Many of Us are Handy Guys... But What's the Limit for the DIY?

I suggest you switch to decaf for a week

already did that! Also made made a 1K mile ride on the bike.. but now it´s oil change time!!!!!

Damn !! I hit the "off topic" yes button by mistake. Meant to do a no. Someone who wouldn't otherwise give a good answer to this reply please do me a big favor and hit the "no" button on the rate popup window for me? Thanks in advance ......Ed Weldon

I'm right there with ya' -- it's frustrating as hell.

You really have to get serious in prioritizing the to-do list. I go through my list and re-prioritize items on a fairly regular basis (mostly). If something has been on my list for a long time, I reevaluate it, and sometimes delete it.

The problem only gets more complicated as family and friends figure out that you do better work than the people they hire.

Right! Even friends have asked my to help´em out more than once!

The down side of a good engineering/technical training is that it amplifies your interest and ability to do things but not your time ! You forget that at your peril !

To catch up I´m planning to move into a deep cavern and change my Circadian Rhythm from my current 16hours activity x 8 hours of sleep to 32 x 6! Hope it helps....

Take up king crabbing, and your schedule will be about like that.

when i start making stupid mistakes, i know it's time to take a long break and sleep on it. you're probably too tired to make good deciditions.

I can relate...one of my nicknames amongst good friends and family is WillFixIt.

When the estimates to fix something all seem way too high for time and materials involved, they call me, tell me the grill is hot and the beer is cold and bring my tools.

I grew up on a farm and Dad always fixed everything, never threw away anything that might be needed later and kept things running for a lifetime or more. Depression thinking I always assumed.

What you have to do when trying to find a stopping place with your own stuff, like dirtbikes for instance, is ask yourself, "Does the chain really need to be color coordinated with the tank and fenders?"

I have the feeling you are talking about me!

I have the same problem. I might visit a friend I haven't seen in a while. I know his wife isn't crazy about me. The moment she see's I'm over she says, "I'm SO glad to see you". And I say, "you are"??? "Yes, can you fix my computer"?

Doing isn't being...

My dog keeps telling me that too...

I don't have the luxury of getting rid of my lists. I have terrible memory problems -- I often have to write myself notes about things I'm actively working on.

YES , YES, YES!!!! I also have a won´t do that list!!!!!

Car exhaust / clutch / brakes

Wax ring under the WC (It´s so frustrating!!!! The more you try, the worst it works""")

Plumbing connections (even in PVC) under the kitchen´s sink

I´m 58: so no more work at more than 3 meters (9Ft) height nor lifting heavy stuff (outboards, bags of cement, etc)... but I know this will not make me live longer, cause one day I will succumb to temptation and brake my own rules!

I'll make you a deal. I'll handle your list if you'll come and handle the yard work chores that I absolutely detest.

Hooker

Use two rings. Works perfectly every time.

That's a pretty good list Ed.
Although for the right wood I'd go over 6" on the tree.
Building permit, 'proper' authority to work on gas or electricity in my own home? Sorry what did you say? I didn't hear... that's one advantage of getting older, the hearing goes.
I'm planning to install a new gas boiler next year, I'll do it all myself, but I will get a guy down the road (who is 'qualified') to check it over (Mrs Cat says so).
I'll slip him a few quid, but won't bother paying for certificates and all that bull, I don't see that a certificate ever made anything safer.
Del
(Oh and I don't leap tall buildings at a single bound anymore)

How about a little DIY uranium refinery down around the Four Corners? (Tom Clancy plot line?) Just don't ask me what I been smokin'!

Well, guys, IMHO it's not a question of engineering or any other pro training-it's when the Missus says so! There's a joke running around among us that says that a guy who works like a horse, pulls like a mule and is industrious as a bee probably needs a vet when down!

That's the beauty of learning the difference between knowing and understanding.. it may even be between learning and understanding, or is it the other way around?? Now my priorities are all messed up!

yeah... but where is the fun?

So we're masochists then.

(Sorry to have not responded before now... too many things to fix all of the sudden. )

would a hammer be considered as a technological item?

I've built about a $Billion dollars worth of custom homes (recently devalued by 1/2) in my 40 year work life. They were all drawn by Architects and designed by Engineers so I didn't have to think much.

I don't do surgery on humans...I have done a lot of autopsies on fish, fowl, and edible mammals tho.

Everything else I do myself except automatic transmissions. Manual transmissions are not that hard to rebuild.

For my 60th birthday I designed and built this entirely by myself (on a $1 bet) for a friend, although he paid me well. Had to see if I still had one more left in me.

My list of will-nots is very, very short.

Rider -- That's a real nice looking and practical house. Can you share some of the basic specs and possibly a floorplan? What part of the world did you build it in? Looks like Great Lakes country.

I agree with you on transmissions. But I'd draw the line in front of Japanese manuals. I had a bad experiance with a Mitsubishi 5 speed, vintage 1990's. Seems like every step in the disassembly process required a special puller or tool to access a retaining ring. I finally gave up and bought a junkyard tranny.

Generally the hard part is getting trannies in and out of modern cars. The guiding principle seems to be just design it the way that makes assembling a new car as cheap as possible. And the more time the dealer spends taking a transmission in and out the more $125/hour labor he'll be able to sell. Gets you to wondering about the agreement dealers have with the manufacturers on back charging warranty labor.

By the way, in spite of all the great help you guys have given me, I've given up on trying to make major improvements to the 78 GMC pickup. I've decided to use the use the wisdom you all provided to me in developing an alternate lighter truck that will take the place of both the 78 Jimmie and my everyday driver 2000 Toyota Tacoma pickup. Part of this plan will be a much lighter trailer and a class change for the race car which will hold its weight down. Key to this will be backdating the new vehicle to pre-1977 title which California exempts from smog testing.

Ed Weldon

I rebuilt an automatic transmission on a 1973 Toyota a while back. I bought a rebuild kit and went to work. I had never done this before, so I wasn't sure how it would turn out. I took all the precautions like labeling parts removed and sequence. Parts were designed to go back only one way. Looking back, I couldn't understand why anyone would say auto transmissions are too complex to work on. I don't know about other manufacturers, but the Toyota was a piece of cake. Borrowing an old idiom; "it ain't rocket science". Guys that work on tranmissions are no different from any other mechanic.

Congrats! Nice looking, neat house! When younger I repaired many old cars I owned (Ford A, Ford ´36, a couple of Falcons, Citroen, Dodge, etc) and made most of the maintenance... but promised myself NEVER more to do exhaust manifolds (tired of rusted bolts and nuts!)

It is 11PM and I just finished to do make my wife happy (No, we did not do THAT!) just finished the re-cabling of 3 standing lamps (2 from the living room ant 1 from a little studio). This is another job to be put in the "to avoid list"! Getting the cable trough all the joints and movements the lamps has takes a while... and a lot of patience OMMMMMM

BEWARE, you described me perfectly. I was a workaholic, no kidding. One day I tried to remember all the things I still had to get done. I made a list. It came to three foolscap pages. A week later I came VERY close to a nervous breakdown. Two days after that I left my wife. I am now happily remarried and I only do what really does need to be done.