repair

Jan

2013

Five Most Common Problems With Refrigerators ~ Blog

Ok, today I am going to be discussing with you the five most common problems with refrigerators.

0:18 Number one is a stuck fridge fan. When you open your fridge and it is in it’s run cycle you should hear the sound like you are hearing now, the fan motor spinning. Sometimes what happens is the fan blades get stuck against the side or the fan blade itself goes so far back that it seats against the motor and than the blades get stuck and don’t turn.

0:42 Second most common problems with refrigerators is drips from the ceiling. Now if it’s just small drips it can be caused by food put in that’s hot like boiling or something that had boiled and than set in the fridge without a cover on it. The way to eliminate that is to keep a cover on your food.

But if your seeing excessive drips from the inside center here then it may indicate that you have a clogged condensate drain which is a very common problem with refrigerators.

01:11 The third most common problem with refrigerators is the compressor not running. If you listen back here you can kind of hear the hum of the compressor. So if you don’t hear that sound that low humming sound that’s different from the fan going than your starter may need to be replaced on the compressor.

01:31 The fourth most common problem with refrigerators is torn gaskets. The way that you prevent that from happening is to clean the gaskets here often, and to clean the fridge surface here often, where it mates. What happens is sticky foods stick in there and than pulling apart from the gasket
eventually can tear the gasket wear out the gasket so that’s the way to
kind of prevent it.

Each door manufacturer is different so you might have to consult your directions on how to replace your gasket. Some of them will have screws along the inside portion here of the gasket in order to change it.
Others will have a press in place groove that the gasket gets pressed into.
Others the entire door portion will pull apart so that you can replace the gasket. So each kind is just slightly different.

02:20 And the fifth most common problem with refrigerators is being off balance. What you want is for when you let your fridge door go you want it to just close nice and gently and close all the way.

You want the fridge to aim towards the back just a tiny bit so that condensate goes down and stays along the back of the fridge and settles into the pan that’s on the back on the top of the compressor usually. But anyway, you want your fridge to angle towards the back just a tiny bit.

If your fridge is off balance there is usually an adjustment screw here.
Or some fridges have a wheel that is turned here. This ones got a wheel that’s turned, as you can see, one on each side. And these can be adjusted
just by lifting up a little bit on the fridge and than turning this either by hand or with channel locks.

So that’s the five most common problems with refrigerators.

Jan

2013

Five Most Common Problems With Vertical Blinds ~ Blog

Five Most Common Problems With Vertical Blinds

OK today, I am going to be showing you the five most common problems with vertical blinds.

00:13 One of the most common problems is simply a blind slat being out of step something as simple as this where it is just going to hang up and now your blinds are not going to turn and open up.

So first thing is your going to want to go along and make sure that all of your blinds are in a row and that’s one of the most common problems.

00:35 Another most common problem is a broken blind slat itself often they will break off right here and what you can do is flip your blind slat over and use a hole punch and punch some new holes and than re hang it up.

If you want to you can trim it off straight or you can get replacement slats and trim them down. I have a video on those repairs, video on that repair and I will try to put the link on this video so you can click over to it.

01:02 The Third most often repair that’s needed is a stripped master gear now as I showed you if one of the deals was hanging up or the blinds were hanging up and someone continued to try to force it. It can strip the master gear. And there is a couple of different types of master gears this one is a
self aligning master gear it links underneath the first slat. This one you can take out these screws and link it to the first carrier. I’ve got a video on that also so I will try to put the link on here.

01:35 Fourth most common type of repair that is needed is where you have an individual blind that is not turning all the other ones are turning just fine. And that one individual blind is not turning.

What’s needed is either the head the uh… the gear herehas got some broken teeth on it or the comb gear itself has broken off and these can be replaced.

I also have a video on that I will put the link on this video it is for the stem
and comb gear.

02:05 And the Fifth most common problem with vertical blinds is that the blinds are hard to open. Now, this one is not so bad, it slides pretty easy, but if you had a set that was hard to open what you want to do is lube it with silicone spray. Apply it to the entire length inside the track. And it is not the best smelling stuff in the world but it really does a good job in lubing the blinds because what it does silicone lube dries and it still maintains its lubricant qualities. And because it dries it is not going to collect as much dust and dirt and debris and than clog up.

Anyway once you put it on let it dry for about 15 minutes and than go ahead and work the blinds in and you are good to go.

And that is the five most common problems with vertical blinds.
There’s a few others. I will try to add them on later but that’s about the five most common.

Jan

2013

How To Stop Vertical Blinds From Dragging On The Ground

00:08 OK Here is a quick one.

