To what lengths will you go to avoid a trip to hardware store??

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Vtshopdog

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LOL:
The female coupling on my garden hose broke earlier today.  I had two 1/2" spares laying around but hose is 5/8" and proceeded to spend maybe 20 minutes scabbing together a functional unit by chopping up and modifying parts of a new 1/2".  Involved sketchy knife cutting and filing out an inside diameter.  Kinda silly, but when done realized that I do this kind of stuff all the time out of expedience, simple fact that stuff is laying about and semi delusional thought that "it'll only take a sec"

Cutting down bolts.  Fabricating ad hoc tools.  Electrical repairs with contact cleaner and solder.  Dominoing pieces of scrap ply together to make a larger piece (real life board stretching???).  Beer can shims and most everything that involves JB weld.....

Anybody else??
 
It's 15 minutes one-way to my closest store of any kind, which is hardware luckily, so I consolidate trips and plan ahead whenever possible.
 
Lowes is exactly 2.2 miles from my house.  Home Depot is even closer, and is across the street from the Starbucks where I get my coffee each morning.  Sears used to be even closer.

There are two more Home Depots one about five miles south and and the other about 8 - 10 miles north.

So I might visit the store twice in one day. (And get an extra cup of coffee as a bonus.)
 
If I am doing a plumbing job, no telling how many trips I will make.
 
Yardbird said:
If I am doing a plumbing job, no telling how many trips I will make.
Click to expand...
Long ago I decided my quality of life would be improved with fewer trips to the bigbox store. So now I spend more time planning purchases and try to consolidate my trips, including for future jobs.

However, for plumbing jobs, I bank on the store having a fireproof return policy. I buy an extra of any fitting I know I'll need and probably one of any I think I might need. On larger jobs that means parting with some serious change up front, but it saves so much time and hassel I'm ok with that. Any money I see from returns, I tend to view as a tip to myself for sticking to my "less bigbox stores" plan. [big grin]
 
Vtshopdog said:
"

Cutting down bolts. 
Fabricating ad hoc tools.
Dominoing pieces of scrap ply together to make a larger piece (real life board stretching???). 

...most everything that involves JB weld.....

Anybody else??
Click to expand...

Guilty as charged...

I'm burning thru years of material hoarding, you know when you need 2 bolts and buy the 2# box so you have extras just in case.

Came in handy during Covid-19. 

RMW
 
I only purchase additional plumbing items and lumber, everything else can be more closely controlled/measured. With a little extra planning, it's amazing how well quantities can be controlled.

Menard's has a bomb proof return policy, just keep the receipts and I've taken back stuff that was purchased 9 months earlier...no questions. If you lost the receipts, they also have several machines on-site that allow you to retrieve the receipts from 6 months ago. In both of these cases, your credit card will be immediately credited.

If neither of the above are possible because you lost the receipts and cannot retrieve the receipts, then as long as the returned part has a Menards sku number, Menards will issue an in-store credit ticket that can be used immediately.

Pretty bomb proof... [cool]
 
Too often I've gone to the local hardware store to find that packages of screws and bolts are ripped open and stolen.  It's sad.  Now I just avoid it altogether and buy bulk, either aliexpress (I often use metric) or through online tool retailers if it's imperial.  Plumbing fittings are a mix, as I'll stock often used elbows and stuff but one-off reducers might get the in-store treatment.
 
Likewise, & it seems like lots of DIY plumbing is largely cobbled together, with lots of transitions between disparate materials and manufacturers. Unlike wood and metal projects where you're mainly resizing big stock to small and then attaching pieces together.

We've got 30 year old copper connected to 15 year old pex to a brass valve to vinyl flex line to plastic filter to another flex to a faucet.... That's just one recent water filter install.

I don't even try to keep many parts on hand outside of stuff like crimp rings, but am fortunate to have a well stocked Ace within biking distance. Ditto, buy 2 of every likely fitting and return unused stuff, keeping a little on hand inventory.

I did find a use for a sheet of hard backer board and several 2 by 4 sheets of .030 aluminum I had onhand last week, plus a couple tubes of 2022 vintage Fuze. Laminated together awaiting paint to use for panels in an outdoor cabinet. Pre-covid I probably would have ordered a sheet of MDO.

RMW
 
I have junk, supplies and materials. All sorts of stuff. Depending on how long it takes me to locate what I need, I often save time. Staying out of the store is a wonderful way to get more done.
 
