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WHY I PAINT MY TOOLS
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Jack-of-all-trades
May 11, 2001, 10:36:43 PM5/11/01
to
I post this everyonce in awhile. Some of the group think I
only do it to tick them off, but that is only a side benefit. LOL
Many of you are familar with this - and
some of you think I have stopped taking my dried frog pills. Nope, there
is a real reason behind it. As it keeps popping up at various times I
thought that rather than just posting it as a response in a thread I
would make it a separate topic, and those who are familiar (and/or
fedup) with it can skip it. This may turn out to be a bit longer than I
had planned, so some of the rest of you may wish to pass also. No prob.
I realize that painting your tools will not be for everyone.
Also, this is not a fairy tale or a war story. You can tell,
because a fairy tale always starts "once upon a time", and a war story
always starts "no bullshit, this really happened".
A bit of background. I have a headache.
Since 1980. Not headaches "plural", but one "singular". It gets better,
it gets worse, but always there. Depending on the doctor it is Post
Vietnam Stress Syndrome, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, etc., etc.
Meaning, they don't know what causes it or how to treat it. So I live
with it.
When I got my shop I painted all the
inside except the floor semi-gloss white. If there is a next time I will
use the brightest gloss I can find, and paint the floor too. It was
light colored wood and white paneling before, so it wasn't really dark,
but it was amazing the difference the paint made in lightening it up.
Once I started moving tools and stuff in
it wasn't quite so bright, even with a long florescent double tube
light. It is only 8X12 so that is adequate. But it was bright enough
that I could see very well.
At the time I had a Shopsmith Mark V I had
bought used with Shopsmith bandsaw and jointer, and a batch of extras,
for a very good price. Figured it would be best in the limited space I
had.
Anyway the Shopsmith grey got to be a bit
depressing. I think depressing is actually the wrong word here, but
basically looking at that industrial/prison color was putting me down a
bit. Plus it seemed to suck up some of the brightness of the shop. So I
decided it was my tool, I would just paint it to brighten the shop up a
bit (cheery bright is what I was going for).
So I got some forest green paint and
pantted the Shopsmith. Made it look a lot better, much more cheery
effect. And sucked up light photons like a black hole. The next obvious
step with a different color. Canary yellow. I tried it first on the
Shopsmith. Wow, what a difference. Made the thing look much better, the
"cheery" factor went up immensely too. The down side was, the paint was
water based and did not go on well at all. It is relaxing for me to
paint my tools, but it would have taken probably at least 4 coats to get
a half-way decent look. So picked another paint.
I couldn't find canary yellow in an oil
based paint, but did get bright yellow. Tried it on the Shopsmith, over
the canary yellow. Went on nicely enough (just wiped it off first, no
sanding or anything), had some spots to go over later - for best results
it should have two coats
- but sometimes I want to get on to other things, so just put the first
coat on pretty thick and touch it up later.
It was an added bonus how much it seemed
to brighten up the shop, almost seemed like I had put another light in.
But the big plus was that it made the shop much more pleasant to be in,
more cheery. Found out it was much more relaxing for me to be out there
than before. I don't know if it was the brighness, the color, or what,
but it was most definitely easier for me to relax and disregard my
headache.
Then I asks myself, "Self, if painting two
tools will do that, what will painting ALL of them bright yellow do?"
And self says, "I don't know but let's find out".
Even better. Made it seem even brighter
and more cheerful in there, plus I got the relaxation from painting then
the relaxation from being amid the bright tools. An unexpected benefit
was finding out then when you start losing hand power tools under piles
of sawdust, they are much easier to find when they are bright yellow.
And my sons won't borrow any thing from me that is painted yellow. LOL
About a year after I got the shop I
figured how to get stand-alone tools in, and sold the Shopsmith for a
couple of dollars more than I paid for it, and got some stand-alone
tools; small bench saw, bandsaw, wood lathe, scrollsaw, drill press,
etc. And proceeded to paint all of them bright yellow also.
I have been accused in the past of trying
to pass these off as DeWalt tools, or something. But a quick glance at
them will tell you they have been painted by hand, anyway the maker
labels are still visible. Painting your tools will not be for everyone.
