Some drills use brushless motors, and proudly advertise that fact on the box. Which I find amusing because I suspect most people do not know what a “brushed” motor is, but will buy the drill nonetheless because the box says “brushless!”
Kinda like when Certs started advertising that their breath mints included “Retsyn.” And people started buying them, saying “they have Retsyn!” And of course, no one knew what the hell Retsyn was, but Certs had it so they snapped 'em up.
Turns out Retsyn is copper glutonate and cottonseed oil, with some flavoring. Or, from a breath mint perspective, a fat lot’a nothing. It’s mainly in there to color those green flecks in the mints. And on that, Certs isn’t even a mint, because it doesn’t have any trace of mint in it. They had to fight a long court battle to get classified as a breath mint, and ended up getting their way when they convinced an appeals court that Certs stimulates the flow of saliva and is therefore a breath mint.
This, logically, means that steak is also a breath mint, and we can thank the stupid ambiguous marketing of Retsyn for that!
I guess your father never saw the sign in the repair shop that says, “I charge $50 an hour to repair your appliances, if I have to fix your ‘repair’, I charge $100 an hour…”
Don’t assume my father’s level of competency to not get in over his head.
I guess you never heard the expression: when you assume you make an ass out of you and me.
I’d say something more “colorful”, but this is a family friendly forum.
Brushless is relatively new so not likely on a ten year old product. Gee I remember studying and making motors in 6th grade though during our electricity unit. Sometime around plant tours of the Ford plant and Hormel and the Capitol. I think maybe they should have waited with that until Senior high though.
When I was sick enough that I couldn’t mow my lawn, I hired the lawn company the guy next door uses. They charge $25 per mow for about 13,000 square feet of lawn. They also trim around the house, sidewalks, driveway, and gardens. I figured it would take about 150 weeks to equal the cost a new riding mower plus gasoline and parts. They also do good work. Trimming is excellent.
I did buy a battery powered string trimmer to replace by old battery powered trimmer. It uses an 18v lithium ion battery, and works with my drain router and impact wrench. It’s light too. If you buy the new trimmer, get one within a family of devices that use the same battery. You don’t have to buy a battery with every device in the family, and that saves money on new tools.
Well, before trying to take the trimmer apart I made some calls. Seems no one, including businesses that sell and service lawn equipment, service trimmers or even carry parts for them. So, courtesy of our everything is disposable culture, guess I go shopping next week for a new trimmer.
Thanks for all the helpful suggestions!
And thanks for the very informative answers about electric motors in general.
As for lawn services, lowest quotes I’ve had the past few years are $45 and up. And since I have limited income and budget I still do my own yardwork as best I can. Part of things to consider in the overall mix of when, how, and where to significantly downsize to within the next few years.
What is important is staying safe and staying independent as long as possible so I can keep my two cats. Everything else no matter how sentimental is just things, much of it unused clutter I have gotten back to sorting through and disposing of. I just shipped a small crate of my grandfather’s and great-grandfather’s antique heirloom tools, such as woodworking planers, hand drill, etc., to a cousin who does woodworking and enjoys restoring and using old hand tools.
And in reference to my cats being most important, yes, you all have been harboring a bona fide “cat lady” in your midst here for almost two decades.
Hmmm, cats, cars, cutting grass, and clutter all in one topic thread.
If they even had parts for a trimmer the repair labor cost would be more than a new and better tool. They might fix and then be stuck with it because hardly anyone would come and pay that amount to get it back.
The trimmer died, its end has come,
No parts for repair so it is done.
Disposable tool, or so I’m told;
Modern tools don’t last to get old.
So shopping I go, criteria in mind;
Battery powered, light weight, to find.
No longer tethered to long power cords
That weigh a ton to drag through the yard.
Modern technology to save the day!
Whack the grass, keep weeds away
And edge and trim like a pro;
In too few years this too shall go.
In other words, the trimmer’s dead;
Gotta spend money which I dread.
But in the greater scheme of things
Its just a tool with spinning string.
@Renegade Thanks. I find that life is more pleasant when I try to keep things in perspective and with a sense of humor. As most of you will have noticed over time, I don’t always manage to approach problems that way. But as a dear friend often tells me, I just have to be smarter than the thing.
LOL My friend grew up on a farm and can fix almost anything. The joke got started over my too often erroneously stated “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.” Truth is I rarely do when it comes to “things” but I keep trying.
To shift this to a more car oriented discussion, I wonder how heavy the electric motors used in today’s cars weigh.
Forty some years ago, when working as the lowly clerk in the shipping department of Seismograph Corp. a small electric motor came through to be shipped. By size it could have fit in a shoebox. But it was HEAVY enough it took both hands for me to lift it. I was told that the bulk of the weight was the windings.
That was the first I realized why sewing machines and kitchen stand mixers are as heavy as they are; their electric motors are the majority weight of those appliances.
By the way, that little electric motor was produced by Singer, the same manufacturer of Singer sewing machines. Turned out that at that time they produced as many or more industrial electric motors for a variety of uses as they did sewing machines.
Discovering how heavy such electric motors can be even at small size gives me pause to realize that replacing gas engines in cars with electric motors doesn’t necessarily mean less weight.
I still use a 17 year old Husqvarna gas powered 2 stroke weed eater that I’ve used semi commercially for a while. I hope EV’s prove to be more reliable than EWE’s (electric weed eaters)!
