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Tool My name is…and I’m a tool junkie

Tool

Tomc938

Ultra Member
Premium Member
What I hate is walking through PA or KMS and not seeing anything I really could use.
I only get to PA once or twice a year as I am a couple hundred miles from the closest one. I am visiting my Dad in Winnipeg, so I had a pilgrimage to Mecca. (PA- Panet Rd) Wandered around for a couple of hours and when I got home my Dad asked me, "So did you buy anything?" I had to reply "No, but it's not from a lack of trying."

I was a kid in Winnipeg when the PA quonset had steel shelves filled with cool stuff (most of it out of WWII bombers) and crates of stuff. You found something, went to the window in the little office and asked "How much" and they would pick a number. Great place, I miss it. I'm sure they bought stuff from their wholesaler at a per ton price.
 

YYCHM

(Craig)
Premium Member
I only get to PA once or twice a year as I am a couple hundred miles from the closest one. I am visiting my Dad in Winnipeg, so I had a pilgrimage to Mecca. (PA- Panet Rd) Wandered around for a couple of hours and when I got home my Dad asked me, "So did you buy anything?" I had to reply "No, but it's not from a lack of trying."

I was a kid in Winnipeg when the PA quonset had steel shelves filled with cool stuff (most of it out of WWII bombers) and crates of stuff. You found something, went to the window in the little office and asked "How much" and they would pick a number. Great place, I miss it. I'm sure they bought stuff from their wholesaler at a per ton price.

Army and Navy was like that. A long time ago.
 
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trevj

Ultra Member
In Victoria growing up it was always a treat to go to Capital Iron also.
Had a surplus sales guy working out of a storage unit in the Comox Valley when I was a pup. Was always interesting to walk through and see what was on offer!

Bought a mechanical (supposedly) Automatic Flight Control System, for what amounted to a LOT of beer money at the time from him. It was a pretty amaxing piece of mechanical technology, and I sorta wish I still had it! :) Absolutelly LOADED with ball bearings smaller than I had ever seen before, as well as differentials and strange other mechanisms.

As aside. I live on a Farm, that was bought by my great Grandfather. A lot of the gear he bought, is still here. I would say, that suggests that my pack-rat tendencies, have been come by, honestly!

And, to be most fair, it is not like we do not have the room!
 

6.5 Fan

Ultra Member
Premium Member
A couple of years ago my daughter talked me into letting a scrap guy come in and clean up a huge pile of treasures. Some was honestly scrap, i spent 3 days digging through the pile saving what i could. It still brings a tear to my eyes when i'm repairing something and have no huge pile to root through for material. I honestly don't miss the century worth of worn cultivator shovels the took.
 

kevin.decelles

Jack of all trades -- Master of none
Premium Member
Hoarding is hereditary too. My dad takes great pleasure in denouncing my collection and calling me a hoarder….. but he cannot pass a garage sale , and absolutely cannot turn away from electric chainsaws when he has 6 already…..
 

Dan Dubeau

Ultra Member
Back in the fall I went on a major scrap purge. Felt good. Got rid of a couple cars that I was saving because "I might need parts" (a few friends/relatives had same models), or It would be fun to take stuff apart with the kids. Also a whole pile of other junk scattered all over the place I was saving because "I can build something out of that".

That last sentence is my worst enemy. I can look at ANYTHING and see something else I can use it for. The bad part is that I rarely ever do anything with it, except hoard it. Who has time?

Those scrap runs were pretty cathartic. Probably a couple more I could do too, but I was paused by the snowfall. Can't wait to get cleaning up again this spring. This stuff weighs me down, honestly, and it DOES feel good to be rid of it. But it's hard.
 

Susquatch

Ultra Member
Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
Also a whole pile of other junk scattered all over the place I was saving because "I can build something out of that".

That last sentence is my worst enemy. I can look at ANYTHING and see something else I can use it for.

I'm glad to know that you are happier for it.

That last sentence of yours isn't my worst enemy. It's my best friend.

No relief I could ever get from pitching potential projects could ever equal the joy I get from actually making that special something that no one else could see out of that piece of junk. It provokes a sense of euphoria, joy, and self fulfillment that few other things could ever do.

But that's ok. We are all different and that's exactly how it should be. Isn't it great that we are not all identical!
 

Dan Dubeau

Ultra Member
Oh, I didn't get rid of ALL the junk lol. Just prioritized, and organized. Made some honest evaluations of projects I was saving stuff for, and tossed things I'll realistically never use. Raw material I will hang onto, because I have the space to store it. I just need to store it better. My stock rack in the garage was a big step. My bolt/hardware sortmasters another one. I emptied probably ten 5 gallon buckets, and another 5-6 coffee tins and other assorted containers, and still have a few more to go. What good is keeping stuff if you don't know you have, and can't find it when you need it. THAT is my focus now. Half the stuff I tossed, was like "what was I on, when I saved this" lol.

I whine about not having space, but I have lots. It's just used poorly.

I also inherited a lot of the junk too. All the sheds and out buildings were full of "farm junk", and hoarded stuff too when we bought the place in 2010. I have a couple more sheds to go through, but most of it is honestly junk. Unless you consider giant piles of used poly water pipe in 5-20' sections useful. If you do, have I got a deal for you.....:D This place was pretty run down when we got it. I haven't done as much with it as I thought I would, but I've still come a long way.

I might use the poly pipe for garden irrigation someday though.....<-----see how easy it is for me to justify keeping stuff? :D
 

StevSmar

(Steven)
Premium Member
There are times when I fantasize about someone stealing all my tools… so I can enjoy buying replacements…
 

trevj

Ultra Member
There are times when I fantasize about someone stealing all my tools… so I can enjoy buying replacements…
I have a lot of memories tied up in many of mine. Gifts from now dead friends, some from my dead father, some from his father before. Someone stealing my tools, would find that the world is a small place, with few places to hide in...
The rest, well, lets just say i would be offended, that they thought that my stuff was free to take, and my feelings would be hurt. A lot.

Not much of my stuff is top of the line, but, it is mine, until I decide it does not need to be!
 

Ironman

Ultra Member
What I hate is walking through PA or KMS and not seeing anything I really could use.
I hate it when that happenso_O
I remember back in the 1960's when PA was a war surplus outlet, and man was there ever some neat stuff in there. They were all mail order from Winnipeg then. My first welder was an AC buzzbox I made from Popular Mechanics plans, and my second 'real' welder was a aircraft generator from PA. I find that nowadays I have tools made all over the world, and I am lucky to have lived in a time where things have become so much cheaper. An Ironworker from Germany, a drill press from Sweden, a lathe from India, a welder from Japan, and a press brake from USA to name a few.
As Stellrammer noted, the high end stuff is expensive, but when they move on to the Next Big Thing, these expensive tools will hit the consumer market cheaply.
 

trevj

Ultra Member
I have a 8 cylinder aircraft Magnito from PA out in the shed.
Eight would be for a big flat eight engine, with four cylinders per side.

Truth. The thing is likely worth a bit to someone! Probably someone trying to restore or repair a GSO-580 Lycoming.
 
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