ShortScale.org

I dropped my M-Vave MIDI controller and the first stomp button started sticking,which I didn't realise until we started practice - embarrassing, though maybe not as bad as the complete failure of the MIDI cable harness the previous practice due to a bad solder joint.

A replacement actuator would have cost at least £6 so I decided to to take a look.

Open the box... Remove the actuator... .. and disassemble (pliers on the threaded shaft, grip on the knurled nut). A dent in the body in the keyway (in red oval) was the cause of the stickiness, though it took a few minutes to spot it.. It must have been caused by the tang in the cut-out for the actuator when I dropped the unit. It took a few careful whacks with a small hammer on a suitable pointy object to push the dent out to restore operation.

Hooray for make do 'n' mend!

Doog wrote: Tue Jul 28, 2026 7:39 am Hooray for make do 'n' mend!

I guess that's my parents' generation, so no surprise there. As a lad I was impressed by the cycle mechanic who dismantled the slipping freewheel mechanism of my bike and filed the worn pawls back to pointy ends.

I’m gen x and there was a lot of make do and mend when I was a kid. Although admittedly I grew up in the middle of nowhere.

Would get an adult to just weld a slipping bike wheel into a fixie before fixies were a thing.

I don't think it's just because you were in the middle of nowhere, things were made to be fixed when we were kids, and that's what people did. I can remember my mum soldering my black and white TV back together when it broke, and clothes always got repaired rather than just thrown out.

I love it when you see a new thread in here, then see that it's a repair thread, then see that NickS was author.