Stalking My Prey

Scoring Big on Little Money - The Annual Trenton Yard Sale

Linda and I got an unexpected check for $70 in the mail the other day. We were very grateful for that timing.  It really made the difference for us, and it enabled us to take advantage of some awesome deals we were able to find this weekend.

Every year in May, the city of Trenton, Ohio holds a city-wide yard sale.  It's quite an event, and often you're able to find just about anything since there are so many yard sales.  We decided to drive around to see if we could find any deals on some items that we've been looking for.

Early on in our adventure, I spotted a small vacuum cleaner.  I've been wanting one of these to use in the Motorless Home for cleanup while I work on the remodel.  It's too small in there to haul a full-sized upright vacuum in there, let alone, the shop vac.

I spotted this little Dirt Devil model. The sticker on it said $5.  I had already decided that I was not going to pay the sticker price for anything.

Don't get me wrong; $5 for a working vacuum cleaner is not bad.  It's just one of my "yard sale" rules -- Never, ever, pay the asking price.

I started with an offer of $2.  The lady considered it for a moment, but respectfully declined.  She told me "There is a lady who said she would come back for it later today and pay me the full $5." I told her that I had $3 CA$H that I would give her "right now" for it, and she didn't know for sure that the other lady was coming back.  She countered with $4.

Oddly, I had decided that I would pay the $4, but for some reason, I was taking a while digging in my wallet and hadn't yet agreed to her counteroffer.  Suddenly, she said that she would accept $3!  So, I pulled $3 out and handed it to her and absconded with my prize.


After I loaded the vacuum into the Jeep, Linda made an interesting observation: "It's interesting watching these people. It's like they're hunting.  They're 'stalking their prey.' " I thought about it.  She was right.  In our society, most of us no longer have to hunt for our food.  We just drive over to the grocery and pick it up.  So, how does an animal that is genetically programmed as a predator express that behavior after they have become "civilized?" They shop.

We approach the item of our desire.  Our pulse quickens.  Our irises widen. If it's a particularly good find, our palms may sweat.  We sneak up on the item.  We don't want the seller to know that we're after that one.  If they knew, they would jack up the price.  Then, when we're ready, we move in for the "kill." We will make an offer to the seller and engage in "retail battle." Once the battle is over and we've "won," we will grab our "kill" and run off with it.  You can take the animal away from the hunt,  but you can't take the hunt away from the animal.

The next item I found was this multi-tool.  We stopped at a yard sale that had a lot of tools visible. When I went up to the guy, he was busy selling a gun to another guy.  I jumped into the conversation since the gun he was selling was very similar to one that I own.  I was telling the buyer all about it and what to watch out for.  I think I actually helped close the deal.

Once they were finished, I asked about the tool. The guy wanted $3 for this Winchester brand multitool. It's no Gerber or LeatherMan, but it was of reasonably good quality.  So I offered him $2 and he accepted.  I will probably keep this thing in the car or on my bike, since it's a handy tool to have around!









We stopped at another yard sale and picked up a replacement electric can opener, since ours died a couple months ago and we've been using a hand-cranked one that also needs to be pitched.  They wanted $2 and I offered $1 and they accepted.  Great!

So, by this point, we had spent $6.  We still had yet to find our two greatest deals of the day.

We stopped by a parking lot where several people had set up.  I walked around and checked out the booths and nothing really caught my eye until I saw this.

An older Sears Craftsman table saw!

The guy had no price listed on it, and he had some goofy metal cutting blade installed that didn't fit it right.  Since new table saws cost hundreds of dollars, I didn't figure I'd have a chance to get this thing, given the extremely short budget we had for yardsaling.

"So, why you selling this?" I asked.

"It used to be my Dad's." he replied. "After he passed, I bought it from my Mom and I used it only once.  I really don't want to take it back to the storage unit.  Make me an offer." 

Knowing how extremely short on cash we were, I didn't really want to make an offer, since anything I could afford to pay would have been an extreme lowball. "I'm serious," he said, "Make me an offer.  I just don't want this thing anymore." 

I just stood there looking at it and poking around.  I even suggested that he might want to tighten up the blade on there since it was loose and wobbly.  I was honestly giving him sales advice since I didn't think I could afford it -- so why not help him sell it, right? 

"How about $40," He said, while fiddling with the blade. At least he was taking my advice!

Now, $40 for a table saw is a pretty darned good deal.  The truth of the situation is that I really couldn't justify spending $40 on it.  So, I told him. "Sir, I'm really short on cash, and I hadn't planned to buy something of this size. I mean no disrespect by this, but the most I could pay for this would be $20." He looked at me and seemed to consider it.

