Dependable Machines

Out-Of-Phase

Out-Of-Phase

Audioholic General
What types of rock-solid, dependable machines do you own (or have owned)?

You know, your widgets that you use that just won't die.

I get to go first.

Proctor Silex toaster
I got it decades ago for about $10.00 and it continues to function flawlessly.

Proctor Silex toaster oven
I got this decades ago as well and it continues to broil, bake and thaw perfectly.

GE Clock-Radio
Purchased decades ago, AM/FM radio, wake to buzzer or music, LCD clock face, keeps good time, still rockin'.
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
I have an old Sony mini CD system that I have owned for over 25 years. It is only now starting to have some minor issues playing certain discs. Since it has one analog input, I can still use with a tablet because the amp is fine.
 
panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
I got an alarm clock in jr high that still works fine. Ugly, but works.

That thing is probably 20+ years old.

I've had my mower over 10 years and that thing still starts first pull. Honda mowers are awesome.
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
I have an Oahu lap steel guitar amp that would have been made as early as mid-1937 and other than maintenance (recap, new power cord & fuse and replacement rectifier tube), it works great. Not really a machine, but for old technology, it's pretty cool.
 
Out-Of-Phase

Out-Of-Phase

Audioholic General
And an Armitron wrist watch that was $17.99 or something that just keeps going. I think it’s over 20 years old. I think got it in the 90’s.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Well I have a huge laundry list of gear that hes been dependable for over half a century, my Garrard 301 turntables for instance with the Decca ffss head and arm.



However I think first place has to go to my 70 year old JD Model A two cylinder tractor.



Here she is in the fall ready for winter and carrying a bucket full of wood down for the fireplace.



I have owned the tractor for 20 years of its long life. I was one year old when it left the Waterloo Iowa factory.

This tractor stats right away, first piston up and you hear that distinctive two cylinder sound with the 180 degree firing cycle. (The cylinder fire within a half revolution). It goes out in all weathers and moves prodigious amounts of snow.

It built and graded the road. I was on her all afternoon grading the neighborhood roads for their first Spring grading, now the frost is out.

Prodigious amounts of torque and power even at low revs. The hydraulics are excellent, responsive and progressive. This allows for a really professional grade. The Powertrol hydraulics deserve their legendary reputation. They are also highly fuel efficient and won the Nebraska tractor fuel efficiency awards year after year.

Never once in my 20 years of ownership have a craved a newer tractor.

Anyone who has owned and or worked on those JD Waterloo series tractors, can not be anything but totally impressed with the build quality and superb workmanship.

I think they really do represent a high watermark in American manufacture.

Tractors of this era, in those long ago days there were many makes, fed the world in the dark days of WW II.

They kept food production up with the U-Boat losses. In Churchill's history of the WW II he writes that his greatest anxiety was starvation of the population. The Waterloo built (built from 1923 to 1960) JD 2 cylinder tractors paid their part and then some in saving civilization.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
It would have to be my Technics SL1200mk2 I got in '84, still excellent with relatively minimal maintenance over the years. Maybe a Coleman lantern I've had since around the same time....
 
Out-Of-Phase

Out-Of-Phase

Audioholic General
Well I have a huge laundry list of gear that hes been dependable for over half a century, my Garrard 301 turntables for instance with the Decca ffss head and arm.



However I think first place has to go to my 70 year old JD Model A two cylinder tractor.



Here she is in the fall ready for winter and carrying a bucket full of wood down for the fireplace.



I have owned the tractor for 20 years of its long life. I was one year old when it left the Waterloo Iowa factory.

This tractor stats right away, first piston up and you hear that distinctive two cylinder sound with the 180 degree firing cycle. (The cylinder fire within a half revolution). It goes out in all weathers and moves prodigious amounts of snow.

It built and graded the road. I was on her all afternoon grading the neighborhood roads for their first Spring grading, now the frost is out.

Prodigious amounts of torque and power even at low revs. The hydraulics are excellent, responsive and progressive. This allows for a really professional grade. The Powertrol hydraulics deserve their legendary reputation. They are also highly fuel efficient and won the Nebraska tractor fuel efficiency awards year after year.

Never once in my 20 years of ownership have a craved a newer tractor.

Anyone who has owned and or worked on those JD Waterloo series tractors, can not be anything but totally impressed with the build quality and superb workmanship.

I think they really do represent a high watermark in American manufacture.

Tractors of this era, in those long ago days there were many makes, fed the world in the dark days of WW II.

