wallster wrote:
I'm here to admit my addiction. If i'm driving along and i see a discarded
lawnmower or mechanical something, i have to stop and will most likely take
it. I just cant seem to pass up something that can be made to work again in
one way or another. Most of my tool carts have old wheels on them that i
found thrown away. I have also sold a couple of dozen lawnmowers over the
years that needed a little tlc to get them running. How many other people in
this newsgroup stop and pick up discarded stuff?

walt
http://www.nykeglawsucks.com
To alcohol! The cause of - and solution to - all of life's problems.
-Homer Simpson








Some of the town "refuse collection stations" (That's PC newspeak for
"dump")around here have "put 'n take" tables.

It's amazing the kind of good stuff lots of technologically deprived
folks leave there (particularly in upper middle class towns.) Much of it
needing nothing more than a new line cord or a rubber belt to be back in
the pink again.

I think it's become ndemic to our affluent "throw away" plus "imported
goods" society that the price to "buy" a simple repair exceeds the price
of a whole new item.

My place is in serious danger of breaking through the earth's crust and
sinking into the magma from the combined weight of all the stuff I
couldn't resist grabbing. G

Jeff (Probably the only guy in town whose home has five working electric
brooms in it.)

--
Jeff Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery, people would stop dying."

Jeff Wisnia wrote:

Some of the town "refuse collection stations" (That's PC newspeak for
"dump")around here have "put 'n take" tables.

It's amazing the kind of good stuff lots of technologically deprived
folks leave there ...

I am posting this using a beautiful 21" (!) monitor that someone left at
our "put 'n take", aka "swap shed".

On Fri, 09 Jul 2004 16:35:18 -0400, Bob Engelhardt
wrote:

Jeff Wisnia wrote:

Some of the town "refuse collection stations" (That's PC newspeak for
"dump")around here have "put 'n take" tables.

It's amazing the kind of good stuff lots of technologically deprived
folks leave there ...

I am posting this using a beautiful 21" (!) monitor that someone left at
our "put 'n take", aka "swap shed".

Sigh..in my part of California..such a "put n take" area is unheard
of. The lawyers have won.

Gunner

That rifle hanging on the wall of the working-class flat or labourer's
cottage is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays
there.
- George Orwell

In article , Gunner says...

Sigh..in my part of California..such a "put n take" area is unheard
of. The lawyers have won.

Put-n-take area? We have municiple trash pickup once a month.
So that stuff all goes out on the curb. Great night to walk
through the neighborhood.

Er... NeighborhoodS.

Jim

==================================================
please reply to:
JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com
==================================================

On 10 Jul 2004 07:21:48 -0700, jim rozen
calmly ranted:

In article , Gunner says...

Sigh..in my part of California..such a "put n take" area is unheard
of. The lawyers have won.

Put-n-take area? We have municiple trash pickup once a month.
So that stuff all goes out on the curb. Great night to walk
through the neighborhood.

Er... NeighborhoodS.

You meant "drive the large-bed truck" vs. walk, right?

When I was growing up on LRAFB, Air Force families would be
moving every year. I'd go out on trash day and find entire
bedroom sets by the curb sometimes. I took large brass objects
(candelabras, candlesticks, bells, gongs, serving trays from
all over the Middle East and Asia) to my mother since the AF
would put weight limits on what the families could move.

The little china teaset for dolls was a treasure I took to my
sister, but it almost didn't get to her. The teapot had a nice
angry yellow jacket in it who came out after getting put in
my pocket. He stung me 4 times under the arm and 5 times on
the inner arm. When I got home, Mom rushed me to the hospital
in case I was allergic to yellow jackets and they packed me in
an ICE BATH and shot me full of adrenaline. I wasn't allergic
and if I hadn't been 8 years old, I would have kicked the
absolute sh*t out of those airmen who held me in that ice bath.
That hurt more than anything I have experienced in this lifetime,
and I have had back trouble since then which didn't compare.

What I don't recall seeing at curbside were any (decent) tools
or machines. I guess they gave them to their buddies instead.

The dump personnel here in Oregon won't let you salvage, either,
but the old dump in SoCal would if you didn't get in the way of
their machines, and only the stuff on top of the pile, before it
was shoved into the trench. I picked up half a dozen bicycles,
free weights, metal pipe, washers, dryers, and other appliances
there, many of which were in proper working order.

It's a crime how much good, usable stuff is tossed into the dumps
instead of being left on the curb to be recycled. People pay good
money to throw usable things away, too. Go figure!


