Spent $80 on a used mortar mixer and it paid for itself in one day

Picked up a beat up old mortar mixer at an auction last month for $80. Threw a new motor on it for $60 and it ran like a champ on a retaining wall job in Bakersfield last week. Mixed 30 bags in the time it would take me to hand mix 10. Anyone else find good deals on used gear that actually works out?

3 comments

3 Comments

abby_fisher3d agoTop Commenter

Spend $20 fixing something and get years of use out of it, while the new stuff costs ten times as much and breaks in a year. It's like the old gear was built to last and the new stuff is built to be replaced.

kevin_williams3d ago

Man that's the kind of score that keeps me checking auction sites every week. I picked up a beat up 12 inch table saw at a garage sale for $40 last year, cleaned the rust off the top and put a new belt on it. Thing cuts true and I've used it on three jobs now, saved me at least a couple hundred bucks in materials alone from not having to pay someone else to rip plywood. There's something satisfying about bringing an old workhorse back to life, especially when it pays you back that fast.

blair_torres703d ago

Picked up a used tow-behind generator once for 50 bucks at a storage unit auction. Looked like someone had used it as a boat anchor for a few years. New carburetor and a fresh spark plug and it fired right up. Ran it for two straight days on a fence job and only used 20 bucks in gas. Still smelled faintly of dead fish for about a month though, which was a plus when the customer's yappy dog came around. That kind of deal almost makes up for the times I've bought a "runs great" saw that ended up being a paperweight. Almost.