The delicate touch....do you have it?

Here's a thing. I spend my weekends of leisure (the few that I get) far removed from the genteel world of lawns and flowerbeds. In my sparetime there is lots of exhaust fumes, petrol, v8 engines and the general roar of powerful engines involved. In such an environment I find that as a result several of my fellow hobbiests are more "grunt" than "cerebral" in their attitude towards small machinery.I, as I'm sure many of you do, work with little 2 stroke engines or diddy little 4 strokers every day and have realised that a gentle but assertive hand is needed on occasion to "get the ol'girl running". This may involve several pulls on the cord and strategic placement of the assorted levers, chokes and throttles but they always go and then run happily for hours.Well, in the motor car world two and little four strokers are treated the same as a great big hunky tough V8 and as a result this afternoon I watched five blokes pulling the cord slamming abuse and declaring eventually that is "not quite right" (but definitely not in those words!) with regards to a little four stroke genny.It was with the greatest pleasure that I told them "nonsense" and having gently applied a little pressure here and tweaked a lever there pulled the cord once, she fired, ticked over and stalled, a little more finagling with the levers, another pull and off she went. She plodded on all afternoon as good as clockwork.My point was that i wondered if this is why my equipment ends up constantly in various states of disrepair? As,such I will teach all the guys who use my stuff how to start it correctly and more importantly how to fix it when it genuinuely doesn't want to start.Does the way people use your kit, or theirs, scare you?

Replies

David Benson March 12, 2017 at 11:18pm

I take it its not lawnmower racing then?
PRO

Ben March 13, 2017 at 2:57am

It certainly does bother me, but I've loved all things enginey and tinkery since I was wee, so a lot of my stuff gets to be honest pampered as a mower/car ;) Love repairing things too, nothing beats the feeling of figuring something out and saving you big workshop/garage bills.
Colin Hunt March 13, 2017 at 6:26am

I know exactly where you're coming from! In Oz they have this subtle solution.

http://www.nulon.com.au/products/aerosols/Start_Ya_Bastard_Instant_...
Andrew Midgley March 13, 2017 at 6:46am

I have a number of passions including owning two classic cars and vintage garden tractors (Bolens Tube Frames). So often these small tractors are abused and not maintained and considered worthless but a thumping Mustang is treated with reverence. The number of times I have seen lawn mowers and two stroke machinery dumped at the tip or bunged in the back of the shed I have lost count!