Not all tools are worth putting the time and expense to repair. These days with all the Crap coming out of china the strategy is to just trash the tool and buy another.

Some times tools are worth fixing. As a fixit website it’s our motive to show the good, the bad, and the ulgy.

lets explore an example.
Out categories are growing but we like the 15 minute fix the best. To show how to bring an item back into service quickly is a great achievement. Sometimes it’s just a firmware update or software setting. Sometimes it’s just an adjustment. Putting this information out in one location is our plan.

Here is a perfect example:
Tools are important and quality brands are the best, it shows professionalism when you have quality and take care of them.
This is a ratchet set. 3/8 and 1/4 in Mac tools. I love the brand, having been a professional mechanic these are premium

Problem: Mac tools gives lifetime warranty but only to registered tools or receipt. At this point it’s a cost for parts and time. Luckly we found a supplier and the cost was fair

Ok parts on order, repair to come

Read our post on corrosion to help maintain your tools
https://fixitfl.us/understanding-corrosion-and-dis-similar-metals/

Sometimes it’s not easy to find parts

The initial attempt was a failure, well kinda. Two ratchets, Two repair kits, Two wrong parts!
If there was a win it was with the 3/8 ratchet. After disassembly and lubrication it was returned to service. On the parts issue, the ratchets have a part number, the parts ordered for the ratchet part number but the received parts were wrong.
It turns out there are fine tooth and regular. Mine are regular spaced teeth and the new parts were fine. The parts kits were all together wrong, the part quantity and pieces different.

The mission will continue

My next attempt will be to find a MAC truck and see if a deal can be made on a parts kit. One thing to consider is there is a breaking point on costs, the tool really doesn’t have a lot of value, so many replacements available used it’s not worth more than 10 bucks for parts and i’m into this 5 now.

at this point it’s more about trying to revive a great tool and not just disposing it. Plus the benefit of having this post illustrate the internals of this specific tools

(right click and open in new tab for better view)

Today I got a rack mount strip with some impressive text on the cover. Line conditioner.
ok so I paid 2 bucks, I figured the heavy ducy courd could be used on another tool repair if all else

So of course i have to look inside to see what design was used for conditioning, anyway, that’s not whats inside. Like most its a bank of outlets, connected to a fuse breaker, then a power button.

It works, it’s in great condition and it rack mounts so heck, but what about the sucker that paid a premium for conditioned power, Not sure about that

One thing about tradesmen sentimentality runs deep. You will find a lot of old pros have tools from the very beginning. this is an example of something that kills good quality tools early in their useful term

I realize now a days things are just disposable, or its not worth fixing but i like to make examples o how this doesn’t have to be

Just this week i ran across a deal where there were 2 4in angle grinders for 30 bucks. now that’s a great price when the tools are a good brand, then again brand quality can be suspect also these days.

Here is my fixit for the day. I have a Milwaukee 4in grinder I have had over 20 years and it still kicks butt but the electrical cord broke down You see it all the time, the casing degrades and falls apart, the general repair is electrical tape till the complete cord is all tape. problem is the shielding on the wire is usually degraded also and the two wires short

Being the kinda guy that cuts cords I always have a spare, this one coming off a relatively new shop vac, a brown model that smoked it’s self out before 1 year, but the cord was nice, long and clean. I just couldn’t justify repairing the vac, it was obvious the china factory quality control was lacking.

This china manufactured crap shop tools is going to turn around, tradesmen don’t buy garbage tools and the china manufacturing of stolen intellectual property is coming to an end.

Tools are an investment

Wires are not to hard to figure out. Black and White here. Black being hot in most instances. If they are different probe the wires to the plug. You should know the two terminals are the larger being the neutral.

If you don’t know this now would be a good time to look up wiring an electrical outlet in your home.

I have been wanting to try these connectors, they have a solder ring that melts the two wires together

My first attempt thinking a lighter might work kinda failed, I think i set the shrink casing on fire. I continued and used a hot air gun, worked, and the connector was small so not to take up alot of room on reassembly. all in all about 15 minutes and i have a brand new cord

I sometimes purchase knock-off batteries, when they stop working I wish I had purchased batter quality but lets see what’s inside this cheapie.

7.2 volt total, the battery was not old it just didn’t want to work. Both batteries removed charge to full capacity

I love when I come across purchases of dumb stuff made in china. Of course this was in the BIN

Disassembly soon to follow

Here is the break down. 2 brand new 18650 batteries with a charging system. 2 fans with cages that can be modified to be pretty good directional cooleing running off 3.7 volts

The batteries for technical referance are 1200mAh 4.44Wh this information for the forumla.localad.com info on LiPo batteries

The misson is to repair the manifold so a air valve can be installed to be able to fill the tank.

The casting on the tank broke off eliminating the air valve

purchased a air valve for a couple bucks, determined the thread count to be 18

Drilled hole per tap instructions (7/16) Although this thread od is almost 1/2 inch it’s called 1/4 pipe thread. I’ll
provide the tap chart for referance

Adding a air guage would just top off this great repair. Not! Tightening the air valve the mainfold again fell apart. At this point the manifold is deemed unreliable and tossed in the recycle bin

Back to the Basics. All I really wanted to do is not have to haul out my compressor to air a distant tire

Label printers are pretty common in the trash these days. It’s either they are just out of film or the batteries are dead.
this one actually had a broken battery terminal, the battery unable to make contact with the lead end because it
was pushed back inside the machine. A little JB weld will hold things together, probably stronger than the orignal design. Time to print some labels, this thing even had new batteries. about an 11 minute fix because i had to find the glue.

My flea market find, 1 dollar bin. I thought i had this until i opened one of the outlet doors and there it was.
The defect that rendered it to the china bin.

Perfect 15min fix project (5min needs update)

Disassembly reveals a pretty good quality, simple design. And great condition!
The defect obliviously from running to much current, melted the case but inspecting inside looked fine

The timing mechanism simple and functional, the overall condition good or better. Reassembled and put it out in the garden.