Replies

1. 
   RichBeckman | Oct 08, 2004 04:03pm | #1

   "This must be such a simple and obvious task that no one seems to have written on it!"

   That's because everyone assumes that everyone else knows how to throw the thing away and buy a new one!

   I did have one with the tape pulled all the way out and disconnected and I was able to reattach it and get it back in. It was even usable when I was done. But it wasn't a Stanley.

   If you have it pulled all the way out and it isn't going back in despite lots of encouragement, then I'm betting you have to open the case. If you open the case, I suspect your reward is fighting with the spring. By the time you win that battle (if) you'll be thinking that buying a new tape would have been a lot easier.

   I'm only guessing here, never having opened a tape up. And I've been wrong before (though I'm sure everyone here would find that surprising).

   Good luck.

   Rich Beckman

   Another day, another tool.

2. 
   BossHog | Oct 08, 2004 04:13pm | #2

   I think Mr. Beckman is right on - Buying a new tape is probably easier.

   But if you just can't bring yourself to do that - Open up the case and rewind the spring with some needle nosed pliers.

   Then re-attach the tape to the spring and try to close the whole thing up without the spring flying out of there and slicing your face open.

   I can't understand why I flunked American history. When I was a kid there was so little of it. [George Burns]

1. 
   RichBeckman | Oct 09, 2004 02:21am | #12

   "I think Mr. Beckman is right on..."

   What?? Did my father post something (from beyond the grave!)???

   Rich Beckman

   Another day, another tool.

1. 
   BossHog | Oct 09, 2004 03:36am | #13

   Naw - I was just trying to butter ya up.

   (-:One more thing, dear Lord - Ignore the heathen prayers of our enemies, and help us blow those bastards straight to hell. [Mel Gibson in "We Were Soldiers"]

1. 
   RichBeckman | Oct 09, 2004 06:40am | #14

   "Naw - I was just trying to butter ya up."

   So you're saying I'm toast?!?!

   Or popcorn???

   Rich Beckman

   Another day, another tool.

3. 
   SamT | Oct 08, 2004 04:16pm | #3

   Rich is right.

   Especially about your reward.

   This is something you want to try in a cool dim room while burning incense and listening to the monks chant and no one to bother you.

   After an hour or so, this is your first time, you will have a perfectly good used tape.

   After 4 or 5 times, (BTDT,) you will be a qualified tape replacer and be able to accomplish your mission in only 15 minutes.

   What did you say your hourly rate was? Or do you charge for watching boring TV?

   SamT

1. 
   CapnMac | Oct 08, 2004 09:31pm | #6

   This is something you want to try in a cool dim room while burning incense and listening to the monks chant and no one to bother you

   Never thought about that, using youre third eye would help a person use that third & forth hands is takes to close up the tape case while keeping the spring unsprungand the taper neatly coiled . . . (only wrse thing is trying to get al the bit back in an H&R revolver with the side plate off).Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)

1. 
   DANL | Oct 09, 2004 12:30am | #10

   You may need that third eye when the spring flies out and pokes out one of your other two! I learned about springs in general and in guns in particular when I was about 8 or 10 and decided to take apart my Nichols toy revolver and the spring flew off into the Twilight zone, never to be seen again.

1. 
   CapnMac | Oct 09, 2004 12:55am | #11

   LoL!Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)

2. 
   1coolcall | Oct 08, 2004 11:32pm | #8

   BTDT ?

4. 
   mikeys | Oct 08, 2004 04:17pm | #4

   Open the case, hook tape to reel , wrap the tape around the reel, close the case. As you pull the tape out it winds the spring up. Sounds easy, it's not. I did this once,never again.

   Smile. It could be worse. You could be me working for you.

5. 
   IMERC | Oct 08, 2004 07:39pm | #5

   1. Buy new tape..

   2. Open case and attempt to rewind spring...

   2. Open case and attempt to rewind spring...

   2. Open case and attenpt to rewind spring...

   3. Buy new tape..

   Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming

   WOW!!!   What a Ride!

6. 
   DanH | Oct 08, 2004 09:42pm | #7

   It's exactly like fixing a recoil starter on a lawnmower.

7. 
   hammer1 | Oct 08, 2004 11:39pm | #9

   The older Powerlocks could be re-wound, the spring was accessable. The newer ones have a replaceable cartridge but the cartridges are as expensive as a new tape if you can find them. Better keep them out of little ones hands, the edges can be real sharp especially right at the tip and a fast returning tape can wack you hard.

   Beat it to fit / Paint it to match

8. 
   blue_eyed_devil | Oct 09, 2004 08:42am | #15

   John S, I think maybe you better out source this task.

   Just don't let any of the Kerry Klan know that you are helping some third world nation by hiring them at low wages and subjecting them to a job that OSHA is so scared of...they can't even write safety rules about it.

   blue

   I'd rather just eyeball stuff than try to wind that thing up.

   If you want to read a fancy personal signature...  go read someone else's post.