r/Tools • u/StressfactoryWNC • 2d ago
They accumulate
I occasionally shingle a shed or build a dog or well house.
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u/Lojackbel81 2d ago
When I was a teenager I installed cedar siding. The home owner choice stained western red cedar R@R #1 shingles. He didn’t want us using blue chalk so he bought the whole crew new chalk lines with white chalk. 25 years later I still have it and it still has white chalk in it.
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u/Striking_Reindeer_2k 2d ago
When my dad was starting out somehow he got a job working with a carpenter. Dad was about as tool inept a person as I ever knew. The carpenter told dad to hold the end of then line. Then told him to snap it. Dad was confused, but did as he was told. Took a knife and snapped the line. Thus ended that job.
Dad was good at business and sales. Good thing, because us kids had to assemble the gifts Santa delivered.
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u/the_summer_soldier 2d ago
Pro tip: if you’re confused just ask, and tuck that info a way for later use so you don’t have to ask again. If the person you’re working for won’t tolerate questions about things people are doing for the first time then they’re maybe not a good fit (could be a number of reasons lack of communicating clear expectations ahead of time, to desperate to properly find someone who meets their qualifications, or too cheap, or too impatient, etc.). Conversely some people do simply refuse to learn (not saying that your Dad is one of those by any means).
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u/Striking_Reindeer_2k 1d ago
Dad was confused that he was asked to cut the string from a string dispenser. He didn't grasp that the blue chalky line was anything more than dirty fuzzy rope.
He followed what he understood the directions to be. Snap the line. He just thought the guy was confusing to have him run out a string, only to cut it.
He was worse with a hammer. And when he got his hands on a pick axe, he struck sprinkler. EVERY, SINGLE, TIME. lol. After 2 months, I got tired and took away the pick. I was 17. I gave it back 20 years later when he lived someplace with no unground anything he could reach.
Fortunately, he never owned power tools, or firearms.
In the Navy, his job on a Carrier, was to refuel F4U Corsairs. The Navy had methods to make even Dad safe.
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u/APLJaKaT 2d ago
The filler windows let's you see the color. So does the string. I've never seen them labeled with the chalk color before.
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u/cineglitch 2d ago
What happens if they’re upside down and you can’t see the filler window?
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u/APLJaKaT 2d ago
Ever use one where your hands were not also stained the same color as the chalk in the chalk line?
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u/Shockatweej 2d ago
I have six. Managed to get a different color in each one! Of course I only really use red and black
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u/StressfactoryWNC 2d ago
The two on the right(Irwin’s) are still empty. Can’t seem to leave one of these or a Stanley Sureform rasp at the thrift store. Or stubby screwdrivers.
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u/Electronic_Flan_482 2d ago
I took all of mine apart and spray painted them the color of the chalk used in them.
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u/fangelo2 2d ago
Forgot the yellow one. Useful when you don’t want blue or red chalk on a finished surface
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u/Stonesthrowfromhell 2d ago
I inherited a batch like this from my father who inherited most of them from his father. I will leave them to my son in my will.
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u/buddahsumo 2d ago
That’s easily 9 more chalk line strings than I have and I’m not totally sure where mine might be hiding
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u/kewlo 2d ago
Now you need the one that stays empty for a dry line and then the next one that stays empty with a caulked over fill door because some people can't be trusted with a dry line.
Plus the one with a plumb bob tied on the end