Mend it and make do

[screenman]

I fix windscreens instead of replacing them, I fix dents without filler or paint, both greener options.

 

[bruce1530]

I've just got into epoxy.

Not fixed anything with it yet though

Stick with it.....

 

[fossyant]

Learning your own servicing for suspension and hydraulic brakes on bikes.

Despite being fine on everything else on a bike, I'd never had a bike with this new fangled stuff. The dropper post wasn't working quite as I'd want and had started to leak fluid. Bought a £20 seal kit, some car hydraulic fluid, and a strap wrench. Stripped the thing and got it perfect, and am confident that if it plays up again, as dropper posts do when they need a service, I can do it again. Also bled and refitted a lever piston to my SRAM brakes. Next is a lower leg service on the forks and an oil and seal change on the rear shock. None of it's hard if you follow the instructions carefully. Saves you around a small fortune sending the stuff to a shop or suspension specialist for service.

 

[swee'pea99]

Everything from shoes to electricals. Goes against the grain to discard anything that can be fixed. My latest was a window which was so rotten you could literally poke holes in the bottom with a finger. I waited till a house up the hill was having their windows replaced, begged the equivalent replacement, and carried my prize home. Pulled out the old one:

...and bought a new piece of timber to reonforce the not-so-badly rotted but still far-from-sound replacement...

sweet as...

 

[Drago]

A desk fan. Dead as Johnny Depp's career. Stripped, wiped away the dust, syringed some engine oil onto the shaft bearings of the motor. It lives!

 

[Salad Dodger]

I am not usually very successful with Superglue, but I did manage to fix the on/off switch on the cooker hood of our last house with a bit of plastic cut from a margerine tub, and a generous dose of superglue. It lasted the final 5 years or so of our time in that house with no problems at all.

I have also successfully used the superglue and baking powder technique to raise the string height on a guitar, after someone else had cut the slot for the string too deep.

 

[lazybloke]

Nice to have new stuff on occasion, but acquiring and mending a broken thing is sooooo rewarding.
Bikes, android tablet, car, car engines, car radio, 'leccy shavers, garden strimmer, an early CRT widescreen TV, etc - I've tackled them all to eke out more years of use.

 

[slowmotion]

@slowmotion 'll put us all to shame.

There's no way I could match @ColinJ 's laptop epic. My attempts at fixing one ended in total failure.

 

[dantheman]

Just about everything that would cost more than £20 I will take apart and have a looksie before getting a new one. Fixed things on cars at the roadside, TV, tablets, phones, shoes, cookers, dishwashers, washing machines, stereos, computers/consoles, heck tons of stuff..

Even my boss gets a great deal as I do near on all fixing of my machines at print company..

 

[TheDoctor]

I've had to fix shirting boards on, fill a hole in plasterboard with something in order to get a rawlplug to stay put, fix and grout some bathroom tiles and disguise a damaged skirting board at work after someone gouged it with a wheelchair.
No More Nails. Solves all of life's problems. Except the ones that need WD40 or gaffer tape.

 

[dantheman]

I've just got into epoxy.

Not fixed anything with it yet though

I'm assuming you mean the liquid stuff like araldite..
The epoxy putty you can buy fixes all the stuff that the liquid stuff would run off from, something else for you to try! Recently used this to fix some pneumatic cylinders with cracks and serious air leaks in them, it's great stuff.

 

[TheDoctor]

Oh, and you can build doors, airing cupboards, and just about anything with T&G cladding and maybe 2 by 4. And screws. And glue.

 

[Threevok]

I'm assuming you mean the liquid stuff like araldite..
The epoxy putty you can buy fixes all the stuff that the liquid stuff would run off from,

Actually both

I seem to have slightly stripped the threads in the cable housing of a set of forks.

The hole is way too small to helicoil and I don't want to be drilling into my expensive forks.

I used threadlock and at the moment, it seems to be holding.

Should it fail, the plan it to use the putty at the base of the hole, then drill and thread into that.

The liquid stuff I bought is JB Weld but not for that problem

 

[dantheman]

Actually both

I seem to have slightly stripped the threads in the cable housing of a set of forks.

The hole is way too small to helicoil and I don't want to be drilling into my expensive forks.

I used threadlock and at the moment, it seems to be holding.

Should it fail, the plan it to use the putty at the base of the hole, then drill and thread into that.

The liquid stuff I bought is JB Weld but not for that problem

Not sure if you'd be able to tap a thread into the stuff, you might have to either tap a sleeve and fix that in place, or wrap the putty around a thread that's the same as you need. Good luck.

Jb weld use to be a favourite in the model/hobby shops, not much different - I get the stuff from poundland haha.

 

[subaqua]

When I got a hole in my drysuit neoprene neck seal I used a thin bit of neoprene from the flap on the inside of the zip of my pool wetsuit . It did 3 more seasons till the seal finally fell apart . 10 years from a neoprene seal is pretty good