Toaster's on the blink and I want to have a crack at it.

The base plate is held on by six screws [1]. Four are cross-head;
two at one end are security Torx - i.e. Torx with a pin in the
middle to stop you using normal Torx drivers. (Onfgneqf).

Anyone had success with drilling out the central pin?

I could just drill out the screw entirely. I'm sure the
remaining four screws would do an adequate job.

Thoughts?

[1] Would "bolts" be more accurate?

On 10/05/2011 09:06, Fevric J. Glandules wrote:

The base plate is held on by six screws [1]. Four are cross-head;
two at one end are security Torx - i.e. Torx with a pin in the
middle to stop you using normal Torx drivers. (Onfgneqf).

Anyone had success with drilling out the central pin?

Your best bet would be to buy a security bit set like
http://www.screwfix.com/p/security-bit-set-33pcs/96872

Obviously contains more bits than the one you need, but it's a really
useful bit of kit to keep for occasions like this

David

Fevric J. Glandules wrote:

Toaster's on the blink and I want to have a crack at it.

The base plate is held on by six screws [1]. Four are cross-head;
two at one end are security Torx - i.e. Torx with a pin in the
middle to stop you using normal Torx drivers. (Onfgneqf).

Anyone had success with drilling out the central pin?

I could just drill out the screw entirely. I'm sure the
remaining four screws would do an adequate job.

Thoughts?

[1] Would "bolts" be more accurate?

It would be easier to just buy a set of security bits - google will lead
you. Think Screwfix has them.

--
Tim Watts

On Tue, 10 May 2011 08:06:46 +0000 (UTC), Fevric J. Glandules wrote:

Anyone had success with drilling out the central pin?

You'll probably find that if you bend it from side to side a few
times it'll snap off. Or just get a set of "security" bits. These
fixings are anti tamper not security.

--
Cheers
Dave.

In article ,
Lobster wrote:

Obviously contains more bits than the one you need, but it's a really
useful bit of kit to keep for occasions like this

But not, according to the reviews, for anything requiring appreciable
force.

-- Richard

Fevric J. Glandules wrote:

Toaster's on the blink and I want to have a crack at it.

The base plate is held on by six screws [1]. Four are cross-head;
two at one end are security Torx - i.e. Torx with a pin in the
middle to stop you using normal Torx drivers. (Onfgneqf).

Anyone had success with drilling out the central pin?

I could just drill out the screw entirely. I'm sure the
remaining four screws would do an adequate job.

Thoughts?

[1] Would "bolts" be more accurate?

The bits are easy to buy nowadays, screwfix do a couple or more sets ..
If you cba to buy anything a flat bladed screwdriver tapped into the
top often breaks the pin off ...

--
Paul - xxx

On May 10, 9:21*am, "Dave Liquorice"
wrote:

You'll probably find that if you bend it from side to side a few
times it'll snap off.

This works for real security Torx, made by Torx, of reasonable size.

For monkeymetal screws under toasters, it's another game. The pins
aren't hard, they just flop around. There's a risk of chewing the head
as fast as you get the pin out.

Or just get a set of "security" bits.

Far easier

In article , Fevric J. Glandules
writes

Anyone had success with drilling out the central pin?

If the screw head is not recessed, a small flat-blade screwdriver wedged
against the pin and given a sharp tap with a hammer breaks it off. You
can then use a standard Torx driver to remove the screw.

--
Mike Tomlinson

On 10/05/2011 09:06, Fevric J. Glandules wrote:
Toaster's on the blink and I want to have a crack at it.

The base plate is held on by six screws [1]. Four are cross-head;
two at one end are security Torx - i.e. Torx with a pin in the
middle to stop you using normal Torx drivers. (Onfgneqf).

Anyone had success with drilling out the central pin?

I could just drill out the screw entirely. I'm sure the
remaining four screws would do an adequate job.

Thoughts?

[1] Would "bolts" be more accurate?

I had one or two on my pressure washer, and snapped the centre pins off,
using a spring-loaded centre punch.
--
Cheers,
Roger
____________
Please reply to Newsgroup. Whilst email address is valid, it is seldom
checked.

