Remember when we used to repair things instead

GeorgiaXplant

Well-known Member
Location
Georgia
of throwing them away and buying a new one of whatever it was?

What reminded me of this was seeing a tiny hole starting in one of my socks. Way back in the way back, it would be darned. You know, using a darning egg (or in a pinch an old burned out light bulb).
 

'tis true, we live in the disposable society, however we do our bit in this house to keep thing repeaired before chucking things down to the recyvcle centre or in the bin... .

Just this morning my o/h repaired our kitchen mixer tap.. someone else may have bought a new one, but it took him just less that 5 minutes to repair and no cost!!
 
We fix things when possible. Many items are made in a fashion not to be fixed. Pop rivets instead of screws. Or plastic pieces that will break off when you try to open it to figure out what is wrong. Things are just designed to be tossed away and not repairable.
 

The people that grew up during the Great Depression always seemed to have a button tin, rag bag, scrap/junk pile and a few tools to fix or build things. They didn't read a book or take a course they just figured it out and had fun doing it.

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If it's repairable, for a cost of half or less the price of a new item, I almost always try to fix it. I have gobs of tools, and have been fixing things all my life...so, for me, "fixing" is almost part of my normal routine. If it's something I've never tackled before, a bit of browsing on UTube usually gets me pointed in the right direction.
 
Rag bag - check! Button box - check! When I was a kid, we saved every single scrap of worn out clothing for the rag bag after removing the buttons for the button box and the zippers just in case. The rags were torn into strips and braided for rag rugs. Many a winter evening was spent listening to the radio and braiding and sewing the braids into rag rugs. I would look at the rugs and think "that was Mom's Christmas dress when I was six" or "that was my dress for the first day of school in third grade" or "that was Brother's flannel shirt."
 
Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without...a phrase from the depression-era. I grew up hearing that, and we lived it. If it was mechanical and not repairable, it was cannibalized for parts, much like we "cannibalized" the old clothes, towels, sheets for rag rugs, saving the buttons and zippers.

Seems like now even food is fair game for the trash can. Pitching food is one of my pet peeves; it so goes against my grain!
 
I ran into a pilot from JAL in a pilot’s lounge. We both saw an American Airlines pilot throw away a bunch of papers. He looked at me and said ‘You Americans live in a throw away society.’ I agreed with him and then left. I got to thinking about what he said and decided that he really was right.

That’s me. I would rather throw stuff away and buy a new whatever it is.
 
So agree with this. My husband is a putterer and tries to fix most things. During Christmas Cookie season last year my KitchenAid mixer gave out after over 15 years of very hard use, so I immediately started looking for a replacement. My kids' friends had great affection for "Big Red" - it sat on my countertop and churned out tens of thousands of cookies and other treats over the years. Many would pat it affectionately during parties. When it died I posted a photo along with "RIP Big Red" on Facebook. (You can't imagine how many "Oh no, not Big Red" type replies I got.)

One 35-ish friend who is very handy suggested that we try to fix it. My husband was intrigued and started reviewing YouTube videos. He ordered one part, then another. About $50 later Big Red was good as new. During the process I borrowed a KitchenAid from my daughter so I could continue baking.
 
I remember my brother making a "temporary" repair to the transmission on our old car...with my mom's bobby pins! Temporary turned out to be permanent because paying a mechanic wasn't in the budget.
 
I still repair things when I can. One problem is that many things now are so complicated that most people don't have the knowledge or skill to fix them. I was at the toxic waste drop off the other day and there was a cart with a stack of microwave ovens. They all looked brand new. I have fixed ours three times now, and each time it was a small part that cost less than five dollars.

And, if you can't repair it yourself, the labor to have it done is practically the cost of a replacement. I can remember when you could make a living fixing small appliances. Cheap imports killed that.

Manufacturers have no incentive to make things repairable. Plastic parts are made to snap together and it's not obvious how to get them apart. Just opening them up to get inside can be a puzzle. I'm working one now. I bought a dead digital camera on E-bay for $4.75 just to see if I could fix it.
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Maybe I can or maybe not. It's probably just dirty. Whatever, it's an interesting challenge. And, suppose one of the parts is bad. Do you think I could buy a replacement? Fat chance. They're all custom parts.

Don
 
Heads up for our forum members about microwave ovens. Whatever you do, DO NOT attempt to replace the appliance bulb without unplugging first. A colleague took a day off a few years back just so she could deep clean her house when her kids weren't underfoot, and one of the things she was going to do was replace the bulb in her microwave. She was electrocuted and died. Died trying to replace an appliance bulb. Not a joke. It really happened. Her kids found her when they got home from school.

