Here is the story. About two to three times a year I have someone call me up asking to borrow my wood splitter. The hydraulic hoses are almost completely shot and I'm just waiting for one to blow. So when someone calls to borrow my splitter I make a simple offer, Replace the hoses and you can use it for as long as you need it "within reason". Splitters around here rent for around $75 a day, I figure it would cost under $100 to replace all the hoses using the old fittings at a local parts store. I find this a reasonable offer but everyone I have made this offer to has turned it down or been outright insulted. The way I see it is I spent the time and money to find and purchase a used splitter that I could afford. I look at my saws and splitter as a part of the heating system for my home as without these tools I could not keep my family warm in the winter. I work hard for my money and saved for the tools to make my life easier, I don't like loaning what I deem essential tools as they never come back in the condition that they left. The reason for this post or rant is I just got off the phone with a friend (or someone I thought was a friend) and he was absolutely pissed that I would not just bring my splitter over his house. Am i a jerk or just crazy? I guess I'm just bothered by this last call,
Why can't I get anyone to fix my log splitter?
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jatoxico
Minister of Fire
Loaning tools is a PITA. Most people really have no idea when they are beating on the equipment. As far as your situation, just tell people it's broken and needs some hoses replaced. If they offer to do the repair so they can use it then fine.
Bingo.
I usually give my friends one shot. First time they damage or don't return a tool they are not able to borrow anything else. After that I tell them the reason they cannot borrow then tell them I will come help them, but it will be whenever I choose and that I am in charge. They can either agree to that or go buy their own tool.
That said, there are still tools I never lend to anyone. A chainsaw is an example. A lot of care goes into keeping one functioning well. Care that the borrower won't do because it's not theirs.
I have loaned out tools to some good friends with mixed results. When I loaned out my log splitter to a good friend, the cylinder blew out it's main seal. It's a harbor freight one so I expected this at some point. He felt really bad and offered to pay for the fix. I did not accept his offer and repaired it myself with the rebuild kit that came with the machine. Friendship intact.
Bad LP
Minister of Fire
There are very few friends who I let borrow anything. I was taught a long time ago that if you need it once borrow it. Need it twice buy it.
Dieselhead
Minister of Fire
Poindexter
Minister of Fire
"I usually give my friends one shot.." perfect. One thing to be a 20 something and quite another to be a grown-up with a carreer.
Still and all, one shot. I do have a 12 ton press in my garage that I hardy use for anything and kinda need to upgrade to a 20 ton anyway, if I ever get around to needing a press again.
So yes, I will loan my 12 ton press to friends still on the tool loaner list.
I don't loan my chainsaw. No one has ever asked to also borrow the chaps and helmet and vamgreaves and to heck with it. I'll either come scrounge pretty quick and carry away the slash, or they can buy their own saw.
Still and all, one shot. I do have a 12 ton press in my garage that I hardy use for anything and kinda need to upgrade to a 20 ton anyway, if I ever get around to needing a press again.
So yes, I will loan my 12 ton press to friends still on the tool loaner list.
I don't loan my chainsaw. No one has ever asked to also borrow the chaps and helmet and vamgreaves and to heck with it. I'll either come scrounge pretty quick and carry away the slash, or they can buy their own saw.
I should post a pic they are really pretty ugly as most of the outer covering is cracked and falling off. I'm usually the first person to lend a hand when needed but it just seems everyone want's to use my splitter for free with no consideration of my investment in the tool. I used to loan it out but every time I got it back something would be broken.
Dieselhead
Minister of Fire
Someone should market a old jacket you can put over your new hoses. Nope, sorry. Look here, hoses are bad! Can't use it!
I just loaned out my splitter. It came back with 2 of the 4 gas tank mounts broken off and the engine not working. My friend is going to help pay for the repairs. I need to learn to say no.
I make a living with tools. You may not borrow my wrenches or my screwdrivers or my chainsaw. That's been my rule for years. Funny, last winter, I stopped by my daughter's home and her fiance was standing on the top plate of a step ladder, reaching up to put the Christmas lights on the fascia on the house. I didn't want the kids to kill himself, so, I offered my extension ladder, which is on my van. Next time I went out, I asked about my ladder. He had laid out down near the steps when he was through and it got hit by the snowplow. He laughed about it! The ladder is destroyed and cost a little over $400 to replace. But, what to do? Make my daughter pay for it? Grrr. So, I hear ya.
I
Well, you asked.....
I vote for crazy....
....for even considering making that offer. I don't loan tools unless it's to someone who is a good enough friend that if he wrecks it, I would rather take the loss than wreck the friendship.
But then, the friends I have like that wouldn't leave me with the repair bill, either, so....
I even turned down my boss when he asked to borrow my chainsaw.
