Congratulations! I was just talking to a guy today who works for a professional landscaping service. The thought occurred to me when looking at their truck full of small engines that maintenance of all of these small engines must be a critical part of their operation. The folks using the tools are going to expect them to just work when they pull up to a job location. They are never there for long, just very frequently and intensively working, in and out.
Seems like a pretty big company, maybe. Which makes me wonder if they have a full time guy back at their shop who does maintenance on all of their small engines. It seems to me as though one good small engine mechanic could keep a fairly large army of field workers up and running and making money. All of which would make it worth the money to pay the mechanic to sit at the shop full time, working on saws that need maintenance, waiting for saws to come in broken, maintaining the parts supply stock levels so that there is never a lag waiting for parts to come in.
If the mechanic gets things tweaked so well that they end up sitting around cooling their jets for a bit, that should not be taken as a sign that it's time to eliminate the position for lack of enough stuff to do. It means the mechanic is slick and keeping things running really smoothly, which means fewer issues cropping up, creating emergencies.
I'm no small engine mechanic or business owner, so I'm probably dreaming here.
Nora, are you just another field hand for these folks, who got tired of looking at gear that was not functional? So all of this time you spent learning to repair saws was basically uncompensated? If so, your employer is really, really lucky to have you working for them, as you would have been going way beyond the call of duty for an extended period of time.
@treehumper is right, this could be a whole new sideline for you. Really nice going. I appreciate your discussion of your mindset during the process of learning this new skill. It sounds similar to the way rope splicers approach things.
Tim
