I've often talked about how many hats you have to wear if you run a small business. In the corporate world, everything is specialized, but not in our world.

The corporate guy responsible for shipping can go to sleep at night secure in the knowledge that he will never be asked to service the printer. We may find ourselves needing to service the copier before we can ship because we need the labels printed first. And oh, by the way, the lock on the restroom door is broken and the connector on the compressor manifold is leaking.

The most frustrating aspect of this is in trying to fix things that were never intended to be fixed. There are so many products that have been designed to be replaced instead of repaired. I was literally stunned the first time I tried to remove a broken switch from a cordless drill/driver. The switch was hardwired into the unit and it was obvious that it was not intended to be replaced.

I ran into the same thing with random orbit sanders, which I’ve saved to cannibalize for parts. Not a bad idea except that it seemed it was the same part in every one that had crapped out. Occasionally, I was able to keep a sander working but mostly I’ve ended up with a big box of broken sanders.

D.D.