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Erronius

Erronius

Macho Ma'am
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Hateyou said:
I understand when they want to get a project done, what I don’t understand is the time table swings. It goes from no problem or even a mention for months to years to out of nowhere “this needs to get done like this weekend or after work every day.” Nothing changed, Wtf? No idea what triggers that shit.
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The clock was always ticking, my man.

It's like if she wanted you to take out the trash, and didn't say anything for the first few days you forgot. She may not have said anything, but that shitstorm was brewing, LOL.

This is where you get the debates where men are like "What, was I supposed to read your fucking mind?" and women still remember when 3 years earlier you said that you'd do it.
 
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Alasliasolonik

Alasliasolonik

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I do NOT miss threading miles of gas pipe in the Chicago winters.


K9723.jpeg
 
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lurkingdirk

lurkingdirk

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Alasliasolonik said:
I do NOT miss threading miles of gas pipe in the Chicago winters.


View attachment 332947
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I have never seen one of those things that looks new. Every single time I encounter one it's as old as Moses. Does anyone buy new ones, or do you all just pass around the old ones?

And that power supply looks sketchy as fuck.

And working outside in Chicago in the winter would suck donkey balls. Didn't your crew construct some type of enclosed space to thread the pipe? That seems like common sense for a place like Chicago.
 
Hateyou

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lurkingdirk said:
I have never seen one of those things that looks new. Every single time I encounter one it's as old as Moses. Does anyone buy new ones, or do you all just pass around the old ones?

And that power supply looks sketchy as fuck.

And working outside in Chicago in the winter would suck donkey balls. Didn't your crew construct some type of enclosed space to thread the pipe? That seems like common sense for a place like Chicago.
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Remember you’d have to lug the enclosed space around on a truck not designed for it. And it would need to be heavy enough to not fly away from the high winds there. And you’d have to move it around and work around it. Sounds nice to have a wind block but probably not very feasible unless you’re in one spot for weeks at a time.

Dressing in carhartt coveralls, face masks, thick wool socks, etc is probably the best way to handle it. I worked in a steel bar bay for a couple winters were it was basically a wind tunnel and cold as hell. Dressing appropriately you could be out there all day and the only thing that got really cold would be your be your exposed face. It still sucked, but wasn’t torturous.
 
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BrutulTM

BrutulTM

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lurkingdirk said:
I have never seen one of those things that looks new. Every single time I encounter one it's as old as Moses.
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If you bought a new one it would be made in china and you'd have to replace it every 2 years.
 
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Hateyou

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BrutulTM said:
If you bought a new one it would be made in china and you'd have to replace it every 2 years.
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Yeah. Reminds me of machining equipment. Bridgeports and 6/8 axis machines from the 40s run strong every day never have a single issue. New electronic garbage machines from three years ago nothing but downtime.
 
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BrutulTM

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It's our own fault. We buy based on price so the best way to increase your profits is to shave pennies off of it by continuously making every part of it just a little bit lighter and cheaper so we will buy things we don't need because they're cheap and we don't feel bad about replacing them when they catch on fire the first time we actually try to use them for an extended period of time. Somebody figures out a way to build a tool that costs 20 bucks less and lasts half as long and people line up to buy it.
 
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Deathwing

Deathwing

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BrutulTM said:
It's our own fault. We buy based on price so the best way to increase your profits is to shave pennies off of it by continuously making every part of it just a little bit lighter and cheaper so we will buy things we don't need because they're cheap and we don't feel bad about replacing them when they catch on fire the first time we actually try to use them for an extended period of time. Somebody figures out a way to build a tool that costs 20 bucks less and lasts half as long and people line up to buy it.
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Generally I agree with you. However, to truly blame the consumer in this scenario, there has to be a choice available to them. There's been multiple times I've wanted to buy products and willing to pay extra for something not made in China. For what I wanted, either it didn't exist, or it wasn't available and well reviewed enough for me to trust the higher investment.
 
