ShopTalk Sunday: No SB? Backup and Cost Cutters

Or: Why Domains Matter When the Game Is On and the Store Is Closed

(OK, there is a ShopTalk: Pay reader Egor the “over.”)

We’re Not “Game”

Super Bowl Sunday is a funny day.

Half the country is focused on a ball game, the other half is pretending they don’t care, and somewhere around kickoff a surprising number of things break.

That’s not an accident.

It’s the day when you discover—usually mid-project—that you didn’t think through backups. Or worse, that you didn’t even notice you were missing them.

Uh-oh trips to the hardware store (2-3 drinks – or more – into it) are not uncommon.  Another reason not to drive after noon local time today. But, I digress.

Because this concept – things breaking at rude times – brings us to domains and the systems engineering view of how Life really operates. (Or, dumps.)

Domains: What’s Missing in Your Shop?

A domain is simply a way of looking at the world that filters what you notice and what you don’t.  Life when you get past the “rose-colored glasses” fairytales.

When you’re in the sports domain, you see teams, odds, commercials, and snacks. Pageantry, and they’re coming for your wallet and behavior. Selling you stuff you don’t need. Or, more of what’s bad for you (or your financial statement).

Today we can contrast that with when you’re in (marginally more sane) shop domain. Here, you see materials, tolerances, joints, and finish quality. Actual deliverables.  More than a cheap 2-hour buzz worth.

Most mistakes happen when you stay locked in one domain too long. Which is why I try to visit the love/relationship, the shop, the electronics, the gardening/ranching/tree farming, and the financial domains every day.  Balance, right?

You take the high art of “building a deck.” When you “pick up the hammer and saw” you’re really navigating multiple domains at once.  Understudies of The DUDE actually live for this “Jr. Creator Training.”  We sample:

  • Workflow
  • Tooling
  • Materials
  • Consumables
  • Time

Miss one, and the project stalls—not because you lack skill, but because you lacked perspective.

Certainly, not as complicated as The DUDE’s unlimited domains over all times, places. and spaces.  We don’t get to cobble on the Natural Section Model over a billion years.  We just have projects to get done before Monday.

The Workflow Domain: How Almost Everything Gets Built

A cornerstone of the Peoplenomics mindset here: we break nearly all construction—physical or conceptual—into the same (bite-sized) workflow:

Materials on hand ? Measure ? Cut ? Join ? Finish ? Deliverable

That sequence is deceptively simple, and it hides a trap.

Most people plan the cut and join steps. Professionals plan the failure points.

Where does work stop if something breaks? That’s where backups live.

Tooling Domain: Three Classes of Backups

Backups aren’t just “extra tools.” They fall into three clean categories:

  • Hand tools
  • Power tools
  • Consumables

If you’re missing backups in any category, the workflow can halt.

Hand Tools to Backup

These are cheap insurance and absolute show-stoppers if missing:

  • Measuring tapes (plural) – These generally drop into sub-space before a project.
  • Markers and pencils – These drop into sub-space during projects.  Carry two or three.
  • Screwdrivers – For use when you discover that (amazingly) there are bad screws out there.
  • Saw blades – Which we also saw a minute ago, but since we don’t have time to search all of sub-space right now…we keep spares.
  • Drill bits – Which also live in sub-space, making random appearances on the planet’s surface.

If you’ve ever had a tape snap mid-measure and spent 20 minutes hunting for another, you already know the lesson.  The trick is finding the sub-space portal, but this takes longer than we have to explain.  Oh, and there’s no Time-Life or Sunset DIY picture book “how-to” on that rabbit hole.

Power Tools to Backup

This is where people get weirdly optimistic. Being bigger they don’t disappear into sub-space as often. Instead, they belong to a “special class of tools.”  The kind that fail at impossibly inconvenient moments.

We don’t take this challenge lying down. Minimum standards at my place:

Drill and impact driver backups
If they’re not the same brand, stock extra batteries.
Batteries get tired after ~2 years. Chargers rarely make it past 5.

Whole tools
Portable drills and impact drivers are worth doubling up on.
Watch for 2-for-1 sales or Amazon Prime Day this summer.

Saws
I keep at least two great power saws:

  • A 12″ Harbor Freight (because value matters)
  • A 10″ Evolution for clean, cold cuts

There’s a like-new Craftsman 8″ table saw and a (restoration in progress) radial arm saw. Soon, we will expand for backups for the backups.

Grinders
Two minimum. Always. One with cord, one without.  Backups of each.

Drill presses
One is required. Two is ideal. Optional—but you’ll never regret it.  If you don’t know what a radial drill press is, you have lived a sheltered life.  As a neophyte? Look for an adjustable-angle drill jig on Amazon.

The Joining Domain: How Projects Live or Die

Joining is where theory meets reality.

