Friday 5

F5 HOW-TO: Preseason lawnmower tune-up

LAWNMOWER HOW-TO: F5 tune-up guide from Dan Conover on Vimeo.

I've been mowing grass on the cheap since the Ford administration, which means I've brought home some epically cruddy lawnmowers. Some I got for free and nursed back to "health." Others I bought and then couldn't give away. I've had mowers that went BANG and then fell forever silent, power-assisted mowers with bad attitudes, mowers with strange wheel-base set-ups and mowers with what could best be described as perpetual head-colds.

And what have I learned from all this? Two things:

1. Change your oil once a year;
2. The hand file you use to sharpen your mower blade is properly referred to as a "bastard" file. This has something to do with the pattern on the file itself. Seriously.

This week's Friday 5 is meant to help you get your lawnmower ready for the grass-growing season ahead, but I'm a guy who learns better by watching than reading. Which is why my wife Janet and I went out and produced these videos to help you through your pre-season lawnmower tune-up -- we figured that if regular people could witness a dork like me doing a tune-up, they'd feel more confident about doing it themselves.

And that will save you money.

Also, because we figured some of you would only want to see instructionals on specific tasks, I've broken the video up into five shorter chapters, too (ed note: video links will follow as these are posted):

1. Clean and lubricate
2. Change the oil
3. Replace the air filter
4. Replace the spark plug
5. Sharpen the blade

You can now watch all my Friday 5 videos on their own Vimeo channel. Free subscription via RSS!

Helpful hardware stores

Male or female, young or old, blue collar or office worker, we all have one thing in common: Sooner or later we all need a whatzit. The short kind, with the opening in it that fits over the doohickey. When that fateful day comes, you don't need a place that sells hardware -- you need a place with employees who can translate "whatzit" and "doohickey" into "gasket" and "retaining clamp." And then find them for you.

So We Want To Know: What are the local hardware stores you trust when you're really just not sure what you need?

Leave your suggestions, impressions, links and arguments in the Comments section below. If we get good info here, a 5 List could be coming to a Friday section soon...