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Parts Organiser: Have egg cartons or muffin baking trays hold
small parts during equipment overhaul. Number each well and place parts in
order as related to each step of the disassembly. Follow the reverse number
order when reassembling. Larger parts holders can be made by joining
frozen-dinner trays. Some of the largest trays already have dividers.
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Longer Label and Sign Life: Use clear packing tape to
protect small labels and signs. Invariably they will get dirty from
handling or simply from the atmosphere in the shop due to floating
dust and debris. Clean each label you wish to protect and the surface
to which it will adhere before covering with the clear tape. Trim
near the tape edges with a straight edge and a razor knife so as
to present a finished, professional look.
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Glue Mixer: Make usage of old, plastic food container
lids to mix small quantities of glue. Plastic blister-pack or frozen
dinner trays will work, too. Use a technician's wooden applicator to
mix the glue, and a thick toothpick to apply to the smallest areas.
Send waste glue and mixer containers to hazardous materials collection.
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Solder Dispenser: A dental floss container can hold
a small coil of solder to protect it and be handy on the road. Make
each winding of solder be on top of the previous and small enough to
fit inside the container. Bring the end out the dispenser opening,
enlarging the latter to fit the solder's diameter. Remove the dental
floss cutter blade so as to prevent skin damage. Such containers are
much easier to find inside a tool kit; plus, their snap tops make for
easy refilling.
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Reuse Locking Bags: Do you bring sandwiches to work?
If they are in resealable bags, take these used ones, turn them
inside out and rinse; when dry, return them right side out and
fill with small parts. Label the outside and file them away.
Sandwich bags are often more robust than is required for food,
so they are very suitable to hold small parts.
(See "Parts Bags" and "Filing the Clutter" at
Decluttering Your Shop)
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Difficulty Unlocking Bags?: Some locking bags are hard
to open because they and/or your fingers are slippery. Cut a notch
into one lip above the locking line and near one side. It should fit
a thumb. Cut another in the other lip but off set to near the opposite
side. Now grip each lip through the other lip's cutout and pull apart.
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Holders for Small Tools: Some tools don't fit typical
holders, so employ bench-top, or preferably wall-mounted, toothbrush
units. As necessary, enlarge the openings by drilling them out, or
reduce them by gluing washers in place. For pegboard hardware mounts,
adjust the metal coil smaller or larger. Use one pair of pliers to
hold the coil base while adjusting the coil diameter with a second
pair so as to not break the weld joint. Now the tool in the holder
will fit, but not slip through.
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Duplicate Supplies: If you find yourself frequently
going to other parts of your shop to get service items such
as adhesive tape, cleaners and polishes, spray lubricants, and
so on, save those steps by having supplies duplicated wherever
they are needed. If this seems expensive, realise that you won't
go through these supplies any faster because you will use only one
at a time, any way.
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Miniature Oil Can: Employ eye drop bottles as precision
oilers. Spray dispensers often splatter because they have too much
pressure. For more viscous oils, enlarge the tip's opening with
a pin. A light squeeze will deploy only a single drop of lubricant
to just the right place.
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Prevent Blade Damage: Slit pieces of old garden hose
to use as blade guards for saws, files and knives in a tool kit.
Secure to the blade with twist ties or short lengths of cordage.
(See our AIEL Cordage Guide.)
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Non-Twisted Belts: When removing a tool belt or waist
wallet, after unbuckling/disconnecting and while still holding on to
each end of the strap, reach behind you with both hands and
rebuckle/reconnect so that when you put it down or hang it up, the
belt will remain untwisted. Reverse the procedure to put it back on,
so no having to orient the strap.
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Accumulate Tasks: As one works, there will be things that
must be put elsewhere. Instead of taking time to do each individually,
as you go past on the way to do other things, drop like items off at the
entrance to the area where they will be placed or stored. Once finished
your work, go to each area and do all its tasks in the same session. To
facilitate this, set up a `drop' area or counter that will temporarily
hold these items until you come by to resolve them.
*** This does not apply to shops where tools and other items are shared;
in this case, return things to where others expect to find them. ***
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Restore Hook & Loop Material's Grip:
When hook & loop (Velcro) loses its holding power the hook part of the
fastener has likely become clogged. Typically this happens with hair, and/or
carpet and clothing fibres. Remove the clog with a soft-bristle wire brush,
haemostats, or use a vacuum cleaner employing only the wand's tube part with
no attachment. You may have to rub or pull at the clog from more than one
direction in order to completely clear it. Check the `loop' side of the
fastener in case it too has some cloggage.
