Hobby or Job?

[Charlie]

Today I was talking with a friend that was asking about the business aspects of restoring vintage televisions and radios. He was wondering how well one would do trying to make a living at this.

I mentioned that most of us here on AK do this as a hobby, but that some of the guys here do restos and repairs for others. For instance, I occasionally repair vintage radios for others. Usually, I only charge the person for the parts since it normally takes very little effort to get a radio chassis up and running.

How many guys here do work on sets for others on a regular basis? Is this just a side job? Do we have anyone that does this as a full time job?

[Big Dave]

For me, restoring old TV sets is a hobby. I need something to keep me from going nuts when I'm not working. If I were to get laid off, I could possibly do it professionally, but that may not be feasable. By the time I could get established, I would get called back to work.

[dewickt]

For me also it is a hobby that makes some money, was out of work a few years ago and pushed the repair business hard enough to pay all of the bills for about 2 months, the trouble was that I could not afford health insurence on my own. I find that I enjoy repair and restoration a lot more if I don't have to depend on it to pay the bills, I would rather be sitting at the work bench doing a repair then vegitating in front of the boob tube.

[Kamakiri]

Sure as heck wish that I had somebody willing to repair my sets for cash that was close by......

[rcaman]

been here 25 years still repairing these chepo things. somedays i ask myself why in the hell not get out. but we have a great business. the customers are not the same as they were years ago.

[Rob]

Originally posted by Kamakiri
Sure as heck wish that I had somebody willing to repair my sets for cash that was close by......

You have cash that is close by? Hmmmm.... maybe you could use some of it to pay someone to fix your stuff!

[kc8adu]

i do both.
most of the repair shops around here send tube gear to me to repair.
and kam if you hang out here and ask lots of questions you can fix em yourself.
its worthwhile to send out little sets like your panasonic but a big color console would be very costly to ship.
btw what do those kanji charicters mean?
and i dont get the green ant either.
some sort of amimae?

[Richard D]

Yes, I do repair work for other collectors, vintage transistor stuff is easy to ship. I only charge for parts and shipping. My den is not big enough for roundies. Anyway, it keeps me off the streets.
Richard

[Rob]

Originally posted by kc8adu
....
btw what do those kanji charicters mean?
and i dont get the green ant either.
some sort of amimae?

I thought it was a termite inside the cross section of a wall viewed with night vision equipment. Kam, am I close?

[Kamakiri]

That's Kamakiri in Japanese. As well as being part of Donald Fagen's "Kamakiriad", it's also a Japanese praying mantis, hence the picture

Well, let me tell you guys how I perceive TV repair. Let's relate it to cars. If my TV repair skills and car repair skills were the same, I could take a car that doesn't run, and go about replacing parts that I thought were bad. I could probably test and replace a fuel pump, but overall I wouldn't have a complete idea as to how the fuel pump makes the car run. To be able to be good at this, I know that I have to take it all the way back to Ohm's Law and the basic principles of electricity, and build upon that. Unfortunately with two kids and tons of responsibilities, that's going to have to wait for a decade or so.

Many people can look at a schematic, and can see how everything works in their mind's eye......I'm not one of those people, and have always been jealous of those that could do that. Perhaps one day I will.

And yes Rob, if you wanna come down and get paid ca$h to fix alla my stuff, bring your test equipment and a good appetite

[Rob]

Too damned c-c-cold to go anywhere Tim! I barely make it out to my own shop. Winter sucks the big one baby!

[Richard D]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Kamakiri
[B]That's Kamakiri in Japanese. As well as being part of Donald Fagen's "Kamakiriad", it's also a Japanese praying mantis, hence the picture
I thought it was a Steely Dan Effort with walter Becker & Donald Fagen
Also The Nightfly is one of my favorite recordings.
Richard