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Buying Useless Stuff

dav1965dav1965 Member Posts: 26,540 ✭✭✭
edited January 2017 in General Discussion
I just bought 2 Rockwell 37 inch jawhorse stands for 49 dollars.

I bought about 8 meters to sell on GB but just have not listed them.

I have about 30 pipe wrenches that i plan on selling. Im keeping the aluminum ones.

I have a set of brass wrenches that i have no use for. I bought them for 1 job in a fuel lab. Still have them.

Wife is always fussing about bringing stuff home.[:(]

Comments

  • Ditch-RunnerDitch-Runner Member Posts: 25,364 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    [:I]
    join the club [:D][:D] I am a full fledged member just ask the wife [B)][B)]
  • Missouri Mule K30Missouri Mule K30 Member Posts: 2,092 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I seem to use purpose tools at least once.[:D]
  • William81William81 Member Posts: 25,471 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I am trying to simplify my life and not buy anything I don't really need(Man is that hard sometimes) it has been a freeing thing to get rid of lots of items I no longer use around the house and shop.

    I spent months sorting out my Dad's "treasures" after he passed. I have decided my sons will not be saddled with the same "Joy" somewhere down the road with my stuff.....
  • bpostbpost Member Posts: 32,669 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I just bought 250 feet of brass chain for hanging lights from Bridgeport Equipment for $25.00. Not sure what I am going to do with it but by golly I sure have it! [:D]
  • gunnut505gunnut505 Member Posts: 10,290
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by bpost
    I just bought 250 feet of brass chain for hanging lights from Bridgeport Equipment for $25.00. Not sure what I am going to do with it but by golly I sure have it! [:D]


    Ha!
    I just bought 2 spools (1/2 mile each) of 2-strand surplus phone wire from that Guide for Sportingsmen place!
    Not sure why; I don't even have a landline!
  • OakieOakie Member Posts: 40,565 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by dav1965
    I just bought 2 Rockwell 37 inch jawhorse stands for 49 dollars.

    I bought about 8 meters to sell on GB but just have not listed them.

    I have about 30 pipe wrenches that i plan on selling. Im keeping the aluminum ones.

    I have a set of brass wrenches that i have no use for. I bought them for 1 job in a fuel lab. Still have them.

    Wife is always fussing about bringing stuff home.[:(]


    Ask Donna about our two, four car garages, filled to the ceilings, with junk[V] I go to estate sales, yard sales and our local auction every Thursday night. She has some junk in there, but most of it mine. I bought the entire contents of a garage two years ago for 800 bucks. Sold most of the stuff for 10,000. That got her hooked on estate sales, but the problem is, we never really sell the crapola.[V]
  • nononsensenononsense Member Posts: 10,928 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    This can be one of the funniest topics ever tackled on forums involving firearms. Most of us have tools to begin with but most of us never have the exact tool that we need for a particular job or project. So... we have to run out to buy one or spend some time searching for it on the Auction side or looking online. [:I]

    Then while we're looking for that tool we often discover a whole new realm of specialty tools that we MIGHT need for jobs in the future. Then we stumble onto that tool we couldn't find the last time we needed a special tool for that one job. Now we have to buy it because we fear that we'll never find it again.

    Worse is when we arrive at a garage sale being held by another person with very similar thinking about tools and we feel that we need to take some of the pressure off of him by purchasing these bargains.

    Now we are overwhelmed by tools and materials which just know we will need at point in time but we're running out of space to store them. So we add a shed or clean out the garage or the basement in order to have room to 'organize' our precious possessions. Worse is when we decide that we have outgrown our current house and we need to step up to that bigger house with the 3 car garage and full basement. Now we're ready to take on the world.

    Except we just realized that we need to make a couple of small changes to the new house, adding some shelves or making the walk-in closet a little brighter or... but we need that special tool or a new hammer.

    It's an endless cycle of procurement in anticipation of potential need. Occasionally we reach the maximum capacity of the house or the spouse. This ignites the push for paring down, assessing our true needs and desires in order let go of those things which are taking up valuable space for other more necessary stuff.

    All of us who either have a hobby or a working endeavor, understand this process. Gunsmiths, fishermen, shooters, archers, bowlers, golfers, etc., manage to be driven to possess every new gadget or tool that comes on the market. That new lure guaranteed to catch every big fish you ever wanted. That new club guaranteed to lower your score and your embarrassment on the course. That new tool which will make replacing that one spring SO much easier than previously experienced. We are all suckers for improvement or being more efficient. We live for that justification.

    You'll have to excuse me, Tractor Supply has a sale on and I don't want to miss a couple of those things I need desperately to finish up a couple of projects.

