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Ongoing Thoughts Eleven:
By William E. Steinman:
Tools for old guys:
Mrs. Gaffer usually reads different kinds of books than I
do. I read for information or for complete escape. She reads for enjoyment.
However, I did notice the title of one book she is reading and it intrigued me.
The book is “No Country for Old Men,” by Cormac McCarthy. The
publisher is Knopf. I have no intention of reading the book or of recommending
it, but the title gave me a chuckle. I have surmised that anywhere I go is
“No Country for Old Men.” Wherever I go, whatever I attempt, not
much works for me anymore.
I could think of an alternative book that I would entitle,
“No Age for Sissies.” I am here to tell you, getting old is not for
sissies. Age itself is not the problem and I do not resent getting old. The
real problems are many, but they all stem from the progressive loss of
functionality. While my mind continues to function normally, my body does not.
My muscles fail and my hands refuse to work. I drop things, I cannot lift
things, I cannot hold tools, and my vision is about shot.
But I love to do things. I enjoy building stuff, gardening,
and everything else that a person can do with tools. It gives me great pleasure
to have built a garden bench or tilled a garden. Therefore, I am constantly
searching for tools that will mitigate the effects of my declining
functionality. When I could no longer swing a framing hammer without serious
pain, I purchase an air compressor and some pneumatic nailers.
When I began having trouble starting and using my rototiller
I began wondering what to do about it. One reason it gave me trouble is the
machine was old and worn. My first thought was to replace it with an electric
start rototiller. I went to several places searching and several sales people
told me there was no such thing as an electric start rototiller. I was ready to
give up and settle for a recoil start machine. I kept looking with little hope.
Then near the end of our shopping trip, one salesman handed me a brochure. He
was busy with another customer and told me to look it over and come back if I
saw what I wanted.
As Mrs. Gaffer drove to our last stop, I opened the brochure
and on one page, I was looking at a photo of an electric start Rototiller. It
turns out that the other salespeople misrepresented the truth. You may have
discovered yourself that this is too often the case with salespeople. In this
case, the truth is the company they were pushing did not make such a machine.
One company that does make two versions of the electric start tiller is
Troy-Bilt®.
Well heck, I bought the biggest one. It has a 305cc Briggs
Stratton engine. 305cc (cubic centimeters) is the cylinder displacement. They
don’t rate them in horsepower (HP) anymore, but this is one big engine.
For comparison, we can use an approximation. For practical purposes, 1HP =
18cc. Doing the difficult math, I discover that 305cc is about 18HP. If they
were still rating these engines in HP, they would probably call this an 18HP
engine. Needless to say, it is big enough to drive 20-inch wide tines at a
speed higher that I want to go. The biggest problem is turning this huge hog.
It is a chore. The solution is to plan my garden to minimize the number of
turns I will make. I can do that.
Even with the turning problem this tiller is far superior to
the one I am going to sell. It runs slower and tills deeper than the old one.
Consequently, I can do in one pass, what used to take two or three passes. The
bottom line is I do much less work myself while the tiller does much more.
Onward and upward. My next problem stemmed from my
considerable loss of muscle strength. I have a chainsaw that I purchase from
Sears many years ago when Sears was a reliable and reputable firm with its own
brands. Although difficult to start, once started, the saw has been working
well for many years. The problem is, it weighs a bit over twenty pounds. That
is no longer good enough. The only way I can cut with that saw, is to let the
saw’s weight help me. That means I can only cut downward. If you ever
tried to fell a tree, even a three-inch Christmas tree, you know that is not sufficient.
To fell a tree, you must hold the saw up and cut horizontally. I cannot do that
with a twenty-pound saw.
To solve that problem, I have been searching for a lighter
saw for many years. Until this spring, my search had been unsuccessful. I could
find saws that weighed one or two pounds less, but nothing different enough to
make me spend the money. That changed a couple of weeks ago when I found an
Echo CS306 saw at Hone Depot. It was so light Mrs. Gaffer could lift it. I
would have bought it, but, as is often the case with Home Depot, there was only
one there. I could not find a boxed saw on the shelves. I found only the floor
model that did not seem complete.
However, my problem was solved. All I had to do was find a
local dealer. I went to the internet and found the Echo website. From that, I
learned that my local hardware store was a dealer in my area. Mrs. Gaffer was
happy to take over to the store, perhaps just to keep me from carping. I had
printed out the spec and I walked in the store and showed it to the man. He
turned around and picked up the saw from a display right at the front of the
store. I did not hesitate. I bought it immediately and brought it home. I found
it weighs about ten pounds with the bar and chain, about half of what my old
saw weighs. Here is the spec:
Chain saw Echo
CS-306
Bumper spikes improve control for easier cutting.
Weighs 7.5 lb. (power head only)
SPECIFICATIONS:
Engine Displacement30.1 cc
Engine Displacement (ci.)1.84 ci.
CarburetorDiaphragm w/Purge Pump
Ignition TypePro-Fire® Electronic
Oiling System AutoChain BrakeSTD
STD Bar Length14 in.
OPT Bar Length12 in.
Fuel Capacity9.3 fl. oz.Oil Capacity5.4 fl. oz.
UL & CSA Listed YES
Vibration Reduction System STD
Dry Weight*7.5 lbs.
Consumer Warranty5 yrs.
Commercial Warranty1 yr.
Rental Warranty90 days.
As you can surmise from the engine displacement, this is
about a 1.5HP engine. When I took this little sweetheart outside to trim a few
branches, I was very impressed. It cut with a vengeance. Like most small engine
devices, you must rev this thing up to top speed to get it to cut, but I
expected that. It snarled its way through a four-inch Christmas tree stump in a
few seconds. I held it horizontally to do that and it was easy. I was a bit
difficult to start the first time, but no more so that my old saw. So far, I am
very pleased.
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