Fevric J. Glandules wrote:

I could just drill out the screw entirely. I'm sure the
remaining four screws would do an adequate job.

Thoughts?

Rummage around in your nuts-n-bolts tin and find some nuts large enough
to sit over the entire screw heads. Carefully fill the centre hole with
weld. Allow to cool and undo with appropriately sized spanner.
If you can't find an appropriately sized spanner, rummage around in your
nuts-n-bolts tin and find some bigger nuts large enough to sit over the
entire nuts. Carefully fill the centre hole with weld. Allow to cool and
undo with appropriately sized spanner. If you can't find an
appropriately sized spanner, rummage around in your nuts-n-bolts tin and
find some bigger nuts large enough to sit over the entire nuts.
Carefully fill the centre hole with weld. Allow to cool and undo with
appropriately sized spanner. Etc.

wrote:

On Tue, 10 May 2011 08:06:46 +0000 (UTC), "Fevric J. Glandules"
wrote:

Toaster's on the blink

It's toast?

igmc

Why not buy a new one and avoid electrocution?

Cos it's only three and a half fecking years old and it's not
been that heavily used.

Andy Dingley wrote:

For monkeymetal screws under toasters, it's another game. The pins
aren't hard, they just flop around. There's a risk of chewing the head
as fast as you get the pin out.

I shall attack it with pliers.

Or just get a set of "security" bits.

Far easier

Much less fun. Slower, too. I live in a land far far away from the
concept of DIY. So I pretty much *have* to order this sort of thing
from the UK.

On May 10, 12:33*pm, wrote:

Why not buy a new one and avoid electrocution?

Because then MI5 would have to break in again to re-install the bug in
it, and I've only just had the carpets cleaned.

When I make toast in mine, it comes out with an image of Mike Corley's
face printed on it.

August West wrote:

Forrisn
loved
belvie
their

Are you TNP in-disguise?

Castorama own the larger UK ones B&Q

No, they're both owned by Kingfisher

http://www.kingfisher.co.uk/index.asp?pageid=23

On 10/05/2011 09:06, Fevric J. Glandules wrote:
Toaster's on the blink and I want to have a crack at it.

The base plate is held on by six screws [1]. Four are cross-head;
two at one end are security Torx - i.e. Torx with a pin in the
middle to stop you using normal Torx drivers. (Onfgneqf).

Anyone had success with drilling out the central pin?

I could just drill out the screw entirely. I'm sure the
remaining four screws would do an adequate job.

Thoughts?

[1] Would "bolts" be more accurate?

In addition to the other suggestion, if you have access, you can use a
hacksaw to cut a normal screwdriver-slot across the head.

--
Ron

Fevric J. Glandules wrote:

Much less fun. Slower, too. I live in a land far far away from the
concept of DIY. So I pretty much *have* to order this sort of thing
from the UK.

I eventually noticed that one of my cheap'n'nasty sets of fold-out
Torx drivers were of the anti-anti-bozo type anyway.

And having inspected the leccytronics inside - it's transistorised,
FFS - I don't think there's much I can do.

On 10/05/2011 16:50, Fevric J. Glandules wrote:
Fevric J. Glandules wrote:

Much less fun. Slower, too. I live in a land far far away from the
concept of DIY. So I pretty much *have* to order this sort of thing
from the UK.

I eventually noticed that one of my cheap'n'nasty sets of fold-out
Torx drivers were of the anti-anti-bozo type anyway.

And having inspected the leccytronics inside - it's transistorised,
FFS - I don't think there's much I can do.

Yup, should have had a valve in there to warm the toast up... progress,
what are they thinking off?

Mhmm, I'd quite like a toaster built to toast bread with a laser beam.
With the right guidance, it could write the morning paper's headlines on
there, an image of the lass on page 3, or scribe the time the slice came
out of the toaster so ye could choose the freshest bit.

OK, this should be possible with DIY. How many mW or MW required?

--
Adrian C

On Tue, 10 May 2011 15:50:56 +0000, Fevric J. Glandules wrote:


And having inspected the leccytronics inside - it's transistorised, FFS
- I don't think there's much I can do.

