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picker upper fixer
Wednesday, March 18th, 2015 08:11 pmHah. I fixed my picker-upper tool again. The one I use for picking up trash along the road by my house.
The first time it broke, it was my fault. Something had irritated me... probably the difficulty of maneuvering an item I had picked up into my garbage bag, along with general annoyance at having to pick up other people's trash*. I tossed the picker-upper away from me in annoyance, and when it hit the ground, it broke apart at the middle joint.
I tried gluing it back together, but even with crazy glue, it never held. Finally I used wood popsicle sticks and chopsticks as splints, along with wire holding them in place. The joint was no longer able to fold for storage, but at least the tool was useable again.
Lately, one of the grabby end pieces kept coming loose and falling off. A few times I was able to find the fallen off piece and reattach it. Yesterday I couldn't find it, and thought that the tool was done for this time.
But this morning I realized all that was needed to replace the missing part was a small rubber suction cup along with a screw and washer to hold it in place. Conveniently, I found just the right size suction cup amongst my stuff; the color nearly matches the original one too. I love it when that happens - when something I've kept in case it might be useful some day, ends up being exactly what I need later on. So I made a hole in the middle of the suction cup, screwed it on, and voila! A working picker-upper tool again.
I'll still buy a new one the next time I see one, for backup. I'm not sure how much longer that joint will hold, especially when picking up heavy things like big glass bottles.
*Yet, picking up trash like that is almost as gratifying as vacuum cleaning, in how easy it is to do, with immediately visible results.
The first time it broke, it was my fault. Something had irritated me... probably the difficulty of maneuvering an item I had picked up into my garbage bag, along with general annoyance at having to pick up other people's trash*. I tossed the picker-upper away from me in annoyance, and when it hit the ground, it broke apart at the middle joint.
I tried gluing it back together, but even with crazy glue, it never held. Finally I used wood popsicle sticks and chopsticks as splints, along with wire holding them in place. The joint was no longer able to fold for storage, but at least the tool was useable again.
Lately, one of the grabby end pieces kept coming loose and falling off. A few times I was able to find the fallen off piece and reattach it. Yesterday I couldn't find it, and thought that the tool was done for this time.
But this morning I realized all that was needed to replace the missing part was a small rubber suction cup along with a screw and washer to hold it in place. Conveniently, I found just the right size suction cup amongst my stuff; the color nearly matches the original one too. I love it when that happens - when something I've kept in case it might be useful some day, ends up being exactly what I need later on. So I made a hole in the middle of the suction cup, screwed it on, and voila! A working picker-upper tool again.
I'll still buy a new one the next time I see one, for backup. I'm not sure how much longer that joint will hold, especially when picking up heavy things like big glass bottles.
*Yet, picking up trash like that is almost as gratifying as vacuum cleaning, in how easy it is to do, with immediately visible results.