Handy Tips for Unhandy People...
I'm not a mechanically gifted person, yet am often employed in labor trades,
making repairs in homes doing things that people they might like to do for
themselves, if it weren't so hard, so, a few helpful notes.
a. Who Worked On It Last?
b Things are usually about the way they are supposed to be
c Did you look? Really, just look.
1. Six in One Screwdriver - two sizes slotted, two size phillips,
two size nut drivers, (to open almost any major appliance,)
with bits removed = substantial space increase and weight loss
in portable tool kit.
2. Magnetic Screwdriver = Mechanical Genius - mine has has a
removable top to store different bits.
3. Driving screws - use a short, magnetic bit holder with guide sleeve
to cover screw to keep it straight.
4. Use a self tapping screw to pilot in the absence of a drill bit where
pre-drilling required to prevent a screw from splitting wood.
5. Headband flashlight - to see, hands free
6. If the 110 volt service is wired correctly,
Black is Hot and
White is Not; but -
never assume wired correctly
7. Switches and Service Outlets, Black wire goes to the brass terminal,
white to the silver. If a football fan think, Saints, not the Raiders.
9. At the electrical service panel, a breaker may appear to be on,
but it is not, just very slightly tripped, so I use fingers to check.
10. $25.00 Voltmeter, to check circuits, dc batteries, continuity, and the voltage
an alternator returns to a car battery - very simple.
11. Plumbing - don't push the plunger hard - that's not the idea.
12. Remove-able wire mesh screens in sink and bathtub drains.
13 Sheet of rubber. 1/16th or an 1/8th thick + 1-2 two hose clamps
over a pinhole leaking pipe - this repair works for years.
14 Have you seen my glasses (check top of head)
15 Call Technical Service
16. 10 year washable A/C air filter, wash every month. $25.
17 Good (heavy and long) Jumper Cables in the trunk, always
18 Pints a pound the world around.
19 You need a good mechanical connection.
20 Carpentry: own a Japanese pull saw for fast, easy and aesthetically pleasing cuts
b: 58 1/4": burn the line /keep the line, the short and long of it.
Painting:
$10.00 fluffy wool roller decreases labor.
36" roll of paper and blue tape to cover the floor.
Warner 100x scraper, the one and only.
Go on light and re-coat.
Radio / Coffee / 12 pack at day end, repeat
The road
21 Orioles manager Earl Weaver was changing his tire in front of a Sanitarium
one dark and stormy night, the story goes. Storm kicks up all 4 lug-nuts
removed into the storm drain. Patient watching him from behind the fence
tells him what to do next, take one lug off the remaining 3 three wheels and,
he explains,
- I may be crazy but I'm not stupid...
22. Truck 14 feet tall tries to go under the 13'11" maximum height overpass.
Stuck, Cal-trans and HP are useless, nobody knows what to do, traffics backing
up for miles till the little boy (7 years old!) says, let some air out of the tires -
Readers Digest Condensed, 1972
24. Gas on empty, Lonely Road, Arkansas: slow way way down, 11 mph is twice
as fast as you can walk, and mileage is increased several factors.
25 They stole the radio; so now you get to ruminate
25a Brake lights suddenly on all the time in the Previa.
Nasty job to adjust the switch.
For a week I set a 6" putty knife under the brake when I parked,
to push the pedal arm enough to depress the brake light button
and keep the lights off. I needed - a shim.
Like the little magnet bars on my Fridge!
Placed over the metal that was no longer depressing the button,
okay!
Epilogue:
26 Fast orange citrus hand cleaner with pumice
27 Poor and and tiring Work results from a bad posture.
Part of the work involves getting into the best position.
28 Did you plug it in?
i.e. Start from the first step on the troubleshooting chart,
not where an apprehensive intuition of trouble is concerned,
because, you beat yourself up.
29 Did you look?
30 It is at the salvage / recycling store yard, if you want it
31 Introduce yourself and learn and use the first names of people
working at hardware stores and parts counters.
