cheap bastard theater
Last winter I ended up dropping a stovejoint on the damned lawnmower,breaking the air filter housing, an action which annoyed me no end. Further annoyance was caused by my discovery that while HFT would be tickled to sell me a replacement filter housing for $8, I would have to wait 8 weeks for said device.
But the lawn wants mowing NOW.
So I cobbled this together.
It works fine. I’m almost inclined to like it so much I don’t want to put the original filter back on.
I will, but I like this anyway.
25 comments Og | Uncategorized
You’ll get a lot more mileage out of the Meguiar’s can than you would a Turtle Wax can.
Aint’t the turtle wax cans plastic?
No, no, no!!! Keep it!!!! Its cool!!!
Oh wait! Are those bullet holes!?! How many turtles died to provide you that can of wax?
Garagineer Award, motors, grass division.
McGyver has nothing on you.
I like it.
“Necessity is the mother of invention.”–Frank Zappa
Jenny
Anxious to see the computer you build out of a hearing aid battery and a paper clip.
I see no reason at all to spend money on a factory air filter housing, when you have such a nice looking unit already.
In fact that might be a marketing opportunity.
I’ma take some more pictures and post ’em tomorrow
I disdain people who would call this redneck engineering and think it crude, when in reality, it is a masterpiece. Too bad more out there are not smart enough to recycle things and be inventive enough to do something like this. Bravo, old chap, bravo!!!! :-)
If it’s stupid and it works it ain’t stupid.
BGM
A work of art.
You even went so far as to align the printing on the lid – now, I don’t care who you are, that is attention to detail.
You remind me of my father, only he would leave it just like that.
I like it. Got two zero turn mowers, one 14 and the other 10 years old. If I did not “fix” things I’d be broke buying OEM parts or paying somebody else to repair my stuff. I work with people (mostly sales types) that can’t do anything, not even a faucet washer. They have to make a lot of money to pay the small army of folks that maintain their homes and cars.
The difference between you and me is that the stuff you cobble together works.
*sigh*
I’m surprised that one or two of your Exploders don’t look like that from the greasy side up….
While TDY to Anderson AFB on Guam in 1971, I bought a 58 Ford 2-door for $600 for a crew-car for the 60 days we were to be there. It had a blown muffler, a no-no, couldn’t pass inspection.
Solution was one tube of muffler cement, one split-open Coke Can (steel in those days), a hammer and nail, and a Pop rivetool. Total cost, about $.88 or so, and it passed inspection.
Look… my last car (Younger than my current vehicle) had parts on it swiped from a washing machine and a slide projector. All done because factory parts were Too expensive, impossible to get, or poorly designed.
The newest vehicle I ever owned in my life had parts on it from a Spongebob skateboard…. and the service manager at the dealership was looking REAL close, as it solved an issue that Nissan wouldn’t or couldn’t.
The only difference between that car wax can and a custom high speed/low drag performance air intake system is sixty seconds in a bead blast cabinet and 12 cents worth of red spray paint.
Dog, Teach: I do have some garagineered parts on the Sploders. I had some on my old Land rover, too. Sometimes it’s not the parts, either, but the tools you have to make. I have a diff seal driver made from the piston of a lawnmower. Every time I think about tossing it out I remember how much trouble I went through trying to get that seal put in, and it goes back in the bottom of the toolbox.
Once had to replace the fork seals on my old bike, and discovered that a piece of 1.5″ pvc pipe fit perfectly; squared one end and deburred, and it seated them. I think it’s still in the garage, now that I think about it…
Not in the same class as your filter housing, but saved me time and money
Adapt, Improvise, Overcome :-)
I second Old NFO.
Dog, I think my uncle had that ford first :-)
Good looking fix there Og. I’d keep it a long as it works. Probably better that the original.
Though you beat them and you flay them
Inovation lets you “save” ’em
You’re a better meck than I am
Gunga-Din!
I just took a pair of needle nose plier to the cheese grater to make the holes just a big bigger for the perfect size for shredded potatoes for hashbrowns.
If you have the proper tool, you can do about anything.
Garageeneer. I never heard that term, but I grew up under it. The stuff that my Dad fixed or fabricated in our garage was wonderment. Best memories is saturday mornings when he was tweaking his modified sportsman for that nights race. The local wags would come by, smoking cigars or a wad of chaw in the cheek. WWII vets, all of ’em, wearing visible and hidden scars of their experience, offering words of humor and encouragement to Pop. I’d be sitting on a milk crate, listening & waiting for a task he’d toss me, and that night I’d be all of 8 years old, sitting in turn 4, knowing I torqued down the bolts on the new carb velocity stack he put on that morning.
Got a lot of ‘Pop’ stories, like the time he fixed a burst fuel line in the Florida Straights on his buddy’s boat, on their way to a Bahama fishing tournament, with a toothbrush, dental floss & tootpaste.
Pop is gone ten years next month, and truly, thanks Og, for triggering all those memories stuffed back in the cobwebs.
Old NFO, I salute you — a great motto.
Of course you all have the proper tools. I quote Professor Pete Egan:
http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Humor/Workshop/Definitions.htm
Jenny