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We all know what to do when that little wrench indicator lights up on our car dashboard.
It almost invariably means that your car is in need of a tune up. Depending on how comfortable you are around cars, you might be able to take care of some of the maintenance work yourself. Most people can easily add oil or transmission fluid when their car gets low on these. On the other hand, something like a brake alignment or draining the radiator will usually entail a trip to your favorite car mechanic to take care of the job for you.
What’s the difference? Well, it’s relatively easy for most people to simply open the oil reservoir or transmission and just pour in fluid. Aligning brakes or draining a radiator, on the other hand, require a certain level of specialized expertise that you may not necessarily possess.
Even if you know how to do these things, you may not necessarily have the time to do so, and will simply find it easier to have somebody else do the work for you.
The exact same principle holds for giving your chiropractic table a tune up. Simple, straightforward tasks that take little time are the ones that you can manage yourself.
On the other hand, more time consuming or complicated repairs really may be best left to specialized repair places. Which maintenance jobs or repairs can you easily take on yourself, and when is it time to call in an expert?
Roll up your sleeves and do it yourself
In the spirit of today’s DIY culture, there are lots of simple repair jobs you can do yourself on a chiropractic table with little more than a screwdriver with flat-head and Phillips-head attachments, a wrench, some old rags, and a bottle of WD40 oil lubricant. The easiest repair job to do yourself is checking all the screws on your table. Are any of them too looser too tight, or stripped?
Obviously, loose screws can be easily tightened with your handy screwdriver. If the screws are too tight, a shot of WD40 into the area around the recalcitrant screw can loosen it up. Just don’t forget to wipe away any excess oil with one of those old rags!
With a bit of elbow grease, and the help of some common household items, you can even remove screws that have been stripped, meaning that their grooves have been worn down so that they can’t be removed.1
Time to call in the cavalry
Let’s be honest – you will run across those repairs in which one glance will tell you that it’s time to just go right to calling in the experts. Obviously, anything involving electronics or computer parts requires a specialized expert.
If you have a table that uses a motor to adjust into various positions, you not only will want to have an expert on hand for repair jobs, but would be smart to actually buy a service contract at the time you purchase the table.
Another immediately obvious case in which you should just call in a repair service right away is when any part of the table has come off, for any reason other than just simply a loose hinge, screw or bolt, particularly if there is a sharp, exposed edge.
That’s a rather clear-cut case in which not getting your table properly fixed could present a danger to either you or a patient.
If you are uncertain as to whether or not it really does require spending the money to call in a repair service, consider this: Would you feel safe treating a patient on your table in that condition?
If not, you should have the answer to your question right away.
Reference
- 4 ways to remove a stripped screw. Accessed 5/28/2017.
