Been a Productive Weekend

Between yesterday and today I have taken up the wrenches, and managed to save myself about $2250.

The first repair was when my Bostich Framing Nailer quit firing. I figured I would have to buy a rebuild kit for it ($25), or buy a new one, but I figured I would tear it apart first, and see if anything was amiss. It was full of dust, so I cleaned it up, put it back, and it still would not fire, so I tore it down again. This time I used some grease and greased everything up well even though it was just Vaseline that I used, and I'll be darned, but it started working. Granted I smell like coconut oil because the Vaseline we had was scented, but it works. So that was $250 instead of buying a new framing gun.

Then the tire on my tractor kept going flat. Every morning I would have to pump it up, so today it was raining and snowing, so instead of logging I set out to fix the rear tire of my tractor. It took me two hours, but I got it fixed. In the end I did it the hard way, pulling the tire, then breaking down the tire and rim, pulling the tube, and then patching it, an putting it all back together. Again, two hours of work, but my dealership charges $2000 a tire. My cost was $2.99 for the tube patch kit at Autozone.

So in the end; 3 hours of my life, and $2.99 in cash, and I saved $2250, so I am pretty proud of myself.

I have a finish nailer that won't fire. I'm going to have to inform the hubs he needs to grease it!

Glad you were able to accomplish the repairs!!!

I became a do-it-yourselfer way back when I was too poor to pay for basic repairs. Took some adult courses at night at the local community college (free) and learned to do basic auto maintenance and repair, household appliances, and household plumbing. Hubby learned household electricity and carpentry. Between the two of us we've saved thousands $!!! I wish that there were adult community courses available now. Id love to learn welding. But over the years we did learn to do house siding and roofing, tile setting, and a lot of other little skills. The knowledge sure comes in handy now.

Travis, i wish you were my neighbor. You could teach me about heavy equipment. The reason I don't own a skidsteer or small tractor is that I don't have the foggiest idea how to maintain and repair one. The closest repair guys are a 2 hour drive away.

Great job! Glad you're out at the workshop again!

elle sagenev wrote:I have a finish nailer that won't fire. I'm going to have to inform the hubs he needs to grease it!

Glad you were able to accomplish the repairs!!!

Wow Elle, you are taking the term "Nesting" to a whole other level.

All joking aside, I hope your child birth goes well!

As for your finish nailer, it most likely just got dust inside it, and needs to be greased. It is a pretty simple job that I am sure your husband can do.

Su Ba wrote:I became a do-it-yourselfer way back when I was too poor to pay for basic repairs. Took some adult courses at night at the local community college (free) and learned to do basic auto maintenance and repair, household appliances, and household plumbing. Hubby learned household electricity and carpentry. Between the two of us we've saved thousands $!!! I wish that there were adult community courses available now. Id love to learn welding. But over the years we did learn to do house siding and roofing, tile setting, and a lot of other little skills. The knowledge sure comes in handy now.

Travis, i wish you were my neighbor. You could teach me about heavy equipment. The reason I don't own a skidsteer or small tractor is that I don't have the foggiest idea how to maintain and repair one. The closest repair guys are a 2 hour drive away.

Having the ability to weld is one of the reasons I can save so much money on the tire fix.

For my dealer, they would have to buy a new rim for the tractor because years ago, the calcium chloride used for liquid ballast rusted out the steel of the rim. Rather then buy a new rim, I just put in some steel around the rim where it was rusted out, and welded it in with new. The dealership cannot do that, so they would have to replace the rim, the tube, the tire...

It is a pain to pull the tire all apart, and carefully pull out the tube so I can patch it, but $2.99 instead of $2000 is worth it.

Huxley Harter wrote:Great job! Glad you're out at the workshop again!

I have been doing a little logging too. I only go out when the weather is good, and do not cut a lot per day, about half of what I was before I got sick. but its nice to be felling trees, and driving the skidder again.

We still are not sure on the direction of the farm. Back in 1838, my maternal family came down out of the county (Aroostook County Maine) and started planting potatoes here in Waldo County. That started a huge potato farming boom here that lasted until the 1980's. Today there are NO commercial potato farms in this county, so I thought about contacting the Maine Potato Board and seeing if they want to rekindle potato farming here again. I got family members on the board, so I might be able to get something going.

Potato farming interests me only because we got the soil for it, historically they were raised here, and it is an all mechanical type of farming...physically I can drive tractors!