00:10 You’ve got some vertical blinds that are dragging on the ground.

00:13 You could trim them down but if it’s a matter of them not being even

00:17 what you can do just as a quick deal

00:19 is lift

00:24 as long as your

00:26 brackets are mounted in the studs.

00:30 What you can do is lift

00:32 the blinds and

00:35 bend the bracket up just a hair

00:38 to get the

00:41 slats off the ground.

00:53 Than if you need to you can put like a wedge underneath

00:58 to lift it up enough so the

01:02 blinds all clear.

01:06 anyway i’m gonna trim that wedge down make it little bit better

01:09 under there so it’s a little more

01:12 secured in there.

01:15 And we will be good to go. So now I just cut off a smaller piece of the wedge.

01:20 And anchored it back there

01:22 so it’s not going to come out on us

01:24 and that’s enough to lift the blinds up off the ground. Keep them from dragging. :o)

Jul

2011

How to Repair Just About Any Stripped Screw Holes

Who hasn’t crossed paths with a stripped screw hole? You go to tighten the screw and it just turns in the hole but no righty tighty and maybe too much lefty loosey. A quick trick here is to fill the hole with a sliver or two of wood, plastic, matchsticks (minus the heads, so you don’t start a fire) , toothpicks, or even a rolled up bit of paper. This will give the screw something to bite on and help it to grab into the hole. You can either cut off or roll up appropriately guestimated sizes and amount of wood slivers or use rolled up paper and insert it into the hole then anchor your screw in the modified hole.

Now I wouldn’t recommend this repair for fixing planes, trains, or automobiles, but it works just fine on light duty applications such as cabinet pulls or interior door jambs. It can also work in some instances where the proper screw was lost you can use the wood and a smaller sized screw to anchor into the old hole. You may need to use a washer if your screw head is a different size. If you are concerned about longevity of the repair you might add a bit of wood glue to your inserted tree mixture and let it dry, if need be, and then screw in the screw.

Most screws are all about plane leverage. The screw threads grab into the material anchoring into the weaker spaces between material particles forcing the remaining weaker particles closer together thereby making them denser, more concentrated, and better to anchor to. The correct screw is particularly engineered at the proper angles and thread size for the material it is designed to anchor to for optimum holding power. Some materials including some types of wood need to be pre drilled to avoid splitting of the material.Each material is different in it’s density and tensile strength. Wooden matchsticks, toothpicks, and rolled up bits of strong paper are very flexible and still strong enough to fill voids, this is why they work well for this application, making them anchor into the existing subtances and create holding power.

This same effect works well in reverse the same plane leverage helps the screw to be easily turned out and removed for repairs or modifications. If you had to take apart something where this repair was done you may need to repeat the insert of some material if it had not been glued in.

~~~ Stay Strong ~~~
~~~ Kung Fu Maintenance ~~~~~~~

May

2011

Getting Vertical ~ Repairing Vertical Blinds

Let us say you go to open your vertical blinds and oh no, the blinds won’t open. The first thing to check for is any blind slats that are out of line with the others. Look for any that are overlapping the others the wrong way and push the top corner to set it the right way. This is the most often needed repair for vertical blinds. Blinds often get out of alignment due to wind, people, pets, vacuums, chairs etc…

A bigger problem is when one of the gears gets turned out of step with the other gears. The repair is performed by turning the stem the right way. Sometimes you can grab the stem and turn it with your hand. Take care not to bend the slat itself or it may break. Often you will need or want to remove the slat. That makes it easier to grab the stem with a pair of pliers and then pop it over.

This repair sometimes causes a gear tooth to break. Replacing stem gears is fairly easy and I will try to make a video for that repair in the future. I cover all of these repairs and much more in my book, Kung Fu Maintenance. I have another video at present titled The Master Blind Gear. I hope you like it and that it serves you well. It covers (as you probably guessed) how to replace a stripped master blind gear controller for vertical blinds.