--------------------------------------------
-- I'm in touch with my Inner Curmudgeon. --
http://diversify.com Comprehensive Website Development
================================================== ==========

Gunner wrote:

On Fri, 09 Jul 2004 16:35:18 -0400, Bob Engelhardt
wrote:


Jeff Wisnia wrote:

Some of the town "refuse collection stations" (That's PC newspeak for
"dump")around here have "put 'n take" tables.

It's amazing the kind of good stuff lots of technologically deprived
folks leave there ...

I am posting this using a beautiful 21" (!) monitor that someone left at
our "put 'n take", aka "swap shed".


Sigh..in my part of California..such a "put n take" area is unheard
of. The lawyers have won.

Not all of California. My county actually has
a "hazardous waste pickup day". One week after
the "hazardous waste dropoff day" you can go to
the dump and pick through the (screened) stuff
that was dropped off.

There's a whole crew of regulars that go through
the metals scrap bins at the recycling center.
It's amazing to watch the "churn" over the weekend.

sniipedJeff Wisnia wrote in message
news5idnfDe8ITYZHPdRVn-
Some of the town "refuse collection stations" (That's PC newspeak for
"dump")around here have "put 'n take" tables.

It's amazing the kind of good stuff lots of technologically deprived
folks leave there (particularly in upper middle class towns.) Much of it
needing nothing more than a new line cord or a rubber belt to be back in
the pink again.

I think it's become ndemic to our affluent "throw away" plus "imported
goods" society that the price to "buy" a simple repair exceeds the price
of a whole new item.

My place is in serious danger of breaking through the earth's crust and
sinking into the magma from the combined weight of all the stuff I
couldn't resist grabbing. G

Jeff (Probably the only guy in town whose home has five working electric
brooms in it.)

--
Jeff Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery, people would stop dying."


I think the major reason people chuck stuff is that we take for granted that
everyone can fix stuff. My brother is helpless when it comes to any type of
repair. If he were to take his 8 year old lawnmower somewhere (if he could
find a place that repairs to begin with) by the time he paid for parts and
labor, (and waited 2-3 weeks) he would have 75% of a new one paid for. So
guys like us snag them by the curb, clean the carb, toss in a plug and
change the oil. We sell it for $20-$30. and would already be using his
$119.00 brand new murray lawnmower from walmart.
I picked up a lawnmower yesterday that was blowing oil. Turns out it had too
much oil in it so it was spewing oil out of the exhaust valve. I cleaned her
up, changed the oil and the plug, now it runs like a top.
That's a lawnmower, try to find anyone willing to try to fix half the stuff
out there. It may be shot... or it may be a fuse or loose wire.

walt

"wallster" wrote in message
...
I think the major reason people chuck stuff is that we take for granted
that
everyone can fix stuff. My brother is helpless when it comes to any type
of
repair. If he were to take his 8 year old lawnmower somewhere (if he could
find a place that repairs to begin with) by the time he paid for parts and
labor, (and waited 2-3 weeks) he would have 75% of a new one paid for. So
guys like us snag them by the curb, clean the carb, toss in a plug and
change the oil. We sell it for $20-$30. and would already be using his
$119.00 brand new murray lawnmower from walmart.
I picked up a lawnmower yesterday that was blowing oil. Turns out it had
too
much oil in it so it was spewing oil out of the exhaust valve. I cleaned
her
up, changed the oil and the plug, now it runs like a top.
That's a lawnmower, try to find anyone willing to try to fix half the
stuff
out there. It may be shot... or it may be a fuse or loose wire.

I love fixin stuff. Several of the kids battery powered toys came from a
second hand store that had $0.25 Saturday's. I'd buy 2 of the toy and get
one to work. When my TV wouldn't present a picture, I did a web search and
found several discussions of the model and symptom. They all pointed to the
same part. Without even opening the TV, I ran out and bought the chip.
That fixed it. I was in a thrift store today that had 2 decent looking
mowers for $25.

