Getting Handy in 2013 - Man Skills

[outragous76]

Flat pack furniture disassemble

 . Gl with that!

 

[outragous76]

Changing a tyre :

OK - this is the bones - each car will be slightly different


Firstly - locate your spare wheel - if in the boot - this is usually just secured with a plastic screw bolt - unscrew and lift out - jack and wheelbrace will either be in or under the wheel or located elsewhere in boot  - see manual. Also see manual for how to use and where to prop the jack - THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT

If the wheel is under the car in a cradle, the nut to release the cradle will be in the boot and the nut is released using the wheel brace.

Note: - many cars have space savers nowadays which is basically a thin steel wheel - usually red in colour - this is only sufficient to get you home really - go straight to a garage afterwards.


So we need:

Spare wheel
Locking wheel nut fitting (if you have them)
Wheel brace
Jack
Real man strength (possibly optional)
4 arms (or another person is helpful)
grease (if doing at home)


whilst the car is still on the ground - "crack open" the wheel nuts - (that is take the strain off them but dont wind all the way out). If there are 4 nuts, you should do this in a "crossed order", so for example do 12 o'clock, 6 o'clock, 3 o'clock 9 o'clock. Use this throughout the exercise when loosening and tightening nuts.

Now ensure the hand break is on and the car is in gear.

now place the jack and lift the flat tyre wheel off the ground. IT IS REALLY IMPORTANT YOU GET THE POSITONING RIGHT. Follow your car manual. This is for 2 reasons, firstly so not to damage the car, secondly, so that it is stable when you lift off ground

Once jacked up, take the wheel brace and unscrew all nuts (if you have a locking wheel nut, you will need the adaptor to slot into your wheel brace to take this nut out). Leave the 6' o'clock nut till last. this will hold the wheel on the car. When taking this nut out, try and hold the wheel on with your foot (or if you have another person ask them to do it). You will see what I mean when you are unscrewing the last nut.  - lift wheel off and set aside. (having re-read that - Ive made it sound easier than it is in practice (if on your own). This is all fiddly but be persistant.

Take new wheel and lift into place. WHEELS ARE HEAVY AND THIS IS A PAIN IN THE ASS TO GET IT ON AND HOLD IT THERE WHILST LINING UP THE HOLES. be patient.

If you have 4 hands at this point your life is easy, if not your foot to hold the wheel in place (at the bottom) and you mouth to hold a nut will suffice

Get one nut in (12 o'clock if you can), then try and get the others in (just turn a  few turns at first by hand to hold wheel in place). Tighten all of the nuts using the "crossed" method described above. Once you think they are tight, go back and check them again.

Now release the jack and give the wheel nuts a final tweak, hand tight is sufficient thou, no need to stand on the wheelbrace.

Leave the damaged wheel in the boot as you will need to get the tyre replaced asap anyway. Also get the garage to check the balancing on the wheel you have just fitted.

[Laxie]

Flat pack furniture disassemble

 . Gl with that!

 

I'm with him.  Pleeeeeeeeeeease don't try to disassemble flat pack furniture if you ever intend to use the furniture again.  Once flat pack is put together, that's it...don't mess with it.

[DaveShoelace]

Very best of luck to you from a fellow member of the illiterati.

I play in a pool league with a group of lads who are all labourers, sparkies, gas engineers and so on. They find it hilarious/unbelievable that I can't wire a plug or fit a fuse.

Apparently "it wasn't part of my degree" isn't a defence.

They turn, incredulously and in a state of bewinderment, to me and say "all you need to do is..." and then there is some sort of noise after that, with hand gestures, something about flux capacitors or cam shafts or two-be-fours, before "and that's it!"

I nod as though I had the faintest clue what they just said.

At least when I explained Pythagoras' Theorem to them the other week I did it using beermats and actually made it make sense.

Unless they were doing what I did...

Anyway, am now subscribed and am looking forward to an education.

Actually funny you mention it, one of my proudest moments came last year. I've only had a couple of car problems and one of them was leaking power steering fluid. Last year I went on a stag do with about 15 mechanics and my mates car started making a funny scrapey noise. All of them took a look at it and couldn't work it out, I casually mentioned 'sounds like leaking power steering fluid to me' which it was. I felt like a badass.

Shame I have somehow forgotten how to parallel park, which they all witnessed.  

[DaveShoelace]

Flat pack furniture disassemble

 . Gl with that!

 

I'm with him.  Pleeeeeeeeeeease don't try to disassemble flat pack furniture if you ever intend to use the furniture again.  Once flat pack is put together, that's it...don't mess with it.

ok, thats one for 2014 perhaps.

[TightEnd]

I have an outside overflow pipe leaking (out of the bathroom) intermittently.

I think this is a stopcock in the toilet cistern that needs replacing?

I refuse to call a plumber, but I don't want to appear stupid in a hardware shop

Help

[outragous76]

I have an outside overflow pipe leaking (out of the bathroom) intermittently.

I think this is a stopcock in the toilet cistern that needs replacing?

I refuse to call a plumber, but I don't want to appear stupid in a hardware shop

Help

This should be easy enough, might not require replacing yet.

When dealing with a cistern, be gentle, the plastic degrades and can snap easily - so featherlite touches please!

NO tools required - (maybe a screw driver)

OK  - remove the cistern lid. If you have  a flush handle, the lid will just lift off, if you have a fancy "recessed dual flush", you need to unscrew this out first (just twist the outer ring by hand and you will feel it wind out). Lift out, set aside and remove lid.

