Knackler

A knackler is a person capable of mending anything with anything. The word, from Yorkshire, UK, is used as a compliment; for example, “He’s a canny knackler is our dad. He can men owt wi’ nowt!”
 
The origins of the word knackler are uncertain; perhaps from knack, meaning a deception, trick, or device, which appears in English in the mid-14th century. Knack may be related to German knacken (to crack). Knack, a special skill in some specified activity, is first seen in the 1580s.
 
Margaret Brier, 76, of Upperthong, Yorkshire, UK, is the granddaughter of inventor and self-confessed knackler Harry Bates (1865 - 1951). Margaret, who was just 12 when her grandfather died aged 86, has written a book about him called Whitley Willows.
 
Harry was a man ahead of his time. As a young man in the late 19th century, he built a water-powered electricity generator in his back yard. He also made his own gramophone, a circular saw driven by a motorcycle engine, a drilling machine and lathe, a wireless set, and a central heating system. Harry worked for forty years as an engineer at the Whitley Willows Textile Mill.
 
Margaret says that Harry was always willing to have a go at something; i.e., knackling. He described himself as a “bit” of a motor engineer, a “bit” of an electrical engineer and a “bit” of a steam engineer.
 
Margaret writes that he also built an electric mangle to wring water from the clothes coming out of the washing machine at her grandparent’s home. Margaret said, “My grandfather was fed up with arguing over who turned the handle so he electrified it!”
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Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
https://www.definition-of.com/Knackler
https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/huddersfield-inventor-self-confessed-knackler-11271332