Joel. phx


walt

I think the major reason people chuck stuff is that we take for granted
that
everyone can fix stuff. My brother is helpless when it comes to any type
of
repair. If he were to take his 8 year old lawnmower somewhere (if he could
find a place that repairs to begin with) by the time he paid for parts and
labor, (and waited 2-3 weeks) he would have 75% of a new one paid for. So
guys like us snag them by the curb, clean the carb, toss in a plug and
change the oil. We sell it for $20-$30. and would already be using his
$119.00 brand new murray lawnmower from walmart.
I picked up a lawnmower yesterday that was blowing oil. Turns out it had
too
much oil in it so it was spewing oil out of the exhaust valve. I cleaned
her
up, changed the oil and the plug, now it runs like a top.
That's a lawnmower, try to find anyone willing to try to fix half the
stuff
out there. It may be shot... or it may be a fuse or loose wire.

walt



The truth of the matter is that a shop with a labor rate of $50/hr can't do
what you and I do. The economics of it isn't there for any potential profit.
If you tried to run a business doing what you are doing, you probably
wouldn't be able to make a go of it either.

Lane

On Fri, 9 Jul 2004 18:56:43 -0700, "Lane"
lane_nospam@copperaccents_dot_com wrote:

I think the major reason people chuck stuff is that we take for granted
that
everyone can fix stuff. My brother is helpless when it comes to any type
of
repair. If he were to take his 8 year old lawnmower somewhere (if he could
find a place that repairs to begin with) by the time he paid for parts and
labor, (and waited 2-3 weeks) he would have 75% of a new one paid for. So
guys like us snag them by the curb, clean the carb, toss in a plug and
change the oil. We sell it for $20-$30. and would already be using his
$119.00 brand new murray lawnmower from walmart.
I picked up a lawnmower yesterday that was blowing oil. Turns out it had
too
much oil in it so it was spewing oil out of the exhaust valve. I cleaned
her
up, changed the oil and the plug, now it runs like a top.
That's a lawnmower, try to find anyone willing to try to fix half the
stuff
out there. It may be shot... or it may be a fuse or loose wire.

walt



The truth of the matter is that a shop with a labor rate of $50/hr can't do
what you and I do. The economics of it isn't there for any potential profit.
If you tried to run a business doing what you are doing, you probably
wouldn't be able to make a go of it either.

That's for sure. A long time ago mowers was my main business. Back
when I started out my fixit shop I did a lot of mowers and managed to
make a living as a bachelor. I still do mowers though it's definitely
the low priority part of my business. The fact is about 3/4 of the
time it's possible to make some money on a mower. The problem is that
the other 25% cause such a loss that they eat into the profits of the
good ones real fast.

It's even harder now days since the new mowers are definitely not
built to be worked on. It takes way to much time to get the pretty
plastic decoration pieces off and the carbs are built so cheap that
they're getting hard to do anything with.


Wayne Cook
Shamrock, TX
http://members.dslextreme.com/users/waynecook

"Wayne Cook" wrote in message
...


That's for sure. A long time ago mowers was my main business. Back
when I started out my fixit shop I did a lot of mowers and managed to
make a living as a bachelor. I still do mowers though it's definitely
the low priority part of my business. The fact is about 3/4 of the
time it's possible to make some money on a mower. The problem is that
the other 25% cause such a loss that they eat into the profits of the
good ones real fast.

It's even harder now days since the new mowers are definitely not
built to be worked on. It takes way to much time to get the pretty
plastic decoration pieces off and the carbs are built so cheap that
they're getting hard to do anything with.


Wayne Cook
Shamrock, TX
http://members.dslextreme.com/users/waynecook

I had a small engine repair for five years here in North Dakota. About 1/2
the push mowers you see are throw away machines. I always got a kick out of
people buying the $99 mower down the street, forgeting to put oil in it, or
bending the crank, and then wanting me to fix it. Lets see, crankshaft $45,
two hours labor at $26, (this was a few years back!), gaskets, oil,
whatever, over $100 at any rate! Hell a new 3.5 HP engine from Briggs &
Stratton was $159! Try to explain way a whole mower sells for less than just
the engine!
Once in a while I had people bring in higher quality machines with a bad
engine that they wanted to repair and were willing to pay the price. Down
the srteet I would go to the $99 lawn mower store and buy a mower, strip the
engine off of it and install it on their mower. Even as a dealer I could not
buy a engine that cheap.
I did a ton of small engine repair for consrtuction companies. I was the
only shop in town that would do LP gas powered small engine repair as it was
so differant in the way the engines would run. It was good money as they
would have me fix everything they brought in, no questions.
Still on our 3-1/2 day long summers, it was inpossible for someone to run a
small engine repair and make a living at it. Shops start up every year and a
couple of years down the road they are gone. There is one shop in town that
hass been around for maybe twenty years, but has changed ownership 5-6
times!
I had someone try buy me out once, I told him to pay off my bills and I
would hand him the keys! He would not bite!
Greg

On Fri, 9 Jul 2004 22:07:43 -0500, "Greg O"
wrote:



I had a small engine repair for five years here in North Dakota. About 1/2
the push mowers you see are throw away machines. I always got a kick out of
people buying the $99 mower down the street, forgeting to put oil in it, or
bending the crank, and then wanting me to fix it. Lets see, crankshaft $45,
two hours labor at $26, (this was a few years back!), gaskets, oil,
whatever, over $100 at any rate! Hell a new 3.5 HP engine from Briggs &
Stratton was $159! Try to explain way a whole mower sells for less than just
the engine!
That's always the problem.

