Training Day

The one thing I have noticed as wind down closer to my retirement age. The skill set and ability to fix things among my young colleagues. There afraid to try to fix something. I have told them time and time again. The darn thing is already broke . Trying is better than the alternative. So when the snow blower broke at our community. The two younger guys decided to shovel snow. We maintain 2 miles of walkway. So I let them have at it. After 4 consecutive snow events. Today was training day. They decided we all needed to come up with a way to fix the blower. Parts where ordered 2 weeks ago. But the supply chain is unreliable. So after 2 hrs without proper parts we got that blower running. And I have to admit it looked pretty good. So they fired it up. Blew 50 ft of snow caught a rock and sheared 3 pins. This time they got right on that repair. Good job boys. They are learning.

If someone built it someone can fix it is the way I look at it.

. . .and if you don't fix it the first time, get a bigger hammer!:-)

Yep

^^^^This^^^^

Preferably with a Binford 9000XLT special edition professional grade hammer.

That would work

hardest part about fixing snow blowers is dragging them up the stairs into the kitchen.

gotta thaw out all that ice before you can get to the broken stuff

Maybe it’s the area I’m in but I don’t see that in my generation. I could call any of the young guys I know on any given day and chances are they’ll have to wipe the grease from their hands from the motor they’re tearing apart to answer the phone. Helped a buddy pull a 7.3 out of a Ford the other day and strip it down. Now the same buddy has a mercury up on the lift. We’re always workin on something around here, wether it’s cars, tractors, lawnmowers, four wheelers, etc. so much so that my dad bought a rollback tow truck to haul all our projects around lol

A friend gave us an old Toro CCR Powerlite snowblower in 2019 when I built a fence for her. We finally needed it a week and a half ago. I got it started easily enough, the night before the snow came. I tried it out the next day, in the snow and found it ran, but wouldn't throw snow. I watched a few videos on YouTube and figured out the paddles were worn out. Diane figured out it was also missing a scraper bar. She ordered a parts kit, which we had 2 days later, which included the paddles, a scraper bar and a primer bulb. She put the parts on and it ran very well through 2 tanks of gas, than the primer bulb cracked. Diane quickly replaced the bulb. The snow blower ran for about an hour more and then the scraper bar tore off along with bits of the plastic it mounted on. The blower threw more snow backwards then it did up. Diane cut a strip of barrel plastic, molded it with a heat gun and mounted it to the metal further up, which she drilled to receive it. She used self tapping screws. One screw fell out, after a short while, so Diane replaced them with bolts, washers and locknuts. Then the blower developed a hole in the engine shield, which Diane fixed with epoxy. I pulled the starter pull handle off today. Diane pulled the rope out of an old mower that she'll put in tomorrow.

She's more handy then I am. Her great grandfather started Mack trucks and she takes pride in fixing things. A few weeks ago, she took her Keurig almost completely apart to get the lime out.

Keith