I’ve been trying to avoid buying new machines and tools. I replaced the carburetor on a used 4-stroke brush cutter that I got for $70 only to find it wasn’t really that useful.

When it’s working, the 6.5 HP chipper I picked up on FB marketplace has been a huge help with the large piles of holly slash I’ve accumulated. I’ve been learning how finicky small carbureted engines can be w/ gas, and how shelf-unstable gas can be. Not long after I got the chipper back up and running, with a cleaned carb and fresh gas, a couple of bolts that connect the blade housing to the engine sheared off.

Fixing that took me 8 hours over 4 days, checking out tools from my local tool library (gear pullers), or buying them from my local hardware store (screw extractors) as I realized that I’d need them. I probably could have cut the time in half, and improved the quality of the repair, by not trying to make due without the right tools, and calling it a day once I realized I needed a tool I didn’t have on hand. Lesson learned.