Are people becoming useless

Keith-i said:
That's me through and through too. The only downside I find is that having a good working knowledge of things also means you know how they can fail. That sometimes plays on my mind when less knowledgeable (ignorant?) people can continue worry and carefree.

It's easy to be lazy today too. One of my secretaries asked if I knew how to replace the brake bulb in her car. I told her that if she still couldn't do it after reading the handbook then I'd help her. She managed!
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I have totally stripped and rebuilt several car engines, but changing the brake light bulbs on my present car almost defeats me. Access is designed for very tiny fingers. Headlamp bulbs are as bad - 30 minute workshop job according to Volvo, but I know someone with small hands who can do it it without any dismantling.
 
nimbusgb said:
Sitting eating dinner the other evening the phone rang. Neighbors wife, could I help her with a flat tyre?

She was 15 minutes up the road in a lay-bye outside a school, not the school lay-bye she originally told me on the phone.

Ford focus, reasonably new. It took all of about 3 minutes to jack the car, change the wheel and get the car on the road again.

She reckoned she had a puncture, I could tell by the 3 magnificent distortions of the inner rim that she made a habit of hitting Sussex potholes and it was asking too much of the tyre to maintain pressure against the rim.

Beyond me how some people make it past adolescence! Damned elf and safety will supersede natural selection ensuring that everyone survives and the human race will get more thick as time moves on!
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Umm...why did neighbours wife call you and not neighbour or do you run a local breakdown service?
 
I was working at the BBC in 1977 when a new batch of graduate staff joined. Our standard way to keep them busy was to make up a few mains leads, so I handed one chap a length of wire, a 13A plug and an equipment socket and asked if he had any questions. He asked which wire went to which pin. Fair enough I thought, he hasn't seen one of these sockets before, and doesn't know they are marked LNE. I showed him. He thanked me, then explained that he meant the other end. The 13A plug.
 
jwilson said:
I have totally stripped and rebuilt several car engines, but changing the brake light bulbs on my present car almost defeats me. Access is designed for very tiny fingers. Headlamp bulbs are as bad - 30 minute workshop job according to Volvo, but I know someone with small hands who can do it it without any dismantling.
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Had to change one on SWMBO's Polo last year. Totally impossible, and ended up breaking not only the bulb, but the mount as well.
I don't think I'll be asked to do it again......................:encouragement:
 
I can rebuild a piano with a bag full of hand tools, very rarely need a power tool, as, of coarse that is the way they were originally produced. However I draw the line at water in the house. So had a local plumber in a few days ago to fit a towel rail and a couple of new taps. We were discussing similar topics to this thread, he told me about some 'city types' who wanted to renew central heating. They were concerned about gas central heating and genuinely believed that the radiators were filled with hot gas. Oh how we laughed.
 
oldbilbo said:
I'm certainly NOT going to boast of my varied craft skills.
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Apologies if my own post came across as a boast.

All I was trying to convey is that I get a great deal of satisfaction from doing my own repairs/DIY; and I think that those you don't attempt any DIY are missing out on an opportunity.

Of course, I'm sure for some, it would be more than wise to leave any/all work to a more competent person and thus avoid the added expense of having to rectify cockups!
 
I will always try to build/modify/fix things myself wherever possible. It's partly because I can't justify paying someone else to do something I can do myself, but also that if I do it myself at least I know it's been done properly.
 
jwilson said:
I have totally stripped and rebuilt several car engines, but changing the brake light bulbs on my present car almost defeats me. Access is designed for very tiny fingers. Headlamp bulbs are as bad - 30 minute workshop job according to Volvo, but I know someone with small hands who can do it it without any dismantling.
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Grand-daughters are just great for those sort of tasks.

Mind you, when you're 78, you've got arthritis, are long-sighted in your only remaining eye, getting others to do some of the tasks you used to joyfully carry our becomes an attractive option.
 