Once in a while I had people bring in higher quality machines with a bad
engine that they wanted to repair and were willing to pay the price. Down
the srteet I would go to the $99 lawn mower store and buy a mower, strip the
engine off of it and install it on their mower. Even as a dealer I could not
buy a engine that cheap.
Yep.

I did a ton of small engine repair for consrtuction companies. I was the
only shop in town that would do LP gas powered small engine repair as it was
so differant in the way the engines would run. It was good money as they
would have me fix everything they brought in, no questions.
Those are the good ones.

Still on our 3-1/2 day long summers, it was inpossible for someone to run a
small engine repair and make a living at it. Shops start up every year and a
couple of years down the road they are gone. There is one shop in town that
hass been around for maybe twenty years, but has changed ownership 5-6
times!
You definitely have to other things as well. Just fixing mowers
won't cut the mustard.

This is a small town (and it just keeps getting smaller). When I got
out of the Air Force I wanted to start a shop of my own. Now I'm not a
master of any one trade but I've always been fairly versatile so I
could do anything I needed to do. I spent a lot of time trying to
figure out what would work. I considered computer repair, motorcycle
shop, small engine, and many more. Every one of them suffered from one
problem. There's not enough demand in a small town to make a living at
any one of them. Then while taking my mothers stuff to Oregon I
stopped by my Grandmothers in Utah. She lives in a town so small that
I swear it's just a one room post office in the middle of a field. :-)

Anyway while there it was noticed that the trailer tongue was
cracked. They didn't have a welder but the neighbor down the road did.
He was to old and couldn't see to weld but I was welcome to use his
welder to do the repair. When we arrived I found his shop was
basically a slightly oversized two car garage made from cinder block.
He had a welder a old drill press (just like the two old ones that I
have, I can remember lusting after it while there), and a few other
tools in the shop. But what caught my eye was the sign on the back
wall. It was his name (I can't remember it after all these years)
Fixit Shop.

That's where it finally dawned on me that in a small town you can't
specialize. You have to be willing to take on just about any kind of
work. I think it took me about 3 years before it got to the point that
I was always so far behind schedule that I couldn't keep track of all
the work. Some of it paid better than others but at that point I was a
bachelor and I always had enough money to do what ever I wanted. I was
working on building up my capabilities the whole time. I added new
machines in any way possible. Many where home made. I built the chop
saw I currently use before I had any real machine tools. All I had at
that time was a drill press, a home made simple lathe (which I did use
to turn some metal with gravers, files, and grinders), a sander,
grinders (some home made as well), and of course my cutting torch
(which I bought when I was 13) and the old cracker box which my great
uncle "loaned" me about a year after buying the torch.

Then I got married and things got even better for a while. When she
was working we could pretty much live off what she made and I could
put nearly all my money back into the shop. I bought the Shop Task
during that period. Then it happened. She got pregnant and had to quit
work. The combination of me being burned out from all the work (I was
at least 6 months behind about then), the worry about the cost of the
baby, pressure from her parents to get a "real job", and the offer for
work at the local machine shop (a place I had always dreamed of
working but could never get in) caused be to once again put the shop
in moon light mode. Even that didn't last to long since it wasn't to
long before I was so tired after work and my feet hurt so bad that I
didn't have the energy to work after hours. This was the dark ages
around here. Never before did I have to budget so close. I was just
barely making enough to keep up with the bills.

