I just love getting the maximum out of my stuff. Whatever it is, tools, abrasives, my old Volvo station wagon. For instance, my Bosch jigsaw was old when it was given to me, about 15 years ago! It’s the one with a slide switch on the side. Very difficult to operate, still, I don’t use it often so…. Sometimes I know my attitude doesn’t make financial sense. Sometimes, when I’m trying to figure how to get the max number of pieces out of a sheet of birch ply I realise that the extra time I’m taking (I do this for a living) is worth more than what I’m going to save in material. Old habits die hard, I guess, and it seems a shame not to get the most out of material, and to throw stuff away before it’s well and truly used up or . Anybody else have this problem?
John
Replies
I don't know, bet this reminded me of some guys I knew in a factory once.
They had a competetion going to see who could be the cheapest.
I was told they decided to stop when they started gluing rubber membrane to the bottom holes on their worn out tennis shoes.
Taking 2 ply TP and making it one ply.
Also using only one square to clean up method..
Who ever invented work didn't know how to fish....
Taking 2 ply TP and making it one ply.
Also using only one square to clean up method..
And using both sides, of course
John
Remember to save the tear out to clean under your finger nail...
Who ever invented work didn't know how to fish....
ever have to split matches? I did some vacation in a county lock up..split a cardboard match down the middle..worth a nickle from a guy without..LOL.
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Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
Thats living on the short side.No good deed goes unpunished
> started gluing rubber membrane to the bottom holes on their worn out tennis shoes.
Ya gotta glue the patch on the *inside* -- on the outside it'll just peel off.
-- J.S.
I've come around recently to being a big conservationist-type and trying to get the most use possible out of the things I have. I've long been a paper-plates and one drill for each truck/location kind of guy and found I've been wasting a lot of time and money on things that really aren't all that important. I'd rather take my wife to a nice dinner or go for a walk or buy a boat than collect more saws at this point, plus I look at it as a challenge and way to improve my skills by making what I have work rather than just going for the next thing, this applies to trying to use hand tools as much as possible. Things like using the coping saw for coping or the sanding block for sanding or the hand plane for trimming down jambs just seems like a better fit for me personally, and I've been trying to re-use wood from some older projects and take a fix-what's broken approach to things rather than throwing parts at something. I find researching a tool and buying it, and actually working the time to buy it requires just as much effort as taking 5 minutes to repair/adjust something I already have.
-Ray
I'd change the switch and go for another 15 years. The 6$ for the switch would be worth it.
You are not alone...
Who ever invented work didn't know how to fish....
I've got an old Stanley (yes Stanley) jigsaw. All aluminum, perfect condition. Given to me by an old friend whose hands shook so bad he couldn't use it anymore. Everytime I need to use a jigsaw I reach for this one. Steady as can be, quiet, a joy to use. I'm hoping it lasts forever. Just like my Rockwell sidewinder.
Dana
Salmon Falls Housewrights
Long ago metal was expensive. Labor and wood cheap. Many of our ancestors would burn their houses down when moving. The ashes would then be sifted for the nails and other metal fittings. These would be saved and used to build the next home.
Some cite this as the origin of the adage of something being 'As dead as a doornail'. The door nails were driven through, bent over and clenched. Made for a sturdier door but made the nails much more difficult to straighten.
Yankee thrift did not despair. Often the door was taken off and reused on the next house. Made sense as the door was labor intensive for the wall area covered. The walls could be done in logs but the door was better if made out of sawed planks. Lots of labor if your in a life and death struggle to beat winter.
Worker once with a guy who rolled his own cigarettes. Bugler or Kite. Whichever was on sale. Thrifty enough he took it to the next level by saving the butts and recombining them into a new cigarette. He also never used a lighter. Always paper matches he got for free.
My father was a smoker for a long time and my mom used to say if he saved his cigarette money he could have bought a house with that.
Reading your post... it got me thinking... if there was any truth to that. If that guy was thrifty enough to roll his own cigarettes, wouldn't he be better off quitting?
Here is my assumption. One pack a day, $3.00, for forty years and if you could make a 5% pa return on the money saved. At the end of the fortieth year you'll get about $130,000. Depending on the kind of house and location, my mom wasn't that far off.
Cigs use to be less than 2$ a carton.. Up until the mid 80's
Who ever invented work didn't know how to fish....
I always figured smoking was a loosing proposition all the way round. A little anti-smoking rant:
Addiction. Not bad enough to spend money on something of limited, and fleeting, value. Now you have to spend the money. Seen a guy roll up Copenhagen in toilet paper to feed his addiction. If you want to see people stress get them on a remote site without their cigs. Things get weird.
A smoker is easy to detect, Their clothing, cars and homes will let you know if you let them get upwind.
Attractiveness. Rather see a pretty girl pick her nose, we can break them of that, than light up. Kissing a smoker IS like frenching an ashtray.
On the other hand if you have to smoke my friend was just about as frugal as I think possible. With his style smoking he might have been able to pay for a house but it would be a rather small one on the wrong side of the tracks.
I'm one of those who err on the frugal side
but most of all this is dejavu for me - first day I became aware of this site there was an incredibly long thread on caulking - do I chuck the tube or hang on ?
carry on you guys
Well, when it comes to power tools, the new stuff is often crap, so if the old stuff works, keep it.
i do that with nails have tons of little clips that only have a few nails probably takes more time to load then to just throw them out and buy a new box.
I try my best to save my customers money but have to keep reminding myself that it is cheaper to buy an extra sheet/board/whatever and move on rather than being half a one short. I try to do a quick mental calculation of which is best, a little extra labor or a little more materials.
Starting to rethink the quantity of tools to have on site. I firmly believe that having the right tool for the job is a good thing. Where do you draw the line between using an alternate that will do an acceptable job versus the special jig/saw/whatever that will provide the optimum level of performance? What is the trade off for the time to go get (and to put it back) that special gee whiz (maybe one of Larry's) tool that will make it maybe better or faster? I have been accused of analyzing something to death.
I love to buy tools and have been accused of only working to support my tool habit.
I am also guilty of bring leftovers home and either using them on the next job or keeping them to McGuyver something at home. I rationalize keeping the half sheets/boards or portion of a box of nails (if customer does not want them) and use stuff from my stash on the next job. Do not want to have to buy a pack of something if only a few are needed. We only do fairly small projects and this is feasible on our scale.
I just hate to see offcuts burned or taken to a landfill.
Edited 2/11/2004 11:26:26 AM ET by RASCONC