A Big Old Heavy Sander

What possess someone to write a post dedicated to a power tool?

Ours is not some slick shiny new contraption that I'm like overly proud of or anything.

Nope, it's rather a dirty old rusty beast the size of Alaska.

And heavy!  If I used this more I'd probably qualify as a weight lifter.

In 32 years we have gone through several microwaves.

A couple vacuum cleaners.

I can't even talk about all the computers, cell phones or anything with a processor chip in them - some broke, some became obsolete.

Toaster ovens?  We have had three, but that's only in the last 20 years.

I'm trying really hard to think of a power tool kept in the garage that has failed us in 32 years.

Before you go thinking it's because we don't use tools as often as say vacuums and toaster ovens, well you would be wrong.

Skill Saws, routers.... sanders, those things are fired up on a very regular basis around here.

I would bet there are more hours on the router or skill saw then on the toaster or vacuum.

How can power tools that work hard and get abused be made to last forever while the lifespan of my toaster oven is under 5 years?

All I do is pop in soft pieces of bread in that thing, and an occasional crusty bagel.  I have never dropped it, hit it, or loaned it out.

I know people who own much older sanders than ours, the kind that are all chrome, and their sanders still work too.

Why?

Well here is why at my house........

My husband, the man with the power tools, refuses to let any of the tools die.  He could care less what they look like as long as they work right.

I don't know if it's because he is emotionally attached to them, or if he's just a cheap son of a beech.

Heck some of them he has known longer than me.

They are rusty in spots, paint splattered with parts falling off.  Same as me.

Apparently he isn't into the cosmetic look of his tools or his wife.

I can't tell you exactly when this cord was originally wired back together, other than to say I was thin and more cosmetically appealing.  And we owned red electrical tape.

So a long time ago.

Last Fall when I was having a marathon sanding day, I made a mental note of the sanders horrible condition.  I passed no mirrors at the time to make note of mine.

Then, poof!  My sanding came to a complete stop.

I looked down and there it was, the cord, finally detatched completely from the sander.

My first thought was.... great, now I have to use the little - more time consuming -  orbital sander.

My second thought was.... great, now we need to buy a new sander.

And my third thought was.... great, now we need to buy a new sander and surely sanding technology has progressed in the past 32 years and sanders are now made of lightweight space age components that virtually fly over any surface that I shall sand.

I blinked and the sander appeared back before me with it's whirling sound and a fresh sanding belt.

Darned if Brawn hadn't rewired that old brittle cord right back on to that old sander just when I was daydreaming of a new one.

While I can't tell you the life expectancy of things that plug in and rely on electricity to run, I can tell you that I find it unusual some last this long.

This old Craftsman sander has been dropped more than a few times, left out in the rain, been through building at least 3 new homes (and helped on many others) and I know for a fact it's been cursed at, recently anyhow.

So even though the dinosaur is now working, Brawn is either emotionally attached to it or cheap, so should I go buy him a new one anyhow or see if this thing outlives us both?

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