    Best.
  • WarbirdsWarbirds Member Posts: 16,934 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    ^^^^This is me, with guns and motorcycles...[:D]
  • chiefrchiefr Member Posts: 14,115 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Proud member of the club. I am always "watching" something on GB or EBay.
  • roswellnativeroswellnative Member Posts: 10,192 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I have to fight the urge. Its a mental ilness that runs in my family. My brother buys warehouses and builds racks and stacks it up like a squirrel. I got crap in the basement from the last move and finally I started to resist the urge to go Garage Saling.

    In the end the load of crap FAR outweighs the usefulness, I could rent out my basement and then just go buy a tool and then throw it away, I would be miles ahead, but ... that is not how it works.

    Its a mental disorder and I at least recognize it.

    Ros
    Although always described as a cowboy, Roswellnative generally acts as a righter of wrongs or bodyguard of some sort, where he excels thanks to his resourcefulness and incredible gun prowesses.
  • drl50drl50 Member Posts: 2,496
    edited November -1
    I just got a handheld "Lasergrip" Infrared thermometer that reads temperatures from a distance. I have no idea what I'll use it for. I didn't even know there was such a thing.
  • mag00mag00 Member Posts: 4,719 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by nononsense

    This can be one of the funniest topics ever tackled on forums involving firearms. Most of us have tools to begin with but most of us never have the exact tool that we need for a particular job or project. So... we have to run out to buy one or spend some time searching for it on the Auction side or looking online. [:I]

    Then while we're looking for that tool we often discover a whole new realm of specialty tools that we MIGHT need for jobs in the future. Then we stumble onto that tool we couldn't find the last time we needed a special tool for that one job. Now we have to buy it because we fear that we'll never find it again.

    Worse is when we arrive at a garage sale being held by another person with very similar thinking about tools and we feel that we need to take some of the pressure off of him by purchasing these bargains.

    Now we are overwhelmed by tools and materials which just know we will need at point in time but we're running out of space to store them. So we add a shed or clean out the garage or the basement in order to have room to 'organize' our precious possessions. Worse is when we decide that we have outgrown our current house and we need to step up to that bigger house with the 3 car garage and full basement. Now we're ready to take on the world.

    Except we just realized that we need to make a couple of small changes to the new house, adding some shelves or making the walk-in closet a little brighter or... but we need that special tool or a new hammer.

    It's an endless cycle of procurement in anticipation of potential need. Occasionally we reach the maximum capacity of the house or the spouse. This ignites the push for paring down, assessing our true needs and desires in order let go of those things which are taking up valuable space for other more necessary stuff.

    All of us who either have a hobby or a working endeavor, understand this process. Gunsmiths, fishermen, shooters, archers, bowlers, golfers, etc., manage to be driven to possess every new gadget or tool that comes on the market. That new lure guaranteed to catch every big fish you ever wanted. That new club guaranteed to lower your score and your embarrassment on the course. That new tool which will make replacing that one spring SO much easier than previously experienced. We are all suckers for improvement or being more efficient. We live for that justification.

    You'll have to excuse me, Tractor Supply has a sale on and I don't want to miss a couple of those things I need desperately to finish up a couple of projects.

    Best.






    Wouldn't you be better off being a liberal? Just sit back and enjoy the fruits of someone else's labor.

    I think you pretty much defined the difference in mindset. We like to build and create things of value. We appreciate the tools to do so. We like to stretch our minds with creative endeavors that make our lives better.

    With that, however, we need to protect our efforts, and the tool needed for that job was invented. [;)]

    Hoarding is an art form. Embrace it! [:D]
  • WearyTravelerWearyTraveler Member Posts: 2,019 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I'm the same way with tools in my wood shop. Fortunately my wife is the same way with her craft stuff, so I done hear as much crappola about it.
    ”People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
    - GEORGE ORWELL -
  • 84Bravo184Bravo1 Member Posts: 10,461 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by gunnut505
    quote:Originally posted by bpost
    I just bought 250 feet of brass chain for hanging lights from Bridgeport Equipment for $25.00. Not sure what I am going to do with it but by golly I sure have it! [:D]


    Ha!
    I just bought 2 spools (1/2 mile each) of 2-strand surplus phone wire from that Guide for Sportingsmen place!
    Not sure why; I don't even have a landline!



    I'm feeling much better about my needless hoarding now. Thank you Sir. [:D]
  • mag00mag00 Member Posts: 4,719 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I just recently justified saving that bit that you may need someday.

    My little chinafreight grinder burned up. Popped it apart and the bearing on the brush end burned up.

    I remembered dismantling some other elctronic thing and saved some small bearings. Sure enough, found them in less than an minute and in short order replaced the bad bearing and had the grinder up and running.

