Fixing a toaster - am I on to a loser here?

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Brian Gaff (Sofa) pretended :

Judging entirely by the behaviour of mine, about 7 years old, it uses electronic timing rather than mechanical.

[Jeff Layman]

Ours is a Russell-Hobbs "Seasons" toaster, about 25 or 30 years old (inherited from my parents). A few years ago it stopped latching when pushed down to start the toasting. I dismantled it and found a small piece of plastic had broken off from the latching mechanism. I used some epoxy resin to hold it back in place and the toaster has worked perfectly ever since.

[Scott]

I think real computers are the last bastion of user-servicable parts (as opposed to 'no user servicable parts').

I changed a graphics card or USB card or something and told my brother (who works in IT). His reaction was; 'Did you open up your computer? I have worked in IT for 25 years and I have never opened a computer.'

[mechanic]

My partner's sister is a big cheese in one of the banks, but as a high-up in IT there has no password protection or encryption on her laptop. What's that proverb about the cobblers children being poorly shod?

[michael adams]

Apart from the case screws holding down the power supply, expansion cards and hard disks and motherboards (and maybe other stuff) everything else is just about a matter of joining up different sorts of connectors or plugs. Its hard to think of any other product which has ever been made which was deliberately designed so as to be so easy to assemble.

The same may still be true of Apple except unlike PC's you're limited to fitting proprietary parts as a matter of policy.

michael adams

...

[bert]

Did you write Haynes manuals in a former life?

[tabbypurr]

Lol

[Dave N]

"Reassembly is the reverse ..." etc... :)

Anyway, looking as closely as I can at the fixing, it still looks like some kind of star washer arrangement rather than a security screw, so it seems to me that the only likely ways to get the cover off are to drill the fixin g out or break the washer off somehow - both options pretty unappealing. I thing I'll just have to splash out £30 for a new toaster. Many thanks to everyone for the suggestions and comments - I managed to find our old to aster in the loft today (a Braun model, c. 1995) so at least have something usable (it doesn't do thick bread or crumpets, though, which is why we got a new one), and note that the bottom panel is metal and fixed using screws . Clearly there are some ways in which technology has gone backwards...

[Dave Liquorice]

Er isn't that what a grill is for? Ah I guess with a modern worktop hob and a builtin oven you don't get a grill...

In more ways than one.

[Halmyre]

Well, we've got a built-in double oven; the top oven can be used as a grill but it's a horribly inefficient way of making toast, takes ages to get to temperature, only does one side at a time and will carbonise your toast in the blink of an eye if you're not watching it like a hawk.

[T i m]

<snip>

Or just undo the screws. ;-)

To fasten anything with any form of snap washer would first have to insert some form of pin into the plastic and that's not as easy as just having a hole and putting a(n anti-tamper) screw in there.

;-)

That's party how we winded up with what was probably the cheapest 4 slice toaster in the Argos catalogue, a white plastic 'Coolworks' thing and it's probably 10 years now and used very regularly. Why on earth would you want or anyone make a toaster that *doesn't* handle something as basic as thick bread or crumpets!? ;-(

We also like the layout with all the controls at the end.

But safety has gone forwards. It means 'most people' won't be able to get it to bits, not without getting, making / adapting some tools anyway. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[Dave Liquorice]

worktop

Do you preheat your toaster? Or just bung the bread in it a press "go". Kitchen timer 6 mins for our grill.

True enough but that doesn't bother me. B-)

So would your toaster if it didn't have an automatic (but unreliable) built in timer. "Unreliable" in that a second toasting straight after the first "will carbonise your toast in the blink of an eye if you're not watching it like a hawk". B-)

[Dave W]

Have you tried using an Allen key? As they are 6-sided perhaps one would jam into the six gaps between the pins?

[T i m]

<snip>

I think it's one of those optical illusion things Dave, where you can see the head of the screw as a hole or a dome.

If you look at is as I believe it is, a dome, then the tool to turn it wouldn't go in but 'over' the dome with inward facing 'splines' to engage with the 'slots' in the screw head, like this:

A diy solution would be to find a fairly fine flat-bladed driver that will fit in the recesses the screws are normally set in and grind a slot out of the middle, the depth of the slot the height of the dome and the width the distance between two opposing grooves. Then hope it's strong enough to undo all the screws [1] without breaking. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[1] There is normally at least *one* that won't budge. ;-)