Changes

[Enzo]

Oh, I have been thinking about retiring and closing this down. Oh, not real soon, and I am not looking for obituaries or offers. But after the health thing a year ago, and the weak business climate, the shop makes less and less, and I have not been agressively chasing work. SO it wouldn;t be a large step anyway. I rent shop space in a building with another business, my landlord, and I take up about half the warehouse with my junk.

The other day he asked me how long it would take to get rid of the stuff I don't need. Translate, unspread my crap. OK. Been putzing around looking at old stuff. Last night I stripped out a few things. Tore down a cassette/CD player, that was fun, and some Pioneer receiver that needed some large Pioneer part number amplifier ICs. Never going to happen. Tore it down for screws, power cord, transformer, and a finned heatsink. I love doing that. mindless activity that relaxes me.

As someone who works on old jukeboxes (though not so much lately) and other old things, I tend to save everything. You never know when some trim part is just what you need. But I have entire warehouses full 0f stuff that "might come in useful." So I am eyeing that box of video monitor boards. AM I really ever going to fix any more 19" arcade monitors? SOme of them have new flybacks installed but other problems. Is it worth pulling those transformers back out and pitching the board. The one guy who was bringing me a lot of monitor work has changed over to video game systems, like Nintendo. No more stand up arcade videos. There is a couple boxes i could probably pitch.

I have probably 20 arcade PacMan logic boards. All need repair, but they are worth probably $100 apiece. Spend time on them?

The pile of dead cheap Fender do-not-repairs. Odd items of rack gear. SOme worthless old, like 25 years old, Numark DJ mixers. No point in keeping them.

It can be daunting to look around and try to decide what really has value, and what is just junk. How much should I put into some old Alesis reveb that sells used for under $50 to get it running? Or is it worth doing maintenance on some little single channel active crossover to sell for maybe $25? Decisions.

I cannot pass up a piece of test gear, they all need a good home, so I take them in. Got a collection of audio generators and bench power supplies. Why do I need ten of each? I don;t know, but it seems I do. Just recapped a Heath IP-17 power supply. It is a great piece, 0-400v DC for B+, 0-100vDC for bias, and 6/12v heater supply. with meters. Just the thing for breadboarding amp circuits. WHich I haven;t done in years. Still, it is a great piece, and it might come in handy...

When I was a kid 50-some years ago, I used to strip out dead TVs for parts. I had all manner of resistors and caps with clipped off leads or bent up leads in my parts drawers. I still have a lot of them. Oh once in a while I throw one out. But usually I just shove them aside and grab a real part from the drawer. Going through the entire parts collection to weed out old useless parts would be a huge job.


And boxes of manuals. I found a thick manual for Perpetuum-Ebner record player guts. Hot chassis tube amps, mechanical "record player" guts. Not like I am going to start fixing cheap record players soon, but you just never know when it might come in useful.And on and on.


You know, I don't think I CAN retire, it would be too much work.

[J M Fahey]

Dear Enzo, you *can't* retire.
What will you do ? Go to a park and spend your day feeding bread crumbs to the pigeons?
Go play bocce or cards with some old chums? (that's what they do around here, I'm sure there's some close equivalent there).
Restless hands and brain guys remain the same forever.
Yes, I understand the need to cut shop costs if it becomes non self sustainable, so having a *large* space (which "eats" rent $$$) tied down with improbably used inventory may have to go, but the shop itself (maybe downsized too) might still be sustainable.
Worst case, you might arrange for some music shops to deal with the customers, and you weekly pick up and deliver repaired stuff.
Their keeping some percentage of the bills would nicely balance against the fixed expenses you are having now.
I'm not suggesting you set up shop in some unused room at home because I understand you live a few miles from downtown, is that so?
In short, best of luck and hope to see you around, as active as always, for *many* years in the future.

[Chuck H]

You know, I don't think I CAN retire, it would be too much work.

I've heard that one before.

