Paphos People

MISTER FIX-IT AND HOW IT CAN GO WRONG FOR YOU

When I left school in the mid sixties I entered into a five year engineering apprenticeship to eventually become a Toolmaker. This involved making devices (tools) to manufacture components in mechanical presses. Ranging from five hundredweight hand operated ‘fly’ presses to the huge Hydraulic two hundred ton deep drawing presses. It was very precise work and we had to be proficient in all of the skills required to manufacture the tooling required. All in all it is a very skilled job and we all developed a frame of mind to apply engineering principals to every aspect of life.

I went through motorbikes, then cars mostly old bangers, changing or rebuilding engines or gearboxes as required. I had to do it myself because the wages were very poor for an apprentice so paying somebody to do it for you was out of the question.

Life changes and career changes came into effect and twelve years later I launched myself into the removals and transport industry. The chance to be out and about, meeting new people and never knowing where the job would take you was very attractive proposition. Compared with eight until four in the factory every day ending up like all the old guys. At the end of which, if you stuck it out, maybe you would get a gold plated watch!

The challenge of how to actually move items of furniture, how to load a lorry safely and getting the mileage and pricing right was all dealt with by applying the engineering principal which was instilled in my head. This combined with seeing the country first hand was a great way to earn a living.

Mechanical breakdowns on the lorries could more often than not be fixed on the side of the road, utilising a piece of wire from a farmer’s fence or ‘modifying’ the broken unit to get you home. These things were all part of the excitement of being in control of your own destiny.

Home DIY was the same, painting wallpapering, building work, alterations all dealt with by applying that matter of fact knowledge I learnt from my apprenticeship. The building works which I carried out were very often stronger than the original, probably over-engineered!

Appliances washing machines etc. were always breaking down and if out of guarantee I would strip them down, find the problem, or part needed, replace or repair the fault. No cost to me and it kept the wife happy.

All this leads me to the saga of the vacuum cleaner. One day my wife declared that the hoover was broken. Indeed the foot operated on/off switch was not working. Taking it out to the shed I dismantled it. Locating the switch I found that the plastic housing had cracked and the switch was not secured. Within an hour I had made a steel bracket and drilled the plastic around it for two screws securing the switch back into the machine.

Proudly carrying it back into the house, I demonstrated the now working unit to my wife. She didn’t seem too impressed I can’t think why.
The following week the plastic handle of the vacuum cleaner broke off, this time it was me who was using it.
“Oh dear” said my wife with a self satisfied smile “that’s that then”
“No problem, I can soon fi....” I started to say but she held up her hand.
“I swear that if you fix that thing again I’ll shove it where the sun don’t shine. We’ve had it for eleven years. For God’s sake let’s get a new one!!”

So against my better judgement of we went to the shops, looking at all the different models available and the best prices. We came home a couple of hours later with an up to the minute state of the art Bosch 370 GTX super suction bag-less vacuum cleaner and minus one hundred and sixty five Euros. But more importantly with a reasonably happy wife!

(Later that day I took the old cleaner into the shed and repaired it, I just can’t help it sorry!)

I have always been a mr fixit , with people going on about recycling and upcycling as thought its a new and modern thing it recently occurred to me ive been doing it all my life !