I'm the King of Obsolete

You guys should have seen the massive cave I made this winter with the cold weather. Michelle did not appreciate it.

mplspug wrote:

You guys should have seen the massive cave I made this winter with the cold weather. Michelle did not appreciate it.

Did you get out the bivy and spend the night?

If you didn’t carry a pocket knife at school how did you play mumbly-peg or whittle yourself a fishing pole. If you 30 somethings think things have changed talk to some of us 60 somethings. Phones use to be something that was black and hung on the wall in the kitchen or sat on it’s own little table in the hallway.

when my truck starts running rough, i can file & gap the points myself.
Scott

Cool post.

I grew up cutting wood every summer/fall. We cut enough to burn 24/7 during the winter months, which was usually 2-3 cords. When I was younger we split it all by hand (maul and splitting wedge). Then the neighbor needed his roof replaced. My father and I roofed it over a weekend (hammers). Our payment was use of his hydraulic wood splitter every fall. The splitter was built from scratch by our neighbor and it was a beast. His demo for us was splitting a 16”diameter oak chunk against the grain. It pushed right through the chuck and snapped it in half. The good old days were when a guy could build something bigger, better, and cheaper than you could buy it for in a store. That is if you wanted to put the time in and had the tools to complete the job. I’ve built a few things from the lessons that I learned from that neighbor.

I also change oil and own a chain saw and more importantly, know how to use it. I will admit that if the oil change falls in the middle of Jan/Feb I’ve been known to let the pro’s do it.

I will try to fix things at work to get a few more miles too. While most guys will pull a gear with a bad bearing and toss it in the garbage when the bearing fails, I reach over and pull it out. I then inspect the gear to make sure it doesn’t have a lot of wear and if good I press out the old bearing and press in a new one. Presto, a new gear with a perfect bearing to reuse. I guess it’s one of things you are wired for but I’d like to think that my father instilled a lot of these lessons.

I may be on the younger side of this crowd (30) but do all of the things that have been mentioned. I have changed oil on all my vehicles since before I could legally drive. I cut and split wood(hand built hydraulic splitter my grandpa built) to heat my home. Started out with my dads saw which was his dads saw and cleaned and can tune the carb by feel on that thing. It still runs like brand new just yesterday! I did finally by a brand new one this spring. I sharpen my 20″ chains with a file still and in under 7 minutes. I have carried a pocket knife since I was 5. And yes, even to school through all grades. Even borrowed it to a teacher a few times! I can still tie a fair amount of the knots we learned in Boy Scouts. I buy and eat chicken eggs from a local farmer when I can. There are many more things as well.

tegg wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mplspug wrote:</div>
You guys should have seen the massive cave I made this winter with the cold weather. Michelle did not appreciate it.

Did you get out the bivy and spend the night?

No, he didn’t sleep in it. He did pee in it, however.

fish4all wrote:

I guess it’s one of things you are wired for but I’d like to think that my father instilled a lot of these lessons.

It’s no that I long for some mythic “good old days” to somehow return. I’m damn glad NOT to burn wood anymore. Obsolete though I may be, I’m no masochist. I had enough of that by the age of 18, and the only splitter we had was powered by a hickory handle.

And I have to admit that I’ve done just enough roofing–as you say, “by hand”–to know that roofing is the worst job in the world. I’ll do it if I have to, but nothing on earth is going to make me like it.

It’s the very definition of mixed emotions, I’d suppose. I am at once happy that my boys don’t HAVE to do a lot of things that I did, but yet that’s how we learned, isn’t it?

For all the good it does us Obsoletes, anyway.

I hear ya grouse. Try to do it yourself and its absolutely amazing to some, but ordinary to the guys who like to try hands on and have been for atleast most of their lives. I’ve never been inside a leaf blower and the other day my friend said take this with you and see if you can get it running. These leaf blowers have carburators the size of a model airplane engine, but I had a hunch I could fix it.I took it apart, almost with a microscope, cleaned everything up, put it back together and it took two pulls and it ran.

Where I was working on a job a guy pulled up and walked over to his restored 58 chevy flatbed 1 ton that he has completely restored. Well being who I am I walked over and asked to take a look under the hood. He was having problems with it stalling out. My and any mechanics first thoughts are eigther the carburator or fuelpump and maybe ignition. He took off the fuel pump and I blew through it, worked the diaphram arm to see if there was suction and pressure on both side of the fuel line. The was so we went to the carburator. He took the top off and I tilted it up and looked at the needle valve and it wasn’t set right with the float. A couple blow throughs and a couple turns on the screw driver with a slight twitch with a needle nose and put it back on the carburator base. He turned the engine over, the fuel pump filled the float bowl and it ran. The linkage that connected the throttle too the choke arm was on back wards and the air screw needed adjustment. I reversed the choke arm and turned the air screw so the propper air was able to work and it ran like an engine I haven’t heard run for 30 years, a 300 cubic inch straight six cylinder.

