I am opposed to doing anything twice that can be done right once, and never done again. The expression I learned form my uncle Calvin, who learned it in thearmy, (I think) is NORA. Do it Now, do it Once, do it Right, do it All.
I belive this about my stuff, too. I share Kim du Toit’s love of old firearms, but I also have a love of old stuff of all types, that was built right to begin with.
Here is my tractor, for instance.
it’s 40 years old, just a few years younger than me. I love it because it hasn’t needed anything other than normal maintenance for all that time. Dad and I remodeled a guys house, and in turn, he gave us this tractor. The previous owner was the dealer, and he loved this tractor, was loathe to be rid of it, but his contract required he replace it with a new one. Dad used it to plow snow in the winter, and I mowed with it in the summer. I’ve been mowing an acre plus every summer weekend with that tractor for thirty years, boy and man. Ok, it’s a little dirty, but it starts and runs on the first pull every season. I use the electric start when I’m tired, but I love starting it with the rope, just because. It has a rope type starter, wrap the rope around the front pulley of the engine, yank with all your might.
I have a lot of equipment like this; old stuff that performs well after years of service. I’ll post more as I think of it.
That’s kick ass. We had an old red Ford tractor on the farm, probably a ’63 or so. You couldn’t destroy it if you tried. It had the lines of a ’30’s model, straight out of an Art Deco or Stalin collectivist poster. Sweet.
Oh, yeah. Probably an 8N or a 9N, and they kept that art deco look for years. Those tractors are all over the place for a grand or so. I would have my testes removed if I came home with another tractor, though.
Great, now I have strains of “She Thinks Me Tractor’s Sexy” running through my head!
But you are quite right, nothing better than having a piece of machinery that runs just right as long as you keep up the maint on it. Or just keep the darn thing clean (like my folks old Philco refridgerator..that bad boy lasted well over 30 years, with no problems).
Cool on the fridge! My gramma still had a fridge with the big coil on top when she died, and I think it would still be working if they’d have kept it. I’m gonna make this a regular feature.
The only thing *wrong* with the fridge was the little light on the inside never came on for the first 15 years….then one day..it just started to work..and stayed working till they got rid of it some 20 years later.
I grew up in Southern Oregon, learned to drive on a 1930’s FarmAll tractor, and this was in the 80’s. Forty years old ain’t nuthin. But it’s a cool tractor.
Sure, forty years ain’t nothing, for a big tractor. This is a single cylinder lawn tractor. Find me another one forty years old. Odds are, it’s a Power King, just like this one. The farmalls ARE cool, though. My uncle sold his just a very few years ago. Farmall cub, with the big bench seat for ample farmers.