So we can now see inside the cistern. The floating plastic ball is what tells you cistern when to stop filling. If it doesn't stop in time then the cistern will overflow. However this ball is attached to an arm, and the other end of this arm is a "screw and nut arrangement" - which if you look at closely (you can move the arm up and down to see how it works, this is just an adjustable "stop" point.

So all you need to do here is screw the plastic nut adjuster so that it stops the arm just a little bit sooner than it currently does (if this is still there is usually a little slit for a screw driver to twist the threaded bit). No need to adjust it too far otherwise you will limit the water going into the cistern and have trouble shifting those "sunday morning" episodes!

So simply adjust the nut to limit the arm - this will just be trial and error - but should solve the problem. But remember go easy on the fittings.

I can talk you through replacing the whole cistern diaphragm but that shouldn't be necessary quite yet

[kinboshi]

OK  - remove the cistern lid. If you have  a flush handle, the lid will just lift off, if you have a fancy "recessed dual flush", you need to unscrew this out first (just twist the outer ring by hand and you will feel it wind out). Lift out, set aside and remove lid.

On some (Standard I think), it doesn't just unscrew out - you need to pop-out the flush buttons using a flat screwdriver to get to a screw that needs to be removed before you can take the cistern lid off.

[Sheriff Fatman]

I'm not one for New Years Resolutions, but last year I set myself a target to get financially literate in 2012. I'm pleased to say I managed it (IMO) and I now know my ISAs from my elbow and all that. I consider myself very good with money now, I'm pretty much in the top 3 best buy for bank accounts, bills, savings, ISAs etc etc

Anyhoo now that that leak in life is plugged I have a new, much bigger aim for 2013 - to get 'handy'.

I amaze myself how I have survived the last 33 years barely able to change a lightbulb. I think I'm probably of the first generation where these 'man skills' are not mandatory in life, and I must say it is quite emasculating always having to call someone in for quite basic tasks.

Changing tyres, putting up shelves, bleeding the radiators, flat pack furniture - I can't do any of them.

A few months I managed to fix a blocked toilet, I was so proud of myself I would tell anyone who would listen even though all I was really doing was bragging about the fact I blocked up a toilet.

So my aim for 2013 is not to turn into Handy Andy, but at least put myself in a position where having a crack at it myself first is a viable option. I'm buying my first house early next year so now really seems the time to do it.

So I've started this thread to create some accountability to do it, as well as to hopefully get some advice and most of all to let you all laugh at my incompetence.

It starts today as our shower hose has broke, which seems like a nice easy job to get started.

Would really love to get advice from people who are good at this sort of thing. YouTube seems like a great starting point for learning handy skills. Anyone know any other good resources?

Also thought I might get myself a tool kit - what would everyone say are must have tools for house and car maintenance?

Useful advice from people ITT:
Bleeding a Radiator

I can so identify with this, particularly as my Dad is the polar opposite and can pretty much do everything himself.

I remember him showing me how to change a wheel when I was about 16yo.  About 3 years ago, I drove over a shard of metal which pretty much made the car undriveable within a mile.  I think it took me about 45 minutes to change the wheel, much of this being prevaricating over things and making sure I'd remembered it all.  I can't describe how great I felt to make it back home with the space saver wheel on (despite the nightmare scenario of holding up traffic on a national speed limit road, due to not really wanting to put my skills to the test above the 'max speed' of 30mph that is plastered all over the wheel.  Naturally, the first thing I did back home was phone him to describe events in great detail!

This thread may become required reading, especially if Red-Dog gets involved!

[outragous76]

Sorry to be a party pooper on this (its the professional in me) but is it worth throwing in a disclaimer on page 1?

[DaveShoelace]

Done

[EvilPie]

@ Guy

Isn't the pressure thing with the boiler only applicable if it's a combi boiler?

[byronkincaid]

Locate the pressure guage. This should be set to 1 bar! THATS ONE BAR! Do not over fill!

1.5 imo

[Laxie]

@ Guy

Isn't the pressure thing with the boiler only applicable if it's a combi boiler?

Yep

[EvilPie]

Little tip with the wheel changing thing. Keep a pair of gloves in the boot. It's ridiculously messy!!! I know it's manly to do it bare handed but you really don't want filthy hands on your steering wheel.

I even used to keep a stupidly cheap waterproof overall in the boot before I had run flats. It cost about 4 quid. Never got used but the thought of changing a wheel in the pouring rain on my way to the airport made it worth the effort.

Also if you own either an Audi or a BMW there's a huge chance you'll struggle to get the wheel off once you've undone the nuts. This probably applies to other cars or maybe any car with Alloys I'm not sure. Seen it first hand with Audi and BMW though.

If you get this problem you need to put the nuts back on very loosely. Just enough to stop the wheel coming off.

You then need to slowly lower the jack so that the wheel goes back to the floor and takes some of the weight of the car. Do this really slow. You want to put enough weight on to 'crack' the seal but not all of the weight of the car. This seal isn't meant to be there. It's just where the wheel has fused to the

A stuck wheel can be really dangerous with the crappy jacks you get in your boot. Don't start kicking it to try to move it. The car lowering thing is much safer. Even better if this happens is ring the AA or RAC if you're a member.

The AA advice is pretty good: http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/breakdown_advice/got-a-flat.html

I looked at this after I'd typed my bit out. The something to kneel on bit is great advice.