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Replacement Handle Grips: Rubber garden hose lengths
can also make reasonable replacements for worn or broken grips on
road case handles. They will cushion just as well. Note that vinyl
hose will not work as well for this purpose; because it is not as
flexible, it will tend to split sooner, and be less comfortable
to the hands.
If the worn handle grip can not be removed, simply slip the correct-length
piece of hose over it and reassemble. Otherwise, slit the hose and
wrap it around the grip; then glue the slit back together. Don't use
tape because its adhesive will eventually gum the handle grip.
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Oil Station: Have a plastic dish pan that is leaking due
to a split? Buy a new one, but use the old one for an oil station.
Epoxy the split to prevent it getting worse, or weld the plastic with
a flat attachment for your soldering gun.
Take an old towel and cut a square or rectangle from it that will
cover the bottom of the pan and a few centimetres up the sides. Now
when you have small hardware parts to lubricate or protect, put them
on the towel, and then take a wide-angle spray dispenser of light oil
to "dust" oil onto the parts. Overspray will be kept inside the pan.
Turn the parts to assure full coverage, and leave them there to drip
off the excess. If you need only to wipe a larger part, the bottom
towel will always have oil on it for that purpose. It is suggested
that you use a hand pump dispenser because the aerosol cans do not
allow precise flow control.
Be sure to keep an old hand towel nearby to wipe oil from your hands.
When the bottom towel gets saturated, send it to Haz Mat, and have the
hand towel become the pan towel.
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Old Dish Washing Scrubbers: Dish washing wands with
pads can be still useful. When too worn for dishes, but still with
a covering of pad left, use it to texture paint on a theatrical set.
For a pad that is mostly worn, cut out of a thin, flat scouring pad
a piece the shape of the scrubber head. With scissors, trim the
remaining scrubber so that it is flat and not hanging over the edge.
Use hot-melt glue to attach the scouring material; the remaining
scrubber material will hold the glue very well, and will make a
strong bond with scouring piece. Orient the wand with its scouring
side down against your work bench top; press firmly on the back of
the head until the glue sets.
For a pad that is completely worn, clean off any remaining material
and glue sandpaper or a sanding sponge piece to it. This sanding
wand can now be used for small items that are too difficult to
work with fingers alone.
You can also use a cleaned wand as a plastic scraper where a metal
one would be too aggressive to the surface being scraped. You may
wish to sharpen the scraping edge to provide a better blade.
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Date Tagging: Knowing how long expendables last helps
when deciding what level of quality versus price to go with. Take
a sharp-tip felt marker and write a date on your batteries. Then you
will know if the expensive batteries cost less per time period than
multiple cheap ones. (They usually do.)
For lamps, write the date on a strip of white electrical tape and
stick it to the inside vertical surface of the yoke on each light.
Use a permanent marker to write right on the back of PAR lamps. You
will know at the next lamp change if the fixture might be causing
premature lamp burn outs, and can pull it out of service for repair
or socket replacement.
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Easy Tape Dispensing: Before putting adhesive tape away,
fold over a small amount of the leading edge so as to make a tab. This
identifies the start of the tape, and it gives you a strip to grab
when first pulling tape off the roll.
If you don't like the chore to make a tab, or the wasting of tape,
one could use the plastic closures for bread bags. Stick it to
the start of the roll. The next time you use that tape, you will be
able to immediately find the cut edge, and it will be a snap to pull
off that first length.
Choose closures that are flexible; the stiff ones often fall off the
tape or break in transit, or even just when putting the roll away.
Keep a supply of closures inside a small, snap-lid container and store
that container right with your tape supplies.
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Easier Tape Dispensing: An alternative to the adhesive
tape suggestion just given is to buy one or more weighted dispensers
from a stationery or industrial supplier that hold on the same unit
two or three rolls, or one or two wide rolls. Buy one for each location
where tape is dispensed.
The expense of these dispensers can be justified by the non-wastage of
tape, by the elimination of plastic closures and the time-wastage
associated with closure fumbling. In addition, is the ease whereby
one can get just the right length of tape when it's needed, and by not
tying up both hands as happens when one has to hold the roll and do
the cutting.
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Identify Sprayer Nozzle Positions: For cleaner products
that have a pump sprayer where one can select OFF-STREAM-OFF-SPRAY,
clean with alcohol the indentation where the SPRAY icon is located.
Using a non-water-based, permanent marker, carefully colour that
indentation so that it can be seen even at a distance. You will now
easily know when it is in the SPRAY position; and without looking,
two quick twists will place it to STREAM, or one twist turns it to
OFF (where it should be when in storage).
