Repair Projects
The items on this page are less about engineering, more about my ability to solve problems using my knowledge and accessible materials. Nevertheless, I believe there is still a strong connection to engineering. Problem solving is critical to being an engineer. These projects might not follow a standard design process, but I don't see them as any less definitive of my engineering skills. The titles of each item are linked to another page (Dropbox) where more pictures are available to view.
My garage has a limited clearance on either side and in two separate incidents I clipped the side of the garage pulling my car in. 1. Cracking the shell off my side mirror, 2. Breaking the attachment clips for my right front head light. Since I am currently unemployed and my car is old, buying a replacement is comparatively expensive. Luckily in both incidents the damage was minor, leaving the parts functional but still broken. Fixing the headlight was simple. The top attachment (shown repaired in the picture) was a clean break which I wired and super-glued back together. Repairing the mirror was more complicated. It was necessary to remove the mirror assembly from the car, plus detach the mirror glass from the view-angle-adjustment mechanism to work on the fractured shell. A corner of the shell had been completely cracked off and the screw attachments had been torn off (the picture to the left shows the corner piece reattached). The plastic used for the shell is very easy to completely and solidly reconnected if broken using "super glue" (Cyanoacrylate) or methyl ethyl ketone. Either of those cause a small layer of plastic to melt and re-bond, making the plastic nearly as strong as new. After uncovering the adjustment mechanism I discovered it was also broken. It was a minor crack which I quickly repaired. Once I assembled the mirror and attached it to the car I realized the entire shape had been distorted. I used clear silicone to cover the areas that no longer sealed.
The fire pit in question here is possibly a lost cause. But I enjoy repairing anything and everything I can. This was not the first repair on this fire pit. Any further repairs and I will have all but completely rebuilt it. However, the fire pit was still very functional until the leg fell off. It is all steel construction and, as can been seen, it is very rusty. The leg had rusted at the attachment point on the body. An attachment and section of the leg had to be created. I happened to have a similarly sized section of steel pipe which I cut and bent into a replacement for the rusted-out section. On the remaining piece of leg I removed the most rusted area at the top, then made two perpendicular cuts across the opening. This allowed me to widen the opening to join the replacement piece. I also cut a flat piece of steel to strengthen the connection to the body. Two bolts were used to connect the replacement pipe to the leg.
We were in the process of updating the furniture in our basement, including a new couch. The couch was very large and it would not fit down the stairs. On this particular couch the legs are not detachable. Since the couch was bought second-hand, a return was not possible. It was decided cutting off the legs was a reasonable option. The couch did eventually make it down the stairs, but the legs needed to be reattached. I decided it was would be best if the legs could be easily removed again in the future. Removing the legs caused significant damage to the fabric on the corners. Luckily, it was just the decorative trim, which I was able to recreate by hand using extra fabric from the underside of the couch; leaving a seamless repair. I also need to rebuild the top of the legs because the cut was not even or smooth. Holes were drilled in the legs and corners of the couch to attach a hanger bolt. A hanger bolt is a fastener that has wood threads on one side and machine threads on the other. I screwed the wood-thread end into the leg. Then I staggered 4 nuts on the machine-thread end and hammered the leg with the nuts into the couch (see pictures). This allowed me to unscrew the leg from the couch at will.
In the summer, I update the landscaping around my house. I also maintain the lawn and trees. The landscaping I have done includes two types of brick work and black plastic edging. The pictures to the left are completed works. The black plastic edging is still in progress with well over 100 feet completed so far, and possibly another 100 feet left. The plastic edging circles the house and several large bushes. Most of the brick work used large retaining wall blocks. I circled the trees (four total) on the tree belt or parkway (the strip of land on the property passed the sidewalk), our mailbox and the fire hydrant. The size of the circle around the trees is the same, based on the largest tree. It is large enough to allow space for the tree to grow but also help retain water around the near roots. I used three layers of bricks. The first is placed half way in the ground on gravel to maintain the placement over the years. The second level, using the same type of bricks, is glued onto the first. Cap stones are glued on the top to create a finshed look. Landscaping fabric and lava rocks were placed in the center to prevent weeds. On other trees in the yard I used a typical rectangular brick often used to build walls. They were left over bricks from landscaping I had changed. I placed them vertically, halfway in the ground, in a circle formation. Again fabric, along with woodchips are used to prevent weeds.
The region my house is located has a moderately high water table. Any home with a basement requires a sump pump to remove water from around the foundation (usually from weather precipitation). In order to get the best function out of a sump system, the water should be pumped as far from the foundation as possible (so it doesn't end up recirculating endlessly). It is more convenient (and aesthetically pleasing) to bury the exit pipe under the yard instead of a long pipe through the yard. Just after the house was built the pipe was buried and it worked for many years. It seems over the years the grading of the land changed, which caused water remain at the end of the pipe (instead of draining away). This created a swap like situation and the pipe began to unbury itself. Twice I dug up the original pipe, adjusted the land and placed the pipe back in the ground. But the same issue returned just a year or two later. Recently I decided a better solution was to extend the pipe further from the house where the land had a larger slope. I dug the trench by hand. The extension added an additional 30 feet to the original line. I increased the diameter of the pipe and included two upward drains to reduce the pressure felt by the pump. The second drain also creates a safety release if the furthest drain becomes blocked. The last 10 feet of pipe has small holes along the bottom and is surrounded by gravel to allow water to drain into the ground.
This project was mainly a repair. A snow plow in the winter of 2013 knocked our mailbox from its post. It was a very hard hit, the box was screwed to a board which was bolted to the post. The board was cracked and the bolts were ripped out of the post. We have a unique mailbox that is no longer produced, rather than finding a replacement I opted to repair it. Amazingly, the mailbox was barely damaged, there was only a small crack on the bottom. For the repair I wired a sheet of 16 AWG steel to the bottom of the box and cut a new board to attach to the post. The latch for the door was also broken which I decided to fix at the same time. The original latch was plastic, my replacement was magnetic. A picture to the left shows a front view of the mailbox with the door open. It may be hard to see but on the top of the door (bottom of the picture) there is a small metal piece which holds two super (neodymium) magnets. At the top of the same picture, just inside the opening of the mailbox at the top there is a small metal plate (which is black) where the magnets connect to keep the door closed. Both metal pieces were custom cut by me.