Odd Jobs

[chevytaHOE5674]

There's a difference in a mechanic and a parts changer.

Last week a guy called me who is working on a local sewer project. Says Cat excavator lacks hydraulic power when multifunctioning. So 15 minutes trouble shooting over the phone I told him his pressure sensor on the I pump was faulty. To keep the project moving I gave him the one out of my personal excavator so they could keep running while I waited 24 hours for Cat to send me one. Then I went and switched the new one in after hours when it arrived. Parts sold to him at no markup and 2 hours labor monkeying around, bill came out to $786.xx.

Some other mechanic told him the I pump was probably bad and needed replacement (about 10k + bucks). But would be 3 or 4 days before he could look at it.

Foreman wrote me a check for double the invoice amount because they had less than 2 hours downtime and I kept the entire crew from standing around with nothing to do and saved them a possible unnecessary pump replacement.

You aren't paying me to change the part. Your paying me to know what part to change and why.

 

[simme]

You aren't paying me to change the part. Your paying me to know what part to change and why.

Bingo. One issue is that many people can't seem to understand that concept. My daughter is a veterinarian. I remember a guy calling for help with a cow calving. He and his buddies had been trying to get the calf out without success. They had wasted a lot of time and made the work more difficult. She gets the calf positioned and chains hooked up. The buddies want to help, so they pull the calf out. She gives the bill and the guy says that's too much. "My buddies did all the hard work pulling the calf."

Some people are mentally challenged to see where the value is.

 

[Brute 23]

I make no appalogies for what I charge. I have never had some one come back and say the felt like they didn't get their money's worth and I've never lost a relationship over what I charge. Part of that is being honest and doing the best I can and part of that is learning who to work for.

 

[Travlr]

I'm not saying people don't deserve to be well paid for valuable work.

But I hear people complaining about prices and inflation, and the price of real estate... and it doesn't seem like anyone is thinking about why everything costs more.

A $350 socket is hard to understand. Just like a $30 single aspirin is hard to understand. And every time something is outrageously priced someone is making a LOT of money and someone else is passing on those costs in some way to everyone else. Even if someone goes bankrupt they are passing on the costs of their bankruptcy to everyone else.

 

[kenny thomas]

I am not good at mechanics or much else. But im a decent snow plow driver and i tell them im not worth what they pay me. "As needed" jobs pay really well but cant depend on them to live. They pay well because most people cant work those schedules. Hurricane duty can pay from $500 to $1000 a day with all expenses paid, according to the duty. But might only work 10 to 20 days a year.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

A $350 socket is hard to understand.

Welcome to the world of high quality low demand tools and equipment. Surely made in small volume batches that are costly to produce.

And since I don't have the ability to build one, and having one machined would cost way more that $350 you just buy one an get to earning money.

This isn't a 9/16" socket that they sell 10 million of each year.

 

[greybeard]

You would be covered up here. A guy a couple years older than me quit his job and started his own deal doing lawn mowers, equipment, atvs, etc. What ever he thinks he can fix. He is over $100/hr and you are lucky if you can get him.

Lawn mower repair is a minimum of $80/hr and doesn't require much in the way of specialty tools.

If I wanted, i could have a garage full of other people's lawnmowers and small engine stuff to fix but........I f**^$#$n HATE workin on lawn equipment!!
Did it part time decades ago and then again for Kubota at one of their tractor dealerships in E Texas..

(Troy shulda never bilt a damn thing!)

 

[Brute 23]

That is nothing new that just came about. A lot of our valves required "their tool" to break it down and replace the wear part. Different brands had different designs and tools. None were cheap. It was not uncommon to see $1000 wrenches and pullers.

 

[Travlr]

Welcome to the world of high quality low demand tools and equipment. Surely made in small volume batches that are costly to produce.

And since I don't have the ability to build one, and having one machined would cost way more that $350 you just buy one an get to earning money.

