and today i have mostly been...

[Welly]

Ok then, this weekend I've been sorting the Garage out after nearly 2 years of it being a dumping ground and my tools being scattered all over the place.

I've got a compartmented tool tray which I use to store wood screws and rawl plugs only about a month ago I stood on it and flipped it! looked like an explosion in a fixings factory and I just had to turn and walk away. Its taken me a month to motivate myself to sort it but now after 3 HOURS all my fixings are in size order and the tray safely stowed.

Later I'm going to see how much cardboard I can cram into a 2003 Astra

[steve_earwig]

Drive to waste ground, set it on fire...

The boiler house here is a bit like that, there's cardboard everywhere for the fire, piles of kindling and wood and my tools spread everywhere because I can't get to anything.

And now I'd like to complain about tool boxes with compartments in the lid that don't look open until you open the lid whereupon they spill their contents all over the place.

Why can't I find any decent tool boxes here? All they seem to have is varying sizes of tack boxes, 2 or 3 small compartments in the lid, open the lid and there's a tray, pull the tray out and most of it is just a box that leaves no way of organising your crap. Oh, except for the tool box I got for my electrical stuff which has moveable dividers, damn expensive but I didn't just want a box full of stuff I'd have to tip out on the floor every time I wanted anything.

[OllieNZ]

Simple solution, buy a real toolbox..... I've got a big black one ;)

[Welly]

One Astra full of cardboard + gale force wind + rain and it was the fastest unloading of cardboard-to-compactor ever seen

[steve_earwig]

So you get to stick your stuff in a compactor? I've only seen them once before I left GB. Perfect for chucking people in too...

We still have the traditional bunch of skips here, although it's all segregated into different materials, metal, plastic, glass, wood (the contents of which is probably what turned up outside my neighbour's here). It's all run by a private company now, who really are a bunch of crooks, there was even a big ding dong in the Sabor about it with lesser politicians resigning. Of course all the top ones got a big hand out, so that was ok*.

Simple solution, buy a real toolbox..... I've got a big black one ;)

Very nice, I'd love one one day when I can amalgamate all my tools into one place. The problem is I want these things to be portable as they're for stuff I'm likely to need to carry about with me.

The old one I had for plumbing couldn't cope with the amount of weight I had in it and used to open up as I carried it, spilling its contents everywhere, so this one is huge with big positive catches and wheels (it's seriously heavy too now I've managed to get my 24" Stilsons in there). The lid on that contains gaskets, seals and smaller fittings. The tray has bigger fittings and tools but most of it's all jumbled up in the bottom, stuff like wrenches, blowtorch, solder, some bits of pipe, hemp, cotton insulation, silicon, etc. etc. And then there's the aforementioned one for electrical/electronic, the box I had before it was a plastic cantilever job which just wore out and collapsed. I wanted something similar but they just don't exist here so I've had to make do with this one.

[Welly]

I only really have house-bashing tools rather than car stuff although I do have a mini Snap On style tool chest with drawers and a funny hinged lid/tray combo (which is too full to close)

[Doggy]

I have clutter, always have had, always will have.

It works - don't fight clutter, embrace it.

[Welly]

I was surprised how therapeutic it was to sort out an OMG mess of screws into their respective compartmentos. Once all my toolz and sh*t were sorted and back where they should be I have the added bonus of knowing where everything is.

I hate it when I go to do some DIY but spend more time trying to remember where I put things or find the kit I need.

[benczuk]

My toolbox is full of all sorts of stuff that I have collected over the years, plus a roll of gaffer tap for everything else. It has proved invaluable many a time and I stick it in the boot anytime I'm going anywhere over 50 miles or so.

As it is full of all sort of odds and ends (remove a bolt from this, screw from that, find an old jubilee clip, all goes in the box) I occasionally get to annoyance level 10 with the mess and empty it out, filter the dross and sort everything nicely into the limited number of compartments (I gave up trying to find one with more than a lid sorter and tray)

It feels good right until the next time I take a corner too quickly and hear the thing fall over in the boot.

[Welly]

You're paying to haul that around with you though. I haven't carried any tools in a car for over 20 years, I just have an AA card in the wallet.

I've broken down proper on 3 occasions in 20 years and in each case no tools would've helped me at the roadside. There's another school of thought that a heavy box in the boot can turn into a nasty projectile if you hit something solid.