After several years at the machine shop they got in trouble. It got
to the point where they didn't have enough money to pay me for the
next week. When I heard that I decided that it was definitely time to
get out of there. I had been considering it for a while but had never
managed to build up what I considered enough of a buffer fund for the
startup but this forced my hand. Fortunately I did have a little saved
back by then (about $1800). The Saturday after my last day there I put
out flyers saying I was back. The whole time I had been in the machine
shop people had been calling me wanting me to work on there mowers.
Well that first series of flyers has been the only advertising I have
had to do to date. I brought in $300 profit that next week which was
equal to my paycheck from the machine shop (all of it small engine
work). It only took me about 1 hour a day to do the paying work so I
had time to start my shop. I knew at that rate it wouldn't be long
before I wouldn't have time to work on the shop so I pushed it's
construction hard. Fortunately I had already stockpiled the material
for the shop about 2 years earlier. I started it in april and I barely
managed to get it closed by winter for all the work coming in. In fact
I had to use tarps for doors that first winter and the next summer.
That winter the machine shop had it's auction and through some help
from local businesses that didn't want to be without a machine shop I
managed to get a loan for enough equipment to keep the most needed
capabilities here. It's been a race since then to keep up with the
work. I can't say that there's not been any hard times but I'm
definitely bringing in more money now than when I worked for them.

This is the reason why I won't turn away small engine work. It's
saved me to many times in the past. It's not the most profitable part
of my current business but it's still a part of it and will probably
always be a part of it.

Wow. I didn't mean to get that carried away. Hopefully not to many
fell asleep during that out burst. :-)

Wayne Cook
Shamrock, TX
http://members.dslextreme.com/users/waynecook

"Wayne Cook" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 9 Jul 2004 22:07:43 -0500, "Greg O"

snipped, copied and pasted"
work. I can't say that there's not been any hard times but I'm
definitely bringing in more money now than when I worked for them.

This is the reason why I won't turn away small engine work. It's
saved me to many times in the past. It's not the most profitable part
of my current business but it's still a part of it and will probably
always be a part of it.

Wow. I didn't mean to get that carried away. Hopefully not to many
fell asleep during that out burst. :-)

Wayne Cook
Shamrock, TX
http://members.dslextreme.com/users/waynecook

Wayne that's a great story. I copied it and pasted it to a word document
because my nephew is one lazy little *******. He needs to read a story like
yours and be shown that hard work and dedication to your beliefs pays off.
Your persistance speaks volumes about you,
nice job.

walt

"Wayne Cook" wrote in message
...
You definitely have to other things as well. Just fixing mowers
won't cut the mustard.



Yup! Just mowers will kill you quick, certainly around here! I did do pretty
much anything I could to make a buck! The winters here are hard on a small
shop with limited equipment. I would go from haveing two or three guys
working for me in the summer, to having zero work to do in the winter. I did
some welding and metal fabricating but it seemed that work also followed the
seasons.
Also the area I live in is heavily zoned. You don't just open a repair shop
in your back yard, not one of any size anyway. I do some repairs in my shop
in the evenings and weekends, but I need to keep it low key. My neighbor was
turned into the city for working an cars in his garage, and so have I. The
funny thing was when I was turned in I was not working on other peoples
stuff, just my own, which the city can do nothering about! I spent the
better part of the summer getting my grandpa's old John Deere restored for a
antuque equipment show. Check out http://myweb.cableone.net/goo1959/jd.htm#a
for a couple of pics. The day the inspector stopped by I had the tractor on
a trailer, hooked up to a motor home, all ready to leave for the show. I was
at work, but he mailed a letter and I talked to him on the phone later. He
just laughed it off, said he knew what I was doing!
Greg

"Wayne Cook" wrote in message
...

That's for sure. A long time ago mowers was my main business. Back
when I started out my fixit shop I did a lot of mowers and managed to
make a living as a bachelor. I still do mowers though it's definitely
the low priority part of my business. The fact is about 3/4 of the
time it's possible to make some money on a mower. The problem is that
the other 25% cause such a loss that they eat into the profits of the
good ones real fast.


My dad used to sell mowers, and had to carry out warranty repairs and
otherwise help the customers service the things. I was (and am still, for
old customers) often given the task of fixing mowers that the customers
couldn't get to run properly. What we've observed is that the amount people
are willing to spend on a mower is inversely proportional to the size of
their lawn and the difficulty of mowing it. For some reason, those who have
small, tidy, flat-as-a-billiard-table gardens buy the expensive
self-propelled mowers that never develop any problems, while those that have
large and bumby lawns buy the cheapest mowers available. And damned near all
lawnmower buyers are useless bloody morons who should not be allowed to own
anything more advanced than a scythe ;-)

