Why have they fell out of favor??

[veggie]

Now the men at that nostalgic  stage and tinkering with stuff are far and few between. The last  few generations being raised in town by single Mothers has wiped out whole generations of future mechanical hobbiests , fisherman, hunters etc.

Yep. Not only that but the ones who do work on equipment have become "replacement artists".
Don't repair or rebuild it ... just replace it.
To some extent you can't blame them because the replacement parts can be very inexpensive vs the time and effort to remanufacture your own. But having the skill to machine, repair, modify, and problem solve is a very useful skill.

[dieselspanner]

Good point - Time -

Mine seems to roar away, and I'm semi retired!

Cheers
Stef

[ajaffa1]

Reliability is everything, is it quicker and cheaper to have a spare everything to hand in the event of a breakdown?

I don`t know the answer to that question, it might be cheaper to buy two identical generators, when you only need one. That way you will always have a backup for your backup. When they are both busted you can probably scavenge the parts to get one going.

Personally, I think it is better to spend your money on quality old equipment and restore it. Old Lister engines, with a bit of work, will probably outlast and out perform modern Chinese or Indian sh1t by decades.

Bob

[dieselspanner]

I worked on maintenance for a short while in an animal feed mill in Blandford, Dorset, that was flat out 24/7 from the first frost of winter to half past April.

Everything ran until it stopped or broke, then you fixed it with one of the numerous back up spares.

One night I ended welding up the discharge chute on 'pony nuts'which had worn through on a sharp bend, the foreman wouldn't stop the line so I wedged a sheet of 10 gauge - around 2mm - steel across the whole width  of the chute and set to. after a couple of tacks the molasses coating the inside started to burn, I stopped and the the foreman said 'Keep going Stef, the next batch thro' will damp it down'.

The whole room filled with smoke but as he said, every couple of minutes a ton or so of pony nuts hurtling past kept the chute cool.

The whole system was known as  'Breakdown Maintenance', as opposed to 'Prophylactic Maintainance'. It's not stupid as it would seem, instead of changing out a motor with a 500 hour scheduled working life, for rebuild, the same motor might well run for 2000 hours and then be total scrap. However the cost per hour run would be comparable.

Cheers
Stef

[BruceM]

Breakdown maintenance is the lowest form, practiced by most private companies (like power co.s) trying to maximize profits. It eliminates the need for good management and minimizes parts replacements.  Another good reason to be your own power co., if you have the aptitude.

[ajaffa1]

Hi Stef, we used to be expected to do similar sorts of things in the saw mills. Welding in an environment that is laden with sawdust is very challenging and we always had a fire spotter with a fire hose stood beside us. Got soaked a couple of times when things got away from us. 

Bob