this post was submitted on 15 May 2024
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Right to Repair

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Whether it be electronics, automobiles or medical equipment, the manufacturers should not be able to horde “oem” parts, render your stuff useless if you repair it with aftermarket parts, or hide schematics of their products.

I Fix It Repair Manifesto

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Basic blender went bad (motor ran but spindle wasn't rotating). I wanted to disassemble to see if it could be repaired. Three of the four screws were Phillips head. I had to cut the casing open in order to discover why I couldn't unscrew the fourth. It was a slotted spanner.

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Harbor freight has sets of tamper resistant bits. They are also handy for regular Allen and torx heads.

[–] ThrowawaySobriquet 14 points 6 months ago (1 children)

This right here. I bought their security bit set and, true, I've only ever opened the case three times in the few years I've had it, but in those three times nothing else would have worked without a more destructive solution

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Here’s the link, it’s helped me out a bunch of times in the 6-8 years I’ve had it.

2 notes though

  • these are hard cheese grade metal. Don’t plan on removing any high torque, Rusty or partly stripped screws with them, they’ll either break or round off.
  • if the screw is too recesses down a narrow hole, these won’t help. The bit holders are too wide to fit in. I have a Honeywell Air Purifier with one security Torx that is 3-4” down a hole that this set failed me on.
[–] Godnroc 1 points 6 months ago

Just to add to your comment, the sell a smaller set for a few dollars less and also a "precision" screwdriver set that has some similar bits not but the full set. Both are very handy to keep around for this exact thing.