[SEL] ????????

[Rob Skinner]

On Nov 17, 2010, at 5:13 PM, David Rotigel wrote:

> Ted used to get a BIG KICK out of charging someone's magnets and  
> getting their engine running. Mark charges nothing at a show, nor does  
> Bill. Perhaps we are entering into a new world


Hey, Dave. 

It seems kind of half-assed, if you ask me.  It's like a shoe salesman who only sells shoes for left feet.  More than likely, a twitchy magneto is going to need more than a magnet charging.  Everyone assumes that if a mag doesn't spark, you just lay some gauss on it and everything will be fine.  That ain't the case.  If the bloke can't do it all, he might as well not bother getting started in the first place and relieving some poor sap of his cash.  

I've "charged" the occasional magneto for friends, and quite often ended up doing a LOT of extra work.  For a while, I was refurbishing and peddling magnetos to strangers.  Sometimes customers couldn't make their engines run, so it was a problem with the mag, of course.   That results in troubleshooting an engine over the phone, and a lot of wasted time.  Doing quality work, packaging, shipping, and customer relations take a LOT of time.

So if you ask me, paying to JUST get your magnets charged is grasping at straws, and expecting to get any sort of workmanship for a mere fifty dollars is equally optimistic.  

Rob