Be extra careful when working with blinds and appliances as the metal is often unfinished metal and very sharp. I have given blood numerous times. A little precaution makes for a better day.

~~~ Get Vertical ~~~ Stay Above Horizontal ~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Kung Fu Maintenance ~~~~~~~~~~

May

2011

Increasing Your Balance ~ Weighting out a Ceiling Fan Wobble

This is my eleventh video. It was the first Kung Fu Maintenance video I used my voice on. To my surprise it has gotten far more hits than any of my others. This is true even though (among my vids) it is one of the most disliked uploaded videos. Perhaps for the noise (voice) (music) but I think more than anything for the fact that this repair takes so much patience. It is a tried and true method and I have done it many times. It is not my favorite repair either but it normally works, unless the fan is beyond balancing. I have had many dislikes over the brand of this particular fan. Also I think it gets many dislikes because there are some who think it is not worth it to balance a fan (or believe it impossible) and would rather buy a new one. This is fine. (You can make pizza, if you have the dough( and sauce, and cheese etc. . ). What follows is for the savers.

First clean the fan. Then tighten up all the screws. Tighten the fan blade screws and especially the down rod set screws where the down rod goes into the fan top. Often times this is enough to fix the wobble. Sometimes you can adjust the position of the light kit or the position of the down rod socket by pushing the whole fan up and turning a little bit (with power off of course). Try several different positions to see if you can rid the wobble.

If those attempts don’t rid your wobble than you will need a fan balancing kit. They are sold at most hardware stores or you can order one from my store Kung Fu Maintenance Supply and Appliance. They usually have instructions to follow which normally involve the following.

Clip the fan blade weight clip to the back edge of a fan blade either on the very end center or in the middle at the back of the blade. Turn the fan on and note if it wobbles more or less. Note the blade you started with than do the same on each of the other fan blades to determine which one gives you the least amount of wobble. This takes a lot of patience as you have to let the fan blades stop each time so no one gets hurt.

Next clip the fan weight in the center at the back of the fan blade with the least wobble. Slide the clip two inches toward the fan center and check the wobble. Than slide the clip four inch away from the center of the fan blade. Whichever direction towards the center or further away gives you the least wobble continue checking for the least wobble in two inch increments until you determine the best spot for least wobble. This is where you will stick one of the fan weights clean the spot on the center top of the fan blade really well. This way the weight doesn’t go flying off later (It’s all fun and games till someone gets hurt). Remove the plastic covering the adhesive and press it down top center of the fan blade directly in line with your fan weight clip.

Now you can remove the fan weight clip and check for wobbling. All set you’re all done but if there is still some wobble sometimes it takes more than one weight. This is why the weight kit usually comes with two or three weights. Repeat the entire process again with the second and if necessary the third weight. Yes it is understandable that this video gets some dislikes. I could even sometimes dislike it myself. It puts a real tester on ADD and caffeinated people .

~~~Increasing your Balance~~~

~~~~~~~~~~Kung Fu Maintenance~~~~~~~~~~~

May

2011

Make Them Run ~ When Ants Attack

Here is a quick attack back technique when you need to stem the tide of attacking ants to make a repair. This strategy works well for making a repair in a situation where there are ants and a repair needs to happen before pest control or other final methods of wiping out the hoard can be employed.

I have been bitten a few times as you can see in my photos here. On this particular occasion I was bitten by black ants. The little raised red swellings and itching took awhile to go away. The feeling stretched further then the bite itself. I could feel a tingling sensation in my skin and blood stream around the bite for the three to five days it took to heal.

Have you ever been bitten by ants?

Ants are pretty unique bugs, man do they work hard. They are dedicated and dependent on their community. Have you ever seen a trail of ants following each other on the ground and swiped your finger on the ground across the path and watched the followers wander around blindly? Ants follow each other thru pheromones which is similar to a sense of smell. Your finger swipe leaves its own pheromones and disorients the ants trail. Ants don’t depend on vision to follow each other across the field. They depend on the pheromone trail.

I suppose that is enough of the entomology lesson so on with the technique. Just spray the area and vicinity you need to make the repair in with window cleaner (a little dish soap mixed with water most times works also). Wait five minutes or whatever it takes (there are I imagine some more defiant species so by all means re-spray as needed) and make your repair. Most window cleaners will have a melting and dissolving affect on the ants and will melt or eat thru their exoskeletons. The buggers won’t like that and will scatter for cover. This also works great as a temporary block. They don’t like it so much that creating a barrier with window cleaner will often keep them away for several days.

Due to the adverse affects of pesticides (Life forms die). Most states and governments require people to obtain special licenses to spray pesticides in someone else’s dwelling or temporary quarters. Most states and governments require you to have the necessary pesticide license for the particular pesticides obtained thru proper training and testing. Window cleaner is a great way to let people either temporarily treat their own place or for service individuals to temporarily block a nasty situation until more permanent pest control can be arranged.

This app works great for sprinkler repairs or installs. It also works great for changing ground lights whether fixtures or bulbs (of course turn off the breaker first). It is much preferred then using a pesticide because you won’t have to get pesticides all over your hands before breakfast, lunch, or dinner. You score bonus points if you bring a rag so you can clean the light lens cover while you’re there.

~~~~Fight to win~~~

~~~~~~~~~ Kung Fu Maintenance~~~~