This is where I refresh annually:

  • TiteBond III – I have forgotten to keep it from freezing going on 23 years now.
  • PVC glue (old glue lies to you) – I am paranoid about frozen pipes, having the fitting and pipes and discovering the cement can vaped-out over a 12,000°F Texas summer.

Metal matters too:

  • As many Simpson ties as you have room for
  • 2×4 angle metal—more than you think you’ll need
  • Several feet of assorted angle iron (and aluminum) – Incredibly useful stuff.

Fasteners:

One 5-lb box each of coarse-thread drywall screws:

  • 1-1/4″
  • 1-5/8″
  • 2″
  • 2-1/2″
  • 3″
  • One 5-lb box of 2-1/2″ treated deck screws
  • Plus? At least three spare Torx bits that fit those damn deck screws

Bits vanish. Don’t pretend otherwise. Sub-space is BIG. Attention is small.

Electronics and Metal: Consumables That Aren’t Optional

If you do electronics:

  • Tons of solder
  • If you weld:
  • Wide assortment of rod
  • Fresh flux-core only*

*Old flux-core technically works. It also flows like bad gravy. Or what we used to call the Blitz Schitz. Ask me how I know.

The Finishing Domain: Time Is the Only Non-Renewable Resource

I buy chip brushes in bulk.

There is no money in cleaning brushes. There hasn’t been since the 1980s.

Time is money.   But there are Exceptions:

  • Foam brushes for final coats
  • Glass-smooth epoxy or spar varnish
  • When you want to “float” the last coat on

Paint backups:

  • One gallon house paint
  • One gallon trim paint
  • One gallon dominant interior latex

If you own a structure, you own future touch-ups.

Materials Backup: When the Yard Is Closed

At minimum, on hand:

  • 2–4 eight-foot 4×4s
  • 16 eight-foot 2×4s
  • One sheet ¾” plywood
  • One sheet exterior plywood (T1-11 type if handy)
  • One sheet of sheetrock.  1/2 or 5/8″ with tape and a can of mud.
  • A 20 x 20′ blue tarp and 8 sticks of lath (hurricane prep areas)
  • A big roll of gaffer tape

[I shouldn’t really have to explain this, but for the Children of the Shop: If you care about surface finish or clean removal, go gaffer’s tape. If you need brute strength, weather resistance, and cheap hold, go duct tape.]

That pile of material solves more problems than most people realize.

The Real Point

I could go on all day. But I have real work to do—and some people have a game to watch.

The point isn’t hoarding. It’s domain awareness. Over geologic time, everything breaks.  From mountains on down.  The only variable is “which ones will be on hand to fix the whatever.”

When you learn to shift domains—workflow, tools, consumables—you stop getting surprised by failures. Projects flow. Costs drop. Stress evaporates. You get more done.  You feel like a Jr. Creator.

And Super Bowl Sunday becomes just another productive day……with better snacks and more durable deliverables.

Enjoy the game.  And here’s my annual flag down on the shop floor: Roads are dangerous today  and tomorrow is National Hangover Day.

Oh – and our advanced probability studies of markets and math?  Seattle’s going to blow it.

Write when you “touch down.”

George@Ure.net

34 thoughts on “ShopTalk Sunday: No SB? Backup and Cost Cutters”

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  1. In the marking instrument department, I carry several for different purposes. A ballpoint pen for planning on paper, a pencil for paper or wood, a Sharpie for clean metal or wood, a silver pencil for steel going into the forge, and a soapstone holder for forging or welding. And yes, I carry them all, every day. Overalls (lots of pockets) are my friend.

    I finally got my 80 meter loop up and operational yesterday! Made a contact in Minnesota on 40m yesterday afternoon, so it works.

    • how high is the 80m loop? I may toss one up – say 71 feet on a side so it does low angle on 20m and I figure about 40-feete? swr and balun or real tuner and…any other details?
      You need a pocket protector

      • The 80m loop is up 26′ on my tower, about 30′ on two pine trees. I may put up a vertical one of these days for 20m. I haven’t checked the SWR, but I’m running it through my auto-tuner.

        No pocket protector, just lots of pockets. I also carry a Kershaw folder and a Gerber multi-tool, along with a 10′ tape measure and a pair of diagonal cutters. Oh, and a 9mm for any creepy-crawly or uninvited critter issues.

  2. life is like a football, takes some strange bounces at times, so I like to have some wire on hand, more than one size, and a pair of # 9 Kleins lineman pliers,,, must be the rodbuster in me from my construction era in making a living
    baling wire and duct tape

    • speaking of strange bounces Comrade, look what bounced into my in- box this AM

      Ole Pal from early NYC days – Lets just call him “Jerky Boy” – due he is not a Goy, butt was CLOSE to les wexner and d tRUMP – couldnt get ANY closer.

