They deserve more than a middle finger. A freshly mink oiled boot up the arse is what they need
Farmguy? Why would you give them the courtesy of Mink Oil lubrication? If you're going to grudge**** them, no lube.......
I am fortunate to have a young local guy <40 doing repairs at his own business and he employs none, but he has shed any franchises for new equipment. He has a distributor that is feeding him new Echo stuff off plan, but I don't buy much new stuff anyway. He does know his stuff, and he stands by his repair work, but he does have a tendency to look at it dirty and tell you its not economical to repair. I buy mix and chain from him, let him sharpen a chain or two because I want him to stay in business here. But I also have come to know him as he plays disc golf on all the courses I have built here in town, and he volunteered one day. He is meticulous, and a machine. He brought three saws, but only used one, a small Shindaiwa- mag cases, and maybe older than he was. He did fine detail work trimming trees and what he was cutting out for removal, he was precisely methodical and didn't bend over once. Great technique, very safe, and he didn't stop all day. At times I'd have to remind him I was there with the machine to grapple the brush and move it, and stop cutting it so small and stacking it...... (though much of the time, his removals he was making six three inch trees all land on each other in a circle.... *smart* ) See my video, you can see him and my machine, which wasn't caring about how wide a pile was going to be, but dang I hate chasing four foot pieces of tree.
When I take him something I want repaired, and he looks at it from afar and says Its not going to be cost effective to repair, I know he isn't trying to get me to buy a new one- he's just probably backed up with plenty of Scotts brand riders or what ever from the big box store customers- and I have to remind him. "Matt, its not your money. What may be alot of money to you may be mere peanuts to another person"
I've been wanting him to rebuild an original Power Pruner Brand telescoping chain saw motor because I let it sit, for more than 15 years now. It was the last run PP made before Echo took over, (early 2000's?) and he says the clutch is different, so I can't just put a new Echo powerhead on it. Low hours on the whole thing really, but he says over 400 for him to rebuild it, and I can get a comparable new machine for $550?
The big dealer? Forget it. They didn't even want to look up the part number for a shift lever knob I need for my 2000 John Deere Gator 4x2. "We're not going to have that in stock" Me: "I wouldn't think so, but I came in to buy it from you, since you are a local store. I don't need to buy it on line. I know that I can, but on-line is not buying local." The look on their face was like I was talking Russian..... and made no move to a keyboard or catalogue book. What dumbass dealer isn't going to even take the time to sell me a jacked up priced part when I am standing front of them ready to pay for it, and make the second trip a week later to pick it up?
No offense to all you guys that really enjoy working on your equipment and taking good care of your stuff, I used to have to work on my stuff out of necessity, and got more better stuff, because it was someone else's broken stuff. I've turned a corner now. Maybe I don't clean things up like I should, (okay, I do ride it hard and put it up wet) but I don't leave it out in the rain or anything. I just don't want to spend time tinkering anymore, as much as when I buy new stuff, I know it will last a long time....
