I had a little time this morning and the weather wasn't great, so I spent about 2 hours refurbishing a set of lug nuts that came with some wheels I bought. A new set is roughly $50, I spent an hour and a half to two hours working on them, and I'll still need to buy a new "key" at $15. So I figure the dollar value of the time I spent was about $17.50 per hour. My pain point is usually $10-15 per hour, so I'm happy. Just wondering what sort of value you all place on your time before you just spend the money and buy a new part.
Also, Mother's Mag Polish is the shizz.
In reply to kazoospec :
It's completely proportional to how sucky I think the job is.
In reply to kazoospec :
Totally depends on how thick my wallet is. I’ll work for less than a dollar an hour if I want something but don’t have the funds. On the other hand when the wallet is thick I spend money like a drunken sailor and sometimes parts wind up sitting on the shelf for a very long time
Also depends upon how much time you have for it, or if it's unobtainium.
Yeah, there's a dollar amount for replacement, there's a PITA allowance for replacement (easy buy, or is there going to be research or sourcing time?), there's the question of whether the ones I have have enough value that it's a waste not to use them; They'll fall into that nasty spot where they're not worth selling, but have too much utility to chuck. Thus arrive the cruft monster and the rubble demon.
Depends on how sucky the work is. Also depends on how easy it is to sell, recycle, or compost the old part(s). I don't like to generate garbage.
Lugnuts I wouldn't spend 2 hours on, but I wouldn't spend $50 on them either. Tough call.
I spent 100 plus.hours disassembling, modifying, sandblasting, painting and reassembling the front suspension clip for my 67 Camaro. My shop charges $130 per hour...but I didn't have anything productive on the booking sheet last January.
Ah, hell, that's a pointless story anyway. I'm way, way too cheap to ever buy the Detroit Speed unit I want anyway.
For work I bill $200 or more an hour. In many cases it is better for me to work an extra hour or two then do things like that. And Amazon is so dam easy. Click and two days later it is on my door. The other side of this is I enjoy referbing old things. For a while I was referbing old fans. These there is no replacement for these and it is cool to see something from the early 1900s Work again.
In answer to OP,
Nope, as a well known turd polisher, I'll spend hours on something I could easily buy.