If ever a toaster worked reliably for more than about 12 months, all the
toaster manufacturers would go bust.

Murff...

In message , Fevric J. Glandules
writes
Toaster's on the blink and I want to have a crack at it.

The base plate is held on by six screws [1]. Four are cross-head;
two at one end are security Torx - i.e. Torx with a pin in the
middle to stop you using normal Torx drivers. (Onfgneqf).

Well you could buy some security Torx drivers, but that's no fun . . . I
had a similar problem on holiday, when I have to disassemble the villa's
microwave, just used my travelbag's always present multitool in long
nose plier mode to grip and turn the screws, and managed to get all the
security Torx out and back again.



--

bof at bof dot me dot uk

On 10/05/2011 17:13, Adrian C wrote:

Mhmm, I'd quite like a toaster built to toast bread with a laser beam.
With the right guidance, it could write the morning paper's headlines on
there, an image of the lass on page 3, or scribe the time the slice came
out of the toaster so ye could choose the freshest bit.

.... and a photocell to monitor how brown it's got and control the laser
scan pattern so that you get even brown all over.

--
Mike Clarke

In message , Lobster
writes
On 10/05/2011 09:06, Fevric J. Glandules wrote:

The base plate is held on by six screws [1]. Four are cross-head;
two at one end are security Torx - i.e. Torx with a pin in the
middle to stop you using normal Torx drivers. (Onfgneqf).

Anyone had success with drilling out the central pin?

Your best bet would be to buy a security bit set like
http://www.screwfix.com/p/security-bit-set-33pcs/96872

Obviously contains more bits than the one you need, but it's a really
useful bit of kit to keep for occasions like this


How much ???

the 32 bit security set is around a quid from CPC


--
geoff

In message , Fevric J. Glandules
writes
Andy Dingley wrote:

For monkeymetal screws under toasters, it's another game. The pins
aren't hard, they just flop around. There's a risk of chewing the head
as fast as you get the pin out.

I shall attack it with pliers.

Or just get a set of "security" bits.

Far easier

Much less fun. Slower, too. I live in a land far far away from the
concept of DIY. So I pretty much *have* to order this sort of thing
from the UK.

Birmingham?

Make your own tool ...

--
geoff

On May 11, 3:50 am, "Fevric J. Glandules"
wrote:

And having inspected the leccytronics inside - it's transistorised,
FFS - I don't think there's much I can do.

Check the contacts that open and close when the handle is pushed down.
They can become dirty or corroded.

Murff writes:

On Tue, 10 May 2011 15:50:56 +0000, Fevric J. Glandules wrote:
And having inspected the leccytronics inside - it's transistorised, FFS
- I don't think there's much I can do.
If ever a toaster worked reliably for more than about 12 months, all the
toaster manufacturers would go bust.

Don't know about recent UK toasters, but the older ones had a nifty
thermo-mechanical bistable/toggle device.

A small heating coil in series with the main heating element heated a
bimetallic strip until it toggled a switch which bypassed aforesaid
small heating coil. The bimetallic strip then cooled down and when
fully cold again it tripped the mechanism which held the toast in place
and also turned on the electricity supply to the toaster element.

Result was that the next slice(s) of toast were toasted to about the
same degree as the first because the bimetallic strip always started
from a cold state.

I call this nifty because Canadian and American toasters of a similar
vintage lacked the toggling arrangement for the bimetallic strip.
They just heated and toasted until the bimetallic strip was hot enough
to turn off the supply and pop the toast.
Which left the bimetallic strip in a hot state, resulting in underdone
toast if you tried to do another slice without waiting for several
minutes to allow everything to cool back to room temperature.

N. American toasters never worked well anyway.

I'm wondering if the bean counters have forced the same mis design on
today's UK toasters. (Or are they all computer-controlled? A
photosensor could assess the degree of browning, which might be handy
if it could toast both white and brown bread ti the same degree without
changing any settings, but that seems unlikely to cause the unevenly
toasted bread someone complained of).