Check with Northern Tool. Replacing those hoses just isn't difficult and it's probably not expensive. It will be cheaper to do it on your own time than to have a hose blow (possibly injuring someone) and then lose a lot of fluid, and have your splitting stopped for a week while you get some hoses and install them.
Well, you asked.....
I vote for crazy....
....for even considering making that offer. I don't loan tools unless it's to someone who is a good enough friend that if he wrecks it, I would rather take the loss than wreck the friendship.
But then, the friends I have like that wouldn't leave me with the repair bill, either, so....
I even turned down my boss when he asked to borrow my chainsaw.
Check with Northern Tool. Replacing those hoses just isn't difficult and it's probably not expensive. It will be cheaper to do it on your own time than to have a hose blow (possibly injuring someone) and then lose a lot of fluid, and have your splitting stopped for a week while you get some hoses and install them.
Most truck repair shops have the ability to make hydraulic hoses. Take the old ones with you and they'll make new ones to fit exactly.I
Well, you asked.....
I vote for crazy....
....for even considering making that offer. I don't loan tools unless it's to someone who is a good enough friend that if he wrecks it, I would rather take the loss than wreck the friendship.
But then, the friends I have like that wouldn't leave me with the repair bill, either, so....
I even turned down my boss when he asked to borrow my chainsaw.
Check with Northern Tool. Replacing those hoses just isn't difficult and it's probably not expensive. It will be cheaper to do it on your own time than to have a hose blow (possibly injuring someone) and then lose a lot of fluid, and have your splitting stopped for a week while you get some hoses and install them.
I'm on the other end of the lend a tool thing. I borrowed a paint gun from a buddy of mine and I had it hanging from the ceiling in the garage on a hook. While climbing into the attic space I bumped it with my foot knocking it to the ground. The paint reservoir can mount is loose now and I'm not sure it's fixable without new parts. I'm the kind of borrowee that will fix the sh!t I break but I still feel like an ass for breaking the tool.
Babaganoosh
Minister of Fire
What is it that happens that the minute you let someone borrow something they end up breaking it, and badly. Yet they never break their own tools and what you lent them has lasted for years without a scratch in your own possession? It's amazing. Let my cousin borrow my pole saw over the weekend, you guessed it. He fell and broke it.
I just had a new neighbor that move in a few weeks ago and seen my new splitter and right away wants to use it. This past weekend I had to work Sat, Sun and Mon (day off Columbus day school dist) and he came over and asked my wife if he could take the splitter. She said no, she knows I don't let anyone use my tools, said no he's at work and nothing leaves when he is not here.
jatoxico
Minister of Fire
I knew two different people with broken splitters, both homemade, stationary and ugly but one vertical, the other horizontal. I offered to fix them if I could borrow them.
Before many years had passed both people had suggested I keep them at my place unless they needed them.
Neither splitter has moved out of my yard in five years while one owner moved 100 miles away and the other bought a slick new portable unit on wheels. I give both of the old splitters a good workout each summer processing about ten bush cord for my own use.....,
Before many years had passed both people had suggested I keep them at my place unless they needed them.
Neither splitter has moved out of my yard in five years while one owner moved 100 miles away and the other bought a slick new portable unit on wheels. I give both of the old splitters a good workout each summer processing about ten bush cord for my own use.....,
LocustPocust
Burning Hunk
Aqua-Andy.. Most people don't appreciate the things you do for them. I learned that lesson. Most feel entitled or owed, like the guy you said got pissed because you wouldn't bring your splitter to his house. Geez why not split his wood for him and stack it too. Once you start saying No to people most people never talk to you again. You learn who truly likes you and who doesn't.
It seems like you work hard and earn everything you have. Being a nice guy and letting people borrow your splitter you're basically paying for people to use your splitter. Now that the hoses are on their last leg nobody wants anything to do with it. For you it's an essential tool to keep you and your family warm. They wouldn't help you if you needed it, you'd freeze first.
I hate to sound so bitter but it's reality. I've learned that lesson. My stuff stays with me.
It seems like you work hard and earn everything you have. Being a nice guy and letting people borrow your splitter you're basically paying for people to use your splitter. Now that the hoses are on their last leg nobody wants anything to do with it. For you it's an essential tool to keep you and your family warm. They wouldn't help you if you needed it, you'd freeze first.
I hate to sound so bitter but it's reality. I've learned that lesson. My stuff stays with me.
Isaac Carlson
Minister of Fire
jotul?
Burning Hunk
Only one of my friends is allowed to borrow equipment from me. His wife is a dermatologist, so I know that if he breaks it he can buy it. Plus he always returns the tool with a case of Bells Two Hearted Ale.
I don't think your being to unreasonable, I myself would fix the hoses when they needed it but I've got a bit of a case of ocd my wife says. On the friend part, I don't keep friends that screw me over, I trust my close friends with my equipment and they trust me with theres. I like the u break it u buy it policy.
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