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Many Chainsaw and lawn equipment repair shops unable to recruit young people.

Started by axeman2021, July 30, 2021, 05:18:13 PM

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Real1shepherd

Well, this will be general repair with a 'twist'. I'm trying to attract a clientele that has fixable stuff, rather than take it to the dump. The newer stuff with plug & play technology at big part's prices....no, no. I expect to have a 'ban list'....things I won't touch. At the top of the list are modern, plastic vacuums. I restore old ones like Electrolux and Royal...the new ones belong in the landfill when they quit working. And I'm not touching highly computerized major appliances.

I plan to say NO a lot and there will be many questions on this end before I ask them to drop it by. After awhile, I'm hoping people will get the general gist of my repair hopefuls. I'll have a minimum fee too for looking at it, even if I don't fix it. And if I do, I'll waive that fee etc.

I'll try to treat folks as I wish to be treated. My friends and acquaintances are always slamming me with things to fix....might as well give it a shot. I gotta be careful though, because the 'bargain hunters' have an idea in their heads what the max is to pay out for repairs. I used to do clock repair when I was a teen. I never got paid for all the countless hrs I put into them......I had to go with the rates at the time. Glad I didn't decide to spend my life hunched over a bench fixing clocks. 8)

Kevin

Real1shepherd

Quote from: kantuckid on August 01, 2021, 08:36:40 AM
Stihl IMO did a serious deed when they allowed places like Rural King to take business from mom & pop Stihl dealerships that invested personal money & much effort into building their stores. This spring I was @ RK asking about the new Stihl MS261's in non Mo-tronic while waiting elsewhere a LONG! time to get my saw repaired. He said they had sold ~ 50 261's in non motronic. FWIW, RK has two FT Stihl mechanics at that store.
That's a bunch of saws in a small town location.
Maybe/probably the same thing happened via the JD thing too? Business is a cut throat landscape in many ways, small engines being only one. I'll add this, I do shop at Walmart and know that many of the various types of stores they supplanted did not keep up with the times.
Back home in Topeka, KS I'm remembering 1950's when Wild Willies was the very first discount department store to come to town. Lawrence had a Gibson's where a sleeping bag I bought was 1/2 the price of one closer to home. Then along came K-mart and shook it up again.
Before the above discounters I had to buy a fishing reel or equipment via mail order catalogs to get a decent price while local small stores charged "arm & a leg" price mark ups similar to jewelry stores as now.
Should I have taken from my paycheck to spend more and keep M&P's alive?
We are not allowed to go political here but I'll throw out to this topic that anyone can drive around and easily see a multitude of NOW HIRING! signs in ANY PLACE! It's not a secret and most of us know why. My shop needs a new roof and the roof metal mfg is local and has an easier time getting steel than workers. The ones they had won't come back for wages that surpass area factories. The M&P mower Stihl dealer that repaired my saw lost all their help-even the ones they spent money to get Stihl trained for the same reasons. It's a national sad joke that jobs go unfilled. These are not all fast food jobs either!
Service departments must be suffering when new car dealers, ag equipment dealers can't get stock.
For the record: I loved working in skilled trades but left because I was faced with at least 7 years on the seniority list to sleep with my new wife. Other realities were not low pay at all but my body was paying a price too. I did not get CTS, etc., etc., from puters :D  

We talk out of both sides of our mouth when careers & pay scales come to mind. I made far, far more as a skilled trades person than I did as a school teacher, counselor (mandated by law maters degrees and more) and far more than as a HS principal with even more degrees and time away from my family. I did sleep nights with my family and had the privilege of more free time and to coach mine & others kids.  
Depends how you work it. There have been a couple of studies on this;blue collar trades jobs versus college degree jobs. It doesn't pan out like you may think. The white collar college boys are burdened with paying off student loans. The blue collar trades guys when young can take on the extra overtime hrs. Typically, the trades guys over the long haul wind up running crews and/or having their own businesses. Conversely, the white collar boys don't wind up being top executives like in the movies.

Over all in the studies I read, the blue collar workers average the same or more take home in their lives than the average college educated white collar worker. But this is trade related like electricians, plumbers, HVAC etc.