I'm sure there will be plenty of test gear that you just can't part with. As to the obsolete tech, game boards and such, that's tough. I might check "completed items" on Ebay for similar stuff and hope to get an idea what's worth fixing.

The word retire is too final. I don't know that your the type to "retire". But among people I've known "semi retirement" can end up as more work than working.

When you do make a change, I hope you have other shops in the area that you can endorse. Having worked with the best your customers will be extra critical

[Enzo]

Thanks for the glad thoughts, but the thread is more about assessing things and finding out what is tucked away. I mean if you live in a house 20 years then move, you'd have to go through everything and start pitching. That 30 year old T-shirt with all the holes in it, but you just CAN'T part with it because it has the name of some bar you used to play. A bar that was torn down 15 years ago. The power cord for that waffle iron you threw out in 1985. I been in my house since 1973, and I sure would hate to move.

20 some years ago I built - well, I payed someone to build for me - a 2.5 car garage behind the house. It was never intended for vehicles, it was going to be my shop. Added windows all around, and a passenger door. I had a electrical service installed tapped off the house service, got 60 amps, should be enough. I have flourescents all over the ceiling, mounted outlets every few feet around the perimeter. Got a large and deep bench on the wall - damned sturdy if I do say so. Got tons of shelving for parts. But it turned out I had an opportunity in town to have my shop inside some dealers businesses, so I never ran the business out of the garage. So now, I would finish that project if I close this shop. Insulate the walls and drywall, and heat it. That last step was never done.

I am way out in the country, but my road does have an exit off the freeway. Hell, right now I am in the city, and all the time I get calls from the shopping center across the street, "Now just WHERE are you again?" "Look out your windshield, see the brown building with the two billboards over the roof? That's us." I could handle the "No, turn right at the jog, then continue north a quarter mile. Look for the lawn that needs mowing."

I have lots of interests to pursue. I like to play with my cat. I can hang around the local middle school and watch the cheerleaders practice. I might even start mowing the lawn again.

[Sowhat]

Enzo, you need to keep your wealth of experience alive even if you do shutdown. I don't know what medical problem you have but I have been seeing the world from inside of a hospital room too much lately. Triple bypass and bouts of pneumonia and congestive heart failure have steeled my resolve to spend as much time in my shop as possible these days... There are still tons of starving musicians who while the don't really appreciate it, need expertise such as yours to keep them rocking. Face it, once our generation is gone, this expertise will disappear, never to be replaced. We lost another one recently, Eric Snow (Snowball) of ESE music in Kent England, or as some would know as the guy to send your old Binson Echorec's to to get repaired and refurbished. Now Eric has not died or anything like that but ESE Music closed it's doors last year and Eric has dropped off the radar screen. I'm getting a lot of Binson stuff in for repair lately because of this and I sorely miss being able to give Eric a call for his advise.

[Dr Kaos]

Hi Enzo

I work in the large garage behind my house. My sons would hassle me about all the 20+ year old junk that I had kept but I maintained it was all useful. Fourteen months ago there a large earthquake not far from here and everything in the garage was thrown to the floor. I learnt some lessons about stacking heavy objects on shelves, not a good idea with aftershocks continuing til this day (20 mins ago magnitude 4.2, 10km from here 11km deep). Result was a serious shortage of floor space.

I also used to repair Arcade Machines and had boxes of game boards and monitors and other hardware. I found a local chap who fixes pinballs and sold it all to him for a modest sum.
The pile of old power amplifiers that were never going to get repaired I sold one by one on the local Ebay type site for good money.
Old test gear, I have some too, sites like Ebay can be useful to see what other people think has value.
Alesis and the like, do everyone a favour and throw them away.

After it all I feel much relieved of a lot of baggage.
"The Lure of Salvage" to repair things has gone for me. These days aftermarket parts are available for most things that are worth fixing so I just buy-in what I need.

Hope that helps.

The Doctor.

