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I am an 81 year old man. A few years ago my legs started hurting when I walked. X-rays showed calcium building up on the spine, pinching the nerves to my legs. No cure except a dangerous operation where I might get better or might lose the use of my legs. I opted to stay as I am. In 2021 I...

It's about 2 years later and this is still working,

I finished the job. The "mending plate" I bought is 10" x 1". All the screws I used to fasten it are #10 x 2". Seems pretty strong. The plastic sewing needles I bought are way too thin, broke when I opened the door. Maybe I can find something suitable next time I'm in the hardware store. I have...

I'm in Canada. Couldn't find suitable plastic screws at Home Depot, all the ones at Amazon.ca said "currently unavailable". I found 200 plastic sewing needles for kids on Amazon.ca, they look to be the right diameter, so I ordered some. I'll tackle this project later this week.

I got a steel "mending plate" at the hardware store which I'll install sometime soon. I still like the plastic "shear pins" idea. I searched a few sites for "plastic pins" and "plastic nails" but no luck. Any idea where I might get some?

GARY: Sorry, my memory is getting so bad I didn't realize you suggested the idea of a steel plate to fasten the bracket to. Didn't mean to claim credit for it, it's likely I never would have thought of it myself. Getting old sucks. Think I will use the idea, if I can find a suitable piece of...

I've just come up with one more idea: a steel plate 3.5" x 10" mounted on the surface of the jamb, with the bracket bolted to the plate and the plate screwed to the jam with about 5 screws both above and below the bracket. If 10 screws aren't enough, I'll go along with the new building code and...

The house was built in 1953, one floor cottage over crawl space, 2x4 for walls. No idea of the doorway construction. I've looked for fasteners for hollow walls, but most only go to 5/8" thick wall. Spring toggle bolts will go up to a 2" wall, maybe thicker, but they require a 1/2" hole. Might...

Last year on the front screen door I put one of the closures that holds the door open about 6 inches from wide open, then to close the door you push it all the way open and let go. Much handier when bringing stuff in or out, no fiddling with the little gizmo. Unfortunately, visitors don't...

One of the best ideas for northern climates with a deep (4 foot) frost line is to line the holes with round cardboard tubes (Sonotubes). Then when frost heaves the dirt up it will slide along the smooth cardboard instead of grabbing the concrete and pulling it up with it. I'm in Ontario, Canada...

Thermostats usually have the option of turning the fan on all the time, or just when the furnace is heating. On my thermostat it's labelled Fan: Auto, Fan: Cont. (continuous). (There may be a further option of hi speed when heating, low speed when not heating.) With today's digital thermostats...

Here's a piece of a 60-year-old 1.5" steel drain pipe that was removed from our house. The hole in the middle was a bit smaller before the person who removed it poked his little finger in it. The drain handled both the kitchen sink (with dishwasher) and laundry tub (with washing machine). We...

This seems to be getting a lot of interest. Here's 2 pics of the fence. It's becoming rather crooked from the post heaving.

"Is the frost line in your area deeper than 4'?" This is Keswick, ON, Canada (north of Toronto). Water pipes, etc must be 4 feet deep, so I assume the frost line is maybe 3 feet deep, probably less now with the warmer winters. The fence in the pictures is a couple of blocks away from me, don't...

Why did the clock come on when a burner was turned on and then fade out? Because this stove has electronic continuously variable burner controls, instead of old-style mechanical switches. When this happened to me 30 years ago, the clock (mechanical) would run as long as a burner was turned on...

Some years ago, a friend was installing a fence. He dug holes 4 feet deep and anchored the posts in concrete. But first he put an 8" Sonotube (a heavy cardboard tube 8" dia., 4' long) in the hole. I had never seen Sonotubes used this way. He said it made the concrete with smooth sides, so when...

About a year ago my stove would fail while baking, the oven would be off and the clock would be 12:xx, as if there was a power bump xx minutes ago. Since we had not had a power bump, I opened the stove up to check the logic board. No loose connectors or anything obvious, so I checked out the...

I finished it. Used a circular saw, reciprocating saw, hand saw, chain saw, hammer, chisel, pliers, etc, etc. Now to relax until next summer...

I turn 70 next week, and have never been one for heavy physical labour; fixing computers was my occupation. The only chisel I have is 1" wide, used to install hinges on doors. Use it to chisel away 4 cubic feet of wood? Hmmm. A quick online check doesn't find any wood chisels wider than 1.5"...

I tackled the small job yesterday. Canadian Tire had a reciprocating saw on sale for $35, so I bought it. Found it a little slow, ended up getting out the circular saw and cutting 2" deep grooves (the fence rail was 2-1/4" down) in a 1" cross-hatch patten and breaking the pieces out with a...