    The Press came in handy. The fixture to hold the bearing in the press came in handy. But saving that bearing saved me quite a bit of time. Buying a cheap grinder didn't LOL. I always have my bosch grinder, just get tired of swapping wheels out so bought the cheap one to keep one specific wheel on.

    Do I need 2 grinders? Probably not. But I have 5 not counting my bench grinder. And then there are the specialty grinder/sanders. I could fill an aircraft hanger in short order. Keeping it organized would be a full time job in itself.
  • 84Bravo184Bravo1 Member Posts: 10,461 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    That is my current problem. I've got lots of "stuff." Trying to keep it all organized and remember where it is, is the new challenge.



    Adding in all the "stuff," I acquired after my Dad passed, has made it much, much worse.

    I got it from him. "Don't throw anything away, you'll need it someday."
  • mag00mag00 Member Posts: 4,719 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Organizing. I have tried to find a course in file cabinet organizing or any other type of proven organizing system. Can't find one.

    Lots of shelves and space helps, but getting things grouped proper so you know where to look in the first place seems to be very subjective.

    My mechanic toolbox itself is fairly straightforward, but all the specialty stuff.

    Plumbing gets one section, electrical another, drywall another. Many toots cross over, so do you buy extra for each specialty? Of course we do. I do not have enough space to keep a toolbox for each specialty, so they get stacked in corners and under things etc.

    I need that bigger place [8D] (again)

    This is the electronics room. In need of dire attention. I am going to clear most of it out and turn it into a small machine shop (the plan anyway). Electronics change so frequent, and the old stuff becomes pretty much scrap in a couple years. Just not profitable.

    elect-bench-1.jpg
    elect-bench-mac.jpg
  • 1BigGuy1BigGuy Member Posts: 4,033 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    The useless stuff I buy is mostly guns. Just ask my wife.
  • wpageabcwpageabc Member Posts: 8,760 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    After cleaning out both my father in law and fathers estate garages. I should be good for life. Yet getting more stuff is always a mission for projects that may never occur.
    "What is truth?'
  • gunnut505gunnut505 Member Posts: 10,290
    edited November -1
    I must blame my behavior on Rudyard Kipling.
    He described a game that he invented for his houseboy, Kim.
    It was called, "The Game of Kim".
    Kipling had many small but important items in his tent that would sometimes mysteriously move to other places in the tent.
    His houseboy, Kim, showed great interest in minutiae, even being able to silently count off the seconds in an hour accurately.
    Kipling decided to test Kim's brainpower by having him memorize the name, location & purpose of EVERY item in the tent.
    Kipling would lead the blindfolded boy into his tent (after concealing, removing or relocating some item(s) ), then after 5 minutes, have Kim reveal what had happened.
    He was amazingly accurate, time after time.

    My Dad used to read Kipling to me when I was a child, hoping to bore me to sleep. It had the opposite effect; I wanted to see elephants & camels, shoot weirdly ornate flintlock rifles, meet Gunga Din and get a drink from him, and travel to exotic lands.
    Never crossed all that off the bucket list, but I did learn the Game of Kim.
    I constantly amaze friends and relatives (who assume that the large amount of accumulation has no beginning and no end) by walking right to the item requested, and showing it to them.
    Just wish I could do that in my gun safe.....
  • rossowmnrossowmn Member Posts: 1,959 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I have drawers, boxes, shelves, sacks and cabinets full of power tools, hand tools, light bulbs, spray paint, car/truck/tractor parts, paint brushes, leather gloves, electrical components, cleaning chemicals, gun furniture, plumbing parts, work socks, T-shirts and other new stuff of all kinds ad infinitum. I am an admitted, unrepentant hoarder. I tell my adult children and my grandkids to never buy anything without checking with me first. Heck, a few years ago my son wanted to install a garage-door opener and asked me about the best brand. I told him to wait a minute and retrieved a brand-new one I had stored in my garage loft for years. When I die and people start sorting my stuff, they'll affirm what they already suspect: I'm a bit nuts about accumulating stuff I never seem to use.[:I]
  • hillbillehillbille Member Posts: 14,456 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I had an old 1/2 in drill that the handle had cracked in two on. It had been on the workbench for 8-10 years this way, my son tried to use it just a month or so ago and I told him the handle was broke, he gave me the same look as the wife does....

    anyway my dewalt sidegrinder just gave out, I had cut the electric cord dozens of times and just taped it back up, my son went to lowes and got me a new dewalt grinder. I hated to but I told him why? I just took the cord off the drill pulled the grinder apart and put the drill cord on the grinder, works good as new, then looked at my son told him now you can throw the drill away, and take the grinder back and get your money back.[;)][:D]
  • select-fireselect-fire Member Posts: 69,516 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Bought 100 foot or so of very large rope. Looks like large boat stuff. I don't even own a boat.
  • redneckandyredneckandy Member Posts: 9,716 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    You can never have enough tools and equipment!! Just never enough space for it all. I need my hobbies. I get bored very quickly if I am not doing something.
  • redneckandyredneckandy Member Posts: 9,716 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by us55840
    The true fact is the more space you have, the more stuff you accumulate.