Seashoreman said:
I can rebuild a piano with a bag full of hand tools, very rarely need a power tool, as, of coarse that is the way they were originally produced. However I draw the line at water in the house. So had a local plumber in a few days ago to fit a towel rail and a couple of new taps. We were discussing similar topics to this thread, he told me about some 'city types' who wanted to renew central heating. They were concerned about gas central heating and genuinely believed that the radiators were filled with hot gas. Oh how we laughed.
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I remember a time when my friend and I were trying to explain to his wife how a car engine worked. When it got to the bit where the petrol was vaporised, mixed with air and exploded inside the cylinders, she laughed and wouldn't believe us..........
 
SWMBO managed to get one of her little DIY projects into PBO this month (Nov '14, pp 54-5).

I'm happy just to lounge in the foredeck hammock quaffing G&T's and let her get on with it! :)
 
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Certainly there are forgotten skills. I was going to book my daughters Citroen C1 in for a service at 25,000 miles. I wanted the plugs changing and they don't change them until 30,000 miles. They also don't do the tappets on a service. And I wonder when as a matter of maintenance they take the head off for an inspection, re-grind the valves in and fit a new head gasket.
And with B&Q complaining that less people do DIY these days, perhaps if they sold more hand tools rather than half an isle of door handles that nobody is going to buy.
And Power Tools, in a French DIY store 8 years ago I bought a brilliant 5" Orbital Sander for €12 Euros. Nothing like that at B&Q. They have let ALDI & LIDDLE take advantage of their shortage of power tools.
 
jwilson said:
I have totally stripped and rebuilt several car engines, but changing the brake light bulbs on my present car almost defeats me. Access is designed for very tiny fingers. Headlamp bulbs are as bad - 30 minute workshop job according to Volvo, but I know someone with small hands who can do it it without any dismantling.
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Halfords... fiver and they do it for you.... while you wait.... :encouragement:
 
jwilson said:
I have totally stripped and rebuilt several car engines, but changing the brake light bulbs on my present car almost defeats me. Access is designed for very tiny fingers. Headlamp bulbs are as bad - 30 minute workshop job according to Volvo, but I know someone with small hands who can do it it without any dismantling.
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The owner's manual for a Smart Roadster doesn't even attempt to give directions for changing headlamp bulbs; it simply tells you to take it to a service agent. There is no access to the headlamp fitting without fairly serious dismantling.
 
AntarcticPilot said:
The owner's manual for a Smart Roadster doesn't even attempt to give directions for changing headlamp bulbs; it simply tells you to take it to a service agent. There is no access to the headlamp fitting without fairly serious dismantling.
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I understood it to be an EU requirement that all bulbs had to be replaceable without the use of tools?
 
nimbusgb said:
I seem to have forgotten how to build cupboards, shelves, cabinets and other storage through a similar process. Every time I built a unit it would instantly fill with 'stuff'.

Minimallist? Round here? Never! :(
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'Zackly!

The woman of the house here knows 'zackly how to get me to build more. She accumulates..... stuff in boxes gets stacked on the floor here and there, and there, and there..... I get narked and install more shelving, storage units, etc..... they get 'bulked out'.... she accumulates, etc..... :rolleyes:
 
Just been through thus with my A3. To change the headlight bulb you have to remove the headlight. To remove the headlight you have to remove the bumper. To remove the bumper you have to remove the wheel arch liners. To remove the arch liners you have to remove the wheels. Is this a ploy to generate labour hours at the dealer? With long fingers and dexterity you can do the drivers side without all this faff. All this makes the Xenon bulb look cheap at over 100 smackers.
 
Keith-i said:
Just been through thus with my A3. To change the headlight bulb you have to remove the headlight. To remove the headlight you have to remove the bumper. To remove the bumper you have to remove the wheel arch liners. To remove the arch liners you have to remove the wheels. Is this a ploy to generate labour hours at the dealer? With long fingers and dexterity you can do the drivers side without all this faff. All this makes the Xenon bulb look cheap at over 100 smackers.
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I've no doubt the reasoning is to reduce manufacturing costs whilst also increasing servicing costs.
 
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