I have to say, I've always felt a little badass that I haven't given into the temptation to buy a gas or electric mower to mow our (admittedly quite small) lawn. We have a reel-type mower that was given to me by my brother-in-law 4 years ago when he got sick of using it. Well, the handle finally did the thing the so often do and was bending at the bottom and constantly slipping off. This had been going on forever but it was so bad, I couldn't use the mower any more. I really wanted to buy a new one...maybe I'd upgrade to electric...or even gas.
I know MMM had welded one that someone was throwing away, but I don't have a welder or the skills. However, I did have piece of pipe that was big enough to fit around the weakened part of the handle. I cut the pipe to length, slipped it over, used some self-tapping screws to attach it to the handle in a couple places and voila: satisfactory operation.
I felt very bad-ass mowing the very tough weedy-grasses that make up the lawn with a me-powered mower I had repaired!