I wanted to make a thread to vent my recent gremlins in the shop story (and my frustration) but I thought while I'm at I'd ask for your stories. Any story you'd like to share from gremlins breaking the shop to stuff constantly turning up missing. And for the person that makes me LOL the most I'll send you a piece of handle material (random, synthetic or natty, scales or block, my choice).
My story starts with a long overdue vacation. I work a full time job and have been at this part time on and of for a little bit. The place I work for decided they needed to increase productivity and well, it was way too much work for my department. Enter the vacation (and possibly psychosis). At the same time I had some orders that needed to get filled ASAP and needed some extra cash to help pay a recent purchase for the shop. I figured I'd burn some PTO and finish a good deal of my knife projects and settle my debts. Easy right? Apparently, the gremlins had other plans....
The first day off the drill press return spring eats it. No big deal. It's an easy fix. Later once I tend to the spring I returned to working on cutting out some handle material. Well, the gremlins got to my saw. It's like they knew I needed it.... "No big deal." "I still have all my fingers right." "I can fix it." The days to follow brought more joy from my mischievous friends. The next item to take a dive was my grinder, specifically the small wheel attachment. If you've ever used a Coote grinder you know the setup I use. Lets just say that when you're under the gun on a deadline and a fair amount rides on a 2" wheel, it's nerve racking to see your 2" wheel fly off to the side while the belt slingshots away. The only worse feeling is picking up the 2" wheel and seeing the spindle still attached when it should be immovably mounted to the grinder. "Dang." "They got me." "They knew where to strike and they used a roll of quarters just to make it hurt more". I contacted Beth to see if the small wheel attachments had come in, maybe just maybe I could put it on credit and maybe it would come on time. Then I realized I didn't have the credit card. The wife had it. The gremlins- she must be working for them!
At this point my options were slim. I have a nice new grinder that I need to slowly add on to, a debt to pay to a generous person, and no desire to repair the Coote. Anything I could have ordered, even another small wheel attachment from Norm would not have come in time to get me to my deadline. I resorted to a sanding drum on the drill press to clean up the profile on the scales and blade and a dremel with sanding drums to finish the grinds I would have normally done on the Coote's small wheel. And then it happened. Those pointy eared devils got to my dremel. It was new. I mean the box still on the shop floor and receipt in my wallet new. I had to talk to an older guy with a lisp and a Jersey accent to get this thing out of Sears. I tell you I had no idea what that sales clerk was saying when I bought it. I couldn't understand the man. When I heard it scream into high gear and then into low and then back into high I knew.... I'd have to talk to that gentleman again to try and get it replaced. Again I spent 30 minutes with him and understood maybe five of them... I hate those gremlins.
Finally I limped to what I thought was the finish line. The blade (a tac tomahawk) was ground, scales shaped, and ready to get cerakoted. Now, after some research I've learned an easy and relatively inexpensive way to apply this stuff. It's fast and with some practice my results have been acceptable. This was the last step before the sheath work. This marked my victory over those evil creatures, or so I thought. I had everything set. The blade was prepped. The wife was on standby with popcorn to watch a movie while the blade was baking. But somehow those insidious beasts had other plans. Those slimy devils had me on the ropes and just as I was about to stop myself from going down they did they unthinkable. The worse thing you can do to a man after you've all but beaten him. That's right. They pantsed me...
They say cerakote has a shelf life of 1 year. The gremlins made sure mine was cut short to 10 months. The tears on my face in the middle of coating that God forsaken blade matched the streaks of black cerakote instantly running to the edge as I began spraying. "This can't be", I thought. Yup. The hardener failed. All I had was black watercolor. The cerakote ran down that blade faster than my wife when it's time to do the dishes after a meal. I gave up drinking a while back so I proceeded into the house to zone out for a few before rethinking my options. I can't recall how many episodes of Star Trek I watched to feel whole again but I know the popcorn was gone and there was chocolate on my shirt. Needless to say the blade is sitting in the shop waiting for a new batch of cerakote to arrive and for me to clean it up again. I'm not looking forward to what the sheath work brings.