He countered, "Come back later.  If I haven't sold it later today, we'll talk." I agreed to stop back in and I left, thinking that I had just pissed the guy off with my low-ball offer and he was just politely telling me to go pound sand.

We drove around a bit more, stopping here and there.  We were also on the lookout for cheap scrap blue jeans for Linda to use for making rugs on the loom.  However, the people were deluding themselves if they thought I was going to pay $2-$5 per pair for jeans, even if I was going to wear them, let alone have Linda cut them up to make rugs.  We never did find any cheap jeans.  What a bummer.

We were starting to get tired when Linda spotted this item.

"Ooh! An antique treadle sewing machine!" she exclaimed. Again, thinking that there was no way we would be able to get something like that, I decided to stop and take a look. I quickly discovered that it needed some maintenance, but mechanically, everything operated. It looked like it was complete.  There was no price tag on it, either.

"What are you asking for the sewing machine?" I inquired.

"She's got that marked at $35," the lady in the lawn chair replied. I poked at it some more and decided I'd low ball her, just in case.

"Will she take $20?" That was close to half of the asking price.  Again, I was concerned that I had insulted her.  She went inside to ask the owner if they would accept it.  While I waited, I noticed some rather humorous stickers that were on the door leading into the house.  This was a fairly nice neighborhood, so they seemed really out of place.  They read "Gone Fisting" (WARNING: LINK NOT WORK SAFE) and "Up the Butt." I had just enough time to chuckle about it and Lawn Chair Lady returned.

"Yeah, she'll take that."  I was shocked.  Not even a counter offer.  I kicked myself.  I should have offered $10.  I gave her $20 and loaded it into the Jeep.

We were pretty much out of money in our budget at this point, having spent $26.  However, Linda encouraged me to go check on the table saw anyway, since it was a really, really good deal.  So, we made our way back over to the sale with the table saw.

I took $20 with me, just in case.  I walked up to the guy and said, "So, are you ready to take $20 for this?" Figuring I would get shot down, and since we had already spent what we felt we could easily spend, I waited for the denial.

"Yeah, sure." He said.  I quickly handed him the $20 bill I had in my hand to seal the deal before he had chance to reconsider. I told him that my car was full and that I'd have to run home and drop off the stuff and come back to pick up the saw.  He agreed and we headed home.

After we dropped off our first load, we returned and picked up the table saw and brought it back to the house.  That sucker is heavier than it looks!  It needed a little work.  Someone had gotten some kind of gunk in the threads that controls the blade angle, and you could not adjust it past about 38*. I took a screwdriver and scraped it out of the threads and lubricated them.  I chucked the stupid metal-cutting blade that the guy had in there.  It wasn't even the right kind for that saw!  That explained why it was so poorly mounted when I saw it at his sale booth. I put a general purpose wood blade in it and made some test cuts.  It worked fine!

The rip fence that came with it needs some more attention, since it has trouble staying square.  That can cause the blade to bind.  That's not a good thing!  Considering that I only paid $20 for it, I figured it would have some flaws that needed to be worked out.

After that, I spent the rest of the evening cleaning and lubricating the sewing machine.  I did some research on it, and it turns out that this unit (based on its serial number) is 120 years old! It's a Singer Model 27 and it was made in 1893...and it still works! Boy, I wish we had quality like that these days!

It's got some rust on it a few places, but since we're not terribly worried about its value as an antique, repairing the rust won't be too hard.  We're far more concerned with making it functional.

Today, I decided to test the vacuum cleaner.  The motor ran, but it didn't pick anything up and the beater brush didn't operate.  It looked like it needed a belt.  I looked at the bottom, and, as is typical of many vacuum cleaners, there was hair and string wound around the beater bar.  So, I decided to take it out and clean it up.  Once I had the bottom off, I discovered what had caused the belt the break.

This is one of the things that really disturbs me about today's society. We live in a society of "disposable technology."  Rather than take the few minutes and few dollars to repair a malfunctioning vacuum cleaner, we just junk it and go buy a new one. This is extremely wasteful, as well as just plain stupid from a financial perspective.  That Dirt Devil vacuum probably cost $50 or $60 new.  All it needs is a belt and a new HEPA filter, which should cost less than $15 total.  Why do we dispose of things like that?

While cleaning it out, I discovered that the reason the belt had broken was because of a major clog.  Someone had sucked up a wad of paper and it allowed dust and debris to accumulate until the hose was completely occluded. This caused the belt to overheat, and because of the string on the beater bar, the belt started to slip until it had burned through.