But remember this, they are your tools, so if you do want to paint them
there are no rules or laws saying you cannot. In my case it was a
beneficial decision on several levels. My shop is for my relaxation. For
many years I had little or no opportunity for woodworking. One of my
dreams/fantasies was having a shop of my own. A few years ago I had the
opportunity to make it true. It was also a case of taking what I could
get at the time (an 8X12 shop) or maybe no shop ever. Being realistic I
took what I could get. Right decision too, if I had passed it up I don't
think that I will ever have the opportunity again. But on the off chance
I will ever be able to upgrade to a larger shop sometime in the
unforseeable future, it will be easy enough then to sell what I have
now.
My shop helps me relax, makes me feel
better (more "up" I guess you would say), and helps ease the headache.
It is enough sometimes just to know it is there, that is is mine and no
one elses. Sometimes I go out there for hours making something,
sometimes I just piddle around, sometimes I do a little and then just
sit for awhile, and sometimes all I do is just sit, listen to good music
on the radio, smell the sawdust, watch the birds and squirrels, and
don't think about anything much at all.
So now you know why I paint my tools. And
for the smart asses, I have a large fan in the window in the rear of the
shop that blows fresh air in when I am paintig, so I am not breathing in
anything but fresh air. Remember, it aint how big it is that counts,
it's how you use it. ROTFLMAO
only do it to tick them off, but that is only a side benefit. LOL
Many of you are familar with this - and
some of you think I have stopped taking my dried frog pills. Nope, there
is a real reason behind it. As it keeps popping up at various times I
thought that rather than just posting it as a response in a thread I
would make it a separate topic, and those who are familiar (and/or
fedup) with it can skip it. This may turn out to be a bit longer than I
had planned, so some of the rest of you may wish to pass also. No prob.
I realize that painting your tools will not be for everyone.
Also, this is not a fairy tale or a war story. You can tell,
because a fairy tale always starts "once upon a time", and a war story
always starts "no bullshit, this really happened".
A bit of background. I have a headache.
Since 1980. Not headaches "plural", but one "singular". It gets better,
it gets worse, but always there. Depending on the doctor it is Post
Vietnam Stress Syndrome, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, etc., etc.
Meaning, they don't know what causes it or how to treat it. So I live
with it.
When I got my shop I painted all the
inside except the floor semi-gloss white. If there is a next time I will
use the brightest gloss I can find, and paint the floor too. It was
light colored wood and white paneling before, so it wasn't really dark,
but it was amazing the difference the paint made in lightening it up.
Once I started moving tools and stuff in
it wasn't quite so bright, even with a long florescent double tube
light. It is only 8X12 so that is adequate. But it was bright enough
that I could see very well.
At the time I had a Shopsmith Mark V I had
bought used with Shopsmith bandsaw and jointer, and a batch of extras,
for a very good price. Figured it would be best in the limited space I
had.
Anyway the Shopsmith grey got to be a bit
depressing. I think depressing is actually the wrong word here, but
basically looking at that industrial/prison color was putting me down a
bit. Plus it seemed to suck up some of the brightness of the shop. So I
decided it was my tool, I would just paint it to brighten the shop up a
bit (cheery bright is what I was going for).
So I got some forest green paint and
pantted the Shopsmith. Made it look a lot better, much more cheery
effect. And sucked up light photons like a black hole. The next obvious
step with a different color. Canary yellow. I tried it first on the
Shopsmith. Wow, what a difference. Made the thing look much better, the
"cheery" factor went up immensely too. The down side was, the paint was
water based and did not go on well at all. It is relaxing for me to
paint my tools, but it would have taken probably at least 4 coats to get
a half-way decent look. So picked another paint.
I couldn't find canary yellow in an oil
based paint, but did get bright yellow. Tried it on the Shopsmith, over
the canary yellow. Went on nicely enough (just wiped it off first, no
sanding or anything), had some spots to go over later - for best results
it should have two coats
- but sometimes I want to get on to other things, so just put the first
coat on pretty thick and touch it up later.
It was an added bonus how much it seemed
to brighten up the shop, almost seemed like I had put another light in.
But the big plus was that it made the shop much more pleasant to be in,
more cheery. Found out it was much more relaxing for me to be out there
than before. I don't know if it was the brighness, the color, or what,
but it was most definitely easier for me to relax and disregard my
headache.
Then I asks myself, "Self, if painting two
tools will do that, what will painting ALL of them bright yellow do?"
