Forced to DIY

Six kids and one modest income equals plenty of DIY around here - house, car, stereo, appliances, furnishings, jewelry...you name it.  I’ve done so much DIY for so long, it’s seems strange to hire someone while I stand there and watch while they fix my stuff. 🙄😉  Garage door springs can get you killed, so I tend to shy away from those, but anything else that I can fix, I do.  A large portion of my sound system is DIY or modified.  Turns out its good to know how your stuff works. 😎

Hiring a plumber is admitting ignorance. One company I worked for got picketed by the plumbers union. Guess they had nothing better to do. 

Been doing DIY my whole life, much of it just to save money. And I have saved money, lots. But, once in a while, my lack of experience in a certain area or other of doing so, bites me in the ass.

But, I learned a lot, and I have system I am very proud of, and enjoy every day without fail.

Sorry, I've got to get busy I just this morning received a Hypex DIY UCD 400 stereo amp kit I have to assemble. My 3C24 amp is going in for some work, so I thought I'd try a Hypex on for size while I'm waiting for my 3C24 amp to come back.

Regards, later,

Dan

Being an ME vs EE I stay away from complex electrical repairs, but had to replace 3 or 4 push button on/off switches on a CJ MV-75 amplifier. It was pretty simple, even if soldering multiple wires to a terminal got involved a few times.

Considering the cost of mailing that hunk of metal off and waiting, waiting for it’s return more than made up for the hassle.

I do almost all my own repair work around the house and in the yard, including stereo, guitars, and amps. In the process I've built up a pretty good collection of tools and the skills to use them. And in those cases where something is either above my skill set or beyond my physical ability, I have a pretty good idea of what's actually involved and what it should cost. Case in point, the 6-year old LG washer in our Hawaii vacation rental house recently packed in the drain pump.

Being an LG, it diagnosed itself, and parts were readily available from Sears or Amazon. But, it is a front loader in a stack, and my days of being able to deadlift large appliances are long gone. So we decided to replace the unit and sell the repaired old one. Replacement was no issue, just two strong guys with the right straps to lift and separate, swap in the new unit, and restack. About 45 minutes total. I called Sears Appliance repair to do the pump swap, just in case there were other problems, like a solenoid valve (possible) or controller board (unlikely). I figured about $20 for the labor and the part was on Sears website for $41.30. the price quote I got was over $300 in labor and almost $150 for the pump. Showing them the part on their own website for a fraction of their price didn't matter, they were going to charge what ever they wanted, couldn't guarantee they delivery time, wouldn't warranty parts they didn't sel. blah, blah, blah. So I got the part from Amazon Prime for $35, delivered to Hawaii in the usual 6 days, got the replacement instructions from the University of YouTube, and now a very happy woman has her first washing machine in Hawaii. 

I also have a Fishman Artist Acoustic Guitar amp with a noisy mic input. In this case finding a repair shop was near impossible, so I'm taking it upon myself to fix it. Sure enough, YouTube has a video for fixing that exact problem in the same channel. Soldering iron on standby, awaiting the part.

My APT Holman preamp upgrade? Nah, let a pro do that.

So, yeah, DIY if you can, outsource it if you can't.