Al and Andy; exactly right.
"The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury (onto to you) . . . " Marcus Aurelius
In a consumer gone-mad, over-advertising, just-buy-new, churning world your push-back is living the, “Use it up. Wear it out. Make do. Or do without.”
Get 2x, 3x, 4x the useful service life over what they think that they have allowed you!!
Vehicles the newer, the more problematic that gets to achieve. My wife’s 2014 Ford Edge it will be hard, hard to ever see 300K miles. The internal chain driven water pump will force at some point $2,000-$3,000 in shop repairs. And that Only IF I can catch it before the coolant puked into the engine oil has her driving it into damaged bearings and cylinders walls.
Or the “Powered by Microsoft” (embossed labeled as so) unitized climate control/digital two way radio/seats heaters all-in-one master controller will die.
We did this 3x, 4x on her 1999 Plymouth mini-van still on its original transmission when sold to a city dwelling grandmother.
Doing this now on her previous 2007 Hyundai Tucson. (The AC control dies quits above 85F. even after over $1,000 in shotgunning repairs.)
Ha! And I’ve way in the past done this on a 1969 Chevy 2500 and a 1984 Ford F250.
Not all Chrysler/Dodges; Fords; GM’s are bad. A few years and models are good.
Not all Honda; Subaru’s; or Toyota are good. They each have had some dud years and models too.
Chose wisely. Then work hard to maintain it.
Just like with people. Not all are bad. Some are good. Up to you to sort and choose; and then maintain good relationships to allow the good to remain: good. You pulling down the good makes you then the true Bad.
Steve Unruh
THANKS for the info on the tools, i was afraid of the harbor frieght , tools but never tried them- though i did seem to have good luck with atd sockets-- i got too try some harbor freight and atd ratchets now that all my craftsman and one 1/2" cornwell are striped gears.THE chino craftsman ratchets lasted maybe 6 weeks or months max. HOW they can all claim green peace is beyond me with all the trashy stuff being built and shipped- big dirty shame. detroying our plannet–and the good book says - god will destroy those that destroy his plannet- And or live by the sord die by the sord.TOO.?
Im still afraid of harbor freight. But usually for hand tools if it says pro on it, it is okay. But most of my tools I figure I have paid for. I buy them for a specific job, and the money I saved by DIY the job, usually ends up to be the tool.
YA a lot of junk tools and you name it,- boarder line quallity- make it look pretty for sales-add all the nic nacs- and then sack the quallity- so much for the greenies- the only green they worship is the all mighty dollar. I think i might try a ATD socket ratchet if i can find one- so far i just see the ATD socket sets with a rachet- though i am toltally done with BS craftsman hard hand tools.I think they just want us too give up fixing our own stuff- then they can get more people in debt- take it too the shop so they can fix it and charge our card up to the max.Not nessarly harbor but made in china tools and home appliance stuff.
I was very happy when they opened a Harbor freight around here. Have I had to take back at least a third of the stuff I bought there? Yes. But The stuff that did work, works well at half or less the price of main brand tools. I buy those cheap spray guns and compared to buying a bunch of spray cans to do the same job they are great. If they clog up, for less than 15 bucks you can either toss them or turn them into air crete guns. I have a six inch bench grinder from probably the 1970’s when HF was just a page of ads in the back of Popular Mechanics or Popular Science. It is still working. I have a 8 inch that works fine and cost about 60 bucks. I use it maybe a couple times a month. Don’t need to spend a couple hundred for that kind of activity. The thing about Harbor Freight is you don’t buy it and put it on a shelf. Use the living crap out of it during their abysmally short warranty period and try and break it. They never argue about returns. My experience is that if you can’t get it to quit right off the bat then it will probably be good for a long haul. After I burned up a lot of my tools I would have been shit out of luck without HF… Then there are the guys that rant about the crap being made in China. I have a lot of Milwaukee tools again and all made in China as nearly all major tool companies now are owned by couple of Chinese companies and even the European companies have most of their stuff made in Asia.
But most of the Bosch Professional catalog is manufactured in countries outside Europe, such as Malaysia, Mexico, Taiwan, and China.
There is nothing what so ever wrong with Chinese made tools,electronics, ect ect its just that when these large multinational company’s go looking to get there items manufactured over sea’s they work to a price they want it for , the less they want to pay the lower the quality of the component’s and the material , if they were to pay the same as what it cost them to make them back in the USA or UK then they be great tools like the tools of yesteryear .Australian made anything is like window shopping for me no way can i afford there prices , so i make do with junk .
Dave
Yes, absolutely. Many of my favorite tools are ones I have had for years, or inherited, or some found in junk, thrown away by someone, rusted stiff and restored enough to use, or bought at a flea market booth, (or garage sale, jumble sale, auction, charity thrift store, etc.) Made in… Germany, Japan, USA, England, Yugoslavia, Israel, India, Taiwan, Switzerland, Poland, Metal shop class project, yes, even China. I often wonder what they make quality-wise for domestic use, or their own military, or truck drivers, mechanics…
Edit: Forgot Sweden! (and others, no offence intended! )
I think he probably means a motorcycle. The ones with the long front forks are called choppers. He was probably a member of Hell’s Angels or similar biker gang at one point, until he found the lost confederate gold in muskegon, then retired up in Traverse City in what was once a very secluded area.
