On Sat, 16 Jul 2005 22:31:14 GMT, "Chris F."
wrote:

So what do I do now? Part of me just wants to trash the whole works of it,
and try to find some other line of work. But it breaks my heart to throw out
so many nice appliances, which could be easily repaired and provide years of
useful service. But what's the point in keeping it all? I can't sell it. I
probably couldn't even give most of it away. TV's and VCR's could be
stripped for aluminum and copper, though most sets yield less than $1 worth
of such metals. I could just throw it out, but like I say, I hate to do
that.

What you posted is pretty much the story of my life. I'm retired now.
Not much money to spend but no debts either.

Lifelines: There is still a demand for service technicians in
photocopiers and machines that have a electro-mechanical component.
My other idea is to restore-repair very old machines (prior 1970s) and
"heirlooms" that have some nostalgia value. Old clocks, hand crank
record players, mechanical clocks. The caveat will be that they don't
require replacement parts, just clean-ups, alignments, small-shop
repairs with a bit of soldering or brazing and perhaps non precision
parts I can fabricate with a saw and file. Restore non mechanical
parts such as broken corners on a bezel, touch up colors and
scratches. The customers base will be to put up my notice in the
community notice boards at the supermarket, library and community
papers. I have yet to get around this.