Poverty Repairs

[Paul in MN]

I just thought it might be fun to dredge up some of the old memories of how we made some piece of machinery operate longer (or again) by some kind of horrible "poverty fix" (I think that is PC for a former term we used to use, but shall use no more). This is kind of a follow up to Sounder's thread on finding coax wire used in a tractor he is working on.

I got to thinking that we are missing the most often used source of parts and pieces (in the 30's through the 60's)....the town dump. Geez, I got a lot of parts free from that source and could spend a good morning scrounging for goodies that needed to live another life. Now, I am much more limited to just very short stints of dumpster diving, and have to be pretty discrete about it.

I remember finding car tires that I cut the beads and sidewalls off and used the worn thin tread as a liner inside of another worn tire on a wagon or 2 wheel trailer. Of course this was before the day of steel belted radials. And how many washing machines did I roll over to gain easy access to a free 1/3 hp elect motor that got a new life driving a home made shop grinder or buffer. How many dump lawn mowers became the basic drive system for a HM go-kart? Especially the reel type mowers with the horiz shaft gas engines. Made a battery charger from a lawn mower Briggs belted up to an auto generator to charge up the tired battery in one of the vehicles. When alternators became available in 63, the generator went back to the dump and the alternator was set up with the Briggs for faster charging. How about early auto AC pumps being belted up to a REO or Tecumseh to make a HM air compressor. Many of the early AC pumps were made by Tecumseh with a similar looking block.

Oh ya, old bed frames.....

My list of "stuff" could go on for quite a bit longer, but now it is your turn.......

And it all started with an AC Gilbert Erector set given by Dad to this little guy before kindergarten.


Paul in MN

 

[ZANE]

Dunk will accuse you of doing a Zane on it!!!

:O)

I have a 100 AMP alternator off a big truck mounted on an old Yazoo lawn mower out at the shop right now that will jump a dead battery pretty quick! Got to move it though out from under a birds roosting place in the shed. It ain't looking good!

Zane

 

[JW Axtell]

Like pennies in the fuse box?

 

[jon]

Like pennies in the fuse box?

What's wrong with that?? :lol:

 

[Ian074]

(quoted from post at 22:57:51 03/11/10) Dunk will accuse you of doing a Zane on it!!!
:O)
Zane

Geeze. Don't get him started again

 

[Danny in CO]

When I was in high school I had a 58 Ford Fairlane. On a date one night, we were in a dark area (I'm not saying what we were doing there) and my fan belt broke when we were getting ready to leave. I convinced my date to take off her pantyhose and I used them as a temporary fix to get home. I had been trying to get her to take her pantyhose before and this was a great excuse! lol

 

[Paul in MN]

That's one I had forgotten, but yup, I made the same fix "late one night" so she could get home before her wicked Mother's curfew. But as I recall, it wasn't them dam pantihose, it was a one leg at a time deal which made it quite easy to stretch tightly around the pulleys and tie tightly. You could use the other one for the second 30 miles. Dang shame too, the pair of new stockings about cost as much as the proper V-belt. But it made her feel good that she was important in helping to "save the evening".

Oh, the memories!!

Paul

 

[Jimps]

Here's a modern twist on this topic: I had a house for sale that had a bad timer in the dishwasher. Tried to get the buyer to accept a $200 credit towards a new dishwasher but they wanted that one fixed or a new one installed. Since I owned a computer store at the time, I used some serial port punch-outs from the back of a PC along with some PC case screws to construct a clamp/strap to hold the timer together so it would work good enough to sell. Buyer was mad that I fixed it, but bought it anyway.

I had an laptop years ago that had a poor design on the power switch button. It would turn on if you pressed on the closed laptop. I hot-glued a dime next to the button. Made for an interesting conversation piece when visiting customers!

"Fixed" a toilet flush float that would not drop when flushed by stacking a few quarters on top of it.

Jimps in GA.

 

[Dan from WI]

Working in the local Standard station in the late 60's early 70's we frequently repaired broken exhaust pipes using the all steel Quaker State oil cans and a couple of muffler clamps. Had a guy in one time for an oil change that I had repaired two years earlier and it was still intact. Saved him a lot of money

 

[Richard from SE AZ]

Don't forget the air compressor made from the compressor in old freezers. The ones from walk in freezers were the best.

 

[Cutty]

I had a high school teacher that I didn't get along with very well at all. got a D in his class one semester. I complained and he told me, "Cutty, you can't make chicken salad out of chicken crap!" Well I set out to prove him wrong and got an A in his class the next semester. So I guess you could say I made chicken salad out of chicken crap! Thanks for nothing Mr. Aiello (Fat Frank!)

 

[Dunk]

(quoted from post at 12:57:51 03/11/10) Dunk will accuse you of doing a Zane on it!!!

:O)


Zane

Most of the time there is [b:04a848af40]nothing[/b:04a848af40] wrong with doing a Zane (or Dunk) on it!!!

I may pick at you, but you and I don't live that far apart, and have survived, and flourished a lot of times in our lives on the "just make it work" culture, because there was no funds/material/time or whatever at the time to do the book job on it.

You gotta do, what you gotta do, when you gotta do it.

A lot of folks take me, and life, way to seriously.

I don't.