As for the clog, you can usually just use a long tool like a chop stick to fish the clog out.  Unfortunately, this was so completely impacted that I had to remove the hose from the vacuum to clear it.

So, with about ten minutes of work and $15 in parts, plus the $3 I spent on this vacuum, It will cost a whopping $18 to have a $60 vacuum cleaner.  That works for me!  It totally fits into my goals for reusing and sustainability.

What comes out of this is what is most disturbing of all; our society's penchant for trashing items that need simple repairs is that the manufacturers no longer make items with as much quality.  Since they know that they will be thrown away and replaced with a new one at the first sign of difficulty, they "don't make 'em like they used to." This leads to a spiral effect, since the item is more likely to break in the first place, and many items are not user-repairable anymore.

Luckily for us, I know how to take things apart and make them work again.  That's a really useful skill when you're in the Zombie Apocalypse.

You Can't Compress a Liquid

The Power of Hydraulics

I've been so busy working on the hydraulic leveling system on the Motorless Home that I forgot to take pictures!

Anyway, I'd been trying to think up ways that I could get the old blown motor out of the Motorless Home.  When I discovered that the boom on my engine hoist wasn't long enough to reach, I got really discouraged, and that's part of the reason that I let the blog go for so long.

After getting started with repairs recently, I took another look.  I realized that if I removed the front bumper, I might be just barely able to get the boom over the engine block to remove it. So, I got under there and started to take it off.

It was clear that someone had recently removed the bumper. Several of the bolts that hold on have been replaced with new stainless steel ones.  I'm guessing that the previous owner had the engine out at some point, and had used this very method to reach into the engine bay.  Once removed, I slid my engine hoist in for a test fit.

Son of a bitch. I could see that I had enough clearance to get the engine hoist into the engine bay, but now, the top of the engine bay opening was hitting the top of the hoist.  I could not push it in any farther!  Argh! I thought to myself that if the engine hoist were only a few inches shorter, I could get it in there.  Then it hit me.  If I raised the front of the Motorless Home up, it would have the same effect.

If only that hydraulic leveling system worked, I could use it to get the clearance I need. Since I was frustrated by the engine hoist problem, I decided to take a detour and explore why the hydraulics didn't work.  When we first got the Motorless Home back to the house, we tried to make the hydraulics work.  They didn't. We tried putting power right to the pump, but it would not move. We even smoked the solenoid trying to deliver enough power.  We just concluded that the motor was toast and moved on to other things.

When I decided to explore the hydraulics, the first thing I did was to disassemble the electric motor that turns the hydraulic pump. It was clearly in poor shape. Water had pooled in it and rusted out some of the components.  I cleaned everything up and reassembled it as best I could.  To make sure that it worked properly, I bench tested the motor and it ran beautifully.  However, after reconnecting it to the hydraulic pump, it would not turn -- just like the day that we got it home.

Well, it turns out that the reason that it would not turn was twofold; the hydraulic pump requires that the fluid that it is pumping go somewhere or the pump will lock up.  It can either go into a hydraulic cylinder to expand it, or it can cycle through the system and return to the reservoir via the return line. I removed the supply and return lines from the pump, and when I gave it power, it shot a stream of hydraulic fluid several feet!  Thank God.  The pump actually works.  Now, trace it to the next place.















I thought that the problem might be a blockage in a line, or perhaps in the control valve manifold.  In order to troubleshoot it, I had to dismount the manifold. Guess what? Some genius spray-foamed the bejeesus out of it.  I can understand why they might have wanted to apply spray-foam in that area. Some good reasons include:

• There may have been water leaks, and getting sprayed by the driver side tire is no fun.
• Soundproofing. You can get a lot of road noise from right there, and perhaps they were trying to make for a better driving experience.
• Insulation. Maybe they didn't want their little tootsies to get cold while driving.

All of these are very good reasons to apply spray-foam to that area.  But...

Hey Genius! How about you put a piece of plastic over that valve manifold before you spray? That way, you can still have the insulation you want, but you put a "bubble" around the unit so that it's not completely encrusted!

I spent 30 minutes lying on my back, working over my head with a screwdriver chipping that foam out of there until I could figure out how to remove the valve manifold. Even with safety glasses on, that stuff still got in my eyes.  What a pain in the ass.

Once I got the manifold dismounted, I had to disconnect the hydraulic lines. There were six in total.  One for each of the four jacks, a supply from the pump, and a return to the pump. They were all corroded and rusted. I hosed them down with SeaFoam Deep Creep, and started to remove them.  It was quite an ordeal!  While attempting to remove the line that feeds the right rear jack, the fitting broke. Son of a bitch!  That is the longest line on the whole coach!  GAH!

