Sidebar

Y'ever Seem to Have One of Those Days

Log in

Forgot your password?

SmokingPipes.com Updates

Watch for Updates Twice a Week

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Drucquers Banner

Site Sponsors

Al Pascia
Blue Room Briars
Cigar World
Danish Pipe Shop
LePipe.it
Missouri Meerschaum
Pipes2Smoke.com
PipeStud.com
Seattle Pipe Club Tobaccos
SmokingPipes.com
Tabaccheria Corti
TinBids.com

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Status
Not open for further replies.
bluto

bluto

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 24, 2018
737
8
Let me tell you about it
It's the right time of year to be on the ball and switch over from summer to winter snow tires and this year I am ready , I have a good hydraulic floor jack , BFW with a Johnson bar , tires mounted on steel rims , so I'm ready , except I don't have enough lug nuts , I have some steel lug nuts , but I need a few more.
So no prob , I run down to the big box automotive shop and pick up more lugs , but I can't find matching lugs for what I already have . No biggy , I will just pick up all new lugs . Right . Wrong.
I pick up , 12mm , 1.5 pitch , open ended chrome lugs ... but oh shit , my car wrench travelling with the spare tire fits 13/16" , so back I go , they were 12mm , 1.5 thread pitch , 3/4" lugs ... doh..
But wait there's more , there is only 4 lugs in a pack and I need 20 lugs for the job and yes , the shop don't have enough ... no prob , I can try another store , there's three of them . But don't you know after I drive for 1/2 an hour the next store has lots of lugs on the rack , but not the 12mm , 1.5 pitch , 13/16" open ended chrome , every kind of lug nut known to man is there , except the one I want ... sooookayyyy ...
Off I drive to the last store to carry theses muthers .. and yes they have them . I triple check , 12mm ( not 1/2 inch ) , 1.5 pitch ( not 1.25 ) , 13/16 " ( not 3/4 " ) , open ended ( not acorn nut ) , chrome , ( not Chinese zinc plated ) 4 to a pack ( buy 5 packs not 4 ) ... am I done , yes , all four , no dammit , all five packs are the same , the check out lady looks over the product codes for me and yes , confirms the final sequence countdown has been initiated and cannot be reversed , so she checks me in . Whew , thank you nice checkout lady .
And did I buy myself a new 1/2 impact wrench just to soothe my nerves , yes , yes I did.

 
carolinachurchwarden

carolinachurchwarden

Lifer
May 9, 2018
1,687
86
Raleigh, NC
Sounds exactly like most of my projects I work on in the garage. These tampers I been making with my Dremel are fairly easy to make for me, but still require good tools and medium to sand/grind the areas I want removed without burning the wood.
So, the other night, I wanted to make a new one. I'm currently low on the small and larger sanding barrels for my Dremel. The larger one still works great, so not a problem there, but the tighter areas I want to remove require use of the smaller barrels.
So, I stop by one hardware store on the way home to acquire some more of the smaller barrels since I'm down to my last one after I worked two apparently to the point of being driven insane as they both ended up flying off the barrel and just past my head to a point beyond which I was willing to search. Well, I strolled down the tools aisle and found the Dremel location and started looking for the smaller barrels....Nope, not there....hrmmm, not there either....well, wait a minute, there's a few in this multi-pack of other tips and sanding bits, but I don't need all that right now, besides it's $20. A pack of the sanding drums is only about $3.00.
Alright, now it's time to ask one of the friendly associates.....that never seem to be around when you need them. I ask someone else that doesn't work the department. They try to look them up in the system. They don't have them. Not the smaller ones, just the bigger ones.
That's when I get the dreaded..."I'm sorry sir. Maybe you can check on our online store and order them." I don't want them in a week, I want them tonight, that's why I'm here.
So you sell the big drums, but not the small drums in the store, right? "Yes, Sir." I just walked away and drove to the next store to no avail there either. The only way to get the damn things in the store is to buy a friggin' mulit-pack of extra crap I don't want/need.
By the time I got home, it was past the time I could make noise in the neighborhood anyway, so it really wouldn't have mattered. Another night of work lost, but I just had to smoke a pipe and relax. Nothing could be done.

 
bluto

bluto

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 24, 2018
737
8
It's the downside to the plethora of bits and bobs we need to keep out tools running properly . Back in the day it was pretty simple , you go buy loose steel lug nuts out of a bin , that's it , nothing else to think about , one size , one pitch , no metric , steel and you are done . Probably about 5 cents each and if you needed just a couple the local shop couldn't be bothered taking any money , they would just smile and say , see ya ..

 
lifesizehobbit

lifesizehobbit

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 23, 2015
913
386
You're first mistake was presuming the Hardware gods would let you off with a simple task. You angered them. :rofl:

 
bluto

bluto

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 24, 2018
737
8
Thé best laid plans of mice and men , and I’m getting old too.
The damn nuts I had , which I thought would work , actually are 1/2 inch not 12mm. They are so close , I could finger tighten them and even torque them down , but it just didn’t feel right and when I backed them off is when I noticed they started to strip out. Shit.
Good news is , the proper lug nuts are now stamped with size and thread pitch like 12x1.5 .. doh

 
mso489

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,455
No job ever turns out to be just one job. It's a law of nature. One job leads to three, if you're lucky, only three.

 
bluto

bluto

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 24, 2018
737
8
It was all morning and a bit . I had it in mind about half an hour work , easy peezy , but nooooo
But that’s ok , I’m ready for wifeys car which should go smoothly , now that I have mastered the art of Japanese wheel lug chicanery

 
bluto

bluto

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 24, 2018
737
8
Get this , the thread size is 12mm but the nut size for the wrench is either 3/4 or 13/16 , yes SAE and metric specs in the same lug nut . But no matter , I used a 21mm wrench , it fits good enough , but and however the tire wrench in the trunk would not work if I mismatched the lugs ...
But wait , there’s more , the lug packages I noted , some of them had HONDA on the label , for some reason it’s a different thread pitch in the equivalent sized nut than on my Toyota.
Still venting ..

 
scloyd

scloyd

Lifer
May 23, 2018
5,949
12,067
How about this! Your working on a project and you need 6 thingamajigs and there sold in packages of 5. So now you have to buy 2 packages giving you 10 thingamajigs. Now you have 4 extra you don't need.

 
bluto

bluto

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 24, 2018
737
8
Put em in watch à ma callit drawer , next to the thing ma bobs

 
newbroom

newbroom

Lifer
Jul 11, 2014
6,109
6,595
Florida
you ever have one of them days? when nothin goes right?

your wife starts bitchin 'bout whatever it was, she was bitchin about last night?

So, you retire to the bathroom, just to sit upon your throne,

and, when you've finished your business, the toilet paper is GONE!
was running late for work, so I poured me a coffee to go,

and just before I had a flat tire, I spilled it all over my clothes.

When the highway patrolman pulled up, I thought help was on the way...

but, when he saw the tire tool in my hand, he shot me with pepper spray.

 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom