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Repairing Things

Roger B

As my last thread on mending things has been locked (as has it’s predecessor) I will start a new one.

https://engx.theiet.org/f/discussions/28607/mending-things

The handle on our laundry basket broke which at first looked like throw it away and buy a new one. Here, Switzerland, we would have to pay to dispose of it, either cut it up and put it in paid rubbish sack or take it to the recycling centre (minimum charge CHF 2).

As an alternative I slipped some heatshrink over the broken handle and punched some holes with a leather workers punch. The two ends were then laced together with some galvanized wire (SWA armour wire) and the heatshrink was shrunk over the joint. Less than 15 mins work and the basket will be kept out of the waste stream for a few more years.

How many others on here will try to repair rather than replace?

  • I've just repaired two of our clothes line props: one had the plastic hook at the top sheared off so I cut it off flat and screwed in a cup hook, the other had a sliding joint fixing half way up the pole which had become loose so I attached it on firmly with heatshrink.

    I find heatshrink a great addition to the previous classic fix-all duo of WD40 and gaffa tape!

  • in reply to Andy Millar

    Heat shrink is good Grinning  I would have liked to have used adhesive lined heat shrink for this repair but I only have the smaller sizes for reparing flexible cables.

  • Marvellous! We have similar tubs, which we use for gardening and which have had similar breakages. I would never have thought of repairing them like that. Thank you.

    I am not sure about the policy of paying to take things to the recycling centre. Wouldn't that encourage fly tipping? Sorry, I forgot - you are in Switzerland. :-)

  • in reply to Chris Pearson
    Chris Pearson said:
    I am not sure about the policy of paying to take things to the recycling centre. Wouldn't that encourage fly tipping?

    Don't get me started! Here in Cornwall there are certain items that need to be paid for, and yes it does seem to encourage fly tipping of those items.

    On the bright side though, there's another thread on here about Repair Cafes, and I was really pleased to find that in Cornwall these are actively promoted by the council recycling team in order to move items from recycling to reuse (or rather continued use). They were extremely helpful in supporting us to get ours set up.

    Meanwhile I'm steeling myself up for the expensive trip to the dump for the various car (or rather trailer) tyres collected over many years that I keep meaning to get rid of...

    Cheers,

    Andy

  • in reply to Andy Millar

    Wait a few months, and those charges may go away.  The government has promised to abolish charges for dumping domestic waste.  I have a couple of sacks of rubble I need to get rid of.

  • in reply to Simon Barker

    oh yes, I'd missed that, thanks for the tip:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/council-diy-waste-charges-abolished

    It'll be interesting to see what that covers.

    I was interested to see the comment in there on "DIY waste", I've been clearing out 50 year's worth(!) of old electronics hobby projects into the WEEE bin over the last couple of years, and I've kept imagining that eventually someone's going to tap me on the shoulder asking me to explain why I'm disposing of what looks like industrial waste at the domestic recycling centre! 

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