Fixing Stuff

So my recliner broke. It's an old recliner, needs to be reupholstered, but I enjoy it and I liked reclining and getting my feet up. When it's not reclining, it's a rocking chair, and what broke was the piece that keeps it from rocking while you've got your feet up. The result was that I'd put my feet up, and the chair would tip forward because the weight was now concentrated at the front.

Now, I've had a little success fixing things. I fixed the legs on the couch, and repaired a hatstand. I also fixed the legs of a coffee table. And most recently I fixed the doorknob of the front door. So I thought, what the heck.

I turned the chair over and looked at the mechanism. Most of the thing is really solidly built, but it was fairly clear what was wrong as there was a comparatively tiny wire hanging loose from a, er, ratchet thing. I looked at where the chair had been sitting, and there was more of the wire. Ah. Broken.

So I took the wire, both pieces of it, down to our local Ace Hardware and showed them to the first guy I spotted. He walked over to a bin and pulled out an identical sized wire. Same width, same bendiness, a bit long for what I needed. But otherwise perfect. $2 for the wire, and I headed home.

Shaping the wire into the spot where the old one had lived was easy. Cutting the wire... not so easy. In fact, even with our wire cutters I was unable to cut the stupid thing. I called Eric down to help, and he was unable to cut it. So I looped the wire around a second time.

Then I tried out the chair. The ratchet clanked as the wire pushed it against the gears, and the chair held. I had fixed my chair!

I'm not a handyperson, but I have my moments.