The ones with small lawns and expensive mowers call in every summer
complaining the mower won't start, and every time it turns out to be
something silly like forgetting to put fuel in the tank or opening the
stopcock. We have one repeat complaining customer who can never get her
mower to start, and every time I try it starts on the first pull. It turns
out that she's so afraid of somehow hurting herself or damaging the mower
that she doesn't dare to pull the cord with any real force- but no way will
she buy one with an electrical starter.
The ones with large, bumpy lawns and cheap mowers have no problem getting
the things to run, but _always_ set their mowers to the lowest setting so
that they either hit rocks or overload them trying to cut 2' of grass down
to 0.5" in one go. These people keep complaining that their
cheaper-than-dog**** electric mowers burn out the motor windings or bend the
driveshaft, and demand that it be fixed under warranty. Those few in this
category who buy gas powered mowers tend to be hobby mechanics who mess the
things up and return them for "warranty repair" with half the parts missing;
the rest are incapable of following simple instructions and always tip their
mowers toward the carb side when cleaning out grass and gunk from the
underside. Most inexpensive mowers get oil in the carb if tipped to this
side, and stop working as a result. Oh, and don't even mention those who put
too much oil in the crankcase.

Long story made reasonably short: about half of all lawnmower repairs are
laughably simple, but take so little time to accomplish that I can't with a
good conscience charge much money for them. The rest would be more expensive
than buying a new mower, and preferally one that is actually capable of
mowing the customer's lawn without breaking. Since I can't/won't charge
money for the "repairs" that are worthwile and won't do repairs that aren't,
there's no money to be made from this whatsoever.

--
Aamund Breivik

On Sun, 11 Jul 2004 04:08:55 +0200, "Åmund Breivik"
wrote:


The ones with large, bumpy lawns and cheap mowers have no problem getting
the things to run, but _always_ set their mowers to the lowest setting so
that they either hit rocks or overload them trying to cut 2' of grass down
to 0.5" in one go. These people keep complaining that their
cheaper-than-dog**** electric mowers burn out the motor windings or bend the
driveshaft, and demand that it be fixed under warranty. Those few in this
category who buy gas powered mowers tend to be hobby mechanics who mess the
things up and return them for "warranty repair" with half the parts missing;
the rest are incapable of following simple instructions and always tip their
mowers toward the carb side when cleaning out grass and gunk from the
underside. Most inexpensive mowers get oil in the carb if tipped to this
side, and stop working as a result. Oh, and don't even mention those who put
too much oil in the crankcase.

Guy across the street has an interesting approach to mowing. He waits
till the grass is about 8-10 inches high and it is raining lightly, he
starts the mower and proceeds to cut in a clockwise pattern such that
the discharge is directed toward the uncut grass. When the shroud
fills up and stalls the engine, he tries to re-start it several times
with the recoil starter, then takes it over to the driveway and
bounces it off the concrete until enough grass falls out to allow the
engine to run for a couple more rounds of the forty foot square lawn.
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada

On Sun, 11 Jul 2004 02:41:38 GMT, Gerald Miller
vaguely proposed a theory
.......and in reply I say!:

remove ns from my header address to reply via email

Guy across the street has an interesting approach to mowing. He waits
till the grass is about 8-10 inches high and it is raining lightly, he
starts the mower and proceeds to cut in a clockwise pattern such that
the discharge is directed toward the uncut grass. When the shroud
fills up and stalls the engine, he tries to re-start it several times
with the recoil starter, then takes it over to the driveway and
bounces it off the concrete until enough grass falls out to allow the
engine to run for a couple more rounds of the forty foot square lawn.
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada

Yer? And? G

In article , Gerald Miller says...

Guy across the street has an interesting approach to mowing. He waits
till the grass is about 8-10 inches high and it is raining lightly, he
starts the mower and proceeds to cut in a clockwise pattern such that
the discharge is directed toward the uncut grass. When the shroud
fills up and stalls the engine, he tries to re-start it several times
with the recoil starter, then takes it over to the driveway and
bounces it off the concrete until enough grass falls out to allow the
engine to run for a couple more rounds of the forty foot square lawn.

You must live right across the street from me!

Jim

==================================================
please reply to:
JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com
==================================================

On Sun, 11 Jul 2004 04:08:55 +0200, "Åmund Breivik"
vaguely proposed a theory
.......and in reply I say!:

remove ns from my header address to reply via email

while those that have
large and bumby lawns buy the cheapest mowers available. And damned near all
lawnmower buyers are useless bloody morons who should not be allowed to own
anything more advanced than a scythe ;-)


Thus putting you out of work and increasing the income of surgeons?
G

The ones with small lawns and expensive mowers call in every summer
complaining the mower won't start, and every time it turns out to be
something silly like forgetting to put fuel in the tank or opening the
stopcock. We have one repeat complaining customer who can never get her

I once "repaired" a tape recorder by replacing.....no...sorry..
........_installing_ the batteries. Serious.