My youngest son got a Masters in Administration/Education. He's runs a warehouse in Brooklyn. Unless his debt is forgiven, he'll be paying into his 40's. He is happy with his life, but he smokes a lot of pot when he's not drinking. I just try to be happy for him. I see him on average once a yr....but we talk & text all the time. Cat's in the Cradle.

Kevin

Real1shepherd

Quote from: Spike60 on July 31, 2021, 10:44:39 AM
Quote from: Real1shepherd on July 31, 2021, 10:28:41 AM
Anyway, my goal is to have people say, "Take it to Kevin, he can fix anything from bikes to old washing machines."

Kevin
You'll be sorry............ :D
It's something to do, Bob.....as I'm trying to semi retire. It either works or it doesn't. No investment but sweat.....I have all the tools and I fix other people's stuff all the time anyway. If it ceases to amuse me, I'll do something else.

I have two younger friends with $$$$ that want to back me in house remodeling. I've been doing a lot of that in the last few yrs because I'm less & less ambitious about working in the woods and building fence. But I don't know going into my 70's if I can keep up the pace you need for remodeling either. 

Kevin

Real1shepherd

Quote from: Spike60 on August 01, 2021, 06:57:54 AM
There's also the problem of small engines in big shops. The strongest part of the industry are the larger John Deere or Kubota type dealerships; maybe Massey-Ferguson or some others. Often multi-location companies. Lotta employees, trucks on the road. They move a lot of iron. Or did until this year when they couldn't get procuct. These places are more like car dealerships in scope than small shops like mine. Generally seen to have more long term stability as they are easy to sell as ongoing businesses with staff in place.

That is why Stihl cut the deal with John Deere to be in those stores. It offered them a more stable dealer base that was less likely to lose stores due to closure or retirement.  Problem of course is that particularly on the saw side, is that the small stuff gets lost in the mix. Rarely do places like that have a good 2 stroke tech. And if he is any good, they'll move him into the more profitable side of the shop to work on stuff with $100,000 pricetags. Similar to many medium to larger mower shops, that arrangement generates so many of the "my dealer doesn't stock parts or know how to work on saws" complaints that often pop up on this page.

I get it. We can make as much on one Exmark as on a pallet of saws. But the thing that most shops don't get is that saws never go out of season, and the parts and accesories business far exceeds what you can do on mowers. Particularly on the homeowner side. And there's no pick up and delivery with saws either! :)
We have that here, Bob.....A BIG JD dealership that sells Stihls. Like you said, they don't really have anyone dedicated on just the saws. I think they have guys that fix the smaller tractors and residential/commercial mowers that get 'drafted' or take turns.

The few times I've been in there anyone working on saws did not look happy about it. I get it too....the big bucks are working on the computerized big tractors. We've all heard the story about the proprietary JD tractor computer systems that force the owners back to the dealers for very expensive service. From a company that once encouraged owners to work on their own tractors.

Kevin

Ianab

Quote from: Real1shepherd on August 01, 2021, 04:59:56 PMAnd I'm not touching highly computerized major appliances


You might be surprised... Many of the faults in that stuff is pretty basic. I've had my 20 year old computer controlled washing machine apart twice, once for "no go" and the other for "lights are on, but wont spin". 

Both times it was vibration causing some of the heavier components on the main PCB to crack the solder joints. takes more time to get the machine open than it does to fix. Spent an extra 5 mins the 2nd time and re-soldered ALL the larger components and connections. Appliance shop would have probably diagnosed a "bad computer board" and told me to write it off. It's ~20 years old now, so I figure I've gotten about 10 extra years, even if it blows up completely tomorrow it's been a good machine overall. 


But knowing that "no lights" generally means no power is getting to the computer board, you can start at the mains plug and work your way though. Got the 240ac going into a transformer, 0v coming out. Quick look at the back of the board and the fault was obvious. So most of those "computer" faults are the same things that stop old school machines. Switches / loose connectors / broken wires etc. 


Just this morning the daughter says, the Vacuum isn't working right. It's a plastic cordless stick vac, mid range price thing. The brush in the head isn't spinning. Nothing obvious, so take a few screws out. Still nothing obvious, until I found the broken wire about 1/4" down from the connector. The heat-shrink was the only thing holding the wire in place. Again a 5 minute fix. 
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

Real1shepherd

Quote from: Ianab on August 01, 2021, 08:58:42 PM
You might be surprised... Many of the faults in that stuff is pretty basic. I've had my 20 year old computer controlled washing machine apart twice, once for "no go" and the other for "lights are on, but wont spin".

