Kayaking and hiking are two of my favorite outdoor activities. Occasionally some equipment broke. I usually try to fix them myself first. Here are two case histories and lessons learned
Fixing stuck paddle
After our exploration to the mangrove forest at Sungei Khatib Bongsu via kayaking, we found out that one paddle got stuck, we could not disassemble it for storage. Soaking the paddle in the water, shaking it, twisting it, pouring oil and even heating the stuck junction, nothing worked. I also tried brute force, tried to use nails to expand the outer tube. It did not work either. I did some online search, and no solutions applied to my case. In the end, I poured vinegar into the the junction, and the reaction between the calcium containing sand and the vinegar loosened the junction, and the stuck paddle was disassembled.
This is the first time my paddles got stuck. Why did it happen? How can I prevent it from happening again? Thinking about it, the mostly likely reason for the stuck was sand got into the tubes of the paddle. Two potential causes for this to happen:
To prevent a stuck paddle, clean the inside surface of paddle tubes after cleaning, and not placing the tubes on beaches, and assemble them from the paddle bag.
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| attempt to open up the connection failed |
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| sand grains inside the surface a tube after cleaning and drying |
Broken Hiking Pole
In preparing to climb Mt Fuji, I checked my hiking poles, during the examination, I accidently disconnected my retractable hiking pole's lower segment connection, and had a hard time to put the segments back into one piece. My first attempt was to force the smaller segment into the larger one by hammering at one end. After quite a few gentle impacts, the connection was reestablished, and the connection could be locked or loosened by twisting the segments.
But my twist lock hiking pole has three segments, two connections. After the hammer impact repair of the lower connection, the upper connection could not be self locked by twisting. Hammer impact does not apply any more, I had no idea how to fix the not-locking issue because I had no idea about the twist lock mechanism.
I searched internet, especially content related to the twist lock trekking poles. Fortunately I found a solution on YouTube, which also explained the locking mechanism.
The lock mechanism include a spring, a expander, and a solid cone. Adjust the solid cone position can adjust the expander outside diameter. When a twist lock won't lock, one needs to twist the cone clockwise into the expander a little bit, to make its diameter larger, this will make it lock. If the smaller section can not insert into the larger section, one needs twist the cone counter clockwise to reduce its diameter.
For the loose connection, I twisted the cone clockwise to increase expander diameter, and the twist lock was fixed on first try!
Hindsight, my disconnected connection could be easily fix by twist the cone counter clockwise slightly to reduce its diameter. Without knowing it, I spent more than half hour to hammer them together.
Nothing wrong to try my own ideas first.
The main issue I had was I tried on my own idea for too long even when my idea seemed to be not working well or not working.
My lessons learnt, if my idea seems to be not good, I should look for solutions on internet as soon as possible.
Notes - I did quite a few DIY repair successfully
1. Lawn
3. Central Air condition life extension this solution is uniquely mine, the AC professionals can not solve it as effectively and efficiently as I did
4. Toilet
5. Dryer
6. .........
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