I told him to get a cheap vacume gauge and where too hook it up to finish adjusting the air mix and he was grinning from ear to ear. He gave me a compliment and I said hell I enjoyed doing it. He went for his billfold and I said no, no money as its bad Karma. He drove his little ford truck to this 58 to try to get it running and had no way to get it back to his place about a mile away. He said you got a license and I said lets go. I drove this piece of wonderment a mile away to his house and it was complete total pleasure. Granny gear is so low and slow my grandmother that walked with a cane could walk faster then this truck in low gear. He took me back to where He broke down and I was working, and said thanks again. What a guy won’t do to help another out and to get away from the everyday work he’s doing. All this took about 2 hours and was Cool stuff!

Surely, Dan, anyone who has worked on anything with a carburetor in the last year, deserves automatic membership in the Brotherhood of the Obsoletes. Carburetor men in an EFI world.

The thing I think that’s missed about carbs is that the principles by which they work are the same and haven’t changed for 100 years. If you understand the principles, you can figure out the individual unit.

Here’s another one for you. I actually use hand planes. Hand what??? Yes, exactly. Had to fashion a 4 foot long strip to close a gap between a window frame and the screen. It was 1/8 at the top and it slowly narrowed by about 1/32 of an inch at the bottom.

About 10 strokes of a 60 1/2 block plane. Nothing with an electric motor would have done it that quickly or that well. The fringe benefits of obsolescence.

Grouse

One of these days I’m going to learn how to change the blinker fluid on my truck….the mechanics always charge an arm and a leg for it.

I’m pretty sure I am not king of anything. But I do mow hay with a 1944 John Deere Model A, pulling a Massey mower that was made in the 50’s.

Certainly any tractor without a cab, power steering, hydraulics, even a battery or electric start is obsolete.

OK, here’s another one. People are horrified that I would leave the house without a cell phone. The only reason I have a cell phone is because the boss handed it to me at work. I sure wouldn’t pay for the thing myself. “But what if something happens?” I’m asked. Well, I’ll walk out of it. It wouldn’t be the first time. Since when did being alone become so terrifying?

ptc wrote:

I’m pretty sure I am not king of anything. But I do mow hay with a 1944 John Deere Model A, pulling a Massey mower that was made in the 50′s.

Certainly any tractor without a cab, power steering, hydraulics, even a battery or electric start is obsolete.

We have an Alice Chalmers B with a McCormick No.7 Mower at our farmstead property. Thanks for reminding me I need to get a 1/2″ carriage bolt so I can replace the seat on the mower with the one we pulled off the hay rake that had a 6″ birch growing thru it. We naturally cut the old rusted bolt off with a cutting torch.

ptc wrote:

I’m pretty sure I am not king of anything. But I do mow hay with a 1944 John Deere Model A, pulling a Massey mower that was made in the 50′s.

Certainly any tractor without a cab, power steering, hydraulics, even a battery or electric start is obsolete.

Now that’s actually really cool! Welcome to the Brotherhood of the Obsoletes.

I have long thought that it’s mesmerizing, how that hay lays down behind the sickle bar, like a wave crashing onto a beach. I’ve often imagined the reaction men would have had when they first saw a sickle bar hay mower, even if it was horse drawn! If you’re wondering what I’m talking about, you’ve obviously never tried to take a few cuts with the old school hand scythe. Now think about swinging that bad boy for days on end.

I think there’s a real benefit in understating machines by working with (and on) older equipment. In many cases these older machines make clear the principles on which the modern versions still operate. But they do so in a way that’s not shrouded, shielded, and hidden away so as to make everything inaccessible and therefore difficult to understand.

Grouse

tegg wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>ptc wrote:</div>
I’m pretty sure I am not king of anything. But I do mow hay with a 1944 John Deere Model A, pulling a Massey mower that was made in the 50′s.

Certainly any tractor without a cab, power steering, hydraulics, even a battery or electric start is obsolete.

We have an Alice Chalmers B with a McCormick No.7 Mower at our farmstead property. Thanks for reminding me I need to get a 1/2″ carriage bolt so I can replace the seat on the mower with the one we pulled off the hay rake that had a 6″ birch growing thru it. We naturally cut the old rusted bolt off with a cutting torch.

