There are some chores I handle better than others

I can’t say that my dad ever sat me down and taught me anything; that just wasn’t his style. What my dad would do is to let me watch.

The handle on my expensive front load washer broke off and to no surprise it was right at the stress point. It’s a plastic handle and sometimes you can glue plastic and it will be fine but it will almost never hold up at a stress point, so I didn’t even bother trying.

You could still open the door by pressing your fingers hard against where what was left of the handle with only a little bit of bother but today that little bit of bother became too much. So, I removed what was left of the handle and took it to the basement. I set the table saw fence against it and the blade and cut off a small piece of plexiglass that I had sitting around.

Once I had the width, I put it in a vise and then heated it with a propane torch and carefully waited for the top to start to fold over. I was going to stop there and drill some holes to fit the screws but it felt a little flimsy so I heated it some more and folded it over completely, so it was double thick on one side and then while it was still hot I placed it on top of the curved handle piece I had and let it take its shape.

Then I drilled two holes and screwed my creation to the washer door. I was a little too steep on the angle; I bent it too much towards a J shape instead of an L shape but it works.

Anyway, my dad used to have this thing, it looked like a thick piece of tape with a wire hidden inside, that would heat up and if you laid it on top of a piece of plexiglass, the plexiglass would bend at the heat source.