The Surprisingly Handy Paint Brush Comb

With apologies to loyal Hooptyreaders, I apologize for my extremely sporadic posting on my entertaining internet presence. I am currently in the midst of a supermega giant and secret project that will dwarf all prior tinkerings.

As a part of this effort, I have to paint a cabinet over the last couple days and I was reminded of the supreme usefulness of the Purdy Brush Cleaning Comb. The drudgery of cleaning paint brushes is due to the hardened paint that has wicked it's way in to the base of the bristles. This is why used and improperly cleaned brushes are unreasonably stiff and leave nasty streaks. But, with a little hand soap and the uncommonly handy comb, you can really clean a paint brush in just a couple minutes.

Pocket Protector

Thanks to the kind generosity of a Hooptyreader (Thanks Auna!), I have upgraded my clear plastic Staples pocket protector with this extremely high cred Cal Tech model. I am very satisfied. From left to right: the one true pencil - the Blackhawk 602, the Tek Torch V16 LED penlight, a Build for a Metric Future with SNAP-ON TOOLS pocket scale, a Marv's Chevy Only promotional screwdriver and the one true pen - the Uniball Micro Deluxe.

Opportunity

What's so great about garage sales? Broadly, everything. Specifically, unlimited potential. You just never know what you are going to find. I assure you, I did not leave my house at 7 AM with the intention of buying a matadoress lamp. Garage saling is the great suburban adventure. Who can resist? I am powerless.

No Average Day Garage Saling

Though it is small, I couldn't be more enamored with this stubby screwdriver. It is the Empire State Building to my eyes. The fact that this Snap-On screwdriver cost a mere $1 only makes it more endearing.
Today - Friday - is not even garage saling day. I was running late, but decided to swing by real quick like. I am the luckiest fella in town. Check out this nice big box of thumbscrew hose clamps ($5). Not only are they golden era of hot rodding period correct, but they darn practical when it comes to roadside repairs.


A nice Glare-Proof rear view mirror ($1) made by everyone's favorite accessory company, Guide. Don't believe me? Go search for 'guide headlights' on eBay. Holy mackeral! My heros are machinists and engineers, hot rodders and engine builders, rocket scientists and astronauts, scientists and mathematicians, architects and barnstormers. After a quick run through the washing machine, I have been wearing this wonderful machinist's smock ($4) all day. I immediately stocked the pocket with the one true pen (Uniball Micro Black), the one true pencil (the Blackwing 602), a pocket scale and a tire pressure gauge. Tomorrow I will buy one of those mega-powerful LED penlights. I hope I can find an un-ironic pocket protector as I plan to wear this fine garment for the rest of my life and would hate to live another 50 years with a pocket ink spot.

Hobo Convention

Though the we are the cheapest and easiest of hustlers, Hooptyrides prides ourselves in not being a link farm by just reiterating the compelling content found on other fine blogs. So much for pride. Boingboing has a superb photo archive link that is an immediate 1 hour time suck. At first, you think, I will just check out the high points of extreme personal interest, like Automobile Racing and Chinatown. But then how can you resist Anarchists-- 1910-1920? And what sort of no fun, wet blanket would not click Coney Island - Auto Polo? Or the Bridge of Laughs? What sort of boring sod could resist Chicken Sellers, Mexico City or Forensic Photos 1890-1900? Like I could not click Funeral of Harold Rosenthal, a gambler? Motorcycles, Tugboats, Nanking and Nagoya? Octopuses 1890-1920? Sick Persons -- Illinois -- Ottawa 1900-1920?

What am I? Carved of wood? An unfeeling, unthinking cog in the works? Who could is not curious enough to click Rat Catcher? There goes another evening of progress.

Weatherhead

Everybody is asking, don't you already have tiny drawers full of miscellany? Why consider the Dorman when Hooptyrides cabinets are already overflowing with ten lifetimes of tiny parts? I paid about $6 for this cabinet last weekend and it is packed full of Weatherhead brass tubing components - nearly assuring I will have everything except what I actually need. After sorting and cleaning, the garage required an hour's worth of re-organization to find a new home for the bumblebee cabinet. How many workbenches would be enough? A hundred seems reasonable.

Control Panel for Rocket Ship

In the absence of better information, I will assume this $10 garage sale control panel is from an intergalactic spacecraft.

Sure cleans up nice.

Wealth Measured by Available Hardware

Everybody has lottery dreams of what they would do with boundless riches and I am no different. I have long held that the ultimate luxury would be to have an entire Dorman nut, bolt, fastener, washer, cotter pin, battery hold down, wingnut, moulding clip, wheel stud, brake clip, hydraulic fitting, starter bolt, oil drain plug and grease fitting display at your private shop. The absolute time suck of any project is having to runout to pick-up some absolutely necessary, 35 cent what-have-you that you could never have forseen needing. The key to real progress is never leaving the shop. The chances of disappointment and aggravation sky rocket as soon as you leave your property lines.

As is often the case with adventures of boundless folly, the purchase price of this absolute jewel is but a shred of total cost of ownership. But everything about this drives me insane with desire! 9 cabinets! With 3 bases! What you see here is a THIRD of the total cabinets! Admittedly, I am in a Halloween sort of mood, but, hubba hubba, that orange and black looks so great I would be tempted to have them in the living room.

Transport from Corpus Christi to Los Angeles would quickly eclipse the reasonable asking price. The auctioneer recommends emptying the cabinets to reduce weight, but refilling them upon arrival would cost six modest fortunes. If anybody is driving a large truck from Corpus Christi this week, please bring this to me. We will eat club sandwiches and drink frosty rootbeer at a card table within a Dorman cabinet constructed U.

Giant Ipod in Popular Science!

Pop Sci (Nov 05) did a super job of summarizing the giant ipod in a single page. The illustration makes it look so delicious that I want to build another one. Though, I must admit, I wish they didn't run up the tally as I was thinking it cost me about $20.

If you want the real meat AND THE POTATOES check out the full article in Make Vol. 4. The hair raising soldering of the wires to the Airclick alone is enough to justify the luxurious Make mook price.

Hang Any Damn Thing on the Wall

The optimism of the post-war years and Apollo space program disintegrated in the 60s. Gone were the days when kids could be president or an astronaut and it was replaced with the weird, diminished expectations of "You could be a dentist! At best." Or a barber! Or worse. A TV repairman!



What rainy day is truly soaked without a project requiring Elmer's glue?



Sparing future generations the disappointment of assembling puzzles that represent careers that have gone the way of the Dodo bird, I decided to glue the puzzles together and hang the TV repairman on the wall. Perhaps future generations will get to build puzzles of robots or fire engines.

I don't have space for the dentist working on the mutant or the, not pictured, Proud Barber. Those two are available for immediate purchase or trade.