Bankruptcies - Page 2

It's a little different for me. I worked with them in the trades for decades ... you see ? I learned early on as an apprentice ... that you can't do the job if you don't have the tool.

To give you an example : There are a lot of specialty tools for doing mechanic work. A fulla i know ... a clam digger by occupation was doing some work around the high pressure fuel rail on his Ford pickup truck. He didn't have the right tool to disconnect it so he made due with what he had. He eventually got the job done but it wasn't done right. He started the truck up , gasoline sprayed onto a hot exhaust manifold , and his truck burned to the ground. No more truck.

He would have been better off to just go by the correct tool for the job. It would have paid for itself the first time he used it.

The other thing is having modern tools in good working order. They're what i think of as being force multipliers. I put a bunch of axes and bow saws that were in perfectly good condition out in the "free for the taking building " yesterday. They were tools that you had to have for cutting wood for your wood stove 100 years ago. Nowadays ... people use chain saws and log splitters to do that job. They are much safer and you can do the job 20 times faster.

That's the big mistake that i see with scrappers down picking the metals pile. They don't invest in the right tools for their trade. Gawd ... they struggle so. It takes them an hour to do a job that could be done in a few minutes if they only had the right tool. It makes a big difference on how much they can bring in to the scale at the yard but they don't see it.



The right tool will pay for itself in no time.

I have chainsaws but only use them when cutting larger stuff.

I still use bow saws and pruners small and large for most of my cutting.

I haven't used a gas powered lawn mower in many many years. I have a few of the reel type as well as scythes, sickles and the things you swing like a golf club. I have the small and the larger that's shaped like a d. I also use the small D shaped hoes that wiggle for cutting the weeds out of the gravel.

Years back I used the gas powered weed whackers, but I grew tired of the noise and the rock through a window or hitting something else.

I find it's better on the body using the hand tools and it's a good work out.

I still shovel snow with a aluminum scoop shovel and have many other shovels and ice chisels.

I keep good edges on my tools.

I have a nice 8 horse snow blower that I've never used. But as I get older I think about it.

As for power tools I use the corded types as they are inexpensive these days with most wanting the battery powered types. I've had some nice battery powered tools but found that I didn't use them enough to keep the batteries in good condition, so I gave them away to friends or traded them off for something else.

When I need a special tool that I don't have I just borrow it from someone I know that has it.

I had to buy a set of special tools so I could remove the gas hoses on my explorer to change the fuel pump, BUT they didn't work out well as I came to find out that as my Ford was a retired Airforce vehicle they wouldn't work. I called Ford and asked them about the line connections I had and they told me that they were the military type and most times they end up breaking them and just replace with new ones. I did get one line loose with the the tools within a few minutes, BUT the other line took me quite awhile, but I got it by working on it.

I have many special tools as I'm always on the hunt for them at a bargain.