This isn't a 9/16" socket that they sell 10 million of each year.

No, it's not a 9'16" socket.

It's a tool that the manufacturer runs off in a large quantity and probably stamps several different brand names on, and then they sit on a shelf in a huge warehouse where they take up twenty cents worth of space every year until they get sold and reordered. When they get down to a couple of hundred/thousand on the shelf, depending on how fast they sell, they reorder. Manufacturing cost, less than a buck each, even in the United States. Of course there are also other costs involved, all with a mark-up. The machines used to make them might be eighty years old, or the newest tech.

I worked for Snap-on and know that many of the tools made for the American market were produced in Springdale Arkansas at one time and may still be. Mass produced and cast or stamped with different brand names. It's not like elves machine every one and then they get a priest to bless them one at a time.

Of course @Brute 23 has another point. Specialty tools made specifically for servicing a part that doesn't have a universal dimension. Intentionally built that way to force consumers to pay for repairs because the tool costs $350 (or perhaps much more) for a single use where the dealership spreads the cost out over years of use.

I give up. I didn't mean to highjack the thread.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

I can tell you with certainty that there is a difference in a $50 socket and a $350 socket. The steel isn't the same, the heat treat isn't the same, and the tolerances aren't the same.

Once upon a time I bought a 4" socket off Amazon for $50. First use it shattered with such force pieces imbedded into my leather boots. It was promptly replaced by a $300 socket that has been used dozens of times since without failure.

I highly doubt a 95mm can be produced for less than $1. Just 9.5lbs of 4140 steel would cost you $150 bucks never mind any heat treating or machining.

I agree everything is overpriced. But that's the world we all live in and nothing you or I do will change it.

 

[simme]

Us metric challenged folks probably don't relate quickly to the 95 mm size. A close US size is a 3 and 3/4" socket that fits the nut for a 2 and 1/2" bolt. One with a 1" drive must be a lighter duty version since I see that they are available with 1.5" drive and even a 2.5" drive. Most of us probably don't own any 1.5" or 2.5" drives. That is one big socket.
Looks like that $350 version is on the lower cost side. Grainger lists them for $800 to $1800 each depending on drive size and socket depth. Would take a pretty heavy duty shelf to hold a complete set of those sockets.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Yep. 1" drive will hold up to 4k ftlb of torque without too much issue.

We won't tell Travlr about the $3200 torque multiplier to accurately torque the 95mm nut to 3200ftlbs. Or the nearly 6k bucks you can spend on an impact capable of removing such tight bolts. Hahaha

Find someone with the tools to properly do the job for $75 an hour and I'll shake his hand.

 

[Rafter S]

I'm late to this party, but odd jobs is all I did from when I got laid off in 1983 until I got married and my son was born (1990).

I raked hay, looked after cattle for folks, did a little painting, and when the weather was bad I'd go down to the beer joint and make money playing dominoes.

Regarding the discussion about paying people for what they know, just not what they can do, I have an example from back then. I was approached by a man at the local grocery/feed store one day. He said he'd been told that I'd look after folks cattle when they were on vacation, and was that correct. I said it was, and told him what I'd charge.

He said he'd let me know. I didn't hear back from him, and didn't think much about it. About a year later I ran into him again. He said he was going on vacation and would like me to check on his cattle while he was gone. He said the last time he had his son do it, and a cow had gotten down and couldn't get up, but she was holding her head up so his son thought she was okay.

 

[Ebenezer]

Us metric challenged folks probably don't relate quickly to the 95 mm size. A close US size is a 3 and 3/4" socket that fits the nut for a 2 and 1/2" bolt. One with a 1" drive must be a lighter duty version since I see that they are available with 1.5" drive and even a 2.5" drive. Most of us probably don't own any 1.5" or 2.5" drives. That is one big socket.
Looks like that $350 version is on the lower cost side. Grainger lists them for $800 to $1800 each depending on drive size and socket depth. Would take a pretty heavy duty shelf to hold a complete set of those sockets.