Come to think of it, don't try to repair ANYTHING electrical without unplugging first!
 
A lot of stuff now is designed to be automatic and it becomes troublesome.
I try to fix everything. I just hate throwing stuff away.
I have a paper shredder. I bought it because I hate throwing stuff away that has personal information on it.
The shredder was designed to automatically come on if you feed paper into it.
However, it stopped working. I took it apart and there was a small plastic piece that turned on the shredder. It was broken.
So what I did was bypass the automatic switch feature and now I turn it on with the switch and turn it off when finished shredding.
There are many things you learn as you go along. What have you to lose if you are going to throw it away anyway.
 
Heads up for our forum members about microwave ovens. Whatever you do, DO NOT attempt to replace the appliance bulb without unplugging first. A colleague took a day off a few years back just so she could deep clean her house when her kids weren't underfoot, and one of the things she was going to do was replace the bulb in her microwave. She was electrocuted and died. Died trying to replace an appliance bulb. Not a joke. It really happened. Her kids found her when they got home from school.

Come to think of it, don't try to repair ANYTHING electrical without unplugging first!
Glad I'm married to an EE (electrical engineer), hey I just "plug him in" first...ha ha.
 
So agree with this. My husband is a putterer and tries to fix most things. During Christmas Cookie season last year my KitchenAid mixer gave out after over 15 years of very hard use, so I immediately started looking for a replacement. My kids' friends had great affection for "Big Red" - it sat on my countertop and churned out tens of thousands of cookies and other treats over the years. Many would pat it affectionately during parties. When it died I posted a photo along with "RIP Big Red" on Facebook. (You can't imagine how many "Oh no, not Big Red" type replies I got.)

One 35-ish friend who is very handy suggested that we try to fix it. My husband was intrigued and started reviewing YouTube videos. He ordered one part, then another. About $50 later Big Red was good as new. During the process I borrowed a KitchenAid from my daughter so I could continue baking.
Awesome cause my 25 year old kitchen aid died last Christmas and making gingerbreads just isn’t the same freehand. This is great news. Way to go Mr. Starsong. 👍❤️
 
Heads up for our forum members about microwave ovens. Whatever you do, DO NOT attempt to replace the appliance bulb without unplugging first. A colleague took a day off a few years back just so she could deep clean her house when her kids weren't underfoot, and one of the things she was going to do was replace the bulb in her microwave. She was electrocuted and died. Died trying to replace an appliance bulb. Not a joke. It really happened. Her kids found her when they got home from school.

Come to think of it, don't try to repair ANYTHING electrical without unplugging first!

I would never attempt to fix anything electrical without unplugging it first.
 
With many items, replacing cost less than repairing. Things are made that way today.
This is the way it should be. Buying keeps people working, whether it’s in China or the U.S. if we fixed everything, our industries would be even more worse off than it is. Cars may be the exception. However, a lot of people buy new cars every 3-4 years or 50,000 miles. Have you ever taken notice of the number of new or used cars sitting on car lots? My God there are millions upon millions of dollars in inventory sitting on some lots.

For those that can afford to throw away a broken item and buy a new one, I say go for it.
 
of throwing them away and buying a new one of whatever it was?

What reminded me of this was seeing a tiny hole starting in one of my socks. Way back in the way back, it would be darned. You know, using a darning egg (or in a pinch an old burned out light bulb).
It was a light bulb around our house and I have done it many times along with repairing button holes.

A big chunk of my civilian career and most of my military career was all about fixing various electronic devices, .... and I loved it. Now they tend to simply throw sub components away.

Near the end of my civilian career, I often found myself using the repair skills I learned as a junior enlisted technician almost as often as what I learned with my Master's in Engineering. The Army Techs I supported would gather around and watch, sometimes commenting that "He is really Old School" as I took circuit boards apart, changed components to alter the performance characteristics and soldered it back together.

Yes, I am Old School and proud of it!
 
Near the end of my civilian career, I often found myself using the repair skills I learned as a junior enlisted technician almost as often as what I learned with my Master's in Engineering. The Army Techs I supported would gather around and watch, sometimes commenting that "He is really Old School" as I took circuit boards apart, changed components to alter the performance characteristics and soldered it back together.

Yes, I am Old School and proud of it!
Ditto here as well. Things went from point to point wiring of components, to components on PC boards, to components as part of ICs. Now just pull the whole PC board from it's socket and replace, where it was troubleshoot to a component level and replace the component.
 
A favorite pair of shoes had a small sole problem. Do you think I could even find a shoe repair shop? Course not. I got out the super glue and wore them for months more
 


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