"If you can't fix it, you don't own it."
I don't recall exactly where I first heard this mantra, for some reason I recall it may have been after watching the movie Maker, but it also may very well be from using iFixit on several occasions for iPhone repairs. Either way, it resonated with me, and is something I continually remind my students each day.
Reminders without context, however, are often fruitless. Our students tend to recognize and implement the meaning of such a mantra when paired with a concrete example. As luck would have it, yesterday my wife's toothbrush stopped working properly.
Additionally, one of my students has been working on creating a electric toothbrush band, and I have spent some time working with them opening and tinkering with different types of electric toothbrushes.
So, instead of throwing the broken brush away, I began a YouTube search on how to fix the maligned equipment. Turns out, there are thousands of videos online showing you how to open up and fix all varieties of electric toothbrushes. After examining several videos, I was finally able to find one that showed similar symptoms as my toothbrush which you can find here, and was able to safely open up the casing, extract the hardware, and locate the issue, which happened to be a shearing of a metal part.
A few dollars spent on Ebay, and hopefully I will have this toothbrush back to working order in a few days. By exposing my students to real life scenarios of fixing rather complicated objects, will hopefully give them the confidence and curiosity to take on the challenge of fixing an item rather than simply replacing it.
Will post an update once finished. For now, here are a few photos of the opened toothbrush and the broken Tip Linkage, which needs replacing.
