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.