    When you accumulate more 'stuff' than you have space for, you put it in a rental storage building.

    Ever notice how many rental storage places there are .. and they keep building more and more of them.

    Rental storage building .... must be a great business to be in.

    [:D]

    There is a lot of truth to that. The wealthiest person I know told me he made more money off of storage units than anything else.
  • 84Bravo184Bravo1 Member Posts: 10,461 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by rossowmn
    I have drawers, boxes, shelves, sacks and cabinets full of power tools, hand tools, light bulbs, spray paint, car/truck/tractor parts, paint brushes, leather gloves, electrical components, cleaning chemicals, gun furniture, plumbing parts, work socks, T-shirts and other new stuff of all kinds ad infinitum. I am an admitted, unrepentant hoarder. I tell my adult children and my grandkids to never buy anything without checking with me first. Heck, a few years ago my son wanted to install a garage-door opener and asked me about the best brand. I told him to wait a minute and retrieved a brand-new one I had stored in my garage loft for years. When I die and people start sorting my stuff, they'll affirm what they already suspect: I'm a bit nuts about accumulating stuff I never seem to use.[:I]



    This ^^^^^^^ describes me to a T. [xx(]




    (And) I have an unopened garage door opener in my 30x40 outbuilding/2 car garage as well. [:D]
  • Ricci WrightRicci Wright Member Posts: 8,259 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    You are all a bunch of HOARDERS!!
  • Ditch-RunnerDitch-Runner Member Posts: 25,364 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    both my sons ( and wife) give me heck over all the stuff
    needful things I buy. same as most on line at flea markets , yard sales well you know [:I] , if its a good great deal ( one is good than four is better [:D] one or three might break )
    I told my sons once when I kick off just think of the sale you can have .. my youngest sons said BS we will have to pay somebody to haul it off [:(!]
  • pulsarncpulsarnc Member Posts: 6,552 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I do a bit of woodworking on occasion .Recently bought a full set of lathe tools for turning bowls etc. Problem is I do not own a lathe and have no current plans to buy one. Do I have a problem ?
    cry Havoc and let slip  the dogs of war..... 
  • mag00mag00 Member Posts: 4,719 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by pulsarnc
    I do a bit of woodworking on occasion .Recently bought a full set of lathe tools for turning bowls etc. Problem is I do not own a lathe and have no current plans to buy one. Do I have a problem ?


    Nope, tools are worth much more that the paper it took to buy em. You can trade them later when the dollar collapses, or go into the bowl making business, people gotta eat. [8D]
  • Okie743Okie743 Member Posts: 2,728 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    AND if you sell a tool or throw out something that you have not used in years that you have been saving, you will need it in a few days and have to go buy the same thing NEW and you are surprised at how much it gone up in price.

    And if you see a good buy on something and you just know that you should have bought that, you will need it before very long and it's not on sale.

    And if you go buy something you kinda need but could get by without, You will see or hear of it being on sale at a big discount later.

    AND if you borrow something from a friend, new tool etc, it will break first time it's used.

    If you loan something and when it's returned and you put it up, next time you start to use it you find it's been broke for several months.
    (You know it was broke when they returned it, but it's now your baby)

    It happens to Rednecks.



    Borrowed this from here:

    The more people I meet, the more I like my dog.
  • 1BigGuy1BigGuy Member Posts: 4,033 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
  • acdoddacdodd Member Posts: 1,314 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    My wife and I have very different ideas about what is junk and what is treasures.
    She has around 400 Santas. It takes her 2 weeks to put out all her Christmas crap.
    Whoever out lives the other is going to have a big yard sell.
    I hope it's her selling.
    She doesn't have the combination to my gun safe, but my son does, so she won't sell everything cheap.
    My Dad had a 1 year rule.
    Don't use it for a year get rid of it.
    My Mom started to toss his fence stretcher and he had a fit.
    Seems tools didn't count.[:D]
  • GuvamintCheeseGuvamintCheese Member Posts: 38,932
    edited November -1
    I've started a 2 year rule on everything except tools. Guns are tools.
  • mackcranemackcrane Member Posts: 1,869 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    New Microscope to look at Bugs & New Telescope to look at Aliens. Still in Boxes.
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