On 1/18/2018 10:12 PM, Emanuel Berg wrote:
David Scheidt wrote:

A pin wrench that fits the thing I'm taking
apart is a trip to the store (or a wait for
UPS) away. If I can knock one out in five
minutes with a piece of scrap flat stock,
a hacksaw, and a grinder, I'm ahead, even if
the tool were free. I've got a couple,
including an adjustable one, but sometimes
you need something else.

When I worked for a bricklayer here we used to
go to the hardware store almost every single
day because the tools ware always in disarray,
or abused, or missing. It took half the work
day, again almost every day.

At that point I decided that was never going to
happen to me so now I go to the HW store once
a month, and if there is something that "needs
to be done" and there is stuff missing,
I suppress that pressing need and do it the next
month instead.

IMO it is much better, more relaxed and also
more efficient, because instead of going back
and forth to get just the right stuff, which
then disappears and you have to do it all over
again, you focus not what cannot be done, but
what you can do with the equipment that you
know 100% where it is and in what state.

You have jobs you delay until you can get just the right tool, maybe in
a few weeks? Those aren't jobs. Those are dilettante hobbies.

You learned the wrong lesson from your bricklayer job. The proper lesson
was to organize your tools and keep them organized.

Two pertinent bits of advice from my father:
1) A place for everything and everything in its place.
2) Anybody can do a job slowly. Smart people can do a job quickly and well.


--
- Frank Krygowski