Friday, March 25, 2016

Mechanic secrets part II?


Looking back on my most recent post, well, I f I did my job well you'll never have a chance to suffer through reading that first draft. 

Back to my story though. 

Recently I talked about how pretty much every mechanized piece of equipment has just two sources of power, 3 ways to transfer that power and only two actions on the far end, turning or going up and down. 

I didn't always realize this, most of it came to me during my high school years though.

Have you ever seen a '69 Ford Thunderbird? 429 Ford big block, C6 transsmission, and what I later learned was a Ford 9 3/8" rear end, but that's a tale for another day. Have I mentioned I'm an adrenaline junky? Well that's kind of hard on cars.

My junior year, the motor in that car made some rather ugly noises and lost power. I didn't come from a wealthy family, so that meant I had to fix it myself. 

I remember the evening before thinking about what must be thousands of moving parts, after all there's a lot of space in there. I'd studied the theory of a four stroke, worked on some lawn mower engines, This was different. It made a lot more power and was a lot bigger.

The following day I learned my fears were way over blown! As I disassembled this thing I had my first MAJOR dose of just how screwed up fear can be. That motor was a simple, very predictable working piece of art. 

All of the sudden I started paying attention in physics class, it all started coming to me. These "rules of physics" didn't mean some complicated voodoo, just some simple facts I needed to know to be successful as a mechanic. 

Keep this in mind as you take on mechanical repairs.

There is a method to the madness in everything mechanical. Rules like what is in motion wants to stay in motion, what is at rest wants to stay at rest. Fulcrums and leverage. An object moving in a straight line tends to want to keep moving in a straight line. 

I later learned that how the electrical systems work is really similar in the fact that if you understand the rules electricity has to follow, it isn't too complicated to figure most problems out. 

Got any thoughts to share? Lemme know, leave a comment below.

Tim Allen

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Secret repair guy concept revealed.

Looking back, I've had my hands on a lot of different pieces of equipment over the years. More often than not I had to figure out how to repair it on my own.

*Auto mechanic - check

*Mower mechanic - check

*Wiring repair - check

The list could go on for pages....

I still remember the first time I was asked, "Tim, how do you know how to work on so many different kind of things?" In truth, I'd never really thought about it.

So I answered truthfully. I don't. 

You see what appears to be so many different things to most folks are a hand full to me.



Let me explain.

Pretty much any powered equipment is driven by one of two things; an internal combustion engine whose foundational principals haven't changed for over 100 years, or an electrical motor that really has about 3 different varieties. Yup that's it, two power sources. 

At the other end of what ever it is you're trying to fix there is something that is either going up and down, or turning in circles. 

Tires on the car? Turning. 

Floor sander? Turning or going back and forth depending on the sander. 

Power washer or paint pump? Pistons going back and forth pushing the water or paint. 

OK, you get the point.

So what is in the middle connecting these two?

If it isn't connected directly you have either a belt, gears, or some sort of hydraulic pump and motor to transfer liquid movement/pressure. That's it.

I work on two power sources, three ways of transmitting the power, and one of two things should be happening if everything is working OK. 

Not really all that much too it when you look at it that way. 

Tim Allen

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

What's next?

It is interesting.

When I was younger, say 20 years old or so, I had a very clear sense of purpose. Married, first of two kids on the way, and a very independent nature. My sense of responsibility has always been really strong.

I knew my best opportunity for income was turning wrenches, specifically fixing things like cars, equipment, mowers, well anything that was self propelled I guess.

Somewhere near 30 years old I started to wonder about those boyhood dreams. I still remember sitting in class in high school reading U.S News and World Report and seeing the stories about successful entrepreneurs and the power they had over their own lives. With the kids old enough to fend somewhat for themselves, My wife who was tired of raising kids and looking for more adult conversation decided to enter the Paid employment world.

We've always lived rather frugally. We literally moved all of our worldly possessions to our first home in one trip in a 1976 Toyota Corolla station wagon. Somewhere along the way we fell prey to the consumer marketing engine and started accumulating "stuff" but that isn't the point of this post, maybe I'll speak more on that later. Suffice it to say, even with what we considered wasted shopping, it has always been at a level far under most folks unneccesary spending. That meant we could live off of her wages, I didn't HAVE to work....

