It's Not Pretty But It Does The Job

So, uhhh, we broke our bed. All the nails holding one of the battens popped out. It was a self-assembly job but the bit that broke was pre-built in the factory, so I don't think my construction skills are to blame.



The loose batten was eventually encouraged to come right off, the nails were hammered out, then my glamorous assistant held it onto the side of the frame while I drilled guide holes and then screwed it down with self-tapping screws. I drilled and screwed the other batten down as well (the one which hadn't fallen off) just in case. The battens at each end that the spine is attached to are already held on by some fairly sturdy screws so that should be OK.

I love my Audiotechnica ATH-M40fs headphones - I really do - but, after a couple of years, the coating on the pads starts to flake off and I end up with bits of black stuff in my hair and in my ears. I called my local A-T service centre to order the replacement parts, and the guy dictated the instructions off the top of his head. Very impressive. First, the old earpads come off:


Get a spudger or small flat-blade screwdriver into the gap around the edge of the earpiece and use it to pull the edge of the pad out. Work this all the way round and then slip the pad off the earpiece. We'll fit the new earpads last - first we have to pretty much strip the headphones to get at the headband pad. Remove the screws and lift up the driver:


Make a note of which wires go into which part of the distribution block:


Then loosen the screws in the block and remove the driver part altogether:


You do need to remove both earpads if you're replacing those, but you only have to fully disassemble one side of the headphones to get the headband pad off. I got a bit overexcited and did the whole thing before I realised that it was unnecessary. Here are the pics of the other side for reference. Apart from the wiring, the two sides are identical.




Now pop one side of the earpiece hanger out of its hole in the earpiece, then do the other side. There will be enough flex in the plastic to do this fairly easily. Thread the cable back out through the hole:


Now we need to remove the hanger mechanism (from one side only). This is to give enough access to slide the headband pad off. So remove all the screws, take the mechanism apart and thread the cable out, making a note of exactly how it's routed to help you put it back together later:


I don't have any pics of this last bit, but I've done this twice now and it takes me about an hour just to take the old pad off and fit the new one. It's probably quicker to use scissors and carefully cut the old pad off, but be VERY careful not to damage the cable. Once you've got the old pad off, you need to put the new pad back on. It's a tight fit and you need to make sure the cable stays in the right place as you do it. Stick with it, you'll get there eventually. Once you've got the new pad fitted and you're happy that it's even, reassemble the hanger mechanism, threading the cable carefully through, and gradually work your way back down til you have the drivers connected and screwed in.

Now comes the final tricky part - fitting the new earpads. Locate the edge of the pad in the groove around the cup, then use a spudger or similar to gradually stretch and work the edge of the pad until it all slips into the groove. Take care not to slip and cut or damage the pad.

All done! Put them on and crank up some tunes!

This is our cutlery drawer. Because it's full of cutlery, it's pretty heavy.


After several years of pulling on the front to open it, the threads gave way on the screw holes on one side and the front panel came away. Rather than pack the existing holes with matchsticks or toothpicks and re-use the original screws, I decided to use connecting blocks and screw into untouched wood. Since this is our heaviest drawer and gets the most abuse, I wanted a good solid repair.


I used one block and two self-tapping screws on each side to re-attach the front panel to the body of the drawer.

There was a lot of useful space above the clothes rail in our wardrobe and we had stuff piling up on the floor. I bought a big piece of melamine-coated conti board and used some scrap wood from the shed (left by previous owners) for the battens.

I listen to a lot of music, and have several pairs of headphones. Some small sets for use on the move, and a couple of larger sets for when I'm at my desk. The larger sets take up a lot of space on the desk when not in use and can get in the way. I bought a couple of screw-in hooks from a local hardware shop, and fitted them to my modified shelving unit.

Don't, whatever you do, get these two products mixed up:

My office was a mess (actually it's always a mess no matter what I do to it, but let's just gloss over that). There were bags of stuff on the floor, a turntable that didn't have a home, cables everywhere, etc. I decided to get some shelving, planning to put the keyboard on top and have plenty of space underneath for storage. Having bought and built a flat-pack pine shelving unit from a local hardware shop (I think it was B&Q, but can't remember), I discovered that it was too tall, and playing the keyboard would have been quite awkward. So I took the thing out to my garage and grabbed a tape measure and a saw.


Unfortunately there's no before picture showing the original height of the unit, but this is the result. All I did was remove the top shelf, then draw a line about six inches down from the top of each vertical support, and cut the tops off, then re-attached the top shelf. Now it's just the right height for the keyboard and there's still plenty of space on the second shelf for the turntable (minus the lid).