gunfun 3,931 Posted November 17, 2015 Report Share Posted November 17, 2015 So this guy seems to be kind of proud of the regime that made the problems its people had to work around. Setting that aside, I couldn't help but agree with how freeing it is once you've had something break, without a way to fix it "right". When you start to look at the world as a bunch of things made of constituent parts which can be altered or repurposed to your needs. When you stop looking at possessions as complicated things that you are afraid to mess up. I thinkt the Saiga's need for conversion, and often the need for some tuning have done the same for a lot of us. Before my saiga, I had made or modified gun parts, buy always gingerly. Now I look at new $4000 guns and think about which bits I would grind off to make it fit my hand better. 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
james lambert 3,059 Posted November 17, 2015 Report Share Posted November 17, 2015 mus be kin to the Alaskan bush people 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Heartbreaker 1,085 Posted November 17, 2015 Report Share Posted November 17, 2015 Repurposing is a high art form. I've done it a time or two. Other people may look at it as "fixing busted stuff with random junk" but I always go by "if it's stupid, and it works, it ain't stupid". One man's junk is another man's treasure. 7 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dad2142Dad 6,559 Posted November 17, 2015 Report Share Posted November 17, 2015 Repurposing is the way to go. Just gotta be careful not to let the junk pile get to high 6 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
HB of CJ 1,263 Posted November 18, 2015 Report Share Posted November 18, 2015 The sociologists and anthropologists will have a field day studying all the Cubans if and when that poor sad country is ever opened up. Pretty much a text book example of failed Commie abilities and intentions. Also for some reason this forum is acting very strange. Could be my computer? I might have hit too many porno sites. Time to douch out my dinkum thinkum? Yikes! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sim_Player 1,939 Posted November 18, 2015 Report Share Posted November 18, 2015 "Need" is the mother of invention (and ingenuity). It's definitely not unique to any one people or country. Interesting video. I think it's funny how he get's so deep into thought about it. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Capt Nemo 882 Posted November 18, 2015 Report Share Posted November 18, 2015 Niggardrigging is what I do for a living as a stagehand, and also as a Tesla coiler. I can live like a king in a junkyard! Latest toys: Recirculating miller table with cutting mat bed. Recirculating fluid bed sluice. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
G O B 3,516 Posted November 18, 2015 Report Share Posted November 18, 2015 Growing up poor, I never knew that they made new things, everything we owned was either third hand or made out of other stuff that was thrown away. I remember my father building a washer and dryer out of old machines and parts from the landfill. (scavenging used to be allowed on sundays) My brother asked him "Gee Dad, this is neat! How many of these have you fixed?" Dad replied "If I can ever get this son of a bitch to work, that would be ONE!" We had that washer and dryer for 20 years or better, untill the boxes of spare parts no longer had enough parts left to keep them going! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sim_Player 1,939 Posted November 18, 2015 Report Share Posted November 18, 2015 We grew up poor too. Three boys raised by a single working mom in the 1980s. We did have a TV! If you wanted something you fixed someone elses broken stuff. 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Long Shot 1,287 Posted November 18, 2015 Report Share Posted November 18, 2015 Repurposing is the way to go. Just gotta be careful not to let the junk pile get to high Wish I'd have heeded these words twenty years ago. Oh well too late now. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gunfun 3,931 Posted November 19, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 19, 2015 mus be kin to the Alaskan bush people That's me and my family. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
G O B 3,516 Posted November 19, 2015 Report Share Posted November 19, 2015 When I left Maryland, I gave away ,sold, or junked about 2 40' trailer loads of "stuff" mostly "good stuff"! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dad2142Dad 6,559 Posted November 19, 2015 Report Share Posted November 19, 2015 Hard to do! But you'll get more Quote Link to post Share on other sites
