What lasts and lasts forever?

[Dave Lehnert]

I was thinking tonight. I plugged in my Sunbeam bug zapper tonight and that thing has lasted me for years. Same bulb and everything. It came from Mr. How's warehouse. Remember that place? I think it went out of business 20 + years ago.

What has lasted a long time for you.

[Dennis Peacock]

A clock radio/alarm that I had before the LOML and I got married (almost 25 years ago) I've threatened a few times to toss that thing and replace it with a new one....but she just says.....it still works just fine. So we still have it and use it on a daily basis every single day.

[glenn bradley]

Alimony? :D

Seriously though . . . I have a C-man router that I bought over 30 years ago. Still runs fine. Wish that were true today.

[Wade Jacoby]

An Alesis drum machine. Somewhere around 20 years now. How is that battery still kicking?

Caterpillar 977K track loader. Bought new in 1968 by my father, ran until I sold it in 1995.

My affinity for making music. I started playing when I was seven, I'll be 49 this year. Still playing!

My wife. 17 years of pure bliss (haha)

My fasicnation with how the world works. It just never gets old. I am so amazed at the knowledge available to us, and yet how little of it we actually have the time to absorb.

[Tom Veatch]

...
What has lasted a long time for you.

Taxes and the first power tool I ever bought - probably about 40 years ago. A Craftsman 7 1/4" circular saw. I keep hoping it'll crash and burn so I can get a "good" one, but, so far, no luck.

[Spencer Hochstetler]

A clock radio/alarm that I had before the LOML and I got married (almost 25 years ago) I've threatened a few times to toss that thing and replace it with a new one....but she just says.....it still works just fine. So we still have it and use it on a daily basis every single day.

Thats funny... Nearly the same story here.

Some other things that have lasted forever are some various hand tools that I received when I was about 8 to 12. Screwdrivers, a tack hammer, and a small square. Almost 30 years ago! I use them fairly often around the house and on some construction jobs. It's getting to the point that I don't take them out of the house though because I'm afraid I'll lose them and not be able to give them to my son one day.

[Art Mulder]

My Dad's Rockwell router -- the basic size is still identical to the PC690. I bought a new PC690 last year, and the bases are interchangeable between these two routers. This router is from the mid 70s I guess.

My Denon stereo receiver + Karns Speakers are 23 years old and fine.

And my Oster blender, a hand-me-down from Mom and probably 30-45 years old -- I just ran and checked the nameplate, but no date appears -- it just keeps going also.

[Chuck Saunders]

Eternity is defined as "2 people and a ham"

[Craig D Peltier]

I have a really cheap shower radio. No bells and whistles, clock, cd etc. Its been running 10 - 12 years in the shower. Not one problem. (until I talk about it im sure)

[Joe Pelonio]

I too have a radio that's lasted forever. It's a GE transistor with AM/FM and TV sound that I bought about 1974. I have used it mainly for listening to ball games or music while working on things around the house. It is almost completely covered with drips of paint from the various houses I've painted, inside and out over the years, and even some stucco and wallboard mud here and there.

Another good one is a Craftsman Saber saw that I inherited from my late father in law. It's all metal, not a bit of plastic on it and he probably bought it in the 60s. Still running strong.

[Greg Cole]

My Trane AC condensor unit.... I had to replace the fan motor on it last week. While looking for the replacement motor other than the $400 GE one (got a Dayton from Grainger for $65 :rolleyes:), I was shocked to see the nameplate on the unit to read 1985! Granted I've only had the house for 7 years, but it's still old & mine....
And here in the smack dab middle of the midwest, it gets used ALOT.
I've been wearing the same $12 belt nearly every day since I was a freshman in college and that was 12 years ago.....

Greg

[Joe Pelonio]

I've been wearing the same $12 belt nearly every day since I was a freshman in college and that was 12 years ago.....

Greg
I have one of those, but it's been 38 years, and I have had to add a few holes to it over the years. :eek:

[Lance Norris]

I have a Bryant gravity furnace in my house that has a tag that reads 1955. I havent been able to figure out if it was installed or serviced in 1955. I also have a Mongomery Wards window air conditioner(23,000 btu, 220v) that has a 1971 date on the data plate. It cools my whole downstairs on "low", puts out air at 39 degrees and just wont quit. I have thought about replacing it because its loud, but it works great, and its keeping me cool right now. :cool:

[Scott Donley]

My IBM Thinkpad laptop, Pentium II 300 MHz, 192 ram, 4 meg HD. It just won't die. Added a wireless card and running XP pro. I use this every morning in my bedroom while drinking coffee ( yes I have other computers ) :D

[Lee DeRaud]

Alimony? :D"Mail your alimony check on time: the last thing you want is her repossessing you." :eek:
(Denis Leary quote, IIRC)

[Greg Muller]

My Grandmother's 1990 Camry. 385,000 miles and still running great. She's had it repainted once about 6 years ago, but the only durable part that has ever been replaced is the power steering pump. She recently made a trip from Kansas City to Raleigh, NC and back in it. I tried to stop her...

It may last as long as she has. She's still driving at 92 years old. She does have a bit of a lead foot, though. She keeps complaining about the "little old ladies driving 45mph in the left lane":cool:

Greg

[Brad Schmid]

My shop TV. It's a 21" Samsung bought in 1984 so 24 yrs old. Nothing but 1 VHF and 1 UHF knob. About once every 5 yrs I take the back off and blow the dust out;)

[Gary Garmar]

Western Auto 18" push mower with pull start. Coughs to live after 3-4 pulls. Got it as a wedding gift in 1970. Had to replace the handle a few years back but it still gets the job done.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

That damn rock I keep grinding my lawn mower into.