--
Windmill, Use t m i l l
@ O n e t e l
. c o m

On Wed, 11 May 2011 08:33:17 +0000, Huge wrote:

On 2011-05-10, Murff wrote:
On Tue, 10 May 2011 15:50:56 +0000, Fevric J. Glandules wrote:


And having inspected the leccytronics inside - it's transistorised,
FFS - I don't think there's much I can do.

If ever a toaster worked reliably for more than about 12 months, all
the toaster manufacturers would go bust.

My Dualit is over 10 years old.

+1

--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

*lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor

On May 11, 10:23*am, (Sn!pe) wrote:
Bob Eager wrote:
If ever a toaster worked reliably for more than about 12 months, all
the toaster manufacturers would go bust.

My Dualit is over 10 years old.

+1

When the local posh cooking shop asked ~£150 for a Dualit two-slot
toaster I thought I can buy a new toaster every year for that money.
Our John Lewis one, bought for a fraction of the Dualit price, is still
going strong after four years. It makes bloody good toast too.

+1

MBQ

On May 10, 9:06*am, "Fevric J. Glandules"
wrote:
Toaster's on the blink and I want to have a crack at it.

The base plate is held on by six screws [1]. *Four are cross-head;
two at one end are security Torx - i.e. Torx with a pin in the
middle to stop you using normal Torx drivers. *(Onfgneqf).

Anyone had success with drilling out the central pin?

I could just drill out the screw entirely. *I'm sure the
remaining four screws would do an adequate job.

Thoughts?

[1] Would "bolts" be more accurate?

No.

On 11 May,
Huge wrote:

On 2011-05-10, Murff wrote:
On Tue, 10 May 2011 15:50:56 +0000, Fevric J. Glandules wrote:


And having inspected the leccytronics inside - it's transistorised, FFS
- I don't think there's much I can do.

If ever a toaster worked reliably for more than about 12 months, all the
toaster manufacturers would go bust.

My Dualit is over 10 years old.

My Dualit percolator was two years old when I gave up on it last month. The
Morphy Richards one that I had before lasted well over a quarter century.

I wonder how long my De Longhi coffee maker will last. Several Years at
least I hope.

--
B Thumbs
Change lycos to yahoo to reply

Sn!pe said:
Bob Eager wrote:

If ever a toaster worked reliably for more than about 12 months, all
the toaster manufacturers would go bust.

My Dualit is over 10 years old.

+1

When the local posh cooking shop asked ~£150 for a Dualit two-slot
toaster I thought I can buy a new toaster every year for that money.
Our John Lewis one, bought for a fraction of the Dualit price, is still
going strong after four years. It makes bloody good toast too.

Is there any other sort ? Point infra-red at it till just before it starts
to smoke ... is it /possible/ to **** toast up, apart from with the timing ?


I've bought 2 toasters in the last dozen years, for a total of £17 or £18
quid. I don't eat a huge amount of toast, right enough, and there is only 1
of me. But I can't see how it's possible that my Toast User Experience could
have been enhanced by having spent ten times that.

--
Richard Robinson
"The whole plan hinged upon the natural curiosity of potatoes" - S. Lem

My email address is at http://www.qualmograph.org.uk/contact.html

On May 10, 9:06*am, "Fevric J. Glandules"
wrote:
Toaster's on the blink and I want to have a crack at it.

The base plate is held on by six screws [1]. *Four are cross-head;
two at one end are security Torx - i.e. Torx with a pin in the
middle to stop you using normal Torx drivers. *(Onfgneqf).

Anyone had success with drilling out the central pin?

I could just drill out the screw entirely. *I'm sure the
remaining four screws would do an adequate job.

Thoughts?

[1] Would "bolts" be more accurate?

No-one has yet suggested 'angle grinder'. What's going on here?

--
Halmyre

On 11 May,
Huge wrote:

On 2011-05-11, wrote:

My Dualit percolator was two years old when I gave up on it last month.

The handle has broken twice on our Dualit percolator. Both times, they sent
us a new one FoC, the second time with a new lid, since the design had
changed, presumably because of the handles breaking. We've had it at least
5 years and it gets used every day.

