Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

OK, so I was walking the dog about a block from my house when I stumbled upon a craftsman 10.5/29 model C950-52820-0, s/n 004199   9004 in excellent condition. It was sitting at the end of the driveway with a "to give away" sign on it, also saying the the speed control didn't work.
Needless to say I wheeled it home in a flash. Popped off the bottom service cover, & low & behold, the friction disk & drive plate were covered with oil. A bit of brake cleaner & 10 minutes later everything seems to be fine.

Question 1 is should I feel guilty about keeping  the machine?

Question 2 is where can I find a manual for it (kinda answers question 1)

Cheers

Noice!!!!

Keep it unless, you're a friend of the person who threw it out and would feel better about offering it back to the person.

Several years ago, a neighbour of mine left a very nice Lawn Boy mower down at the curb for garbage pick up.   I saw it there and confirmed with the guy throwing it out that it was trash.  He said he was fed up with it.  Hard to start and cut grass like crap even with a new blade.   He had already bought a brand new machine to replace it.   I took the Lawn Boy home and checked it out.  Hard starting was due to a bunch of crud in the float bowl.  Lousy cut was due to the blade being put on upside down.  I told the guy I had it running and cutting good but he didn't want it back.   I ended up giving it to my neighbour at camp who passed away several years ago.  No idea where it ended up.   Too bad.  It was a great little mower.    

GtWtNorth wrote:

I would feel very happy to help the enviroment by recycling!  I put lots of stuff out for that very reason. I have put out perfectly good furniture and other things because I felt taking good things to the dump would be a crime. Most stuff that I have put out lasts a couple of hours at best. I have definitely put stuff out that with some tweaks by someone who knows what they are doing would work fine. I put out a large set of shelves all wood that was in great condition, no rot at all but desperately needed sanding & painting. We redid teh patio so there was no room for it. Lots of people have the few hours it would take to make that look like brand new, but I have no place to store it. I wouldn't want someone painting it and bringing it back.

Be thankful that your neighbor got rid of something useful and now you can use it. I won't list all the stuff I've put out but nothing has lasted even 1 day.

I remember many years back when my aunt a true New Yorker turned Bostonian was complaining about people "stealing" *her* trash. I said to her "How the #(&^ do you steal trash and more to the point why would you care?!"

Now she puts out possibly usable items to prevent them from opening up the bags, almost everything gets taken.

Sorry for the preaching.  But look at it this way you helped your neighbor out and saved him from spending money and time taking it to the dump and now it's truely recycled.

As far as the manual goes Trouts2 probably knows where you can find one.

So what is the ethical question?  Or perhaps the question is "Should I feel guilty?"

No user but 4 parts, close, all 10hp's.

http://www.partsandservice.com/html/search/C/C-04.html#C9

But wont you feel a little.......uneasy when he looks out his window and sees you blowing snow with his blower  lol!  You could always walk it over to his place and blow him out.  And then next fall complain and hit him up for a new drive wheel cause the oil that he got on it wrecked the rubber.

Should put it on Craigslist and buy him a can of beer after selling one.

There's not an ethical issue that I can see.  If it is outside and marked as trash, it's fair game.  It seems like the original owner was predisposed to tossing it out without much financial distress. 

I would fix it up and sell it.  It just too awkward to have the original owner drive by and see me using it.  That's just me.  :)

Thanks for the replies guys. I do feel good about recycling & I guess it was meant for me. He lives around 2 corners & I don't think I've ever seen him on my street, so I don't know him other than to say hello as we cross each other once in a while. So the chances of him seeing me using it are slim. I guess if he pitched it out without even trying to fix it he has a lot more money than me, so I shouldn't feel bad about whatever I do with it.

I guess I'll probably swap out the new snow hogs that are on it, take off the 10.5 hp & put on my older 8 hp and sell it. Then I'll put them on my 924050 as soon as I can find the time to finish the painting & get her back together.

Cheers

I had a simliar situation this past fall. I was coming down the street that leads to the road I live on and spotted a decent Toro CCR2000E that a neighbor placed on the side of the road with their trash. I scooped it up, brought it home and did a quickie overhaul. It was obvious that it had been left outside for a bit and appeared to have been neglected by the previous owner. A good cleaning, some sanding/paint along with fresh fuel, spark plug, fuel filter and some TLC and it was looking good again. I gave it to my sister who got a ton of use out it this winter as we have been inundated with snowstorms this season. She calls it "the little snowblower that could" and really appreciated my gift to her. I felt no remorse or breach of ethics as the previous owner decided to throw it away rather than either sell it or give it to someone who could get use from it. I enjoy rescuing OPE from the trash man and giving it a second chance at the service it was designed and built to accomplish.

I wonder why the guy threw it out if the fix was so simple?
Maybe he had it looked at by some shady repairman who tried to take advantage of the situation and overestimated the cost of repair, and the guy figured the cost to repair wasn't worthwhile. Or maybe this was one of several issues he had with it and got sick of repairing it. Or maybe he has lots of money and just bought a new one. Could be many reasons..

But no matter what his reason, keeping it is definitely not unethical. Just for me personally I would get satisfaction out of giving it back especially if his reason for getting rid of it was because of a shady repairman estimate.

Free your mind a be a good sport, take it back to him. You will feel better. The guy might have bought another snow blower. If you let him know you fixed it, you will not feel like you got over on the guy  anymore. Stop being a devel, be a angel. The guy you took it from has the manual.

GtWtNorth wrote:
If it was Royster's old machine he probably doesn't want it back.  I think that he went out and bought a new blower made by Husqvarna.  You know...the kind with the hydrostatic drive made by Hydro Gear.

