Excessive packagiing

[masoth]

We all buy tools (I feel safe saying that ), but how much cheaper would they be if manufacturers reduced the packaging?
Let's say you buy a router - you also get a *^^*#@ great plastic box with extruded/molded plastic placement containers. What do you do with this "box" when you get home and into your playroom/shed/workshop?
Do you replace the router in the box after every use, or is it stored on a shelf showing-off its beauty and importance?

I've got miles of this stuff which I feel guilty about if I throw it out, and now and again I sort through it to find some elusive *^^*#@ special tool that will NEVER be used on any other thing.

If I could think of proper questions I'd start a poll regarding what is generally junk and what we all do with it, because, frankly, I get PO stepping over or walking round the stuff.

AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH

soth

[Honorary Bloke]

This is one of those yes and no issues, I think. For the bloke who just bungs it in his shed and leaves it, it's a PITA, but for folks taking tools to a job site, it's the bee's knees. I don't know about a router, but I keep all my nailers in their cases (to keep out dust and also because I take them along to other sites sometimes). I suppose it might be an idea for the makers to offer the cases separately as an option, so if you wanted one you could get it. But I can't see Bunnies stocking only cases, so it would have to be mail-order or the like.

Dunno. We'll see what others think.

[masoth]

"........ but for folks taking tools to a job site, it's the bee's knees."
True Bob, but I know a few tradies who store tools in a trailer and never in the original boxes - excess weight, and clutter.

Festool has stackable containers that join to make towers. That LOOKS clever but to get at the lowest tool is agony (I suggest).

soth

[Sir Stinkalot]

I never use them as you need to spend half an hour trying to make it all fit back into the plastic moulding. For some reason drills are always stored with the additional side handle semi attached at some limp angle so the lid can close, trying to replicate that angle is too difficult.

To the manufacturer they would cost very little so I guess they will keep supplying them.

My problem is with little items that attached themselves to a huge sheet or cardboard just to ensure that they have "shelf presence".

[DavidG]

Love the plastic boxes. (when they get lost)
When the tool shop looses the box from the display tool, and you are quick, you get a nice cheap tool.

ps Keep the nailers in their boxes. Loose the rest.

[silentC]

Agree with Stinky. If you could fit the thing back in the box without half disassembling it I'd use them more often. I still use probably 80% of the boxes that have come with tools I bought.

Some tools, like air guns, are easy. But I bought a set of air tools and you can't fit any of them back in the box without removing the nipple, so that's pointless. A bit of forethought when designing would help, but what do I expect for $89?

[Rossluck]

I can tell you that on building sites all over SE QLD these plastic boxes are breeding in and around rubbish enclosures. I've also noticed that people sell them on Ebay.


Speaking of packaging: every now and then I buy a toy for my children (this is a guilt related compensation for the "presents" I buy myself), and I'm always amazed at how well these toys are tied into the boxing. Has anyone else experienced this? For instance, a doll might be held onto a cardboard backing with about eight wire ties. Is there a concern in China with dolls escaping?

[joe greiner]

I hold before me a Ryobi 1/4" Core Box bit, UPC 0 33287 13690 2. The plastic case is a wonder to behold. To use the bit, first remove a plastic rivet on an upper flange. Then slide an outer housing upward to remove it from the main part of the case. Then, grasp the bit and tilt an inner lower housing forward. It has detents at 0 and 90 degrees. The bit itself is secured in a softer plastic (probably HDPE) bushing. It's so well secured, a pliers is needed to remove it.

'Tis a miracle of mechanical engineering.

Joe

[Ashore]

Got to agree about the plactic boxes they are a total pain to get the tool back into the box.
Have found a good use for a couple , took a sharp stanley knife and removed the inner moulding and put together two tool kits for the Daughters cars, sone plyers, can of tyre inflating wire cable ties screwdrivers duct tape gloves etc , just some get out of jail stuff, but thats the only use I have ever found for them
Rgds

[Wild Dingo]

They tend to breed around here... being a shocking bower bird I tend to go "mmmmm maybe??" and stick them under the bench under the lathe on the old t/s in the corner and there they remain... a couple Ive pulled and forced into service by breaking them in half and sticking screws nails etc that are random then they go back under the bench!!