      -https://www.theinteldrop.org/03894qg03hg/2026/02/screenhunter-35833.jpg

      recognize anyone in that picture ? Take a closer look at the guy in the middle..Russian intel cleared it.. not Ai.

      excerpted from J. Hogopians’ book: “Pedophilla & Empire, Satan, Sodomy and the Deep State: Chapter 13, the jeffery epstein scandal – Anatomy of the Zionist-Illuminati Sexual Blackmail System.”

      «Whereas the painful lesson from the Franklin scandal graphically demonstrates how pedophiles at the top can bury their most heinous crimes from any real consequence, the Jeffrey Epstein story reveals how agents from a foreign government can hijack and control the US government. What will be presented here is the anatomy of a sexual blackmail operation orchestrated by Israel’s Mossad as a means of gaining and maintaining control over America’s foreign policy and top leaders so that the US Empire ultimately fights Israel’s wars for the Greater Israel Project» we can read in the presentation of the books on Amazon”

      No doubt about it, MAGA are some PROUD ass Zionists, might as well be living in israHELL at this point.

      Everything in this world has been INVERTED, including Time. So when you hear any Politician say anything – they are projecting their darkness on us. When the orange racist asshole of greatness says America First, he really means israHELL 1st. When Q posts “saving israHELL for last” what they really meant to say is israHELL 1st.

      INVERSION

      • mushruums in your blackpill efforts again,,but then again you believe in bitcoin and I don’t,,,,takes tulips to lie,,,you place your bet on Trump being owned by Zionist, and I bet he takes them down,
        one of us will need some Country Bob’s BarBQ sauce to help eat some crow

        • Country Bobs huh? does it have a lil spicey kick to it ? if so Im down with eating some burd & sauce bbq., no problema.

          nein,nein,nien

          When the over riding theme is “Black Hole Sun”, you are mistaken in ID-ing THIS NRG as “blackpill” this is how the shadow on Ure cave wall makes it appear. In reality it is a form of Light, very warm, inclusive and Loving.
          This type of NRG always brings out or makes the negative, the weak points/systems expose themselves to the individual.
          Call these type of actions/things/events – “Bad Benefits” – they are painful and or discomforting as the Entity learns to correct/upgrade/change their “scheisse”..back to Source levels.

          Recall the european banker, Bernard, who divulged all these Synagogue of Satan masses and rituals.

          ALL intl big money Bankers have to go thru. He refused final test – ritualized taking the LIFE of an Infant. The others, in office today, went thru with it – think on that peeps, think.

          I know we can all agree this massive cabal of Evil doers must be Eradicated from the Book of LIFE.

  3. Sub Spaces- Back in a life long ago we had a certain hand truck. Said hand truck being plain metal had a disturbing habit of moving dimensions on a regular basis. So being the geniuses we thought we were. we acquired cans of neon paint.
    Pink ,Orange, Green, Purple. Hand truck was decorated in awful neon. Satisfied in our endeavor we proud geniuses looked at our masterpiece. Next day the space time continuum had some fun. Said painted hand truck is not found. Search begins and after an hour the hand truck reappears right where we left it the day before. This pattern continues for years. We even start to joke about the vanishing hand truck. Yes it does happen! Guess we should have bought a spare.

  4. Harbor Freight always has blue tarps on sale and I bought one nearly everytime I went. Same thing with flashlights. Last time I went in to my garage there were no blue tarps. And flashlight just disappear into kids rooms or play areas.

    I had a door removed to move a washing machine. It had every kind of screw imaginable from 1 inch long to 3 inches. So I think screws must fit the same disappearing catagory too.

  5. Yesterday I realized that I needed to find a 1/4 inch notched trowel for some flooring work, so I went through several buckets of trowels and could only find a 1/16 inch notched one. The closest hardware store open on the weekend was an 80 mile round trip, so I just grabbed that old 1/16 inch trowel and marked it for 1/4 inch notches. Clamped it to a table and fixed it in about 10 minutes with an angle grinder with a cutting disk while waiting for a phone call. If it doesn’t go walkabout today, I’ll get that job done. A couple of days ago I welded up a simple panel carrier from scrap to lug around 80 lb sheets of 3/4 OSB. It’s better to think in terms of making tools that you can use rather than immediately going to the wallet, especially if time and flow is a consideration. In both cases, I never went anywhere beyond my own property to find what was needed.

    • NM Mike : for me learning welding was a torch thing. Now I have an inexpensive HT&F rig when wanting to make booger welds on something (usually a trailer). Miss the torch and tanks. Sigh ~ E ~

      • Flr thbe gvbreat unwashed: booger welds = spatter-based welding
        Prep more, booger less. Use anti-spatter. Spend the dough for some welding coupons. Learn to “see’ heat settings for various thickness. If arc brace your distance with the other hand.

