Slow Down, Buy Fewer Tools to Fix Your Mistakes (Post #340) 5/14/2013

I’ve got to learn to SLOW DOWN. I was in a bit of a manic state Saturday. I had so much I wanted to get done, I didn’t know where to start. You’ve been there.

This time I cross-threaded one of the bolts that holds the right rear brake caliper to the hub. So Monday on the way home I have to make a stop at J&B to buy another tap. I won’t be surprised when they tell me they don’t have that “weird bolt pattern”. But I’ve got to try. When I told my future son-in-law about this, he told me he owns a complete set of taps and dies, but it is at his father’s house. A LOT OF GOOD THAT DOES ME!

I told him he needed to store that in my garage. He was smart and didn’t commit to bringing it to my home to be “stored”. I just created a new definition of the word “store”.

store [stawr, stohr] noun, verb, stored, storĀ·ing, adjective

17. To use discretely when I screw up a bolt or threaded hole, especially on a Saturday when all the stores that might, even remotely, have the tool I need are closed.

I’ll get around to submitting that definition to the committee over at Webster’s after finals are over later this week.
More after the jump….

I did manage to get my sandblasting cabinet into use. I blasted some of the rust off the brake caliper I was complaining about a few posts ago. I also de-rusted the bracket that holds the air conditioning dryer. It was bad. It is now coated in gray primer and re-installed.

I have to complain again about the crappy selection of fittings available at the two Lowe’s stores in my area. Seriously?! are they trying to reduce stock so they can pull those cabinets out? If I was their hardware vendor I could retire on the order that would need to be filed to replace the stock that was missing between the two sites. I’m not kidding. They should just pull the sections of stainless fittings out. MOST of the drawers were empty.

Lowe’s in Moore Oklahoma

Ridiculous. I’ve complained before, I need to complain more. Maybe they will send me a coupon. I know they will never fill their drawers so I’m not really sure what I’d buy with the coupon.

It’s almost like I’m living back in 1975. Back then, if my dad wanted any kind of hardware he had to drive to Oklahoma City. So we would drive 30 minutes (one way) up to the 74th Street Expressway and get what he thought he needed and anything else he might not. I was a lead-pipe cinch we would not make another trip to OKC if he needed something. One trip would kill half a day. Who has that kind of time?

To be absolutely honest…I was pretty sure they wouldn’t have the hardware I needed. In fact, it was just a whim I decided to check.

So back to the sandblasting cabinet, I need a new plexi-glass window and I need to replace the media inside. Overall it worked pretty great. I need to sort out what setting to set the air compressor on. Hopefully full blast will not be the setting necessary.

I like to give a shout out to one of my good friends and fellow Marine. I saw Scott at church on Sunday and he told me he always reads my blog. He mentioned trouble with commenting. Mrs. OkieRover mentioned the same trouble. In Mrs. OkieRover’s case its probably a “how to” in Scott’s it was something else. More on that, later.
Ooo-rah Scott, keep on truckin’ brother.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.