- 5 hours ago
Before you throw away a mower, coat, chair, or garden tool, find out which part actually failed. Elias Yoder shares 15 practical repair tips drawn from decades of hands-on experience, including clearing a clogged carburetor jet, tightening a loose pruner pivot, replacing a hose fitting, fixing stripped screw holes, and restoring a wobbly wooden chair.
This practical home repair and DIY maintenance guide explains how to troubleshoot common household and garden equipment, save useful items, and recognize when a repair is unsafe or not worth the cost. Explore simple tool repairs, leather and fabric fixes, small-engine troubleshooting, and traditional repair skills for beginners looking to spend less and waste less.
This practical home repair and DIY maintenance guide explains how to troubleshoot common household and garden equipment, save useful items, and recognize when a repair is unsafe or not worth the cost. Explore simple tool repairs, leather and fabric fixes, small-engine troubleshooting, and traditional repair skills for beginners looking to spend less and waste less.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00There is a mower sitting in somebody's garage right now that will not start, and it is going
00:05to the dump this spring. There is a coat in a closet with a zipper that will not close,
00:11and it is a good coat. There is a wooden chair in a shed with a wobble in it, and
00:17a pair of boots
00:18by a back door with the soles gone, and a garden hose coiled up with a split fitting on the
00:24end,
00:24and every one of those things is going in a skip. I am Elias Yoder, and I have not thrown
00:32any of those
00:32things away in forty years. Not because I am thrifty, though I am, because almost none of them
00:40were broken. That is the part I want you to sit with. We have got into the habit of saying
00:47a thing
00:47is worn out, and we almost never mean it. A mower that will not start is not worn out. It
00:55has a
00:55passage in it the width of a pin that is blocked. A coat with a bad zipper is not worn
01:01out. It has
01:03a stamped piece of metal the size of your thumbnail that has spread open. A wobbly chair is not worn
01:10out. It has a quarter inch of old glue in a joint. My grandfather would not let me say the
01:17word
01:17broken in his shop. If I came in with something and told him it was broken, he would hand it
01:24back
01:24and send me out again, and I was not allowed to come back until I could tell him which part
01:30had
01:30stopped working. Not what, which part. Almost nothing is worn out. One part of it is worn out.
01:40I gathered the whole of it into a book at EliasYoder.com. The book is the long version.
01:47If you want it, it is there. I will not mention it again. And he was not teaching me to
01:54be clever.
01:54He was teaching me to look. Because the moment you can name the part, the job stops being a repair
02:01and turns into a swap. And a swap is usually a few dollars and twenty minutes. It is the not
02:09knowing that makes people buy a new one. So here are fifteen of them. These are the things that come
02:17across my bench most often, and the ones where the gap between what people think is wrong and what is
02:23actually wrong is the widest. One. A small engine that will not start. This is the big one, and I
02:32will say
02:33plainly that we are not wired to the power company here, but there are gasoline engines on this place
02:39running a pump and a saw, and they want the same care as yours. Nine times in ten, a mower
02:47or a tiller
02:47that will not start has nothing wrong with the engine. It has stale fuel. Petrol with ethanol in
02:56it goes off in about a month, and what it leaves behind in the carburetor is a varnish that blocks
03:01the main jet, and the jet is a hole the width of a pin. So, drain the old fuel out,
03:09take the bowl
03:10off the bottom of the carburetor, clean the bowl, clean the jet through with a strand of wire and some
03:16carburetor cleaner, put a new spark plug in it because they cost very little, and fill it with fresh fuel.
03:23That is the whole job, and it brings back most of the mowers in this county. And if it still
03:30will
03:30not go after that, work in this order so you are not guessing. Is there fuel actually reaching the
03:38bowl? Is there a spark at the plug when you pull it? And is the air filter so packed with
03:44dust that
03:45the engine cannot breathe? Fuel, spark, air. Those three, in that order, find nearly everything else,
03:55and none of them asks anything of you but looking. The way you avoid the whole business next year is
04:02to
04:02not leave fuel sitting in it over the winter. Run the tank dry before you put a machine away for
04:09the
04:09season, or put a stabilizer in the fuel if you would rather not. The machines that come to me in
04:15spring
04:15are the ones that were parked in autumn with half a tank in them.
