How many cars you have owned

How many cars and trucks have I owned in the last 16 years? Well lets see.......20! I know I am a sick individual. But most of the time I get bored and end up selling one and buying another. Sad part is, is that I know the price I bought each of them for, the price that I sold them for, and the starting and ending mileage! For a grand total of 367,060 miles on those 20 vehicles! So is this a low number or a high number. I generally keep them for a year and get rid of them. Mind you,I have never bought a "NEW" vehicle. The lowest mileage on any of my cars was the last truck I bought that I currently still have, A 2005 Chevy that had 61K miles on it when I bought it. Oh there was a 1998 Honda Civic with 38K miles on it that I only had for 6 months. I hated that car it was too small.

They all have been used. I don't even know how much money I have saved by being able to work on them myself. I do everything from changing the fluids to major engine and front end work. I know a lot of people say that they don't have the tools or know how, but you can do the majority yourself. Most parts stores will rent you the tools you need to do a job for free. You pay them, then when you are done with the tools you return them and get your money back. Believe me I did not get all my tools over night. It has taken quite a number of years.

How I made a Lawnmower into a Saw mill

Well, what do you do with an old lawnmower? You turn it into a portable sawmill of course! So I got this idea after a lot of time spent searching the internet and viewing tons of portable band mills. I did not really want to spend the money to buy a mill when I know that I won't get the amount of time needed to pay itself off. So I drew up my plans and ordered the metal. Once I had the metal delivered it only took 1 day to get the frame built. The more time-consuming part was designing the carriage and mount for the motor and chain saw bar. I opted for the use of the chainsaw bar because I had a 32" bar and skip chain already. I have tried to make sure to use everything already on hand rather than purchase new.


For the sprocket, I welded a 3/8" sprocket gear onto the original adapter for the lawnmower's blade. I haven't gotten to try it out yet, but I have it all assembled.

Here are some pictures of my 1977 GMC dually that I built in High School. My Mom and Dad were great supporters for this project. My Mom thought she was safe when she saw it trailered into our back yard. Little did she know, that 10 days later I would be driving it around the yard. My Dad and I learned a lot together throughout the following 2 years. I am forever greatful for the time spent with my Dad. My neighbor contributed alot of time, parts and expertise. It helps that he was an engineer for GM. If your have a wiring question, he will tell you what color the wire is and everything it goes to.

If You have a project and want to share, feel free to post. I bought it for $500 and tore it all the way to the frame and found it completely cracked in half in one spot. Welded up the frame and started putting on new/used parts. The only body parts used off of the old body was the right front fender. A lot of the parts were traded for or given to me. This was my first major mechanical adventure. It took me about 2 years and $6500 to finish.