Hope I got a chuckle out of you guys. So. What's your story?
My story starts with a long overdue vacation. I work a full time job and have been at this part time on and of for a little bit. The place I work for decided they needed to increase productivity and well, it was way too much work for my department. Enter the vacation (and possibly psychosis). At the same time I had some orders that needed to get filled ASAP and needed some extra cash to help pay a recent purchase for the shop. I figured I'd burn some PTO and finish a good deal of my knife projects and settle my debts. Easy right? Apparently, the gremlins had other plans....
The first day off the drill press return spring eats it. No big deal. It's an easy fix. Later once I tend to the spring I returned to working on cutting out some handle material. Well, the gremlins got to my saw. It's like they knew I needed it.... "No big deal." "I still have all my fingers right." "I can fix it." The days to follow brought more joy from my mischievous friends. The next item to take a dive was my grinder, specifically the small wheel attachment. If you've ever used a Coote grinder you know the setup I use. Lets just say that when you're under the gun on a deadline and a fair amount rides on a 2" wheel, it's nerve racking to see your 2" wheel fly off to the side while the belt slingshots away. The only worse feeling is picking up the 2" wheel and seeing the spindle still attached when it should be immovably mounted to the grinder. "Dang." "They got me." "They knew where to strike and they used a roll of quarters just to make it hurt more". I contacted Beth to see if the small wheel attachments had come in, maybe just maybe I could put it on credit and maybe it would come on time. Then I realized I didn't have the credit card. The wife had it. The gremlins- she must be working for them!
At this point my options were slim. I have a nice new grinder that I need to slowly add on to, a debt to pay to a generous person, and no desire to repair the Coote. Anything I could have ordered, even another small wheel attachment from Norm would not have come in time to get me to my deadline. I resorted to a sanding drum on the drill press to clean up the profile on the scales and blade and a dremel with sanding drums to finish the grinds I would have normally done on the Coote's small wheel. And then it happened. Those pointy eared devils got to my dremel. It was new. I mean the box still on the shop floor and receipt in my wallet new. I had to talk to an older guy with a lisp and a Jersey accent to get this thing out of Sears. I tell you I had no idea what that sales clerk was saying when I bought it. I couldn't understand the man. When I heard it scream into high gear and then into low and then back into high I knew.... I'd have to talk to that gentleman again to try and get it replaced. Again I spent 30 minutes with him and understood maybe five of them... I hate those gremlins.
Finally I limped to what I thought was the finish line. The blade (a tac tomahawk) was ground, scales shaped, and ready to get cerakoted. Now, after some research I've learned an easy and relatively inexpensive way to apply this stuff. It's fast and with some practice my results have been acceptable. This was the last step before the sheath work. This marked my victory over those evil creatures, or so I thought. I had everything set. The blade was prepped. The wife was on standby with popcorn to watch a movie while the blade was baking. But somehow those insidious beasts had other plans. Those slimy devils had me on the ropes and just as I was about to stop myself from going down they did they unthinkable. The worse thing you can do to a man after you've all but beaten him. That's right. They pantsed me...
They say cerakote has a shelf life of 1 year. The gremlins made sure mine was cut short to 10 months. The tears on my face in the middle of coating that God forsaken blade matched the streaks of black cerakote instantly running to the edge as I began spraying. "This can't be", I thought. Yup. The hardener failed. All I had was black watercolor. The cerakote ran down that blade faster than my wife when it's time to do the dishes after a meal. I gave up drinking a while back so I proceeded into the house to zone out for a few before rethinking my options. I can't recall how many episodes of Star Trek I watched to feel whole again but I know the popcorn was gone and there was chocolate on my shirt. Needless to say the blade is sitting in the shop waiting for a new batch of cerakote to arrive and for me to clean it up again. I'm not looking forward to what the sheath work brings.
Hope I got a chuckle out of you guys. So. What's your story?
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