On Sun, 11 Jul 2004 14:29:53 GMT, Old Nick
wrote:



I once "repaired" a tape recorder by replacing.....no...sorry..
......._installing_ the batteries. Serious.
The backup power unit on this computer was repaired by pressing the
reset button.
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada

On Sun, 11 Jul 2004 04:08:55 +0200, "Åmund Breivik"
wrote:


"Wayne Cook" wrote in message
.. .

That's for sure. A long time ago mowers was my main business. Back
when I started out my fixit shop I did a lot of mowers and managed to
make a living as a bachelor. I still do mowers though it's definitely
the low priority part of my business. The fact is about 3/4 of the
time it's possible to make some money on a mower. The problem is that
the other 25% cause such a loss that they eat into the profits of the
good ones real fast.


My dad used to sell mowers, and had to carry out warranty repairs and
otherwise help the customers service the things. I was (and am still, for
old customers) often given the task of fixing mowers that the customers
couldn't get to run properly. What we've observed is that the amount people
are willing to spend on a mower is inversely proportional to the size of
their lawn and the difficulty of mowing it. For some reason, those who have
small, tidy, flat-as-a-billiard-table gardens buy the expensive
self-propelled mowers that never develop any problems, while those that have
large and bumby lawns buy the cheapest mowers available. And damned near all
lawnmower buyers are useless bloody morons who should not be allowed to own
anything more advanced than a scythe ;-)

Pretty good synopsis. :-)


Long story made reasonably short: about half of all lawnmower repairs are
laughably simple, but take so little time to accomplish that I can't with a
good conscience charge much money for them. The rest would be more expensive
than buying a new mower, and preferally one that is actually capable of
mowing the customer's lawn without breaking. Since I can't/won't charge
money for the "repairs" that are worthwile and won't do repairs that aren't,
there's no money to be made from this whatsoever.

Actually that's the real secret. You have to charge money for the
simple repairs so that they cover the ones that you loose on. For
example I get a straight $45 for carb rebuilds now. About 1/4th time
that's not enough but the rest of the time it's to much. But if I
didn't average it over the whole I would end up loosing. The fact is
you can't get much more than $45 for most push mowers and that
especially goes for weed eaters. Most of the time a rebuild can be
done in 15-30min (though some seem to get getting harder) which makes
the $45 pretty good money. But there will always be those hard core
cases that refuse to repair properly. Whether it's the float not
wanting to seal or any number things it's entirely possible to take
several hours to get all the bugs worked out reliably. Thus the flat
rate helps recover from the tough cases.

Wayne Cook
Shamrock, TX
http://members.dslextreme.com/users/waynecook

It being a dull day, I decide to respond to what "Åmund Breivik"
foisted Sun, 11 Jul 2004 04:08:55 +0200 on
rec.crafts.metalworking , viz:

The ones with small lawns and expensive mowers call in every summer
complaining the mower won't start, and every time it turns out to be
something silly like forgetting to put fuel in the tank or opening the
stopcock.
The guy I had do the work on my motorcycle charged you five bucks if
you brought a bike in that "wouldn't start" and you'd forgotten to turn on
the gas. That was the first time. Second time, it was 10 buck. $20 bucks
for the third time. Said he never had yet charged anyone twenty bucks for
forgetting to open the petcock. Couple ten spots, but no twenties.

--
pyotr filipivich.
as an explaination for the decline in the US's tech edge, James
Niccol wrote "It used to be that the USA was pretty good at
producing stuff teenaged boys could lose a finger or two playing with."

"wallster" wrote in message ...

I call it "Fred". (Ooh! OOh! that's an old drillpress! OOh! an old
bandsaw. Oh, Wow! Lots of good stuff in here!)

Nope, don't know what it's like at all.

Seriously, I have far too many machines already, ten lathes, two
surface grinders, three mills. six drillpresses, and the list goes on.
It's what happens when an old machine develops puppy dog eyes. Can't
seem to leave short pieces of barstock or any plate with usable size
to it, it has to find a home, and my basement looks like home.

On Fri, 9 Jul 2004 17:41:33 -0400, "wallster"
wrote:


sniipedJeff Wisnia wrote in message
news5idnfDe8ITYZHPdRVn-
Some of the town "refuse collection stations" (That's PC newspeak for
"dump")around here have "put 'n take" tables.