04:20Two. An axe or a hammer with a loose head. Now, you will be told to stand it in a
04:27bucket of water
04:28overnight, and I want you to hear me on this one. Do not. It swells the wood for about a
04:36week,
04:36the head feels tight, and then it dries back smaller than it started, and the grain has been
04:42damaged. You have bought a week and paid for it with the handle. The real fix is the wedge. The
04:50top
04:50of the handle has a saw cut in it with a wooden wedge driven down into it, and that wedge
04:55has shrunk
04:56or backed out. Drive it down again, or cut a new one from hardwood and drive that, and add a
05:03small
05:03steel cross wedge across it. Five minutes. Three. A handle snapped clean off. People put the whole tool
05:11out for this, and it is the easiest job on the list. Saw the stub off flush with the top
05:17of the head,
05:18drill two or three holes down through what is left, and drive the remainder out from the top with a
05:23punch.
05:24Then hang a new handle, wedge it as I just described, and let the head sit low enough that it
05:30is seated
05:30properly. A new handle is a few dollars. A new axe is not. Four. Shears, loppers, or pruners that have
05:39stopped cutting. Everybody reaches for a stone or a file. Check the pivot bolt first. When that bolt
05:47goes loose, the two blades stop passing close against each other, and instead of shearing, they fold the
05:53stem over and crush it. It feels exactly like dullness, and it is not. Tighten the pivot until the blades
06:00just drag against one another, then test it. Half the shears I am handed need nothing else at all.
06:07Five. A file you think has gone dull. Files very rarely go dull in a home shop. They clog. Soft
06:15metal
06:16and dirt pack into the teeth, and the file skates across the work instead of biting. Get a file card,
06:22which is a flat wire brush made for this, and clean it out along the line of the teeth, and
06:28rub chalk across a
06:29clean file before you use it, because that keeps the shavings from packing in. A file you thought
06:35was finished will cut like new. Six. A zipper that will not close, or closes and then opens behind
06:42itself. The teeth are almost never the problem. The slider is. It is a stamped piece of metal, and over
06:49years it spreads apart a fraction, and once it is wide enough, the teeth pass through without locking.
06:55Take a pair of pliers and squeeze the slider gently from both flat sides, a little at a time, testing
07:02between squeezes. If it has gone too far, a new slider is a very small amount of money, and goes
07:08on in a
07:09few minutes. A coat is not scrap because of a part that size. Seven. Boots with the soles gone. This
07:17one
07:17is a buying decision as much as a repair, and it is worth knowing before you spend money rather than
07:23after.
07:24Turn the boot over, and look at where the sole meets the upper. If you can see a line of
07:29stitching
07:29running around it, that boot is welted, and a cobbler can take the sole off and put a new one
07:35on,
07:35and he can do it more than once. If there is no stitching, and the sole is simply glued on,
07:41it is a cemented boot, and in most cases that is the end of it. So a welted boot at
07:47twice the price
07:48is often a quarter of the cost over ten years, and the arithmetic on that is worth doing out loud,
07:54because people assume a resole is extravagant. A resole costs a good deal less than the boot did,
08:01and a welted boot will take two or three of them before the uppers give out. A cemented boot is
08:06one
08:07life, and then it is gone, however good it looked in the shop. That is the difference between buying
08:13boots four times in 15 years, and buying them once. 8. Leather that has gone dry and cracked. A belt,
08:21a boot, a bag, a strap, a piece of harness. Leather does not die of age, it dies of thirst.
08:29Warm a little Neatsfoot oil, or a proper leather conditioner, and work it in with your fingers,
08:35and do several light coats rather than one heavy one, because leather soaked all at once goes limp
08:41and weak. And while I am here, never dry wet leather beside a stove or on a radiator. Heat drives
08:49the last of the oils out, and the fibers shrink, and you will have ruined it faster than the rain
08:54ever
08:54could. Dry it slowly, at room temperature, then feed it. 9. A tear in leather or heavy canvas.