Both times it was vibration causing some of the heavier components on the main PCB to crack the solder joints. takes more time to get the machine open than it does to fix. Spent an extra 5 mins the 2nd time and re-soldered ALL the larger components and connections. Appliance shop would have probably diagnosed a "bad computer board" and told me to write it off. It's ~20 years old now, so I figure I've gotten about 10 extra years, even if it blows up completely tomorrow it's been a good machine overall.


But knowing that "no lights" generally means no power is getting to the computer board, you can start at the mains plug and work your way though. Got the 240ac going into a transformer, 0v coming out. Quick look at the back of the board and the fault was obvious. So most of those "computer" faults are the same things that stop old school machines. Switches / loose connectors / broken wires etc.


Just this morning the daughter says, the Vacuum isn't working right. It's a plastic cordless stick vac, mid range price thing. The brush in the head isn't spinning. Nothing obvious, so take a few screws out. Still nothing obvious, until I found the broken wire about 1/4" down from the connector. The heat-shrink was the only thing holding the wire in place. Again a 5 minute fix.
Not gonna happen. I've had the same sort of luck with newer appliances, but this time around someone would be paying me and expect some sort of implied warranty, no matter how minimum. The newer stuff is made to a price point and setup for failure.

I had a newer Sawzall completely fail me and it turned out that they used those push in connectors....like good electricians tell you not to use on switches and plug outlets. Pushed one of the wires home and she took off. Only to fail later down the road because the Chinese only use a very modicum of grease in their sealed bearings. And so it goes.

What would normally seem like a good deal to get something going again, you have to patiently tell the customer that there are shortcuts made in the manufacture of their item and it will likely fail again. They don't wanna hear that....they wanna walk out of your shop thinking they're going to get some kind of service life.

Word of mouth in this town is everything. I have a good rep from my business and I want to keep it that way. I don't expect to give customers with the newer stuff a treatise on why it's likely to fail again....even if that's honestly correct. Sounds like a con or hostile to many.

Kevin

Ianab

For Chinese junk disposable stuff,  100% agree. If you do manage to fix it, and it falls apart 3 weeks later, you'll get the blame.  :(  The stuff is also so cheap that you can't actually charge enough to make it worth while. $100 to fix a $500 machine makes sense, it doesn't make sense to spend $100 on a $100 throw-away, and you shouldn't be working cheap just because it's cheap gear you are working on. 

I'm more talking about actual brand name stuff. May actually be made in China, but in a factory that's at least heard of QC. The electronics is usually pretty reliable, even if the machines fail for dumb reasons. 

Most of my repair work is with computer gear, and it's largely Chinese made. That's your Dell / Acer / HP systems. Some are a bit suspect on the build quality, but what do you expect in a $300 laptop?  
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

kantuckid

We had a freezer that died every time it got a voltage spike. I'd buy a new digital plug-in temp controller online for ~ $80-90 and back up she'd go. I finally decided it was enough, sold it and bought a freezer with a manual rotary temp dial from a guy who'd taken all his lifes savings, bought a Sears outlet store right before they went kaput. 
Your telling a guy who's main career was training people for work about the lay of the land?  Been there, done that for lots of years. 
I also did 10 years as a student financial aid officer-student loans included- during that time. The % of trades people who become supervisory is small indeed. Not like the military where leadership is incumbent to a certain level in all members, less in some, more in others. In fact there was a time long time ago at that, when even the military would hang onto people who were destined to never lead. I remember the WWII bunch as having a few PFC's who drove trucks, cooked, etc., their entire careers. Not in todays military! 
When I was an industrial mechanic, the skilled trades comprised ~ 10% of the plants workforce among 3 primary trades, elec., pipefitters, welders and mechanics with a handful of die shop, gauge techs and machinists with a couple of sheet metal thrown in. The rest were mostly semi-skilled and the older ones from the 1940's often had grade school educations. When they opened the first apprenticeship class, (my class) in the late mid-60's, almost zero among the regular factory workers was willing to work @ 75% of scale to begin an apprenticeship. However the competition for those 12 spots was fierce indeed. My point is that even then most people were unwilling to make the sacrifice of long demanding training to improve themselves and eventually out earn many other folks. I made more on a Sunday shift than my bachelors deg Wife did per month as a social worker. But it took me 8,000 hours to get there same as it still does in many outside trades. Some of my voc students used our training to get admitted to that training, but not many overall. 
FWIW, One school I worked in on the Ohio River, I drove a long ways once a week which happened to be trash pickup in one large county. I picked up vacs and box fans often. Those vacs mostly were clogged and thrown away by people to damned lazy to clean them out and the fans needed oil almost every time. I still have one fan on a lumber pile now that's a rescue fan. Another got tossed when it died during that same duty. It had earned it way to the dump though. 
Now I often buy Amazon returns to save money-my shops pedestal fan was bent up ( I straightened the blade, top frame and blade guard to save lots)  and a seriously good deal. My wife's new girly string trimmer-it's a return that the previous customer sent back and kept the battery which is supposed to be in there. I called CS in Colombia (not SC! :D) and he knocked off the cost of a battery which made her $100 trimmer that I bought for $70 ~ $20.  
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