On the other hand I actually find the foam blocks that others are moulded into bloody usefull ... make good moulds for glueups when veneering odd shapes and brilliant packaging when cut to shape the block things well so they dont shift in packaging... also a block rebated to fit on a table edge is a great damage avoider when moving it... thicker the better since then you can cut slots to fit pens etc

Ive read somewhere of a bloke using this stuff on his tool shelf never quite figured out what actual benifit it would have since Id think the tiny bubbles of foam would start falling out over time which for me anyway would be bloody annoying... also another used it in his router draw (I believe that was here on the forum actually) this one I intend to follow as I think its a brilliant simple idea

But the hard plastic cases are like the plastic oil containers... a pain in the bum until you can find a use for them... one shame is that theres rarely any tins with screw on lids around anymore remember the old Dr Pat and Capstain tabacco tins? bloody brilliant for storage of screws and such under the bench or a shelf set at eye height.

The cardboard wrapping or boxes are another thing entirely along with the plastic wrapping... on the other hand a good tool you know that comes with that greesed paper wrapped around particularily blades now that stuff is brilliant!!

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

I must be the exception that proves the rule.

Most of my cases are still in fairly regular use. eg. the angle-grinder (Metabo) still lives in it's original metal box, packed out with spare cutting & grinding wheels. I also have a range of nailing guns, from small bradders to big framers, that all live in their original plastic boxes, and battery drills... I'll swear those mongrels are breeding.

Mainly because these tools have large "footprints" if stored loosely, whereas left in the boxes I can store them all on one shelf, sorta like library books. I've found it actually takes up less space that way! It also helps to keep the tool specific bits'n'piecers (keys, wrenches, spare blades, fences, etc. etc.) alongside the tool and quick to find. Otherwise I'd be pulling hair trying to find that oddly-shaped dooverlacky I've never used before but I need it now!

Mind you, I won't stand for "awkward" cases. If the tool isn't easily replaced/removed I'll cut away some of the internal plastic moulding until it is! Why put up with the headache?

[journeyman Mick]

There was a time when most tools didn't come in boxes . I like 'em, keeps the dust off/out of them in the shed and makes them easier to stack, store and carry in/on the shed/toolbox/ute jobsite. If you don't like them give or throw them away. I know it's wasteful, but let's face it, the manufacturer has to wrap it in something that's going to prstect it in transit and from shoplifters.

Mick

[silentC]

My Senco finish nailer, RRP around $500, came in a nice plastic case with a little bottle of oil and a couple of allen's keys with little clip in spots moulded in the case. My Senco framer, RRP around $800 came in a cardboard box!

[WillyInBris]

I put most tools back in the plastic boxes, I get a bit anal about it at times.

Every now and then its fun to watch the wife put one of the tools back in the box it came from, I rolled around my workshop in laughter for five Min's the other day whilst I watched my wife trying to put the Bosh drill into the makita jigsaw box .

When she gave up I asked maybe she should try and put the jigsaw away that she was using, it then clicked , called me a dirty word and started laughing.

[old_picker]

AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHHGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


i am so glad someone posted about my pet hate
everything i buy is wrapped up in nuclear explosion proof packaging that you have to just about use a chainsaw on to access your product. I bought a sandwaich the other day and it was wrapped up in an airtight palastic wrap [ok thats reasonable] but to top it off they wrapped it up in a layr of industrial stranght tick film that supermn would be hard pressed to undo,,,,here i am, sitting outside 7/11, running late, scraeming and swearing trying to extract my lunch from this stickey coil of stuff that no matter how hard i tried i could not penetrate. I had to get out, go to my toolbox and get a xacto knife so i could slash my way into what turned out to be a soggy stale smelling lump of goo.

NOT HAPPY

Dunnio how many tools I have bought that i have needed to saw through the toughest plastic film known to man which has been sealed up airtitght with a melted double seal that would test any muscle bound 20 year old. Tear it open with your teeth ??? NAH it would rip out your teeth or snap your jaw tendons before the plastic gave way

What is it all about??
A secret plot to add exercise to our sedentary life style??
A miltary development plan aimed at developing a package that no human can compromise??
A plot by terrorists to drive us all mad??

Personally I think it is a terrorist plot to make us all weak from opening so much packaging that we will easily succumb to the occupying armies offereing us sandwiches in paper bags and new tools in simple cardboard boxes

End of rant