They kept food production up with the U-Boat losses. In Churchill's history of the WW II he writes that his greatest anxiety was starvation of the population. The Waterloo built (built from 1923 to 1960) JD 2 cylinder tractors paid their part and then some in saving civilization.
Beautiful tractor! My uncle had a 2-cyl Deere for decades back in on the prairies of North Dakota. That and a old Farmall were his favorite tractors.

Thanks for sharing.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Beautiful tractor! My uncle had a 2-cyl Deere for decades back in on the prairies of North Dakota. That and a old Farmall were his favorite tractors.

Thanks for sharing.
That JD Model A spent most of its life in ND, until I took it to my lake place 20 years ago. It first was briefly on a bean farm at Cavalier ND and then owned by Potato farmers in Oakwood ND until I bought it in November 1998.

It has thousands of ours hard work on it. You can always tell how much use a Waterloo has had by the wear from the belt/pulley clutch brake. This one has a pretty good grove on the belt pulley now. Just amazing machines the Waterloo tractors.

As you can see I have one of the much rarer Dubuque JD tractors. However being 10 years younger it gives a little more trouble

 
Out-Of-Phase

Out-Of-Phase

Audioholic General
Beautiful tractor. My Uncle is gone now, but all the stories he had of various tractors and the cold winters he endured over the years, he should wrote a book. Thanks again for sharing.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Beautiful tractor. My Uncle is gone now, but all the stories he had of various tractors and the cold winters he endured over the years, he should wrote a book. Thanks again for sharing.
Yes, but I've been through this a few times over 20 years.








Very tight space in the nose and not fun. Those tractors were designed in an old Butcher's shop in Dubuque Iowa. They were charged with "modernizing" John Deere tractors. They were appropriately named "The Butcher's Shop Boys." They designed the New Generation tractors of 1960 which ended the two cylinder era. Those tractors have not made old bones.

One of the reasons that these tractors are now very rare, is that they have been parted out due to severe hydraulic fluid leak from the Steering valve. I took advice form all over when I had the problem. At the bottom of it was very bad awful design. I ended up redesigning it and having costly hydraulic seals made to my design, and have a very skilled machinest extensively modify the end caps, by making a place of the seals and installing bushings. It has not leaked a drop since. As far as I know I'm the only person to have successfully solved this problem.

That is why I did not select that tractor under the most dependable category. Having said that it is a lovely, useful and very handy tractor, for mowing, spraying and general utility duties. I have put around 2000 hours on it in the last 20 years, and I only use it in the summer!

Last summer the carb butterfly shaft broke and one of the little screws holding the butterfly got sucked into the engine and made a hell of a racket. I had to do a fiber optic endoscopy through the plug holes to find it and retrieve it with a magnet. The my skilled machinest had to work on the carb again, as the cause of the failure was wear on the shaft bearings.

They are a lovely engine though and make a beautiful noise.
 
Out-Of-Phase

Out-Of-Phase

Audioholic General
Interesting. Yes, I have heard them run and you are right they have a unique sound.

What do you think of the old smaller Farmall Cub tractors?
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Interesting. Yes, I have heard them run and you are right they have a unique sound.

What do you think of the old smaller Farmall Cub tractors?
Interesting. Yes, I have heard them run and you are right they have a unique sound.

What do you think of the old smaller Farmall Cub tractors?
No personal experience, but I have seen them. They are rare, highly sought after and fetch a lot of money. The main reason is they look cute and they are small and easy to trailer to shows and parades.

 
Out-Of-Phase

Out-Of-Phase

Audioholic General
No personal experience, but I have seen them. They are rare, highly sought after and fetch a lot of money. The main reason is they look cute and they are small and easy to trailer to shows and parades.

I got to drive one of these when I was 13 years old on a farm road in the prairies of ND. When you're 13, that was more fun than going to a carnival.
 
hemiram

hemiram

Full Audioholic
In electronics, there are a couple of standouts:
Realistic Pro-2004 scanner. Bought in 1986. Obsolete, but still going strong at 32 years old.


Gus listening to it shortly before the end in 1999. He would rarely lie on my bed unless it was on.

Panasonic SA-6500 receiver. I bought it in 1972, still running my friend's rear surrounds:

Built like a tank. I have another one I just ordered new caps for.
 
MR.MAGOO

MR.MAGOO

Audioholic Field Marshall
Sharp Carousel microwave, purchased 1997.
IMG_1656.JPG
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
While I have zero actual interest in farming or related equipment, I find it interesting and fascinating watching someone knowledgeable do the work and fix these machines up.
So I stumbled on this guy's youtube channel and right away thought of Mark and his tractor collection.
Enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/dieselcreek
@TLS Guy
 
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