Scota4570

I am having terrible luck with getting any of my local lawn and garden repair outfits to help my engine conversion hobby. A couple of years ago I got several doners for about a hundered bucks. That seemed fair. I was very happy and he had a wad of cash. I got four good engines to play with. That outfit has since turned cold on me.

Lately nobody wants to sell me anything. Today a shop owner told me that he would not knowingly sell me anything I was going to use in a boat or plane for "liability reasons". I maintained my composure smiled and left apoligizing for taking up his valuable time. I was genuinely nice. Thing is that the "liability reasons" line makes my blood boil. What a weasely way to tell somoene off. Geeze, they toss usable stuff all the time. I want to put cash money in his hand to get something from the dumpster.

They can't possibly believe I might sue if I get a bo-bo. I can not fathom why a person would not be interested in such a transaction. How should I approach such folks? I am a well dressed clean cut guy. I doubt appearances are off putting. I am consiterate and well spoken. I up front that I am willing to pay a fair price.

What am I missing??

Jester241

I've never had much luck at these shops either although many guys swear by them. Thats ok though because many of these shops dont seem to have much of what I'm looking for these days (45+ chainsaw motors). They seem to alot alot of weedie engines etc....which are a dime a dozen anywhere. I've found ebay and local consignment sales the best. And public sale flyers usually list what their gonna be selling. Many times you can find stuff that is falling apart, but the engines are still good for dirt cheap and you dont have to explain what your doing with it to anyone!

So,your not missing anything....I'd just recommend staying away from those shops(alot will dissagree here,lol) and look for ebay deal, consignment sales, public auctions, and even yard sales. Most people who arent into this RC gig dont understand us and what we do and it always sucks trying to explain it without looking like a nutjob.

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

I've experienced this in the local area as well as in another part of the country. But I have a dozen extra weed whackers setting around in the corners that people have just given me because they heard I convert them. And they are all Homelites, McColluchs, Echos, and Ryobis.

rangerfredbob

My Feedback: (13)

religiously search craigslist... I use search words of weed, weedeater, chainsaw, chainsaws, chain saw, chain saws, trimmer, trimmers, blower, blowers, homelte and poulan you get the drift... or simply put up a wanted add for unwanted weedeaters or chainsaws cash paid, you'll usually come up with something, I think I was the first to do that in my area and now they're on there all the time so it's harder to get them that way but it does work.

that's been the source of almost all of my engines in the last few years, the rest are garage sale or friends giving me a load of them. every now and then you'll get a small engine shop or second hand tool store that's going out of business or doing spring cleaning and you'll get 20 weedeaters and a couple chainsaws for $50, or 7 chainsaw engines for $90 (recent deals I've gotten). also if you are handy with the engines and getting them running put up an ad on craigslist offering your services for $40 plus parts (shops charge $80 plus parts usually), you would be surprised how many engines you can end up just getting out there...

Twin Star

I to have since run into a wall after getting several good engines from a shop. My theory is, they fix them up in the off season for used inventory and sell them for much more that your offering to buy them as junk.

Jester241 has a good plan that I to have used. Ebay Ive been less that pleased, sometimes it's not exactly as described and it's not worth sending back.

Rcpilot

My Feedback: (78)

Simple solution:
Don't TELL the guy what you plan to do with it. Then he can't be held liable for your fingers or eyeballs in the event of a catastrophe.

I learned this lesson a few years ago. I'm also clean cut, well groomed and can speak plain English during pleasant conversation. But I had 4 or 5 local shops turn me away when I came around hunting for junk engines that could be had cheap. It didn't matter that I would be coming back to them for carb parts or cylinder gaskets or piston rings. They'd rather sell the stuff for scrap metal than nickel and dime me for gaskets and bearings. Their loss, I guess.


My advice:
Some crusty old "junk" collector asks you what you want with a used weedie engine - [sm=47_47.gif] - you tell him it's for a water pump so you can water the lawn from your pond out back. He don't need to know what you're doing with it.

A "water pump" sounds a lot more harmless than an RC airplane or RC boat. Catch my drift?

Scota4570

Good ideas all. I even put an ad in Craigs list saying I buy such things, so far no bites. I did buy one off Craigs list though. My local Craigs list is a bit under served, Monterey ca. Garage sales are ok but you have to be the early bird. I also got a wacker from a realtor' estate sale.

My local ma-n-pa hardware/autoparts/ chain saw shop is way too proud of their stuff to even consiter doing business with. They will repair an old wacker then want $120 for it, I look but always end up shaking my head.

I guess if I really want some particular one for a project I can just buy the new shortblock from Farmer's exchange. Your average weedie is just over a C-note and something really nice like a CS-1080 echo is about $200. But when you do that and use a new carb you really have a good engine. All the hunting around is fun but gas and time probably cost more than dropping the money for a new unit. I guess I'll just keep my eyes open and be happy whith what comes my way.

Here is something productive. We have a big chain hardware out here called OSH. Check the return/refurbished section of these places. My Salinas store has a pragmatic manager who sells off returned stuff at low prices........once in a while. I got an echo 33 cc chainsaw sans bar from them for 25-bucks. That was a great deal. The Watsonville store is always a bust. If you find something try haggeling with the manager.

arobatx

This brings back great memories.... I'll never forget the looks on the faces of small engine repair shops "you think you are going to do what?" , "you can't do that, it won't work"....and so on. I found one shop here in Iowa City, the guy would talk to me all day about it if I had the time. He literally had shelves and stacks and piles of engines, whole and parted out all over his shop. He'd walk me by the shelves and point out what he could do without, then point at entire piles of engines, usually waist high from the floor, and say 'take all you want of those'...and so on. He never wants a dime. I swear he's been ready to pay me to fill the 8' box of my truck with his 'junk' and take it away.

Most of my experience with these shops are like you've all explained above, but keep stopping in when you run across a different one and strike up some conversation. Some really good shops are out there, with some great people willing to sit and swap stories, tips and tricks.

HunkaJunk

I had one small engine shop that was good for several engines a year, but that one has dried up too. they are almost all 4 stroke now, very little 2 stroke engines there now.

Unfortunately there are fewer and fewer small engines shops here that I'll do business with around here, I stopped by one the other day to try and buy a Walbro felt clunk, they had one but he wanted to charge me $10.95 plus tax.

The last couple parts I needed for weedie engines came from order tree, for cheaper than I can order them through a small engine place around here, A sad state of affairs indeed.