Mistakes Were Made

You might think this is a knob, but it's not, it's a 'skirt'.

The main control knob on our Maytag clothes drier wasn't working properly. I assumed the timer that the knob controlled was the problem. Order the timer for $100 and replaced it only to find out that the problem was with the knob. What's the deal, Maytag? You can make a  conpiicated mechanical timer that will last indefinitely but you can't make a simple knob?

So I order a new knob, but it's not just one piece, it's two. Fine, order both pieces only to discover when they arrive that the knob is composed of three pieces, and the one piece that connects to the shaft, the one piece I really need isn't here. Who makes a knob out of three pieces, and why do you have to sell them separately? Why can't you put them together and sell them as one knob?

So I return the two pieces I don't need and order the third one that I do, but this business of the knob flopping around is getting to be a pain, so I stuff the backside full of wood putty and let it set. It's been working fine ever since. However, if it ever does fail I have a brand new knob and a fully functional timer waiting in the wings.

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Flip Cap Easy Clean & Change with STA-TITE Installation
Decided to replace a couple of toilet seats because they were getting kind of old and groady. Last time I did this I got plastic seats thinking they would last forever. They don't, so this time I figured I'd get good old wood seats. They're cheaper and they might be warmer. Get ready to mount the new seats and the screws won't fit in the holes. Write to the company and they point me to this video. Now I look at the instructions, and yes, maybe they do explain it, but the pictures are small and not that clear. But mostly their new fangled technique is just backwards from the way it has always been done. They should have big red flags all over the box warning you about this new pair of dimes.

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The water heater flaked out the very next day after I last fiddled with it. I was flashing a code of some sort again, but when I started mucking with it one of the wires that goes to another connector just fell off. I bought a set of crimp-on terminals at Lowes and crimped them on and we seem to be good.

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Old Bedframe

Older son's bedframe got bent during moving and this led to a kind of slow motion collapsing. Normally I would tackle a repair problem like this with hammer, tongs, some strips of wood or metal and a handful of screws. But being as he lives downtown and I'd already made one attempt at repair, I decided that the expedient thing would be to just order a new one. I could go down there and in short order we could break down the old one and put together the new one. Home made repairs, at least the way I do them, can go on for hours, and without actually seeing the frame I would have a hard time making a plan to repair it.

New Bedframe

I hauled the old frame home thinking I could give it away on Craigslist, but it turns out people see the picture in the Free listings and don't read the description. Only one person persisted when informed of the condition and we couldn't connect because of time distance conflicts. I was thinking fine, I would fix it my self and sell it on Craiglist for half of what it cost. At least I would recoup some of my money. But today we were cleaning the garage and I saw this pile of pieces lying there and I said screw it, and cut up the long rails with my antique saber saw and dumped them in the recycling.

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Our Panasonic vacuum cleaner started stinking the other day, a sure sign that the drive belts have reached their end. No problem, I have a spare set. The motor shaft is red hot (not literally), so I let it sit for ten minutes to cool before I attempt to install the new ones. Getting the new ones on is kind of a pain because it takes a goodly amount of force to get them to stretch enough to slide over the pulleys, enough force to drag the vacuum cleaner around. So one foot to brace against the machine to keep it from sliding which leaves both hands free to wrestle with the belt. I ordered a new pair from Sears for $10, but just now I noticed I have ordered these belts with from Amazon a couple of times, once in September of 2016 for $7 and again in  April of 2017