2026, home, Technology, Uncategorized

Fandango

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Husband and I have very tall ceilings in our dining room, and kitchen. Most of the lights are recessed. These are the lights in the kitchen:

We haven’t had any bulbs burn out, but when we do I am afraid I will have to phone an electrician to come and change the bulb. We haven’t a tall enough ladder, and I can’t manage heights any longer.

The living room also has a very high ceiling with a large fan that works well to circulate air and keep the house cool. You can see it in the header photo. It is little too rococo for my tastes, and like many appliances in our new home it needed to be repaired. I had the electrician come over on Thursday to fix it. The fan worked, but made an intermittent grinding, scraping noise that was maddening to listen to. Sometimes it was quiet, sometimes it wasn’t. It is also very high up, and there was no way we could check it out ourselves.

The electrician figured out that one of the blades was not flush and was making the scraping noise. He told us it needed a very thin shim to raise it up, and that he would “MacGyver” something to solve the problem. It was quite a process to take the globe and other internal parts off to get to the blade turning mechanism, and he did it while standing atop a very tall ladder. He intended to use a very small, thin piece of wood as a shim. He inadvertently broke off the tip of his screwdriver in his attempt to raise the blade mechanism to put in the shim. To his surprise the metal tip stayed under the blade and was exactly the size shim he needed to keep it from scraping. Now it runs really quietly.

I was able to wash out the glass globe before he reassembled the fan. It hadn’t been cleaned out for a very long time. The electrician couldn’t “MacGyver” how to change the direction the fan blades circled, but at least it is quiet.

What have you had to “MacGyver”? Broke many tools? Got ceiling fans?

18 thoughts on “Fandango”

  1. When I moved into this house 30+ years ago, I found that many things had been MacGyvered – only not as well as Angus would have done it. And when you think about it, MacGyver only Macgyvered his way out of things in an emergency, not long-term solutions (that I can remember).

    Anyway, it’s taken all these years to un-do what the previous owners had gotten up to, so I prefer NOT to MacGyver things these days.

    And since we don’t have air conditioning (except for two window units that we both resist installing every summer), we had many ceiling fans… in fact, I was just thinking yesterday what would be involved in getting one installed in my studio.

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  2. I pretty much missed MacGyver, as we didn’t get our TV till about 1989, but it sounds a bit like jerry-rig.

    A lot of my MacGyvering over the years has been with the sewing machine – patching things, etc. I remember making a 2nd-hand sleeveless top large enough by inserting similarly colored strips of fabric on the side.. sort of a patchwork affair, but it works.

    Three of our six ceiling fans need work.

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  3. I’m surprised the electrician didn’t advise you to replace the whole fixture. Fans wear out, especially horizontal fans subject to gravity. They aren’t usually that robust in the first place. I predict that before long another blade will sag and start making noise.
    Here was your chance to replace the unit with one less rococo, one that reverses and one that adjusts by remote control. It probably would have taken the electrician less time to make the replacement than to MacGuyver the present one.

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  4. Just recently MacGyvered a latch for the screen porch door after three previous attempts didn’t work. This one is also temporary. We probably need a new door.

    I’m all for repurposing things for “MG” repairs but don’t go looking for ways to do that. It happens when it happens and I feel like doing it.

    Broken tools? None I can think of. I’ve broken other things WITH tools. Biggest goof was trying to cram an extension ladder into my Toyota Tercel and cracking the windshield because it “just didn’t quite fit.” D’OH!

    Ceiling fan in master BR and porch. We use BR one regularly in summer. Porch not so much because there’s usually a breeze. But it has a light if we want to sit there in late evening and enjoy the night.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  5. I’m not mechanically inclined. I mind gets fuzzy trying to think of ways to circumvent an actual repair or replacement. I usually figure that if I try to “MacGyver” something, it won’t work for long and I’ll have to repair/replace anyway, so I just get it fixed by someone who knows how. This costs money. It gets expensive being alone and not handy.

    Yes, I’ve broken tools (see above). I finally got some tools I know how to use and won’t break.

    Ceiling fans are nice. I want to get two – one in the bedroom and one in the living area. Note to self: I should do that before BBC comes to my house in July. I had three ceiling fans in my former house. They ran quite a bit. They’re helpful in the winter when heat rises up to the top story. They’re even more helpful in the summer.

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      1. that’s how i am locked out. i aborted chrome and it wont let me in without it

        I have not ever owned a ceiling fan as remarkable as that sounds. I have dinged around with them and figured out how to get them to reverse, etc..but never dealt with the details. i fix stuff in what will be an acceptable way when necessary but often a trip to the home depot is all i need. i am living in a rental currently and the landlords handy workers are bottom of the barrel almost without exception. having a list of all the cheapest least knowledgeable workers available is what happens when you have a set of ethics that say bare minimum is sufficient.
        renee there is a bult changing tool on amazon that allow you to turn the bulb with a claw similar to the one used to pick up paper off the ground. for tall ceilings maybe a step stool would do it but certainly not a high ladder

        tim

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        1. At my friend’s clinic with high ceilings, the device Tim describes is what we used to change light bulbs.

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  9. I entered into an argument with my b-i-l a year or two ago about the ceiling fan in their living room. It was rotating clockwise, and I told him the blades are supposed to go counter clockwise in summer. He insists they are going counter clockwise. To me, clearly, they are clockwise. When the blades move from the 12 o’clock position to the 3 and then the 6 and then the 9, that’s clockwise. But he still sees it moving counter clockwise.

    It’s a bit like having a conversation with a Trump supporter.

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