Re: FOUND A HANDY SHOP TOOL

[Upscale]

Tools like that have been commonplace and found in stores that sell products for the disabled for years. I own three variations of your example. As small as picking up a dime from the floor or a different grabber for changing a light bulb that is normally out of reach, it's all just matter of asking the right person what they use. :)

It's called > Xtend-A-Hand. This site prices them at $23, which is a lot pricey. > > I've got a bad back. If I drop something metal in the shop, I've > got a large speaker magnet, on a string, I use to pick it up. But, if > it's something the magnet won't pickup, I'm SOL, and gotta get down and > grab it. The getting down isn't bad, it's the getting back up. > > I'd seen something similar, but couldn't find any locally, so > checked eBay. They had these at about $5.99 each, plus shipping. I was > looking for a bit better price, and found cases of 24, going for about > $34.99, plus shipping, whch came up to just under $50, total. So got a > case. Figured I could have one or two in the house, one in the truck, > couple in the shop, and give some away. > > Got them the other day. Wish I'd ran across them before. Earlier > this evening I spend about 15 minutes picking stuff off the floor of my > shop. I couldn't have done as much in two hours before. They aren't > going to last a lifetime, but they're good enough to last quite awhile, > if you don't abuse them too badly. Then I'll always have a spare or > two. And, no, I'm not associated with them, just a happy customer, as > they say. I also was able to get at two video tapes, without moving my > stacked bookcases. At last. >

[George G]

My brother built one just like it. He used it to handle rattlesnakes. No fooling. George

[Mark & Juanita]

I've found the business end of a shovel to be a more cost-effective and permanent solution to that problem. :-)

[Silvan]

of those things without remembering my dear, departed great aunt.

She jumped out of a hay loft as a girl, and dislocated both of her hips. Nobody ever noticed. The balls on the ends of her femurs wore new sockets into the bones of her hips, and she got around pretty well for awhile. Eventually, the awkward angle of her legs blew out her knees, so she had to get knee replacements done back in the '60s. She had huge railroad track scars from the middle of her shins halfway up her thighs. This bought her some good years, but not many. By the '70s she was having real trouble getting around again. She spent most of her life dependant on a walker. Eventually got the hips replaced, but it was too little, way too late, and she never walked without pain.

She used those things to get to cans on the top shelf, to get pans out from under the cupboard, etc. and so forth. She had a dozen of them.

I miss you, Edith. You picked a strange messenger.

[Gerald Ross]

Sounds like the one my brother tells, about the wife who came home with

3 mail boxes. They were on sale.

I use a similar device to pick up pine burrs. My pickup magnet is a 3/4' rare earth magnet on the end of a length of broomstick. Not only picks up dropped screws but finds odd bits of metal, metal shavings and filings that I wish had stayed lost.

[Wes Stewart]

|In article , | [e-mail] says... |> My brother built one just like it. He used it to handle rattlesnakes. |> No fooling. George |> |> | | I've found the business end of a shovel to be a more cost-effective and |permanent solution to that problem. :-)

That's what I use too. A square one of course.