The Maintenance Review Interview with
INTRODUCTION
This interview took "Place now"
Maintenance Review:
-
- Repair in lieu of Maintenance was always part of my home life -
we didn't outsource anything, not gardening, roofing, air conditioning service,
laundry, housework or automotive repair, or contracting for the "Additions" to our
homes
-
a gas fired grill w/ ventilating hood,
an elevated indoor flower-bed eventually converted to a junior cayman
sanctuary with finches and goldfish, and a pool table plus color television.
-
The garage was the nominal shop and supply room. I drew outlines of wenches
above the shop table and tried to keep them hanging there. No one
respected these drawings of mine. Nor the condition of the Garage, which
in many tract homes functions as a kind of
-
I'm glad you said it, yes.
I don't distinguish between "outline" and "Drawing" both
are about the hand w/marker portraying representation -
if you saw one of my crescent wench outlines
-
I did get a little discouraged, I guess, is the word, for all the various
trade work going on and the lack of care and keeping for these implements -
"putbackism" took a backseat to "just get another one"
-
Grieved over 86 piece socket sets loyally decimated to whatever size I lacked
-
Thus were the Vice Grips utilized and certain of these crucial bolt-heads
were deformed while being turned
-
- This was before all you do is get the Sawzall, climb a 40 foot ladder.
You learn that Nothing's Easy.
-
- Yes I was well aware of those magazines with picture spreads of well kept
multi-functional "dream" garages, working in the presence of radio and television,
florescent light, and the promise of clean quiet, magnified soldering jobs with
color coded insulated alligator clips
-
- Yes "Dungaree" was more than synonymous with "Jeans", but these were deep olive
Sears Catalog Gas Station Khaki Work Pants with the back right pocket exclusive to
the red waterless hand-cleaner wiping rag
-
- I had no idea this was not just a sexual preference symbol, but indicative
-
- Ha ha, of certain willingness'es
-
- I should not like to share with you how I found that out
-
- There was a couch of a legendary uncle departed early from this world
-
- He was given three weeks notice of his departure and did not know his 40's
-
- Naturally my best time on earth in an interior structure was had on this couch
-
- I loved the flow of categorization and sequence at the hardware store,
studied the progression of fastener sizes, memorized their names,
took sips of the conversations - shims, bell reducers, two part epoxy,
douglas fir, circular saws, 12 gauge female disconnect
-
He relied on acute eyesight as his organizational - one container and
its in there somewhere, and I think he found my wrench drawings amusing.
-
Sometimes these tasks did take blood
-
So we say it is a lucky day you don't...
-
I don't think "that's the one you were looking for" was ever said.
Not a lot of that, even as right-left and clockwise or not remained
elusive for me.
-
Finding out the back of the left hand thumb pointing out and index finger
pointing up could make - was an enormous boon. It not only identifies Left
but by elimination reveals -
-
but correctly guessing the rotation of clock - wise, I wasn't
-
- Yes that was my recording of the automatic dishwashing cycle as rendition
of War and Peace
-
I was like spiders on lsd when it came to mowing a lawn.
My mind wandered and I made designs...
-
- I do not believe in putting a spare liner under the liner
-
- I'm a You Only Get this One Liner person
-
- Okay, why just one liner then
-
- Why not three, five, a whole box?
-
- Yeah I've seen what Real Clever does, he folds it over the side of the can
and pulls the liner in use down the side like a skirt - you can see this one
under it
-
So this supposition humanity at large can be trusted not to filch the extra bag
-
- It is a long way from fashioning the missing "hoosey"
-
Compared to an ordinary saltine, a Ritz cracker was almost like a cookie
My Diminutive Tool bag
Klein wire strippers
Stanley Knife
Wood Chisel
Pull Saw
6" Carpenters Triangle
Hammer
Marker
6in1 screwdriver
Magnetic Screw Driver
Small screw drivers
Telescoping inspection mirror
Magnifying lens
Flashlight
9" Channel locks
7" Crescent wrench
Hacksaw blade handle
Aviation snips
Pullsaw
Allen set
Needle nose pliers
Electrical pliers
Voltmeter
electrical tape
teflon tape
shrink-tube
wire-nuts
emery cloth
Caulk gun
wire ties
rags
drill-motor
