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I Forge Iron

Stuff.....tools laying in the shop..Use 'em or sell 'em???


rthibeau

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Stretch said: "There is no such a thing as extra stuff. I thought it was a sin to get rid of stuff, whether you use it or not.
What do you think all that extra room under tables and on tables is for??????"
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Joe H said: "My rule is NEVER sell tools, period. I have sold a few things in the past that I thought I would never need. It never fails, one day I end up kicking myself. Right now I've got one shop I work out of, and another 12x16 building that stores tools that never get used. Even though I may think I'll never use some of them, it costs nothing to keep them."
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Too Much Stuff?
Stretch and Joe H. say exactly how I feel about "My Stuff". I have none extra!
I have worked to hard and sacrificed too much in order to accumulate all of this junk, or, I mean my tools and material.
The only problem I contend with most of the time is that I just don't have enough buildings to keep it all in.
I am a bona fide (12 Step) Tightwad Tool Junkie and don't want to be cured.
I believe the thing that keeps me alive and trying to outrun death (my form of aerobics) is that I don't want to die.
If I die, my "STUFF" will most likely be given away to someone who will not appreciate its value, or it will be sold for ten cents on the dollar.
Keep it all in a safe place. Err, I mean: Be safe!:rolleyes:
Old Rusty Ted

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  • 8 months later...

Steveh, I think you mean 37 mm (actually 38.10mm) and not centimeters. It is 25.4 mm to the inch. A quick way I remember is a mm is less than 1/16 inch in size (visually) and a centimeter is about 1/2 inch in size (visually).

37 centimeters = 14.5669291 inches

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Thanks, I knew that but some how got the decimal in the wrong place. I have corrected my post.

Metrics, or any other scale, are easy to use as long as you don't go converting from one to another. Pick one and use that one scale for your work.

This point was driven home (pun intended) when I had a piece of thick plate glass cut for a table I use. Measured twice and then measured again just to be sure. Went to the glass store, purchased the piece of glass, and when I brought it home it was too large for the opening. To it back to the glass shop and they shortened it a bit on their machine. Back to home and it would just fit into the opening on one edge but not the other, the opening being skewed. So, being a blacksmith, I took the piece of glass to the shop and shortened the glass about 1/16 or 1 to 1.5 mm and after a couple of tries (you do not want to shorten it too much at one time) it fit into the opening. And NO, I did not use a hammer. (grin)

There was a difference in the rulers, his vs mine, they did not measure equally. I have run into the problem 3-4 times now when using close tolerances.

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G'Day all , for those of you who are havin' trouble convertin' metric to imperial ( or the other way around ) i use this site ... not just lengths , covers a whole range of stuff ... btw , don't forget ta do the " fruit " convert too ....


Metric conversions, US customary & metric system unit measurement conversions, plus currency converter & fractions to decimals



Dale Russell

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Extra Tools just lying around the shop??? Value adjustment!
Two weeks ago, I would have told you that there was no such thing as extra tools.
Tools have been the implements of how I have made a living during much of my life time.
They actually become like friends who were dependable helpers in aiding me in accomplishing the task of making a living.
Yes, I did say "kind of like having friends", some for 50 + years.
Part of my hobby is as a tool collector. All of my tools that I own, I have classified and stored accordingly.

1. Tools I actually use.
2. Tools that I may need to use some day.
3. Tools that my friends have made and given to me.
4. Tools that I keep for “Show and Tell” (fun) or you might say for “Bragging Rights”.
5. Tools that represent history and craftsmanship of the past.
6. Tools that I keep as back up tools to replace worn or broken tools.

As I write these comments, I realize how much the tools that my friends have given to me mean to me. I would never part with them easily.
But now that kind of thinking has changed.
This was because someone raided my shop two weeks ago which resulted in a small truck load of tools that went missing, and then a dear friend of mine just died.
I have had to step back and review the way I viewed and felt about my tools.
I realized how quick they could be stolen. I also realize that they are tools and not people.
Therefore, now I am more likely to sell, give, or trade tools as opposed to having them stolen. I have had to change my view about them and realize “that they are objects” and not people or pets.
Ted

Edited by Ted T
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http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=5450&cat=715
A pic of most (not all) the hammers i could put on the table and take a photo of. what do YOU have laying in the shop you could/should sell but are just holding onto for whatever?? Ya can't use them, why keep them??


Oh ... DUDE ... that was a sweet picture. Why would you sell or get rid of any of them???
Hammers are like children ... you wouldn't sell any of your children, would you?:) Students, I could understand, but not your own children ... I live by the addage "There's no such thing as too many tools".
Because I know that in the end - who ever has the most tools ... wins.

Besides I gotta have something to leave my kids (lord knows it won't be money ...;)). My daughter has already said that when I kick off she wants my shop ... she gets this creapy gleam in her eye when she says it too - I've taken to sleeping with one eye open and a hammer next to the bed :D.
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Some people are happy having only what they need immediately on hand and buying as the need arises. They have neat tidy shops and spend most of their time making stuff. Some people have no problem filling their space with piles of stuff that are impossible to dig through. They spend their time thinking about all the neat projects they are going to do and disinfecting the nasty gashes they get from tripping over piles of sharp steel.

I have the worst of both. I cant stand piles. I find them depressing. I love to collect stuff and hoard it.

After filling a back yard with scrap steel and tools - some really neat stuff there, I realized I was totally overwhelmed with all that umm... stuff. Managing it and organizing it to the point where it was really useful would be a full time job. More than once I have gone out to buy something I didnt know I already had, searched hours for something I did know I had sometimes to find that it wasnt as I remembered or just given up at the thought of what it would take to retrieve the materials from my piles.

My present policy is not to keep anything that I dont know how to organize and manage. If I pick up a pile of bolts they have to be sorted that week or tossed out. Stuff thats kept as stock for future projects must be clearly useful and organized where I can find it when I need it. Otherwise its out the door. If the only reason to keep something is that it might be handy in some complicated project that I will never get to its out the door. Either I am about to do that project or its the kind of stuff I use all the time. Otherwise - out the door.

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