What Happened to being able to get small parts?

[newbury]

I enjoy "doing stuff" to the point I may invest more effort than most people to make something work again. It's nice to have tools as well as parts and pieces on hand that may be useful.

Same here, plus I don't have to worry about security or time. And it always offer the opportunity to acquire new skills and tools.

 

[Shenandoah MF1760]

Only way it works out is if you have the time and derive satisfaction doing it.

Part of the issue is that no one is shown how to repair anything.

The idea that they can disassemble, examine, determine & replace/repair is never provided.

And, most don't even have enough mechanical aptitude to recognize how something works, let alone how to fix a problem.

Gone are the days when kids played with erector sets, making tin soldiers, assembling models, and the like.

And to top it off, manufacturers assemble things in a manner that taking them apart breaks them further.

It's like that cartoon about the farmer getting ready to teach his grandkids how to dig a hole with both kids never lifting their faces up from their phones. The granddaughter whines "Can't we download an app for that?" and the grandson whines, "Why don't we just order holes from Amazon?".

 

[YLee Kioti]

dang so sadly true...!!!
Stopped by to visit a antique store in Schulenberg cause well, they have books!
Browsing around, I noticed they had graders, dump trucks and excavators, metal ones, aged and rusty, the kind I used to find on the side of the road discarded.
I'd take them home and do what I could to fix them up and and play with them.
Imagination fuels my "hey what do this do?". And worked on first lawn mower at 12, cutting yards for .50 cents...Had no idea idea what I did to get it to run. Took stuff apart, cleaned them and cranked it up!
Yup, modern society, what progress eh??? lol...

 

[flyerdan]

Scrolling through Nextdoor (aka Karenville), the amount of posts from people looking for someone to perform some ridiculously simple repair task is scary. Noone is capable of doing anything for themselves anymore, it seems.
We used to have a thing called Repair Fair, where people with repair skills would volunteer their time for 3 or 4 hours of a Saturday, and people would bring in things to be fixed, hopefully with the parts needed to complete it. Not nearly as involved as the stuff on The Repair Shop, but a lot of lamps, bad switches and power cords were put back into service.

 

[kenmbz]

My old neighbor could not use a screwdriver to save his life.

In my new hood (well been here a while) we have people like me and my neighbor who do most of their own fixin, have tractors, tools etc.

And then we have the big houses where people probably pay to have light bulbs replaced.

I fix whatever I can. I just restrung Christmas lights with a new rope of LEDs.
Fixed washing machines, dryers and every other little thing.
Most of the time YouTube has some video that at least helps.
Like taking the front off my Jeep to replace the light power boxes. Tons of clips and screws, but did not really take that long and I move slow.

So many things are just glued now, have to use heat to open them and be careful not to melt anything. Lots of plastic parts and gears.

Can usually find the parts somewhere, but they can get to be big $

But sometimes, like with garage door gear, can get pretty cheap and replace pretty easily.

I see many of the newer devices have one piece assemblies or custom chips.
Not too easy to fix these at all.

 

[rScotty]

I find about the same percentage of people are do it yourselfers as always have been.

Over the years, us fix-it folks tend towards things that were designed to be fixed. Still plenty of those around. I can't drive 5 miles without passing a line of tractors in a row along a field - and everyone of them was originally designed to be fixed.

Luckily, there still isn't any law in the land that says tools in a workshop must be new, - and that goes equally for tractors, trucks, cars, appliances, implements, or even one's house & barn. Over the years these have all become old enough to be fixable - and stay as useful as they were originally.

Ingenuity coupled with ambition and a bit of self-education seem to be a the real answer to inflation.

 

[ultrarunner]

I find about the same percentage of people are do it yourselfers as always have been.

Over the years, us fix-it folks tend towards things that were designed to be fixed. Still plenty of those around. I can't drive 5 miles without passing a line of tractors in a row along a field - and everyone of them was originally designed to be fixed.

Luckily, there still isn't any law in the land that says tools in a workshop must be new, - and that goes equally for tractors, trucks, cars, appliances, implements, or even one's house & barn. Over the years these have all become old enough to be fixable - and stay as useful as they were originally.

Ingenuity coupled with ambition and a bit of self-education seem to be a the real answer to inflation.

We do have laws saying they can't be old...

So much older diesel power can no longer be used on job sites or ports and others like gas brush cutters are outlawed unless the new electric powered.

 

[grsthegreat]

We do have laws saying they can't be old...

So much older diesel power can no longer be used on job sites or ports and others like gas brush cutters are outlawed unless the new electric powered.

Are they going to grandfather in gas stuff? Or ban it all together.

 

[ultrarunner]

Are they going to grandfather in gas stuff? Or ban it all together.

Right now there is an outright ban on using gas powered brush cutters and blowers.

The diesel ban is fairly comprehensive and pertains to business use of older emission tier power covering everything from generators and chippers to over the road tractor rigs hauling out of the ports and construction equipment...

The utilities did a huge purge a few years back sending it all out if state for resale as they were no longer allowed to be used...

The same he's true for two-strokes in California fresh water lakes...

We still emission test 49 year old vehicles around here which reads 1976 and newer.

 

[grsthegreat]

Boy, im sure glad i left that place in 1996 when i did. Maybe i can buy some used gas powered snowmobiles and boat on the cheap.