I think I learnt from Fatha_Welly who always transferred this poxy box of 'emergency supplies' from car to car over the years but never ever used it

[benczuk]

Its a plastic box and it weighs maybe 7Kg max, any cost is so negligible it is not worth thinking about, especially the mileage I do. While it wasn't much use when say, the cambelt went, it proved very useful when the exhaust mount failed, or the fuel pipe on my Mini split from old age.

Also useful to have tools when caravaning as something inevitably breaks, or visiting family when I usually have to 'just have a look at' something.

[Welly]

or visiting family when I usually have to 'just have a look at' something.

Oh noes, I get that with house stuff from my Family...."you're good with electrics aren't you, I've bought these special light fittings for the Kitchen, can you have a look"

You know what pisses me off, if you do a job of work for family or a friend then THEY should come and do a job for you in return; dig the garden or clear the path or something but no it never happens they just take take take. I did two full days climbing about in a 'friends' f*cking loft full of sh*t whilst setting out, fitting, and wiring about 15 recessed light fittings, even supplying the cable and sundries and got nothing in return, oh I did, they asked if I could fit some more.....they can FRO with those

[Welly]

It was Saturday morning and I had a rough idea of how the day was going to be. Imagine my surprise* when her indoors changed it all with a passing comment.

"We're going to Nottingham" she said, and she spoke with confidence, the sort of confidence that should not be questioned. I had about an hour and a half of 'me' time before we went so I checked the car over and topped up* the Screenwash with 4ltrs of blue fluid. I also had time to fit the new outside light, this went well and was mounted and wired in a jiffy. I packed all my stuff away and off we went.

I went to Nottingham in 1989 weekly on a part time BTEC Engineering course. "Nottingham" was declared as somewhere I'd rather not visit again. Fast forward many years and I R surprised the Victoria Shopping Centre (undergoing refurb) and the surrounding streets were very good, lots of very fancy shops, a Jamie Oliver restaurant, fancy Trams, I was impressed.

Less impressive was the VC underground Car Park which appeared to me to be designed by 5 year olds it was a sort of guessing game-come-hide and seek affair. Some parts were like driving round a Warehouse and others saw overhead stuff almost brushing the roof. Many dead-ends were found, if I were to guess I'd imagine it was laid out in a giant 'E' shape but with an 'F' shape stuck on the side, and upside down. And an 'X' somewhere.

Eventually a space was found and the Volvo was within kissing distance of a Concrete Column, it was that or nothing.

Anyway above all else that was seen that day, look what I saw in the Car Park just a few doors down:

An 850!


Looked like it'd been there some time, covered in dust and flat tyres on the nearside. About 20mtrs away from it was a 2005 Proton Gen-2 also forgotten about

A few reasons crossed my mind; the owners just couldn't find the thing due to the layout and gave up, they gave up queuing for the SINGLE pay machine or they couldn't find the helpfully* signed* exit and gave up.

[steve_earwig]

Was that just a "neuron exploded in my head and I've decided" moment, or an "I told you about this 3 weeks ago at a time when I knew your attention was otherwise engaged and, just in case it registered, giving you ample time to forget all about it" one?

It must be an international thing, the Croats (of course) seem to have a knack of designing multi-storey car parks along the line of mazes. I was in one last Friday, running out of time for an appointment, no parking anywhere and then we found this half-empty underground multi-storey job were I stuffed the yoyo into the first available space. Mission accomplished, we went back to try and find the pay machine. Whereit? There's a lift, there are stairs but no sign of a machine. Eventually someone appeared and SWMBO asked, it's right down the other end. So she set of in search, while I went back for the yoyo to follow her and save her the walk back. She'd gone down the wrong way, should I follow her? Nah, let's do this properly. Down there, through there, round the back there, up a ramp, down a ramp. Following the arrows seemed to send me into a concrete circle of hell, stretches of tunnel with no lights, huge puddles, no cars at all. I was expecting Morlocks to come running out from the shadows and start attacking the yoyo with clubs. Things were starting to look familiar and I was I was just beginning to get worried when I hit the main drag again and there she was, right down the other end back where we parked.

I'm afraid I wasn't paying attention to the cars I passed, so no Bavarian tanks or Malaysian sub-atomic particles for me

[steve_earwig]

And while I was writing that I heard a "rumble, clang!" from out the front. I didn't think much about it but when I eventually went out to look:

Oh!


Ah!


Haha! You missed me!