Packaging - Protection - PITA!

[charlie b]

I understand that when you get a new piece of equiptment that has cast iron parts, you should figure on spending some time getting the cosmoline. or whatever their using as rust protection, off. It's kind of like the first steps of getting to know the unit.

BUT - the SOB who came up with plastic shrink wrap packaging desreves a good wack up side the head. I know it's real convenient for the store owner - easy to display, harder to steal etc. . However, from the buyer/ customer perspective - we shouldn't have to have metal shears to open the damned packaging to get to the thing we paid for!.

Now, after spending 45 minutes getting that semi gummy clear "dipped to protect it" crap off a mini-cope & stick /raised panel router bit set I think I have a new candidate for the Take Him / Her Outside & Give Him/ Her A Good Wack Up Side The Head Award. Some of this stuff on a dado bit or even a round over bit isn't a blood pressure raiser. This stuff on this set is. Getting this crap off the bearing between the upper and lower cutters of each of the three bits got me initially mumbling to myself (think the classic A Christmas Story - you'll shoot you're eye out), then cussing out loud - in Spanish ( neighbors have small children - who, oddly enough, don't speak Spanish - a rarity in Calif.) I mean, words I haven't heard, let alone said out loud, since the last Carnival I "participated in" back in Panama in the mid 60s ( some of it I didn't remeber the next day. BTW - if you drink enough to not remember the next day - just pass out. If you stay on your feet after your brain stops working you might wake up the next day engaged. DAMHIKT)

EI even used words in Spanish that sound terrible but aren't actually cuss words - chuleta -pronounced "CHOOOOOO-letuh!" - which means "porkchop" and ajo - pronounced "AHHHHH HOE!" which means garlic. Even went into Espanglish - "Mira, what kind of Pendejo would think this mierda up?"

So packaging folks - if you're listening - STOP IT!

charlie b

[Lee Michaels]

Give 'em hell Charlie!

I remember taking a business class years ago from a biz history professor. He was fond of asking off the cuff, spontaneous questions at the beginning of each class on unrelated biz topics. I never forget one day.

He asked the question, "How does a manufacturer know when his product is packaged properly?"

Being the young smartass I was, I answered, "When you have to destroy the product to open the package." This was met with much laughter.

The instructor grinned and made a remark to the effect that was exactly the case from time to time.

[alexy]

LOL! I've always felt there is a special place n Hell reserved for the designer of that packaging, right next to the individuals who invented the "easy to remove" stitching on the top of charcoal bags (am I the only one that is able to put the right string only about 10% of the time?) and the inventer of old band aid packaging with the string that occasionally let you rip open the side if the package, but usually just pulled out of the sleeve.

[Lew Hodgett]

You obviously didn't spend any time as a kid on the farm opening burlap bags full of feed.

You learn how to pull the right string to open the bag before the end of the first day.

Trust me.

Lew

[alexy]

Oh, I don't doubt you for a minute. It's when you do it once every 6 weeks that it gets to be a challenge. And you are right; I didn't.

[Leon]

You and I, Alexy must be AR in this respect. I too spend way too much time trying to guess which end and side of the bag to remove the string. And, what does it accomplish? You eventually end up with an open bag just like if you simply cut the top off. LOL

[edswoods.1]

....and then there was the nonstick teflon frypan I coudn't get the label off of. I was hungry, too.

[Mike Richardson]

Charlie,

Share the frustration, as do we all probably. I worry when I am trying to peel the sealing goop off router bits, do I slice my finger, or do I damage the edge by using a knife/pointy object, or do I throw it against the wall and hope the stuff falls off...

Course if I buy better router bits CMT say, they are not immersed in the semi solid plastic rubbish.. :-) good excuse for SWMBO.

Mike

Snip

[Mark & Juanita]

The secret to those feed or other paper bags with the tear string & strip? Grasp the string, tab and all at one end of the bag with one hand, brace the bag with the second hand. Pull sharply, tab, stitching, and paper covering across the entire bag, ripping the top off the bag at the stitch lines, enjoy product inside.

From experience with paper feed bags. The fastest way to open supplements while grinding feed was to rip the top off in the above described fashion.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[Rick Samuel]

A CMT bull nose arrived on Monday, same semi-solid-plastic-rubbish-dip, But after cleaning, works great.

[CW]

Use a pointy object made of mild steel, brass, ect. Won't hurt a thing.

[charlie b]

Great, now I have to make a tool, out of a metal that's not intended to hold an edge, in order to get the goop off the the tool that is intended to hold an edge so I can use it?

That'd take "Fixin' To . . ." to new heights, or more aptly - depths.

charlie b

[CW]