09:02You do not need a machine. You need two needles and a length of waxed thread, and you do what
09:08is
09:08called a saddle stitch, where both needles pass through the same hole from opposite sides and lock
09:14against each other. The reason to learn it is this. A machine stitch is one thread, and when one stitch
09:20breaks, the whole seam can run. A saddle stitch is two threads locked at every hole, and if one breaks,
09:28the rest stays put. That is why harness is stitched that way, and harness takes more abuse than anything
09:36you own. 10. A garden hose with a leak at the end. The hose has not failed. The fitting has,
09:45and the
09:45fitting is a separate part. Cut the damaged end off square, buy a replacement coupling for a dollar or
09:52two, and clamp or screw it on. I have hoses here older than some of my children, with three new
09:59ends
09:59between them. 11. A tarp with a torn-out grommet. A grommet kit is cheap and takes a minute, and
10:08there
10:08is an older fix that is better than a grommet and costs nothing at all. Put a small, smooth stone,
10:15or a bunched handful of the tarp itself into the corner from behind, gather the material round it,
10:21and tie your rope round the neck below it. That spreads the pull across a handful of material
10:28instead of into one metal ring, and it will hold long after every grommet on the tarp has gone.
10:3512. A wooden chair that has gone wobbly. Everybody does the same thing. They squirt fresh glue down into
10:43the loose joint and clamp it, and in a month it is loose again, and they decide the chair is
10:49finished.
10:50Here is why it failed. New glue will not stick to old glue. It has to come off. So knock
10:58the joint
10:59apart properly, scrape and sand the old glue off both the peg and the hole until you are down to
11:06clean
11:06wood, and then glue it. Done that way, the joint outlasts the rest of the chair.
11:13Two things make the difference between a repair that holds and one that does not. Scrape until you can
11:20see clean, dry wood on both the peg and the inside of the hole because a film of old glue
11:26you can barely
11:27see is enough to stop the new glue reaching the timber. And clamp it or tie a rope round the
11:34legs
11:35and twist a stick in it to draw the joint up tight and leave it alone overnight. A joint that
11:41is only
11:42pushed together by hand will come apart again, and you will blame the glue.
11:4813. A screw hole that is stripped out in wood. A hinge on a gate, a door, a drawer runner,
11:56a cupboard.
11:57Do not reach for a fatter screw, because all that does is chew the hole wider and buy you six
12:04months.
12:05Clean the hole out, glue a dowel into it or a few wooden matchsticks or a golf tee, and break
12:12it off flush.
12:14Let it set properly. Then drill a fresh pilot hole and put the original screw back.
12:21That hole is now stronger than the one the factory made.
12:2514. Rope with the end frayed open. Everybody tapes it or melts it with a lighter.
12:33Tape peels, and a melted end goes brittle and cracks off. What you want is a whipping,
12:39which is binding the end tight with waxed twine for about an inch, each turn hard against the last,
12:46and the two ends of the twine buried under the turns. It takes two minutes to learn,
12:52and the whipping will outlast the rope. 15. A wheelbarrow or mower tire that will not hold air.
13:00Before you buy a wheel, pump it up and brush soapy water over it and watch. If the bubbles come
13:07up
13:07round the base of the valve, the valve stem has perished, and that part costs almost nothing. If they
13:14come through the tire itself, a tube put inside it is usually cheaper than the wheel. And if it is
13:21a
13:21barrow you mean to keep for 20 years, a solid, foam-filled wheel never goes flat again and is the
13:28last one you will buy. And check the simplest thing before any of that. A great many flat barrow tires
13:36are flat because nobody has put air in them for three years, and they will come straight back up and
13:43hold perfectly well. It costs you a minute to find out. Now I have to give you the other side
13:50of this,
13:50because a man who tells you everything can be fixed is not being straight with you,
13:55and some of what I am about to say is a safety matter rather than a money one.
