Home improvement weekend

Not exactly home improvement. But this time I decided to put on my mechanic's hat and fix some things that have been bothering me since last few weeks.

First to be fixed was my PC that had no covers on following the hard disk catastrophe that I mentioned earlier. Since then I could not put it all together. So, I started on the mission #1. unplugged the Idiot Box Junior (you know the senior one :-) ) There were no major surprises except one. The screws holding the PCB that houses front USB and headphone jacks were no longer useful! Repetitive strain had dislodged them and the threading was no longer able to hold on.

Time to devise a solution...
I had to use a piece of used leather belt to hold the thing in place and reinforce the threading with a glue so that it holds. But the process was not straight forward and ended with me reading the instruction manual to fix the minute power cables that I had to remove and that powered various LEDs here n there.

Then came the blender!
It is a historic device that would qualify for an antique any moment now! Probably as old as me. Uh oh! Do not take that analogy very seriously...! :)

The thing has been pissing me each time I used it by dripping a stream of content from the Jug, down into the motor and the kitchen shelve. So today was the day to teach it a lesson. But I was careful enough to be gentle with it because it has served my parents for so long and now me. I sometimes wonder how these things last so long. The Germans definitely go an extra mile on designing equipment so that they outlast many other brands of their time. Unlike most Indian manufacturers were it is a bliss if any equipment survives the warranty period safely.

The fault is not in the design, the fault is in the customers. We pay thrice the amount for a foreign product without a slightest hint of hesitation but we never would for a similar product by a local manufacturer. What if the local guy gets the liberty of spending thrice the amount (or twice) on additional quality materials and afford to reject some (slightly) faulty parts that otherwise make into the assembly line, we would be at par with anyone around. We have been. In ancient times.

That was a bit sidetrack. Coming to the weekend mission#2, I carefully unscrewed the most accessible screws while taking care not to screw something up! :)

I was familiar with the kind of stuff that I found inside. Windings, Coils, Limit Switch, Wire Clamping, Bushes, Armature, Stator etc. What I saw in there hinted me that many generations of various kitchen bugs have been taking refuge in my loving blender. I had to destroy those deserted dwellings and clean all the residues from various liquids. The task was difficult but the result was satisfying.

More unscrewing, unfastening and then cleaning, reassembling, looking for any left over, curious looking parts. There were none which was a good sign :)

There we were, a working blender as good looking as new!

Wondering why I posted this activity here?
Many reasons.
First being to tell the world that my dad's experience is not all wasted by me going into IT.
Secondly, Such a task done at home be it fixing a broken, blender, installing a new bedside lamp, greasing your bike's chain, fixing a leaking tap etc etc can be accomplished by using a mini arsenal of tools and to the greatest level of satisfaction. You don't have to run to a plumber, electrician, mechanic, mason for every nitty-gritty that keeps falling off in a house where people live. Also, it is a good stress buster as well, at least for me. (Stop wondering!!)

Thirdly, I hope some pretty lady might stumble on this page and feel envious of an in-house mechanic that my wife will get for free ;-).

But I warn you, if you don't know exactly what you are doing, do it discreetly so that you have a lifeline of running off to the mechanic should anything not go as you planned. Else, you will have a nagging wife, mom, or sister who will never fail to make you realize one 'herogiri' of yours that failed. If you succeeded! then definitely you are the one who just proved it! :-)

Finally, I love tweaking things since I was a kid. That had made me learn to fix them more than have my dad fix them later :-).

Give a try to something sometimes, I can advise ;-)
Good night.