I'm very new to this whole blacksmith concept so I don't always think that way when confronted with a problem.
I was mowing the lawn this morning when I broke ( for about the 5th time over the last three years) one of the short handle risers that go from the mower to the hinge that allows the handle to fold down for storage. Sick and tired of getting it welded up.
Hmmmmmm I know....yep.
So I fired the forge up grabbed a suitably sized old file from my "stock pile"
and ten minutes later it is buried in the ash bed slowly cooling ( somewhere in my head the steel in files is air quenched)
drilled the appropriate holes.
Break now you xxxxxxx.
Then of course rang the mower supplier to find out how much I just saved my self. So I can tell the missus.
Carl

Good show mate. We did the same repair here this summer.

You may want to hold off on telling the missus just how much you saved. Funny thing, she will go to the store and purchase stuff she does not need (on sale of course) just so she can say she saved more. It is easier to just give her the money you saved and be done with it. Cheaper too. (grin).

I had a good lawnmower stolen just before the end of the mowing season once. So I picked up a junker to finish the season out; but it started right back up in the spring so I continued to use it. It became rather a Frankenstein's monster as it became a hobby to keep it going on the cheap so soon it had mending plates all over the cheap pressed tin body and replacement wheels. Welded together handle, etc and so on. I started having to clean out the carb each spring---rather than a rebuild.

Finally when I was getting ready to move to NM from OH it got stolen as well---I guess they didn't look very closely as it was really about a US$2 mower by then and I doubt anyone else good get it started without a full rebuild.

Finally when I was getting ready to move to NM from OH it got stolen as well---I guess they didn't look very closely as it was really about a US$2 mower by then and I doubt anyone else good get it started without a full rebuild.

It might've been sold as high end yard art for a few grand. . . Or not.



Frosty

Carl,

That is what we are about! Use a piece of wire to keep the show on the road or, if you have a forge, get a bit fancier. I always like to stop paying those inflated prices for a whole unit where a small bit is broken and we can make one just like it from a bit of scrap and coal.

You little beauty.......

.......and often the bit we make, whilst not as pretty as the original is a good deal stronger.

Yep, designed to fail so we have to buy the whole, expensive unit :mad:

What I actually said to the missus was
"The house budget owes the forge $15 for the new riser I didn't have to buy.
LOL
Carl

Try to get her to agree to a 1/2 reimbursement so the "house" gets a deal and your forge gets some more capital...(never worked for me)!

put the whole mower into the forge and remake it into something she would like.....points big time. If all else fails, a good excuse to get a new one. :)

careful with the gas in it. wouldnt want to comtaminate(sp?) the forge now lol