YOUNG PEOPLE NOT REPAIRING STUFF

[handy4454]

Much of this lack of basic skills is indeed down to the throw away culture we now seem to be living in .

Right memory time lads ,how many of us when we were young un's have ,

1..Taken the wheels from an old pram and used them to build a trolley /soap-cart .

2.. Had to repair your own second hand push bike with scavanged bits and pieces .

3..Stripped down your first motor bike i.e. B.S.A. Bantam ,Villiers etc ,and put it back together successfully.

4..Repaired your first car with your dads help .

All of the above we HAD to do because we were skint 7 days a week .Taught us to appreciate what we had though as well as how to repair our gear without buying new every five minutes.

With you on this one, just change the Bantam to a Tiger Cub, poxy thing was off the road more than on but I will say the £3 or so spent on a workshop manual was worth every penny, have maintained my own bikes and cars ever since atb handy

[cant hit rabbits 123]

Its very, very important to take into consideration how complex almost everything is today. I fix a lot of stuff I own, but then again I'm very practically minded and have a wide range of skills I learned from my early teens, now being 21. I'm very, very good with cars, I've got a 60's VW beetle, re built the entire car including two engines for it, done plenty of work on other cars of a similar age too as part of my job. However, took me nearly 6 hours to change an oil pressure monitor on a new Fiat 500. Anyone but a person with professional garage skills and experience has no hope. Crack open a television thats less than 3 years old. Without having attended an extensive training course and having plenty of background knowledge, have fun trying to fix that.

 

Yes, my generation is stopping fixing things, but mostly not through lack of motivation, simply because in most cases it cannot be done by a layman. There are a huge amount of things I use in every day life that I'm confident I couldn't fix in many cases, and I have a lot of experience and ability. The other students in my house study academic subjects, are not practical people and have only worked in retail, what hope do they have of fixing the boiler, the fridge, their cars or even the sink in a world where modern products are so complex some need degree's in engineering to understand?

[double10]

I have an iphone 4s and managed to crack the screen all over and several of my relatives suggested buying a new phone and throwing it away because I had gotten this one for free. Long story short I got a screen off the internet for £11.99 and spent far too long tonight trying install it, at which point I discovered that the connectors were too short for it to ever be usable. So perhaps fixing it yourself isn't always the best option, or maybe I was naive in thinking a cheap part might actually fit let alone work.

 

I was quite surprised just how far I had to disassemble the phone to take off the front screen though, and managed to amass a pile of about 20 odd screws, some only 4mm long - very fiddly

Edited December 29, 2014 by double10

[Dan.]

It depends what you class as "young" I'm a Royal Navy aircraft engineer in my early 20s can't really go a day without fixing stuff that should have been broken and discarded 20 years ago lol

 

I must admit we have lost the youth in the navy as more people are signing up after 6th form and uni instead of at 16 when they leave school.

[Ricko]

I do have to try and hold back more with my son, rather than saying give it here I'll do it. If I do end up doing that I try and involve him and also explain the repair etc to him.

[Big Al]

While I do agree that the throw away society is quite prevalent in some areas, I have seen some staggering ingenuity of late too of home built farm machinery. I think that a lack of money can unlock the inner repair man!

 

Ironically, the Internet and especially youtube has made guidance for repairs much more accessible. I certainly use it all the time to help me around the house - within the past week youtube has helped me fix lighting, the car, the septic tank and the washing machine.

[Twistedsanity]

Anybody who shines at school and has the ability to become an engineer or inventor later in life is recognised early and paid a fortune to use their skills making money for banks and corporations in finance, so we have no inventors or innovators appearing on the scene any more and are unlikely to have in the future. In America academies are sponsored by big businesses like coca cola for that very reason, pick of the crop before anyone else gets a look in

[secretagentmole]

It depends what you class as "young" I'm a Royal Navy aircraft engineer in my early 20s can't really go a day without fixing stuff that should have been broken and discarded 20 years ago lol

 

I must admit we have lost the youth in the navy as more people are signing up after 6th form and uni instead of at 16 when they leave school.

Is your name catheter?

[Thunderbird]

Its very, very important to take into consideration how complex almost everything is today. I fix a lot of stuff I own, but then again I'm very practically minded and have a wide range of skills I learned from my early teens, now being 21. I'm very, very good with cars, I've got a 60's VW beetle, re built the entire car including two engines for it, done plenty of work on other cars of a similar age too as part of my job. However, took me nearly 6 hours to change an oil pressure monitor on a new Fiat 500. Anyone but a person with professional garage skills and experience has no hope. Crack open a television thats less than 3 years old. Without having attended an extensive training course and having plenty of background knowledge, have fun trying to fix that.

