Hey, Stan!

It is a good thing you called just when you did; had you been five minutes later, I would have just finished beating my 1950 Toastmaster to death with a big hammer, and throwing it into the trash.

Over the past six months or so, it has been getting worse and worse about popping up when the toast is done and the latch lets go. I have been putting off getting into it to lube the sliding parts, remembering what my father told me many years ago. "A toaster is the worst thing in the world to try to work on."

But Friday morning, when I forgot to watch it, I was somewhat perturbed when I saw flames roaring out of the top. I didn't even know toast would burn with an open flame - did you? So I decided it was time to bite the bullet and tear into the thing. 

Dad was right. I struggled with the durned thing for close to 1/2 an hour, just to get the stupid chrome cover off it. There is insufficient clearance for both ends to go over the protruding nuts at once. You have to work one end over then the other. As it turns out, one end has a tiny bit more play than the other; naturally, that end has to come off last. In due course, I got the durned thing disassembled, and managed to get anti-seize on the proper sliding parts. (and under my fingernails, of course)

Then came time to reassemble the beast. That was Friday evening. I have been struggling with it off and on for the past two days.

I fuss with it for an hour or so, then have to walk away and leave it for a while, before I can attack it again. So, when you called, I was just about to give it all up as a bad deal, and deep six the whole mess. After I got off the phone with you I thought, "Well - I'll give it one more try." The stupid thing went right together as if there had never been any problem whatsoever.

Now, here's the funny part about that. The fact that it went together so easily made me just as angry as fussing with it had, because it was so easy. Talk about an exercise in frustration!

After running the nine screws back in and tightening them within an inch of their lives, and with some trepidation, I plugged it in to see if I had created any shorts. Nothing. So I put a piece of bread in it, and pushed the handle down.

In due course, it popped back up, and I had toast.

YAY!!!!

But with any luck at all, I will never have to repair it again. Even then, it would be too soon.