Re: Strange uses for familiar objects

One that everyone knows, I'm sure, is Matchbox Car boxes - the ones that hold 48 Matchbox cars - which you can buy for $5+, or used to, anyway - to hold cones of thread. I bought some at WalMart, then found an off-brand in a thrift store with cars in them for $5 a box. Gave the cars to the grandsons, kept the boxes for my thread.

I have a couple of dental tools I got from the dentist - too worn for his use, just right for cleaning out little places on old sewing machines. They were mine for asking. He saves them for hobbyists.

Disposable suture scissors, great for catching a single thread to cut.

Telescoping magnet from the hardware store for picking up things I drop - as long as they're ferrous metal. Also picked up a mirror on a stick, like the kind the dentist uses, but it was in the hardware store.

Butler floss threaders for my serger.

Cross-locking tweezers - never know when they'll come in handy. Same with those wooden skewers. Or a medical clamp some people may know as a "roach holder."

Candy containers - I have bobbins in M&M tubes, hand-sewing needles in Tic-Tac boxes.

Tin containers -- Sucrets, Altoids, etc. I save those advertising magnets or buy sticky-back magnets, line the lid of the tin (be sure to leave room around the edge so the tin will close. I find them very handy for a thread clip or small scissors, thimble, needles, pins, a small tape measure, some thread, for a portable sewing kit. When I sew in another room, everything is in the box and I don't have to jump up and down five times. The magnet in the lid is insurance against getting a needle or pin in the chair or on the floor.

I'm sure there are more - I just can't think of them right now.
--
Joanne
stitches @ singerlady.reno.nv.us.earth.milky-way.com
http://members.tripod.com/~bernardschopen/
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: One of My Cats Stole a Piece of a Model !!!!!!!!
    ... She also loved rings. ... My dad built all kinds of kits, but his favorte were antique cars. ... had all of the old Gowland & Gowland cars built, ... open topped cradboard boxes. ...
    (rec.models.scale)
  • Re: related question: specifics?
    ... don't top-off, I'm only sure that the first round feeds by hand, and ... I do have lock boxes in some of my vehicles. ... country drive, leave it in the vehicle for several hours/days, etc). ... cars running in a parking lot, unlocked w/ long guns in sight. ...
    (rec.guns)
  • Re: One of My Cats Stole a Piece of a Model !!!!!!!!
    ... Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr. ... My dad built all kinds of kits, but his favorte were antique cars. ... had all of the old Gowland & Gowland cars built, ... open topped cradboard boxes. ...
    (rec.models.scale)
  • Re: Im doing 600mph ...
    ... If mankind put a very *very* strong Neodymium magnet on the moon, ... controlled braked attraction to the magnetic moon, ... electric cars, especially if they can be rigged to charge a smallish ... instead it needs more *copper* than exists on the planet. ...
    (uk.rec.sheds)
  • Re: Im doing 600mph ...
    ... If mankind put a very *very* strong Neodymium magnet on the moon, ... controlled braked attraction to the magnetic moon, ... Linear induction motors using coils in the road against the steel ... in the cars is probably the most sensible and efficient design for electric ...
    (uk.rec.sheds)