Little Giant 554405 VCMA-15 non-submersible condensate pump
Awoke, we did, to a puddle at the foot of our basement stairs. Water. Perchance Little Weed had spilled a very large glass of water? Surely not. It turned out that our furnace water pump was no longer pumping. A repair was in order, and fast. Here is how I cleaned out the pump. It now works.
Leather highback chair needed two leather patches on the seat. After the repair was completed and new metal gliders added. Photo 1 by Don Tai
This leather chair was cast aside, but it beaconed me to come closer. It took little time to determine that it was leather covered and in need of a major repair. Once done, however, the chair was returned to service, and comfortable it is.
Glaringly obvious was the huge gash 6.5″/17cm gash in the seat, as well as a smaller 1″/3cm cut, also in the seat. After I determined that the backing material was actually the very reassuringly natural matte fibers of real leather, I knew the repair could be done.
RCA fridge RFR322 died after only 5 months of use. What a waste of money and natural resources. Photo 1 by Don Tai
We humans need to do much better than this. My neighbour bought an RCA RFR322 student fridge, 3.2 cubic foot, Made in China, from Walmart. After a mere 5 months is stopped working. The manufacture of appliances such as a fridge takes a lot of natural resources, and if the appliance dies shortly after not only is it a waste of money but also of natural resources. We, as a species, need to stop making these mistakes.
Adidas Evolution EVN 791001 in white, tonguectomy and repair of leather split near the little toe. Toronto, Canada. Photo 1 by Don Tai
She has a pair of Adidas Evolution EVN 791001 leather running shoes, but the tongue was too thick and there was a cut in the leather on the toe cap, left foot and near the baby toe, D5. Here is how I repaired it. These shoes are made in China but are solidly built. Unfortunately there was some quality control issues with the split leather.
Tempo baritone ukelele, unknown origin or date, Toronto, Canada. Photo 1 by Don Tai
This Tempo baritone ukelele came to me very broken, with the back ripped off the sides, both top and bottom, and discarded. I had to do a somewhat significant glue-up in order to stabilize the neck and get the action back to normalcy.
Chinese chair, Toronto, Canada. Photo 1 by Don Tai
Chinese furniture is pretty rare here. You can find them at specialty Chinese furniture shops within Chinese-only malls. This one came to me discarded and in need of repair. I thought it rare and interesting, so wanted to repair and document it.
The chair has no manufacturer marking on it anywhere. It is not of high quality. Seams are showing. There are painting errors, where the painter put too much paint on and left ghastly drips, right on the front of the back rest. A higher quality chair manufacturer would have sanded down the drip and repainted. Not here.
Boulevard repaving, Toronto, Canada. The boulevard asphalt on my neighbours house is compressed by a roller machine. Photo8 by Don Tai
Toronto Hydro had dug up a section of my neighbour’s boulevard when Bell Canada came in to install their fiber optic cables. Hydro dug up a section of asphalt, did the repair, poured gravel down the hole, then repaved with asphalt. A month later the gravel and asphalt has settled. The City of Toronto then dug up the complete boulevard and repaved the bottom layer with asphalt. They will later return to complete the top layer with a finer asphalt.
Viking Auto Dryer by the T. Eaton Company, 1995, front control panel. Photo by Don Tai
Dead it was, our dryer, a Viking Auto Dryer, from the T. Eaton Company, circa 1995, model number EDX22RW1181, front load, Toronto, Canada, hopelessly turning and turning, all without heat. Of course our clothes were not dry after an hour. Wife was not impressed and put the dryer at the top of my “to do” list. A solution was required before the next weekend load. Nothing stops for laundry or cooking.
These spanner slotted screw heads are a pain in the butt. My broken Black and Decker VS200 Heat Sealer used 2 of 9 screws as spanner slotted, the rest were philips. Why go non-standard? photo by Don Tai
Heat sealing some frozen corn with my Black and Decker VS200 heat sealer, from a 2 kg bag down to 0.5kg bags, I heard a pop, and then noticed the heat strip of my heat sealer was no longer hot. Damn, we are going to need a repair.
Had a hunch I did, that the warped Alvin cutting mat at Goodwill could be repaired, and I was right. The mat seemed to have some smooth but pretty funky curves and did not sit flat. I baked it!
The Alvin cutting mat is pretty thick, so simply bending it would probably break it. After some Google research I tried the oven reheat solution. Here it is:
