Stuff you forgot you had

I'm knocking up a further bunch of temporary fruit cages..roofing batten frames with chicken wire.
So I went looking for my air stapler since the electric one died on the previous batch.
Along the way I found I owned a spray gun i'd forgotten about, a mini air dremel like tool, a hand sand blaster tool and a die grinder also a new set of wood chisels I don't remember buying 'cos I have lots but it must have seemed like a good idea at the time. More handy a set of adjustable countersink wood drills and the prize find..

a 24v Woolworths cordless drill that still had a bit of charge - that must have been in that cupboard for 10 years or more. I shan't try recharging it until I can do that outdoors...

pgk

I have two 8*6 sheds to clear out this year that should be interesting!

You don't clear your sheds when they are full you just start another one!

regards Martin

A PC in the lab at work, used for driving electronic measuring instruments, becamse so fill with gash test-result files of which very few really needed to be kept (those had already byyn copied for analysis elsewhere) that people were muttering about "needing" a new computer.

"You do realise," I remarked, "That this is an example of 'garden-shed computing' ? "

I had to explain the point...

One has a leaky roof with a temporary cover and both are stuffed full it’s interesting finding stuff you thought was lost.

Most importantly the boss says no more sheds we have enough already!

Always interesting to find things that you had forgotten that you had.

The worst bit is trying to remember "What is that?" and "Why did I make it?"

Really, ought to bite the bullet and get rid of stuff that has not been used in the last ten years.

Cue needing it for an immediate job!

Howard

Yes, I have a collection of things I made for some job or other, no idea what or when ,so, do I dump them ?

No way ! they will come in "handy" some day ---------------?

I have learned my lesson about dumping things. As soon as it dumped I find I need it in a few weeks time.

Andrew.

An allied problem is not being able to remember whether you have a thing or not. You can spend ages looking, not find it, and still not know whether it's hiding, or was only ever on a wish list.

And then there's finding things and wondering what the hell they are and how and why you got them. And finding things bought for that urgent and important job you've quite forgotten about - and which has remained ignored for years.

And finding stuff you forgot you didn't have - or, rather, finding the empty space in the multi-compartment box which should hold the screw you need, but forgot to buy, ages ago, after you used your last one.

I have the opposite problem, I know I've got it but can I find it? The only sure way is to buy or make another one, then the first one will turn up

Found my slide-rule a few weeks ago. In a drawer, keeping company Dad's old slide-rule I'd inherited!

I tend to keep reminding myself of the odd things I have, by exhuming them from the clutter while searching fruitlessly for what I end up eventually having to replace new.

One is an original edition of a book I had bought first in its a modern, NTET-published facsimile reprint form, on the care and maintenance of steam road vehicles. The original's paper is now so fragile it almost demands the skills of a monastery archivist to read it without harming it. I'd totally forgotten it until opening a box in a dusty corner.

The business improvement team at the Co I worked at looked into warehouse storage of casting patterns because it was costing thousands of pounds a year, two warehouses were cleared of patterns that were obsolete. They also looked into the stores and scrapped over £100,000 worth of speculative or over produced parts.

Me, I try to keep "useful" stuff to a minimum due to only having limited storage. Wood is my biggest bugbear, it is so expensive and takes up so much space. In addition most wood from DIY places is rubbish these days, more like balsa, If it has to go it gets chopped up for the wood burner.

Woolworths? An echo from the very distant past.

My Woolies 'dremel' died about a year ago so considering the provenance it lasted well.
Surprisingly I put this drill's battery on charge and I've drilled 96 holes through 1/2 " timber using a countersink 4mm drill bit and countersunk the opposite side of the holes before it faded. Not bad for a battery left in a cupboard that long....
Out of curiosity I looked up how much it costs to get a drill pack repaired - £75 + carriage. Indeed it'd cost a substantial amount to just buy enough Nihm or Nicad tabbed rechargeables to redo a 24v pack.... way more than the drill was ever worth.

pgk

Drifting slightly off-topic, I recently repaired the charging lead on a Black & Decker cordless drill that was bought either in the early 90s or late 80s and which had not been used for at least fifteen years. NiCad cells. Surprisingly it still works just as well as when it was bought, running well over ten minutes on a charge.

Rob