james lambert 3,059 Posted November 19, 2015 Report Share Posted November 19, 2015 mus be kin to the Alaskan bush people That's me and my family. Does that mean you are married to your sister? just kidding Gunfun....... as the people in the show dont have an average IQ to split between them Most all of us have built rebuilt or reused stuff all our lives. I must have upwards of 30 car bodies stored out back. when scrap was high 13 cents a pound, I hauled 6800lbs of just big block chevy blocks cranks and heads. crushed 6 70 to 72 el caminos and two rough 71 chevelles. along with a few 60s and 70s chevy trucks and NO I dont have a wrecking yard, I just restored muscle cars and built street rods for 20 years. stuff piles up, I couldnt move if I wanted to 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gunfun 3,931 Posted November 19, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 19, 2015 mus be kin to the Alaskan bush people That's me and my family. Does that mean you are married to your sister? just kidding Gunfun....... as the people in the show dont have an average IQ to split between them Most all of us have built rebuilt or reused stuff all our lives. I must have upwards of 30 car bodies stored out back. when scrap was high 13 cents a pound, I hauled 6800lbs of just big block chevy blocks cranks and heads. crushed 6 70 to 72 el caminos and two rough 71 chevelles. along with a few 60s and 70s chevy trucks and NO I dont have a wrecking yard, I just restored muscle cars and built street rods for 20 years. stuff piles up, I couldnt move if I wanted to I don't know anything about a show. Probably wouldn't watch it if I did. Everything reality TV has touched it has made worse. Considering our former resident tromix parts installers cum TV stars, and the crabbers I personally knew on another TV show, I think that stuff is poison. I think it directly contributed to the socialist revision and death of competitive crabbing. I know it hurt commercial fishing in the eyes of the general public. When people heard my family fished, people used to be excited and interested. It was almost a guaranteed ice breaker while interviewing for work, etc. Now I just get some version of "oh, so you must be some reckless redneck idiot." I don't know if I can really claim to be Alaskan anymore since I've lived elsewhere for more of my life now. I lived there as a kid, and fished commercially for 13 seasons in a couple different fisheries. Mostly Bristol Bay salmon. I love the place and the work, and hated the break in relationship caused by living in two places split between each half of the year. My family was dirt poor in Alaska because my grandfather was a pastor and was paid very little and gave away a lot more than that. My father and his brothers had businesses that most men now wouldn't be brave or tough enough to operate that they started at 13 y.o. or less. My grampa was involved in a lot of civic things like organizing cities, starting radio stations, hospitals etc. My father and family tended to be top fishermen and also technical innovators. They were also very active in the politics of fishing both governmental and between the fish companies and fishermen. They built a bunch of boats and invented or adapted the machinery to make them more productive. When I worked with them, I did the same. If a pump keeps breaking, eventually you get tired of ordering new impellers and you just make a better one. They grew up in the great depression effectively, only in the 1960s abd 1970s. That thinking stuck. I grew up being taught that time and effort were nearly infinite and free, and stuff was expensive. If you didn't have a tool, you made it. If you had a tool, you made it better. If a tool didn't exist, you invented it. If a process was labor intensive and didn't result directly in revenue you changed it... If everyone else was doing something one way, there's probably another way which will leave you ahead of the pack. They were way ahead of their time, and most of the stuff they were mocked for in the late 70s is now industry standard (but not built as well). On the other hand, they don't manage employee time well and can spend a day trying to save a broken tool that costs a hundred and fifty dollars. So the point is I know how to take a failed hydraulic motor and an afternoon to find 4 hydraulic motors and end up with one which will hold together until the replacement gets in. That keeps you fishing and earning money. Suckers have downtime while they wait for the mechanic to finish with the other guys or the factory to send you the part you need. Men make the tool they need and move on. (Smart men make parts to be serviceable, and order tools that last.) Also if you have a basket of dead angle grinders, eventually you will rob a part from each one to make a new good angle grinder, because that is faster than waiting for a replacement to come. (And one day you will discover that metabo grinders are awesome and throw out the baskets of makita and milwaukee industrial....) I'm not saying it is the best way, but the video on cuba felt a lot like home. I know people who wrecked airplanes and turned them into snow machines that went ~150MPH, or made head gaskets from tree roots to get them home. Hackery is in my blood. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
HB of CJ 1,263 Posted November 20, 2015 Report Share Posted November 20, 2015 We years ago had much fun dropping the small two stroke Detroit Diesels into various pickups and trucks. Some had Jake Brakes! The heavy duty truck wrecking yards loved to see us since we brought cash and picked all sorts of neat stuff off wrecked heavy trucks that did not need the stuff anymore. Ten cents on the dollar from new. Yep ... making something out of nothing. A great relaxing hobby then. 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Heartbreaker 1,085 Posted November 20, 2015 Report Share Posted November 20, 2015 Like when the wood steering knob on my tractor cracked. I had a piece of 2" polymer rod, so I chucked it up in the lathe and made a new knob with better features that is indestructible and looks great. Small things that make you feel great. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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