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Spray Can Nozzle Extension Fix: If the tube no longer wants
to go into the nozzle head and/or won't stay there, cut a small bit off the
tube's end and reinsert. Be sure the cut is square, and that you've left
no burrs on the plastic. This is so the extension tube will seat properly.
Should this still not hold, replace the nozzle head and try again. In
addition, always keep a variety of extension tubes from products after
they get used up so you will have spares.
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Cleaner Spray Nozzle Plugged? This happens when cleaner
products dry out within a nozzle. Remove the sprayer attachment, drain
the product and place the unit into a container of hot water. Put the
container into a sink. After a while, stand the unit up so that its pickup
tube end is under water. Pump the mechanism to try to spray hot water.
Continue this procedure until the water flows freely. Drain or pump out the
water inside the tube, and restore the sprayer attachment on to the cleaner
bottle.
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Reach Inaccessible Areas To clean or lubricate a track, behind
moulding or an overhang, use a painter's sponge brush with a stiff, wooden
handle. Select the smallest brush that tapers to a narrow edge. Cut handles
to usable lengths and label each one, say for contact cleaner, oil, silicone,
etc. Put each liguid into a small jar, and have a hanging rack with a drip
tray underneath where brushes will be stored -- also labeled.
Pick up some fluid, squeezing out excess, then "paint" the track or area
required. A dry brush can be later used to absorb cleaning fluids so as to
leave minimal residue. Be sure to keep brush uses separate, and when worn
out, to dispose at a hazardous waste facility.
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Kinked Cable Suggestion Often less-flexible cables, such as
those with a vinyl outer insulation, get kinked. Use a tub large enough to
submerge the cable. Pour in enough hot water to cover the cable, but having
the connectors raised to keep them dry. Leave in until the vunyl becomes
flexible.
Next to the tub, have a support high enough to be able to hang the cable up
and have it hang straight down. Attach a weight at the bottom. Once cooled,
see if the cable stays straight; if not, repeat the process with hotter
water.
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Case Liner: Home entry-way mats with rubber backing
and a ribbed, fabric top make excellent liners for cases and counter
tops. They are waterproof and very robust, and are easily cut with
shop scissors to the size and shape required. For those mats with
bevelled edges, orient the edge to the front for a nice look on flat
surfaces in your shop or home.
The fabric tops are soft enough to be gentle on items you don't
want to become scratched, and can be easily cleaned with a dry
scrub brush and/or vacuum cleaner. The rubber backing and its
weight keeps the mat in place on smooth table or cabinet tops.
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Interior Case Protection: Unused computer mouse pads
can be cut up to line the insides of small cases. The sponge type of
pad is especially useful for this purpose because it can better
cushion contents. Simply clean the surface, and then hot-melt glue
the pad pieces where required. Be sure to choose a glue stick rated
for wood and rubber.
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Broken Plastic Drawers: As those transparent drawers
from parts cabinets get cracked or the pulls break, replace them,
and cut the old ones to use as drawer dividers. Smooth the cut
edges with sandpaper, and round the corners so as to make them
regular and easy to insert. Then employ rubber cement to keep
these separators in place within the drawer. This type of
cement allows removal of dividers should they need to be
repositioned.
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Cheap Storage: Buy old audio or video cassette tape
storage units. These came in drawer or wall-mount styles and are now
commonly found in thrift stores. Audio and video boxes fit these, of
course, so place small hardware or electronics parts into them. Label
the spines so you know what you have. CD/DVD cases and holders are also
useful for this purpose, especially for flat items such as gaskets.
Organise the units so that like items are together.
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Additional Cheap Storage: Use stackable vegetable
bins to hold rags, polish cloths, and scraps and reel ends of
cables. These are fairly cheap at grocery stores, but can often
be had at yard sales for pennies. Select the ones with solid
bottoms and sides. Screened bins tend to allow things to poke
through where they get caught.
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Stud Storage: If your shop has visible-stud walls
and narrow items are stored between each pair of studs, you may
find that objects tend to lean out somewhat, or at times actually
fall to the floor. Place screws on either side of an object's tip
point, and using the small 25cm x 5mm bungee cords, span the cord
from screw to screw.
By leaving enough screw threads visible, each screw can be shared
with the stud space on either side, so a row of stud storage can
be created with items retained within each the space. These cords
are thin enough and have small-enough hooks, that they are
unobtrusive, yet allow easy removal for item retrieval, or in some
cases, the item can be slipped out from above or below the cord.
Yes, you could use any cordage, but the built-in hooks allow easy
detachment, and the cord's stretchiness permits one to pull outward
on it so as to insert an item, and then have the cord snap into
place for secure storage.
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