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Toolbox Upgrade
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Recent tool purchases have involved different pairs of pliers yet again: parallel jaws, plastic jaws, slip-joint, heavy duty, and combinations thereof. Delicate metalwork requires more precision and care than general toolbox pliers provide.

Along with wire cutters and other squeezing/holding implements, they stayed in a too-small topper box, pretty much the smallest in my shop. That's no longer sufficient because the latest round of acquisitions was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.

No harm, no foul, there's plenty of ways they can be re-organized. In the hierarchy of tools, it's not a dishonor for a tool to lose a coveted toolbox or drawer since they get prestigious shelf space instead.

Modern consumerism would insist on a larger box. First-worlders have this luxury and we've all experienced it somehow, in our own right, maybe not for tools but something else. Problem would be solved...on paper. Will it result in other parts and equipment that need recycling, repurposing, disposal, or what?

 
However, different mediums require their own vernacular of tools and ways to store them.
 
Or can the tools be absorbed like an amoeba: Move these tools, re-organize and combine those, find a larger box whose contents could be easily dispersed or stored elsewhere. More practical and compact storage, more grouping together. Make the room if there's room but only if it's efficient. One tool group being moved, small as it may be, affects many tools.

To the layman I have too many pliers - maybe too many toolboxes, hammers, and other implements - no dispute there. However, different mediums require their own vernacular of tools and ways to store them. They can be multi-purposed and shared but only until a certain point.

One set of pliers may not be enough because sometimes you need two at the same time. Perhaps it's frequently enough that commandeering one from the "other" craft's toolbox is too inconvenient. That means at least three of the same pliers in some cases. A similar story catapults through my workshop like a pinball machine.

New tools arrive all the time so it's a constant merry-go-round and musical chairs to move and shuffle them about. This time the jewelry pliers upgraded to a larger toolbox. Not the whole toolbox yet though they are more accessible and organized. It's all about adapting...or being an accomplished hoarder.


Posted by M: April , 2023


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