At those prices, let's complain about Grainger!

 

[Travlr]

Yep. 1" drive will hold up to 4k ftlb of torque without too much issue.

We won't tell Travlr about the $3200 torque multiplier to accurately torque the 95mm nut to 3200ftlbs. Or the nearly 6k bucks you can spend on an impact capable of removing such tight bolts. Hahaha

Find someone with the tools to properly do the job for $75 an hour and I'll shake his hand.

Your lack of respect after getting farther and farther from my original point and never understanding it speaks more to your single sided perspective than to any understanding.

Moving goal posts is a pretty weak argument... but it's funny.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Your the one who called me and an entire profession practically criminals. Once you did that with no understanding or knowledge of the profession speaks to your single sided narrow minded understanding of the the world.

 

[farmerjan]

Sorry, I am going to chime in here... and I am NO mechanic or anything close... From a totally outside perspective... I see the lack of respect and understanding on @Travlr 's side.... The inference that a $380 socket is outrageous when a $30 one will do....
We were not rich growing up, and my dad did most of his own work when possible... but he taught me to RESPECT a good person that KNEW what he was doing, and charged a fair price to do it RIGHT the first time... and that their KNOWLEDGE was worth what they were charging...
Lots of places do overcharge and the people doing the work don't know what they are doing... and do half a$$ed work....
But going around and constantly questioning people and making snide comments about so many different things because they don't fit the narrative of what you think is right, gets a bit old @Travlr ......

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

... I see the lack of respect and understanding on @Travlr 's side.... The inference that a $380 socket is outrageous when a $30 one will do....

But because he has no real first hand knowledge of the tools or the profession. The fact is a $30 socket will NOT do the job.

Would every mechanic in the world love if the $30 tool did the same job as the $350 one? Absolutely you bet.

But they are NOT the same and in most applications NOT interchangable.

 

[Travlr]

But because he has no real first hand knowledge of the tools or the profession. The fact is a $30 socket will NOT do the job.

Would every mechanic in the world love if the $30 tool did the same job as the $350 one? Absolutely you bet.

But they are NOT the same and in most applications NOT interchangable.

It looks like a lot of people are reading things that haven't been said nor implied, and missing things that were said, and taking sides. So whatever makes you feel good.

Well, then the grift is just spread out over a lot of people then, it seems to me. $350 for a socket? Tell me it costs more to manufacture that socket compared to a half or three quarter inch drive socket you can buy for twenty bucks.

I'm not saying work in a shop isn't worth significant money, but just like hospitals charge $30 for a single aspirin there are definitely some questionable practices that look a lot like grift to the guy paying the bill.

You missed the point.

And it doesn't matter. It is what it is.

Anybody that's paying $350 for a socket is the one getting highway robbed. And then they have to pass that kind of expense down the line to their customer who is then highway robbed twice removed.
That's the way the government thinks... when they are buying $600 hammers and justifying their congressional raises.

I'm not saying people don't deserve to be well paid for valuable work.

But I hear people complaining about prices and inflation, and the price of real estate... and it doesn't seem like anyone is thinking about why everything costs more.

A $350 socket is hard to understand. Just like a $30 single aspirin is hard to understand. And every time something is outrageously priced someone is making a LOT of money and someone else is passing on those costs in some way to everyone else. Even if someone goes bankrupt they are passing on the costs of their bankruptcy to everyone else.

If someone would like to point out anything snide in these comments, @farmerjan , I'm here to learn.

 

[alacowman1]

If I wanted, i could have a garage full of other people's lawnmowers and small engine stuff to fix but........I f**^$#$n HATE workin on lawn equipment!!
Did it part time decades ago and then again for Kubota at one of their tractor dealerships in E Texas..

(Troy shulda never bilt a damn thing!)

I remember when someone would say they have a Troy Built.and heads would turn, and a hush would come over the crowd..