I have always been a believer in spending some money up front to have a good selection of common fasteners and parts for future projects. My wife thought it was a complete waste of money until she had her quilting machine delivered and the tech setting it up was missing a bolt. She sent him to me upstairs in the office and I asked which material he wanted. He was kind of perplexed - finally he said "Steel, I guess." I can see he is confused so I tell him that I have the bolt he needs in 18-8 and 410 stainless, grade 8 steel, grade 5 steel, or garbage can steel. I also happen to have that size in nylon. Then I ask him how many he needs. He mumbles "Just one."

OK, so what does that have to do with our old Ford trucks? A number of years ago I purchased a 382-piece O-ring kit of top-quality Nitrile. It has saved my butt both at work (on pneumatic and hydraulic systerms) and at home on plumbing, etc. many times. I just had gotten my order of replacement O-rings last week so the kit was full.

Today I went out in the cold garage to take a couple of photos for some fellows who needed info on radiator supports. I had just this morning taken a couple of O-rings from my kit to fix a leak on the water softener and the kit was open and sitting on top of the short step ladder. You know what's coming.

As I set up the lights for the photos, I bumped the ladder and the O-ring kit hit the floor while it was open. A few curse words later, I picked up the case to find that, not only did the big O-rings that sit in round wells go flying, but many of the smaller ones that are supposed to be captured by plastic "Tees" had come out as well.

Did you know that round things roll? They do. Quite a distance it turns out - even on a dirty concrete garage floor. I now have a sore back and cut finger, but I have found every single O-ring.

Barb cheerfully said "All you have to do is put 'em back." Yeah, right. Those of you who have worked with O-rings know that the smallest sizes (-006 through about -010) and largest sizes (-222 through -327) are fairly easy to tell apart. The middle sizes (-011 through -221) are not so clear-cut. The differences are small and some are almost the same diameter, but have slightly different cross sections (larger or smaller diameter nitrile rounds that form the O-ring).

I think I mentioned that the garage floor was dirty - so first I had to carefully clean each O-ring as any grit from the floor would surely be a source of future swear words. Now my hands hurt as well as my back. It seems at first glance that putting two loose O-rings on top of each other would be the easiest way to tell different sizes - but it's not. Try it with a big assortment if you don't believe me.

Thankfully, a long time ago, one of the old timers at the Ford dealer's garage where I worked showed me the "hang 'em" method of sorting O-rings. The first attached photo shows the method. Any straight and relatively small diameter item will work - I used a pencil.

The second photo is the cleaned and sized O-rings back in their case.

I just needed to write this out, and now I'm all calmed down. I'm getting too old for this kind of crap.

 

If you are like me you knew this was going to happen when you put them on top of the ladder. I know a lot of times before hand and do things like this anyway.

 

Well George, I gotta laugh. It seems like you had a "Murphy Day!"

I used to do the same sorts of things when I was small and making my self at home in Dads Garage (he did the cars and trucks thing). My grandfather was a pattern maker and had the most phenominal wood shop. I remember how mad he used to get when I would go in there and pound about 100 nails into a piece of wood.

Dad being a Navy man had a couple of catchy phrases that he used to "project at us" regularly when something went awry in the shop. The most famous one was when he held an inqusition to find out who had left the mess on the work bench and not put the tools away....it never was one of us so maybe we had a gremlin come in and do it. Funny how it continued even after I left home. In this case, the Daddly phrases that come to mind are: "Watch where you're walking," and "Put stuff away when your done with it."

I hope that helps!!!! LOL !!!!! Old codger garage griping payback time! tee hee!

Just teasing Goerge! Your o-rings look very nice!

 

All I can say is; lucky for you, George, you didn't have anything else better to do today. ;-)

thanks for sharing. ;-)

 

I turned over a 1/4 inch socket set in the garage last week, it's amazing just how far something can roll and hide when it's droped. I know how you fill about trying to tell the sizes of o rings when they are so close in size my big thing at work is drill bit sizes, seems like the older I get the harder it is to read the size of the bit. I finally took me a index card to put in my tool box at work.

 

And not to mention SAE or metric; then again, Torx, Allen, Phillips, slotted, combination; then again oval, pan, hex, round, flat, socket cap…, ad nauseum. My Jeep looks like it was put together during a Chinese fire drill and most probably was. What happened to the day when a 1/2” and 9/16” wrench could take 70% of your vehicle apart?

<o></o>I must say I did not inherit my Dad’s organization skills. He kept all his tools in a junk drawer. They primarily consisted of a screwdriver, pliers, and a hammer. My mother was to blame when they were not in the drawer. He made the father’s (Darren McGavin of A Christmas Story) cussing look like a greenhorn.
<o></o>
Not to follow in my Dad’s footsteps, I upped the organizational ante. I downloaded a hardware catalog w/pictures. I printed every nut, bolt, screw, etc. I owned and taped them to the front of a several parts organizers.
<o></o>
When I go, I can individual name who gets SCREWED!

 

Now THAT'S funny.

 

Earl been there done that only I think the 1 I knocked over was twice that size when I worked at NAPA lol it sucked!

 

Yep, totally would have just ended up in a box all jumbled together in my garage, lol

 

George,

Thanks for the chuckle. Its comforting to know that we all do the same stupid things. I think the only thing that can spread farther on a garagqe floor would be a quart or two of transmission fluid (I won't go into the details of how I know) but a quart and a half of automatic tranny juice can cover the floor of an average 2 car garage in approx 2.3 seconds

Glad you had a good day in the shop....lol
Bobby

 

It's an axiom that dropped sockets, nuts, bolts, washers, etc. always roll to the furthest point from you, under the car, or under a cabinet.

 

With my problems (health) not mental.....I cannot feel anything in my fingers on my right hand.....so I drop alot of stuff.
I feel your agony.....alot of picking up.

 

George - Thanks for making us all feel normal. How many times has something similar happened to me over all these years. It sound like you have your stash a bit more organized than I do mine, but I'm not bad. A few years ago I got tired of fishing through coffee cans and built myself this cabinet to keep everything together. Hardware on one side, book shelf on the other. Works great. Except I've still got more coffee cans and small parts organizers than I have drawers. Oh well. Stu

 

Yup ,you knew that was going to happen when the o-ring box was placed there . Life is a learning expierence .
Being quite the organized person all fasteners , screws, dowels stainless and etc. are separted in thier own compartments . This is the only way I can operate . Every thing in it's place . I did not inherit that trait from my Dad.Maybe developed a little OCD over the yrs.
Before the shop was built used to go to my buddy's for a certian nut ,bolt washer & etc. All his hardware was in a 5 gallon bucket . Had a hard time with that .Emptying it out on the floor every time ended real fast .
Another wood shop buddy is the most unorganized I have ever seen .Every thing ,And I mean everything ends up on the floor .Open 5 gallon containers of waste lacquer thinner , stain , you name it . Get this he smokes cigarettes . I am waiting to read the paper one morning to here he blew himself up .I refuse to go there anymore .
It is like me having glass for door panels in the shop .A gauranteed breakage .

 

George,

next time before you set the box on the ladder... call imperial supplies (or Imperial Supplies LLC) and get a catalog... lots of truck/hardware and such... in the hardware section (b-25) there is a nice o-rings gauge page where you can lay the orings and size them by diameter and cross section... both metric and fractional sizes charts..

just saying..... 'cause youknow you're gonna do it again !

later
John