Technology Which Festers

I get it. You get it. We all get it. The Internet follows us around. 

You order one thing - one thing - and the Internet thinks you need hundreds of it. Thousands. 

Yesterday I ordered a 23557 Clutch Casting for a Ridgid K-1500 mainline drain cleaning machine. I haven't needed one in years. The one I'm getting may be the only one I need for the next four or five. Yet the first thing which came up this morning on not one but two websites I frequent were ads for that part.

What particularly annoys me is not only the general uselessness of the ads, but that they didn't encourage me to buy another for purely economic reasons. Each happily informed me that I could get AN AUTHENTIC RIDGID 23557 CLUTCH CASTING FOR ONLY $173.99! But hell, the one I actually ordered was forty bucks less. If I need another anytime soon I'm going back to those guys.

But to give you, yes, YOU, the chance to satisfy your curiosity as to what I'm talking about and be smothered in ads for such a part, click here. Yes, it's for the more expensive one. I'm not telling you all my secrets. You'll buy the cheaper one and then overcharge me.

A Grand Night Out

Yesterday I was at the UPS Store to ship a bunch of drain snake cutters to a customer in Glennie, MI. The young man at the counter goes, "Oh wow! My family has a vacation home in Glennie! Ever been there?" he asks.

I tell him I've driven through it (it's about 3 hours north of Detroit) but that's all.

"You better like fishing because that's all you can do there," he comments.

I mention that I think it's close to a little city on Lake Huron called Tawas. "It is, about twenty minutes," the guy confirms. Then he adds with a wry smile, "Tawas is where the people in Glennie go for a night on the town!"

New York City and Chicago must not hold a candle to Tawas, then.

The First, and Last, Place I Looked

Please tell me this has happened to you. Please tell me I'm not the only one.

I needed a distributor tube to finish a snake repair. Don't worry about what it is, just trust me it's essential and that I had to have it. When I began fixing the drain machine it came from I had set the thing aside for when I could reassemble said snake.

Saturday I was all ready to finish that repair. I could not find that tube anywhere. Ninety minutes of searching came up with zilch, zero, nada. Finally surrendering to the omnipotent forces of drain snake repair I decided to leave it to Monday. Well, after I tripped over some junk which should not have been there to trip over and skinned up my left knee pretty bad. But that story is for another day. You've done that too I'm sure.

I opened the old barn at 6:30 this morning to put out an APB on that distributor tube. May as well start early, I figured, because if I don't find it by 8 I'll just have to go to the parts house and get a replacement on my dime. Right is right, eh?

The first place I looked was the top drawer on my work bench. But it's not there. It cannot possibly be there. That's the first place I looked on Saturday.

It was there. 

How in the name of all that is good and holy could I have overlooked it? It wasn't hidden, wasn't buried under the flotsam and jetsam which hides so much in the Shop. It. Was. Right. There.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who's done that. Please.

Universally Nonuniversal

I'm pretty good at holding my temper. But damn, that can be a challenge some days.

I spoke to a customer yesterday, I'll call him Cloyce just to give him a name, who wanted to come by and have one of those 'universal' foot pedals installed on his machine. A foot pedal is a common way to activate your drain snake.

"There is no universal foot pedal, Cloyce," I informed him. "There is no one style of foot pedal which works on every drain snake out there. But you can bring your machine down and I'll see what I can do."

"Oh no, Cosgriff, I'm holding one of those universal foot pedals in my hand right now. I just need you to install it."

This is a prime example of where I have trouble holding my temper. Truth be told, I want to lose it in situations like that. Still, you know, maturity and crap. "You can bring it with you Cloyce, and there is some interchangeability among foot pedals. But until I see it I can't promise you I can install it, at least not right away," I replied.

"You'll figure out something Cosgriff." Well, I ought not have to figure something out if it's universal, Cloyce.

His pedal didn't work on his machine without my having to change the air diaphragm switch which it was supposed to engage with. But that's universal parts for ya, Cloyce.

Feeding Time

As a salesman, I keep an eye out for trends. For whatever reason, certain things sell at certain times, others at other times, and sometimes things simply come into demand out of the blue.

There is an accessory for the Electric Eel (Electric Eel: for all your drain cleaning needs!) called a feeding tool. It helps 'feed' the steel cable into a pipeline. You get one with every Model C machine purchase. Yet I've never actually sold many of them piecemeal. Indeed I was selling so few that I had quit stocking them. Then one random day a random guy asked for one, and I ordered two. One for him, one for stock because, well, why not?

The gentleman picked his up and the other sold soon thereafter. I ordered two more.

Those sold in a New York minute. I ordered two more, which likewise moved out of the old barn in haste. So, methinks, there appears a trend hath developed. Yon feeding tool be in demand. I ordered six. Last May. May 2024, I must add.

If you need a second guess how many I still have in stock today, September 6, 2025, you are denser than granite. I guess trends work unpredictably in both directions.

He Can Be Taught

Many of us were taught while growing up that if you're carrying a sharp object and you drop it, let it fall. It's great practical advice, you know.

Among the accessories available (I adore alliteration) for the drain snakes I sell are retrieving tools. They are sharp and typically pointed objects. They have to be, so that they may puncture and burrow into a blockage in a drain and retrieve it. 

A year or so back I was carrying not one but two of them into a customer's office. And I dropped both. And I tried to catch them. 

