Goldtent TA Paradise

It runs until it doesn’t

1. Columbia says:

   November 30, 2022 - 1:22 pm at 1:22 pm

   Finding parts for a few pieces of equipment recently was an exercise in frustration.
   Luckily, all parts did arrive and I was able to keep the machines running.

   The more complex society has become, the worse this may become. Almost all small appliances are throw-away. I am not purchasing anything in that category if I can help it. Manual labour to complete the task is sometimes more rewarding and gets the job done. Bought a new $59 plastic lawnmower 4 years ago. It is a real lawnmower. Not a kids plaything. I was cutting my limited lawn with a weed-whacker to mixed results and taking forever (I have the time) but I didn’t want to buy a lawn mower when I cut the lawn 4 times a year and it is 1000sq ft at most. Didn’t want to store it, didn’t want to deal with the power source or the maintenance. This plastic lawn mower works but has the cheapest metal blade. I sharpen it twice a year and keep it in good working order at all times. The other movable parts are plastic and appear prone to break. When they do, Crazy Glue or the equivalent will be tried first before it is relegated to the appliance recycling depot.

   Organized my garage last Summer, installed the old kitchen cabinets and went through the inventory of tools and various machines I have accumulated over the years. I noticed that most of what I had was bought in the late 80’s or was inherited from my Dad. All North American made and still usable. Solid and strong metal. Found a few items that were on their last legs. Mostly made in China the past 5-10 years. All will likely be tossed soon after more use.

   I had purchased some 1940’s to 1960’s kitchen doodads for GMG from an antique dealer who specialized in estate sales. He buys boxes of kitchen stuff for cheap and picks through it later. This stuff may be scratched and tarnshed but works as well as when it was new. Almost indestructible. None of these require energy inputs other than hand turning. There are modern small electric appliance that do the same but are prone to break.

   Every cordless tool will fail if the battery is not available in the future. I no longer have cordless devices except Ski boot heaters which are a necessity and of course my iPhone and Mac laptop.

   I am continuously amazed at what I see thrown out at the recycling centres. Most can be repaired or repurposed.

   We are such a wasteful society who have lost sight of repairing items. I would love to see companies make every item repairable with standard parts so that it is no longer disposable. Maybe repair and parts shops will be a growth industry in our future as we can’t keep throwing everything out.

2. Columbia says:

   November 30, 2022 - 1:26 pm at 1:26 pm

   The “run until it doesn’t” applies to the direction society is headed today. The level of frustration of nothing working is growing rapidly. There are enough of us who remember how it used to run before big government got in the way. I have a feeling that we are in limbo and waiting for that final collapse. Hope it’s soon as we need to get on with life.

3. silverboom says:

   November 30, 2022 - 2:06 pm at 2:06 pm

   Yup.

4. Highroller says:

   November 30, 2022 - 2:21 pm at 2:21 pm

   I call duct tape ” Mexican solder ” !

5. Fullgoldcrown says:

   November 30, 2022 - 5:21 pm at 5:21 pm

   I had a fender bender last spring…took 6 months for the repair shop to get the parts…Luckily I could still drive it for that period