I was unboxing some stuff from the move and came across this, it was in with a bunch of homemade machettes.  My Grandma gave it to my mom and she gave it to me knowing how I like old things.  Call it a glommer, grabber, picker upper, what have you.  It's got rivits..... I wish I could use banned language to describe the cheap plastic junk they sell today.  You can't even tear that "stuff"  apart to fix it.  Those plastic squirt bottles squirt twice and quit.  I tried taking one apart and it's impossible without sawing.  No wonder the landfills are bursting at the seams.

 

I have it's mate, can't remember where I got it, but it comes in really handy when Axle drops one of his toys behind the headboard.

  I bet he appreciates that..... We used to have a rescue doberman that would chase tennis balls rolled intentionally under the sofa.  She would go right under after it, and it was fun watching the couch bounce around until she found it.  She was a younger dog then, though.

  The only thing that grabber lacks is a spring return to open it back up.

We had a cat that liked to sleep under a cushion on the love seat. We got some fun reactions from visitors who sat on her, it seems people don't expect the couch to squirm, kick and yowl. She learned to sleep under the cushion Deb and I sat on, it only took a couple plops to convince her we claimed this end the other could be hers. I miss that cat, she was a character.

Frosty The Lucky.

My wife uses a modern one of those to get cloths out of the washing machine. She did not think about how high the machine was when we bought them a few years ago and can not reach the bottom. 

My grandmother before she passed was in  a wheelchair and had one made of wood. 

  Billy, I never heard of or have seen a wooden one.  Very cool.  My Grandpa made a simple pair of grabbers for lightweight stuff out of bailing and spring wire for Grandma.  It's around here somewhere and I will take a photo of it.  Several pairs of tweezers too.  I suppose I am to hard on plastics, they are light weight and ideal for just the uses you describe.  The ones I showed are pretty heavey...

I have a couple grabbers from being immobile, one is really light weight and takes some work to get hold of some things. The other is two log curved finger thingies and works nicely. Both have magnets which is handy at times.

Baxter and Ronnie have both gotten used to them enough I can hand them thigs without them thinking I'm going to GET them. A person could model shop pickup tool from the second pair. . . Maybe.

Frosty The Lucky.

  Claws, magnets, suction cups, what will they think of next?    How about adding toenail clippers?  No more bending over.....

A squid on a stick would make an effective grabber! How about a pixy on a leash  to fly out and get what you need?

Frosty The Lucky.

The pixy around my place has a game, called keep away and hide all your stuff.

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sails. ~ Semper Paratus

Jerry, I think the problem with the squid on a stick would be getting it to release whatever it had grabbed.  And when you were wrestling with it to get the object it would give you an ink squirt too.

G

Nothing's perfect George. Of course you could bread and deep fry your grabber off what it picked up for you. Say the jar of tartar sauce in the fridge. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Here is mine from my maternal grandfather who was a metal worker. Not sure if he made it or not but it is beefy and pretty cool. 

Haven't cleaned it up but use it once in a while. Have a more modern one that gets more use when I can find it. This is mostly used to grab things out of the rafters in my shop. 

  Those grabbers are cool.  Thanks for posting photo's.  I love homemade tools/stuff, the older the better.  Still digging around for those baling wire grabbers.  If they got lost moving I will be upset. 

Scott, with out the plastics we would not get the cool grabbers that have dinosaur or Godzilla heads on the ends either. Well we could but much easier and cheaper to mold them out of plastic. 

 

  True.   I suppose a heavey cast iron dino head on them wouldn't be much fun... .   

  I might have to get me one of those dinosaur ones to chase a certain somebody around..... snap, snap...

You could do a hollow form dinosaur head with chased details from say 14ga. it'd be plenty strong and reasonably light.

Frosty The Lucky.

    Could I send you some 14 guage and you could do it for me?  My chasing skills are not so good.  It would be nice to have a complete unit with a comfort handle.  How much would this cost?  I would pay extra for a high tensile spring for some added "snap".  Please respond quickly.  

I've never done it but I am sure I could. Please send materials right away and I will have it done immediately within 2-5 years. 

Lol, if only I had the time to try to make so many fun things. 

  Could you ship it overnight please?

  Lol, just joking.

It'll be my pleasure Scott but you'd better send two sheets of 14ga. I'll need to practice up. Overnight shipping? Can do, it'll be on the ship every night it takes to get there.

Do you have a preference in dinosaur? I promise I won't charge too much extra for one I don't like.

I'm thinking an AI, cyborg squid would make a good grabber, I can program it to follow directions eagerly and "fetch" cheerfully. 

Frosty The Lucky.

  What dinosaur could you possibly not like?  Herbivores?  .   I would say, Giganotosaurus, Spinosaurus, and maybe Kronosaurus (not really a dinosaur I suppose, but a good "snapper").  

  I'm not sure I trust your programming ability, I would hate to wake up in the middle of the night finding a cyborg squid stuck on my head, looking for a late night snack.  An Orthoceras or Ammonite grabbers ?

I asked your dinosaur preference for a grabber NOT which one you didn't like. What dinosaur could I possibly not like? Can you spell B A R N E Y? 

Ask me to make you a barney grabber and I'll promptly send you a coprolite in un-fossilized kit form!

Frosty The Lucky.

  Bashing Barney, eh? 

I wonder if "Return to Sender" still works.  I'll send that "coprolite" package back to you with the addition of something more undesirable.  Threaten me, will you?     I'm pretty tempted to put a link on here of him singing "I love you...."

Edited July 6, 20232 yr by Scott NC
Change a thing

Want the pterosaur kit eh? I'll have it air dropped to you direct.

Threats? Oh no, you misread that. TREATS, I was offering to send you Treats.

Frosty The Lucky.