There's a reason for the saying "No good deed goes unpunished"
 

And I SWEAR someday I'll learn this lesson. I loaned my Husqvarna chainsaw to a friend. He had a tree fall in a wind storm and didn't have a saw large enough to cut it up. So.... me being the nice guy I am, I loaned him my saw. When I picked it up (I needed the gas can I gave him with the saw) his son told me he couldn't get it to start. I didn't think much of it until today when I needed to use the saw. It took a while to get it started and once it started it wouldn't idle. No big (or so I thought), I'll fix the idle problem later.. NOPE! used the saw for less than 10 minutes and it overheated and seized up. :mad: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished I'm not gonna say anything to my friend and won't hold it against him. I just need to learn to stop loaning stuff out.

And that's why I don't loan tools.

Even though I'm in the IT industry, I will not fix your computer for you. If I do, I apparently own every problem that comes up with it for infinity.

I loaned a coworker an Epiphone electric guitar so that his son could take lessons. It came back years later all beat to hell. I also gave the son a bedroom set when he moved out of his parents' house. His dad said he'd pay me later. 10 + years on, I don't think I'm going to see anything.

In hindsight, I should have just gone over and cut the tree up for him.

I loaned my sewer drain snake to a guy. Figured how could he break it? He did. He got it stuck in the pipe and had to call a plumber. :rolleyes:

It is never pleasant, unless they are the right people. That is the hard part as you know. But the above is excellent.

I lent one of my 23 year-old MF CG 2300 to a neighbor...he loves the PTO powered rototiller. The front steering hydraulics had issues, fixable, not due to him...they are old machines.

He wanted to pay for the fix and I said no: He is great with equipment and a $300.00 dollar part isn't worth all the great stuff he does for me.

He offered, I refused. The Circle of Trust.

What caused it to fail? Could it have been coincidence, or was misuse to blame? What's it going to cost to fix?

I don't know which is why I'm not going to say anything to my friend. It was really hard to start which is unusual for the saw. It's typically pump the primer 8 times, pull the choke, pull twice and it fires saw. I've never had the saw start hard. I thought it was odd when his son said he couldn't get it to start when I picked it up but didn't think much more about it. It's completely seized up so I'm not gonna try fixing.

Oh well! Now we can talk about the new Husqvarna 445 I own!

In the '70s my mom had a Husqvarna sewing machine. She didn't lend it out.

I have heard that no good deed goes unpunished, and have some personal experience with it.


Still happy to risk it.

And that's my problem! My wife has even told me it would happen and sure enough! I still do it. Someday I'm gonna be not so nice and then people will be shocked!

I loaned a lawn spreader to my brother, he kept it for over a year. When I asked about it he said it broke, but he has a new one I can borrow.
Last month the same brother returned a set of golf clubs he borrowed 20 years ago missing all the woods.

No you should have given him the contact info for a local reputable tree service! ;)

LOL! Sounds like you need to "borrow" his new spreader for an extended period of time.

The guy doesn't have a lot of money. So when I can help a friend in need and save them some money, I just do it... or I loan them the tools I have so they can do it. The problem is, it seems to come back to haunt me but I just keep doing it. I swear someday I'm gonna turn into "mean Nick" and people will be shocked.

There's only two reasons I know of why a chainsaw would seize: no oil/too little oil in the gas or the saw was running lean. Based on your experience on getting it back, hard to start and wouldn't idle, I'd say the latter. And why your neighbor couldn't start it.

You need an electric chain saw. :D

...for lending.

He probably put straight gas in it, or does it have a separate oil supply? If so, could that have gone dry? I hate loaning stuff out, it almost always bites me in the same way as the OP. I’d rather do it for them or send them to the local rental place. I’d rather pay for the rental than loan my tools if they are that broke.

I’ve actually had people ask me if they can borrow my PU truck because they are moving. I refer them to a new company called U-haul. I had one of my oldest friends in the world, (since 1st grade), come to visit a year ago and I loaned him my cherished 1979 Mercedes 300SD to bomb around town. Somehow, (can’t figure out how for the life of me), he damaged the vacuum system that controls the door locks and other things. I can’t find the leak and I’m good at this stuff. It’s not worth ever bringing up but next time, it’s the rental car counter for visitors.

We lent Ms Rockets sister $5000 as part of a down payment on a house, about 25 years ago. It was to be paid back. I told Ms. Rocket, we will never see that money again.

She sold the house a few years ago (after being foreclosed on many times) and got some money from a car accident lawsuit. She bought a new car and a $5000 dog and I told her she should’ve paid us our $5000.

She said she did pay us. 🙄

She’s a POS.

I wish I had a pto tiller when I was still young and single, based on the amount of interest mine gets.

Lent it yesterday to a mid 60's neighbor lady that wants to start an organic csa. She know equipment, sorta, and I know she won't kill it out of neglect. But I had to run over this am after a vague "tractor won't start" text-and she has spotty service so I couldn't call he back. Had to explain that the start circuit is interlocked out if the pto is engaged...

My BIL and I borrow a few things back and forth. He knows where my PTO driven post hole auger is, as well as the 60" tiller. He used to keep a stick welder at his folks' place but we both have wire feed units now. He did a copy of his trailer registration for me to carry in the Golf wagon. When the alternator quit on his tractor while I was using it, i just replaced it. We're there for each other. I wouldn't loan anything I ever needed again to anyone else.

