" Why go to all that bother if a bit of epoxy and some Al
mesh/
minimal hardware/drilling is all that's required. The hinge mount failed
in
quite normal use , so direct replacement likely to do the same.



Because, when you are doing work for people who are good enough to
entrust their repairs to you, it's about both appearing to be, and
*actually being* professional about the way you tackle the job. I wonder
how you would feel about a garage that fixed your clutch cable by joining
it with an electrical junction block, rather than replacing it, because
the bodge was cheaper and easier to do ?

Honestly, I don't know how you manage to make a living judging by some of
the threads you post on here. Yes, you are right that the title of this
group includes the word "repair", but I can't believe how literally you
seem to take that. Repairing often involves fitting new genuine
replacement parts, and especially it does when you are doing the work
commercially ...

Arfa

I have often thought the same Arfa - perhaps Mr Cook really would be more
suited to a group called sci.electronics.remanufacture. The efforts that
he goes to to "repair" stuff is jaw-dropping! I can understand the
satisfaction gained in getting something up and running that is deemed
commercially "unrepairable", but he does seem to go to extremes and I
doubt that he has ever really costed his time into the jobs he does. In my
past experience of such jobs when I have carried them out in order to do
the customer a favour they are rarely appreciative - whats worse, if a
"bodge" subsequently fails, no matter how far down the line, your
reputation will suffer. As for "improvements" to the original
spec......nuff said.

Roy

I have no problem - like you I suspect - with the art of the "technical
bodge". After all, we were taught to "mend" stuff when I was an apprentice
many many years ago. But there's a time and place in today's commercial
world. A good example was the interesting thread last week about the card
drive rubber in the HP unit. Finding and fitting, with success, an
alternative to the original part which is no longer available, is fine for
something you own yourself, and may be ok for a customer if there is
genuinely no alternative, and they are prepared to specifically authorise
you to carry out the repair in that way.

Sometimes, it's even ok to use the doctors' method of attacking the symptoms
of a fault, rather than the cause, when a problem is particularly obscure,
and lack of information or parts, renders the repair otherwise commercially
unviable. However, again, when the job was for a customer, I would not go
down this route without first explaining carefully, all of the alternatives,
and then getting a specific approval to carry out the work in that way.

In all other cases, as a commercial repairer, with a reputation and
standards to maintain, and with a desire to use my time to generate the
maximum revenue for my business, I cannot entertain carrying out repairs by
any method other than replacement of defective parts, with new ones, either
of genuine manufacturer supply, or suitable third party ones with equivalent
or superior specification.

I am also loathe to start modifying the mechanical or electrical design or
construction of an item, because I feel that it wasn't done right in the
first place. Certainly, the addition of the odd cable tie, or adding a
shakeproof washer to a screw head, is something I would do. Such 'missing'
items are often as a result of a cost cutting exercise by the manufacturer,
and do not alter the electrical or mechanical safety specs in any
detrimental way. However, I am absolutely against making any major
mechanical or electrical changes to a piece of equipment, that are not
specified as required changes in a manufacturer bulletin. I am not a
designer, and what I see as a 'design issue', may well have been done that
way in order to make the equipment comply with some safety regulation, that
I know nothing about. If I see a number of a 'young' product with a specific
design or manufacturing flaw, I will probably contact the manufacturer to
let them know, but if I see a twenty year old amplifier with an issue, then
I am not going to start questioning the designer's philosophy, and working
up mods to make it like I would want to see it.

I actually find a lot of what Mr Cook posts about, quite interesting, and I
admire his tenacity and ingenuity at finding fixes for some problems, but as
a fellow professional, I do have a lot of difficulty with the way he
apparently tackles some customer jobs, and whilst I'm sure that most if not
all of the professional repairers on here understand where he's coming from,
I'm not sure that it is right that amateurs learning from repair threads on
here, should see some of his fixes as the 'proper' way to do the job, and
the way that a commercial repairer would go about it ...

Still, as you say, 'nuff said. Perhaps I'm wrong in all this, and just being
a boring old pedant ... d;~}

Arfa