Old Greenhorn

Kevin, you are a sharp guy and have been around more than enough to be able to figure a lot of stuff out even if you've never seen it before I'm sure. We all learn that way. I'd keep that door open to the oddball stuff you might otherwise shy away from until you develop a track record with those items/jobs. There are a lot of good established equipment repair guys around that can tear down transmissions, gearboxes, and engines and do good work on repairs, but those same guys have little or no patience for doping out the nuance issues on the very same equipment such as failed controls, hidden leaks, and things of that sort. Getting known as 'the guy with the patience to figure it out' is certainly worth it weight. I have a logger down the road who never misses the opportunity to tell me I should be working for him. Yard work only, set my own hours/days, just keep fixing his stuff or at least troubleshooting it and getting the parts ordered. He wants to pay me to just 'figure it out'. Maybe...
 But anyway, keep an open mind when you start. I was at a new clients a couple of months ago looking over his property improvement job and after a couple of hours when I was getting ready to leave and standing in his garage I asked if there was anything we hadn't covered. He laughed and said 'hey, do you know anything about vacuum systems?' I said I knew a bit (I had spent several years designing and building ultra-high vac systems and chambers for lab and production work, but I didn't mention that). He showed me a commercial vacuum sealer for food he had spent a lot of money on years ago but it had been sitting and would not run. An expensive piece of equipment, all stainless, no plastic, and weighed about 90 pounds. It had a SS controller throwing an error when you tried to run it. I told him 'no promises, but I'll take a shot at it'. He was happy with that because he had no other source to turn to as it was a specialty item.
 So I took it home and figured out how to open it and got at the pump, carefully opened that and removed and cleaned all the parts and got them moving again and freed up the vanes which are critical and were a little sticky. Put it all back together and had him order a bottle of the special oil because I couldn't save it all and it came to me low anyway. When that came in he brought it over, I filled it and it ran like a top. I never fixed one of those before and now he thinks I am 'the expert' and can fix anything. :D SO just keep an open mind as you travel the path.
Tom Lindtveit, Woodsman Forest Products
Oscar 328 Band Mill, Husky 350, 450, 562, & 372 (Clone), Mule 3010, and too many hand tools. :) Retired and trying to make a living to stay that way. NYLT Certified.
OK, maybe I'm the woodcutter now.
I work with wood, There is a rumor I might be a woodworker.

Spike60

For years, we've had a saying for folks that want us to fix 30-40 year old equipment that they always should be prepared for what may break next on an old machine. That's pretty much the same reality with the lower end chinese stuff, and why we generally don't work on that junk. We'll maybe clean a carb for folks we know, but that's it. One oddity with taking that stuff in, and it touches on Kevin's concern about an implied warranty: Once you touch it, you're married to it in the customer's mind.

An indication on how weird this job thing is getting. In addition to those "now hiring" and "help wanted" signs that we see everywhere, there are other signs next to them becoming more and more common around here. "We apologize", "Please excuse us", "Please have patience". Generally they are all asking for customer's understanding that service is compromised by the inablity to find people to work. Limited hours/days open, limited seating in eateries. The sad thing is those signs are necessary because a lot of people have become down right nasty.

