“You can fix just about anything with youtube tutorials, the right parts and tools and time and patience. People are so afraid to try. I really don’t understand that.”
I love taking on the challenge of doing things myself. Years ago my daughter’s head jack went out on her i-pod music player. Looked on-line, got the part for $5 on ebay and found a few youtubes and picked the one that made the most sense.
I told her that we can try to fix it, or she can wait until her birthday, or spend her own money to buy a new one now. She opted for the fix-it, with me reminding her not to get too upset if we broke the thing.
We both worked on it together. Heat gun to get the screen off, a few screws, more heat gun and then desolder. Put in the part and reverse the process. It worked fine and looked like it had before we took it apart. (Horror stories of idiots trying to do it and breaking the screens mainly. “But some clear packing tape wound around it keeps it all together still!”)
The one reason I can understand why people don’t do it is time. By the time you watch numerous videos to figure out which ones know what they are talking about, and then doing the process (going back to the videos periodically) - it can be a bit time consuming.
But - if you find it enjoyable like I do - so what?
Just last Sunday during the football game I sewed on a bunch of buttons on all the shirts that were missing some. Between my fat finger, poor eye-sight and drinking beer and eating chips - it took me almost the entire game! Got to say though - that wasn’t enjoyable - but getting to wear the shirts in public again is!
Time.
Ha!
I’m not good at fixing stuff.
Something that takes a pro an hour or two can sometimes take me several days!
The timing went out on my serger this spring. I spent almost two weeks goofing around with it until I could use it again. Taking it to a shop might have been more than I paid for it and I didn’t want to buy a new one.
It’s very empowering not to have to call someone else every time something breaks.