Awesome Repairs

Knives and other pocket tools with moving parts need occasional maintenance to keep them in good working order. This kit from premium toolmaker Wiha includes six Torx drivers, a stubby bit driver, and a GoBox ratchet driver with numerous 1/4″ bits. The padded foam workstation has a magnetic tray for holding screws and other small parts so they don’t get lost.

Repairing watches requires precision and a steady hand. It also helps if the part that you’re working on isn’t moving around. This video from luxury watch shop Phigora and watchmaker Henry Lyy shows a nifty little gadget that uses hundreds of tiny posts to clamp irregular items in place. If you’re looking to buy one, we found some for sale on AliExpress.

This Japanese-made screwdriver set from Vessel is designed for extracting difficult-to-remove screws. Its high-grip handle maximizes torque and automatically rotates in reverse when struck with a hammer. Among its included bits is a special wedge-shaped tool that digs into damaged screw heads. Keep an eye on Amazon for model number 238HWB7PU.

With the advent of pay stations and mobile parking apps, meters are becoming a rare sight. But these coin-collecting dinosaurs still have some neat mechanical bits worth exploring inside of them, as Rescue & Restore shows as they down a 1960s Duncan meter and makes it like new again. That shiny red coat is a thing of beauty.

We love Hacksmith Industries’ YouTube channel. They also have a store that sells gadgets, toys, brand merch, and books. The Handyman Pocket Reference Book belongs in every home, workshop, and work site. It’s packed with facts and figures used in carpentry, construction, and repairs, info about hardware, wiring, building techniques, and more.

This rubberized mat is ideal for maintaining firearms, knives, pocket tools, and mechanical gadgets. Its divided trays keep parts and tools organized, while magnetic panels in its top right corner keep metal parts from rolling away. Its soft polymer surface resists damage from oils and has a non-slip backing, while built-in hooks make it easy to hang and store.

Just because your clothes have holes in them doesn’t mean you need to throw them away. Kiriko put together this bundle of Jessica Marquez’s craft tutorial book Make and Mend and a set of unique, assorted textiles for patching torn jeans, worn elbows, and other repairs. The fabric squares come in sizes from 3″ x 3″ to 9″ x 9″.

Auto mechanics hear all kinds of weird stories about cars and the problems they’re having. Just Rolled In offers up another amusing video of strange sounds that cars are making, then follows them up with the description provided by each customer. Our favorite is the defective blend door actuator, which sounds exactly like the intro to Hot for Teacher.

If you use your knives at all, you need to maintain them to keep them sharp and opening smoothly. Pine and Print makes this wood workstation for maintenance and repairs on knives and other small tools. It’s got a large work area and three parts storage trays lined with black plastic and cutouts for a dozen 1/4″ driver bits.

Say you cracked a tail light on your classic car. You could search eBay or junkyards for a replacement, but if you can’t find one, a repair might be your only option. We watched in awe as this talented craftsman fixed a missing piece of plastic from an old taillight, precisely matching its texture and color, and making it look as good as new.

If you’ve ever curbed the rims on your car, you know how awful it can look. But with the proper equipment and expertise, it’s possible to repair damaged rims. Wheel Restore USA shows how their diamond cut wheel lathe can make even heavily damaged wheels look as good as new by removing a thin layer of metal. They also have a wheel-painting robot.

Fix all the things with iFixit’s professional-grade repair toolkit. It includes precision screwdrivers of all kinds, an antistatic mat, a magnetic repair workstation, suction cups, spudgers, tweezers, picks, an anti-clamp for pulling things apart, a digital multimeter, a digital caliper, and much more, all packed in a single bag.

Imagine trying to patch a hole in a leaky pipe while water is pouring out of it. It’s not an easy task. This video of a construction worker in New Orleans shows one method for fixing such a problem – sliding a metal sleeve over the leak, clamping it down to the pipe, then closing a valve on its side, much like turning off a faucet.

On its own, cyanoacrylate glue, aka “super glue,” is great for holding together broken items. But it can’t fill in large gaps. In this video from The Maker, he shows us how saturating cotton with super glue lets can patch and reinforce holes with impressive results. We highly recommend wearing gloves when handling this stuff though.

Masters of Craft walks us through the painstaking process of restoring a 19th-century violin that came to them in a distressed and unplayable condition. The vintage Stradavari replica required heaping helpings of TLC, but the result is impressive.

What you’re looking at is a 1969 Ural M63 motorcycle. This particular bike sat unused for years, gathering rust on its chassis and drivetrain. But this is exactly the kind of challenge that an expert restorer like Great Idea lives for. After carefully removing the rust, re-plating, galvanizing, and painting parts, the bike looks as good as new.