Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Be a carpenter with a magnetic personality

Screws, nuts, bolts, nails, tacks, staples, bent nails, and even small tools can be pesky items to keep-up with on stage and around the shop, and if you are up on a ladder (or maybe higher, too) you don't want to drop little items -- it's bad for the people below (yet another reason to ALWAYS wear a hard hat around the shop and stage), you don't want to climb down to get them, and you don't want to find them later by kneeling down on them and imposing significant pain on your kneecaps.
So what's a person to do?  As the 6th century B.C. Chinese military stratigist Sun-tzu wrote in The Art of WarKeep your friends close, and your enimies closer.  This is pretty easy:  Buy some magnetic wrist bands and tool pouches to keep track of those metal bits that are so easy to drop or mis-place.


MGD Tools (www.MGDTools.com) makes a group of products called Magnogrip.  Made from red and black Cordura with Velcro closures and super stron magnets, they are handy and comfortable to wear.  They offer wist bands, nail pouches, and other handy items.

And for those of you that watch too much late-night TV, the former master of TV huckstersim Billy Mays promoted the Tool Band-it.  Info here: https://www.asseenontv.com/tool-band-it-the-official-site-of-asseenontvcom/detail.php?p=296691&v=daily-deal_20110705

Similar tool bands by Pro-Hold can be found at: www.fastcap.com/estore/pc/ProHold-Magnetic-Wrist-Strap-4p27.htm

Key things to remember:
  • Magnetic parts holders are NOT a substitute for lanyards.  DO NOT rely on them at height to protect others below from dropped tools.  Use buckets and pouches that are secure to hold hardware when working at height.  Use buckets with webbing net slings - don't rely on the pail handle to stay secure in a plastic bucket's rim.
  • Magnetic wrist bands can really mess-up credit cards and driver's licenses that have the magnetic data stripes on them.  Keep them away from your wallet / purse.  They can also mess with the data on Hard Disk Drives that are in MP3 players, computers and stand-alone data back-up drives.
  • Magnetic wrist bands should NOT be worn when working near saw blades or anywhere that moving machinery might draw your hand / arm into the tool.  These magnets can be more powerful than you might think!

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