Yes, what Sean said. I started as an apprentice Ironworker at 18 and when work was slow I worked building frames in a motorcycle shop. Extended forks and replacing the swing arms with rigid rear frame sections. They were pretty ridiculous and doing a 180 took about as much room as a semi truck would. I still enjoyed doing the work. No Hell’s Angels but the Outlaw MC was just down the street. They were pleasant to deal with as well. During the 1967 Riots they had a 50 caliber machine gun set up in the middle of 8 mile road which was the border to Detroit. No body got across the road unless they were white.
No, the MC5 started as the house band for the Detroit Artists Workshop, started by John Sinclair and Alan Van Newkirk. First time I ever got baked was at their house. My girlfriend was Van Newkirk’s sister. 1964.
MikeR. and Dave actually the majority of my hand tools were selected out used at garage sales “Tools”; flea markets; Pawn Shops; and out and out used tool stores like once-was Teds Tool Shed in Portland Or.
My standard was Sears Craftsman. Sure I saw Proto, some MAC, some SnapOn and priced as such. I even bought some Plumb branded made things. Pre-SnapOn I am told.
Most was US odd-brand, store brands. Or the down-line China made junk.
I have good Craftsman imprinted as Made-in-USA (in two different imprint scrips from two different US contracts forge companies), Made-in-Japan and then not labeled.
I got my big SnapOn 1/2" drive torque wrench from a pawnshop 1/3rd the price of new. Got my 1st quality SnapOn adjustable advance timing light from a different pawnshop.
Got my best design in the world MAC brand pull-off/press-on power steering pump (and old Chrysler alternators) pulley remover tool set from a still different pawn shop. Good: it is now copy-made available from Harbor Freight.
Air tools like any 2-stroked engine I always have bought new. They can be quick trashed by crappy inputs of air and fuel-oil allowed. My working air tools were mostly all cart end rack hung by their air fitting and got a squirt of premium air oil the beginning of each day. Lunch time end of day before locking up. The drawers use seldom air tools always got a shot of air tool oil before each use. And another shot after each use.
Electronic hand held testing equipment I learned the hard way to always buy new, in a sealed box.
Sure as has been said when you are professional shops working and the tools truck come weekly you will buy off of them to nose-in just keep working. Just make sense if you are in-control, and control your impulses.
And sometimes they are the best source for an odd very specialty tool like my no-rubber touch-less spring-finger-retainer made-in-Germany Gedare brand spark plug sockets.
Going into auto parts store I aways look over their tools wall display racks. Gotten many one-of-a-kind specialty tools from NAPA, Car Quest, Pep Boys, Shucks/OReileys, Advanced Auto Parts and others.
Good tools are were you find them. And then what you make of them.
Just like good friends.
The best of pets-pals.
A life-partner.
Live a hybrid-vigor life as I do for reasons.
Use a Ford, GM, Chrysler/Dodge or any other as it suits your true real needs and will serve you best.
S.U.
Thought this may be useful if you don’t have drums with lids. Cut low on the rolled lip of a regular drum, then you could make a band to seal. Wife wanted a drum for manure tea( swamp water)
Aerobic bacteria and microorganisms are typically better for plants and it smells better. Anaerobic bacteria are responsible for locking up nutrients and a number of plant diseases. She may want to aerate that before applying it to restore the aerobic bacteria with something like this:
You can substitute stuff in and out, and after he says something like that is the end of the Elaine Ingham of “soil food web” recipe, you can stop there. I think the rest is he was just throwing in stuff that was sent to him for free ie product placement. And he is incorrect, when he says it replicates the mycorrhizal fungi. It does not. But it does spread it out so it is applied evenly. Mycorrhizal fungi is great stuff because it attaches to the roots of most plants and gives them up to 20x more surface area, and trades nutrients and water for carbon with the plant. There are 1000s of species of it that have adopted to your area, which is why they encourage grabbing some from a forest or a compost pile with the white threads in it (the white threads are the fungi)
If you are growing grasses, there is a bacteria called azosprillium that fixes nitrogen similar to rhizobia bacteria for legumes.
Anyway, it gives her a rabbit hole to go down, and it isn’t that hard. And that will save her about 30 hours of trying to track down information. There are newer folks that explain the whole thing better but she has the right idea. Feed the microorganisms, because they feed the plant. You just want to encourage the right ones for a healthy soil.
Removing broken exhaust manifold bolts. I’m not sure from my experience that most of these will work with the engine or the heads in the car. Not so hard when you are sitting right in from of them with the engine on a stand.
But usually for hand tools if it says pro on it, it is okay. But most of my tools I figure I have paid for. I buy them for a specific job, and the money I saved by DIY the job, usually ends up to be the tool. 
