A sub-forum for sheds, garages and tools

[Jolls]

It makes me laugh - doesn't matter what the skill set you have it gets abused.

My base trade is as a sparky Son 2 is a mechanic base trade and Son 3 is in his last year as an apprentice sparky. Between us we run a building company in a country town. In addition to the standard tools we have a 12 tonne tipper, plant trailer, an excavator and a hoist in the shed.

Between us we get all sort of requests for help. We swap our labour with the plumber/concreter/roofer plus materials and vice versa - call it the trade economy. The trades always knock with their elbows and provide food on site - great system. Outside of the trade economy the call for unsolicited favours runs high - and they are usually too busy to hang around and help. If only they had something useful I could sponge back!

 

[shane_3800]

Honestly I don't really have mates as I cracked it awhile ago because I got sick of fixing everyone's cars for free. But they couldn't even come drink my beer and hang out with me while I did my stuff.

Other guy I've been best mates with since I was 15 and to keep things good between us after seeing me crack it at everyone else.

He has me write down how long I take on his stuff and pays me $25 an hour and tells me to tell him everytime I get up to 20 hours. Is never rushy on projects and usually will come give me a hand each Saturdays whether it's his Datsun or some of my stuff if we're waiting on parts for him.

I've built all three cars he owns for him and he just wants to buy an apartment to live in near work. Then have somewhere to play/keep his stuff . His mechanical engineer brother will probably be over a bit.

But he's alright I rebuilt a motor for him while he was in uni still haha.

Yep I told everyone to **** off for the same reason.
If you're doing a friend a favor the least they can do in return is give you some time.

I always would get the "I'm just going to spend some time with x" well are they going to fix your car?

 

[Fu Manchu]

Same here. Have people just take the piss. Want to fix a problem and I give them the solutions. They disregard the time and effort I put in and go and Google it and get the “solution” which in turn is the cause of the problem they sought to solve and around it all goes.

I am really fking good at my trade and that is reflected by my trade peers, but regular people seem to take advice from numpties because they can’t absorb actual information.

True, trades tend to look after trades ok.

I long ago stopped helping people and sharing my skill.

 

[vc commodore]

Honestly I don't really have mates as I cracked it awhile ago because I got sick of fixing everyone's cars for free. But they couldn't even come drink my beer and hang out with me while I did my stuff.

Other guy I've been best mates with since I was 15 and to keep things good between us after seeing me crack it at everyone else.

He has me write down how long I take on his stuff and pays me $25 an hour and tells me to tell him everytime I get up to 20 hours. Is never rushy on projects and usually will come give me a hand each Saturdays whether it's his Datsun or some of my stuff if we're waiting on parts for him.

I've built all three cars he owns for him and he just wants to buy an apartment to live in near work. Then have somewhere to play/keep his stuff . His mechanical engineer brother will probably be over a bit.

But he's alright I rebuilt a motor for him while he was in uni still haha.

I have a few good mates that return favours...It took a while to find good mates, but in the end I have been fortunate enough to get those mates...So I do consider myself fortunate....

 

[NORTI]

Have owned car trailers , own a six tonne truck.

I've had one way favour mates so long I see it coming these days.

Even mum copped it. I've seen her four times this year and three of the times were to fix her car.

She tried to do me a " deal " of " I'll give you the clubsport on a Friday night and drop your caprice back off when it's done! That way I don't have to stick around on my day off."

Sure you can't be bothered sitting here talking to me and handing me tools while I pull 4-1 1 7/8" di fillipo headers, to replace a starter motor in your t56 car that may require shimming and then extractor gaskets , rocker cover gaskets and do leads and plugs while I'm there. Mean time you're out drinking with your mates?

Yeah cause that sounds like my ideal Saturday -_-

I havent spoken to my Mum in quite some time for similar reasons. The only time I would hear from her was if she was planning a trip (she lives interstate) and she needed a car to borrow while she was here. After damaging 3 cars and arguing with me about why I said she wasn't allowed to smoke in any of the borrowed cars I said no more. I didn't hear/see her again once I said no more cars. Its been close to 2 years.

No is a perfectly acceptable answer. You don't owe anyone your time or assets if it doesn't bring you joy. Its taken me many years to learn this, and I wish I did it earlier.

 

[Immortality]

I had the complete opposite experience. Everytime the bro in law and his wife came over I would offer to tighten their fan belt as it always squealed but the offer was rejected every time. Then one day we saw them and the belt wasn't making any noise, later we found out it finally failed and she went to a mechanic to have it fixed including a new alternator!

I used to do a lot of **** for my little bro but he learnt to do the basics himself, now I'm teaching my boys.

 

[rambunctious]

If you have a buzz box you need new rods. The grade of rod makes a big difference as some don't like AC and some don't mind AC or DC.
Also 60 series rods like a clean surface.

My welds look like pelican **** when I use 60 series like 6013 on AC but 7016 on DC with hot start and I look like I've been welding for 30 years.

As an apprentice in the 60's I used to make extractors, headers from original cast iron manifolds, and wide wheels, all with the arc welder and oxy.
One thing I remember is seeing a small wood box on a site and inside was the welding rods kept warm and dry with a light bulb for heat meaning warm your arc rods first helps.

 

[Immortality]

Moisture sure does kill arc rods which is a pain for when you only weld once in a blue moon but have an open packet of rods in the garage cupboard.

 

[shane_3800]

Moisture sure does kill arc rods which is a pain for when you only weld once in a blue moon but have an open packet of rods in the garage cupboard.

I saw a guy on YT with one of those kitchen vaccume food sealers using it to store rods.
He bought some desiccant off the net and added it into the packs. He dried the rods in the oven first then let them cool added the desiccant and sealed them up.
This way there's always good rods on hand.

 

[the_boozer]

knowing what the numbers on arc rods mean maybe helpful when the handyman wants to weld vertical .Alls going well with 6010 rods you run out of rods find a 6020 and wonder why the vertical welds are now a row of ****.
the cheapo rods are often down hand only which is fine on the bench.