Overheard a guy at the supply house in Cleveland say he'd been using a 3/8-inch drive impact to set tube sheet nuts for a decade.

I mean, how do you even keep the threads from getting wrecked, or is that just a 'get the job done' kind of move I've been overthinking?

4 comments

4 Comments

vera_johnson93mo ago

That "get the job done" mindset explains so many shortcuts you see everywhere.

seth_shah2mo ago

Starts with people convincing themselves the shortcut won't matter this one time. Then it becomes a habit, and suddenly you're justifying work that barely holds up under normal use. The real problem is that most folks don't stick around to see the consequences, they just move on to the next job. So the person who has to deal with that wobbly fix later ends up wasting twice the time undoing it. Shortcuts are fine when the stakes are low, like a temporary patch that gets replaced properly. But acting like that's the standard way to work just passes the mess down the line.

henryp403mo ago

Man, that's a wild move. Makes my old habit of using a crescent wrench as a hammer look almost professional, doesn't it?

fiona_west213mo ago

Honestly though, where do we draw the line between a clever shortcut and just doing it wrong? Some of those "get it done" fixes cause bigger problems later. Feels like a slippery slope.