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For about 20 years I ran 2 businesses as a side hustle besides working 40 to 50 hours of overtime each month. I invested all the profits of the businesses and the OT. Debt free at 50 and retired at 61. Took the mower shop pretty much full time so now I fix mowers and buy tools and toys.

My policy is through Hartford. Since my shop is on my property I have a rider on the homeowner policy to cover building, tools and equipment. The Hartford is a liability policy. I think a lot of people start a business without knowing how to really run a business. The small business...

I am an LLC sole proprietorship. My $1M liability insurance is about $500 a year. 1 in 5 new businesses fail in their first year. Knowing how to run a lawn mowing business is more important than knowing how to mow grass. A good accountant is your best friend too

Just some thoughts..... Will this be a real business? Living wage profits? There is a reason pros use zero turns, standers or walk behind and not tractor mowers. Will you pursue commercial or residential clients? If you show up with a 25 year old rustomatic truck and 20 year old tractor mower...

Back in the 80's they were putting BOP engines in chevy cars and then they put chevy engines in BOP cars. My mother had a Bonneville with a 400 Chevy motor in it and a friend had a monte carlo with a 3.8 BOP engine. Fun getting the right oil filter.

Anyone remember the 11, 11.5 12 and 12.5 HP briggs flathead engines that basically identical?

How many miles to the gallon did it get?

If it has a cord on it that plugs in she doesn't want it. Follow me for more marital tips.

"If women don't find you handsome they should at least find you handy" Wife didn't marry me for my looks.

Back in the day when you had to give an email address and phone number to get the "free" software I would use bobster1@aol.com and 800 867 5309. I didn't like Bob and that was his email address. Kinda like the time a guy stiffed me for a welding job and laughed about it. Somehow he got signed up...

There is a reason I keep my old dumb chargers around.

If XI is still in power by the end of 2024 I will be suprised. The china real estate market is collapsing. Developers Country Garden and Evergrande are defaulting on loans in the billions. The piggy bank called the USA has had a few thousand companies leave china for friendlier countries. Orders...

"I'm from the government and I am here to help." Blue or Red they are all the same.

My 1989 motorhome with a Qjet carburetor sat for 5 years in an unheated barn with E10 gas in it. Fired up and ran fine. I have customers who leave E10 gas in a snowblower for 6 months and it trashes the carb. I don't know much but I do know ethanol in gas makes me money.

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My cast iron is very low maint. I can cook a cornbread in it and the residue just wipes out. Searing meats leaves some stuck bits but a cup of water and 10 seconds with the chainmail and it is clean.

My $.02 worth The OXO non-stick skillet is the best but like all non-stick don't use metal or cook on high heat and even then it will eventually need replaced. Mine is a few years old is is almost like new still. I feel the hybrid pans (hexclad) are a passing fad pushed by TV chefs. Carbon steel...

Wife not really into cooking but I am and do all the cooking now. I used to weigh 310 but now about 230. Not slim by any means but my chest is bigger than my waist LOL. I am more about quality than quantity.

I have 4 skillets I use. A 20+ year old Lodge cast iron, a Matfer carbon steel, an OXO non-stick and a Emril tri-ply stainless steel. The non-stick is reserved for things like fish. It never sees high heat. My favorite go to pans are the cast iron and the carbon steel. I don't use the stainless...

Probably an oil burner and someone put a hotter plug in to try and stop oil fouling the plug.

Sounds like one of the old 50's era Evinrude dual hose system that used air from the engine to pressurize the fuel tank. Haven't seen one of those for a few years.

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Looks like another great internet debate. Just me, I store my zero turn completely full. Everthing else is empty and run dry. Never have a water problem. Probably a quarter of everything customers bring in have some water in the tank. I dump every handheld, push mower, tiller and snowblower that...

That is true. For the guy running a small one man shop stens is convenient because you get flat rate no surprise shipping. You can setup a tax free account. You get a hard copy catalog as well as on-line and Fast shipping. I have looked into other vendors but I am too small for them to bother with.

Pretty sure cranks are cast steel not cast iron. I use tap magic cutting fluid for drilling and tapping.

