That's Maintenance, Repair, & Operations for those of you who, like me, hadn't come across this TLA before. Well the repair to the Family Seat lasted only for a while, first the fake screw head came away, then the bracket holding the large toilet seat started pivoting and coming off the hinge bar at one end, leading to a seated experience akin to riding on a tea tray. The Codger had a go at it and put in a new screw but, despite his confidence that it would work and my speculation that the stump of the old screw meant it wouldn't, it was in the end a very temporary fix (2 weeks max). So I should be junking it….
But, it hasn't come away completely and is only pivoting on the good screw, so if this could be prevented the whole thing might well last a while yet. Bargain!
The first job was to decontaminate the whole thing (ten minutes of surface cleaner to clean it up and some vinegar to shift the verdigris that had formed on some of the metal parts). The business end of the job was one hole to drill and one screw to fix; forgetting to refit the brackets for attaching the seat to the toilet before capping the hinge bar made that two screws to drive. An M4 12mm zinc-plated self-tapping screw makes a stud to stop the main seat hinge from rotating off the bar. Not a pretty repair by any standards but who takes that much notice of the underside of a toilet seat. All worked as planned but the single screw holding the hinge onto the seat is somewhat shaky.
If it breaks it's the bin, or perhaps a stainless steel bracket could be made that would hold it for a bit longer…
Either way, JOB DONE.
