Tool Packaging

Grrrrrr! An advertised deal on tools and sundry supplies showed a battery and charger combo at less than the usual cost of one of them. Power tools are increasingly juiced by batteries, so it is unusual to see someone using saws, routers, drills with a trailing electric line. I’m one of them.

I like orange power lines and am disappointed when the battery on my drill wimps out.

There is more than one battery, there are three, but despite rotating them, it happens.

A battery-powered angle grinder disappoints. I can’t grind through a chain link without changing batteries. They charge slowly and don’t hold it.

The new batteries and charger appear to be comparable with the grinder batteries, both rated at 4 Ah, but they are not. They look right but no cigar.

Time and work was saved when carpenters moved from hand saws, hammers and nails to power saws and nail guns.

Nail guns are not choosy about what they shoot a nail into, and I know one guy who shot himself in the leg. Twice.

The thumbnail on my left hand is growing back after I hit a hammer with it. It turned black, went loose and eventually fell off.

Uncle Guy Phillips built houses using hand saws, hammers, brace and bits, and folding rules before they were retracted by a crank then retracted by a spring.

Someone still believes in folding rules because my bib overalls have a pocket for a folding rule.

I’m proud of the deal I got, but the tooth grinding was caused by getting the stuff out of the plastic packaging.

The thick plastic clam shell container did not yield to household scissors. I read you can remove a plastic container using a can opener. It isn’t true.

Kitchen knives skidded along scratching the plastic. A box cutter with a new blade did the trick.

Selling batteries that do not match other tools and chargers reminds me of another “gimmie” involving razors.

Safety razors cost a dollar but the blades were not cheap. Blade manufacturers finally changed their model and made blades that fit any safety razor. Selling blades is how they made money.

Uncle Guy resisted safety razors and shaved with a “straight” razor for as long as I knew him. It was the same razor his father used, and he died in 1936.

Guy didn’t mind honing and caring for his razor but didn’t have to buy blades.

I can’t see the advantage of a transparent plastic case, but maybe I’m missing the whole point. Maybe they are really selling the plastic, not the tool.

joenphillips@yahoo.com