What's mildly irritating you today?

[busterb]

Harbor freight ?

[Griff]

Looks like a Snap-on? If so, how long was the pipe you had on the handle?

[xoxoxoBruce]

I think it's a Snap-Off.

[glatt]

It was a Craftsman. I had gotten 20 good years out of it. I was using an adapter so it would drive a 1/2 inch drive bit. It was only 3/8" and was a little wimpy for the job.

I was removing the anode rod from our water heater. I had a four foot steel pipe slipped over the handle and was really pulling as hard as I could without busting the gas line or water pipes. The heater was full of water and weighed probably 500 lbs or so, and I had my son hugging it to try to hold it still. Still, it moved around a bit.

Good news though! When this broke, I went to Advance Auto and got a 24" breaker bar that was the correct 1/2 size for the socket and put the 4 foot pipe over that. I got the anode loose without breaking anything important.

And then this afternoon, I went to Sears and returned the broken ratchet. Got a new one, no questions asked.



I recommend Craftsman hand tools. (non-powered.) You just pay for them once and have them for life.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Sears is good like that. I use my 1/4 inch drive sets a lot and the fine tooth ratchets let go sometimes. For awhile they were replacing the ratchet mechanisms at the register, but the repair kits were really sloppy. Last time I went I grabbed a brand new spiffy ratchet which I intended to buy along with having them repair the old one. But when I gave the guy the old one he went right to the display and gave me a new one just like the one I picked out. I bought the new one anyway and came home with two new ones. Two more and I'll have spiffy ratchets for each set.

[sexobon]

All of my hand tools are Craftsman from when they were USA made and said so on the tool. Many tools branded Craftsman are now made abroad and no longer say made in the USA on them. It's been a selling point with tool dealers on eBay for a few years now.

I have 1/2", 3/8" and 1/4" drive fine tooth wrenches. Both the SAE and metric sockets are 12 pt. in the sizes 12 pt. are available and my 1/2" drive socket set size range picks up where my 1/4" drive socket set size range leaves off with a little bit of overlap. I don't have 3/8" drive sockets, just the 3/8" drive wrench and adapters for sockets of the other two drives.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Snap-On sells a 9/16 quarter inch drive socket I find very handy for things that don't take a shitload of torque. Like the nuts holding a toggle switch or pilot lamp, where a bigger set isn't needed, and might prove to be clumsy. Much better than channel-locs.

[sexobon]

9/16" is also my largest 1/4" drive Craftsman socket. It's one of those sizes that doesn't come in the prepackaged socket sets most people buy for economy. Over the years I've added the remaining socket sizes available and have comprehensive sets in that brand for standard depth. I've only a couple of abbreviated sets in deep depth sockets.

[busterb]

Cashiers that can't make change. I got something that cost $11 bucks. So I give 21 bucks. Cashier, you gave me too much money, Me. Just give me 10 bucks and we'll all be happy. I have a coin thing, that you squeeze. I just hand it to cashier and say get the change out. Well at both food stores in town I did that. One store the girl dug around in it like a pet coon. Think it was for 41 cents, she found 2 quarters and gave me back 9 cents.
There was enough change in there to find 41 cents about 3 times. Same shit at other store.
Education my ass.

[monster]

more pennies she can palm off on customers, less she has to count at the end of the shift. May not be as dumb as she looks

[busterb]

Hum, could be. FWIW I've designed, and now building, on kitchen table. The navigational system for the manned flight to Mars. Yeah right.

[Sundae]

You know how sometimes someone is described as having a bad smell under their nose?
That's me today.

I'm 99.9% sure I'm clean and fresh, and sniffed every part of myself (in private) to make sure.
But I keep getting a horrible waft of something.

Given that although I'm in a public place, other people have come and gone. Can't be them.
And I woke up smelling it - and I was nekkid then, so it's not my clothes.

It sounds like a rubbish thing to hope for, but I can only hope that the smell is up my own nose.
Because if it really is me, and I simply haven't detected it, I'm foisting this intermittent odour on everyone else in close proximity to me today.

Oh and the weather has gone from a tiny little bit of snow (good) to just wet (normal.)
BORING!

[DanaC]

I'm fucking dreading the snow.

[Sundae]

Some of us are softie Southerners who moved t'Naaaarth to see some real Winter and only got rain.
Trust me to chose the wrong time & place!

[DanaC]

*chuckles*

Should have been here in 2011 ;p