Where can I get boot leather for my wife's boot heel?

[micky]

Not me, but I fixed an Erector Set motor by rewinding its coil. A friend gave it to me, not working. Of course, i had no money to buy new wire, so when I unwound it, and it broke into four pieces for every loop, it scraped the enamel off every end and twisted it together and wound it all back up. I think the mistake I made was wrapping that in electric tape, the black cloth electricians tape, instead of in plain cloth. I turned on motor and it worked, but after a while it started smoking. The adhesive I think. If I'd used plain cloth it might have worked well.

[micky]

My friend of 20 years, a girlfriend for a while 20 years ago, each time I mention getting a ladder to clean my 2nd story gutters, tells me I should pay someone. That's the only thing that makes her say that.

She read about or new someone in town who fell off the ladder and hurt hismef bad.

Should I listen to her.

[micky]

That's a manual tool. A lot of work. and I'm not convinced it's safe from hitting oneself with the tire iron or pinching somewhere. Some times the guy can barely remove or replace the tire with a pneumatic tool.

Why would I change s full set of tires. That means I have to shop by mail, find some place to take the old tires.

What I do is buy used tires. Usually about 20 or 30 each, inluding replacing on the rim, dynamic balancing, and replacing on the car.

The place I go to normally has me in and out in under 5 minutes. Literally 5 minutes, never more than 10. from the time I drive up until I drive away. Rarely any waiting time

[R. P. McMurphy]

Freaky fast!

[rbowman]

I change my own tube type motorcycle tires. The spoons cost about $15 iirc. However, I get the tubeless type done at a shop. Why? Because I don't have a high volume air compressor to seat the beads on a tubeless tire. Sometimes it's no problem. Other times it's a major pita.

Did you include the cost of a high volume air source?

[rbowman]

Not an alternator but small DC motors. Back in the '60s before some manufacturers got into the game that was how you got your slot car cooking.

[rbowman]

I prefer being able to remove the filter without dynamite so I do the changes myself. In fact I can't remember the last time I took a vehicle to a shop for anything other than an alignment. Well, I did have one car towed to an autobody shop so they could pronounce it dead.

[Muggles]

I was surprised at how well the product worked. The leather tops of the shoes I used it on wore out before the shoe goo.

[Muggles]

She could hold the ladder for you. OTOH, I guess it depends on whether or not you're good balancing on a ladder. I don't have the balance to climb too high on one myself.

[HerHusband]

I hear ya, when that day comes it will be hard to accept.

When I was a teenager I used to change my oil frequently. Any excuse to work under the hood was fine with me.

Now that I'm over 50 (and out of shape) it physically hurts to climb under the car to change the oil. Sometimes I get on the ground and have difficulty getting back out from under the car. Not to mention my vision isn't what it used to be.

I'm still at that "work through the pain" stage of life... :)

My daughter took her car to the local Oil Can Henry's. She said they have cameras and monitors set up so she could watch everything going on. She seemed happy with the service. The only downside is they tend to talk her into repairs she doesn't really need (i.e. changing the air filter I replaced a month earlier).

Anthony Watson

[micky]

I didn't talk to him about it but I found in my older brother's closet a motor that he made. But it wasn't from much of a kit. Only the wire would have been included, if that is still a kit.

He used 4 big nails, two pairs maybe 1/2 inch apart with wires between each pair of them, to hold the armature, and the armature itself might have been a big nail. Galvanized with a head, iirc.

I don't remember what he used for brushes.

I can't remember much more than that. I don't even know if it ran on

110 or a battery. At age 10 or younger I would have been afraid to plug it into the wall (and it had no plug anyhow) and batteries were not something lying around. We had probably one flashlight with two batteries and that's all we had. So I never tried to run it, but I think it worked.

[Dan Espen]

That was a pretty common school project when I went to school in NYC. (1950s.)

[rbowman]

It was a Cub Scout project back when kids did something other than whine for new Xbox games.