Of course try that in our store and we'll tell you to get lost. But for people who are actually showing up to work in this climate to be abused by customers is just pathetic. Some eateries have said the heck with it and gone back to just doing take out. Some landscapers dumping lawns and downsizing. All in all it's quite a cocktail that's being mixed here. Fewer people to work, fewer people with practical skills, and fewer people who even own basic tools, let alone know what to do with them.
Husqvarna-Jonsered
Ashokan Turf and Timber
845-657-6395

Real1shepherd

Quote from: Old Greenhorn on August 02, 2021, 07:34:23 AM
Kevin, you are a sharp guy and have been around more than enough to be able to figure a lot of stuff out even if you've never seen it before I'm sure. We all learn that way. I'd keep that door open to the oddball stuff you might otherwise shy away from until you develop a track record with those items/jobs. There are a lot of good established equipment repair guys around that can tear down transmissions, gearboxes, and engines and do good work on repairs, but those same guys have little or no patience for doping out the nuance issues on the very same equipment such as failed controls, hidden leaks, and things of that sort. Getting known as 'the guy with the patience to figure it out' is certainly worth it weight. I have a logger down the road who never misses the opportunity to tell me I should be working for him. Yard work only, set my own hours/days, just keep fixing his stuff or at least troubleshooting it and getting the parts ordered. He wants to pay me to just 'figure it out'. Maybe...
But anyway, keep an open mind when you start. I was at a new clients a couple of months ago looking over his property improvement job and after a couple of hours when I was getting ready to leave and standing in his garage I asked if there was anything we hadn't covered. He laughed and said 'hey, do you know anything about vacuum systems?' I said I knew a bit (I had spent several years designing and building ultra-high vac systems and chambers for lab and production work, but I didn't mention that). He showed me a commercial vacuum sealer for food he had spent a lot of money on years ago but it had been sitting and would not run. An expensive piece of equipment, all stainless, no plastic, and weighed about 90 pounds. It had a SS controller throwing an error when you tried to run it. I told him 'no promises, but I'll take a shot at it'. He was happy with that because he had no other source to turn to as it was a specialty item.
So I took it home and figured out how to open it and got at the pump, carefully opened that and removed and cleaned all the parts and got them moving again and freed up the vanes which are critical and were a little sticky. Put it all back together and had him order a bottle of the special oil because I couldn't save it all and it came to me low anyway. When that came in he brought it over, I filled it and it ran like a top. I never fixed one of those before and now he thinks I am 'the expert' and can fix anything. :D SO just keep an open mind as you travel the path.
Good points! In the past, I've seen people working on stuff they hate just to keep the lights on. The reality is I may have to do that to some extent. My track record with the Chinese junk is good, but that stuff is not made to be serviced and you have to be inventive to get in there, diagnose/fix and get back out again.Horribly designed stuff that often requires complete disassembly to get at a minor issue.The main problem with that is time......charging a customer for that.

But conversely, I've been a 'hero' for fixing something that has sat around for yrs like that vacuum sealer you fixed And now the latest dodge is 'Made in the US' again, which really means the parts are made in Asia and the gizmo is assembled here. The only difference being they had to dumb-down the assembly process which means you probably have reasonable access. Versus Chinese assembly, which is some kind of small hands voodoo.

It's like I mentioned before about Chinese sealed bearings....I've never seen one packed with grease. It's like they touch it with a Q-tip of grease and that's it. No doubt that's saving them huge over the millions of them they send out to equipment. And the only time you see use of molybdenum disulfide is like in a sealed drill case transmission....maybe. The greases they use seem to be marginal at best is what I'm sayin'. A lot of the time you can get the gizmo to last much longer just by using better grease.

Kevin    

Real1shepherd

Quote from: Spike60 on August 02, 2021, 08:14:28 AM
For years, we've had a saying for folks that want us to fix 30-40 year old equipment that they always should be prepared for what may break next on an old machine. That's pretty much the same reality with the lower end chinese stuff, and why we generally don't work on that junk. We'll maybe clean a carb for folks we know, but that's it. One oddity with taking that stuff in, and it touches on Kevin's concern about an implied warranty: Once you touch it, you're married to it in the customer's mind.