[km6xz]

Retirement is the goal of a lot of working people but self employed never really get to or want to retire. I know, I am very good at retiring. I should be, I've done it 3 times!
The problem is not retiring, it is relaxing. I sold my main business in 1991 and decided after a month of being lazy, riding my bike and hanging out on a small 9 meter sailboat to get into doing some consulting and repair in selected studios as a field tech working out of my home and only for people I liked and wanted to help their business.
Started with a core of 3-4 clients but within a couple months I had to decide to either get more forceful in turning down clients or change my phone number to unlisited( my studio had an unlisted number for years to keep the wannabee tire kickers away). Within 18 months my retirement changed to having moved a shop twice, and ending up with 5,000 sqft and a dozen employees, eventually doubling again. Finally in 2003 I retired again, gave everything away and moved to Russia. Within a couple months had another business in a field I knew nothing about. It has 28 full time and 150 summer employees.
Retiring is easy, staying retired is hard. I since also started a little importing and distribution business of being the national distributor for ZT Amplifiers for Russia and other CIS countries and a part time repair shop.
The lesson I learned several times was the great collection of really cool junk that someday might be useful, can be handled best by dumping it all and starting a new collection. I came here literally with 2 suitcases, that is all. Started a new collection but have been able to keep it small. Get rid of it all, in one big move to the dump, do not look at any of it or sort it out. If you have not used it in 6 months it will never have a positive impact on your life in the future, not matter how many scenarios you can imagine where it might come in handy. You will not miss it as much as you think now.
Having a simpler life only opens more doors for more interesting things in the future. There is an amazingly satisfying increase in personal freedom when you are not limited by caring for stuff, stuff that has little chance to improve your life, and a very strong chance of tying you down. Pay someone to haul it all away after giving your friends and neighbors first crack at it. Go away for the weekend while the trash haulers are working so you do not see and miss things that you forgot about. The best things I have done for myself is getting rid of ties. Moving here with nothing opened up so many options for doing what was fun, interesting and worthwhile with my suddenly freed up time.
How often do you get to work on your own projects or visit a great museum or go visit with friends without feeling guilty for "wasting time"? My work now is second to my socializing and having a great time. Never before have I been able to spend so much quality time with others and do as I please, but still earn a living. Before, building it bigger was the only avenue for getting free time and more security...or so I thought. Free time and security are not earned by taking on more responsibilities except to yourself. My life is filled with fun interactions with new people, most often beautiful young highly educated woman who appreciate how I am free and independent of ties. Its a great "retirement". I see more operas, ballets and hours on the dance floor of dance clubs per month now than my entire life before.
Get rid of it ALL, Now. Keep a small core of test gear and one tool box of hand tools. Design a work bench that is perfect for 80% of the work, and forget about the other 15%, leave that to newcomers who want to grab some market share. Do the cream that you like doing.
I keep a bit of extra gear because that IS my hobby, it is not needed for repairing peddles and amps that come to me.

[Chuck H]

There is an amazingly satisfying increase in personal freedom when you are not limited by caring for stuff, stuff that has little chance to improve your life, and a very strong chance of tying you down.

This is one of those recurring thoughts we all know to be true in our hearts, but have trouble realizing. Reading or hearing it in plain speak is like a moment of clarity.

[J M Fahey]

Dr Kaos, are you Chilean by any means?
Your continued eathquake exposure seems to point at that.
My Brother gave up a new job he was trying in Providencia, near Santiago de Chile, in part because of an earthquake he suffered while being on a 7th floor.(8th floor in USA)
A most unnerving exoerience, to put it mildly.

[Dr Kaos]

Not Chilean, shaky isles of New Zealand.

[Steve L]

Enzo,

You have a lot of great suggestions here. Getting close to retirement age myself, here is my two cents worth: Simpler is always better.

I have the same addictions to spare parts and test equipment as you do and probably most other guys as well, and I hate to see a piece of gear go to waste because it needs repair, but there does have to be a limit.
As a suggestion, write out the advantages and disadvantages of every scenario on a piece of paper and do the math. I know that might sound silly, but it works, especially if it is a difficult decision.