14:01Do not repair an extension cord with tape. I have said that on this channel before, and I will keep
14:08saying it. A damaged cord gets cut up and thrown out. Do not repair a ladder. Not a split rail,
14:16not a cracked rung, not a bent stile. Ladders fail all at once and from a height. Do not repair
14:23anything
14:24that carries a person or a load above a person. A sling, a strap, a hoist, a rope you are
14:31going to put
14:31weight under. If you cannot see the whole of what is inside it, you do not know what is left
14:37of it.
14:38Do not repair a gas line or a pressure vessel. That is a trade and a certificate, not a Saturday.
14:46And then there are the things that are not dangerous, just not worth your evening. Sealed
14:52bearings. A cemented boot, as I said. Anything where the one part you need is priced at three-quarters of
15:00a
15:00whole new one, which happens more than it used to. Knowing when to stop is part of the skill,
15:06and there is no shame in it. And since I have raised the price of parts, let me say who
15:12gains
15:13from all of this, because it is worth understanding and it is not what people assume. Nobody sat in a
15:20room and decided you should not be able to fix things. What happened is quieter than that. A part
15:27priced at 80% of the whole item makes the whole item an easy sell. A sealed unit is cheaper
15:34to make
15:35than one with screws in it. And the small engine shop that will not look at your mower is not
15:41being
15:41difficult. He is doing arithmetic, because an hour of a man's time against a machine worth $60 does not
15:50work, and he has a family too. Every one of those is a reasonable decision by somebody. Put them
15:57together, and the result is a world where repair looks impossible, and not one person had to intend
16:05it. That is worse than a conspiracy, because a conspiracy can be exposed, and this cannot. It is just a
16:14lot of sensible arithmetic pointing the same way. What it costs you is not only money. It is the
16:21knowing. My grandfather could name the part because he had been made to name the part since he was seven
16:28years old, and once a man can do that, nothing in his house has any power over him. I understand
16:36now
16:36what he was really doing, and it was not about tools at all. A child who is handed something and
16:43told it is broken learns that the world is full of sealed boxes that other people understand. A child
16:51who is sent back out and made to find the one part that stopped learns the opposite, which is that
16:58everything is made of parts, and parts are findable, and a thing that was put together by somebody can be
17:05understood by somebody else. He was not teaching me to save money on hammers. He was teaching me not to
17:13be afraid of objects, and I have watched that hold true far outside the shop in every job I have
17:20ever
17:20had to learn, because the question is always the same question. Not is this beyond me? Which part of
17:28it stopped? And I will tell you the strangest thing about every job on that list. Not one of them
17:36is
17:36difficult. There is not a single item up there that needs a skill you could not pick up in an
17:42afternoon.
17:43What they need is for somebody to have told you where to look, and that is the whole of what
17:49has gone
17:50missing. It is not that we got worse with our hands. It is that we stopped being told which part
17:57to look at,
17:58and a man who does not know where to look very reasonably concludes that the thing is beyond him.
18:05Almost nothing is worn out. One part of it is worn out. So go out to the shed or the
18:13garage or the back of
18:14the closet and find the thing you have been meaning to get rid of, and before it goes, spend 10
18:20minutes
18:21finding out which part of it actually stopped working. You may not fix it, but you will know,
18:28and knowing is most of it. Then come down to the comments and tell me the last thing you threw
18:36away
18:36that you now think you could have saved. I want to hear it, and somebody reading will be about to
18:42throw away the same thing. And tell me how far you are from the nearest shop that would still take
18:49on a
18:50small repair job. Not a dealership. A man who would look at a mower, or resole a boot, or put
18:57a zipper in.
18:58I have a feeling the answers are going to tell us something. Next time, I am finally going to do
19:04the axe
19:05and the scythe, because I have put that one off longer than anything else I have promised you,
19:11and today we talked about hanging a handle without ever getting to the edge on the end of it.
19:18Thank you for sitting with me. Go and find out which part it was. The people who built this country
19:25with their hands knew that, and we are only just starting to remember it.