Before you think I dabble in TV repair, I will let you know, if it is integrated circuits, diodes, capacitors or any electronic component, it is not something I will work on.
This TV repair is just replacing a broken stand leg. I do not remember how it was broken, but I needed to finally repair it. The TV is in a spare bedroom, and we use the DVR player to hold up one side of the TV. It works so there was not a need to fix the leg.
Recently the remote for the TV in our room was acting up. After replacing the batteries and slamming the remote on the bed a few times, it still did not work. The next day the remote worked. The off and on again with this remote finally forced us to buy a universal remote.
Efiwym, my wife, set up the remote and for a week the remote worked fine. However, one night the remote could not shut off the TV. We came to a decision. It was the TV, so we need to (1) buy a new TV or (2) switch our TV with the one-legged one in the spare bedroom.
I was open to buying another TV, but the TV works. We could just put it in another bedroom where it was hardly used. Efiwym called me cheap, which is the pot calling the kettle black. I got my cheapness from her.
I got this. Efiwym suggested duct tape. That sounded like a quick, easy fix. Unfortunately, the weight of this light LED TV was even too much for the duct tape.
Okay. I will use metal strapping to span across the leg to keep the two parts from spreading apart. I found a piece of strapping in the basement. I cut a piece off to span from one end to the other. Sad to say, the plastic was too brittle, and the screws just cracked the underside of the leg as I tried to tighten them up. So that did not work.
Plan B. Actually, Plan B was my original idea. Make the leg out of wood.
I had left over pine sides from a shelf I dismantled. They were a good size. I just needed one. I tried to replicate the original plastic leg. The extended legs of the plastic unit were offset. The wood one would be straight. I tried to match the shape of the leg.
However, the first try I overcut the angle of the leg. The leg was weakened, so in the garbage it went. The second try, I cracked the leg as I was trying to chisel out the bottom of the leg. Garbage.
I was trying too hard to match the old leg. Why? Keep it simple and I did. I just cut a rectangular piece of wood the height of the old leg. I cut an angle on both sides just to give a cleaner look. That was it. Finally, I drilled two holes to screw it to the TV. I countersunk the holes, so I did not need extra-long screws and kept the screw heads away from the bottom of the leg.
I test fit the leg on the TV. It fit well and it was time to paint it. I found a spray can of black paint. A couple coats of paint later, I installed the leg. Time to switch the TV sets.
I got the TV set up in the spare bedroom. I was going to set up the universal remote for the DVD player, since the remote for the DVD player was broken. There are several buttons on the universal remote for different components. I suddenly had an Aha moment. I pressed the TV button and tested the remote. The TV turned on and off with the remote. False alarm. The TV was okay. Human error.
Efiwym, my wife, was outside working in the garden. I went there to let her know the TV and remote were working. I asked her if we still should swap out the TVs. She said no. She did not know I had already switched out one TV. No big deal. The TVs were back in their original room. The remote worked and we now had a TV with a wooden leg.