BrutulTM

BrutulTM

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Deathwing said:
Generally I agree with you. However, to truly blame the consumer in this scenario, there has to be a choice available to them. There's been multiple times I've wanted to buy products and willing to pay extra for something not made in China. For what I wanted, either it didn't exist, or it wasn't available and well reviewed enough for me to trust the higher investment.
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That's true. It's been a race to the bottom for all the power tools at least. You can still buy really nice hand tools from Germany and Japan if you're willing to pay for them but power tools are increasingly all crap with a few exceptions of really outrageously priced stuff like Festool.
 
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BrutulTM

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Speaking of nice tools, I recently became aware of these:

8603250.jpg


They call it a "pliers wrench" and it's basically a replacement for a crescent wrench except that once you set the size, it actually stays that size unlike every crescent wrench I've ever owned so you don't have to keep adjusting it and won't round off the shoulders of your bolt. In addition you can get a ratchet action by letting the jaws open and close so it's much faster to take a nut off with them. Also the jaws lock just by gravity when they're on a nut so you don't have to hold onto both handles and you can push down hard on the top handle to get the nut loose. You can't really put a cheater on them or anything, but for most situations they are a big upgrade over a crescent wrench in every way.

10" set is $61 vs $10-$20 for a 10" crescent wrench, but you get what you pay for I guess.
 
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Hateyou

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Deathwing said:
How do those differ from channel locks?
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Channel locks have a channel that a tab rides in. They function similar, these things just have more adjustment due to the size of the notches being smaller than the channels. Also no teeth so it’s closer to a crescent wrench. There are some self adjusting channel locks out there now too that don’t actually use a channel anymore. Just different designs, some better/worse in certain situations.

820558A3-6796-499C-8754-E25B76AC4BAD.jpeg
 
BrutulTM

BrutulTM

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Hateyou said:
Channel locks have a channel that a tab rides in. They function similar, these things just have more adjustment due to the size of the notches being smaller than the channels. Also no teeth so it’s closer to a crescent wrench. There are some self adjusting channel locks out there now too that don’t actually use a channel anymore. Just different designs, some better/worse in certain situations.

View attachment 333068
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Also the jaws stay parallel unlike channel locks. Channel locks will damage the nut/bolt head. These will not. They're not for the same jobs.
 
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Erronius

Erronius

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BrutulTM said:
Speaking of nice tools, I recently became aware of these:

8603250.jpg


They call it a "pliers wrench" and it's basically a replacement for a crescent wrench except that once you set the size, it actually stays that size unlike every crescent wrench I've ever owned so you don't have to keep adjusting it and won't round off the shoulders of your bolt. In addition you can get a ratchet action by letting the jaws open and close so it's much faster to take a nut off with them. Also the jaws lock just by gravity when they're on a nut so you don't have to hold onto both handles and you can push down hard on the top handle to get the nut loose. You can't really put a cheater on them or anything, but for most situations they are a big upgrade over a crescent wrench in every way.

10" set is $61 vs $10-$20 for a 10" crescent wrench, but you get what you pay for I guess.
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I have a few of these in my shop. I keep 2 at our bench where we build and change out gas regulators, mostly to take off the caps that cover the diaphragm springs. But even then I just use the largest pair for everything.

The only issue I've ever had with them is one of the pairs we have has a somewhat borked push-button, but for all I know that was from somebody abusing/misusing it.
 
Hateyou

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Erronius said:
I have a few of these in my shop. I keep 2 at our bench where we build and change out gas regulators, mostly to take off the caps that cover the diaphragm springs. But even then I just use the largest pair for everything.

The only issue I've ever had with them is one of the pairs we have has a somewhat borked push-button, but for all I know that was from somebody abusing/misusing it.
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Someone probably using it as a channel lock *eyes Deathwing Deathwing
 
Lanx

Lanx

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Deathwing said:
I don't own any channel locks.
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i had to get this big boy cuz i was replacing the drain spigot in my water tank
fa6a15366d4b67e7553bea7b58dad7df.png


and obviously that spigot felt like it was soldered on. the regular channel locks i had didn't work, cuz i didn't have the leverage and i had to hulk grip it to work.
 
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