Chase Small Engine is a founder-run outfit, started by a Fairfax High School student. It began the way a lot of good shop work does: with an old lawn mower left on the side of the road.

Instead of walking past it, he took it home and dug in. He diagnosed it piece by piece - fuel, spark, air, each part in turn - and when that worn-out engine finally turned over, he was hooked. What started as a single roadside rescue became a real love of mechanical craftsmanship and of making old equipment run again.

That same energy runs through every job here. Take the time to get the diagnosis right, do the work to a standard worth keeping, and never pad a bill. When you bring something in, you are dealing with the student who turned that curiosity into a trade, doing the work himself.