Hi,
I appreciate all of the replies and advice. First, about how I found this saw: I was at an estate sale in Strasburg, PA near Lancaster. I'm not a chain saw collector, but this was just too neat. This auction required us to bid such that the bidder would choose an item out of the lot of their choice. I bid and won. People were not buying good stuff, but a pallet of paint cans would be fought over. I loaded up my truck and felt like I was stealing. :biggrinbounce2:
To get it running I cleaned the spark plug, drained the old gas and added fresh, added bar oil, and pulled 5 times. Sweet. This thing is in unbelievable condition for a 1957 or so saw. It has an old style knurled champion spark plug in it, so it has been stored for a while. I am going to cut a little with it tomorrow. I am amazed at the brute strength and quality of this saw. It is clearly a professional duty machine. Though I like my Stihl 034, this saw just exudes a air of quality. I might clean and preserve it and put it on a special shelf in my office where I have antique machines. I'd need to build another shelf.
If anyone would be able to appreciate it more than I do, I could be talked into listing it on ebay...
On the political topic, I can agree and would like to relay an experience I had a few months ago. I'm not trying to be a troll or hijack my own thread, but here's my 2 cents. Some of you will probably know what company I am writing about, but please don't write the name on this forum.
I had an opportunity to do a consulting job as an engineer in a plant that makes steel products not to far from where I live. I was to work on an inspection system. This was unique because my great-great grandfather built the place as an engineer during the latter stages of the industrial revolution, my great-grandfather was a supervisor there, and my grandfather and 3 of my great uncles worked there for their entire careers.
I was shocked to find that the same equipment was in use and doing a horrible job. A crane from 1895 is in daily use there-and breaks a lot. Scrappage rates earlier this year approached 70% mostly due to long-overdue complete overhauling. The best possible scrappage rate is 7%, but this is almost never met.
The unions fight any updating, such as the inspection system I was to work on, even though it would actually add jobs. The management is interesting in doing relatively minor things to improve the facility, and minor things in this environment cost millions, but by now things are too far gone to bring back to a state of true efficiency.
10% of their workforce has an OSHA-reportable injury every year.
The place isn't even American anymore, it is now as foreign as any China-based company, it just happens that it is inside the US borders and Americans work there. As a "consultant" I could see the hopelessness of the situation, so I left to pursue opportunity elsewhere. This is the state of "American" heavy industry.
Much of the long-term degradation, ie: why this entire plant wasn't scrapped and rebuilt years ago, was because of the "next quarter" mentality mentioned in the earlier post. However, to pay for high wages and pensions the company must be sure that next quarter looks good, even at the expense of 10 years down the road. It is not just corporate greed alone that causes these conditions. It is everyone's greed.
The backbone of American greatness consists in belief in the Constitution of the USA and in the high praise of achievers of all kinds. I see that real problems come when non-acheivers start to be praised for their non-acheivement and appeased to prevent their destructive acts. To be clear: whether someone is an acheiver or a non-acheiver is not based on race, religion, education level, blue or white collar, or type of job, just an attitude that leads them to work towards something that is better.
I am not arguing against a living wage for simple work, but the non-acheivers who learn their job in a hour and feel that they deserve $75K a year are not the reason why those who create industry get rich and they do not deserve to make the big money for it. If someone is satisfied with this type of work, great. But people who can do that job better and faster by applying their brains and backbones are what built the USA, and now we are being outclassed by people in other countries who remember this harsh lesson.
Today I see a government that does not respect the Constitution and a leftist movement that does not respect acheivement. :bang:
