Why do your own maintenance & repair work?
- Thread starter rScotty
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Disagree. A lot of the younger folks have no aptitude or desire to learn. They believe they should start at the top instead of working their way up. I hired and worked Teens for 30 years. Today, adults are of the same ilk.
JasperFrank
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I do almost all the repairs and all of the maintenance on my stuff, most of which is over 26 years old. While maintaining I get to look everything over and check for potential problems. Repairing is both a financial and a logistics issue in the rural Oregon area I live in. Repairing at home is roughly 1/3 of any cost to transport and have someone else do the work, and usually I'll end up having to order parts on-line anyway. And while I'm waiting for a part, I can do other non-critical repairs. I try to repair everything.... Electronics, White Goods, Lighting Fixtures, Furniture, Plumbing, ...... everything. The exception is my My wife's car, which is brand new, and I will not touch it other than check the oil and tires. 
I did teach my own kids a work ethic and they have always worked since leaving home.
OP
rScotty
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I do almost all the repairs and all of the maintenance on my stuff, most of which is over 26 years old. While maintaining I get to look everything over and check for potential problems. Repairing is both a financial and a logistics issue in the rural Oregon area I live in. Repairing at home is roughly 1/3 of any cost to transport and have someone else do the work, and usually I'll end up having to order parts on-line anyway. And while I'm waiting for a part, I can do other non-critical repairs. I try to repair everything.... Electronics, White Goods, Lighting Fixtures, Furniture, Plumbing, ...... everything. The exception is my My wife's car, which is brand new, and I will not touch it other than check the oil and tires.
M5farms, that's a bit harsh....but I do think you have a point. If the young generation can't fix stuff as well as the older generation can it isn't their fault.... It's our fault. Maybe we still have time to fix that.
JasperFrank, we are in rural Colorado and what you are saying is pretty common here. Sometimes I wonder if it's us rural folk who are behind the times. That wouldn't surprise me.
rScotty
M5farms
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Too many people let video games and tv baby sit there kids. It might seem harsh but the only person to blame with the current generation lack of common Sense and mechanical abilities is the people our age. They let their offspring down by not teaching them which imo is why we have so many pussys running around
Industrial Toys
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I have an electronics background. But for the last twenty or more years, there was an increasing chance that I could not fix what was broken, or it did not make sense from a time and cost point of view. Humanity really is going down a road where it is unnecessary to have any skills at all. Not for driving, making a meal, or even basic thinking. I hardly see a person walking without them staring into a smartphone screen.
The song "In the Year 2525" seems to be spot on, except for the dates.
The song "In the Year 2525" seems to be spot on, except for the dates.
Fuddy1952
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The more you do the more you CAN do.
It's as simple as that. I enjoy fixing stuff.
Last week I rewired a neighbor's trailer. It had some weird problems but in the end it was fixed better than new, connectors crimped , soldered, heat shrink, wire loom, etc.
The neighbor's wife then baked a birthday cake for my wife and had a cook out dinner for us.
It's a challenge whether electrical, plumbing, wood working, construction, a garden, building a motor, horse farrier work, I'm putting up fences, sewing, backhoe work, fell trees, walk, ride a bike, you name it.
I especially love fabrication. Motorizing a bicycle, making a zip line...the more things you do the more you CAN do. One experience can apply to something else.
It's as simple as that. I enjoy fixing stuff.
Last week I rewired a neighbor's trailer. It had some weird problems but in the end it was fixed better than new, connectors crimped , soldered, heat shrink, wire loom, etc.
The neighbor's wife then baked a birthday cake for my wife and had a cook out dinner for us.
It's a challenge whether electrical, plumbing, wood working, construction, a garden, building a motor, horse farrier work, I'm putting up fences, sewing, backhoe work, fell trees, walk, ride a bike, you name it.
I especially love fabrication. Motorizing a bicycle, making a zip line...the more things you do the more you CAN do. One experience can apply to something else.
3Ts
Elite Member
I hired a contractor to build our house recently. One of the bids included a condition that the home owner was not allowed on the property while the workers were there. Since we were living on the property already, that was not going to work, but I understand the reason for it.
The bid we ended up with, the contractor did not follow the contract. They were supposed to follow the building codes. I called the builder many times to tell him the codes are not being followed. He believed his subs, so I pulled out chapter and verse of the building codes. Turns out he did not know the codes and just depended on his subs to know them. Lots of disagreements and I ended up making them take a wall apart to wire the kitchen island correctly (the electrician wanted to run a multi-wire circuit with 40 amps on a 12 gauge wire). Not everything got corrected, I was concerned that he'd walk off the job if I forced it. Then I'd really be up a creek. So, I contend that a lot of the problem is that the contractors just don't know and just don't care.
And I work on my own vehicles and do everything else that I can. But, as I get older, it gets more difficult so I either get more tools (to make it easier) or hire someone to do it for me (under my direction if I can).
