Pencils and Tape Measures

metalspinner · July 25, 2012, 09:34:46 AM

Where have they all gone?!?

Over the years, I must have purchased hundreds of pencils. They get sharpened once then disappear in the workshop.
A friend was over working in the shop last week and mentioned I should use mechanical pencils. "Yeah, right. I can't afford to loose mechanical pencils." :D

Tape measures are another one of those disappearing items. The last one I bought was very small just so I could fit it in my pocket. I haven't seen that one for months. :

My wife gets freebie stuff like tape measures all the time at trade shows and those just go into the black hole never to be seen again. :

A couple weeks ago, I was unstacking one of the large stickered stacks out back. Guess what was on the ground between the timbers. 8) 8) My long lost Fat Max 16'er. 8)

Jeff · July 25, 2012, 10:23:00 AM

I'm pretty sure that Tammy has all the pencils horded in her closet. I found our 25 foot Stanley tape in the cabin on the of a beam this last fall where it had been since 2006.

thecfarm · July 25, 2012, 10:34:12 AM

I do pretty good with pencils,I have 2-3 sharpened and 3-4 that has never been used. I probably have 10 tape measures,2 are what I call good ones and the other 8 are just cheap ones.At one time I had a hard time finding one. I am doing better now. I had no idea I had 10 tape measures until I started to get them all in one place. Scissors are my thing. We use to use a heavy type at work. they got rid of them and I got about 12 pair. Lucky to find 2 at any given time.

Lud · July 25, 2012, 10:39:58 AM

Golf pencils go to the barn for compasses or you can drill a bigger dowel to plug them in. I also buy a slug of the yellow ones around back to school time. I prefer to sharpen a pencil with a chisel. A sharp chisel can put a nice long point on a pencil.

Tapes? When HF has a sale I grab a few. You can usually look around and see the bright green ones. ;D

giant splinter · July 25, 2012, 11:18:14 AM

Tapes and pencils around here are like sunglasses "the more I pay for them the faster they get destroyed or lost".

hackberry jake · July 25, 2012, 01:24:30 PM

Quote from: giant splinter on July 25, 2012, 11:18:14 AM
Tapes and pencils around here are like sunglasses "the more I pay for them the faster they get destroyed or lost".

Amen to that! A couple years ago I had 4 Stanleys and 4 cheapies. Now I have one Stanley and five cheapies. Go figure

Bogue Chitto · July 25, 2012, 01:28:30 PM

I only buy the cheep tapes. I will buy one put it down in front of me with a chain and rope tide on it. Turn around and it is gone. :

:D

SwampDonkey · July 25, 2012, 06:39:30 PM

I never seem to loose any of that stuff. :D :D I put stuff back. And I will use a pencil until it's been sharpened enough times I can hardly hang on to it. :D I've still got a pencil right here from when I worked one summer (1989) at Forestry Canada, still has a good amount of erasure on it. :D

If your gonna talk about'm..... ;D

hackberry jake · July 25, 2012, 08:07:15 PM

I don't think I have anything left from 1989.... Of course I was 4 ;D

metalspinner · July 25, 2012, 09:32:02 PM

SD,
That right there looks like a quality ERC pencil to me. Your pencil sharpener looks like it could use a good sharpening, though. :D

Here's my pencil sharpener...

;D

WDH · July 25, 2012, 09:39:07 PM

When I work with Jake, I see that he has stashed tape measures everywhere. He attacks the problem with sheer volume. There is one on the post of the mill. One on his belt. One on the edger table. One on the truck tailgate. A stash in the tool box. When you get in the passenger's side of his truck to ride, you will find yourself sitting on a tape measure :D.

Magicman · July 25, 2012, 10:26:08 PM

It seems that Jake always measures up.

SwampDonkey · July 26, 2012, 02:32:16 AM

Quote from: metalspinner on July 25, 2012, 09:32:02 PM
SD,
That right there looks like a quality ERC pencil to me. Your pencil sharpener looks like it could use a good sharpening, though. :D

Yeah, that could be. The ones you twist into the sharpener are never much good anyway. Always liked those wall mounted ones, but I have resorted to a sharp carving knife in the shop. Leave the twisty ones at the house, so the curls of wood aren't on the floor. :D

Overlength · July 26, 2012, 02:59:48 PM

They might go the same place the one sock out of each pair of socks goes. I bought a tape measure for each room to fix problem, and plenty more socks, but still have the same problem after about 2 weeks. Where's my tape, and what happen to my other sock?

blackfoot griz · July 26, 2012, 05:53:34 PM

Years ago, I bought a "Fat Max" tape when building our new (then) house. The second day I owned it, Max simply disappeared. Several days later I found it while cutting some tall grass...with the mower blade. It kind of exploded in mid air--the two halves of the case splitting going different directions and the tape unfurling inbetween.

Bogue Chitto · July 27, 2012, 08:56:27 AM

Right, Blackfoot, I have found many lost things with the mower.

:

sandhills · July 27, 2012, 02:18:13 PM

Anyone on here who's put new knives and a shear bar in a silage cutter knows how much fun it is to find the tool you lost while working on the windrower with the cutter :'(. My old boss found his hammer that way, luckily it was his son that left it laying on the windrower and not me.

redbeard · July 27, 2012, 03:31:33 PM

these retractable clip on your overall or shirt pocket pencil holders are very handy keeps them from getting teeth marks. Even though one shown must have been used before I bought the handy device.

sparky1 · July 27, 2012, 03:46:34 PM

I would never buy any other tape meausre besides a 25' Fat Max. Im in the trades and it is always on me. As far as pencils go, i dont always have one on me. when vendeors come around to job sites the salemans always drop off carpentry pencils. so thats what I use. I do always have a Sharpie on me though (when I dont misplace it)!! 8)

CHARLIE · August 04, 2012, 12:44:01 AM

I lose pencils all the time. I always have, but came up with a very good solution. At the beginning of each school year when packages of pencils are cheap, I buy a bunch, sharpen them and put them all in a plastic pencil box in my workbench drawer. When I can't find my pencil, I don't look for it but just get another one. It saves time and pretty soon I have enough pencils scattered about that if I lose one I'll see another one. Problem solved.

PC-Urban-Sawyer · August 04, 2012, 10:22:57 AM

Charlie,

Sounds like how I handle screwdrivers! 8)

Of course I haven't found the economical twenty-four pack of #2 Phillips yet... >:(

Herb

clww · August 04, 2012, 10:26:58 AM

I buy pencils on sale just before the school year starts, too. I try to have at least 10 tape measures around. Another thing I never have enough of are utility knives. And time. There's never enough of that one, either.

POSTON WIDEHEAD · August 04, 2012, 08:45:10 PM

Quote from: CHARLIE on August 04, 2012, 12:44:01 AM
and pretty soon I have enough pencils scattered about that if I lose one I'll see another one. Problem solved.

:D :D :D

breederman · August 05, 2012, 03:44:32 PM

Its funny that this is the first thread I read after a too long absence from the forum. I havent done much wood working since I finished a half log rustic coffee table for my daughter last Christmas. I started a slab top for a treadle sewing machine base to be used as an end table last week. It only took fifteen minutes to find a tape measure. Didnt ned a pencil for that project.
Today I made two small boxes for said daughters wedding to hold rose petals. Took twenty minutes looking for a pencil before asking my wife for one. Now I am off to find some grape vine to make handles out of that should be easier to find than my pencil.

Al_Smith · August 05, 2012, 09:18:51 PM

Tapes I probabley have at least a dozen 25 footers and might be lucky to find two at any given time .I buy round cedar pencils in tubes of 25 .Sharpen them with a knife .