Best
Les

I thought about buying a DeWalt battery powered saw. We bought one for my dad and I was really impressed with it. But I'm sure if I loaned it out, the battery would come back broken.

I brought him my gas can with mixed fuel in it just to make sure it got mixed gas. I spoke with my nephew who rebuilt a saw like mine. He said that when the saw gets hot it can cause a vacuum leak that makes it hard to start (I got mine back hard to start), once it does start it won't idle (mine wouldn't idle) and at WOT it'll run fine but due to the leak it'll run lean and overheat. I think I've solved the mystery. I might try dumping some trans fluid in it and see what happens. Hopefully my new saw will last as long or longer than this one did.

Borrowed a neighbors side grinder years ago to cut some manufactured stone around my fireplace to set a mantle. The amount of dust was epic; said side grinder ingested the dust in large gulps and it fried the motor. I went to Home Depot the next day and bought a new Dewalt grinder (bought myself one also) and took him the burnt out saw and the new one in the box. He protested saying the one I borrowed was on its last leg. I insisted on replacing it and he reluctantly accepted the new one. He later told me that, at the moment I gave him the new grinder, he knew what type of man, neighbor and friend I was. Another time, I borrowed his backhoe and the steering ram blew it’s seal and wouldn’t turn. I removed the ram and took it to a hydraulic shop and had it rebuilt. When I took the backhoe back, he noticed the new paint on the ram and just shook his head…said he had been nursing that seal for years with conditioner. I simply looked at it as the right thing to do…it worked when I got it and it had to work when I returned it.

Absolutely!

I did a favor for a guy through work. Now the org is stiffing me. I never got paid as it was below our threshold. Probably owe $6000 for doing this favor. Arg.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1726861957.jpg
Only chainsaw I could find (not sold out) in Florida for hurricane IAN cleanup. My gas saws were in NJ. It did not disappoint, I cut down and cut up that tree, and it almost did it on a single charge. Bought another for NJ, haven't used gas since.

I had some pros taking down some very large trees, at first they laughed at the 20v cordless, but they were happy to borrow it when they climbed the tree to delimb it. Wouldn't surprise me if they bought some electrics.

Plus electric tools are much easier on these old bones.

^^^ That's the same one I have...really like it. With a 5 amp battery in it, I've never run out using it.

A vacuum leak causes the chainsaw to get hot because it's running lean, not the other way around.

I have borrowed my buddy's old F-150 pickup to haul some garden soil for my wife. Too much weight for my El Camino, so borrow his truck. It mostly sits and is not driven a lot. I dumped in a can of Berrymans B-12 in the tank and returned it with a full tank of gas, and I hosed down the bed likely for the first time in many years. I also re-glued his inside rear view mirror that had fallen off months before I borrowed it.

Well, tiller came home in one piece, but with 25 ft of dog chain wrapped around it. Likely she didn't know she hit it, and she def didn't have the angle grinder to cut it off. I'll have to do it. Too bad I didn't see it before I unhooked the 3 pt.

Ben, this is fantastic! I applaud people like you who do the right thing, David

Right, the saw got warm during operation that caused a seal to deform allowing unmetered air which causes a lean condition and the saw melted down. The reason the saw got warm and deformed the seal is due to improper airflow caused by a lack of maintenance on my part. I don't run the saw for amount of time my friend did nor do I cut material as large as the material he was cutting. Most of my cutting is on old dry wood and limbs that fall into the creek at my woods. Before I'll cut a large log, I'll just grab it with my grapple on my machine and move the whole tree out of the way.

So the lesson here isn't so much that no good deed goes unpunished as much as clean the saw every once in a while. Although, had it been me using the saw, it likely wouldn't have gotten hot due to how I use the saw.

That right there, is the bottom line and the measure of a man.

So, some good deeds go rewarded with new Husqvarna 445s, and “Mean Nicks” are getting turkey pot pies for Thanksgiving.

Any pot pie with poultry is good luck for the Buckeyes during football season. If they have beef that's bad luck. I've got this down to a science.

That was the first thing that popped into my mind as well.

I have lots of stuff and hate lending it for the same reasons.
Same as borrowing stuff. Just my luck ....

Just say the word, and my 911 is yours for a month. Or six.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1745522535.jpg

I don't ask to borrow tools and I don't ask friends if I can use their pickups or to help me move, and I expect the same courtesy in return.
But if a friend couldn't afford to rent a tool or a pickup or a moving company,
I would pay for it on their behalf without batting an eye.

Darn. And it was a Husqvarna :(

A common mistake that kills chainsaws is someone picks up the container of 2-stroke fuel from the garage and fills the chainsaw without shaking it to remix the oil into the gasoline.

I lent my sister a four stroke lawn mower and some months later she phoned to say it wouldn't go. I asked a few questions including had she been checking and topping up the oil. She said "Oil?"

Yep. First thing I do before the lid comes off the gas container is shake it around pretty good to get it mixed. I've always done this with my mix gas but in the last several years I've had people tell me that ethanol fuel will separate from the oil. I don't know if there's any truth to it.