An indication on how weird this job thing is getting. In addition to those "now hiring" and "help wanted" signs that we see everywhere, there are other signs next to them becoming more and more common around here. "We apologize", "Please excuse us", "Please have patience". Generally they are all asking for customer's understanding that service is compromised by the inablity to find people to work. Limited hours/days open, limited seating in eateries. The sad thing is those signs are necessary because a lot of people have become down right nasty.

Of course try that in our store and we'll tell you to get lost. But for people who are actually showing up to work in this climate to be abused by customers is just pathetic. Some eateries have said the heck with it and gone back to just doing take out. Some landscapers dumping lawns and downsizing. All in all it's quite a cocktail that's being mixed here. Fewer people to work, fewer people with practical skills, and fewer people who even own basic tools, let alone know what to do with them.
I've said that for yrs. I'm amazed at how rude people are to food servers. I'm surprised there are as many people doing it as there are. Service in general has become that way. All the pandemic did was push it along faster. I tolerate a lot of things, but I don't tolerate rudeness as I always take the side of the underdog.

And absolutely true about owning an implied warranty once you touch/fix something. You can stand there and literally show them why whatever failed has nothing to do with the last repair....doesn't matter. To many of those customers, you're just doing slight-of-hand....you own the trouble.

Kevin

sawguy21

We are seeing the same thing. One local pub is open four days a week because they can't get staff. The hotel pub/restaurant has hired a couple of kids with no experience and even less ambition, I asked the senior server who said nobody else wants to work. I can't say that I blame them, it is part time for minimum wage and no benefits. Because of the pandemic and poor service business is falling off so tips are dismal. The owners are not putting anything into it, they are not viewing people as an investment into their future. All they see are the cheques being written.
Ianabs story reminds of a situation we had in the early 80's. I was in a shop that sold and serviced Kohler RV generators, I was the only genset tech because the others were scared of electricity. I was seeing frequent control board failures, a replacement was $528.00 CAD and delivery was slow. The owners bil was an electronics instructor at the local college, he would replace a popped 50 cent resistor or capacitor and we sold them for $350 exchange. The customer was happy, he was in and out in one afternoon and saved some serious coin. Most were Americans enroute to Alaska so time was valuable.
old age and treachery will always overcome youth and enthusiasm

kantuckid

It's implied if you suggest you know anything before hand. I changed out my oldest son's college car and my wife drove it to her campus job and parked out front on the main drive with a for sale sign. This young girl who worked as a FT clerical test drove it and bought it. Car had ~ 200K on the ODO and she called me a short time later, cussed me out cause me being a mechanic and all I knew the speedo was gonna go out. It's happened any number of times actually as I built wrecks, drove them awhile then sold when another one was done. They'd call and rant about something thats a wear part and I'd hang up is it got nasty. 
Chinese: I don't buy the grease story at all. I rode a BMW G650GS motorcycle which happened to be their first one built in China and the forums lit up over how they were eljunque based on not having been built by the regular crew of Bavarian elves. There small MC is built in India.  Fact is they had great QC and still made there along with some other high end machines. Many American mfg pros have commented on Chinese mfg to the point it's probably written into white papers & books by now many times. 
Last year I bought big cheap Chinese bearings on Amazon to update my log standards on my WM LT15 mill-yes they had grease as have others I'm come across. That said I'm not a fanboy of Chinese stuff. When I put new tires on my Korean tractor I prefer to go with Titan-used to be GY now a separate company of there own in IL. Most come from Asia now as do virtually every tractor in the world too.  
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

Hilltop366

Quote from: Ianab on August 01, 2021, 08:58:42 PMJust this morning the daughter says, the Vacuum isn't working right.


The real question here is how do you get your kids to vacuum??

beenthere

Quote from: Hilltop366 on August 02, 2021, 01:09:34 PM
Quote from: Ianab on August 01, 2021, 08:58:42 PMJust this morning the daughter says, the Vacuum isn't working right.


The real question here is how do you get your kids to vacuum??
They eat after it is done....
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

kantuckid

Or me? 8)  I hate to vacuum, end of story, but on a rare day I do.

My kids are adults & somebody else's "problem"? 

The larger question is how to get kids these days to do anything. I have one I'm trying out on Tuesday. Knock on wood.
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

Lostinmn

Quote from: Hilltop366 on August 02, 2021, 01:09:34 PM
Quote from: Ianab on August 01, 2021, 08:58:42 PMJust this morning the daughter says, the Vacuum isn't working right.


