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Beats anything I’ve ever held, felt or smelled.

Started by Bibbyman, January 25, 2008, 04:39:39 PM

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Kansas

Some years ago we decided to install a bathroom at the mill. I went to home depot to get the toilet, sink , etc and asked for a small electric heater that we could recess in the wall. They looked at me like I was crazy-after all, this was in june. They didnt have a single electric heater of any kind available. They claim to cater to people doing home remodeling-wouldnt you think if someone is remodeling a room, they might like to install all the things they need during the remodeling? Makes wiring a lot easier.

okmulch

same thing hapened to me yesterday. went to lowes to get a new fire wood grate for the fireplace and just like the rest of you all were gone and the aisle was bare. they were replacing winter items with spring and summer items.

By the way temp here last week average 30 degrees.
Rotochopper b66 track, #2 Rotochopper b66 track, woodmizer lt40, CAT 277b, CAT 268b, CAT 287c, CAT 277c, CAT299d2, CAT299d3, CAT 299d3, Volvo 70e,volvo70f, volvo90f

beenthere

I figure the stores know exactly when the biggest volume of sales happen...and that is when they stock and hope they sell out all of their stocked items. Then they clear the shelves for the future items. It costs a lot of money to keep stock on the shelves....similar to members here that have lumber with its associated investment in time and labor, just waiting for someone to come and buy it.

I expect if I was running a store, and had to plan how much merchandise would sell and when, I'd do about the same.  Maybe keep one ash bucket in case Bibby came looking... ;D ;D ;D
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Reddog

Quote from: Corley5 on January 25, 2008, 09:23:20 PM
  I think grease still comes in steel buckets  ???

The last ones we got were plastic. :(


Bibbyman, Go to your local tinner and have him make you one. May cost you a 100 bucks but it will be local made and better quality than you can find any where else.

DanG

So BT, you're saying that Home Depot doesn't have what the customer needs because they're brilliant? ???  Now that's an interesting notion. :D :D

Back during the big energy crunch in the '70s, you know the one when gas prices soared to over 50 cents a gallon ::) , my Dad was working in a box store called Scottie's.  Lots of folks were putting in wood stoves and needed chain saws.  Some marketing genius determined that they should stock 2 saws in that store.  The truck came on Tuesday morning, and the 2 saws would be gone by noon.  The rest of the week, at least 50 people would come in looking for one, but there wouldn't be any until 2 more came the next Tuesday.

As far as stocking lumber?  I can't sell it if I ain't got it.  If I have 90 2x4s on hand and a customer needs 100, he goes to Lowes for the whole bunch.  He ain't gonna wait a half-hour while I dig out a log and cut 10 more, even though it will take him 2 hours to go to Lowes and back. ::)
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

stonebroke

TSC used to have a pto parts display. Lotsa stuff you could see if it fit and then go buy it and fit your farm mach. . I was told by somebody that worked there that display sold more per foot than anything else in the store. But the problem was it was all in two months. Stuff doesn,t break when you are not using it. So some genius beancounter decided that it wasn,t worth it and they took it out. Real service.

Stonebroke

SwampDonkey

Quote from: Bibbyman on January 26, 2008, 03:58:12 AM
The teen-age son of one of my ex-co-workers took the ashs out of the stove for dad while he was at work.  That shows some good initiative on his part.  But he put them in a cardboard box and set them in the garage.  He got home to the box on fire and the garage full of smoke. He didn't loose the garage or anything but he sure could have!

Yeah a neighbor of my grand parents did that twice, the first time wasn't scary enough. Darn near burnt the house down. Flames were going up the wall.


The little hardware store now doesn't stock like they did years ago, and I mean like 50 years or more ago. I often just bypass the local stores because I know the item isn't there. I use a galvanized 3 gallon pale for ashes. I also have a 5 gallon grease bucket (metal) that I've had for years, but it's on the way out. Damp basements make them bottom out. You mention the Mennonite store, we have one here to. Doesn't stock anything more than the other small hardware stores. Can't even by stovepipe or ash pales there either. They run that store like old Mr Wheeler, hardly anything your looking for. Good luck.  :D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

farmerdoug

A friend of mine used a cardboard box for ashes from a fireplace in the basement that was out for five days.  He forgot to take the ashes out that night.  The next morning while driving to work his mom who lived across the road called to tell him his house was on fire.  After he left for work his wife smelled some smoke and grabbed their baby and went across the house and left for the mother-in law's home.  Both exits are on the opposite side of the house as the master bedroom.  She called the fire department and ran back to the house.  When she looked in the front window the floor was gone.  She was one lucky lady.  Never cut corners like that with fire.
Doug
Truck Farmer/Greenhouse grower
2001 LT40HDD42 Super with Command Control and AccuSet, 42 hp Kubota diesel
Fargo, MI

rbhunter

I replaced the filter last year for the first time.

Just said something to my wife and she said when it quits working we are getting another one. She cleans the ashes out part of the time also. I am spoiled only empty the can about once every four days. I just suck them up each day and wait until it starts getting full to empty it.
"Said the robin to the sparrow, I wonder why it must be, these anxious human beings rush around and worry so?"
"Said the sparrow to the robin, Friend I think it must be, they have no heavenly father, such as cares for you and me."
author unknown. Used to hang above parents fireplace.