For example, could what you save in rent pay for someone to finish your shop for you? What about no more commuting expenses if your shop is at home?
As far as the extra parts, desire for spare time for family, pets, etc, what is your piece of mind worth? What would be best for your health?
I don't think you would like complete retirement, but having a well organized shop at home and keeping only your best customers sounds like a great plan to me.

I would lose almost all the spare parts as well. They are just not worth the clutter and space they take up.
I have cleaned out loads of spare parts, dead, incomplete amp remains and such twice now and have never regretted it.
One time I put an ad in the local paper for all the stuff and someone gave me quite a bit of money for all of it. Perhaps you could do the same. You know the saying, "One man's junk is anothers..." Even if you only got 10% of what it is worth you would probably never use that much of it anyway. You could use the 10% to buy it again if it is available. I'm sure you could keep a very small pile of what you know is valuable and likely needed in the future.


Obviously you know what is best for you and I hope the best for you whatever you decide. Your help to others is invaluable and very much appreciated.

Steve

[Steve Conner]

The lesson I learned several times was the great collection of really cool junk that someday might be useful, can be handled best by dumping it all and starting a new collection.

Amen to that brother! I'm planning to move house shortly, and I found myself with a collection of electronic junk that was limited by the square footage of the old house. Does anyone want to buy a big pile of heatsinks and transformers?

Hey, maybe I should move to St. Petersburg to meet some of these Russian women that Stan keeps going on about.

Enzo, best of luck in whatever you decide to do!

[Enzo]

Oh, while I sit here bemoaning the piles of STUFF, I still go to the local university surplus outlet twice a week, buying old VTVMs and stuff. Can't resist.

If I retire, I can spend more time on something really important - berating my wife for watching cop shows all the time. It is a job that needs to be done.

OH I have already done all the math, not renting this storefront, not paying for a couple business phone lines and DSL (I already have business lines and DSL at home) not driving 200 miles a week to get here, not buying dinner in a restaurant once or sometimes twice a day. And finishing the garage shop wouldn;t cost more than a few months rent. I'd come out way ahead.

I am not conflicted, I am looking at this more like someone looking at his old high school yearbook 30 years later. Er, maybe 50 years later then...

I have an old CRT - big round one, with a glass sort of dome on the neck end with a ring of pins around it a few inches up. A ring shaped connector slides down over the glass dome thingie and plugs onto the ring of pins. It came out of a radar display - like they used to use for air traffic control. The rotating beam from the center. I have no way to power it up, no idea the pinout anyway, and I know for a fact the heaters are burnt out. WHy is it here taking up space? I just looks so darn cool. I don't know how many beams it can make, but there appear to be multiple electron gun assemblies. I know it ought to jump right in the dumpster, but it just never has.

[Chuck H]

Well... You do NEED to have a hobby that turnes your crank!!! You can always keep the "cool" stuff to play with and do repair/resale with the other stuff on Ebay. That's a tidy semi-retirement profit on something you do for free anyway. And you'd be doing the buying public a real service. Your items would actually be in good repair and functional. The key is in the ad print and how it's layed out. Not hard to figure out when you look at what other sellers are doing. Then you could buy up stuff to hearts content and sell the stuff you choose not to keep and still come out ahead.

[imaradiostar]

I'm 32 and already have a huge collection of things that aren't junk...but who am I kidding? I have already torn apart the obsolete TV repair equipment for tube sockets and power transformers but I'd got plenty more- impedance bridges of various brands, audio generators that look too cool to take apart, various test (broken) equipment from the military base that shut down near here...

I wonder what it'll look like when I'm 50 or 60 and I've been collecting dead amps and hamfest finds for another 20 or 30 years?

On the other hand- Enzo, if you wanna part with any test gear or Fender "do not fixes" in need of a soul transplant, I'll give them a loving home!

jamie