The knob is broken but still holds without the black disc and seal, but the
overheat thermostat went OC as well.

The thing that put me off repairing it was that if I looked in after it had
cooled, and still had coffee in it it looked as if something was effervescing
slightly around the edge of the well at the base. I wasn't sure what was
happening and didn't like the idea of drinking the stuff afterwards.

--
B Thumbs
Change lycos to yahoo to reply

On Wed, 11 May 2011 10:23:55 +0100, Sn!pe wrote:

Bob Eager wrote:

If ever a toaster worked reliably for more than about 12 months, all
the toaster manufacturers would go bust.

My Dualit is over 10 years old.

+1

When the local posh cooking shop asked ~£150 for a Dualit two-slot
toaster I thought I can buy a new toaster every year for that money. Our
John Lewis one, bought for a fraction of the Dualit price, is still
going strong after four years. It makes bloody good toast too.

Much cheaper in Costco. About £125 for a four slot Dualit last time I
looked.

--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

*lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor

On May 11, 9:33*am, Huge wrote:

My Dualit is over 10 years old.

Although the timers on Dualits have a pretty poor reputation. Easy
fix, there's plenty around. Funny that.

In article , writes
On 11 May,

I wonder how long my De Longhi coffee maker will last. Several Years at
least I hope.

If it's the model "Cafe Treviso"/ BAR 14 /EC152 espresso maker, make
sure you never let the water tank run dry. A houseguest did just that
with mine and knackered it. I can't decide whether to order the parts to
fix it or just spring for a new one, around the 50 quid mark delivered.

--
Mike Tomlinson

In article , Adrian C wrote:

Mhmm, I'd quite like a toaster built to toast bread with a laser beam.
With the right guidance, it could write the morning paper's headlines on
there, an image of the lass on page 3, or scribe the time the slice came
out of the toaster so ye could choose the freshest bit.

http://home.insightbb.com/~jmengel4/bread/bread.html

Non-laser options:
http://www.appliancist.com/toasters/...e-toaster.html
http://www.gizmodiva.com/home_gadget...g_toasters.php

On 11 May, 09:33, Huge wrote:
On 2011-05-10, Murff wrote:

On Tue, 10 May 2011 15:50:56 +0000, Fevric J. Glandules wrote:

And having inspected the leccytronics inside - it's transistorised, FFS
- I don't think there's much I can do.

If ever a toaster worked reliably for more than about 12 months, all the
toaster manufacturers would go bust.

My Dualit is over 10 years old.

So you've had time to toast, what, 10? slices of bread?

(Even SWMBO agrees that our Dualit toaster takes too long to actually,
you know, /toast/ stuff.)

In article , Huge wrote:

If ever a toaster worked reliably for more than about 12 months, all the
toaster manufacturers would go bust.

My Dualit is over 10 years old.

I have one of them. It's reliable, just not very good at making toast.
I wouldn't buy another.

-- Richard

On Wed, 11 May 2011 05:59:50 -0700, Martin Bonner wrote:

On 11 May, 09:33, Huge wrote:
On 2011-05-10, Murff wrote:

On Tue, 10 May 2011 15:50:56 +0000, Fevric J. Glandules wrote:

And having inspected the leccytronics inside - it's transistorised,
FFS - I don't think there's much I can do.

If ever a toaster worked reliably for more than about 12 months, all
the toaster manufacturers would go bust.

My Dualit is over 10 years old.

So you've had time to toast, what, 10? slices of bread?

(Even SWMBO agrees that our Dualit toaster takes too long to actually,
you know, /toast/ stuff.)

You must have something dreadfully wrong. A 4 slot Dualit can do over 100
slices an hour.



--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

*lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor

Matty F wrote:

Check the contacts that open and close when the handle is pushed down.
They can become dirty or corroded.

They looked okay.

Juice is clearly getting into it cos the handle only stays down if
it's plugged in. It's just that the elements don't come on.

Huge wrote:

The handle has broken twice on our Dualit percolator.

Who wants a percolator?