It was like a juggling act which had gone off the rails. There I was trying to corral those two retrievers, each bouncing off my hands one to the other, and each time digging a barb into my palms. "Oh, ah, oh, ow," I repeated many times over trying desperately to grab them. Of course, they ended up hitting the floor anyway.

Why I had two handkerchiefs I don't know (usually only having one) but it was fortunate that day. I had to wrap them around my hands driving home, hoping the bleeding would stop by the time I got there. Tiny puncture wounds take awhile to seal.

The moral of the story, in case you - as I - didn't get the lesson originally: if you drop a sharp object, let it fall.

Injury to Insult

A long time customer called yesterday for a price on an admittedly expensive item. I told him upfront that it was pricey, so I believe I was playing fair with him. I then told him the price. "Wow," he exclaimed. "You are high."

Okay, dude, you kind of insulted me there. My prices are fair and competitive (as you should know by now), and I warned you that what you were asking for had a significant cost. Further, you don't have to pay it. You don't want to buy it from me, don't buy it from me. No harm, no foul. There's no obligation on your part and I freely recognize that. Indeed, I appreciate you giving me the chance for the sale in the first place. But your remark indicates that you think maybe I'm cheating you. I don't take that kindly.

Then he blurts out, "Is there anywhere else I can get it?"

That started the insulting all over again, but I tried to make a joke of it, even if a veiled barb. "It's not exactly a standard business practice for me to keep a ready list of competitors who beat my price, for referral to my customers." 

I think he got the point. "Uh, I'm sorry, Marty. I didn't mean nothing." The truth is, he probably didn't, so I stayed cool. And he did buy the part; I have his check in hand as I type. Still, I can't help but feel just a little put out just the same.

A Lesson in Magnetism

One of my kids - I won't say which so that they might each take credit for it - bought me one of those magnetic bowls which you can use while doing various repairs. In my case, some repairs I do involve removing and replacing very small screws in order to access a part or complete a job. When you can place such tiny items in a magnetic bowl, you can't lose them. At least, it's harder to.

Yet you can lose them. That is not the fault of the bowl, but you can.

The other day as I finished installing a power cord on a unit, I had dutifully reset three of the four little screws which held on the steel plate which covered the box where the cord was attached. Are you with me so far?

For whatever reason, the magnetic bowl would not allow me to grab that last screw. Twice, my fingers just slipped off of it, the bowl refusing to release the little mongrel. On the third try, and admittedly in a fit of mild anger, I yanked at that last small bolt. The tray let go, but the screw flew from my hand as I hadn't really gripped it well. A second later I heard just the tiniest ting where the screw hit the Shop floor, likely fifty feet or more away. I swear it mocked me.

I knew I'd never find it. I had to scrounge around old junk drawers until I found a suitable replacement. And I will treat the magnetic bowl with great respect from now on.

Itching for a Fight

Remember yesterday? I was cranky about being cranky Wednesday? Then our old pal Cloyce, after a bit of consternation, promised me he'd come in for cables at Noon Thursday?

He didn't show. About mid afternoon he did call me to say he would actually come get them snake cables at ten this morning.

We'll see. What I did not tell him was that me brother Phil has deliveries in Toledo today while I have an appointment in nearby Dearborn at 9:30 to pick up a repair. Oh, I should be back by 10 easily enough. And I won't lollygag. But you never know. 

What I do know is that if I should leave him cooling his jets for five or ten minutes, he better watch his tongue. Sometimes I like to let me inner Joe Cosgriff tell folks exactly what I think.

Same Difference

I took a call yesterday from a guy who wanted an air pedal and hose assembly. Basically, that's a rubber or plastic hose, typically six feet long, with what amounts to a ball on the end. When connected to a machine, it acts as an on/off switch, starting the unit when you depress the pedal (You're a useless, no good pedal!) with your foot and stopping it when you step off. He was disappointed when I said I needed the make and model number of the machine. "What difference does it make?" he asked incredulously.

It makes a lot of difference. There are different hose sizes. There are differences in how the hose attaches to the diaphragm switch which they generally must engage. The length sometimes matters. You get the point.

He seemed to believe that such items are universal. They aren't. To be sure, they act the same in principle. Yet in particular they can be significantly different. Fords aren't Chevys, as any Ford (or Chevy) man will tell you.

From the way he responded to my questions, I believe the man thinks I was giving him a snow job. I wasn't: I wanted his money. Indeed, I truly wanted to help him. Yet without complete information there isn't much I can do.

He said he'd have to get the machine out of his storage place and get back to me. We'll see what happens.

Always Our First Choice

You know, if you're trying to pull the wool over someone's eyes, you really need to watch what you say.

A common refrain which we've heard for years is that "You're always the first guys I come to see." Whatever. I know it isn't necessarily true (though I trust that we are the first choice for many) and I'm okay with that. I understand business and common sense. If a fella's working two blocks from a plumbing supply and eight miles from me I don't hold it against him to buy from the closer store. I would too.

But as my friend Jen Psaki says, let's walk this back to my first point. It is incredible how many times someone has came into the old barn and asked for a part we didn't happen to have. "That's okay, Cosgriff, you're my man. You're the first guy I come to."

I can still hear me Pops, being the decent man he was, not wanting to hold a customer off from doing a job and offering, "You could call Cloyce's Plumbing Supply if you're stuck."

"Nah, we already tried them, Cosgriff." This response not more than a half a minute after assuring the old man he was always their first option.

In the first place, you don't need to zoom us at all. We'll be cool. In the second, if you're going to zoom us, at least consider that you're doing exactly that and not immediately contradict your wool pulling.