Now that business dream comes back to me in a POWERFUL way.

I suppose my purpose in life or my "why" took a change that I am just now realizing. Initially I was to be someone capable of providing for my wife and kids. Now I wanted to amass enough assets to provide for them should I leave this world.

At this point, unless improperly managed, I'm pretty sure they could make it. It is interesting though, could they or I for that matter make it without a good attorney, accountant, etc.? How about the vendor relationships? What happens if they (or I) chose not to treat the customer right? My point is, that while I no longer have to live my working hours doing formally directed work, I do have to provide value to others.


The single hardest lesson for me to learn or accept up to this point is that contrary to popular opinion, we don't live in a win/lose world. For instance, in the big picture you making more money, doesn't mean I make less. The reverse is also true, but haunts me to this day.

Pragmatically I know it to be true, but with so many years of misguided teachings to the contrary it is hard to let go of. It has been my experience my entire life that it is harder to unlearn something than it is to learn something. Once we have it in our heads that we are right about something, we need consistent compelling almost ridiculous amounts of proof to let it go. Yet coming in as new information we're easily led.

So what's next? Does my "why" change?

It has to.

Life waits for no one. I can sit here and watch all I've worked so hard for gradually wilt away, or I can renew, peel back another layer of life and peek inside at what is next.

Interesting enough, I think it involves getting to know myself better. If you've been paying attention this far through this story, you know that I sacrificed all, and that includes my own health to serve my family. It has been my addiction. Sure parts of the real me have helped to point my efforts in a good way, but what am I avoiding?

It is in here already but the simple answer is that I've got to get past this win lose thing. It is preventing me from helping more people.

More on my journey tomorrow.

Tim Allen

Monday, March 21, 2016

Biz N Brewz with some of the worlds greatest marketers!

They say that one of the best ways to grow is to be in a room full of people smarter than yourself, this weekend I knocked it out of the park!

When you have names like Ben Settle, Ryan Stewman, Vicki IrvinDanielle Lynn, Justin Devonshire,
Kamala Chambers, Shane Hunter, Ray Higdon, Brian Keith Noonan, Dan Meredith (who due to a family emergency attended via live video feed), Luis Congdon and Christopher John Stubbs in the room sharing their stories and tips on how to better your marketing, you do best to just sit back and learn. 

One of my biggest take aways from the event was just how important it is to be authentic, be the real you in everything you put out. 

Interestingly enough one of the speakers pretty clearly explained that we should keep in mind that we are always growing, evolving, changing, and our online presence should reflect that. If we're not seeing that in our work, perhaps we aren't being completely honest. Maybe we are more showing the world what we want them to think we are rather than what we truly are. A pretty deep thought indeed. 

Meeting new people is always interesting. Meeting people who are having a positive impact is especially rewarding. Being in the room with folks who engage at this level, in an intimate setting enjoying a brew together, well, that's Biz N Brewz.

https://biznbrewz.com/invitation is the brainchild of one of our towns own, Jodi Ardito. It was impressive to see her gather people from literally the world over to attend. I am proud to say though, our very own town of Roseburg Oregon had the largest number of attendee's. 

Who could benefit from attending Biz N Brewz 2017? If you use my measure of trying to be in the room with folks smarter than you, well that means most of us. Click the link, and decide for yourself. 

-Tim Allen-




Thursday, March 17, 2016

Help us catch a thief?

Well he's not the sharpest tool in the shed...

On Saturday evening 3-12-16 we lost a tilt bed trailer to theft. We've got quite a bit of video since he walked around under a security camera for about 3 minutes staging the trailer for theft. About an hour later he comes back, hooks the trailer to his truck and takes off with it.

When we first posted some of the footage on Facebook we had no idea it was going to gain so many views. The most viewed video had over 16,000 views itself in just 24 hours! Since then we've had our local television station interview me and run a portion of the video too. 


If you know the guy get in touch with us, we'd love to prevent him from getting to someone else. 

-Tim-

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Home & Garden show this weekend at the fairgrounds!

Are you planning some outdoor projects this year? 

Yard renovation?

Tree trimming?

New deck or patio?

Sprinkler system?

See idea's for all of this and more! Friday 10am-8pm, Sat. 10am-6pm, Sun. 10am-4pm

Here is a picture of us setting up, stop on by and say "hi" :)