And self says, "I don't know but let's find out".
Even better. Made it seem even brighter
and more cheerful in there, plus I got the relaxation from painting then
the relaxation from being amid the bright tools. An unexpected benefit
was finding out then when you start losing hand power tools under piles
of sawdust, they are much easier to find when they are bright yellow.
And my sons won't borrow any thing from me that is painted yellow. LOL
About a year after I got the shop I
figured how to get stand-alone tools in, and sold the Shopsmith for a
couple of dollars more than I paid for it, and got some stand-alone
tools; small bench saw, bandsaw, wood lathe, scrollsaw, drill press,
etc. And proceeded to paint all of them bright yellow also.
I have been accused in the past of trying
to pass these off as DeWalt tools, or something. But a quick glance at
them will tell you they have been painted by hand, anyway the maker
labels are still visible. Painting your tools will not be for everyone.
But remember this, they are your tools, so if you do want to paint them
there are no rules or laws saying you cannot. In my case it was a
beneficial decision on several levels. My shop is for my relaxation. For
many years I had little or no opportunity for woodworking. One of my
dreams/fantasies was having a shop of my own. A few years ago I had the
opportunity to make it true. It was also a case of taking what I could
get at the time (an 8X12 shop) or maybe no shop ever. Being realistic I
took what I could get. Right decision too, if I had passed it up I don't
think that I will ever have the opportunity again. But on the off chance
I will ever be able to upgrade to a larger shop sometime in the
unforseeable future, it will be easy enough then to sell what I have
now.
My shop helps me relax, makes me feel
better (more "up" I guess you would say), and helps ease the headache.
It is enough sometimes just to know it is there, that is is mine and no
one elses. Sometimes I go out there for hours making something,
sometimes I just piddle around, sometimes I do a little and then just
sit for awhile, and sometimes all I do is just sit, listen to good music
on the radio, smell the sawdust, watch the birds and squirrels, and
don't think about anything much at all.
So now you know why I paint my tools. And
for the smart asses, I have a large fan in the window in the rear of the
shop that blows fresh air in when I am paintig, so I am not breathing in
anything but fresh air. Remember, it aint how big it is that counts,
it's how you use it. ROTFLMAO
JOAT - Checked the library for free plans yet? Read the rec.woodworking
FAQ (splains SWMBO) http://www.robson.org/woodfaq/ rec.woodworking
Archives http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search
WWA Search http://www.woodworking2.org/index.htm
Cripple Creek (banjo, et al) http://www.rehler.com/sound/cripple.mid
Popcorn http://www.rehler.com/sound/popcorn.mid Cool Run
http://www.rehler.com/sound/coolrun_clearly.mid Czaldy Waldy (pipes -
medievel) http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark/emusic/midi/czaldy.mid
Brian Kerr
May 12, 2001, 6:03:44 AM5/12/01
to
I don't think I'll ever paint my tools but that was a great story
nonetheless! Thanks for the reading.
nonetheless! Thanks for the reading.
"Jack-of-all-trades" <Jakofal...@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:25951-3AF...@storefull-286.iap.bryant.webtv.net...
Dean Hanson
May 12, 2001, 8:39:23 AM5/12/01
to
JOAT,
Thanks for the post. As a lurking newbie (who probably should be lurking
more and posting less), I hadn't seen it before. Now I understand all the
affectionate references to "he who paints his tools".
It kind of reminds me of a carpenter friend of mine whe sprays all his tools
fluorescent (sp?) pink. They don't get lost, they don't get borrowed and
they don't get stolen.
Dean
Bob
May 12, 2001, 8:56:29 PM5/12/01
to
I honestly DO paint 99 % of my tools.... I am retired, and have 3 grown
children
and it was the ONLY way I could identify my tools in and under their cars
etc. when
they were teens...
Anyway my tools ( all machines, and most hand tools are painted a blue
color...)
first step when I buy a new tool is to grab the aluminum foil and spray
paint and go
to it...
children
and it was the ONLY way I could identify my tools in and under their cars
etc. when
they were teens...
Anyway my tools ( all machines, and most hand tools are painted a blue
color...)
first step when I buy a new tool is to grab the aluminum foil and spray
paint and go
to it...
Bob Griffiths
As an old car restorer...aluminum foil is the best masking tape ever
invented for
detailing engines, etc....
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