I also discovered one of the reasons that the pump would not turn.  The return line was melted (from the fire, no doubt) and was completely sealed. After much cussing and finagling, I was able to get the valve manifold removed and into the garage to my workbench.

This thing was definitely in need of some cleaning and TLC.  The levers would not operate smoothly, and there was loads of gunk.

I slowly dismantled the unit, making sure I kept track of where all the parts went.  After I removed all four spring sets, I noticed that there was a single steel check ball laying on my disassembly towel.

This was troublesome. Since all four valves are identical, they should all have the same parts in them.  Unfortunately, since I had taken apart the first one and it did not have a ball, I wasn't looking for one.  After I found that ball, I checked out the work area.  Nope.  There were no more.  They were missing from the manifold.  Great. Someone's had this thing apart before and not put it all back together right.

I set the ball aside for later consideration.  The only other complication during the disassembly was the pump switch. Apparently, the casing was cracked or I damaged it while disassembling something else, because It came apart in a few pieces.  Luckily, by reassembling the switch, it worked fine -- I just had to figure out how to stick it back together again. Also, the screws holding the switch onto the bracket were so rusted out that I wound up breaking one of them.  So, a trip to the hardware store was in order later.

Once it was fully disassembled, I cleaned it up really well using a wire brush.  Got all the gunk off and reassembled it.  I chose not to put that check ball back in since I only had one. I surmised that they would be needed, based on the design of the valve.  However, since I wasn't sure, I left it out, and figured that the manifold would behave strangely if it needed them.

Wow!  This thing cleaned up nicely! I had to stop for the night here since I had run out of time to hit a hardware store to get the screws for the switch and a 1/8NPT pipe plug to block off the port for the broken hydraulic line.

Today, I stopped at the hardware store and got what I needed.  I reassembled the switch and screwed it into position.  However, the switch did not want to stay assembled because of the pressure on it.  So, I mixed up a blob of JBWeld Stick and used it to hold the switch in the right alignment.  A bit of overkill, but hey, it worked, and I had the JBWeld Stick already!

My next challenge was to reconnect the hydraulic lines and the electrical stuff so that the manifold's switch could operate the power to the pump. In order to get the pump working properly, I had to drill out a broken bolt so I could secure the power cables, and I had to borrow a solenoid from another area under the hood since the one that went with this pump motor was cooked.  I wired up the electrics and went to connect the valve manifold to the hydraulic lines.

Well, in the process, I bumped one of the levers.  Since the electrical connections had already been made, the pump activated and I got a face full of hydraulic fluid.  Thankfully, that stuff doesn't burn like gasoline would.

I also had to sort out the return line, since the one I had was completely melted shut. I found a section of air hose in the garage that already had the right fittings on the ends.  It was a few feet too long, but when I go to remount everything, I'll make sure that's neatly tucked away.

Now, for the moment of truth:  It worked!  The three jacks that I had connected function!

However, it looks like I will need to get those check balls and reinstall them. When I would operate the lever for one of the jacks, the others would get some fluid too.  This is because those balls need to be in there to completely seal off the other channels when one is getting fluid. I will also need to tighten the supply fittings, since they were seeping a little.  My guess is that the previous owner tried to troubleshoot the hydraulics, and when he disassembled the valves, he wasn't careful and lost the check balls.

Because I don't have all four jacks working, I can't level the unit.  Also, the rear jacks are over the grass, and they would just sink into the ground anyway.  I'll have to put some blocks under them to spread out the load.

I did, however, manage to raise the body of the Motorless Home up just enough to get my engine hoist into the front all the way.  It looks like I now have enough clearance to remove the blown motor!

So, what's next? 

I need to get that broken hose fitting replaced.  I will have to completely remove the hose from the vehicle and take it to a hydraulics shop to see if it can be repaired.  I really hope so.  Since this is the longest hydraulic line on the whole vehicle, it will be quite expensive to replace.  The line this uses is $0.33 per inch. That's over $4 per foot, and it's probably close to 30 feet in length.  So the hose will likely cost $150 to replace!  Yikes!  If I'm lucky, they will just put a new fitting on the end and I can get out of there for $30 or so.   Thankfully, I still have one of check balls for the valve body. I can measure it with my digital caliper so that I can be sure to get the right sized replacements, probably at the same shop that I take the hose to.

Also, I can start working to remove the old engine block.  That is a real sore spot for me, and having that thing out of there will really be a milestone on this project. Cross your fingers!