The real question here is how do you get your kids to vacuum??
Just tell them its the latest rage on tic tok.....

Real1shepherd

I've restored about a dozen Diamond J's(Jubilee) vacuums for friends & family. I gave them as gifts. Electrolux had many great metal body canisters back in the day. I have most of them back to the late 50's. That particular model with the PN is a force of nature.When I do a whole house clean, one of those always gets the vote. 80's vintage.

The rest of the time I play around with other vacs....like the floating Hoover Connie(Constellation). Vacuuming can be FUN with the right vac! :D 

Kevin

Real1shepherd

Quote from: kantuckid on August 02, 2021, 12:48:05 PM
It's implied if you suggest you know anything before hand. I changed out my oldest son's college car and my wife drove it to her campus job and parked out front on the main drive with a for sale sign. This young girl who worked as a FT clerical test drove it and bought it. Car had ~ 200K on the ODO and she called me a short time later, cussed me out cause me being a mechanic and all I knew the speedo was gonna go out. It's happened any number of times actually as I built wrecks, drove them awhile then sold when another one was done. They'd call and rant about something thats a wear part and I'd hang up is it got nasty.
Chinese: I don't buy the grease story at all. I rode a BMW G650GS motorcycle which happened to be their first one built in China and the forums lit up over how they were eljunque based on not having been built by the regular crew of Bavarian elves. There small MC is built in India.  Fact is they had great QC and still made there along with some other high end machines. Many American mfg pros have commented on Chinese mfg to the point it's probably written into white papers & books by now many times.
Last year I bought big cheap Chinese bearings on Amazon to update my log standards on my WM LT15 mill-yes they had grease as have others I'm come across. That said I'm not a fanboy of Chinese stuff. When I put new tires on my Korean tractor I prefer to go with Titan-used to be GY now a separate company of there own in IL. Most come from Asia now as do virtually every tractor in the world too.  
I'm saying zero in defense of Chinese bearings. If you want a good bearing go to a bearing house and buy a decent one.
However, they know how to harden steel and makes parts on the equal with anybody in the world....if they want to and they're not making it to a price point.

My point was that if you order replacement Chinese bearings for your Chinese made tool, open up the sealed dust cover and pack it properly with Moly or a top tier suitable bearing grease.....or you'll be sorry if you use it hard.

And yes they have grease, just not near enough, packed properly, or even a good quality grease.

Kevin

axeman2021

One bearing I know that is quality Timken that bearing I have used in the past.

donbj

Quote from: Real1shepherd on August 02, 2021, 06:16:19 PMThe rest of the time I play around with other vacs....like the floating Hoover Connie(Constellation). Vacuuming can be FUN with the right vac!  


You'll be a good wife some day!
I may be skinny but I'm a Husky guy

Woodmizer LT40HDG24. John Deere 5300 4WD with Loader/Forks. Husky 262xp. Jonsered 2065, Husky 65, Husky 44, Husky 181XP, Husky 2100CD, Husky 185CD

Tacotodd

Quote from: donbj on August 02, 2021, 10:33:05 PM
Quote from: Real1shepherd on August 02, 2021, 06:16:19 PMThe rest of the time I play around with other vacs....like the floating Hoover Connie(Constellation). Vacuuming can be FUN with the right vac!  


You'll be a good wife some day!
@donbj that's just wrong, funny but wrong   ???
Trying harder everyday.

mike_belben

Quote from: Lostinmn on August 02, 2021, 02:28:45 PM
Quote from: Hilltop366 on August 02, 2021, 01:09:34 PM
Quote from: Ianab on August 01, 2021, 08:58:42 PMJust this morning the daughter says, the Vacuum isn't working right.


The real question here is how do you get your kids to vacuum??
Just tell them its the latest rage on tic tok.....
Nah you just zip tie their phone to the vacuum cleaner.
Praise The Lord

Real1shepherd

Quote from: donbj on August 02, 2021, 10:33:05 PM
Quote from: Real1shepherd on August 02, 2021, 06:16:19 PMThe rest of the time I play around with other vacs....like the floating Hoover Connie(Constellation). Vacuuming can be FUN with the right vac!  


You'll be a good wife some day!
I believe that boat has sailed......
Kevin

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