2024-02-23 - Fixing an Old Hand Mixer
-------------------------------------

I recently decided to take a closer look at an old hand mixer that
had been lying around for years. The switch didn't work properly
for all speed settings anymore, and it made a horrible noise when
turned on. To top it off, the case was slightly broken around one
of the screws. Since nobody wanted to use it anymore anyways, I
decided to open it up and see if I could fix any of the problems.

It quickly became apparent that the noise was due to the old
grease on the gears having hardened. After cleaning the gears and
other moving parts and adding new grease, the noise became much
better. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the gears
before cleaning them to show how nasty they were.

The second problem was a bit more difficult to solve. One of the
through-holes for a screw had broken off[0]. Since I didn't have
any better materials around, I decided to cut out a part from the
bottom cover of an old laptop that was broken anyways[1]. This
part fit into the old through-hole very nicely, but the head of
the old screw was too large to fit into it, so I had to look for
a different screw. I did manage to find a screw with a smaller
head that also fit the screw hole on the other side even though
it was very slightly thinner[2]. The screw head still didn't want
to go all the way to the end of the part from the laptop because
that part became slightly thinner towards the end, so I cut out
another small plastic part, drilled a hole into it, and stuck it
into the original laptop part[3] (I also enlarged the hole in the
original part slightly because it was too small for the screw).
This was probably a good idea anyways because it gave a bit more
strength to the whole construction. I then glued the combined part
into the original through-hole of the hand mixer with 2-component
epoxy glue[4]. While I was at it, I also glued some cracks in the
case.  I didn't have a proper clamp to press the cracks together,
but some strong rubbers also did the job[5]. I turned the whole
thing around after a while because the glue was a bit too runny
and didn't stay at the top of the through-hole properly, but I'm
not sure if that was really necessary. [6] shows the cracks and
through-hole after the glue had hardened (and after cleaning
everything a bit).

The last problem I tackled was the switch[7] because it didn't
snap into the highest setting properly. I first tried bending
parts of it, but that didn't really work. Eventually, I decided
to add a tiny bit of grease to the board where the metal part
snaps into the holes.  I'm not sure if that's how it's supposed
to be, but it did help a lot because the metal part could slide
more easily[8] (yes, the cable broke off while I was playing with
the switch, I had to solder that on again).

The inside of the mixer can be seen in [9] after putting the
electronics back into the bottom part of the case (yes it's fairly
rusty, but it does still work...).  The assembly was a bit annoying
because both the switch and the button for pushing out the
attachments had to go into the proper hole in the top cover, but I
managed to close it eventually. After that was done, everything
seemed to work properly, as can be seen in the small demo video[10].

Now some people may be wondering why I would spend so much time
fixing a basic tool that can be bought very cheaply. I sometimes
wonder that myself. I guess it's just fun to fix things, even if it
takes a long time. The fact that I saved another item from becoming
toxic waste is an added bonus.

[0] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2024-02-23-hand-mixer/hole_broken.jpg
[1] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2024-02-23-hand-mixer/hole_laptop.jpg
[2] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2024-02-23-hand-mixer/screws.jpg
[3] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2024-02-23-hand-mixer/hole_laptop2.jpg
[4] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2024-02-23-hand-mixer/hole_glued.jpg
[5] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2024-02-23-hand-mixer/bottom_glued.jpg
[6] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2024-02-23-hand-mixer/glue_hardened.jpg
[7] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2024-02-23-hand-mixer/switch.jpg
[8] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2024-02-23-hand-mixer/switch_greased.jpg
[9] gopher://lumidify.org/I/phlog/2024-02-23-hand-mixer/inside.jpg
[10] gopher://lumidify.org/9/phlog/2024-02-23-hand-mixer/testing.ogv