Going to the stores isn't the joy it used to be where you'd find unusual things and/or incredible bargains, the inflation rate here in OZ has pushed so much stuff up that going to the hardware store is about as enjoyable as grocery shopping.

For myself anything I've needed I've always bought in bulk if I knew I would use it even semi-regularly, so it's only when I run out of something in particular that I can't substitute something else for, or a new project requirement that I'll go out.

The exception is the timber yard I frequent once every few months, I don't mind going there as the prices are good, and they often have oddball stuff, like Jarrah shorts in 150 x 25mm DAR for around $8 l/m which is a sensational price! For the lounge I even picked up some really old stock of 290 x 19 white oak DAR that was just beautiful for $25 l/m, again an amazing price, especially for such nice grain and cut.
 
Specialty trade stores are in a different realm for me. I don't mind those. In fact, they can be mentally stimulating to the point I'll spend too much time perusing or making a pest of myself asking so many questions. Knowledgable salespeople with real-world experience responding in articulate and nuanced terms never cease to amaze.

And a good hardwood store? 9am-5pm easy. I'm joking, kinda. But lately, I'm finding myself the last one out. I'm that guy strapping wood to the racks in an otherwise empty parking lot.

 
A little under an hour from home, kinda along my typical travel route, is Joseph Fazzio industrial supply, Glassboro NJ. I don't know the history but they have perhaps  40-60 acres and there is the old building, housing surplus stuff, and a much newer building with metals and new industrial hardware. If you are building a bridge or need to repair your crane or dredge, this is the place you go for stuff.

The surplus building is open to wander around in, as is the "retail" area for industrial hardware. I am seldom the oldest old guy wandering around in a daze, it's easy to burn a few hours there. Recently they had this sheet material, I couldn't rationalize out anything I "needed" it for:

[attachimg=1]

There is a ton of random hardware in the shop I did "need", or will someday.

RMW
 

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These days, I'll often fire up my CNC to make something rather than going to the store --- case in point, most recent project was (finally) undoing the ghastly "install" of an exterior light post vinyl siding which had the light connected through the gaps in the shutter of a nearby window (Exhibit #1 that people who willingly choose to do vinyl siding are idiots).

I sourced an exterior LED light fixture from the nearest hardware store, then had to make a run to Lowe's to get a receptacle box suited for installation into siding after the fact, but the two parts didn't quite line up, so I made a small piece on my CNC:

6e8fb9770f2afed09e2db83c222b096450f41727.jpeg


(the round part)

rather than try to find a box suited to installing an exterior light onto siding.
 
Generally, if the trip to the store saves me time I will most likely make that trip nowadays. However, it's not that I haven't fiddled with/ or repaired something that I could have more easily and time-sensitve/cheaply replaced with a trip to a store ...

Sometimes I'm all over such a repair and get caught up in it, sometimes it's: "nah, definitely not today ...".

Kind regards,
Oliver

 
I miss the Sears Hardware store. I have a variety of hand tools I picked up during a browse through the store.
 
[member=8712]Richard/RMW[/member] that lumber core mdf looks like the perfect material to build Systainer cabinets, if only you had the space.

After living in the same place for 40 years my shop big tool stack requires an episode of 3D Tetris to find the thing I know I have (probably multiples) so it’s faster to go to the store and buy another when needed.
 
Yea [member=297]Michael Kellough[/member] unfortunately anything larger that a box of screws requires serious consideration about where I could put it. I did create a few SF of open worksurface this winter by hauling a bunch of stuff that had accumulated back into the house, felt like a major upgrade.

RMW
 
I am taking steps to go less frequently in the future.  First I am planning to standardize on GRK screws so I can buy the sizes I need in bulk to hopefully have enough on hand when needed.  Second, I am planning to build a small parts/fasteners storage solution.  Right now I have all this type of stuff in two sided cases I think I got at Home Deport.  This requires me to often look at both sides to find what I need.  Next time I will go to one sided cases with bigger compartments to hold more of what I need/use and less of what I do not.  If anyone has a case they like and built a cabinet to hold the cases please let me know.  Third I can now stock up on sheet goods and hardwoods because I built a spot to store sheet good under my out feed table and I built a shelf to store hardwoods. 

Like [member=44099]Cheese[/member], I am a Menards fan. The prices around me are better than HD or Lowe’s.  Customer service is great.  And as those who have been in one will tell you, they have a little bit of everything.
 
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