Self employed rebuild dealer

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stihldragon

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I've had this idea in my head since day one. Ever since I started working on chainsaws I've been trying to advertise my work to show people that I know what I'm doing and I'm far more cost effective than buying a new saw. Especially after I learned how to order parts online.

I've had some luck but it didn't happen overnight. Teaching yourself how to rebuild chainsaws is tough. The first thing I learned was how to make a bad saw worse. I took every failure as a learning experience and continued on. Today my failures are few, far between, and fixable when they do happen.

I am most comfortable with Stihl and I can guarantee just about anything with them because that's what all my friends use. I play by ear on others and that seems to be going smoothly so far.

One friend of mine only wants to buy brand new saws. He has a lot of money and I get that. He also has an entire shed full of busted saws. I've done some repairs for him and he still continues to buy new ones even though I explained to him that I can rebuild every single solitary chainsaw in his shed. What can I do to make him do business with me instead of buying new?



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That's about it. If you have money the cost of a chainsaw is nothing.
That's a fact, but a markdown isn't the only thing a good rebuild has that a stock saw doesn't. Stock Saws are built for mass production. There's imperfections all over them because they have to produce a certain amount of saws in a certain amount of time. On a rebuild, the builder is able to spend more time on those areas to get everything the robotics missed by hand. Also, there are many upgrades that don't come on a stock saw.

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That's a fact, but a markdown isn't the only thing a good rebuild has that a stock saw doesn't. Stock Saws are built for mass production. There's imperfections all over them because they have to produce a certain amount of saws in a certain amount of time. On a rebuild, the builder is able to spend more time on those areas to get everything the robotics missed by hand. Also, there are many upgrades that don't come on a stock saw.

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You sound like the guys building China saws.

You're preaching to the choir though. I rebuild and "enhance" saws here too. One thing I won't do though is take on work. If I get on a schedule it won't be fun for me anymore. It would be good if a living could be made doing it, but my model doesn't fit. I have a pretty good day job too.
 
That's a fact, but a markdown isn't the only thing a good rebuild has that a stock saw doesn't. Stock Saws are built for mass production. There's imperfections all over them because they have to produce a certain amount of saws in a certain amount of time. On a rebuild, the builder is able to spend more time on those areas to get everything the robotics missed by hand. Also, there are many upgrades that don't come on a stock saw.

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Before selling a saw without a spark arrestor on it, it's a good idea to have permission from the buyer as if you're rebuild ever caused a fire you could be sued.

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You sound like the guys building China saws.

You're preaching to the choir though. I rebuild and "enhance" saws here too. One thing I won't do though is take on work. If I get on a schedule it won't be fun for me anymore. It would be good if a living could be made doing it, but my model doesn't fit. I have a pretty good day job too.
I cut trees for a living and I rebuild saws for fun and a little more money. It's also a really good fallback plan when work slows down in the winter time. If there is a way to make more money doing it on my own time I would love to know what it is. My number one guess would be advertisement.

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I cut trees for a living and I rebuild saws for fun and a little more money. It's also a really good fallback plan when work slows down in the winter time. If there is a way to make more money doing it on my own time I would love to know what it is. My number one guess would be advertisement.

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My boss brings me more business than anyone else. I'm doing repairs for him all the time and pays for it separately from my hourly wage.

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My boss brings me more business than anyone else. I'm doing repairs for him all the time and pays for it separately from my hourly wage.

I use some China parts on my rebuilds but mostly OEM. I've been learning the do's and don'ts with that. I'm totally against fully aftermarket copies because they are no comparison to the real thing whatsoever but that's just my opinion.
 
You sound like the guys building China saws.

You're preaching to the choir though. I rebuild and "enhance" saws here too. One thing I won't do though is take on work. If I get on a schedule it won't be fun for me anymore. It would be good if a living could be made doing it, but my model doesn't fit. I have a pretty good day job too.

Hit the nail on the head pretty much. Working on saws isn't going to net me enough money. I enjoy it as a hobby though. I do full rebuilds and full blown porting for a few bucks and can be a nice addition to my monthly pay check. Putting projects on a time frame does take some of the fun out of it.
 
That's a fact, but a markdown isn't the only thing a good rebuild has that a stock saw doesn't. Stock Saws are built for mass production. There's imperfections all over them because they have to produce a certain amount of saws in a certain amount of time. On a rebuild, the builder is able to spend more time on those areas to get everything the robotics missed by hand. Also, there are many upgrades that don't come on a stock saw.

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Every tree guy that I've talked to have said rebuilt saws never last as long as a new saw. I have zero factual information to back that up.

If you do good work finding customers is pretty easy. I sold one local tree guy a ported 372 and hes now brought me 7 saws to port, and two to rebuild and port. Some are his but most are other tree guys he knows. They run his saws and they're hooked. Personally what I like about working on saws is; they're cheap, doesn't require many tools, takes up little space, can be completed quickly, easy to work on.

Get yourself into things like paint and body work, engine rebuilding, custom fabricating etc etc then tell me how hard working on chainsaws are..

No offense stihldragon but the stuff you've posted on this forum makes your work difficult to take serious. If you're legitimately interested in working on saws for a living get on the "other forum" and start asking questions. Guys on there port saws for a living. The only way I see to make a decent living doing small engine repair is by owning your own logging supply/outdoor power equipment shop. Or be a top dog in the porting world.
 
On the job learning is the best hands on training.

Years ago I built engines, but I never setup differential gears. I took my diff to a guy to set up. It wasn’t done on-time. I took it back and set it up myself. From then on I try do everything myself. It’s all common sense.

I paid a auto tranny shop once to rebuild my th400 for my truck. Big mistake he swapped out my hd one way roller pack for a lesser one, the tranny blew the weaker roller pack. I took the tranny apart and fixed it myself. I thought I needed special tools to work on it. I was wrong. I had two slide hammers to pull the front pump.
 
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