Rebuilding a Lawnmower Engine for Dummies - The Freelance Files MMCXI

small engine parts

One of the staffers was griping about his string trimmer recently and stated that he would "Never, never, never buy a gas-powered trimmer again." A couple of days later he sheepishly admitted that he had spend a few bucks at a local BigBox to get a carburetor adjustment tool, and his trimmer was running just fine now, thank you. We submit that even that experience is more than the minimal knowledge displayed by returning DotD Tom Lutzenberger, who failed to pay attention to a critical word in his GardenGuides.com attempt to explain "How to Rebuild Lawn Mower Engines."

Lawn Mower Backfires for Dummies

Flywheel key 

It's always amusing to our staffers to watch the freelancers who clearly lack the requisite knowledge attempt to explain something that's even the slightest bit technical. Oh, the misused terminology, the fumbled definitions, the bizarre constructions...  Anyway, that's what one of our staffers thought when she ran across a post at Hunker.com, freelancer Jack S. Waverly and his "explanation" of "Why Does a Lawnmower Backfire?"

Hydropneumatic Tanks for Dummies

hydropneumatic tank

You gotta love the freelancers who decide to pass themselves off as "experts" on any old random subject. The ones who most reliably get our goat here at the Antisocial Network are the eHow.com contributors who did nothing more than reword the first reference they found on a topic, despite knowing no more about the topic – and often less – than the person who typed the query into a search engine in the first place. A case in point is the HomeSteady.com post by Alex Burke, who jotted down "How Does a Hydropneumatic Water Tank Work?" back when she still used the name Melissa La Rose.

A Hydrostatic Drive for Dummies

hydrostatic drive with wheel motors

What does the initialism "DIY" mean to you, dear reader? To us here that the Antisocial Network, the three letters expand to mean "do-it-yourself." If someone asks one of our staffers about a DIY subject or wants information about a DIY project, it means that person wants to do it himself. Or herself. Or themselves. Whatever. Apparently, however eHowian Pauline Gill obtains a different meaning from "DIY," although just what that meaning would be eludes us. Gill wrote "DIY Hydrostatic Drive" for HomeSteady.com, and we still haven't figured out where the DIY part came in!

Torque and Bolts for Dummies

torque on a bolt

The freelancers we nominate for our daily award fall into several broad categories, but the vast majority of them qualify on the basis of the same mistake: attempting to explain something they don't themselves understand. Lots try to give instructions for a task they've never tried, while others pretend to have knowledge they don't. We've had a lot of the former lately, but that doesn't mean we don't have links to posts where the writer is quite clearly talking through his or her hat. Here's one now: Troy Holmes with his WiseGEEK  post, "How Much Torque can a Bolt Accept?" (now at niche site AboutMechanics.com)

Universal Joints for Dummies

universal joint

Sometimes, the staffer who submits content for a DotD nomination has to put quite a bit of effort into the reason for the nomination. Perhaps the bogosity is subtle; perhaps the errors require some expertise to uncover. On the other hand, we've had at least a few candidates who could easily nominate themselves based on their obvious failure to understand what they're saying. Today's nominee, eHowian Elizabeth Punke, falls into the latter category. We base that on her post at ItStillRuns.com, "Types of Universal Joints."