Roar!

For those of you who think Don is a smart enough guy, but he doesn't have any mechanical sense (and I know there are a few of you); I'd like to report that I took apart the carbeurator of my non-functioning string trimmer, cleaned it out, reassembled it (including one spring-loaded part) and made my string trimmer work again. And I did it without directions, because it didn't come with directions for fixing it. I suppose they want you to bring it back.

I immediately used it to trim in the yard. I wasn't sure how long it would run, and I thought I had better sieze the moment.

To tell the truth, it was a pretty long process, with a few mis-starts. I'll be much faster next time. I kept finding more parts that could be opened up. So I immediately found a bit of dirt, and thought I had it, only to reassemble and find out I was wrong. Eventually I realized I was going to have to encounter some obviously gunked up part before it worked. No little bits of black were likely to be the culprit.

So I peeled away layer after layer. Eventually I was cleaning off this kind of membrane and noticed that it had a little tab on one side. The tab looked like some place you would grab, so I pulled. It distinctly felt like the wrong thing to do, and I was certain I would do permanent damage, but I peeled back that thin layer and my gunk was underneath it. Yea!

I reassembled, set all of the screws, and checked around quickly for unused parts. Then I started it. Not on one pull of course. String trimmers never work like that. But reasonably quickly.

It still runs too lean. If I open the choke all of the way, it dies from too much air. So I had to leave the choke mostly on. I think I'm going to go ask the mechanic guys at Farm and Home about it. I'll bet I can get them to tell me what's wrong without having to pay to have it fixed. I've noticed that people like to talk about what they do.

Sidebar: That's how I learned to cut hair. Every time I went to the barber, I asked about the art. Where do they get their scissors, how do you get the underside of long hair the right length, how do you keep it even across the top, how do you get the hair to taper away from an edge gracefully. People love to tell you about what they do.

You can take the skill one step farther. People will often divulge things they shouldn't, say at work, in order to be helpful. Getting them to do it is called social engineering. There is a whole book on it written by the worlds most famous hacker called The Art of Deception. I found it a very interesting read. But I'm part hacker.

I'm feeling quite proud about the whole thing. I am male, hear me roar in words too loud to ignore. I really paused when I saw a spring under one part though. I still remember taking a clock apart as a kid. My story ends like everyone elses. The thing exploded and I could never get it back together.