Having the Right Tool For The Job

I don’t consider myself a wimpy man by any means, but last summer what I was working to replace the rotor on my front braking system, I couldn’t for the life of me, get a nut off.  Now matter how hard I pulled or pushed or how many of the tricks I tried, the nut wouldn’t budge!  At one point in desperation I even took a hammer and was taping the wrench handle with it, trying to get the nut to loosen.  I know this was a dumb move, but I tried it anyway, realizing that there might be the possibility that the screw that the nut was on might break.  Still it wouldn’t budge!  This is when I learned that instead of “brute forcing” a problem, to instead use the right tool for the job to make the task quicker and easier!

Finally, I was telling a friend at work and he said why not just go to Autozone and borrow a breaker bar?  A breaker bar is a swiveling socket attached to handle the length of a small broom!  Sure enough, I borrowed that (Autozone has a great policy about such things), and with just a bit of pressure applied, sure enough the nut twisted off like it was taken off the day before (which obviously it wasn’t, lol).

My experience ended well, but such is not always the case!  I was luck to have a friend with a great suggestion about I tool I forgot about and never used previously.  But back when I worked for a construction company, I saw something that task that ended up being an expensive operation for another construction company.

You see there were two building that were fairly close to one another and something between them needed dug out to be fixed or replaced.  While I was working with the construction company that I was working for at the time, I noticed a few guy daily going into this narrow strip and digging and wheelbarrowing out loads after loads of dirt.  It look like a hard process and they were still working on it the construction job we were working on was finished.  I remember thinking there must be an easier, quicker way of going that task.  Later, I was looking through a magazine and came across something called mini excavators.

mini excavator

These handy little machines would have been perfect for the task that I saw the other company’s construction men working at.  I think if it were me, I would have rented one of those bad boy mini excavators and did the job in 1 day with just 1 guy doing the job (or maybe two days at the max).

Now I understand that planning and a little bit of research can you find the tools to make a job smoother, better looking, and less labor intensive!

I guess my stories could be summarized as “look before you leap”, meaning get the right tool for the job before you start the job!

Best,

Don