        • My gas welds look like SAW or TIG machine welds. The first few minutes they’ll be boogered. You have to get the tip size and temp happy with both pieces you’re joining, and with the welding rod, and that’s a trial & error process. I got to where I could weld everything mild from 32ga to 1/2″ plate. Still, electric welding is much easier (unless you’re under water…)

        • But I just don’t have it in me to run the oxy-acetyl rig to preheat and dso all that other “nincve=nice stuff. I have a schedule and their a heat range dial for a reason…

  6. I tend to favor tools that I can grab and go with, therefore, my shop tools and my outdoor tools tend to overlap 90%.
    Manual back-ups are good to have. Everyone needs a newish hand saw and manual drill, and a couple of serviceable hammers. Snips and pry bars, bolt cutters and a blacksmith’s hammer are good to have. I wish I could find a blacksmith’s hammer with a lanyard loop, for double duty. I have a new pry bar as tall as I am, that will be used for changing implements, or softening ground.
    Manual cutting, planting and gardening tools I have aplenty, with spare blades. I would rather use an Echo electric chainsaw, but I have gas saws and several varieties of manual saws, axes and splitters, including a solo crosscut which is the back-up for the powered tree saws.
    I have multiple socket sets, some hand-me-downs, and I have large wrenches and the biggest Craftsman socket set for tractor work. I am keeping my front line wrenches, screw drivers and adjustable wrenches in large tool rolls in a canvas tank mechanic’s bag by the back entrance, ready for shop work, or to grab and go.
    I’m not a welder or machinist, so piling on a lot of shop power tools that take up floor space that I will never use doesn’t make sense for me. Assembly, repair and food production is what I have tools and back-ups for. I have been increasing my stock of parts like pins, nuts, washers, and screws. I do have a few bicycle tools; need more. Do you have non-electric air hand pumps? I probably use those about as much as any tool, and I have two or more. One set of plausible scenarios ($20 gasoline) would turn the electric bicycle, trailer and spares into the most valuable possessions I own. You have to think through possible contingencies when putting on spare stuff.

  7. I know where my sub-space portal is at: my attic. Lost my favorite cutter tool in 12″ deep attic insulation. Never gonna be found.

  8. n____ : “… I’m not a welder or machinist, so piling on a lot of shop power tools that take up floor space that I will never use doesn’t make sense for me …”

    Me neither. I am a pretty advanced carpenter, so have also spent gobs of time building frames for Mud guys. I also worked for a glorious summer of H*** (*heck) working with stone masons.

    The biggest advantage is by the time any build goes live … I have thought and overthought how-to so as to minimize error or manual effort (think like an Egyptian) and still, things go pear shaped.

    Every project has a goal which may or may not be met.
    We do what we can ,hey?
    Egor

  9. Did a carving demonstration for an art league last week. Took bunches of tools to show them, including my precious micro motor by Foredom. It powers the hand piece that is Dremel’s big brother. Perfect for detailing or working on final shaping. My workhorse, my one and only.
    It was being transported back to the shop and it simply jumped out of the box and hit the concrete floor.
    Tried the “replace the fuse” trick but the poor thing is dead, as is my intended project completion schedule.
    Replacement ordered but darn that was so inconvenient!
    Game will be on but walking away is a real option.

  10. gridiron has a reasonable following in oz . human chess . i followed it in the 1970s when it took 3 days or sometimes a week to get here . well superbowl 60 . should be seattle but yah never know . america does put on great events , take a bow everyone

  12. Storm front passing, rainy day. Nuthin’ good on TV. Into the electronics shop to finish up the Altoids can QRP transmitter. 40 meter crystal and a hex inverter IC for oscillator and 150mw CW power amp… on a 9 v. battery.

    • If I send you three Altoids cans, could you put a 75-s3c, 32-s3b and a power supply in them, please. Thanks
      Oh and if I include a soup can, a 30-S!?

    • This reminds me of when I was a kid: I designed and built a -=BEEP!=- transmitter about 3/8″ wide and 2″ long, to fit into an Estes 1/2-A nosecone, so I could blast a 3-stage D / C / 1/2-A rocket a half-mile into the air, then recover it. ‘Made 3 PCBs, built one beeper. The other PCBs floated around in my Mom’s junk drawer for over 30 years…

  13. OK, so this is off topic for a Shop Talk Sunday, but when I saw this, I got more nervous.

    Coin Shops say they are swimming in so much Silver and Gold that they are having to limit purchases.

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/coin-shops-theyre-swimming-much-105201247.html

    I’ve been dealing with a “Bullion Dealer” rather than a “Coin Shop” but he’s likely to be in a similar situation.

    At the current time, I have about another month before I fly to the States to hope the situation stabilizes.

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