair donated by the dalai lama‘s cousin Geoff from a recent prayer trip toTibet - is nigh on impossible.

Just cleared out someone’s belongings in a move - a whole box of iPhones, around twenty in total - to dispose of. Bonkers.

 

[Chromatic]

Radios...
All knackered when I got them, all bar one now working to the extent I can get bits to fix them.
Two mighty Grundig Concert Boy 1100 sets. Sound fabulous! The black one works fully, the brown version (bought new by my Dad to take to Africa) needs a fair bit more work on the AM side.
View attachment 578923

Two versions of the Sony ICF-35. Black one is more or less fully working and cosmetically OK, silver one has suffered catastrophic battery leakage at some point in its life, and only runs on an external adapter, an original model of which I fortunately have. It also, like the brown Grundig, only works on FM, but sounds OK.


Sony ICF-SW7600 digital PLL receiver. This one needs a load of surface-mount capacitors replacing, due to a manufacturing error by Sony.
View attachment 578926
The production fault was to flow-solder them too hot, and the capacitors started to deteriorate from that moment on, usually conking out after about 15 years. If (very carefully) replaced with ceramics, the radio should last virtually for ever.

When working correctly, they are one of the best small shortwave sets you can buy, even today. I previously had an ICF7600DS, which I gave to my younger son when I got a new ICF-SW7600GR, the last model in the line, in 2003. That will probably work for decades, as all the bugs had been worked out over the preceding 20 years. It's my totally overkill alarm radio!

I like radios!

Radios...
All knackered when I got them, all bar one now working to the extent I can get bits to fix them.
Two mighty Grundig Concert Boy 1100 sets. Sound fabulous! The black one works fully, the brown version (bought new by my Dad to take to Africa) needs a fair bit more work on the AM side.
View attachment 578923

Two versions of the Sony ICF-35. Black one is more or less fully working and cosmetically OK, silver one has suffered catastrophic battery leakage at some point in its life, and only runs on an external adapter, an original model of which I fortunately have. It also, like the brown Grundig, only works on FM, but sounds OK.
View attachment 578925

Sony ICF-SW7600 digital PLL receiver. This one needs a load of surface-mount capacitors replacing, due to a manufacturing error by Sony.
View attachment 578926
The production fault was to flow-solder them too hot, and the capacitors started to deteriorate from that moment on, usually conking out after about 15 years. If (very carefully) replaced with ceramics, the radio should last virtually for ever.

When working correctly, they are one of the best small shortwave sets you can buy, even today. I previously had an ICF7600DS, which I gave to my younger son when I got a new ICF-SW7600GR, the last model in the line, in 2003. That will probably work for decades, as all the bugs had been worked out over the preceding 20 years. It's my totally overkill alarm radio!

I like radios!

I bought myself this a few years ago, it's a Sony ICF-SW100

 

[Chromatic]

Anyway, here's my mend and make do, the little triangular shaped bit connecting the chain to the plug disappeared so I found some suitable material and made this new one.

 

[postman]

i took a very very old spanner,held it in the teeth of a wrench,a quick wiggle back and forth.Hey presto it snapped and made an open ended spanner just right for the nut on my Brooks saddle ,jobs a good un.