You actually have a cutting torch? Welcome to the Brotherhood of the Obsoletes.

We actually had welding class in high school. It was in 8th grade, no it was NOT elective. All the boys took welding and metalwork, the girls were sent off to Home Ec.

During parent/teacher conferences, the teacher told my parents that I was an excellent welder because I was patient. He said I should consider the welding trades and welding schools. The look on my mother’s face was priceless.

If you’d have said you whipped out the Plasma Cutter and whacked that bolt, well, that’d just be showing off. But totally awesome showing off, nonetheless.

Grouse

We had ideas to “Re-Purpose” this as a portable sauna but were afraid the wheels would not support the weight. My uncle said it was always pretty rickety.

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TheFamousGrouse wrote:

You actually have a cutting torch? Welcome to the Brotherhood of the Obsoletes.

I cant claim I have a cutting torch. Just a cousin who can borrow a cutting torch from work.

It’s debateable if I’m in the Brotherhood of the Obsoletes but I can play one on TV.

Your post just leads me to believe you live in a fancy dancy neighborhood where lawn services, repair trucks and the FedEx man are usually on the street. I used to live in one of those too…simply having a socket set was enough to bedazzle some neighbors…and am glad I no longer live there.

I understand that Grouse, set the planing blade at about a 64th and gradually work yourself twards the finished end,,,,Daaa, hell machines can’t even do that. Did anyone ever think about all those hand painted plates and coffee cup saucers that were absolutely beautiful, ya they were done by hand. Heres a note for all the tech gurus,,, The human hand and mind has and never will be duplicated and its a fact that they have tried and never ended up with anything close to what the human hand and mind did at the turn of the century, even now. Machines can’t and never will be able to show feelings,,,and with communication through that process, because their machines. Brush strokes show feelings,,,The best minds in the CNC world and programs don’t. How can you duplicate feelings with something that doesn’t act that way, I’ll take clean well water and those actions everyday because I know their real.

What is that Tegg, a harrow or a hay rake, I know it doesn’t show either but its the frame and seat that could pull both by a work horse. Whos more stupid,,,the horse or the human.

Pug,

If you pee on your vegetables it will keep the deer away…

Not doing… just saying!

Grouse,

I can identify with all the above, but I have found that some folks are just not wired to do mechanical work or understand how to take apart and fix things. I have folks ask me how I know how to do various tasks as have been described above and the best thing I can tell them to keep it short is that I simply observe others when I was young or as I needed to learn something. Recently, Youtube is very helpful as a reference to learn some new tasks.

Apparently machines aren’t the only thing the new generation can’t handle, a frog found its way onto our staircase we were finishing over night only for our workers to come find me to check it out BC neither would touch it BC it might be poisonous……this would’ve got 3 ………

It was a hay rake. Plenty of growth and sediment over the past few decades to obscure the view.

nhamm…seriously? Wow. We’ve got a lot of frogs at our new place, and my 2.5 year old loves them. Want to hire him for frog duty???

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nhamm wrote:

Apparently machines aren’t the only thing the new generation can’t handle, a frog found its way onto our staircase we were finishing over night only for our workers to come find me to check it out BC neither would touch it BC it might be poisonous……this would’ve got 3 ………

With invasives you never know.

I found a Cuban frog in a Target once hanging out with the exotic plants. Apparently that happens a lot, but they cannot survive the winters. And no, it wasn’t poisonous.

I just ordered a TV. Finally stepping into the flatscreen era. #obsolete

Now I feel old since my F250 still plays cassettes and cd’s. Your neighbor would be amazed at this rototiller conversion my son in law just completed last week at the age of 25. King of obsolete nope but one of the court as not conforming to the new and improved owww yeaaa!!!

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IceAsylum wrote:

Now I feel old since my F250 still plays cassettes and cd’s.

Oh yeah! My Sequoia has a CD and tape deck, too!

I’m 38, but I often think I was born 60-70 years too late.

Between gardening, hunting, and fishing, I produce and preserve as much of my own food as I can.

I own a cell phone, but I will NEVER own a smart phone.

If something’s broke, I fix it. If something needs doing, I shut up and do it.

I will never read an e-book thing. I like my books, newspapers, magazines to be made out of paper. I like to turn the page and smell the print.

I have more cassettes than CD’s, but I still buy CD’s. Screw that ipod crap.

The younger generation has been way too pampered. If the SHTF, they would all be dead in a month.

Why would I pee to keep the deer away? Unless it works on Raccoons. Now I got 2 of them hanging off the bird feeder and eating at the same time.