 

Yes, my generation is stopping fixing things, but mostly not through lack of motivation, simply because in most cases it cannot be done by a layman. There are a huge amount of things I use in every day life that I'm confident I couldn't fix in many cases, and I have a lot of experience and ability. The other students in my house study academic subjects, are not practical people and have only worked in retail, what hope do they have of fixing the boiler, the fridge, their cars or even the sink in a world where modern products are so complex some need degree's in engineering to understand?

 

Very well said - and proving the exception to the perception that 'young' people are useless. I reckon you are in the minority though.

 

Whenever I go to see Activeiii from here on PW I'm amazed at his level of practical skills as opposed to mine. We're the same age but he has a lathe and knows how to use it, unlike me.

 

Kudos to anyone who can repair stuff and see it live to serve again.

[activeviii]

Kind words Thunderbird.

 

I owe everything I know to one person, Me! No one has ever shown me how to do something. But! Its at a price. Every thing I have made you can bet your bottom dollar that there's a Mk1-2 and maybe a 3 kicking around the workshop.

 

My mum showed me how to use a soldering iron 40 years ago and then gave me her back up iron. I still use it today.

 

Years back, I was a begger for buying something and then making it, what I thought, was better. Bit like blueprinting. Loved doing it.

Now days the old grey matter does not work like it use to so I tend to have a more and more workshop accidents that set me back.

I rebuilt my first car at 17. No help, evenings and weekends for a year. A rover SDI 2800. Total strip and rebuild and respray. Wouldn't know where to start now days as its all special tools just to change a headlight bulb.

 

 

Going to the OP question, a few things spring to mind.

 

Back in the day there wasn't all the imports like there is now, all was war so no money spare, people had to learn how to live and adapt.

 

Every thing was bigger and didn't need a million pound robot to place a component so Joe public could replace a resistor.

 

People tent to spent more time playing on the electronics as their cheaper and more freely avalible.

 

Time change and we are a more thrown away society

[Dan.]

Is your name catheter?

Why would my name be that? Lol

[Paddy Galore!]

My sheds full of stuff that needs repairing, 99% of it was OK before I decided to repair it lol.

lol!

my yard was getting a bit full earlier in the year when we moved so I had to bin a load of stuff down the dump.

I nearly cried when I binned our washing machine, 10 yrs old but at nearly £200 for parts alone it was time to say fare thee well, the new one is a pita though, it only has a cold water inlet and it takes flippin ages to do a wash.

[strangford wildfowler]

I don't mind mending stuff that's broken, but some stuff can be a real pain the backside to repair, like socks with holes in them, not many would try and fix that

[subsonicnat]

I think I read somewhere in one of the papers a couple of weeks ago..

The Goverment by the year 2025 want the phasing out of cars which run on fuels (Petrol Diesel)..

That is not far into the future is it, So people buying cars 3 years before that will have almost scrap value..

My point (Sorry) ,, mending things in that stated era will be impossible to fix by us engineers, its like the telly going on the blink, Most people will not have a clue and ditch it.

The same sadly will not be as simple with a car that the Battery cost`s almost 2/3rds of the car value, Would you buy a second hand electric car that has done 50,000 miles.

Something to think about anyway..

[Amazed]

I have a shed and a tool box I can fix anything

Or store it in bits untill I find a part to fix it as my mrs says ha ha ha

 

You never know when that old what sit thingy will come in handy.

And you can never have enough tools

 

I am quite parctical and will have a look at most things as long as it's reasonably safe, you do find a lot of more modern things are not serviceable wether it be sealed in resin micro circuitry or just poorly made. shame really I do enjoy tinkering

[subsonicnat]

I have a shed and a tool box I can fix anything

Or store it in bits untill I find a part to fix it as my mrs says ha ha ha

 

You never know when that old what sit thingy will come in handy.

And you can never have enough tools

 

I am quite parctical and will have a look at most things as long as it's reasonably safe, you do find a lot of more modern things are not serviceable wether it be sealed in resin micro circuitry or just poorly made. shame really I do enjoy tinkering

As you have quoted Reasonable Safety:

My Motto is : If I cannot see it, or smell it I don`t Meddle. Gas:Electric: That type.

Yes I do put plugs on, and tinker with electronics, but only low power.

[Westley]

Well, I have managed to fit my hide pole inside my ferret finder, as suggested. Problem is my hide will not stay up and my ferret can no longer get down a rabbit hole whilst wearing his new collar !

I think that an awful lot of dickshunaries have been thrown away too !

[Bazooka Joe]

I cannot help taking things to bits to see how they work when there's nowt wrong,

 

Just in case something does go wrong, then I'll be able to fix it...