On Sun, 25 Dec 2005 16:07:09 -0500, Jeff Wisnia
wrote:

I had an extremely rare experience today; I thought of an easier way to
do something *before* I did it the hard way, rather than after.

When I took a jar from a kitchen cabinet today a small plastic piece
fell out onto the counter. I recognized it as one of those push in shelf
supports, sheared off from its mounting peg, which was undoubtedly still
pressed into a hole somewhere.

A little searching located where it had come from, the front center of a
heavily loaded shelf, with the "peg plugged" hole located in the center
of a stile between two doors.

I had a few shelf supports squirrled away from when we installed the
cabinets so I headed downstairs for a cordless drill, right angle
attachment and drills. What a pain it was gonna be to empty out enough
cans and jars to gain working room, Plus maybe I'd screw up drilling in
such an awkward location and pierce through the stile leaving a mark I'd
never cease to notice. And I'd have to clean out the plastic swarf
afterwards and replace all the removed groceries. All that for just a
lousy plastic shelf support.

Just as I was reaching for the drill a light bulb lit over my head and I
returned instead to the kitchen with my propane torch, a pair of pliers
and a one inch long #4 self threading screw.

You can guess the rest I'm sure, but in case you can't....

I just raised the sagged shelf up a bit on some stacked cans, held the
screw in the pliers, heated the tip red hot with the torch and melted it
into that busted off plastic peg. I waited a couple of minutes, grabbed
the screw with the pliers and pulled the peg out quicker than you can
say Jill Robinson. Oh yeah, I'd borrowed a mirror out of wifey's purse
to let me see where to stick that hot screw in.

File the idea away, it could make you look like a genius in front of
SWMBO some day. G

Happy Holidays,

Jeff

I'd like to find these idiots that make plastic supporting brackets.
Plastic is not a durable material, and either fails from weight, or
from decay, and that wont be long. Get some steel brackets and you
wont have to mess with it again. Society is going backwards. They
used to make durable materials. Now everything is junk plastic crap.

Mark