I was riffing off the awful Shania Twain song when I made the thread.

This is sort of a DIY thread, but it’s also a place to share things that made you feel manly - even if they’re not particularly manly, or your not even a man.

For example, I swapped out the waste pipe on my dishwasher the other day, after it was chewed by a mouse. Caught the mouse too!

Fixed the fence in the garden on the neighbors side while he looked on and made small talk. Was strange to be the competent one getting shit done instead of being the onlooker. Made me feel daft about every occasion I've done the same myself though.

Does it not come with anything.
Flat brace brackets will be what you need I would have thought, they come in all sorts of shapes so pick what is best. Just attach to the back bridging two units.

Just google them. Image search has all sorts.

Or you could maybe drill all the way through one each side and use something like these. Maybe add a washer.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/inter-screws-m4-x-10-pack/65152?kpid=65152&ds_kid=92700048793290424&ds_rl=1249413&gclid=Cj0KCQiA-JacBhC0ARIsAIxybyPNCzKvjwaG1zXG-yDLQDOSpAu1KXIQ6CsQNt2jha-FaCQ5ZfxLBGoaAg0dEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

My Ikea master edition post:

https://www.thebearandbadger.co.uk/discussion/comment/2089099#Comment_2089099


This thing is made up of multiple units sitting on top of one another and side by side. Screwed together and to the wall. Was a fucking ballache.

I have been swearing at my tractor for a fortnight.

The powered grass collector - basically the big fuck off accessory hanging off the back - stopped working. It’s powered via a belt from the tractor itself. And yep, the belt had gone. Thrown completely off.

So I dismantled the thing. Couldn’t get the belt back on. Not enough slack to get it over the necessary pulleys.

So then I read the manual, to make sure I was doing it right. Yep. It’s supposed to be a simple job. Remove a couple of covers. Unclip a couple of catches, pull down a big handle and the grass collector should then move freely. That means you can shove it closer to the back of the tractor and hey presto it’ll be easy to slip the belt on before lifting the big handle back up to tension it properly. Job done, reassemble the bodywork and off you go.

But no. Can’t get the collector close enough to the tractor to slip the belt on. Fuck.

So I do the obvious next thing. Go find how-to videos on YouTube to see where I’m going wrong.

Er, nowhere. I’ve done everything right but the belt won’t fit. Shit.

In desperation, I think maybe the belt is what’s fucked. Maybe it shrank. Or it was too small in the first place and was somehow bodged on by the garage last year. So I ordered a brand new belt.

It arrived tonight. And I fitted it in less than five minutes. Simple. Easy. Hell yeah! The tractor works. It collects grass. The beast lives!

So why is this in the ‘I feel like a man’ thread? Because I’ve sworn at this thing for two weeks, convinced I’m being an idiot and doing a simple mechanical thing wrong. And now it turns out I was right all along. I can do the mechanicing. I can fix a tractor!



Woo!

Get in!

I installed a whole new cooker hood in the kitchen. Drilled it into the wall, connected to the outlet pipe, taped it up with some aluminium stuff. Proper job.

But.

I put my knee through the granite counter top while doing it and caused 1200 quid's worth of damage. Go me.