Bibbyman

We were shopping in an even bigger Super Wal-Mart about two weeks before Christmas.  I needed some thermal underwear and went back to the sporting goods section to look for the kind I like.  I found them but they were a lot higher in price than I wanted to pay.  I asked the clerk if they had any on sale being close to Christmas.  You never know where they may have a display of something..  Anyway, she said no, not yet but she had just got new close out prices on heavy hunting coats.  Here it was, not even officially winter yet and they were getting rid of the heavy coats.
Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

beenthere

rbhunter
Don't think that vacuum would work unless the fire is about out...according to the site at your link. Or isn't that true?   Says, live embers will burn holes in the filter.

So, am I right in thinking you let your fire go out every day, and then vacuum up the cool ashes?   ???
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

SwampDonkey

Why would you think you need to vacuum ashes from the fire chamber? A good old shovel and pale is clean enough, maybe have a little wire whisk handy to gather the tablespoon or so that may drop on the cement floor. The only vacuum I do is the clean out by the flu pipe, there is gray ash that gathers there, but it's inert and no ambers. I don't leave a full ash pale on the floor, I take it out immediately because even a few red ambers in there give off an odor.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

rbhunter

I usually wait until it is down to red coals but not always. It is usually hot and hard to keep a hand in there with welding gloves on. The coals are red and hot. I have even grabbed burning pieces of wood and moved them over while I vaccum under them. I replaced the first filter after 14 years last year. The nozzle is designed with a smaller hole in the end so it only picks up very small pieces of live coals. I have dumped it out back at night and you can see small red glows from the ashes. I am guessing they have to say that just in case but in my case I have never had a problem with the filter catching fire. I guess if the bucket was really full and there were enough of them they might burn a hole in the filter bet even doing that a few times I have not burned a hole in one. I still find the motor is still going after 15 years as much as I have used it. My wife burned her arm on the stove last week using short gloves while cleaning it out with the vac. Maybe I can take a pic and post next time I clean it hot. It got warm up in the fifties today so I let it go out or I would do it tonight.
"Said the robin to the sparrow, I wonder why it must be, these anxious human beings rush around and worry so?"
"Said the sparrow to the robin, Friend I think it must be, they have no heavenly father, such as cares for you and me."
author unknown. Used to hang above parents fireplace.

Don P

Shoveling them out does make a mess when that light ash poofs around. One trick somebody showed me years ago is to light a piece of newspaper and throw it in the cool stove to establish a draft. Then a good bit of that floating ash goes back into the stove.
We have a cute little stainless pail that I don't know what she paid for it. It sits on tile so I'm not too worried about it heatwise.
We used to keep the trashcan full of ashes down by the outhouse, grain scoop inside. There was a note of poetry on the top "if you tinkle add a sprinkle, if you poop add a scoop" worked pretty well for years. The septic started to break out last summer at one point, we've tried to be more concious of water use and it settled back down. I might be cleaning that little house back up this summer  :(.

Hard to believe somebody would be dumb enough to set a cardboard box of ashes in the garage to catch fire. I lit the backyard as a teenager  :-[ .

SwampDonkey

My basement is far from manicured. What can you do with a very old basement floor. A little ash dust mixed with the cobwebs just adds to the decor. They all get vacuumed once or twice a year. ;D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Bibbyman

A little off the subject but we have hard plastered walls and ceilings with a sand finish.  Spiders just love to make webs.  As much of the rooms are vaulted,  its hard to reach the things to get them down.  Christmas before last we did a major cleanup.  Had son Gabe get the vacuum cleaner out and use the extension to reach all those places that couldn't be reached before.  We went all over the house.  It not only did an excellent job of sucking up the webs,  but I think it set the spider population back a good little bit.
Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

SwampDonkey

They mostly come in on the wood. I smooshed a huge one in the wheel barrow last summer, she had a body the size of a gulf ball. I never saw such a huge spider in these parts.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Corley5

If you had an outdoor boiler you wouldn't need an ash bucket anymore  ;) ;D :)
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Bibbyman

I thought I'd update this topic.  Mary and I delivered an order to Clark, MO. this morning.  There is a large Mennonite population in the area and we always shop at a country store they have down there in a little spot of a town with about 10 houses. They have a lot of stuff for plain country folks there but I'd never seen an ash bucket.   Turned out,  they didn't have any. 

But we went on in to Versailles where they have a large independent farm supply store there.  It's like a supper market for farmers and ranchers.  We asked if they had ash buckets and were directed to their stove area.  There was a whole wall and down another of all kinds of stove accessories like pipe and so forth.  And!  They did have a stock of ash buckets and shovels, etc. - both in black steel and galvanized.  The price was a dollar lower than Westlakes in town but Mary spotted a little hand-written sign that had the prices knocked down to $15 something for the bucket and $4 something for the shovel.

We got a couple of other items and got to the checkout stand.  The prices rang up the higher price.  I made mention of the sign that said the lower price and the lady walked back to the back corner of the large store and came back with the sign.  She gave us the lower price without argument. 

One small, hard fought victory. But I still think the price was way too high for such a simple item.
Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

Furby

Found one in my scrap pile today in fair shape and no holes, guess you don't need it now though. :)

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