I repaired a bathroom faucet myself just last week. The handle on the cold-water tap had become a bit loosey goosey, so I took it apart to see what I could do about it. Let me tell you: modern faucets are different. I couldn’t quite figure it out, so I took the big nut off to delve deeper into the problem. Without warning, a geyser of cold water hit me in the face, carrying with it an assortment of O-rings and springs and unidentified plastic doodads. It was like something out of a comic strip! Fortunately, the shut-off valves under the sink were properly installed and functioning. As I said, modern faucets are different. I had to disassemble the perfectly good hot-water tap just to learn how to reassemble the miniature innards that I had, with some effort, managed to locate. It took a little reverse engineering and a lot of trial and error, but I finally got both taps back together and working. If I were that smart, you’d think I’d have known to cut the water off first.
The Natural
By Jimmy Johnson
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40 responses to “The Natural”
You are lucky that the shut-off valve worked. They sit for a ong time and we never use them. Then they get rusted on and stuck.
I always think that the plumbing should know what you are ding at turn itself off for you!
I can’t figure out why that hasn’t been invented yet…
Alexa, turn off the water to the sink. Alexa: Yes master… 😉
The complexity of any job I do at home is measured by the number of trips to the hardware store.
LOL – all that and we used to be able to change our own spark plugs – LOL
Good save on the faucet,not having to replace the whole thing,as sometimes happens to me on a repair job!
When I bought a house,I thought I’d live in it. I was wrong,I just work on it. I live in the hardware store!
Did you know the righty, tightly lefty loosely doesn’t work if you are behind the thing you are working on? Only if you are facing it. HE had never told me that before!!
That mnemonic has never made a bit of sense to me, because I never know if it’s the top or the bottom that’s moving. I much prefer clockwise or counterclockwise because it doesn’t matter where you’re standing or how you look at it.
Yeah but what if you use a digital clock! 🙂
Oh …. I have changed spark plugs! – that dates me
I have also changed door locks, door knobs/handles
and yes – multiple faucets and taps.
Women’s work is never done!
C e-p
I did say for the job at hand –
You need a helper to turn off the water as you hold your hand over the geyser.
An associate is likely to have a TARDIS.
The average is 2.7 trips to the Hardware Store per project.
While working at the hardware store my first advice to those doing plumbing –
“Turn off the water”
The valve under the sink usually will work when you close it.
The problem arises when the valve is opened – 75% of the time they leak
around the stem. – That is why the 1/4 torn valve is so nice.
The days get longer after tomorrow 🙂 🙂
BTW this site does not remember my name the next day. Even when the box is checked.
Do you remember when we CLEANED spark plugs?
YES ! done that too
I took auto shop in high school. Not only did we have to clean spark plugs, we had to learn how to solder with a big copper soldering “iron” that was heated over a gas flame. You knew it was hot enough when the flames turned green. Imagine the uproar if you let teens use something like that in shop class today!
We used to set the spark using matchbook covers as a gauge if one wasn’t handy. Which brings up another item gone from my lifestyle. Matchbooks.
I’ve never done plumbing or changed spark plugs. I have put up storm doors, screen doors, cat doors, light switches, window fans (while improvising a bracket to keep them in the window), ceiling lights and the outside garage light. Never fell off a ladder or started a fire yet. But if it involves crawling under a house, that is somebody else’s job!
Yes – did a ceiling fan too – and it has 4 lights as part of it. There was some unladylike language involved – but it does work
I just got my first call threatening me with arrest from the Treasury Enforcement Bureau! I must be quite the desperado to be wanted by them, the IRS, and Social Security all in the same month.
Old Bear: True but sunrises are still inching later. They begin to get earlier about 4 Jan. Peace,
Jimmy, I guess that you are multi-fauceted.
Years ago GM put an engine in that made you pull the entire engine in order to change the plugs. So that meant that they had to develop spark plugs that could last a long time. Once they did that, and eliminate the points, tune-ups became a thing of the past.
I did change the plugs on my daughter’s Honda Civic as she somehow had flooded them out. It immediately improved the performance and the fuel efficiency, but there really isn’t a need to do it anymore.
Sideburns, clockwise or counterclockwise does change with position. A spinning top, for example, may be spinning clockwise when viewed from the top, but it will be seen as going counterclockwise if viewed from the bottom. Maybe a better example would have been a gyroscope because one can actually move such a device while it is in motion – not so much fr a top.
Storms, as on weather reports, are another example. In the N hemisphere, most (not all) tornados are seen as counterclockwise from weather satellites, but a surviving earthbound person would think it was circling clockwise.
I was thinking in terms of a screw sticking out of a board. No matter which side of the board you’re standing on, clockwise and counterclockwise remain the same.
Cleverest thing this non-mechanically-inclined person ever did was to cut open an empty can from the kitchen, removing top and bottom totally, then slicing the side. Then, with the aid of a higher-than-usual curb and on a vehicle with decent clearance, wrapping the can around the exhaust pipe to cover a significant [i.e., noise-inducing] rust hole, and wiring it on. Hey, it worked….
Jimmy:
Life imitates art.
My plumbing tool box contains a cell phone and a phone book.
Phone Book? What’s that? lol. I have been at my present job 16 years and always brought in an extra yellow pages book from home to look things up. About 10-12 years ago a co-worker asked me why I still had it on my desk and I realized that I use Google now.
It used to be everyone was listed in the phone book and you could call them. Most cell phone numbers are not listed anywhere. Of course we can still locate many using social media.
I’m really enjoying this sequence with the aluminum Christmas tree, Jimmy. It is very close to my own life. Thank you for bringing those memories back.
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