Another Stupid Human Trick...

[Jim Frye]

Yesterday, I noticed the suction on the ShopVac was really down and it dawned on me I haven't emptied it in a really looooong time. Not surprising as I hate the mess. So today I fired up the air cleaner and took the top off to discover the 16 gallon tub was full and the Cleanstream filter was a cylinder so clogged you couldn't see any evidence of the pleats. I have a second filter so it's no big deal to swap it in since it's snowing outside and there's no way to wash the dirty one. Anyway, time to empty the tub into a trash bag, so I turn to the tool wall for the dust scoop. Not visible anywhere and I spend a couple of hours going through every thing in the shop looking for the darned scoop. Finally, in desperation, I grab a solo cup and empty the ShopVac, put everything back together and call it a day. This evening, I was dry fitting the drawer parts for the living room table and turned to the tool wall for a scraper. Now for the Stupid Human Trick. There hanging up on the white tool wall was the white plastic dust scoop behind a wire brush I rarely use! Really? I looked at that wall a dozen times earlier in the day. I assume my aging eyes missed the white on white, so now the scoop is labeled. So much for my vaunted easy to find tool wall.

[dbhost]

I've been sanding drywall patch work in the master vanity / master bath area. It would appear the Thien is utterly useless for this application. I take my HEPA filter outside and blow it out with compressed air. By the time the filter was clean, there was about 1" thick dust settling under the filter where I was blowing it down... It was NASTY.

I am wishing I had gotten the model 12 gallon that accepts the dust bags, those help a lot in this situation...

As far as the stuff disappearing into similarly colored walls and cabinets. There is a VERY good reason I startted painting my shop fixtures hunter green. My red, yellow, and blue tool dipped tool handles stick out like a sore thumb against them.

I think we've all done stupid stuff like that, and sadly, the older we get, the more absent minded we can get...

I don't "dust scoop", but rather take the shop vac, pop the top off, wrap a trash bag over the open bin and up end it so the dust pours into the waiting trash bag. I hold it steady for about a minute and then close the bag as I take it off of the vac tub...

I made a mistake not knowing any better at the time, of getting a wet / dry vac with the intake in the vac head itself insted of the tub, this means it is incompatible with the dust bags. I have been considering cleaning this one up, putting it on Craigslist and buying one with the tank inlet such as....

12 Gallon 5HP Rigid NXT wet / dry vac with HEPA filters. (Cartridge and bags for the price markup of the Cartridge only) $149.99

Oddly enough, I have 2 bags of the HEPA bags. Yes I bought hte bags before I knew about the incompatibility...

[LCHIEN]

It was like my wire bending jig. I needed one, I recall I got one a few years ago and I looked all the places where I thought I would have stored it including the one my memory suggested, But I had rearranged the tool box drawers since and could not find it. Its not an easily classified item like screwdriver, wrench, nut driver, ratchets, sockets, cutting, filing, drilling, woodworking, pliers, electrical tools, etc so it escaped me.

So after 3 days of on and off looking, I bought the one from Duluth, only $7, not worth another hour of my time looking.

Then, after I used the new one for an evening I had a inspiration of an overflow box of cutting blades (jigsaw, hacksaw, sabersaw etc.) and there I found it. I am at a loss why I would have put it in a box of cutting blades.

I just hate it when I know I have a tool, but can't find it.
Almost as bad as buying a new tool you think you need and then going to put it in the correct drawer in the tool box and finding one already there.

[capncarl]

Every spring the pollen coats everything outside with a yellow dust. Every year. All us menfolks keep complaining how it makes our black and red pickup trucks look nasty. It suddenly dawned on me that if the pollen messing up our trucks bothered us that much then why didn’t we just buy yellow trucks?

[leehljp]

Every spring the pollen coats everything outside with a yellow dust. Every year. All us menfolks keep complaining how it makes our black and red pickup trucks look nasty. It suddenly dawned on me that if the pollen messing up our trucks bothered us that much then why didn’t we just buy yellow trucks?

Agreed! I went against my own rule last fall and bought a Milwaukee 25ft Rule after one of my fluorescent green rules broke simply because I pulled it out to the 24ft mark on the 25 ft rule. Red and Black are the hardest colors to see when in a shadow. I am helping in the building of a church in our area and coordinating the experienced volunteer builders, so I am there on weekends often. AND before a group comes, I am asked to go get some specific measurements for the guys. I ended up buying another rule - a 30ft Dewalt. Yellow and fluorescent green are the easiest to see in shadows or sunlight.

[Finnegan]

My shop is not big enough, causing tools to be placed behind other tools. I own 2 of many and 3 of some. (Really, who needs 3 sawsalls? Apparently I do.)

I needed hacksaw blades for a jigsaw the other day and, after 3 hours of scouring the toolbox drawers and just about every other nook and cranny, jar and tin can, finally found a handful in the bottom of a plastic tub, where they had absolutely no business being. However, they had been there so long that they didn't fit either of my 2 current favorite jigsaws. I figured I could waste another half hour looking for the older saw that would use the dozen or so new blades I found. I did not find aforementioned saw, but I did discover a brand new heat gun I didn't know I had. Unfortunate, because I asked my son-in-law for a heat gun for Christmas. So...now I have two.