Drilling a hole slightly bigger with a standard twist drill can be tricky. Easy to burn and dull the ends of the drill lips. Slow revs and good amount of pressure is needed. You don't want to let the drill spin and not cut. Drill at least 1/4" deeper than you want to to run the tap to. Mark the...

I just received some backordered spindle nuts from stens delivered by FedEx (???) and they were charged the day they shipped. They were on BO for couple months. No extra shipping fee added.

I have always paid stens with a dedicated business credit card and I have auto payment of the statement balance of the card setup so I don't pay any interest on the card. I run all business transactions I can through the CC. My version of net30. I get a small amount of cash back too.

Ya'll do realize there are tens of thousands of of alarm systems that use SLA and flooded batteries like the kind in mowers that are connected to float chargers 24/7 for years. I maintained a lot of alarm systems and battery backups. Everyone should do what they are comfortable with but...

Had an older cub cadet with 22hp horizontal shaft engine in the shop this spring. Flywheel screen and cylinder fins completely clogged with cottonwood fluff. Owner ran it hard in tall grass and overheated it to the point it cooked the stick on label off the oil filter and ruined the crank seals...

You can get a head temp guage and monitor it to see how hot the head is getting https://www.amazon.com/Cylinder-Temperature-Fahrenheit-Digital-Adapter/dp/B0BKFPB537?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=AY0DJLL9STW3F&th=1

Ditto on the spark plug. I have also seen multiple Honda engines do that exact thing and a new plug fixed it.

My favorite is when folks bring me a mower with a crap ton of sealer in the tires and now the tires are so bad the tires have to be replaced and now I have to clean up the mess and deal with the rusted rims. Then they question what I want to charge to fit new tires. Let's see, clean up the mess...

In the barn I use battery tenders on 9 batteries and leave them on all winter. I don't disconnect any of them from the equipment. Never have a problem in the spring. Boat 4 deep cycle Motor home 2 deep cycle Tractor Zero turn Minivan

I have to use a micro drill on most honda type pilot jets. The USC or carb cleaner doesn't do a good job cleaning those.

I wonder how well it cleans plugged pilot jets in honda style carbs? Another miracle in a can?

Most people today fix a sandwich let alone something mechanical. The US has an epidemic of so called handymen that don't know which end of a screwdriver to hold that are ripping people off. Anybody can start a handyman business and some think watching a few utube vids makes them experts. I quit...

Famous quote from Ronald Reagan " What are the scariest words in the English language? I am from the government and I'm here to help" So true A self employed friend didn't get get the covid checks but my mother on SSI in a nursing home did and she hadn't filed a tax return in ten years at least.

When someone feels the need to tell everyone he has a $65000 of Mac and Snap On tools that tells me everthing I need to know.

Anyone else confused?

OMG 😱 here we go again!

You don't like it with uncle Joe's hands in your pockets?

I have been fixing mowers as a side hustle for over 20 years. Retired from the day job in 2019 and took the shop full time. The only shops left around me are the big dealers that make their money on sales. All the repair only shops are gone. I have run the numbers and if I wanted to open a...

My latest problem child. It is a bit of a collector's item a cording to the owner. It is a Brillion. He bought it sight unseen and it has a LOT of sins. Got everthing straightened out except the goofy air vane govenor. Somebody changed the shroud and made it a ratchet recoil vs a rope and I...

The stuff from the 30's and 40's are worth fixing

Agreed, parts for a lot of the new stuff is made of unobtanium. Husqvarna is using a lot of it and all the battery stuff is made of it. I fix a lot of stuff from the 60's and 70's and I always seem to find parts.

Hey Scrub, My ethanol gas is better than your ethanol gas.

Rural King has oil on sale. Went to order 7 5qt jugs online. Cost of oil was $84 and they wanted $309 for FedEx Freight shipping. That was the only shipping option. I think I will pass.

I have a ferris 3100z with 60" ICD deck and gator blades. I can cut at full speed unless the grass is tall and it does a good cut. 36hp helps too.

Temperature change