It's amazing the kind of good stuff lots of technologically deprived
folks leave there (particularly in upper middle class towns.) Much of it
snip
Jeff Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery, people would stop dying."


I think the major reason people chuck stuff is that we take for granted that
everyone can fix stuff. My brother is helpless when it comes to any type of
repair.
snip
I picked up a lawnmower yesterday that was blowing oil. Turns out it had too
much oil in it so it was spewing oil out of the exhaust valve. I cleaned her
up, changed the oil and the plug, now it runs like a top.
That's a lawnmower, try to find anyone willing to try to fix half the stuff
out there. It may be shot... or it may be a fuse or loose wire.

walt

On heavy trash day, I set stuff out we don't want or need, expecting
it to get picked up. The last time, I set out about 10-15 huge plant
pots and a big bell (~8" dia.) left by the last homeowners, some worn
out snow shovels with the edges gone, and one of those tv-vcr's my
oldest son nearly wore out (he's 22, moderately mentally retarded, and
likes to push buttons and watch videos, and about my favorite person
on the planet). The vcr part was giving him trouble and most of the
buttons didn't work. All of that stuff was gone within hours. I like
seeing it get picked up by folks that will use it, instead of it going
to the landfill, and I like the extra room in my garage.

I'd don't accumulate much "stock". One reason is I live in town, and
don't have the room. A bigger reason is I expect to load up and move
back to Texas in 5 or 10 years when we retire.

Pete Keillor

"Jeff Wisnia" wrote in message
news
My place is in serious danger of breaking through the earth's crust and
sinking into the magma from the combined weight of all the stuff I
couldn't resist grabbing. G


LOL, I feel the same way. Like someone else already pointed out, once I
owned a lathe and a mill, every little scrap looks like stock inventory. I
have a hard time driving by the industrial section of my little town, 'cause
there is a metal shop there that throws away some good stuff that I've
dragged home. After a while, you just gotta say, enough!

Lane

I have a hard time driving by the industrial section of my
little town, 'cause there is a metal shop there that throws
away some good stuff that I've dragged home.

And this town would be...? :^)
--Glenn Lyford

"Glenn Lyford" wrote in message
.. .
I have a hard time driving by the industrial section of my
little town, 'cause there is a metal shop there that throws
away some good stuff that I've dragged home.

And this town would be...? :^)
--Glenn Lyford

I'll bet we've got zero chance of getting an answer.

Garrett Fulton




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On Sat, 10 Jul 2004 07:09:48 -0400, "Garrett Fulton"
wrote:

===
==="Glenn Lyford" wrote in message
6.16...
=== I have a hard time driving by the industrial section of my
=== little town, 'cause there is a metal shop there that throws
=== away some good stuff that I've dragged home.
===
=== And this town would be...? :^)
=== --Glenn Lyford
===
===I'll bet we've got zero chance of getting an answer.
===
===Garrett Fulton
===
===
===
===
===-----= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =-----
===http://www.newsfeeds.com - The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World!
===-----== Over 100,000 Newsgroups - 19 Different Servers! =-----


Ain't that the truth....its like giving up the co-ordinates to a
fishing hole that produces world record size lunkers!
Visit my website: http://www.frugalmachinist.com
Opinions expressed are those of my wifes,
I had no input whatsoever.
Remove "nospam" from email addy.

It being a dull day, I decide to respond to what "Lane"
lane_nospam@copperaccents_dot_com foisted Fri, 9 Jul 2004 18:53:36 -0700
on rec.crafts.metalworking , viz:

"Jeff Wisnia" wrote in message
news
My place is in serious danger of breaking through the earth's crust and
sinking into the magma from the combined weight of all the stuff I
couldn't resist grabbing. G


LOL, I feel the same way. Like someone else already pointed out, once I
owned a lathe and a mill, every little scrap looks like stock inventory. I
have a hard time driving by the industrial section of my little town, 'cause
there is a metal shop there that throws away some good stuff that I've
dragged home. After a while, you just gotta say, enough!

I'm the same way with wood. Especially the expensive stuff which was
too small for work. Unfortunately, I haven't the room anymore, too much is
going in the fire pit.

Lane

--
pyotr filipivich.
as an explaination for the decline in the US's tech edge, James
Niccol wrote "It used to be that the USA was pretty good at
producing stuff teenaged boys could lose a finger or two playing with."