Paul7 wrote:

I sure wish someone could explain how this "h-y-d-r-o-s-t-a-t-i-c" (am I saying it right?) drive works??? Perhaps someday someone will invent a drive system where you move a lever forward and the machine moves forward and when you move the lever backwards it moves backwards. It would also be nice if the farther you move the lever, the faster or slower it goes. Oh well, back to friction drive for now...

Paul7 wrote:

Really?  I didn't know he bought a Husqvarna, the kind with the hydrostatic drive by Hydro Gear, same as a Craftsman. 

I thought he bought a new Sno-Tek 28".

FrankMA wrote:

I'm sure if you dig hard enough, you'll find posts from 2004 from people that hasn't been active in years that has information on hydroelastic magneto emulsifier drive.  Search is your friend. 

It's quite simple actually, you just think how fast you want to go, the machine responds.  No levers, cables, nothing.  If you want it to crawl at 2.5423632 centimeter per hour, just project your thought into the hypersuperminimacro dyslexic hypnotic transducer, and off it goes. 

There's just one catch, if you have dirty thoughts, your snowblower automatically heads towards the gutter as default safety maneuver. 

aa335 wrote:

I'm not sure, but I don't think you're taking my question seriously. I don't think there is such a thing as a hypersuperminimacro dyslexic hypnotic transducer???

FrankMA wrote:

There is if you're from NJ.

FrankMA wrote:

Sorry FrankMA.   That's what Leonard Nimoy told me on "How it Works". 

aa335 wrote:
Well that's different - It all makes sense to me now!

I do not know exactly how a Hhdroststic drive works but I think it has a variable pitch pump. I did hava a 1963 toro single stage. It had a 2 dog clutches.  Chain drive for wheels and auger. The faster you rev it up the faster it will go. Full speed you have to jog to keep up with it.

Um well, getting back to the OP question:

The first owner did not avail himself of the knowledge needed to care for his machine. Or he simply doesn't care enough to do proper maintenance. Either way, the machine had a short service life under his ownership -- entirely due to his own negligence. Some guys simply don't understand machines, neglect them and then usually complain that they are "junk". I'd bet that his lawn mower, car and appliances are in no better shape. His need to buy another snowblower is the natural consequence of his behavior.

You on the other hand, have provided for yourself the knowledge and aptitude to repair the machine and now possession of a functioning snowblower is the natural consequence of your behavior. If he should see you using "his" old snowblower, he has no grievance. (If the cost is unimportant to him, he may even feel good that he has helped a neighbor.) 

Let's say you return the snowblower to him. The neglect cycle will begin again. If you really want to be a helpful neighbor, teach him how to maintain the machine, when you bring it back. Otherwise, he has given you the snowblower, free and clear.

However, had the neighbor been a female without much direct male support (older, or single mom) then you should certainly return it, and perhaps offer to maintain it for her as well.

The manual might be available on MTD's website.

samdog wrote:
My sister-in-law, who's the service manager at a Ford dealership in W. Pennsylvania, might disagree with your generalizations.

"My sister-in-law, who's the service manager at a Ford dealership in W. Pennsylvania, might disagree with your generalizations."

She might disagree but in reality, women with mechanical training and ability are far and few between.  

Not saying they're incapable.  Not at all.  It's just that our society has not directed female education toward mechanical fields until recently.   Even with the opening of historically male dominated fields to women, you don't see great numbers of women training to be mechanics.   Most women simply aren't interested in it.  Those who are, become very competent at what they do and will have my respect if and when I come across one.   However, I can say with full confidence that I will be wrenching for far more women before I find one who will be slinging her own tools.     

If it has any moving parts my wife will probably break it.   She's great with many things but if it's mechanical it will break on her, it will get worse if she tries to fix it. That said she is very good at other things, just nothing electronic or mechanical.

Paul7 wrote:

She might, but it would be innapropriate to do so.

 "Generalizations" are called "gemeralizations" because they apply to either all members of a class or an indefinite part of that class. Your sister-in-law's (and others) mechanical competence skews the needle of female mechanical competence a few thousands of a degree. Furthermore, I made an existential generalization (as opposed to universal) by identifying given members of the class: older ladies or single moms. 

To keep this on the ethical topic: Should men stop helping women with OPE maintenance because somewhere there is an (offended) woman who can do it herself? Does the class minority define the class?

Tell that to the Gilson girls below...lol.

http://home.gwi.net/~spectrum/snowgirls.html

I do agree that my sister in law is definitely an exception to the norm.  Her dad made a living fixing cars out of his basement garage, she helped him out and eventually went to school for it.  She just turned 50 and doesn't get too dirty at her current position but over the years she did it all. 

I kind of remember a few females who posted regularly on this board.  Not so much now but there were a few over the years.

Well, I have boys.

But we all know the male psyche.

So if I had a girl, she'd know how to throw a flurry of effective fists and knock down steel plates at 20 meters with a .40 caliber Walther.

She could cheer-lead as long as she played at least one strenuous girl's sport. She couldn't be lied to by an auto mechanic, and she'd know better than to dispose of a snowblower that needed minor maintenance. That's the minimum every girl should learn from her father.

All the rest -- prom dresses and all that -- would be Mom's domain.

My wife has a 6' 2", 250 lb. niece who's an accomplished "bar fighter".  Despite those lofty credentials, she couldn't fix a grade school soccer game!

samdog wrote:
My two daughters both went to college on athletic scholarships...basketball and T&F.  My 6'3" 220lb totally ripped son plays golf.  Go figure.