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I'm knackered!

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  • I'm knackered!

    On Saturday, I decide to replace the seat/lid of a toilet in one of our en-suite bathrooms, because the plastic hinge assembly had broken.

    An examination showed the old assembly was held in by two 8 cm steel studs in an inaccessible place round the back with ~60 cm free space to the left and 45 cm to the right. The studs were badly rusted and the little force I could exert on the thumb-nuts (nylon), even with tools, were insufficient. Aha! thinks I! WD-40! half-a dozen generous sprays later had, as only effect, to asphyxiate me. No way could I budge those nuts. Plan B: try to demolish the plastic hinge heads without cracking the ceramic or glaze. I don't know what kind of plastic it was, I suspect a TiO2-loaded polyamide, but it was tough. Eventually, I created enough space to allow a hacksaw blade in, but I had only about 2 cm of movement and, after considerable effort an time, I cut through the top of the stud. Repeat other side.

    After cleaning round the holes, time to fix the new seat/lid. The pitch for this was adjustable, but I had to keep trying it in position, removing it, adjusting it, until the two hinges were the right distance apart and symmetrical. OK, from there on, it should have been plain sailing, tightening the nylon thumb-nuts up about 8 cm of studs. Unfortunately, the nuts were very tight on the threaded studs and space was tight, about 3 or 4 cm all around on 3 sides. It was hard work.

    To make things worse, it was 34°C in the bathroom (38°C outside, so opening the window would have been pointless). I was working in a T-shirt and boxer underwear, doubled up to gain access most of the time. To say I sweated was the understatement of the year. 3½ hours of purgatory to do a 10 minute job, if only the maker of the cluggy had the sense to foresee that such changes could be necessary and to design it accordingly, using rust-free metal parts.

    Never was a long, cool, shower, followed by a litre of mineral water so welcome after that! My back is still suffering!
    Brian (the devil incarnate)

  • #2
    Next time you might want to hire some of VJs people and get it done in a jiffy!
    Join MURCs Distributed Computing effort for Rosetta@Home and help fight Alzheimers, Cancer, Mad Cow disease and rising oil prices.
    [...]the pervading principle and abiding test of good breeding is the requirement of a substantial and patent waste of time. - Veblen

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    • #3
      Three times!
      pixar
      Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die tomorrow. (James Dean)

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      • #4
        No Polish plumbers in this country - wages too low!
        Brian (the devil incarnate)

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        • #5
          I feel for you Brian, I've been there. It's like toilet designers are a special breed with an extra joint near their wrists and super human strength in their hands, but without the brains to understand that the studs will need removing one day.
          FT.

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