[Belinda Barfield]

In 1985 I survived a divorce and struck out on my own. I bought a console TV for my new apartment. Years later I bought a new TV and gave the old one to my parents. Their house is a lightning magnet and they lost three TVs in one year, so I figured mine could be a back up. My dad like the picture on the Zenith so much better the one on the TV he had been watching that he put my old set in the living room, and is still watching it. Strangely, even though the house has been hit a couple more times by lightning, that TV never takes a hit. 23 years and still going strong. Lasting longer still is my parents relationship with my ex - going on 30 years. He still stops by to visit with them every couple of weeks. :rolleyes:

[Jon Lanier]

Here I thought you were talking about my love I have for my wife.

[Greg Cole]

I have one of those, but it's been 38 years, and I have had to add a few holes to it over the years. :eek:

Mine's got 2 D-rings to tighten the belt Joe.
No consolation I wear the same sizes as I wore when I bought the belt thought huh? :D
The leather sitched around the D-rings is starting to show some age though. Seriously a $12 belt is some of the best spent $ I can think of for me.....

Greg

[Earl Reid]

I bought my Porter Cable, Md 140 routor jig in 1959, still have all the attachments and it still works.
Earl:)

[Chris Padilla]

My parents had a Panasonic microwave oven bought in Japan when we lived there from 1975 - 1979. It had a "feather-touch" key panel that was pretty cool. It weighed a ton and probably wasn't very cheap.

It is still doing fine at my parent's house...only the bulb inside gets replaced every so often....

[John Shuk]

My cheapo coffee grinder that we got as a wedding gift along with some different coffees.

[John Schreiber]

My comb. I've carried the same comb in my pocket for almost 20 years. It doesn't have to work as hard as it used to though.

[Lee DeRaud]

My cheapo coffee grinder that we got as a wedding gift along with some different coffees.Fondue pots. They not only last forever, but even if you think you threw one away, it will show up in some odd corner of a kitchen cabinet a couple of years later.

[Nancy Laird]

I have a blow dryer that I bought about two months before LOML and I married, which was over 25 years ago. It still gets a workout about 3 times a week.

LOML has two major machines in the shop---early 50s-era Atlas bandsaw and lathe. Both are used regularly and extensively. The bandsaw got new tired about a year ago!! I think those were the second set ever put on the machine. The lathe has been retrofitted with a variable-speed motor, and both work like a charm.

[Larry Conely]

I received a Craftsman 1/2 inch drive socket set for my 16th birthday in 1962. It has fixed cars, motorcycles, appliances, houses and other things I have forgotten decades ago. It has been a hammer, a pry bar, a chisel and a weapon. It has traveled with me from Michigan to California and back several times and to Australia and back. The chrome is heavily worn and the original tin case it is stored in has been painted several times. I now have newer, higher quality tools, but I still reach for it.

Today, I will not buy a Sears tool. But that old socket set just keeps on ticking...

[Richard M. Wolfe]

When GE made those little 'nearly a cube' clock radios they just about put the radio business out of business. I have one bought in about 1974 that still plays fine. I see them around occasionally and bet they are about the same age.

When my father moved he was going to replace an old washer and dryer so I took them. My mother bought the dryer in about 1962.....an electric Frigidaire. I have it and it still works fine.....with the original element. The washer was a Maytag and was bought in about 1959 but it bit the bullet about five years ago - what a dud. :D

[Jeffrey Makiel]

My central a/c unit which was installed around 1962. With the heat wave last week, the old boy was started up for its 46th season.

My old 1981 Chevy El Camino which my brother uses now. I estimate that is has around 350,000 miles on it because none of the gauges work. It always starts, and still hauls a lot of family stuff around.

-Jeff :)

[Clara Koss]

my son's really really cheap timex watch that i bought him when he was 12 and he's 25 now... he has never changed the battery!!!!!

[John Shuk]

A five year car payment.

[Gary Herrmann]

A Sharp boombox I bought in 1983. Its been knocked off decks, bounced down flights of stairs, gotten sand in it, gotten paint on it, been dropped in the ocean on two sides of Fl, at least three lakes and has had who knows how many other things spilled on it.

Its been sitting outside on my screened porch all year round for the last 10 years and still works. I'd put it in my shop, but I'm afraid it would fall on a cast iron tool and break it. :rolleyes:

[Joe Mioux]

A clock radio/alarm that I had before the LOML and I got married (almost 25 years ago) I've threatened a few times to toss that thing and replace it with a new one....but she just says.....it still works just fine. So we still have it and use it on a daily basis every single day.

A redlighted digital alarm clock. I bought it the first week we moved into an apartment in Champaign IL (205 E Stoughton- near Burnham Hosp for those of you in the CU area). My Jr yr at IL. my old flip over the digit clock died so I bought a new alarm clock (Copal). That was in 1980 and today it is on my night stand.

[Joe Mioux]

In 1985 I survived a divorce and struck out on my own. I bought a console TV for my new apartment. Years later I bought a new TV and gave the old one to my parents. Their house is a lightning magnet and they lost three TVs in one year, so I figured mine could be a back up. My dad like the picture on the Zenith so much better the one on the TV he had been watching that he put my old set in the living room, and is still watching it. Strangely, even though the house has been hit a couple more times by lightning, that TV never takes a hit. 23 years and still going strong. Lasting longer still is my parents relationship with my ex - going on 30 years. He still stops by to visit with them every couple of weeks. :rolleyes:


We have the reverse story, my parents gave me a 1980 Zenith 25 inch console after they won a 25 inch Sony. Up until a couple years ago, we retired it because of a remodeling job. We still have it, and it still works!

joe